Winter Garden Aglow

For the 4th year in a row we went to Winter Garden Aglow to get our picture taken. Nico had so much fun looking at all the trains running around the tracks. Very cold but at least this year we remembered to bring his mittens.

On Tuesady Nico and Guy got to hang out with Jeff and Evie! I was holding an essential oils class at our house, so they left to hang out with Jeff and Evie while Allicia came to the class. It turns out that it was just her and I there, many people wanted to make it but the time/day didn't work for them. But we had a great time catching up, just the girls, it was very refreshing. And Nico came home sacked, went right to bed after a snack, and woke up an hour later than usual, so, 6 AM instead of 5!

This week at school he's done a lot of Christmas crafts, same as last week, and they're starting to roll in. We hung them all up on our wall. I love it!

Then he turned the camera on me. It's only fair, right?

 And then to himself. Pretty successful self portrait, I think.

Last night we also pulled out the window markers and since it was dark outside and I didn't want the blinds open, we decided to write on the mirror in the bathroom. I drew a Christmas tree and he helped decorate it. We also drew a snowman.

Lots more words. His speech therapist, Susie, sent home a worksheet for us to fill out. A list of words for him to do every day and at the end of the week, return the sheet and he gets a prize! (he got a cool plastic lizard) Words like house, bus, off, cough, tough, yum, game, come. He does all of them really well. He also says home and cave just fine, you can absolutely understand him! 

With all the watching of Finding Nemo, we now have a new "thing" we do as imitation. "Fin" then we bump hands, "Noggin", then we bump heads. "Duuuuude", just like the sea turtles do. He loves doing that.

Random craft time before dinner.

I'm looking forward to this next week with the Grandparents Russell coming into town to celebrate an early Christmas with us. Much fun and pictures will be had!

Until next week.

SNOW!

Saturday morning we woke up to about 4 inches of SNOW! And believe it or not, it is still sticking on the ground. It has been COLD here!

On Saturday we braved the snow and went to the Saturday Market. We found a parking spot right away and walked over. Nico liked walking through the biggest piles of snow on the way there. Boots: Awesome! We ran into his teacher at the market and we met her husband and daughter. Nico was excited about that.

Crossing the street.

On Sunday we all went to church and got to see Nico's cousin Alexis in the Christmas program. She did a great job and was so cute as an animal in the nativity scene.

On Monday we went to visit Allicia, Evie and Avery. They had their Christmas tree set up and Nico really enjoyed playing with the train they have around it. It was great to spend some time with them. Evie made Nico some train tracks on their hardwood floor by putting tape down.

School on Tuesday and Wednesday, but today Nico woke up with the snuffles, so he stayed home from school. He will stay home tomorrow, too, as his temp has gone up a slightly. Not enough to warrant "fever" but enough for me to know that he is fighting something. But today we made huge train tracks in his room and had fun with that for a while. That and watching Finding Nemo, specifically the jellyfish scene, which we rewind to and watch a lot. Sick days warrant more snuggle time.

We've had some trouble with Nico's sleep, as we've tried to nix the afternoon nap but Nico has been ending up over tired at the end of the day. Nap is much harder without a binky, so it is a rough in between stage. We're also working on transitioning away from using the small potty, which is going well so far. 

We also upgraded our SD card on our GoPro camera so that we can record longer clips of video. Excited about that!

That is it for this week, short 'n' sweet.

Advent Time

Catch up on Pictures from Thanksgiving. Thank you to Alanna for setting up this photo op. It was so much fun!

 The Fam

Papa and Nico

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we went Black Friday shopping! For the first time ever, I participated. We went to Fred Meyer. It was crowded, but not bad. I got myself a new scarf and bought Guy a pair of jeans. Grandma Salisbury blessed Nico with two new toys, one of them having a Thomas the Train engine in it, which we have spent many hours this past week playing with. You CAN race your trains around the track FAST for 10 minutes straight without stopping, it's absolutely possible.

Then Grandma came over for lunch, it was a great day!

On Sunday we went to a new church. We are going to start going to the one that my parents and brothers and Aunt go to. I am so excited! Nico got to play with Lexie in the church preschool room. He did just fine. Since he's been in school he has had no trouble saying bye to Mommy and Daddy :) Sunday was also the start of the advent calendars, which we have 3 of this year! (We actually have 4, but decided to save one for next year). Grandma Russell gifted us an interactive computer-based advent calendar (love this tradition!) Every day you get to experience something new. Nico loved the intro scene with an old fashioned car driving around, we repeat that one every day. The ritual for this calendar is to do it when Daddy wakes up every afternoon, after we've eaten dinner. Nico remembers, and asks for it.

