Bonfire!

Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market. Apparently both the new and the old market have the same dried apple vendor, so now we just choose whichever one is easiest to park at. It turns out the old market is the easiest. We park in the parking garage and the first hour is free. We never stay more than an hour anyway! We went to the fountain in the middle of the market and Nico wasn't bashful at all like last year. He walked right into the middle of it and got soaked!

On Sunday all of us went up to the cabin for a bonfire with the family. Once the flames died down we were able to roast marshmallows on the coals.

Nico had a great time throwing rocks off the mountain with his cousin Lexie. He got good and dirty!

Holding an ax with Papa.

Eating the yummy food. Strawberries and grapes and lara bars, oh my! (with a little meat/veggie/garlic omelet on the side)

The whole crew.

Nico helping me out with the dishes.

More chores! One of Nico's favorite things to do is refill the steam mop. He is pretty good at not spilling any water.

A bike ride with Daddy. You can see that he is very nearly too tall for the bike seat!

Nico had another speech therapy appointment on Wednesday, but he was NOT in a talking mood. He sat on my lap and hid his face in my chest the whole time, which is very unlike him! Marcia could barely get him to say anything. We tried to work on chewing by putting some nut butter on the end of a celery stalk and having him chew on it, but he just sucked on the celery and had no desire to chew. Marcia said that sometimes kids just don't want to talk! So we ended the session early. She'll be back in 2 weeks. 

What we enforce with him at home is very important to Nico's success in speech therapy, so I will be working hard to encourage talking. Today I started enforcing his use of the word "banana", which he calls "nana". He caught on quickly and asked for a "nana" several times today without signing. 

Also today he randomly assigned the name "mommy" to one of the tires on his truck. He then assigned "daddy" to one of the other wheels. When I asked him where the baby was, he pointed to another wheel. I pointed to the fourth wheel and said "who is that?" and he said "baby".

Another thing that kind of blew my mind this week was his drawings. He spends a lot of time drawing the same sort of things over and over again, like he's being purposeful in what he's trying to draw. At one point Guy asked Nico what he was drawing and he responded by saying that he was drawing Mommy! Sure enough, he was drawing circles within circles like he was trying to draw a face.

Another one of my favorites was where it looked like he was trying to write words, because all of his small scribbles were in a perfect line.

That's all I can remember from last week!

OH, I forgot an important note - Nico had his hearing tested on Tuesday morning and it was perfect! It will be retested in 6 months just to make sure.

Mostly Pictures!

Nico and I made play-doh last week with Teff flour. We spent almost 2 hours playing with it that first day.

Zebra at the zoo.

Nico hiding in the cooler with the iPad.

On Wednesday we met Uncle Jonny and cousin Alexis at Old Park. It was a beeeeauitful day and Nico had so much fun.

No speech therapy this week. We start up again next week. Also next week Nico will be having his hearing tested. 

Last night Nico ended up with a fever, and diarrhea. At the height it was 101.9. He still has the fever and the bowel problems today (Thursday), but otherwise he is in a great mood, but perhaps a bit more tired than usual.

Short and sweet this week!

Preschool?

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

Crowned with Good Things

Saturday was opening day of the Boise Farmer's Market. This is a different market than the one we went to all last year. The Boise Farmer's Market is a bunch of vendors that have split off from the Capital City Public Market (the one we went to last year)... so every Saturday there will be TWO markets! We will pick the one that has dried apples. Which happens to be the Boise Farmer's Market! We bought some on Saturday and Nico was so happy to have those to eat again.

On Sunday, Guy and Nico and I all went to a Bible Study. Since Guy isn't able to go to church Sunday morning because of work, going to a Bible Study on Sunday night may become a common thing for us. It was fun to be out and about together, and though we couldn't stay long because Nico started melting, we will go back next week!

Nico had his first speech therapy appointment today (Thursday). If you remember, it was supposed to be last Friday, but it was moved to this Wednesday and then moved again to today. But it finally happened! Last Thursday I fed Nico a lot of a tasty food called pemmican. It is 70% beef tallow (FAT) and I think I gave him too much, so he got sick in the middle of the night. He was fine just fine afterward, went right back to sleep, and was his old self in the morning. But I called Marcia anyway (the speech therapist) to tell her. She said that since she works with a lot of medically fragile kids, that she didn't want to risk coming over and exposing herself and then possibly one of them. I agreed, and so we rescheduled for Wednesday. Marcia then had to reschedule that appointment for Thursday.

