Trailing of the Sheep, and Tummy Aches

This past week has been a doozy! Nico and Guy returned home from band practice last Thursday night after I had updated the blog, and Nico started complaining of a tummy ache. I tucked him into bed and prayed he would feel better in the morning.

Friday was meant to be the day we left for Ketchum, ID to attend the Trailing of the Sheep festival, but Guy and I discussed it and we decided that if Nico was still feeling poorly in the morning that Guy would go to the festival on his own and I would stay home with Nico.

Alas, Nico's tummy ache persisted into Friday and I called the school to let them know he wouldn't be coming in. I prepped everything for Guy to leave for Ketchum at 12:30 and we saw him off. I packed him one of the cupcakes I was going to take with us, to celebrate his birthday in Ketchum on Sunday. I kept the other 3 at home, knowing he'd be back Sunday and we could celebrate with him then.

Nico's tummy ache was unique in that he could continue eating normally. We went to Chipotle Friday night and picked up some food, as well as some smaller cupcakes from Trader Joe's. Nico ate his ENTIRE Chipotle meal (he has never done this before), plus 2 cupcakes, while we watched The Secret Life of Pets 2.

Guy's Friday night was full of Lamb food. I had purchased 3 tickets to "For the Love of Lamb", which allowed each participant 5 "bites" of lamb food from various restaurants in downtown Ketchum. Since Guy had 3 tickets, he got 3 "passports". He gave one to someone who had lost theirs, and used the other two to get 10 bites of lamb food. Guy said the age demographic for Friday was double his own.

Waiting in line.

#1 Lamb Samosa

#2 Lamb Meatball Gyros

#3 Lamb Curry

#4 Lamb Shepard's Pie

#5 (too tasty to remember to take the picture beforehand)

#6 Lamb Pasta with Mushrooms (not tasty, didn't finish it)

#7 Lamb chili - not tasty, didn't finish it

#8 Lamb ribs

#9 Lamb Sausage

#10 ?

He went back to the Airbnb and texted me "Yeah, it was intense. I'm back at the room, glad I saved my ginger ale"

SATURDAY

Saturday, Nico woke up still feeling sick, but he ate his pancakes just fine :) He spent the day playing on his Switch while I schemed to put together Guy's office for him while he was away. I put together the new bookcase we ordered (Nico helped a little) and unpacked a large portion of the boxes that were covering Guy's desk. I put his monitors on his desk as well. Not perfect but a large step forward.

Saturday night I ordered Nico a gluten free Chicago Connection pizza, I made my own pizza, and we rented another movie. Ugly Dolls. Nico ate almost his entire 10" pizza, leaving only one piece behind. 

In Ketchum, Guy went to breakfast and got Lamb Benedict. He told me later that he usually doesn't order eggs Benedict because it's so difficult to make and he doesn't like putting out the chef. But, they were advertising this as a special and since it was a special occasion he went ahead and ordered it. His thought was, "Well, they did it to themselves by advertising it." :)

The Airbnb he stayed in was in downtown Ketchum a handful of blocks away from most of the places he needed to go. It was a "treehouse" (see video at end), but it wasn't built in a tree, more like it was built up off the ground. It didn't have its own bathroom, it shared a bathroom with the other "treehouse" on the lot. The bathroom was outside.

After breakfast on Saturday Guy drove to Hailey, ID (about 15 minutes away) to go to the Sheep Trials and the Folk Life Festival. There are snippets of these in the video as well. He really enjoyed the sheep trials. 

He took this picture because of the dog on the leash in front of him. It's looking intently at what's going on in the field.

Lunch at the Sheep Trials.

He says next year we'll be sure to bring CHAIRS. Near the end of his stay at the sheep trials, he ran into two older women he had met the night before while waiting in line for sausage. He mentioned to them that he wished he had brought a chair, and they told him that they went to a thrift store that day to purchase some, and got 3 chairs when they only needed 2, so they had an extra. They told him they'd save him a seat at the sheep parade the next day. Front row. During the parade the next day they said they had "adopted" him as a stray, after finding out why he was there on his own without his family.

