We went to Lexie's Birthday Party on Saturday, what fun! We got to see Jonny and Alanna's new house, it is incredible! There is a little hideaway underneath the stairs that Nico really loved. He was very excited to see Lexie and give her our present. The party games were fun, Nico got to be wrapped up in toilet paper like a mummy by Papa.
The tall one is my brother Jonny all wrapped up. My mom and I helped with that one.
It was a great party.
After we got home, Guy and Nico went out for a few hours. Dollar store, and a few other places. I was in need of a nice break after 3 nights straight putting Nico to bed without Guy. He is testing limits you see :) We added a rule to the house rules - #4) No whining. We are going to be working on mealtime next, teaching table manners and stopping the whining about eating. It basically goes like this: our job is to choose what food to make, make the food, make mealtime pleasant. Nico's job is to either eat the food, or not eat it. Paradigm shift! For "you and me time", he has shifted from color-by-numbers to CARS. We both sit on the couch facing the back of the couch and we race cars back and forth across the top of the couch. We get flat tires, we lose wheels, we run out of gas, we get tipped over in the riverbed and need helicopter assistance, and we chase each other. Another one he did for a few days was called "crash into people" where we start at either end of the clubhouse and run and crash into each other.
Tuesday, Grandma Salisbury took Nico out again while I had Bible Study. They always have fun!
A few random pictures (I'm loving the fact that when I take a picture, it is automatically uploaded to google and I can access all those pictures from this blog!! It makes blogging so much easier!)
And apparently I'm still learning how to take videos.
Tonight we took a trip to the park and when we got home Nico wanted to play with Evie, and Evie was in the front yard running through the sprinklers that her dad was testing. Nico jumped right in and got soaked. Shivers!!!
When he got back inside we got him into some pajamas and under a blanket on the couch, with the "Jesus Loves Me" app on my phone (Bible for Kids app), and a plate full of apples and monster teeth. What a night!
Went to the Zoo on Friday. Nico was ok with one of the dinosaur exhibits: the one with two small dinosaurs.
All the other ones we needed to stay away from. He would yell "MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY NO!" whenever I'd try to go near another one. Our zoo circuit was reduced a bit and we stuck around the giraffe slide and the prairie dog tunnel. Not sure how visiting the zoo in the future will go, I'm hoping he'll be interested in trying to get through his fear, but he had no interest in it on Friday. Perhaps I don't have quite the same touch as Grandma! :)
Prairie dog tunnel
On Saturday we went to the market. Nico was intent on getting a balloon in the shape of a yellow train. The young girl that usually does our balloons wasn't there that day but we found another few that were making them. The only vehicle they could do was a motorcycle, and Nico picked orange. He was very happy with it. It was very well done!
Saturday night Guy took Nico to Movie Under the Stars in Julia Davis Park. They were showing Despicable Me 2, starting it at dusk, but the fun started at about 7 PM with activities for kids plus music. Guy and Nico met Jeff and Evie there. Guy said the music was very loud and Nico looked a little shell shocked at first, but after a while he wanted to go up front with the other kids and dance, so they did that. Then after Evie arrived, they ate snacks, sat on the blanket, and waited for the movie. Sunset was at 9:30, dusk was at 10 PM. Nico asked to go home at 9:30, so they left, and they started the movie about 10.
They had fun, but I think they'll skip the rest of the movies this summer. They'll choose another type of outing to enjoy some bonding time. I think they'd both prefer to go to Red Robin or something!
On Tuesday morning we went to see G.G. She pulled out her piggy bank and Nico had fun putting all her spare coins into it. I think we emptied her purse completely of any change! She gave him a "credit card" (a used Applebees gift card) which he held onto the entire way home until he fell asleep and dropped it. He woke up briefly and said "Oh no my credit card" and then went right back to sleep.
Tuesday night I taught my last essential oils class for the summer. Nico's speech therapist from school, Miss Susie, came to the class with her daughter-in-law. Guy and Nico went out for a while but stayed long enough to see Miss Susie. Apparently Nico kept asking to go back home to see her again! He was very excited about it and I know he just wanted to talk to her and tell her all about everything, he just stood in front of her saying "Miss Susie" again and again, like he was working up to saying something important for her to hear, but I think in his excitement he just couldn't come up with anything more important than just repeating her name. He was very pleased with it. Guy and Nico did come home early enough to see Miss Susie again, which Nico was very excited about. She left soon after and said "see you when school starts!"