The second calendar we have is actually our Christmas tree. We aren't getting a real Christmas tree this year, we are using this little one instead. There are little drawers to open for every day and in each drawer is a new ornament to hang on the tree. Nico gets it, and has strung together one of his longest sentences because of it: "Open number four tomorrow". He says this throughout the day, depending on which number he gets to open tomorrow. Then in the morning he asks "Open number four?" As SOON as four is on the tree, and yes even as he is opening four's drawer, he says, "Open number five tomorrow!"

The tree has lights and can also be wound up to play a song

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

Our third advent calendar is a chain that they made in Sunday School. Each chain has a verse on it and every morning before breakfast we break a chain off and then read the verse while eating. The chain is out of order, so we read about the birth of Jesus on December 1st.

On Monday we went to visit G.G. She had Nico's Christmas present all finished and I was able to see it. He is going to LOVE it and I am SO excited for when he gets to open it! The Grandparents Russell will be coming into town before Christmas and all of them will be coming over to celebrate and exchange gifts. I am so looking forward to seeing them!

Today I volunteered at Nico's school again. Cutting out gingerbread men and stars and making copies of the story of "The Mitten" and "The Hat" - great children's books by Jan Brett. Thanks to Mom Russell (aka Grandma Russell, depending on context) for introducing me to those stories.

I came to the school a little early so I could sit in and watch Nico as he got his speech therapy session. Suzie takes two students into the kitchen area where they have a little table set up. They play games where in order to take a turn you have to first say a word that you're working on. Nico was working on final "M" sounds, like "ham" and "mom". She told me that Nico has learned how to do final "S" sounds and final "F" sounds already (off, house, mouse). He demonstrated while we were there and I was so proud of him. She said she will send home with him a list of words to practice so that he can start to use them consistently instead of saying "bus" correctly at school but not at home. Also, when his friend sat down at the table next to him for the speech therapy session, Nico said "Hi, Ben!" Woah! 

He LOVES speech therapy and was so excited that I was there to share it with him. When I had first arrived and knocked on the door to the classroom, I could hear him say "Mommy!" over and over inside, even though he couldn't see me. I had told him I was coming to see him today, so he was prepared. One of the teachers said "I don't know, is it your Mommy? Let's see!"

I hope I'm not forgetting something.. hmm. YES I am! We went to the Fish Park, probably for the last time this year. We had a mild day outside on Monday so I took advantage of it. 

Thanksgiving

On Friday Nico's stuffy nose turned into a slight fever. It didn't go much further than that and he seemed all better by Saturday morning. On Saturday we had a fun FaceTime with the Grandparents Russell. While we were talking to them on the iPad, Nico took the iPad and put it into the cooler. They then had a fun game of peekaboo. He would close the lid on them and then open it. And then close it. And open it. Whenever they would talk when the lid was closed, Nico would look at us very excited and then open the lid. Finger puppets were also a great hit!

We picked up our turkey on Saturday night (in that same cooler). 

On Monday Nico and I went up to the cabin and Nico got to see his cousins Bruce, Rory, and Lexie. They had so much fun! I also got to see some of MY cousins - we did a Christmas craft, making Christmas trees with fabric-wrapped cotton balls, pinned to Styrofoam cones. 

We had our little-family Thanksgiving on Wednesday, and then Thursday (today!) we went up to the cabin for the real deal. Guy got only 3-4 hours of sleep but was quite the trooper. Great food, and Nico got to see a lot of his cousins. Lily and Lexie and Nico had their own little table set up with a samsuta on each of their plates and a little name tag on each of their napkins. The big table had name tags too, my Mom really did a great job of planning and putting this all together. After dinner and before Guy had to head to work, we did the "Lego Challenge". Each of the younger couples (Me and Guy, Jonny and Alanna, Jeremy and Bambi) put together a lego at the same time and whoever finishes first, wins. The couples work together. Guy and I split it so that I am putting the lego together and he finds all the pieces for me. There were 3 challenges and the first 2 were based on time. Guy and I won both of those! The last challenge was a curve ball - we had to use the pieces from the first two challenges to make a turkey, without directions, just being creative. Guy took the reigns on this one and did a bang up job. I wish I had a picture of the turkey he did! Not sure where it is at the moment (still at the cabin here). Jeremy and Bambi won this one, they turned their scorpion from the 2nd challenge into a turkey and it turned out reeeally good!

