BED BUGS, family, eye doctor, hair cut, gg, woah that's a lot!

Well Hello! It's been a while! I think that was the first time I ever skipped a week. Let's jump right into it!

On March 1st, Friday, Guy woke up sick, with whatever it was that I had while in Redding. I told him to stay home from work and he quickly got worse. He spent all Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in bed, he finally started feeling himself again only a few days ago.

Jumping on the trampoline with Merek on Friday the 1st

Saturday visit to the library. I parked across the street and we took the Greenbelt tunnel to the library. A bit of fresh air.

On our way back to the car with our goodies.

Nico chose our movie on Saturday and he chose one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies. Guy ate a few pieces of pizza and then went to bed while Nico and I stayed up to watch it. Those movies are funny, I enjoyed it.

Nico had told me about a STEM activity they had done in the library on Friday. On Saturday I saw pictures on Facebook that were posted of the event, and downloaded a few of them. Nico won this challenge - how many squares can you fit onto your popsicle stick without them falling over?

Practicing a magic trick

It was Sunday night, while Guy was lying in bed staring at the wall, that he saw a bug crawling up that wall, right next to our bed. He called me over and we identified it as a bed bug. Ah shucks! With a toothpick, Guy went fishing in the crack between the wall and the baseboard, and pulled out a shed bed bug skin. We slept in the bed that night, I was hoping that perhaps those two bug signs would be the extent of it. But, you know that's rarely the case.

Monday afternoon I pulled all the sheets off our beds and scoured the mattresses while sanitizing the sheets in the washing machine. I found NO signs of bed bugs on either mattress. Guy and I were casually talking about how to prevent a bed bug outbreak when he tapped lightly on the wardrobe and I watched as something fell from the spot he tapped, right onto the bare mattress. Boom. Another shed bed bug skin.

That dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach - uh oh - they're in the wardrobe!!

We indeed found bed bugs hiding between the cracks on the back of the wardrobe.

You can only see one bed bug in this picture, but there were about a dozen scattered in the crack right here.

We decided to go professional, and we called around and found a good place that specializes in bed bugs. The treatment involves spraying a pesticide around the baseboards, then heating up the house to 135 degrees for 6 hours. Afterward, they sprinkle silica around the baseboards.

The guy (Dave) came to take a look before telling us whether he could do it, because we live in a small place he was worried about clutter, which can make the treatment harder to do. He said there wasn't much clutter, just that everything was all together in a small space. He said he could do it!  He said it would either be Thursday the 7th or the following Monday, the 11th, that he could do it.

So that night we moved out of the clubhouse and into a hotel for 3 nights. Dave asked us to remove all the clothes from the wardrobe and from our cube storage dresser and heat-treat them in the dryer and then get them out of the house. So I spent the next few days doing that. We slept at the hotel but then came back to the Clubhouse in the mornings for breakfast and school, then after school went back to the hotel.

When we discovered that it would not be Thursday that the treatment would take place, we booked another 5 days at an AirBnb close to downtown. We decided then to stay away from the Clubhouse. The bed bugs, having nothing to eat, would likely migrate. They can sense when someone comes into the room because they can smell the carbon dioxide and feel the heat of a body. If they are hungry, they can move fast to get a quick meal, even if you are standing on the floor for even a few minutes. To prevent migration, we had the door that leads to the main house sprayed with a pesticide. And so we stayed away. The only things we brought with us were heat-treated clothes, food, and plastic bags to put everything in. We left purses, back packs, bags, EVERYTHING, at the Clubhouse. Hmm... except the iPads and the Nintendo DS. We removed those the first day we went to a hotel, so we felt safe that the bed bugs hadn't migrated to them. And because the bed bugs weren't in the bathroom, we were able to bring our bathroom overnight bag filled with all our shampoo and combs.

At the AirBnb

The week that this all took place, my Aunt Liz was in town. I was able to see her on Thursday, and then on Friday there was a get together at my parents' house with Aunt Liz, and other family.

Saturday morning Nico and I researched which library we could go to to get the rest of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. There were four more that he needed to read. We realized after leaving that it didn't open until noon, so we drove to the park that was a few blocks away and I let him play while I stayed in the car figuring out what to do (and because brrrr it was cold I didn't want to get out!) I decided to take him somewhere as a surprise. He tried to guess where we were going the whole way there. He finally got it right when I turned into the parking lot, Lakeshore Learning. I told him he HAD to buy something with MY MONEY or he couldn't leave the store. He seemed pleased with that idea.

He chose some magnetic putty, and an archeological dig activity where he had to excavate five stones from a block of dirt.

We waited until after noon and then ran to the specific library we needed to go to, and we came home with four books for Nico to read. 