Anyway, back to Saturday. After the sheep trials, he went to the festival. He ran into a woman from our church, Debbie, who plays the bagpipes. She was participating in one of the performances that day (video clip of that below). 

That night he went to Smokey Mountain Pizza, and who do you guess was there, but Coach Vellotti, Nico's chess coach! Coach Vellotti was putting on a chess tournament at the Smokey Mountain Pizza in Ketchum, ID the same time that Guy was there! Crazy!

SUNDAY

Happy Birthday to Guy!

Nico woke up feeling sicker. He ate no breakfast and complained of a progressively worsening tummy ache. This was the day he started throwing up.

Guy attended the Sheep Parade on Saturday after breakfast. I wasn't able to get that video off Guy's phone to include in the video at the end of the blog, so I will post snippets from the parade video next week. They move the sheep from summer pasture to winter pasture, right through the middle of town. They make a parade out of it!

Guy arrived home with just enough time to open his presents and eat a piece of pumpkin pie (a present from Jeff & Allicia) before he had to head to the church to help with an event that night. It was a long Birthday day for him, he even stopped by the store on his way home from church to pick up a few things for me.

Nico continued to throw up through Monday. Tuesday evening I called the doctor and he prescribed some anti-nausea meds to give to Nico since he wasn't able to eat, and drinking hurt his tummy. The anti-nausea meds helped a little bit, but he is still complaining of not feeling well and not able to eat much. 

Nico has a doctor's appointment tomorrow at 11:15, for an unrelated reason (a sore on his foot), but we will certainly talk about Nico's tummy issues. I am concerned about getting him into the doctor's office, because he can't sit up or stand up for very long. I will call ahead to arrange to have a room ready for him so he can go straight in to lie down. That's my plan at least. I suspect he is dehydrated though I'm pushing fluids on him, as much as he'll take. I bought a pack of 6 fresh pressed juices from Boise Juice Co. yesterday (Allicia picked up my Fred Meyer grocery order AND went to Boise Juice Co. for me!!) Most of the juices also have coconut water in them which is good for rehydration.

Nico unfortunately has missed 5 days of school so far. Tomorrow there is no school anyway, so that's good. He also missed a field trip on Wednesday, as well as the yearly Boo Bash celebration at his school tonight. Just this weekend we had ordered a new costume for Nico on Amazon, he said he doesn't want to be a ninja this year (boy that ninja costume, though, he wore for 4 years!!!) But Nico is not complaining about missing anything, he is happy to stay in bed because he feels terrible whenever he tries to get up. When I ask him how he's feeling, he says "Still not very good" every time.

But he has his humor still, Guy and him watched Three Stooges last night and Nico was being his silly self. Then tonight as I'm updating the blog, he has asked me several times into his room to show me cakes on Youtube that he wants to make with me. He watched a food video today and moaned the whole time, "I wish I could eat that food it looks sooooo good!"

Yesterday he told me he wanted strawberries so I drove to M&W Market, leaving him at home. I kept him on FaceTime the whole time and showed him what other fruits they had. He told me to also get a watermelon and a cantaloupe. He said no to the bananas and the asparagus ;)

Today he said he wanted Great Steak and Potato (a restaurant in the mall), so I asked Guy to pick some up on his way home (Turkey sandwich, no bread, with cheese on a bed of lettuce). Nico could only eat a bite of it, even though he asked for Guy to buy a LARGE. Oh well. We have leftovers now so he can try again tomorrow.

If he didn't have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, I probably would have called the doctor today to get a recommendation. Nico might need IV fluids to feel better. We'll ask the doc tomorrow and do whatever is needed.

From Guy's pumpkin pie. I texted Guy this picture "Happy Birthday ants!"

Drinking Nuun electrolyte drink through a straw. Everything through a straw.

Allicia brought these Nuun tablets over with the pumpkin pie on Sunday, knowing that Nico wasn't feeling well.

We received mail at Louisa St address that Avery biked over to us. Nico was happy for the distraction. Also, Allicia brought him some treats from the dollar store, some fun activities to do as he starts feeling better.

