Nature Walks, and Semaphores

I was in Pullman until Saturday, so last Friday after school Guy took Nico to the Discovery Center.

Then Guy sent me a video of Nico doing manual Tetris on the light board using stop motion filming! Here it is:

Saturday was my trip home from Pullman. Guy and Nico had a Cub Scouts adventure at Deer Flats in Nampa, ID that morning, and they had a lot of fun. Guy said later that he wished he could go back and Nico piped up and said, "Me too!"

Just one other Cub Scout from his den was there, so it was a small field trip. 

Guy and Nico hung out with Jeff and Allicia and the kiddos that afternoon, and then started making pizza late, which was just in time for me to enjoy it, too! I arrived home at 7pm. It was Nico's choice of movie and he chose Three Stooges.

Nico's Cub Scout den leader is trying to help Nico get all his badges so he can graduate from being a Bear at the next pack meeting. They met at the den leader's house on Tuesday, and they all went for a hike so they could get some badge requirements taken care of. Guy and Nico came home Tuesday night and told me the good news - Nico will graduate from being a Bear! He will then be a Webelos. (I think that stands for We'll be loyal scouts).

He is now in Level 3 of swimming lessons and he LOVES it! 

He checked out a book about flags from the school library, and there's a section in the back about semaphores. So he practiced semaphores for a few days.

Nico put his glasses on Yoshi, and told me to take a picture and send to Daddy and say, "Nico has turned into Yoshi."

Nico is a published poet!

Tonight after dinner Nico and I went for a walk while Guy was at band practice. I let him choose where we went.

The trail ended in a neighborhood so we walked back to our house through the neighborhood. He talked about wanting to be an explorer and a traveller. Then we talked about where he would want to live and he was trying to find a way for us to move somewhere that would allow him to continue going to Adams Elementary, but also allow him to ride the bus to school and be closer to Grandma Russell. 

I contacted the landlord of the house on our street that we're wanting to move into this summer. She told me that nothing is set in stone yet with them moving out, and when they do move out she will take a month to paint and clean the place up. Since I do know that they are moving out, it would likely be July that the house would be available. I will call her in a few weeks to check in. Nico continues to say that he wants to move into a small house because he doesn't like big houses. 

Here are some snippets from this past week!

IEP Meeting, GG

Last Friday was Nico's annual review for his IEP (Individualized Education Program). Every 3 years he goes through testing again to see if he still needs the speech services, that is happening next year in 2019.

His SLP (Speech & Language Pathologist) says that Nico is improving and has come a long way in some areas. He has stopped puffing his cheeks out when he says "S" or "SH" sounds. At home we are just supposed to have him try again if he says a word wrong, she also gave us exercises we can do with him if we are ever inspired. We were able to meet the new principle, Jason Adams, and he was very nice. The principle sits in on the meetings and takes notes. The notes then have to be read through and signed by all of us at the end of the meeting. Ms Lung, his teacher, says that it is getting harder for her to understand Nico even since the beginning of the year. We think this is because he has started talking faster.

Guy and I walked home from the meeting and then Guy actually got to work from home that day. Every month his boss lets him take an at-home work day, because he can super-focus and get a lot more stuff done.

Saturday was the laziest day ever. We did force Nico to go for a walk with us. He always tries to get out of it by saying that Jeff or Allicia could watch him while Guy and I go for a walk. But we always need the exercise on a lazy Saturday!

We also restarted our weekly Family Meetings. I'm hoping we remember to continue doing these. This is where Nico gets his allowance, we also exchange compliments and appreciations for each other, and we go over any new family business. I added one chore to Nico's daily routine, and during the family meeting we practiced it. When he gets home from school he now has to unload his backpack and lunch bag before he can have his snack. Also at the family meeting we go through the next week's calendar, and then we play a game. We couldn't agree on one until I found the dice game we had bought Nico for Christmas and hadn't yet played. It's called QWIXX and it is VERY fun. It's a quick game requiring a bit of strategy and I really love it.

Then because our toaster oven is broken, we made pita pizzas in our smaller borrowed toaster oven. I forgot to take a picture. We are having them again this Saturday so I will try to remember! They were tasty. We watched Lego Ninjago while eating pizza.

