Sloooow Week

We have had a very slow week, but we had fun relaxing!

Last Friday my Mom took us shopping at Target. She got Nico some trucks and we picked up some other things we needed. Then we had sushi takeout! So much fun. That was our one adventure this past week.

Saturday was the sensory-friendly movie but we didn't end up going. We spent the morning filtering things from our living room closet and into bins. That sure felt good when it was finished.

On Tuesday morning I was writing some cards and Nico saw me doing it and asked if he could write a letter. I said Yes! And I asked him who he wanted to write to. He kept answering "Yes" to this question and I kept trying to explain to him what "Who" means but I'm not sure he understood. Until I gave him choices: "You can write a letter to Grandma or Papa, Grandma or Grandpa (he knows the difference between these two sets!), Evie, or Daddy. Who do you want to write to?" and he said Evie. I wrote out her name on a piece of paper and he copied it onto the card twice. I asked him what he wanted to say to her in the card and he answered Mommy. Then Daddy. Then Nico. Then he got one "P" into Papa when he stopped. So all of our names were in her card.

Then he saw me printing pictures and wanted to print some too, so we chose some to print for Evie and took those with us when we went to visit them later that morning.

We also saw them this morning!

We've started doing quiet times in the afternoon, where Nico hangs out in his room and plays quietly for an hour. Not "nap time", but occasionally he falls asleep. He climbs into his bed and pulls the covers up. When I don't hear noise for a while I go in and check. So if he's sleeping I close the shades and turn the light off. The first few times we did quiet time Nico would come out of his room every 5 minutes or so to ask if the time was up. So yesterday I put the iPad in there with a timer set for one hour. It's a pie chart that counts down to zero. He climbed into his bed and stared at it the whole time, sometimes reading the numbers from it and counting down with it for each minute. We went back to no timer today and everything was fine. He did fall asleep today, which means he is up tonight!

I will give him a bath in a few minutes and put him to bed. What usually happens when he takes a nap during the day is that after I put him to bed, later than usual, he doesn't fall asleep, but keeps getting up. Over and over until finally it's time for ME to go to bed. And so he comes to bed with me and is asleep quickly.

I'm trying to think of any other tidbits this week but I just can't recall anything else.

Here are the few pictures I took.

Reading "Too Much Noise", Nico has most of it memorized.

Playing during quiet time today

Reunion and Birthday

We had a week full of fun and exciting things! Grandpa and Grandma Russell drove down from Washington to be here for the Russell Family Reunion and for Nico's birthday.

The reunion was on Saturday in Nampa. We congregated under a large maple tree; sitting in the shade was perfect. Lots of family and good food and conversation.

After a while the kids went off to the swimming pool. Guy accompanied Nico, and Grandma Russell soon followed. They had a blast. I stayed back and got to have a nice chat with G.G.

We came home that afternoon and Guy went to bed to try to sleep and I made muffins for dinner. We also ate them for breakfast the next morning.

Sunday we went to church and then Gpa, Gma, and G.G. came over for lunch. The birthday presents trickled in and we had a very good time "watching the baby". Gma Russell brought with her some preschool bins that she had acquired. About Me, Transportation, and Tools. Though these weren't birthday presents, they were new and exciting things for Nico to play with!

Monday was party prep day. I made 2 batches of chocolate cupcakes and used my old cake-decorating frosting recipe to make the frosting. I used shortening made from non-hydrogenated palm and coconut oil. Gma helped me frost the cupcakes and we added sprinkles (made from dehydrated strawberries that had been put through the food processor).

 I love this series of pictures of Gma Russell and Nico trying on their SKY shirts

Then Nico's party was on Tuesday. We gathered at 9 AM at Old Park where we set up the Elefun game and the rocket shooter. 

Nico catching butterflies in his party hat

Nico, Lexie, and Evie

I love this one of excited Nico catching butterflies

A smattering of pictures from the party

Sarah and Gma Salisbury

Gma Salisbury and Me

Cupcakes

 Present time!

Though we met early, it still got hot quickly. We wrapped up around 10:30 and headed back home. We left before a few of my cousins were able to be there, so I told them to meet us at our house. We ate lunch, took pictures, and hung out.

Out of about 50 pictures taken of all of us sitting on the couch, I think I chose the best one! Not everyone is looking at the camera, but we're all smiling and Nico isn't hunched over trying to get off the couch. I thought it was pretty successful. 

Tuesday afternoon we said goodbye to Gma and Gpa Russell until next time. Their visit seemed to fly by much more quickly than other visits. I may have been preoccupied with Nico's Bday arrangements! We hope to see them again soon. We will be seeing G.G. again later in August!

After having a quiet and lazy Wednesday, Nico and I drove up to the cabin this morning (Thursday) to visit Gma and Papa. We made lots of food to freeze for our upcoming move. Some Pierogi Pies and a big pot of chili. Then we ate Harvest Vegetable Soup for lunch, trying out a new recipe. Yum, and fun!