Me getting out of the house yesterday evening. A walk next to the foothills.

Oh, on Sunday night, I was a little worried going to bed in our bedroom with Nico being so far away in his bedroom. Nico didn't like it either, he ran to our bedroom in the middle of the night feeling sick. He didn't want to be alone and sick. So I camped out on the couch that night, and have stayed there all the nights since. It's a comfy couch, so I don't mind!

Here's the video snippets from Guy's trip. I'll include the ones from the parade next week! I forgot to label one part of the video, when there's a man sheering the sheep. The sheep is OK, he's just shaving it ;) 

Geode, and our new Sign!

On Saturday Nico and I went over to Grandma and Papa's house in the early afternoon. We stayed for a few hours and met Jonny and Alanna. The grownups discussed Thanksgiving while Nico and Lexie played. I left Nico there and he stayed overnight!

Guy wasn't able to come with us because he had a very bad migraine :(

Nico's tummy aches started back up again, we left church early on Sunday because he was feeling too sick, and we skipped Bible Study on Sunday night because he wasn't feeling well (Guy was still able to go!) He's gone to school every day this week with a tummy ache, it seems to start shortly after eating and can last a very long time. We are still trying to get to the bottom of it.

Nico found a Geode in his stash of toys and so he broke it open.

Playing Clue on top of an unfinished puzzle. The rules of this game were as follows: You can't talk. It was quite a challenge to communicate without talking to play this game, but we did it. Well, THEY did it, because I lost the "no-talk" challenge about halfway into it. Oops!

Nico rediscovered the National Geographic Kids magazines. He told me all about "Urban Sprawl" that he learned about at school, about how people were tearing down animal habitats to build housing that no one needed. He said that if he was president he would stop it from happening.

He also seems to have an interest in traveling, to all over the world, and expressed interest in being a photographer so that he could join National Geographic Kids.

He asked us tonight that if we could move to any place OUTSIDE the US, where would we move to? Guy's answer was New Zealand, Nico's answer was London. I'd have to agree with Nico, I think that would be fun.

Tonight all of us went to band practice together, it might become more of a regular thing, as I work up to maybe playing the piano in the church band every once in a while. When we got home, we saw the new sign that Allicia got us for The Clubhouse!

Gorgeous!

Here are some pictures that are from Grandpa and Grandma Russell's visit last last week, when they went to the Botanical Garden.

They had the Scarecrow Stroll going on during their visit

That's it for this week!

Persistent Tummy Ache!

Last Friday while I was in Moscow, Nico and Guy went to Red Robin for dinner. I knew what they ordered because I got an email receipt from Red Robin. That was neat. Saturday they went to the library and watched the Little Prince with pizza. They wanted to watch Matilda but I am making them wait until this coming Saturday so I can watch it with them!

Aunt Mary Anne and Me!

Facetiming Guy and Nico. They were working on making a small video game.

My mom and I returned from Moscow on Sunday.

Monday morning Nico complained of a tummy ache all of a sudden, but I sent him to school anyway. The nurse called me a little bit later saying Nico was in her office saying he felt sick. He had asked her if she had oils to help him feel better.. he he. I talked to him for a minute on the phone and he told me the nurse had given him a hot water bottle to put on his tummy and it had made it worse. I asked him if he wanted me to bring him some oils or if he wanted me to come pick him up. He said he wanted me to come pick him up, so I did!

After picking him up, I did a Zyto scan on him, slathered him in oils, and brought him with me to my parents' house! I had some work to do over there. 

So the strange thing about Nico's tummy ache that started on Monday is that it comes and goes, and even when he has it, he still eats normally. He has no fever or lethargy, but the tummy ache has been persistent in its return. It went away that afternoon, but returned in force during his baseball game that night and so we left early. He was still feeling sick the next morning, he told me he wanted to go to school because he didn't want to miss PE, but I decided to keep him home. I took him with me again to Grandma's house, and the tummy ache went away that afternoon. He woke up the next morning (Wednesday) telling me he felt GREAT! So off to school he went. 