On Monday we all had eye appointments. Guy and I had ours right before lunch. So afterward, we went to lunch! We went to Boise Fry Company. I had purple potato fries. Nico had his eye appointment after school so I went back there with him. His eyes are fine! We will recheck them every year.

On Tuesday I went over to Pa & Ma's house for lunch then after Nico got out of school we went to see G.G. and Aunt Pat.

I told Nico that the next time we come visit them we'll get Jimmy John's afterward. He asked me to print out a tiny calendar that he could take to school to X out the days as they go by, until we reach March 20th. He told me to circle the 20th and write "JJ" (Jimmy Johns) and "GG" on the day.

On Wednesday Ma and I went out shopping and had lunch together. It was a wonderful day!! We went to Thai Basil for lunch.

Sorry I didn't get more than one of this shot, and caught Ma with her eyes closed. Doh!

Thanks Mom!!

Today Evelyn had dinner with us again!

Nico was mentioned in the student-led video announcements at the school. For being an All-Star! 

And.. hmm.. I think that's it. Here's a video of Nico and Evelyn playing in the clubhouse tonight!

Cabin, Hair Cut, Scooter

Nico got another hair cut this week, he's back to short hair now!

On Sunday Nico got to go to the cabin. The Grandparents Salisbury picked him up before church and took him to church with them, then they drove to the farm, then out to the cabin. Lexie was with them, too. Nico had a lot of fun and came home with a new lego set!!!! (Which he has already put together and taken apart about 5 times). Check out the video at the bottom of Nico reading the Bible.

Eating lunch with Lexie while watching the iPad

Nico has really been enjoying watching the movie Frozen. He has memorized a large portion of the movie and recites it throughout the day, and sings the songs. I agree that it is a pretty good movie, I like watching it too.

We went for a our first outing to the park this year. We did it in the evening and we didn't need a car! It was the first time we had entered the park from this direction since way back when we lived on Warm Springs. Nico rode his scooter and I walked.

"It's an emergency!" he said, as he ran to the fire engine

Nico is getting very agile with his scooter. I am very proud of him. He can turn and stop himself using the brakes.

On Monday after eating lunch I noticed that one of my teeth in the upper back right had a big hole in it. I figured a filling had come out, so I called the dentist and went in that afternoon. They said it wasn't a filling, but that a chunk of my tooth had broken off and I would need a crown. My very first crown! They had a cancellation the next morning and I took it. Got it over with. And I'm fine now. Phew!

His teacher also sent some pictures over.

Nico loves looking at these pictures with me.

Lately Nico is enjoying his Curious George read along book. We're kind of on an iPad hiatus the past week, so he has had to entertain himself quite a bit more than usual.

I can't think of anything else that happened this past week. We're still waiting for word from his preschool whether they'll be reducing his days or not.

Video time!

Foods

On Monday we went over to see Allicia and Evie and Avery. We hung out in their garage (heated!) Nico got to ride on Evie's tricycle and there was also a sand box to play in.

Evie loading up the tricycle so Nico can ride it.

Monday was also mine and Guy's anniversary. It was actually Facebook that reminded me of it! And even after that, I forgot to mention it to Guy, who also forgot. I didn't wish him a Happy Anniversary until the next morning. Whoops! :) No biggie, though, we are buddies and we understand that life is busy. It has been 8 years!! 

Tuesday, while Nico was at school, I went with Allicia and Evie and Avery to a "Mothering Connections" meeting. A group of moms gets together and talks about all the things related to mothering. To offer support and to receive support if needed. It was very cool.

We had some warmer days this past week. Enough to go for a looong Strider ride, a trip to the Fish Park, and then a walk around the block. Not all on the same day:) Nico has been talking a lot about playing outside. "Play outside. Go Strider ride." We've already come up with a list of things to do this summer. Well, a two item list: Fly a kite (we have one sitting in our closet that we've never used) and shoot off a rocket. We'll expand the list as we think of things. We do have a long term list of things we want to do but not necessarily this summer: go for a train ride, go to the beach and build a sand castle, fly in a plane.

Building a tower with Daddy before breakfast.

Playing outside. Digging a HOLE!

