The Wizard of Oz Drama Performance

Last Friday was the Ladies Christmas Party for our church. It was a re-gift party where we were supposed to bring a gift someone had given us that we didn't want anymore. One of the things I was given was this hot chocolate mix with marshmallows. Once I got home, Nico saw it and asked for a mug of cocoa, so he got one!

I've been trying to grow sprouts. These are clover sprouts. I can't seem to get them as yummy as my mom's are, but she's helping me troubleshoot. I'm using a sprout heating pad on my next batch.

Nico eating breakfast and doing the Advent Calendar. His new breakfast love is toast with cheese melted on it, from the oven.

On Monday shortly after Nico arrived at school, I received a call from the nurse telling me that Nico had a tummy ache, so I went to pick him up. He seemed fine otherwise, and spent the morning calculating how many minutes are in a year. He put the paper in his backpack so he could show his teacher the next day. In the afternoon we tried to go for a walk up to Castle Rock but the trails were closed due to mud, so we turned around and came back. Halfway home, Nico started getting really bad stomach pain. He rested when we got home and was fine.

The next morning he still felt a little sick, but I sent him to school anyway. He said his tummy ache went away while he was at school, in the morning.

Tuesday I had my last final for my last class of the semester at CWI. I went to the testing center in Nampa, and afterward I visited a gluten free restaurant in Nampa to get myself a treat. Local First Idaho. I got a turkey sandwich and tomato soup. It was very good, though I kept dreaming about the turkey sandwiches they have at Lemon Tree in Boise (I'll go there next time!) I brought my lunch to my parents' house and ate there, then I met Guy for our Tuesday afternoon date at Caffe Capri.

One of the big topics we discussed on our date was the gluten question for Nico. Our consensus is to make the decision based on symptoms, not on tests, so as of now we are allowing Nico to eat gluten. Guy's suggestion was to still keep our house gluten free (for my sake), but when we buy food at a restaurant, or if he's at school or anywhere where there's gluten, he can eat it! We will thank God for every day that he can eat gluten. Nico is super psyched. He loves the donut holes at church. I may not have mentioned this but I think he ate like 12 of them on that Sunday in gluten week.

Reading before bed.

Today was Nico's Wizard of Oz drama performance!! I came down with a fever this afternoon and didn't end up going, I was so sad to miss it! :( But Guy got some video! Evelyn was also in the performance, she is the evil witch, so keep an eye out for her when you watch the video. Nico played the Wizard. He had a few other small parts, too. Everyone went to Tin Roof Tacos for dinner after the performance.

In February we are going to see the Idaho Music Theater performance of The Wizard of Oz. 

That's it for this week! Enjoy the video!

Halloween and other such fun things!

Last Saturday was the first Saturday in a while that we had nothing going on! In the afternoon Nico and I went to the Discovery Center to see their new display, Mythbusters! They had several stations set up to test things that the show Mythbusters had tested. This particular one is: When you drop a piece of toast does it always land butter side down? There were several different ways you could "drop" bread. We tried all of them and used the provided Abucus beads to keep track of which way the toast landed. It was about 50 - 50. As expected.

 Build a house, and see if a gust of wind will blow it down.

How long can you hang on a ledge? This is HARD. I got about 5 seconds in before I couldn't hold on anymore. Apparently it takes strong muscles in your fingers. I thought it would be more of an arm thing. Nico did better than me.

Other cool exhibits: Try to remove the tablecloth from a table with stuff on it. I was able to try it and succeeded! And do you get more rain on you when you walk, or run? They had two corridors where you could either walk or run through rain. Then you go check yourself under black lights to see how wet you got. Apparently the test on the show showed that with simulated rain, you get more wet when running. With actual rain, you get more wet when walking.

Nico discovered his book of paper airplanes that was tucked away in the desk, and has spent a lot of time the past few days putting planes together.

He also started asking if he could wear two shirts, one over the other. He did that for several days this week.

Then of course, trick or treating! There is a video at the end of the post of that. Nico has become more aware of candy, and the fact that we've been keeping him from most of it for most of his life. So we're becoming more lenient. Nico ate M&Ms for the first time on Halloween while we were trick-or-treating. When I was pregnant with Nico I would buy the huge bags of M&Ms. I remember leaving a church service once at Marysville Naz while I was pregnant and sitting out in the lobby, just so I could reach into my purse and shove M&Ms in my mouth for a few minutes. Nico loves M&Ms and has declared them his favorite candy. On Halloween he also ate a Crunch bar and a piece of gum. That next day he had Nerds and an Airhead for the first time. Then he ate a Dum Dum! This is big news. We figure it's only once a year, right? But then while trick-or-treating he started asking people at their door if they had M&Ms, and he would spend time flipping through their baskets trying to find something he could eat. At one house he refused to take the glowstick they were offering. We talked with him about that. After we talked to him we told him he had to do 3 things every time someone answered the door: 1 - Say "Trick or Treat!" 2 - Take what they give you and 3 - Say "Thank you!" He did great after that!