The first part of the appointment was her doing an evaluation of Nico's current speech skills so that she could report it to the school district for Nico's transition appointment which happens next Wednesday. I'm not sure exactly what this appointment will entail, but they need all the information they can get before they decide whether to accept Nico into the program. I will know more next week!

The rest of the appointment was Marcia and Nico playing with wind up toys. Whenever Nico wanted the wind up toy to go, he had to say something. She focused on the word "More" and "Car", since he has strong M and C sounds already.  He says "Mo" and "Ka" for More and Car. So from here on out we are supposed to have him say Mo or Ka instead of signing the words. He can still sign them, but he will have to say them, too. She was good, and it was cool to see Nico get into the habit of saying "Mo" even after just a little bit.

We took our first trip to the Fish Park this week, in fact we went twice! We spend most of our time in the lobby playing with the stream bed simulator.

This past week I won a contest. My friend Shaylen owns Custom Pop Art Portraits and she has a giveaway every week. I won this past week! I sent her a picture of Nico that Grandpa Russell had taken during Christmas. It is one of my favorite pictures of Nico (if not my favorite). You can see the pic I sent along with her pop art interpretation of it!

I love that it's black and white but his eyes are blue! And the morning after I got this picture from her, I read Psalm 8:5 and Joyce Meyer's commentary on it. Joyce says:

"You have been singled out by God, Who has placed His crown of glory and honor, or favor and excellence, upon your head, according to Psalm 8:5."

Psalm 8:5 says "You have made them [human beings] a little lower than angels and crowned them with glory and honor."

I thought this was pretty timely, considering Nico's crown in the picture. Nico has been singled out by God, and He has placed a crown of glory and honor, favor and excellence on his head. I am overjoyed to be his mom and I can't wait to see his life continue to unfold!

Tonight we went on a walk with the Strider. I adjusted his seat to a good level and Nico moved himself onto the seat instead of walking scooted in front and off the seat. While he's not "riding" it yet, he has started running with it. Soon I think he'll start actually sitting on the seat.

Oh and I can't forget to mention some exciting news about the near future - we will be taking a trip to Arlington! Nico's Great Grandma Gohl is turning 90 years old, and we will get to be there for her birthday. We are all very excited about this! This will be at the end of May.

Cousins and Easter

On Friday, Nico's cousins Bruce and Rory came by to hang out for a few hours. Bruce is great at making Nico laugh and they had a blast playing in his room. I made pancakes for dinner and then we all played outside for a bit.

Later that night we FaceTimed with the Grandparents Russell so they could watch us open up the Easter box they sent! Books, stickers, cars, oh my! Nico found the cars first and seemed happy to just play with those, I had to encourage him to help me open the rest of the package. The Curious George puzzle book they sent has been the biggest hit so far. Lots of laughter because the puzzle pieces don't stay put when you turn the page, so lots of redos and lots of cute little Nico "Uh Oh"s.

We had a quiet Easter, we did a small egg hunt for Nico (eggs filled with dried mangoes - one of Nico's favorite treats!) and we also set up a mini sandbox for him so that he could play with all his toy dump trucks and diggers. A big bag of sand was only $5 at Home Depot, so why not?

Nico with his Easter basket, when I asked him to smile

Nico with his sandbox

We went to George's Cycles earlier this week with our bicycle to have the tires repaired. We got so many flats last year due to running over sharp objects, so we replaced them with sealant tires. Guy took Nico out on the first ride of the season, just a quick jaunt around the block. Nico fills up his entire bike seat now, his legs reach all the way to their limit. I didn't get a real close look so I don't know how soon he will find the seat uncomfortable. Perhaps we need to upgrade to a toddler seat, as the one we have is more geared toward 1-2 year olds. 

Nico's first speech therapy appointment got rescheduled for Friday (tomorrow), so I don't have anything to report yet on that. 