Yesterday (Wednesday), we hit a milestone in that I experienced my very first call from the school to come pick Nico up because of illness. Apparently he was lying down on the floor in the classroom and when they took his temperature it was 101.4. I came and picked him up, and as soon as we got home he crawled onto the couch and fell asleep. He woke up for about an hour and told me he felt sick. I rubbed some essential oils on his tummy, he fell back asleep for another hour and when he woke up in his bed he popped up and started asking for food. He burned off his fever last night and woke up fine this morning. I kept him home from school, but he will go back tomorrow. I'm pretty sure this episode was food related (well, supplement related). We have been introducing many new foods into his diet recently, per doctor's orders "Expand his diet!" she said :) He has enjoyed oatmeal, quinoa, cream of buckwheat, eggs, chicken, tomatoes, potatoes, brown rice, carrots, onions, and tonight: salmon! He ate more than I did at dinner. Unfortunately we are still dealing with bad flares of his rash and his emotions, but we are pushing through. But back to this fever thing. He was perfectly fine Wednesday morning until after he ate his supplements. It was almost like he was a robot that had just been turned off. You can imagine the power down sound, as he slumps his shoulders in his high chair and says "no eat", crawls onto the couch, and asks for a nap. This had been happening on several mornings, so I didn't think it was any different. But I think he reached his threshold for one of the supplements that hadn't been agreeing with him. I will be talking to the doc tomorrow to see what she wants us to do.

This week in preschool they are reading "Snowmen At Night" by Caralyn Buehner, "Snowballs" by Lois Ehlert and "That Hat" by Jan Brett. They are learning about winter clothing and animals. And tomorrow is the end of the quarter, so they have an early release!

Cousins, Sniffles and Storms

On Saturday morning, Nico and I met Lizzie and Bruce and Rory at Municipal Park to plaaay! It was great to see all of them. Bruce is so attentive to Nico and loves to help him do things and make sure that he is being safe on the playground. He also really likes to make Nico laugh. What a great cousin!

On Sundays we are continuing to go to a Bible Study hosted by people from our church. They are very welcoming of us and of Nico. We bring cars for Nico to play with and they also have a bag of cars for him to play with. He lies on the floor and plays with the cars, or gets up and walks around showing the cars to the people. About halfway through he'll wander over to where we are to get a snack. I bring him a banana or a baggie full of cut up dried apricots and nuts. It has been very nice to be a part of the group. There are about 6 regular attenders other than us, all of them older, and they refer to themselves as "grandparents" to Nico. 

Sunday morning Nico had started randomly sneezing, and Monday morning he woke up with a slight fever and a case of the sniffles. Grandma Salisbury came over for a visit and brought with her some essential oils since I had run out of Melaleuca (the one I use to ward off ear infections). It was great to have her for a visit!

The next day, Nico was really itching to get outside. Even though he still had a bit of a heightened temp, we went out to go for a walk. WHO can resist the mild temperatures and the sun and the birds singing and the fresh air?? I was pretty sure it would be good for us! When we got outside, Nico literally RAN around the block with me. Then we walked a second time around. He had a lot of built up energy!

We have had mild weather days, but we've also had a few storms. We had thunder so loud Monday night that I about jumped through the roof. Guy also mentioned that it was the loudest thunder he had ever heard. It shook the whole house and continued shaking it and rumbling for about 15 seconds. Nico wasn't fazed by it at all. We also had quite a wind storm last night that was pretty incredible. When I went to bed in the evening there were leaves all over our bed that had flown in through the window.

On Wednesday both Guy and I woke up with sore throats. Looks like the cold has become a family affair! I had to reschedule our monthly visit to G.G. for next Friday instead of tomorrow. I don't want to spread it around!

I got a call from the school district today and we set up our next meeting to talk about preschool. It looks like Nico is officially set to go to preschool in the fall - August 28th is the first day of school, a mere month after he turns 3 years old. At the meeting we will talk about logistics and I will likely know at that time which part of the day he will be going, and how many days per week. The meeting is Wednesday May 22nd, so a few weeks away. I am looking forward to it!

The nightly ritual of playing on our bed

Running some errands - Nico has his harmonica

Running up the stairs at the library

No speech therapy this week, but Nico has added a few words to his vocabulary. Grandma is "nama", Banana is "nana", iPad is "O-bah". We've been trying to remember to enforce all of them! Guy remarked that he has noticed Nico has been babbling a lot more and trying out a lot of new sounds.