Wednesday morning we went up to the cabin. Me and my Mom made a double batch of Cowboy Casseroles so we could put some in our freezer, and so she could show me how she makes it. We finished in record time and spent the rest of the morning just hanging out. Nico wanted to join us in the kitchen with an apron so we let him choose which one he wanted. He wanted the LEOPARD one!
And then later we pulled out the old TIGER costume after we remembered that they existed and that Mom probably still had one. When we were younger, my Mom made me and my brothers tiger costumes. I think there were 4 originally, and this is the one that is left. Just Nico's size! After putting it on, we went upstairs to show Papa.
And then that night, I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk in his tiger costume and he said YES. He decided to ride his tricycle instead. All the neighbors thought he was just so cute. I could hear laughs as we walked along and one of them opened their front door so their 3 year old could look and say hi. He got too hot halfway through so we took the costume off.
Stopping to "fix the sidewalk"
Some more of this week in pictures:
Fish Park
Beetle
Playing hide and seek as "Double-O Nico" (Curious George is Double-O monkey)
And, all the snippets from June in a video! Extra points if you can find where I messed up writing one of the text descriptions.
We were able to go see G.G. again on Friday. She had a brand new toy truck waiting for Nico to play with (and to take home!) He loves it! On our way home I stopped at a park in Nampa that we had never been to before to let Nico play a little bit. New parks are always fun!
On Wednesday we had Nico's transition appointment with the Boise School District. The meeting took place at the Madison Early Learning Center. It used to be an elementary school, but now it just houses preschool types. Nico came with me so they could interact with him and watch him while playing with toys. They said that based on his expressive language skill scores that he qualifies for the program, but he won't be "officially" accepted until all the paperwork is gone over. They told me that the classrooms have 10 kids to one teacher, one assistant, and then a speech pathologist and occupational therapist are also on staff. They even offer door-to-door bussing if we want to take advantage of that. There is an AM and a PM session, Nico would go to one or the other, and it is Tuesday-Friday, though he would only go however many days a week the speech pathologist recommends.
Guy and I still have to talk about whether we want Nico to do this, but I think we are leaning toward YES. School would start August 28th for him. Wow.. school! Already?? I can't believe he's nearly three years old! Where did the time go?
As a result of the meeting, we are going to have Nico's hearing tested. I don't think there will be a problem with it, but with such a speech delay, the speech pathologist at the meeting was concerned. And because of his perforated ear drum a few months ago, it would be a good idea to get it checked anyway.
Also on Wednesday, Nico had his second speech therapy appointment. Since he was eating a snack when Marcia arrived, she had a good look at his chewing. She said that he is still doing the chipmunk chew and isn't using his back molars to grind the food like he should be doing. Next time she comes over (2 weeks from now), we're going to work on that by putting nut butter onto a thin cut celery stalk and having him chew on one side and then the other. She can also put nut butter on the inside of his cheek to require him to use his tongue to remove it. Chewing and speaking are related, so strengthening his tongue and teaching him to chew correctly will help him to make better sounds.
We went to the Toddler Open Gym on both Tuesday and Thursday. We hadn't been there in a while. Nico always remembers the road we turn on to go to the Gym, because nearly every time we pass it, he asks to go down it. Nico spends a lot of time while in the car asking to go places. "Da da!" And when I turn around to look at what he's signing, it's one or another park, or the library, or church. Even if we are on our way to a park already, he asks to go to all the other parks in addition.
Nico playing at the Toddler Open Gym
Nico at the Co-op
A video from this week - at the end you'll hear some of Nico's current words
This week we finally got out for a big dose of fresh air. After being cooped up inside being sick and/or too cold to go out for long, we were ready to PLAY! We went to Old Park and stayed for at least an hour. The temp was around 60 degrees and it was beautiful and smelled great and both Nico and I really needed it.
We were also able to take Nico's tricycle out for a ride. His legs are finally long enough to reach the pedals and actually use the tricycle, though he prefers to stand up and walk awkwardly while on it, like he does on his Strider bike. We'll have to pull out his Strider bike soon and raise the seat a bit and see if he still prefers walking with it instead of sitting.
I got Nico his very own knife for use in the kitchen. So, while I'm chopping vegetables, he can stand near me and chop his own vegetables! I need to get him a little cutting board, because cutting on a plate is hard. The knife isn't sharp at all, but it's serrated. Nearly impossible to cut anything with it, but whenever I do soft vegetables (zucchini maybe?) he'll be able to help out.