Guy and I with our BEAVER

Then we sang some Christmas carols, drew some names for some prizes, and did an ornament exchange. Nico and I are staying the night at the cabin tonight. And wouldn't you know it, the one thing we forgot to bring - his binky. This will be the first night in his life that he will sleep without his binky. But I'm thinking that this might be opening the door to remove it from his life permanently. I told him that he was a big boy and would be able to sleep just fine without it. He didn't put up much of a fuss. Because he didn't have a nap today, he went to sleep quickly and is doing just that downstairs on a cot and inside a snuggly sleeping bag. I will go downstairs here soon and join him.

Alanna brought some photo props to do a kind of Christmas photo booth for all of us. What fun that was! We got a lot of good pictures that I will be sure to post as soon as we get them. So excited for those.

After everyone but Aunt Ellen left, and after Nico was in bed, me and my Mom and Aunt Ellen all had a snack and then went upstairs to relax. I have really enjoyed this day and am feeling very thankful.

One last picture from earlier this week - Nico squeezed in behind our printer, playing with cars. He likes to turn around while he's back there and stare at and touch the puzzle.

Block Blast

On Saturday we picked up the 110 pounds of nuts that we bought through a local "group buy". We got free shipping because over 1000 pounds were ordered. They should last us a whole year until next year's group buy. We got 60 pounds of almonds and 50 pounds of cashews. Nico helped me put them into freezer bags so we can store most of them in the freezer. 

Nico checking with me before he eats a cashew. Don't muzzle the ox!

I mad our first batch of homemade almond butter, and almond milk. Success!! Nico couldn't get enough of the almond milk, and he eats the almond butter with breakfast every morning.

On Sunday we went up to the cabin in the afternoon for dinner and fun! My Mom had invited all of us plus Jeff and Allicia and crew. We caravanned. The mountain road was covered in snow and we didn't make it up all the way. Jeff and Allicia made it up just fine, though! We had to stop and put chains on before we could continue, as we got stuck on the side of the road after pulling over to try to turn around. Nico got very upset when we pulled over, he thought we were turning around permanently and kept saying "Papa!" and pointing up the road.

We had a great time. Thank you to Pa and Ma for hosting, wonderful food and lots of fun!

Evie and Nico really enjoyed playing with all the wind up toys.

On Monday Nico had a stuffy nose and I decided to cancel our trip to G.G.'s because of it. I really didn't want to spread any sickness to her, so we rescheduled for 2 weeks out.

Stuffy nose seemed to stay as a stuffy/runny nose the past few days. He's been going to school, and hasn't had a fever.

On Wednesday his school had "Block Blast" and the parents were invited. So I showed up for it, and got to play with Nico as he went from station to station to play with different kinds of blocks in the gym. There were hollow blocks, big foam blocks, cars and a car mat, and pattern blocks. He got a kick out of the car and car mat, as well as the pattern blocks. He built a turtle following a pattern. Miss Candace (his teacher) and I talked about how Nico is meticulous and the pattern blocks seemed to suit him really well (I thought this might make a good Christmas present for him! Good thing I haven't chosen yet what to get him, I keep changing my mind.) We had a lot of fun. Miss Candace gave me a handout with suggestions on how to play with blocks with Nico to encourage learning of different concepts.

Today, I volunteered at the school but went in early so I could observe his speech therapy. The audiologist was there testing hearing, so that actually took up the speech therapy time. Though I did get to watch him get his hearing tested. She taught him how to hold a block up to his ear while he was wearing headphones, and when he hears the beep he is supposed to put the block in a bucket. He did one or two but then he defaulted to looking up at her when he heard the beep, in order to get an "OK" to put the block in the bucket. Apparently, visually asking for confirmation like that is common for 3 year olds. They tend to want to check with you first before putting the block down. But, that was confirmation enough that he was hearing just fine.

I will volunteer one more time, in two weeks, and I will go in early again to try to sit in on his speech therapy. 

This past week I started asking Nico to help set the table, which he is thoroughly enjoying. I have him fold paper towels into napkins and then put a fork on each one. He says "Mommy, Daddy, Nico" when he puts the napkin or the fork down on each of our places.

Setting the table.

Blowing bubbles while waiting for the bus. Rainy day, Nico was sure to remind me that we needed to use the umbrella while walking to the bus.