Trip to the Fish Park

Speech, Strider, and Spills

Not many pictures this week! I couldn't locate the camera for most of the days. It happened to be right where I always put it, just hiding a bit.

On Saturday we went to visit Nico's cousin Lexie and Uncle Jonny and Aunt Alanna. We gave Lexie her birthday present (she turned 4!) and then hung out for a bit. Nico really enjoyed playing with Lexie's remote control car that she got for her birthday. He preferred moving it around the floor himself instead of using the remote control. Lexie showed him how to play their "Don't Break the Ice" game. We both had fun, it was great to see all of them!

Monday morning Nico had an evaluation with Idaho's Infant/Toddler Program, to determine if he qualifies for free speech therapy. A speech therapist and a developmental specialist both came over on Monday morning and played lots of games with him (aka "testing"). Nico had so much fun! It turns out that he does qualify for speech therapy. The speech therapist we met on Monday, Marcia, will be the one working with him. He will be getting 15 sessions, 45 minutes each. She comes to the house to do the sessions, which is awesome! We are just waiting to hear when they will start. Once Nico turns three (a little more that FOUR MONTHS away!!), he will transition out of the program since it is only for those who are 0-3 years.

One awesome speech development in the last few weeks is Nico's ability to say "Mama". And he correctly uses it to refer to ME! This just completely melts my heart. He has also just started to say "Daddy" and a few weeks back he correctly started saying "Papa" to refer to Papa Salisbury. They may seem like such small steps, but to me these things are HUGE, especially when he inserts a "Mama" into his crying at night. WOW, what a way to get straight to my heart.

On Monday Nico had two falls. He face-planted off of the step stool in the kitchen, and then later that night face-planted off our really tall bed. OUCH. He busted his lip when he fell off the bed, and had a fat lip that night. I iced it for him and tucked him into bed a little late because we needed to snuggle and watch Curious George for a while to calm us down. He also had a bruise on his head. The next morning he woke up with the sniffles, and since then we have been fighting off ear infections (my mom got us an ear scope so I can look in Nico's ears when I suspect infections!) He also has a low grade fever (hovers around 99.0-99.5). I am using melaluca and garlic oil in his ears and it seems to be keeping the infections at bay. I'm hoping we can come out of this without a doctor's visit. At least this time I know that if his temp goes up and he starts doing the inconsolable thing, that his ear is probably in trouble. We've been doing extra snuggles to help out :)

On Tuesday, Guy had his follow up doctor's appointment (remember when I stole his last follow up appointment so that I could get my ear looked at??). She talked to him about diet since his cholesterol is pretty high. We switched his breakfast to oatmeal for now and will address the rest of his food in the coming weeks.

Nico and I have been going to parks, going for walks, and spending time under the carport cleaning up from the fall. Leaves leaves everywhere! I adjusted the seat on his Strider so he could ride it. He helped me a bit there.

We went for a short walk and when he was done, he carried his Strider back to the house and wheeled it into place next to my bike in the shed.

Until next week!

Potty Train'd!

It looks like we have a potty trained toddler on our hands! We still have him in diapers at night time, but this morning his diaper was DRY, so we may be cutting out the diapers all together very soon! The first time Nico told me that he had to go potty and then actually WENT potty, it was incredible! The transition from taking him potty every few hours to just letting him tell me when he had to go was a smooth one. He has been wearing pants during the day now instead of just underwear.

So, this past week, we went to visit G.G. in Nampa. It was great to see her. She let Nico play with all the cars that she could find and also a little handheld card game that beeps when buttons are pressed. He enjoyed that! He also had his first away-from-home potty success while we were there! We'll be going back for our next visit in March.

In church on Sunday, I stayed with Nico in the nursery for about half the time, to make sure that he felt comfortable going to the potty if he needed to. I took him to the potty several times, but he never went. Indeed, he didn't go once while we were there, and we even made it home with no accidents to report!