For dinner that night we chose to go to a place called Asian Cuisine, we ordered to go. Guy chose Dark Crystal for the movie. Nico mostly played with his magnetic putty and came over to see what was going on every once in a while. 

We really took advantage of the opportunity to eat out. Sunday we ordered pizza. Monday we had Boise Fry Company, Tuesday was Jimmy Johns. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Breakfast on Sunday (no pancakes, so it was toast with peanut butter and jam. No toaster, so it was microwave-heated bread with peanut butter and jam).

Sunday afternoon we visited the park again, and then got Nico's hair cut. 

Monday after school Nico had an eye appointment. He needs glasses, so we chose a pair for him and they should be ready in a few weeks.

Green is Nico's favorite color. These glasses are green on the bottom, and slightly leopard print on the top. They happen to look a lot like Guy's glasses, but not on purpose. It was the green that got him hooked.

Nico is VERY excited about having glasses.

The heat treatment took place this past Monday. We didn't bother coming home Monday evening, because I knew there would be a layer of dust on everything and I would have more time to deal with it the following day.

The next day I spent at the Clubhouse washing sheets and dusting, mopping, etc. No sign of bugs anywhere... yay! We are guaranteed bug free for at least 30 days after treatment. We are thinking that the bites were causing hives on Nico, and that's where his hives were coming from. He's been hive free since we left the Clubhouse.

After school on Tuesday we went to visit GG and Aunt Pat. Melody (Aunt Pat's daughter) stopped by and we got a few handfuls of seeds from her! Peppers, Cucumber, and Radishes. We'd like to plant them out front. We picked up Jimmy John's on the way home, then Guy and Nico went to Cub Scouts that night. There was a magician there that showed them 3 magic tricks and Nico came home with the tricks to show me, they are pretty good!

Wednesday was the parent baseball meeting at Timberline High School. We skipped the spaghetti feed this year, and just showed up for the meeting. It was a quick and informative presentation, and afterward we met Nico's baseball coach. He is on the REDS team. Practices could possibly start next week depending on weather, otherwise they will start closer to April. The coach is very laid back.

On our to do list: Make sure Nico's equipment will still function for another season. He may have grown out of some of his stuff.

Some quick snippets of the past two weeks. We are welcoming the Grandparents Russell into town tomorrow, as Spring Break is upon us! Stay tuned!

House sitting, trampoline, comics, baby chicks

Lots of fun this week housesitting. The sun finally showed itself and we were able to see the sunrise through the big east-facing windows. It was beautiful and warm! Nico and I spent time on the trampoline perfecting his jump, and he has also perfected his use of Lexie's EzyRoller scooter where you sit down and wiggle your feet back and forth to propel yourself forward. Thank you for letting us use it, Lexie! Nico loves it.

Hmm.. I should try to catch some more pictures this week so you can see all our shenanigans.

Nico was able to see his neighbor friends Adam and Sam on Sunday, since they have started coming to our church. Nico has really missed getting to play with them. On occasion we will be at the clubhouse before Nico has to go to school, so he is able to go play with Adam for a few minutes.

We had a play date on Monday with Evelyn. And another one on Wednesday with a larger group of kids, a baby-chick playdate to help get the baby chicks acclimated to people. Lots of baby chicks and baby chick poo.

Nico was again very super gentle.

We've also been enjoying going through Lexie's picture albums and seeing baby Lexie as she grows up and then eventually Nico started appearing in the pictures once he was born, and that has been pretty special.

Screen fast is going well. He is allowed to watch minimal tv under a few conditions: it has to be on a tv and not an interactive touch screen device, and it has to be a slow paced older movie or show. So, we chose MST3K. Which Nico got bored with after about 2 minutes and then we were done! hehe. His personality is shining and developing very quickly during this screenfast, he is conversing with us more, trying new foods and being nice, helpful, more imaginative, and trying new things. I like it! One more week.

Nico asked for henna on his arm and chose which design he wanted. This was the first time he didn't cry to have it removed after I put it on him!

Then Nico did henna on me, after practicing on his board. He tried to make a flower on my arm but gave up frustrated.

Green smoothies for days!

A few of Nico's favorite comic books from the library:

Benjamin Bear - he read this to Grandma Salisbury recently and it was so funny and Grandma laughed so much that when Nico read it to Guy later that night he stopped after a few pages of silence from Guy and said "When you hear me say a funny part, laugh a lot, ok?" :)

Big City Otto - a story of an elephant who is searching for his friend Georgie, a chimp who was stolen from the jungle, put in a sack, and carried onto a "big floaty thing" by The Man With the Wooden Nose. 