Another call from the nurse around 12:30, saying that he had been in her office three times already telling her he felt like he was going to throw up. She had the "wait and see" mentality, so they brought some schoolwork in to the nurse's office for him and he worked on it a bit in there. The nurse called me, not to come pick Nico up, but to tell me what had transpired and to ask if anything might be going on with him. She recommended keeping a food journal, so I started one. He does not seem to be avoiding school just for the heck of it, when I try to probe with questions his response is just as always. The only part of school he doesn't like is the free-write time.

The tummy ache was gone when he came home from school Wednesday, but returned shortly after eating Blue Cow Frozen yogurt that night. 

This morning I realized that the tummy ache on Wednesday morning started shortly after Chess class, where they are always given a sweet treat. So, I was thinking I had narrowed it down to SUGAR.

Tonight, Evelyn came over for an early dinner right after school, so we could head to Nico's baseball game. It was cold! But it was his last game this season. 

At one point he was standing on first as the first baseman, totally oblivious to the game, instead he was watching a bird in the sky. The pitcher threw a ball to him to make an out and he didn't see it. Everyone was screaming "NICO!!!" and the coach asks Nico, "What kind of bird to you see?" and he said "It's a red tailed hawk!" then he heard everyone yelling at him for his attention and he kept yelling, "IT'S A RED TAILED HAWK!"

It was a good last game. He had a great coach and a great team. Excited to see what next Spring brings!

Tonight while reading in bed, his tummy ache came back all of a sudden. Poor boy. Still moving forward...

That's it for this week!

Tummy aches, Brianna, Fitness Challenge

Last Friday Nico had off from school. Him and I took G.G. and Aunt Pat to Red Robin in Nampa. It was fun to shake up our normal visiting routine by going out instead of staying in. It was great to sit and chat with them for a while, and Nico was so excited to have his turkey burger. I'm pretty sure he ate too much. Before Guy came home from work he was outside running around, then he came back inside and said he felt sick. He did get sick in the middle of the night that night, and had a sore tummy the next day. Whoops!

On Sunday he was fine, but then got sick in the middle of the night again, I'm pretty sure this was another fluke because of some old fish oil we gave him that night before bed. He said it tasted funny. No, what he said was, "That tastes bad." when usually he doesn't complain. It was the bottom of the bottle, kind of milky looking. Um, anyway, we kept him home from school on Monday even though he ate normally and felt 100% the next morning.

Monday was Columbus Day, so we went searching for a way to watch an episode of Columbo (our Columbus Day tradition), but it is no longer on Netflix. So we went to the library to check a DVD out. Closed. It was Columbus Day, so library and bank were closed, the very two errands we had left the house to accomplish. Guy then took Nico out to a garage sale, and I took him later to the park. Evelyn joined us after school was out.

No more illness after that, and he was back at school on Tuesday after 5 days off!!

On Wednesday an old friend of ours that had moved away came for a visit, Brianna. She came over and Nico taught her to play chess. Guy has this whole week off from work, so he joined in the fun and helped Brianna learn. Then we ate dinner and brownies and said our goodbyes until next time she visits.

Guy is doing more of his buying/selling this week, focusing mostly on selling since he has acquired a lot of stuff and he wants to lessen his inventory. He scored a box of stuff for free at a garage sale, some of the stuff in there worth $100+. He is downstairs now working on listing stuff on eBay.

I think that's it for this week. Now I have to go search and see if I took any pictures!! I hope so!!

Evelyn and Nico at the park on Monday.

They are both participating in the Axiom Fitness Challenge (Axiom is the gym I go to!). The school sent home a paper and for every 30 minutes they exercise, they get to fill in a star on the paper. If they get all the stars filled in and return the paper by December 1st, they get a free pass to Wahooz, which is a game place like Pojo's, but with more stuff, including race cars and miniature golf. They are counting 20 minutes of walking every day going to/from school. And at the park on Monday they spent a solid 20 minutes riding around on bike and scooter. They're getting there!