Snuggling inside Daddy's coat this morning right after waking up.

We got Nico's school picture back!

Flying Pie

I was wrong last week when I said there was only one more week before Thanksgiving break, there are two weeks!

Nico went back to school on Tuesday after almost 2 weeks at home. When I told Nico on Monday that he got to go back to school the next day, he got really excited and said "Teacher! Circle Time!"

But let's back track. On Friday Guy came home from work early because he had caught Nico's cold. But that didn't stop us from going to Flying Pie on Saturday for "Guy" day. Every day they celebrate a different name. If they choose your name, you get to go in at certain times and make your very own 10" pizza for free. Guy had to wear a funny hat and we had to wait until the dinner rush died down, but it was fun. We sat in a room with a  TV and Nico was enthralled by the football game. He kept talking about all the crashing that took place. When it would replay the crashes, he would say "more more".

At Flying Pie

I think that was our only big adventure this past week. Except we did go to Best Buy to buy Guy's Christmas present.

We pulled out Nico's Easter basket full of eggs and he had a great time this past week putting his tiny cars into the easter eggs and then taking them back out.

Easter eggs full of cars.

Using his snow plow to plow cars.

This week is food week at school. They made pizzas with english muffins (I sent in custom made english muffins plus almond butter to spread on it instead of tomato sauce and cheese). Then today they had to bring in a bag of their favorite cereal. For Nico this was a bag full of chopped almonds, one of his favorite treats, a substitute for cereal. I think he got to share it with his friends.

Tomorrow is picture retake day! His outfit is set out and waiting.

And now a video..

Croup

No school since I last wrote, Nico caught a pretty bad chest cold that turned into several days of croup. It started with a raspy voice and a slightly raised temperature. I thought it was just another mild cold, so when his temp dipped to normal on Sunday morning, we ended up going to church. He seemed fine the first few days of it. But Monday night it hit him, he woke up with that barking sound that he's only had one other time. No phlegm to speak of and it sounded like the coughing hurt. Guy took him into the bathroom for some steam treatment several times, and I put essential oils on his chest to help him breathe (Eucalyptus!) Waking up in the mornings has been the hardest part of the days.

The BEST part of the days is the snuggling. OOOooo the snuggling! I love sitting on the couch with Nico, covered in a blanket, and watching Curious George. Yesterday he took an early nap and then fell asleep again at 3:30 and he was out for the night. We got him up this morning at 7:15 to see if he wanted to eat breakfast with us as usual since he hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before. He did eat a little bit. Then this afternoon after a nap, he ate some rice and ground beef and he has felt MUCH better. He perked up a bit and we actually got off the couch for a while.

Back to last week - we went to Fred Meyer on Friday morning to get another fuzzy poster to do over the weekend and Guy and I also agreed that we should get him another car. I told him that our trip to Fred Meyer was a "Yes Car" and a "Yes Poster" day. And Nico repeated. He's been saying "picky car" quite often since then, which is him telling me that he wants to go pick out another car. 

At Freddy's he chose a hummer pickup, after changing his mind twice mid-store. I think he just needed to test them out before committing. He chose the ambulance first, a few minutes of walking around and then he wanted the tow truck, a few minutes of walking around, and then the hummer. We got home and he put the head lamp on and played with his hummer pickup at the table. You can tell he was serious because he still has his coat on from going to Freddy's. No time to stop to take it off.

Guy teaching Nico how to play Pokemon.

Another funny tidbit - Papa brings him a little hot wheels car every time he comes over. Nico has started saying "Papa" whenever he sees something that he wants. We've been getting a lot of toy magazines in the mail, and when he looks through them he sees toys he wants and says "Papa" and points outside.

Not sure yet if Nico will be going to school tomorrow. He had an early nap today and another early night (6:30). I'm thinking it's likely he'll stay home one more day. Then we have a week of school and then a week off for Thanksgiving! Can't believe Thanksgiving is almost here!

Our first Parent Teacher Conference!

On Monday we went to see G.G. in Nampa. Great fun, as always! Got to see some of the sewing projects she is working on. Adorable little dolls with a wardrobe of clothes, so precious and special for the little girls who will be getting them! She gave me sneak peaks of some of the plans for Nico's Christmas gift. So looking forward to that :)

On Tuesday we had Nico's parent teacher conference at his preschool. We met with the speech therapist first, who told us that she thinks Nico is making HUGE progress! If we know the context of what Nico is talking about, then it is actually fairly easy to understand what he's saying. For example, when he came home from school on Tuesday, I asked him what he did in school that day. He made the sign for deer and said "Dee dee duh", and made a few other signs and started singing a song. I didn't know what he was saying until I read the Preschool weekly newsletter which mentioned that this week they'd be learning about the letter "D" using "Deedee dear". 