There is a video this week that sums up all of July in one neat little package. 1st of August tomorrow! And in less than a month Nico will start school again. Summer is flying by!

Wahoooooz

On Friday we went to a new splash pad, the only one in Boise (the rest are in Meridian), at Borah High School. It's right next to their pool but has a separate entrance. It is fenced in. We played in it for a while and then took a break on a bench outside the fenced in area. It was in the shade and the table had a built in checker board. Nico ate his snack there.

After the splash pad we went to the dollar store to pick up a flotation device for Nico. The ones you blow up and put on your arms. I put them on him that night and he wore them until it was time for bed. We went for a Strider ride while he was wearing them.

On Saturday we went to the market, where we saw a large Marimba band. Nico pulled me over there and we sat down and listened to them for about 30 minutes. Nico was mesmerized, he clapped after every song and then asked "Another one?" We were in the sun, so I eventually moved us over to the shade, where we saw Nico's teacher. They said hello and we sat next to them for a little while. Nico was very excited to see her.

Then we left to go to the other market, where Nico wanted a balloon. He got a fishing pole balloon this time.

That evening, Guy and Nico had some time together. They were going to be going to movie in the park every month this summer, but since that didn't turn out last month, they did something different tonight. Guy took Nico to the bookstore to play with the train, and then to the park to blow bubbles.

Saw Allicia on Monday and also on Tuesday. Sure do love them. So looking forward to moving day: September 13th!

On Tuesday, Guy rigged the Elefun game to an AC adapter so we could plug it into the wall instead of using batteries. This game is one we plan to play at Nico's party. An elephant with a long trunk shoots butterflies out and you run around with nets trying to catch them. Nico and I had tested it out last week, but the power of the fan was piddly and only about 5 butterflies made it out. So Guy upped the voltage from 6V to 12V. Now all the butterflies shoot out hard and all at once! A big improvement, but he is going to try to find a 7V adapter next weekend to tone it down a bit.

Then TODAY! Today is the day that we went to Wahooz to ride the go-carts to have a Mommy-son celebration of Nico's birthday. Nico was very excited about it. I brought the GoPro camera instead of my new one because of its small size and wide angle. Wahooz also has other attractions: a huge arcade, miniature golf, bumper boats, laser tag, and bowling. They measured him to make sure he was at least 40 inches, the requirement to be a passenger. Yep, he was tall enough! We gave the man our tickets, started walking toward the go-cart, and Nico started pulling me the other direction, saying NO! I pulled him aside and asked him if he was scared. It was very loud with all the motors of the go-carts idling at the same time, plus the super loud music so you could hear it over the sound of the engines. I understood his aversion. So we sat on a bench a little ways away and watched some other people riding the go-carts. He warmed up to the idea again and pulled me toward the go-carts again. He was fine for a while standing in line, but the noise, again, got to him. After a few minutes of happily standing in line, he started pulling me away from the noise.

Excitement that quickly wore off

Looking warily at the go-carts

So we got our tickets back and exchanged them for a course of miniature golf. There are two miniature golf courses, which I realized only after the fact that we had chosen the one with the line of people. Whoops! But Nico didn't mind waiting after every hole. He had much fun, and clapped every time either of us got the ball in the hole. He imitated curious george getting on the ground, eyeing the ball in relation to the hole.

Waiting for our turn. Can't believe we were lucky enough to catch a cool day.

So we get to hole 16. Hole 18 was right next to us, the place where you hit your ball and it eats it so that the game is over. If you hit the ball into a certain area, then this big Tiki statue shoots out an enormous torch of fire from its head. I found a picture of it, take a look:

So back to hole 16. Nico was finishing off his putting when someone successfully hit a ball into that certain area in the Tiki statue. About 10 seconds later a huge fireball emitted from the statue. It scared me and I jumped and cried out a little bit. You could FEEL the heat from this thing. I turned around to look at it and someone in front of us motioned to Nico and said "he's running." So, if you can imagine how Nico was afraid of the go carts, you can perhaps imagine a bit how this fire explosion affected him. I turned around to look and Nico was indeed running in the opposite direction. He turned to look at me and his whole face was quivering about to cry. Oh dear me!! I ran to him but he could barely listen to me he was so frantic. I calmed him enough to be able to run back and grab our clubs and my bag. I caught up with him and took him back the opposite direction. Unfortunately even if you back track all the way to the beginning of the golf course, you still have to pass by the tiki statue to get out. You can see in this aerial shot how that works.

Well Nico ran toward the fence, wanting to get out by crawling through, instead of passing by the statue. I told him that I knew it was hot and loud and big, but that the fire wouldn't hurt him and the statue wouldn't hurt him. I told him to close his eyes and put his head on my shoulder because we HAD to walk past it. I held him and he gripped me SO TIGHT while we passed it. And there was an instant calm after I did. Phew.