I hadn't hung out with Nico in the nursery for a while, so it was neat to see how his interactions with other children has changed. He approaches the kids now, and tries to "talk" to them using signs. He signed "car" a lot. He also uses his "DAH, DAH" noise to talk to the kids, and increases in volume until he gets a response. The other kids were talking to Nico by saying "DAH DAH" back to him!

We've had a few warmer days this past week, and sunny ones, we've gone for a few walks in the afternoons. We usually bring home the prizes that he finds. Sticks. Or a pine cone. 

Every Wednesday I roast up a whole chicken. Nico can pack away the chicken when it's fresh from the oven. Reheated leftovers don't go as quickly. I don't blame him, though. A fresh chicken right from the oven is heavenly. I pour him some "chicken juice" (the drippings) into a tiny mug for him to sip on. When he gets tired of that, I use a spoon to scoop up the drippings straight from the pan and between Nico and myself we consume most of it. Then we have a bit of the drippings leftover to heat up on other days.

Nico's least favorite part of chicken night is the fact that he has to eat his vegetables FIRST. Otherwise he just wouldn't eat them.

In the picture below, I'm not sure if you can tell, but he has chicken grease ALL over himself. One thing Nico loves to do is wipe his hands off on his hair, and chicken grease is no exception. He had it on his hair, his face, his hands and arms and all over his shirt. 

We headed to the library today to reset our book collection. On the way back to the car, we were walking down the ramp instead of taking the stairs, and Nico stopped and sat down on the ramp and tried to scoot himself forward. He was sure it was a slide.

Nico has learned a lot of the letters of the alphabet on his own by playing different apps on the iPad. He can say D, P, B, O, R, M, T, E, V, and F. He tries to say a lot of the other ones, too.

Potty Training Again!

The biggest news this week is that we restarted potty training! We've decided to put him in pull ups at night time, but during the day he is in underwear. We've had one whole day without an accident! Today we ventured to the Co-op and also a quick trip to the library (we had already lost Nico's library card and needed a new one!), where we tried unsuccessfully to use the children's restroom. So, we still have that hoop to jump through: Nico's first use of a public restroom. But we will get there. He didn't have an accident while we were gone.

For the #2s, we've been rewarding him with cars. He has had 2 successes in this area. He can see his next reward whenever he goes into the bathroom. We tape them to the wall or put them on the counter. He always asks for it whenever we go in there. For peeing, we give him one dried raspberry.

The only pic I got of Nico and Guy this week was a bit fuzzy. Nico was hanging out between Guy's legs while he was reclining on the love seat.

Before we started potty training again, we did do some fun things out of the house. We went for a walk! It had been a while since we'd done that, it being so snow filled and cold outside.

We also took a trip to Barnes and Noble, where we hadn't been since before Christmas. Nico got to play with his old pal the train, while I perused all the Mo Willems books that were stashed nearby.

Potty training commenced on Sunday after Nico's nap. We spent the next 4 days hanging out in the kitchen with the kitchen rugs removed. We played a lot of Roll and Play and generally didn't get much else done. Nico loves to go through the blue pile of cards, which have you find something around you of a particular color. "Find something PURPLE!" He loves this, and is getting very good at recognizing colors. We usually do this with a basket of his cars nearby so he can find a certain colored car. And he only has one purple car, so that's the go-to item for finding something purple. Potty training has been a great bonding time for me and Nico!

Nico also helped me make Guy's lunch yesterday. I took a picture of Nico doing this and then printed a small picture out and taped it to the top of the container with a note that said "Made with love by Joanna and Nico." Nico took his own pen and scribbled all over it so that you could barely read the words anymore. The container held a mixture of granola (homemade by Grandma Salisbury), greek yogurt, dried raspberries, and a sprinkling of chocolate chips.

Nico's bloodwork came back fine just fine. Still waiting to hear about Guy's. I just had my blood drawn this morning so it will be a few weeks for that.

And I have another video to share! We finally shot some video outside with our GO camera, and the quality is amazing! Nico doing some jumping over sidewalk cracks. High def!

An Old Friend and a New Toy

On our walk tonight, Nico pulled out our old friend the planter. We took a walk with it and he used it to store his chosen rocks.

Then tonight, Grandma Salisbury stopped by to give Nico a Thanksgiving present, a duplo block set that had a train in it. Nico was very excited!! He spent most of the night playing with it.