Back to the conference… a few months ago, testing had told us that Nico had Childhood Apraxia of Speech, but his speech therapist thinks it is actually a phonological disorder. I found a pretty good description online:

"Failure to use developmentally expected speech sounds that are appropriate for age and dialect (e.g., errors in sound production, use, representation, or organization such as, but not limited to, substitutions of one sound for another or omissions of sounds such as final consonants)."

Nico omits the final consonants on the words that he says, that is something the therapist and him are working very hard on.

Then his teacher joined us. They both said that they think Nico is very smart. Of course! ;)

They are going to test his hearing because of a problem he has with not listening/hearing. His hearing was tested and found to be perfect about 6 months ago, but more testing isn't a bad idea.  They aren't sure if he is just not hearing them when they try to get his attention, or if it's intentional on his part, or if something else is going on. It could just be a defiant phase that he is reaching later than normal (usually starting during the "terrible twos").

They are also working on teaching Nico how to respond to kids who take his toys, which happens often. Nico is a pretty laid back kid. I've noticed, though, that he has started saying "Nico's turn" whenever someone takes a toy from him. He's using his words to communicate, and it's so awesome to see him do that. 

After the conference, we stopped by Chicago Connection and got Guy a gluten free pizza. Then we went home and saw the little buddy who got to spend the evening with his Grandma Salisbury!

Nico has today and tomorrow off from school because of parent teacher conferences, so this morning we went to see Allicia, Evie, and Avery. We took Evie home with us for lunch. Evie told me "This is very good. Can I have some more broccoli?" Then they each got a "cookie" after lunch (I mix garbanzo bean flour with apple butter and a little salt, and bake them). Going into Nico's room after we had taken Evie home, I think they had pulled out every toy! Nico sure has fun with Evie over.

We've had nice weather in the afternoons, perfect for Strider rides in the warm sun! Crunching over leaves and shedding our coats halfway through. Nico likes to go up the hill from our house because there is a little asphalt curb that he likes to ride on.

On the cement curb after the asphalt curb.

Naps for Nico have been a hit and miss. Preschool seems to rev him up a bit and he has trouble sleeping after getting home. This puts his bedtime at about 7:30 or earlier (and up in the morning around 6 AM). When he does take a nap, his bedtime usually hits past 9 PM, pushing 10, he doesn't sleep as well, and gets up earlier.

Tonight was Halloween and we stuck around here to pass out candy. We had two trick-or-treaters, one of them was Evie in her warm dinosaur costume, riding her Strider. How cute was that! The rest of the Snickers will go to Guy. He will certainly not mind!

Recovering and Playing

Well, Nico didn't have an overnight miraculous recovery form his cold, so we kept him home from school last Friday. He missed picture day, but he'll be able to make it up in November. I caught the cold on Friday night, and Guy followed suit on Saturday. It was a pretty mild cold overall, no fever involved, just sore throats and runny noses.

On Friday, though he missed school, we went out to the dollar store to get him a new Cars puzzle. He was very excited about it. 48 piece puzzle, and after helping him put together the border, he can put the entire inside together on his own. Saturday we pulled out ALL his puzzles, pushed the couch to the edge of the living room and used the living room floor.

We've also been playing a lot of the memory game, which Nico is getting quite good at. Flipping cards over and trying to find their match. We also pull out the board games for older people and take out all the pieces and pretend we're playing the game. He builds fences or towers with the game pieces.

Then on Saturday night Papa and Grandma Salisbury came by to bring us some fruit. Guy had left for work already and so we weren't able to go get some pears, which is what I was wanting. Nico wanted a green apple, and so the Grandparents Salisbury went and got us some fruit since they were in town already. It was just what we needed after feeling icky all day with a cold!

I made some apple butter this week in the crockpot. It turned out REALLY yummy, so I think I'll be making more of it when the apples go on sale. Five pounds of apples made more than a quart of apple butter. No sugar or spices added, and even Guy said it was really good! (G.G., I am bringing you some on Monday!)