Now a video!

Library, Lexie, GG

Saturday was Sensory Friendly Movie day, they showed the same movie they showed last time, Kung Fu Panda 3. Nico got bored after an hour into it so we left. We went straight to the library to pick up a free comic book for Free Comic Book day. Nico then picked out a board game to play while we were there.

This is the game we played, but this picture was taken on Wednesday, not Saturday! We went back to the library on Wednesday :)

Sunday was an extraordinarily fun day. The message at church was fabulous! After lunch we all went on a bike ride on the greenbelt until Nico said "My legs hurt." That was our cue to turn around. There was a part of the greenbelt that Guy had wanted to investigate, with the question "Where does that path go?" And now we know where that path goes. It dwindles into nothing as it reaches Park Blvd downtown.

After the bike ride, we relaxed for a bit before heading over to Jonny and Alanna's house for dinner! We are going to be house and dog sitting for them while they are on vacation, so this was a good opportunity for them to show us their house. We had BBQ and kabobs and then after dinner Nico and Lexie had a dance party, and then they did a workout along with a workout video, Nico worked out during the whole thing! That workout was pretty intense and was 20 or 30 minutes long, can't remember exactly. We just sat back and watched Nico and Lexie exercise. Check out the video at the end of the entry to see part of it.

Happy Mother's Day to both of my moms!!!

On Tuesday we visited GG!! Evelyn came with us. Nico and Evelyn have been getting along lately, though I had to jump in right away when we all got into the car, to stop the name calling which was just about to start. I told them that if they were good and could follow the rules, that when we came home they could watch an episode of Curious George. Rule #1 - No name calling, Rule #2 - Keep your hands to yourself. They pulled it off! They got a tad rambunctious at GG's house but we were able to stop that. GG was a very gracious host! :)

After going over the rules.

Wednesday evening, we had a "house dinner", which I think we are going to try to do more often. Allicia and Jeff had leftover Spring Rolls from their dinner on Sunday, so we had those.

Tomorrow we are starting something called a screenfast with Nico, where we take away all screen time for 3 weeks at least. I told him that we were going to do this just today, and explained to him why (I told him it would be good for his brain, which is the truth!) So tonight before bed, Guy and Nico took the iPad downstairs and put it into Guy's desk drawer. We won't be seeing it for a while!

We went over to see a friend, and Nico showed her son (Paul) his pokemon card that Lexie gave him, and Paul got excited and said "I've got something for you!" and ran upstairs and brought down a large collection of Pokemon cards to give to Nico. Paul is older and isn't interested in them. Guy was so excited about this, when he got home from work Nico and him sorted through all of them and made new playing decks. for each of them. Nico has also been taking his cards to school to show his friends.

Wednesday his class went to the Botanical Garden!

I think that's it for this week.. this next week is very busy, so next week's blog should have some fun stuff in it!

Trampoline and School. Then bed.

I'm pretty sure we didn't do much this past week but let me think for a minute. Oh the picture reminded me, we received our trampoline! We set it up in the main house living room for the first day so the kids could take turns playing on it. It's easy for them to take turns on the trampoline because they tire quickly when jumping. After taking some time on the floor while the other jumps, then they're ready to go back at it. We then moved the trampoline to the Clubhouse where it resides in the kitchen most of the time. Nico uses it as a table to color sometimes but mostly as a trampoline. He sets his iPad up on the stool in front of him and he jumps and jumps and jumps while watching cartoons.

I use it for exercise, too, and have been enjoying it!

That's the only picture from this week, so I may have forgotten what else we did. Well, Nico did go back to school on Tuesday! He was very excited to go back. The bus driver told me yesterday "Give Nico some extra vitamins because there are two sick kids on the bus."

He hasn't been falling asleep on the bus, strangely enough. That was his usual thing before Christmas break. He was out at 6:15 PM tonight. Which means he will likely be up early tomorrow, which means it is way past my bedtime! Goodnight! :)

Reunion, Puzzle, G.G.

On Saturday we had a mini friend reunion with my High School friends. Nico enjoyed jumping on the trampoline and playing with the toys and the kids. Me and three of my friends, together have 10 kids. It was the first time Guy had met any of them. He said he liked them and wanted to see them more often. I agree! I invited them all to Nico's birthday party so we may or may not be seeing them then.

Later that night we went to Smoky Mountain Pizza. Guy watched Nico. While we were there, our 5th friend from High School called us and we were all able to talk to her. It hasn't been since High School that all five of us were together, and perhaps someday soon we'll be able to do that. 

On Sunday, Papa came over for a bit to drop off some eggs and milk and the truck. And to watch a few minutes of Despicable Me 2. Nico has really been digging that movie.