Posing for a picture with his new knife.
Church on Sunday. Nico was in the toddler room and asked for me about halfway through the service, so they came and got me. I took him potty (he actually went potty! I forgot to mention last week, that his very first time going on the potty in public was at the pharmacy. While waiting for a prescription he told me that he had to go! Of course, once we started toward the restroom, he tried to take it back.) After I took him potty at church, he didn't want me to leave the nursery, he had the bottom lip quiver. So I stayed. No problem for me, it was fun!
Nico had his follow up doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning. The doc looked in his ears and told me that they both looked pearly white and there was no sign of infection in either of them. His left ear did have some fluid behind the ear drum, she said it is likely just congestion left over from the cold. She said a humidifier would probably help thin it out to get rid of it. She used the word "bubbling" when describing the look of the ear. His right ear, the one that had perforated, looked perfect. No scar tissue and not able to tell at all that it had burst. His blood pressure was 95/55, weight was 131.8 pounds and height was 36 inches.
Drawing while waiting for the doctor.
I'm still unable to hear well out of my right ear. If it doesn't resolve soon then I'll make an appointment to go have it looked at.
Now to talk about potty training. Nico was having a hard time with pooping, so we decided to allow him to play on the iPad while he tries. This has solved the pooping problem completely, and then some! It has been hard to teach him that he doesn't always get the iPad when he goes potty. He especially likes to ask me to take him potty while we are in the middle of chores, or right before he knows we're going to start cleaning up dinner or lunch. He makes the Potty sign and says "Pah". I say "Ok, let's go potty!" and then he asks for the iPad. When I tell him no iPad this time, he then signs "all done" frantically and does a cute little whine. We'll get the hang of all this soon enough! :)
Another new recipe this week for Nico - banana pancakes. It's just 1 banana mixed with 2 eggs. Fry them up, and then I smothered it in butter. He loved it!
Nico and I took Guy to the airport tonight, he is off to Portland for 4 days. I am so excited for him, he is going to see a comedy show that includes several of the people from MST3K. Trace Beaulieu, J.
Elvis Weinstein, and Frank Conniff are each doing a comedy routine, and afterward they are live-riffing a movie called Plan 9 from Outer Space. An added bonus is that he gets to stay with his brother Tom! Sweet deal!
Nico and I will be staying with my parents for a night or so. We should have a pretty fun weekend!
Time to sign off, but I leave you with a video from this past week. Nothing big, just some shots from the park and of Nico dancing to one of his favorite Pocoyo episodes.
Went to the Old Park this morning. Nico found a truck there that belonged to another boy, but the boy let Nico play with it. Nico took the truck everywhere and drove it over all of the play equipment.
Another trike ride this evening. Nico's legs aren't quite long enough for him to be able to push the pedals on his tricycle effectively, so I am still pushing him. He doesn't like it when I push the back of his seat, so most of the time I push him with my feet as I'm walking.
We went on two tricycle rides today. After a while of being on the tricycle himself, he always gets off and asks me to sit on it. He really enjoys pushing me.
Here is Nico waiting at the window for Grandma Salisbury to arrive. She arrived just in time to read him a story and put him down for his nap.
No picture today, forgot! (Edited and added a picture later)
This week is VBS at the church, and I went to help chop vegetables. I had Nico as a tagalong. He was super hyped up with all the loud noise and people, so I left a bit early.
Then tonight we went for a walk with the tricycle. He rode it for most of the way, but then got off when I wouldn't let him cross the street with it. He got down on his stomach on the pavement and whined a bit, so I climbed onto the trike myself and asked him to push me. He was very excited about this and pushed me really hard for quite a long way. He was a good, strong pusher! Then he tripped and fell, dragging his feet while still holding onto the trike. He thought this was funny so he did this about 5 more times. Then we wrapped things up and went inside.
I noticed that with all the dirt on his knees he also had a little scrape.
If I can get my hands on one of the pictures taken of Nico tonight at VBS, then I will post it here! He was running everywhere, not in one place for too long, interrupting classes and trying to grab all the balls that he could find :)
Editing this entry to add a picture: Me chasing Nico. He kept escaping my grasp and running through all the VBS classrooms. I didn't get many vegetables chopped, but Nico sure had a blast! :)
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