Nico helping with some yard work

Hair Cut!

Milestone among children: The First Haircut. Nico has had his first hair cut! On Tuesday Guy got out the hair scissors and we set him up in the dining room.

Before

During

After

Guy was concerned that he didn't do a good job, but I think he did a fantastic job, especially considering that Nico was a wiggle baby! I kept a lock of his hair and will be printing some pictures to put in his baby album. 

On Wednesday we went to the zoo for the first time this year. We were there for 45 minutes but didn't get much further than a few 100 feet and only saw goats and a red panda. There was the giraffe slide we had to play on, and oh my, the sandbox! And the lion/seal/elephant statues we had to climb on, and the prairie dog tunnel we had to go through. I let him do whatever his little heart desired and those are the things he chose. I was so pleased that he was having such a good time! We also went to the gift shop and I got him a small toy helicopter and a few small rubbery animal figurines to add to our collection. We will be going back soon to see the rest of the zoo. He asked to go back later that day, and we were actually on our way back there when he decided he'd rather go to the "Goose" Park. He says "Gheee!" when he wants to go to that park. 

Another milestone: successfully climbing up a slide for the first time! (this actually happened at Memorial Park earlier this week, not at the park in the picture)

This morning at the Co-op I was marveling how he recited every letter in the name "Boise Co-op" which was printed on the cart (and upside down, at that!) When he got to the dash he said "dubaduh". He has also started telling us stories, which is awesome to see. In the past the only time he has communicated something solid was when he wanted something (water, potty, chicken, banana). But now, for example, holding up one of his trucks he will say "Pah" (for potty). He's telling us that he got that truck as a reward for going potty. This is a new step in communication! And on Monday morning when we went over to see Allicia and Evie, Nico said "Noooo" while signing Old Park, and then he signed "Evie".  He did this over and over again, he was telling me that we are NOT going to Old Park, we are going to see Evie! Evie lives right near Old Park, so I think he was clarifying. How cool to see him start to communicate like this. I'm excited to see it progress!

Nico's first speech therapy appointment is next Wednesday at 2:15. She'll be coming over every Wednesday after that, at 2:15, for 15 weeks. Also coming up in the next few weeks is Nico's transition appointment with the public school district, to see if he qualifies for transferring to a free preschool this fall that will offer him speech therapy. The program is there to help kids transition into kindergarten from the Infant/Toddler Program. So excited for the possibilities!

From tonight's walk. Nico dragging his tricycle home.

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!

G.G., Cabin, and Dentist

We had quite a full week!

On Friday, Nico and I drove to Nampa to see G.G.

She had all her toy cars out and ready for him when we walked in. She also gave him a stuffed dalmation dog that he loves and we have tentatively named Spot. (Thanks G.G.!) We had a great time and will be back again next month!

For our drive home, I had prepared a snack for Nico of (no kidding) cut up piece of beef liver along with cut up pieces of cheese. He (no kidding) loved this. The way that I've been cooking the liver has been very tasty, and it is even better COLD. So he munched on his liver and cheese while I just munched on a big slab of cold liver. He has been eating liver and cheese for a snack after nap time this whole week. It appears to be one of his favorite snacks.

After Nico's nap on Friday, we drove up to the cabin to see Papa and Grandma and stay the night! We took the opportunity to spend some time up there while Guy was out of town. We had a lot of fun. Good food and good company! Nico slept on a cot in a sleeping bag for the first time, and seemed to enjoy it. He slept pretty well!

Grandma caught this rare video of Papa and Nico dancing to a song on the iPad:

We left Saturday morning and all of us came back to our place. I went and did some shopping while the Grandparents played with Nico. It was a fun day, Nico got to eat Jimmy John's TWICE (and then again on Sunday!)

On Sunday, about halfway through the church service, someone came to tell me that Nico looked very troubled and looked about to cry in the nursery/toddler room, so I went in there. He RAN to me and hugged me really big. I took him into the service with me after that. I'm not sure why he's starting to have trouble in the nursery again, but I think next week I will stay in there with him like I used to do.

Monday morning we picked up Guy from the airport. It was great to see him again after 4 days away, we missed him! He had a great time in Portland. The comedy show was great, and he got to spend time with his brother Tom and Tom's girlfriend Emily.