We returned our golf balls to the counter, since we didn't finish the course, and then wandered around the arcade. It is also very loud in the arcade. Nico wanted to try a few games, so we did, but every time we swiped our game card to start a game, the game would come to life. "WELCOME TO THIS GAME, PLEASE DO THIS AND THIS..." and then every game had loud music accompanying what the loud mouth was saying. Every time this happened, Nico backed away from the game, so didn't get to play much. We did win 20 tickets and redeemed them for a styrofoam airplane and a turtle eraser.

Photo booth

Then we made our way to Louie's. It is a nice restaurant that serves italian food. Spaghetti and pizza and other such things. We shared a big bowl of gluten-free spaghetti with meatballs.

Then home to eat chocolate cupcakes. I made a test batch for his birthday party on Tuesday. He likes it when I put a candle in it and sing him Happy Birthday, so I've been doing that.

Also, a slight milestone for his speech and communication: He clarified what he was asking because I didn't understand. He kept asking "What is this?" as he was holding a cup filled with a smoothie I had bought for him. I kept saying "smoothie" every time he asked. "What is this?" "A smoothie that I bought for you." "What is this?" "A smoothie" "What is this?" "A smoothie"…. Then he changed his question. "What is IN this?" !!!! "Bananas, strawberries, and orange juice!"

We are looking forward to this weekend as Grandpa and Grandma Russell are coming into town for Nico's birthday and for a family reunion. We are so excited to see them on Saturday!

Other pictures from this week.

Testing out camera settings

Climbing the "tree" in the front yard

Reading his big pile of library books while munching on a muffin

His very first lollipop

Reunion, Puzzle, G.G.

On Saturday we had a mini friend reunion with my High School friends. Nico enjoyed jumping on the trampoline and playing with the toys and the kids. Me and three of my friends, together have 10 kids. It was the first time Guy had met any of them. He said he liked them and wanted to see them more often. I agree! I invited them all to Nico's birthday party so we may or may not be seeing them then.

Later that night we went to Smoky Mountain Pizza. Guy watched Nico. While we were there, our 5th friend from High School called us and we were all able to talk to her. It hasn't been since High School that all five of us were together, and perhaps someday soon we'll be able to do that. 

On Sunday, Papa came over for a bit to drop off some eggs and milk and the truck. And to watch a few minutes of Despicable Me 2. Nico has really been digging that movie.

We needed to borrow his truck so that we could move our 13,200 piece puzzle from our house over to Jeff and Allicia's, which we did successfully on Tuesday evening. They have a nice large wall in their front room that is perfect for the puzzle. Guy and Jeff hung it while Allicia and I and the kids read books and played. We were also able to bring over some bins that were ready for storage. They are storing some things for us since we will be living in a small space and won't have room for everything. We are all getting very excited about moving in 2 months! I've told Nico several times that we're moving into Evie's house and he seems to understand. I am so happy that he'll have someone to play with more often.

Our living room without the puzzle, and with an almost bare bookshelf from packing.

We kept the truck until today. I enjoyed being able to see EVERYTHING while driving it. It is up high and I don't know why but it felt like it had more windows than our car. That's not true, but it sure felt like it! Papa came by to pick up the truck tonight, and he is heading straight to Yakima. My Mom is in Yakima with my Grandma. My Great Uncle Jerry passed away early Sunday morning, a few days after my Mom and Grandma arrived to see him. I didn't know him but I have heard great things about him. The funeral is tomorrow, I am praying for everyone.

Some more pictures from this week..

Memorial Park

 "Where's the airplane? I don't see the airplane!"

A new game Nico invented. Falling off Daddy's shoulders onto the bed.

Nico loved riding in Papa's truck. We had many discussions about Papa's truck and our car. He loved to repeat how Papa took our car and left his truck so we could use it. He was very careful to correct me whenever I called the truck a car. "It's not a car, it's a truck!" He often asked to go to Grandma and Papa's house when we'd get into the truck. 

A suggestion in his Curious George sticker book was to make a raft out of craft sticks, let it dry, then float it on water and see how many pennies it could hold. We tried this out. We got up to 6 pennies I think. Then after all the sticks were wet it could only hold 2 before sinking. Then the glue melted away and the raft fell apart. Then we were done and we left the raft and the pennies in the sink while we took a nap on the couch. Lots of work hauling pennies around on rafts.

We visited G.G. today. Nico got to feed Scamper his food and his snack-bone afterward. He played a bit with some of the toys around, but then started asking to leave. We could attribute it to a few different things. G.G. noticed that the cartoon he had started watching had a dinosaur in it. When we asked him if he wanted to leave because of the dinosaur, he said "Yes". But when we changed the channel he still asked to leave. Then he made more of a complete thought than just "Go home"… he said "Go home and get gas in the truck." I had mentioned to G.G. that we were going to fill up the truck with gas before going home and Nico heard this. Nico loves the truck!

So sweet!