Guy worked Saturday night and then he has a total of 9 days off in a row. Wowww! He has worked every night for the past 2 weeks (at least! It may be closer to 3 weeks), and he was ready for a break. We have been having fun so far. Going to parks, and having friends over. On Wednesday, Jeff and Allicia came over. Evie and Nico played in Nico's room while the adults (plus Avery) played a board game - Pandemic - the one that we got Guy for his birthday. It was a lot of fun.

Nico and Evie playing in Nico's bed.

Today I volunteered again at Nico's school, this time cutting out leaves! I got to see Nico this time, too. I went into his classroom to pick up the stuff. He was excited to see me, and showed me what he was playing with. This week they are learning about scarecrows and pumpkins and the colors black, orange and white. They are doing a pumpkin patch activity tomorrow and they have an early release.

Tonight, Guy is out with friends at another Rifftrax event (MST3K spinoff). He was very excited about it and I'm so glad he has some major relaxing and enjoying going on this week.

Nico has been talking a lot about bumpy things lately. The road is bumpy when the car bounces, so he says "Buppy Row" (bumpy road). Bumpy hand (when he's driving one of his cars over his hand) or bumpy _____ depending on what his cars are driving over when he says it. He repeats most everything we say now, using his own words. It is difficult sometimes trying to figure out what he means, but when we do figure it out it's just genius, that he can say that particular thing. Lawn mower, for instance, or Sound, Big, one more piece, too big, nico's turn, fix it, broken bumper, Nico too big bus (Nico is too big to fit into his toy bus), wheels, broken train... he has even started saying "cooo" for Curious George! He has also learned how to scream at the top of his lungs :)

Birthday Week!

Sunday was Guy's birthday. Him and I got to celebrate the night before while Papa and Grandma Salisbury watched Nico (thank you!). We went to the game store downtown and bought the board game Pandemic. Guy has been playing this game with his friends on Monday nights and it was about time we owned it! It is a cooperative game, so Guy and I had to work together in order to save the world from being overcome by disease. It was a lot of fun. We took the game to a coffee shop and played it 3 times. Then we wandered over to Freddies to do some preliminary Christmas browsing for Nico, and Guy spent some of his birthday money on a 2DS. Then we got Guy a vanilla milkshake and on homeward.  He worked overtime over the weekend, going in at 10 PM and staying all night. There is an end in sight, though. After work this Saturday, he has an entire week off! He is looking forward to that!

Getting ready to go out

Nico with Papa

On Sunday, Nico and I went to watch Avery's baptism. It was a nice ceremony. Nico got to spend some time with new friends in the church nursery during the rest of the service, after the baptism. That night we went to Goose Park (Nico says "Gee Pahkuh") and a boy there played with Nico and Nico had so much fun. It was a hoot watching him run around and play and laugh. He didn't want to leave, and then asked to go back to the Goose Park on Monday. We took him back there, but what he really was looking for was the boy he had played with. When we got there, Nico looked around and shrugged his shoulders with an "NNn duh!" Guy took the place of the lost boy and played really hard with Nico.

At Goose Park the 2nd night. (Guy is in the tube behind him).

This morning, Nico woke up with a bit of a sniffle. We sent him off to school anyway. He was fine today, but I think he may need to stay home from school tomorrow. This is unfortunate since tomorrow is picture day! We will see how he feels in the morning. I have his humidifier in his room and a bunch of essential oils on his chest and feet to help him breathe and sleep and fight infection. If you read this on Thursday, then please pray for a miraculous recovery by tomorrow morning! There is a picture retake day next month, though, so I suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world.

This morning, waiting for the bus.

Now it's off to bed. I had a brief hiatus from typing when Nico came out of his room and needed to be re-tucked. I climbed into bed with him and had an accidental 5 minute snooze. I am left feeling quite drowsy. But the snuggle was good :)

Apples and Fried Green Tomatoes

Nico had Friday off from school so we took a trip to the Aquarium. We got there a little early and so we sat in the car eating our snack, and we were pleasantly surprised when a train decided to pass by. Nico was excited about that. At the Aquarium we saw a turtle eating sand. That evening around the dinner table, Guy asked Nico what he saw at the Aquarium and he told him turtle. eat. Then he signed sand. Sure do love it when Nico tells us about the things he sees. He is repeating so many more words and phrases. It is a marvel to be able to communicate with him on this level!

Saturday we went to the Market. We walked to one of the fountains downtown, and then ventured into a game store to look around. It's never too early to get Christmas ideas! :)

On Monday my cousin Sarah came over for a visit. Nico, Sarah, and I spent some time coloring on Nico's collection of fuzzy posters. It was so great to see her and to catch up!