Tuesday morning was Nico's very first dentist appointment. It was a "Happy Visit" and they didn't do much more than have him sit on the chair, recline, and poke around his teeth for a few minutes. They attempted to polish one of his teeth briefly, too. Nico didn't like that, but over all he did very well. 

The hygienist made things fun for him and let him hold and touch and play with everything. He enjoyed holding the mirror in his mouth. He also kissed the suction tool when she asked him to, and enjoyed watching it suck up an entire cup of water.

We'll go back in 6 months to get reacquainted and maybe try a bit more of the tooth polishing. His teeth looked good, though, no signs of cavities anywhere, just a normal amount of plaque. The hygienist said she could tell that he uses a binky, but that his front teeth will come back down pretty quickly after he stops using the binky and that it's nothing to worry about right now. Her son apparently used a binky for quite a long while and his teeth had no trouble returning to their normal position.

Family trip to the library on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday we had a play date with Tricia and her 15 month old daughter Brynnlynn. When we were leaving he asked to give Brynnlynn a hug. First time ever asking for a hug from one of his friends! It was too cute.

Then there was the random walk and park visits this week, as it's getting warmer I find that being outside is a great way to spend time! :)

Fresh Air!

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.

The other half of the flu

So I mentioned in my blog last week that Guy and I didn't seem to have as dire an illness as Nico's. Well, the weekend brought with it all the goodies that we're sure Nico had also experienced. Guy and I were pretty much at the same stages of everything at the same time. So our fevers went up (Guy always beat me there, though. His got up to 102.6 and I think my highest was 101.4) and the chills and the body aches started. Guy had a rough cough that hurt his chest quite a bit, and I started getting sinus pain right off the bat.

On Saturday night we both laid down on our bed with Nico between us and let Nico play on the iPad while we both rested and took turns parenting.

On Sunday, the Grandparents Salisbury were kind enough to go shopping for us to get us a few needed essentials. Toilet paper, for one, since that is what we use for kleenex. Bananas (can't be without bananas!) a neti pot for myself, and a few other things. They also brought Jimmy Johns! Nico fell asleep a few minutes before they showed up, having stayed awake during his entire nap playing in his bed :) So here's a rare picture of Nico sleeping on the couch.

I ended up with a sinus infection that is being treated by antibiotics. Guy had a follow up appointment with our doctor on Monday and he very kindly let me take over his appointment so I could get looked at. My very first sinus infection! It settled in my right ear for a few days until my ear started draining. Wow, painful! The pain has been moving around my face quite a bit. I feel for Guy, who told me that what I was describing was how he feels a lot of the time with his chronic sinusitis. 

Guy thought he might be getting an ear infection, but it waned, thank goodness. We're all on the mend now, and have finally gotten back to our normal routine, be it filled with lots of toilet paper still! It's nice to see Nico slowly returning to his old self.

One setback we've had is in the realm of potty training. Nico has had a lot of accidents, and seems to now have something personal against the potty. We're being diligent with the underwear, though. He does still wear a diaper at night. One thing he has learned to do is when I ask him to get up on the stool to help me with dishes, he tells me he has to go potty. We get to the hallway and he shakes his head and turns around, intending to go play. He whines and protests when I tell him to go back to the stool and stand up on it, he gets to the stool and then tells me he has to go potty again. We went back and forth a few times before I figured out he was trying to get out of helping with the dishes! He only did this for 2 mornings. I think we've all just been a little more stressed and emotional with all our bodies have gone through, so I understand the difficulty of restarting our routine. It was hard for me, too!

I tried a new recipe for Nico that turned out to be a SUCCESS! Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf Bites. He calls them cupcakes and he seems to enjoy eating them just as much as he enjoys eating regular cupcakes! They are very easy. He ate 6 of them the first day I made them. He's also become a fan of raw red and orange peppers. I think I'll try more raw veggies with him, since he dislikes the steamed veggies so much.

And then, a random picture of Nico stapling his cookie. I thought this was very innovative.

Welp, I guess that wraps up February! I wonder what exciting new things March will bring??