 Nico the Ninja. Ivy the Bumble-bee. Avery the dinosaur. Evelyn the witch.

On Wednesday night, Guy & I, and Jeff & Allicia took turns watching the kids so we could all go to our parent/teacher conferences. Ours was first, so we walked to the school and sat down with Ms Lung to talk about Nico. He is doing really well in reading and in math. We are so proud of him! She showed us his first short story. He wrote the story by hand, it was edited, and then he typed the whole thing into the computer. 

Ms Lung said he insisted on doing chapters.

Then his first poem. Nico was adamant on not using their format when writing his poem. Ms Lung said he could do what he wanted as long as he included some of the stuff they were learning about (the 5 senses)

On Wednesday we also got a new Laser Moose book in the mail from the Grandparents Russell! Thank you! He brought it to the dentist with him this morning and read it while we were in the waiting room. As we were leaving the office after his appointment, the lady who was in the waiting room with us at the beginning was just getting into her car, and she stopped us to ask us what the Laser Moose was. I told her it was a comic book where a moose can shoot lasers from his eyes. She said she used to live in Alaska and that she has never seen a Laser Moose before. He he.

The Laser Moose book has a ton of disco balls in it. They get knocked off a cliff and come raining down on the forest and smashing into the ground. After Nico had his cavity filled at the dentist, he went to the treat drawer and found a disco ball keychain! The timing was impeccable.

Then of course we went over to Bricks & Mini-Figs next door and Nico made a new Mini-Fig. He made this one to look like Emmet from the Lego Movie.

Then we ran some errands, went to Target where Nico spent his own money to buy a Minecraft backpack. He is very excited about that. Then we met Grandma Salisbury at Costco! We had fun wandering around. I don't know how it happened but we ended up with a HUGE bag of M&Ms and a new car toy (Thanks Grandma S!) ;)

Brats and sprouts for lunch.

Nico has today and tomorrow off for parent/teacher conferences. This afternoon Guy called to tell me he locked his keys in the car at the dentist. So Nico and I drove to the dentist before realizing that the Ford has a keypad he could have used to get back into the car. Whooooops. Well, neither of us could remember the code anyway! Hah. I'll have to look it up.

Now the video!

Cafeteria, Redundant, Spring Days

Last Friday I got to go with Nico to school and go to the cafeteria with him where he ate lunch for the first time. They did a test run for next year so the kids could learn where to go to get hot lunch and where to sit, where to throw their trash away afterward, etc.

He sat next to his friends Cooper and Olivia.

Then on Saturday Nico and I went up to the cabin! Grandma Salisbury helped me make the rest of the henna aftercare balms I needed to make and then we just hung out and had a great time! Nico chopped wood and played Mastermind with Papa. 

Nico went through a little flip book of "moods" with Grandma and she read each one to him so that Nico could decide what his mood was. He decided that he was redundant. So he started repeating everything that he said several times. "I'm redundant, I'm redundant, I'm redundant", then he'd laugh and laugh and laugh. 

 Comparing teeth

Lots of hugs

A sprout growing through Nico's missing tooth hole.

We went to the park on Tuesday, we took Avery and Evelyn with us. Nico brought his "homework" which is just a workbook that is for Kindergarten, purchased at Costco. He calls this his homework. At the park, Evelyn and Nico took turns doing stuff in the workbook. On Monday he had taken this workbook over to Adam's house and worked on it while Adam played with cars.

Here is my favorite part about going to the park in the Spring and Summer, this little path right here. Big sigh and big breath in when I get to this part. 

Here is Nico and Aiden. Aiden is very soft spoken. When I ask him how his day at school was he makes a soft noise but never answers with words. He talks to Nico just fine.

Nico said "Mommy, take a picture of me!" Then he chose all these poses himself. I didn't have to say anything, he moved to a new pose automatically and waited for the click.

We have a new neighbor who is very sweet. Her name is Laura and she is older and very friendly to the kids. A tow truck had to come pick up her car this morning and she saw that Nico and Adam were interested, so she grabbed both of their hands and took them over to watch. She lives in the house between ours and Adam's.

I think that's it for this week.