Illness, Garbage Disposals and Baby Ivy

We've been getting our place a little more organized, we bought a new table that Papa picked up for us from Nampa on Sunday (thanks Pa!), and a new cube shelf a few weeks ago that holds fabric cubes that has become our dresser. They are also the perfect size to hold a three-drawer organizer from Fred Meyer. Here you can see Nico showing Evelyn all his coloring books and stickers and paper that we are storing in that three-drawer organizer.

Guy caught a cold, I think the same one Nico has had coming upon him for the last few weeks. He went to work Friday night even though he didn't feel great, and spent a few days of his weekend feeling kind of crummy. 

On Monday Nico didn't eat much of his lunch and asked me to hold him as we got out of the car to walk into his preschool. Red flag! I asked him if he was feeling okay and he asked me to hold him. I asked him if he had a tummy ache and he said "Yes". To which I explained that we probably shouldn't take him into preschool. I explained that if he needed to throw up it would be better to do it at home, but he insisted that he no longer had a tummy ache and that he was ready to go to preschool. I decided to believe him with my actions by taking him to preschool. I told the teacher that he may or may not have a tummy ache. He did not throw up that day, but I did turn around to pick him up from school as soon as I got home. The teacher called me saying that Nico was crying and holding his tummy and wanted me to come get him :( I felt so bad. I raced back to the car praying that he wouldn't throw up at school to save him the embarrassment, I could have just been projecting my own fears onto him, though. I brought "the bucket" with me. He was outside waiting for me with his teacher when I pulled up. He was fine a few hours later after I rubbed his feet with oils several times and we snuggled on the couch. It's funny how quickly his demeanor changes when his tummy ache is gone. He perks up and asks for food and then eats like he's starving. I wrote to the teacher telling her he was fine, and Teacher Melissa wrote back and said "I was a little alarmed at how much pain he seemed to be in for a few minutes, there, but am very glad he's alright."

He went to school on Tuesday, and as he was getting off the bus, the bus driver told Guy that Nico was coughing a lot and asking the bus attendant to hold him :( He had a full blown cold at this point, and his fever spiked that night with an intense ear ache. Oils to the rescue. Then the next morning his fever was down to 99.6. He stayed home from school, and had to miss his snack day... that's the day that he brings snack and also gets to bring something to show the class. He was going to bring his bubbles in and tell them that Grandma Salisbury got them for him from Shopko.

Not all is lost! He had a great day today. He woke up with no fever and had a fun time at school and got to eat ASTRONAUT ICE CREAM. As soon as he walked in the door he told me about it and he told me it tasted sweet. And I am thankful that it didn't give him a tummy ache! Then tonight while we were reading bedtime stories, Jeff came in to fix our garbage disposal (accidental teaspoon clog, whoops), and Nico had a chance to hold baby Ivy. He talked to me about her tiny feet and her tiny legs and asked about the socks on her hands. He was very sweet with her.

I got a turn too, of course.

I think that's it for this week. I wish I had taken more pictures!

Easter, IEP Meeting

Nico got to do 2 Easter egg hunts on Easter! The first one was at church. Every egg he picked up he had to open first. I think he was remembering preschool egg hunt where all the eggs were empty! (Empty tomb, you see).

The second one was at the cabin that afternoon. We ate a yummy dinner and then Grandma brought the kids upstairs while all the parents hid the eggs. Grandma had Bruce read a story to the kids. When I went up to listen, Nico was sitting in the same armchair as Bruce, squished in next to him.

Then the kids were released! We told Nico that all the eggs had something in them so that he didn't have to open any of them first. When all the eggs were found, we counted them and then traded until each kid had 46 eggs. There were just 4 kids, a smaller gathering than usual. Bruce, Rory, Lexie, and Nico.

There were toys and candies in the eggs. The candies that Nico couldn't eat, he tried to give away. There were also notes in the eggs that you could redeem for $5 cash. Each time you redeemed a note you had to do whatever the banker asked you to do. We all took turns being the banker. Nico got 4 such notes so he made $20. He was asked once to jump on the trampoline as high as he could go in order to receive his $5. He really enjoyed that one.