On Wednesday I went to Nico's school to volunteer for the first time. This week is apple week so I cut out a lot of apples! I didn't get to see Nico in his classroom, but it was fun thinking that he was in very close proximity to me. In another two weeks I'll be volunteering again.

For apple week, Nico and his classmates are learning about the life cycle of apple trees. Today they got to taste three different kinds of apples and choose their favorite one. Then they made apple pies. Homework was coloring three different apple trees: one for Spring, Winter, and Fall.

This week we also picked the rest of the tomatoes in our garden and tried out a few green tomato recipes. Nico LOVES picking tomatoes.

You can also see the small leaves of a chard plant sitting on top of the bowl. None of our beans or greens grew very big this year. I'll do some troubleshooting and try again next spring. I think the bulk of our crop next year will be beans. Probably 1 tomato plant, and maybe a lettuce or two. 

So the first recipe I tried was fried green tomatoes. I didn't add enough seasoning and Guy said they tasted much like breaded broccoli stems. ha ha! So I spiced 'em up the second time around and Guy loved them! Adding sugar to the mix seemed to make a difference.

With the rest of the tomatoes I made a salsa. Just green tomatoes, 1 jalapeño, 1 red onion, 1 clove garlic, some olive oil, and that's that! I pureed it all in our food processor and Guy ate it with chips. Yum. Garden success!

On to next week!

Fish Park and Botanicals

We did much more this past week, and I was sure to bring our camera along so as to catch a few moments. It's been getting cold here, but we went to the Fish Park on one of the warmer afternoons. 

On Monday we went to visit G.G. in Nampa. We brought Nico's "Brown Bear" book with us so he could read it to her (check out the video at the end of the post to see this book). She sent us home with some of the tomatoes from her garden. Wow they are good! We had a few more ripe tomatoes on our own vines at home, but the rest are green.

On Tuesday ALL of us went to the Botanical Garden with Jeff, Allicia, Evie, Avery and Sheila (Allicia's Mom). The Garden was decorated with a lot of fall pumpkins, leaves, and the scarecrows from last week's Scarecrow Stroll. We saw a frog and a bunny (you can see them in the video!) It was a very nice evening and we had a lot of fun. It was the first time that Guy had seen Jeff since that fateful afternoon when we all first met. 

Guy has been working over over overtime. But he's been going in at 10 PM for overtime, so we are still able to hang out with him in the evenings like he wasn't working. But then after we're asleep, off he jets.

Nico has today and Friday off because of teacher inservice, so this morning we went to Fred Meyer to buy him a fuzzy poster to color. He's been doing great work coloring pictures and staying in the lines, and we thought he'd enjoy a fuzzy poster. He DOES enjoy the fuzzy poster! I was sure to tell him beforehand that we weren't going to be buying any cars at Fred Meyer. I forgot to prepare him like this the last time we went, and so the trip ended in a lot of tears. But we practiced on the drive there and in the car before going in, we both would say "No Cars. YES Poster! No Cars. YES Poster!" So when he saw the cars in Fred Meyer (and boy there are a lot of them!) I just had to say "Remember, No Cars, YES Poster!" And he would say it with me. I adapted this strategy from my something my Mom used to implement when we were younger. "Looking days" versus "buying days". It works!

We also went to the Library today to pick up some more books for all of us. We sat in on story time for a little while. Nico sure does like singing and moving with other kids!

That's it for this week, enjoy the video!

Short and Sweet

We haven't had many pictures lately, I think because we haven't ventured out as much as we used to. We did go to the State Capitol again this past week. He had been asking to go back there, so I took him on Monday (his day off). 

We've had lots of rain, a few storms, and often I've wanted to share some hot cocoa with Nico. I will have to find ingredients to make some so that we can do this!

This week in school they are talking about shapes and are learning how to draw people. Homework is pointing out shapes in our environment. There are so many circles everywhere! Especially when you own 50+ hot wheels, each with 4 perfectly round wheels.

Nico has also started trying to count to twenty. He gets practice every day when Guy makes coffee, they count to twenty together when grinding the beans.

Hmm hmmm.. what else? Seems like this week has been shorter than others. 

Oh, there are two things I wanted to document. Two things that Nico has been saying for quite some time but I don't know what they mean. One, after he goes #2 in his potty, he sometimes points to it and says "Min-uh mee pee". The other one is whenever I ask him to turn around, he says "I dee". These aren't recent developments, but I wanted to write them down so I have a record.