We needed to borrow his truck so that we could move our 13,200 piece puzzle from our house over to Jeff and Allicia's, which we did successfully on Tuesday evening. They have a nice large wall in their front room that is perfect for the puzzle. Guy and Jeff hung it while Allicia and I and the kids read books and played. We were also able to bring over some bins that were ready for storage. They are storing some things for us since we will be living in a small space and won't have room for everything. We are all getting very excited about moving in 2 months! I've told Nico several times that we're moving into Evie's house and he seems to understand. I am so happy that he'll have someone to play with more often.

Our living room without the puzzle, and with an almost bare bookshelf from packing.

We kept the truck until today. I enjoyed being able to see EVERYTHING while driving it. It is up high and I don't know why but it felt like it had more windows than our car. That's not true, but it sure felt like it! Papa came by to pick up the truck tonight, and he is heading straight to Yakima. My Mom is in Yakima with my Grandma. My Great Uncle Jerry passed away early Sunday morning, a few days after my Mom and Grandma arrived to see him. I didn't know him but I have heard great things about him. The funeral is tomorrow, I am praying for everyone.

Some more pictures from this week..

Memorial Park

 "Where's the airplane? I don't see the airplane!"

A new game Nico invented. Falling off Daddy's shoulders onto the bed.

Nico loved riding in Papa's truck. We had many discussions about Papa's truck and our car. He loved to repeat how Papa took our car and left his truck so we could use it. He was very careful to correct me whenever I called the truck a car. "It's not a car, it's a truck!" He often asked to go to Grandma and Papa's house when we'd get into the truck. 

A suggestion in his Curious George sticker book was to make a raft out of craft sticks, let it dry, then float it on water and see how many pennies it could hold. We tried this out. We got up to 6 pennies I think. Then after all the sticks were wet it could only hold 2 before sinking. Then the glue melted away and the raft fell apart. Then we were done and we left the raft and the pennies in the sink while we took a nap on the couch. Lots of work hauling pennies around on rafts.

We visited G.G. today. Nico got to feed Scamper his food and his snack-bone afterward. He played a bit with some of the toys around, but then started asking to leave. We could attribute it to a few different things. G.G. noticed that the cartoon he had started watching had a dinosaur in it. When we asked him if he wanted to leave because of the dinosaur, he said "Yes". But when we changed the channel he still asked to leave. Then he made more of a complete thought than just "Go home"… he said "Go home and get gas in the truck." I had mentioned to G.G. that we were going to fill up the truck with gas before going home and Nico heard this. Nico loves the truck!

So sweet!

Lego

On Sunday all of us went up to the cabin. Nico and Lexie always have fun together. Lexie tried to catch a fish from the pond for Nico. She also built him a road out of blocks so that he could drive his cars on it.

On Monday we had our next big adventure before Nico starts preschool - we made a trip to Urgent Care because Nico stuck a lego up his nose. Thankfully, it was one of the small ones:

The doctor's first attempt didn't work, and the majority of the time we spent there was waiting for them to find a tool that would help. They were concerned that they wouldn't be able to pull it out, and warned us that it might be necessary to go to the ER so that Nico could be sedated in order to get the lego out. Yikes! I prayed that their next attempt would be successful, and it was! Thank you Lord! Nico cried out when the doctor got a hold of the lego and started pulling it out, but he stuck through it. It's not like he could have moved anyway, Guy had a pretty solid hold on him. His nose bled a little afterward, and they had us sign a paper telling us what might happen after a foreign object has been removed from the body (bleeding, infection, etc.) 

I was very grateful that the Urgent Care wasn't busy. We were the only ones there and were in and out within an hour. From start to finish Nico had the lego in his nose for probably an hour and a half.

In the waiting room.

In the room, after the failed first attempt. Watching cartoons to zone Nico out a little before trying again.

Also on Monday, my Aunt Jill gave birth to her 4th daughter, Juvia. I have a new cousin! Her other daughters came over to our house on Wednesday to hang out a bit, as their Mom was still in the hospital then. We watched Spirited Away (in Japanese with English subtitles, hence the serious concentration faces in the picture) and Nico so enjoyed having them there (so did I!)

On Tuesday we went to a BBQ that a friend from Guy's work threw. I got to meet some of Guy's coworkers, and Nico got to jump on a trampoline for the very first time! They also had a swing set that he enjoyed. 

Tonight, Guy took half a night off from work and is attending Rifftrax Live: Starship Troopers in the theater. He is there right now with Josh and another friend, Justin. I am so excited that he got to go to this!

That's it for this week! Here's one more picture, from our trip to Mountain View Park today.