Snuggled up outside while the grown ups finished eating

Guy talking to my brother David

Trying to find the last few eggs

Then we said our goodbyes, loaded with leftovers (Thanks Pa & Ma!).

On Monday we went to the bank and opened Nico a ShareBear savings account. We want to start giving him a small allowance so that he can save up for all the toys that he asks for. He was able to buy a lego he's been eyeing with his $20 from Easter. We had fun tonight because we finally finished putting it together. The age range for this one started at 7 years old, I think because it was one of those technics legos that requires a bit more strength and spatial orientation than a 4 year old would have. So I helped him with it, and it took us a few days of 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, before it was finished. It's a RACE CAR WITH A TOWING HOOK!

Monday was also our IEP meeting. We went over how Nico is doing and we went over the IEP goals for next year. There is one goal in relation to him being defiant, saying "No!" and sitting down in the middle of class during transition periods when they're moving from one activity to the next. Could be just exerting his independence, we've certainly been seeing that at home, too. Anyway, the goal for next year is to help him transition better between activities. A lot of times the goals just state common sense type stuff but it's good to have it in writing. To help him meet this goal, there will be someone who comes into his Kindergarten class every day for 15 minutes to help him however he needs it. If there is a certain time of day that he has the most trouble, she will come in during that time. Since the class will have more kids than he's used to, they thought this would be good, to get his some one on one time.

No goals next year for academics, he is right on target. Miss Erica says that Nico is very precise, and she points to the wall where there is art hanging and says "I could probably pick out which one is Nico's, it's the one where everything is right in its place."

The only other goals are speech related. His biggest issue right now is articulation. He will get there. He has come so far in every other area!

I talked to the SLP about the Calico Learning Center possibility this summer, and she said she wasn't too sure about the place. When someone else joined us a few minutes later, she said the same thing. Something about how most of the kids enrolled there are not native English speakers, and Nico would benefit more from being around typical peers. Miss Erica mentioned that BSU has a summer language program that enrolls Nico's age, and that might be something better to look into. So, we're looking into.

Next Monday I have the transition meeting at Adam's Elementary school so I can meet his teacher and SLP for next year.

Nico has had tummy aches two nights in a row. There was a time about a month ago that he was telling me every night that he had a tummy ache, but I was pretty sure it was just a ploy to get out of bed. This is different. He LOOKS sick. He goes to bed, asks for water, then a few minutes later will get out of bed and say "Mommy, there's something wrong with me." I ask him what's wrong and he eventually will tell me it's his tummy. I rub oils on his feet and often times that just puts him to sleep. I asked him if the foot massage felt good and he sleepily nods yes, and then ZONK, he's out. Then he sleeps the whole night and wakes up happy in the morning. I feel so bad for him. I know what those tummy aches feel like. I have a guess as to the food culprit, so I'm hoping that tomorrow is better.

Last night he felt so terrible, he was rolling around on my bed saying he had a tummy ache, then he'd whimper, and then he'd roll some more, and then "Mommy, mommy, there's something wrong with me." Then he'd whimper and roll over again :(

Also this past week, we received a package from the Grandparents Russell! Nico just happened to be with me when we went to the PO Box to check the mail, and he was so psyched to find a package in there with his name on it. Waiting until we came home to open it was hard, because we had a few more stops before home: The library, and the zoo. In the package he got some books, including his favorite Pigeon book that we have checked out twice from the library, and now we won't have to do that any more! Also a game and a deck of cards, from Grandma Dee's stash, plus some stickers. All good things. Thank you Gma and Gpa! 

Saturday Market!!! Last Saturday was the first one of the season. Nico got a dragon balloon and a cucumber. Then we headed over to the movie theater for a sensory-friendly movie (lights stay on, volume is down, doors stay open, and you can bring your own food). Paddington Bear. Nico sat through the whole thing and it was a lot of fun. They do these movies every month. I'm looking forward to the next one!

One night this past week, Nico and Evie and I went to the park before bed, and they didn't even play on the equipment, they spent the whole time riding in circles on their bikes on the basketball court. It was pretty cute.