Sometimes the papers that come home with Nico from school have notes on them from the speech therapist. Looks like they're working on ending sounds, like buS, mouSE, froG. When he does say the last part of a word, he makes it into another syllable, so he says froguh for frog.

I think that's it for this week. Short and sweet! Next week may be more exciting, we are going to Nampa to see G.G. on Monday, and Nico has next Thursday and Friday off from school.

Nico found a new way to watch his iPad.

Achoo!

We had a sick baby last week! He had a restless night last Thursday night, which I attributed to a sore throat. He was coughy and sickly the next morning, so I kept him home from school. I took some preventative measures for myself and for Guy, but I ended up getting the cold on Sunday.  I thought at first that it was a cold, but mine came with chills and hot flashes along with the fever, so it may have been the flu! We spent a lot of time chilling on the couch, watching Netflix. We watched Brother Bear 2, it was a cute movie. 

Guy seemed to miss the cold completely, thank goodness! He worked DAY-time overtime this past weekend and had no time to be sick. We made sure that he was sleeping whenever he wasn't working, so that switching from nights to days to nights again would go as smoothly as possible. I think it worked! He was a little woozy his first night back on Wednesday, but I think he's recovering pretty well from the switch.

Nico went back to school on Tuesday. He still has a bit of a phlegm buildup, but other than that he seems fine. This week in school they are reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" and they built their own book called "Preschool, Preschool, Who Do You See?" and each page of the book has a picture of a child in his class. They built the book themselves by gluing the pictures in. We are supposed to read the book with them at home. Nico knows most of the names of his classmates, I was pretty impressed!

He's saying more and more words, making more and more sound approximations!

We didn't get many pictures this week. Just the one of us snuggling, but I do have a sweet video of Nico watching for Papa through the window. Papa came over on Saturday to install our new water filter. (Thank you, Papa!) He often brings Nico a new toy car when he comes over, so that is what Nico is remarking about. This particular time, Papa actually brought him a little toy plane!

Counting

Not a lot of pictures this week, but I make up for it with a video. Check it out at the bottom, and hear him count!!

Nico has been counting, saying his own name when he wants to do something (point to the slide at the park, then point to himself and say Nico), and saying "Mine" when referring to something that is his.

Both Guy and I have experienced just this past week, for the first time, Nico getting frustrated because he couldn't communicate with us what he wanted to say. Neither of us have seen him frustrated about talking before, but it was obvious to each of us that he was trying to figure out how to say what he was thinking. When I witnessed it, he was trying to say "Greenbelt" (we went to the Greenbelt with the Strider) but he kept saying "Cah"and I kept thinking he was saying Car. He paused often and tried again and again and again but couldn't say it. The look on his face while he was concentrating was definite frustration. I finally figured out what he was trying to say and then coached him through saying "green" and then "belt" and then putting them together.

This week's theme at preschool is learning body parts and about the five senses. Homework was a body parts poem. We also got our very first Scholastic Book Order form. We figured we would wait until Nico is older and able to pick out what books he'd like to get. Both Guy and I remember getting these when we were younger and picking out books to buy.

The bus attendant this morning told me that once last week, Nico started fussing and crying a bit and asking for me, and it turned out that he had wet pants. I felt so bad! Nico is still having the occasional accident, but we're dealing with those. The biggest issue now is teaching him how to aim. He often comes home from school wearing different pants than what he wore to school. Sometimes he comes home in someone else's pants because he ran out of spare clothes.

He has skipped his nap the past 3 days. I think we might be done with naps entirely. But he makes up for it in the evening by going to bed by 8 PM.

On Tuesday this week, as he was getting on the bus, for the first time he said "No buh" and turned around and started getting off the bus. I turned him back around and said "Yep, we're gonna ride the bus today, you'll be okay!" but what was really going on in my head was "Ok, Nico! You don't have to get on the bus any more, let's get off this icky bus and I will drive you to school today and forever." I'm glad I didn't actually say that :)

But, I must say, in general Nico is a happy and chipper bus rider. The bus driver in the morning always makes comments about how happy Nico is! I think the morning he turned around to get off the bus, he was just asserting his decision making skills. And when he comes home in the afternoon, after he gets down off the bus, I pick him up and carry him into the house and he hugs me the whole way, saying "Mommy!" Then I ask him how his day was and he says "Nnnduh!"