Valentines, Singing, About Me Book

Looks like the update I did last night was saved as a "draft" and was never posted. Never fear! Everything is A-OK here, I had a late night teaching a henna class and didn't have time to update. Last night's update was just to tell you that the blog would be updated mid-morning on this very day (Friday!)

So, jumping right in!

Last Saturday was the sensory friendly movie, The Good Dinosaur. I was looking forward to seeing it but it wasn't as great as I had hoped. On the way home from the movie Nico told me "I didn't really like that movie" and I told him that I didn't really enjoy it either. I asked him why he didn't like it and he said "because of all the bad stuff in it". Yep, it wasn't the super feel-good animated movies we're used to.

Sunday was the Super Bowl, and no Bible Study that night. Monday was the Discovery Center! Got a video this week with some Discovery Center stuff in it, you can take a look at that at the bottom of the entry.

On Tuesday I volunteered in Nico's class. I really enjoy watching them do the calendar. Nico has become really good at recognizing days. If I already mentioned this, I apologize! When he tells us about things he has done in school he sometimes stops himself and says "No wait, that wasn't today, that was on the 2nd" or whatever day it was. hehe. He told the class on Tuesday that on Monday he went to the Discovery Center with Evelyn. So the kid in charge on that day (Michael) gets to drag and drop stars onto any special date on the smart board at the front of the class. So he dragged and dropped stars onto Monday because of Nico's special Discovery Center date. Wednesday morning on the way to school we encountered Evelyn in the front yard and after we said goodbye to her he said "My friend Evelyn is very nice and very pretty."

OH are you guys ready for some cute school work?

They did an experiment with soda and found out that it eats the enamel of your teeth. I explained to Nico that this doesn't refer to the soda he drinks, in case he was scared, since his soda is just carbonated water. Unless it's the carbonation that hurts the teeth? I sure hope not!

"Tell me about this picture, Nico."
Nico: "This is me and Bruce, we're eating cake"

Nico would like to travel to California. Why? Because they have many cool things there, like horses for example. And he does want to be a cop when he grows up! Just like his Uncle Jonny!

His favorite thing about himself is his heart. I asked him why and he said "Because it's sooooo biiiiiiig, because I love you sooooooo much!"

This is Nico and me on the left, and Allicia and Evelyn on the right. With a door between us. He was sorry he forgot to put arms on me and him.

On Wednesday Nico had his Valentine's Program at school, all the parents came, and they performed songs in the gym. See the video below!!

Thursday was his Valentine's Party at school. Games. Fun. The girl on the right sitting next to Nico is Cairah (pronounced like Kara) is his speech buddy. They are pulled out of class together to get speech therapy with Mrs. Williams every Monday. On Tuesday while I was helping in class, I spent some one-on-one time with Cairah helping her with her math journal, and she snuck the word "poop" into our conversation about how many hearts there were on the page. She giggled uncontrollably. I couldn't help thinking that Nico may have influenced her. Acelyn is on the left, she was in Nico's preschool with him.

To compensate for Nico not being able to eat cookies at the party, I gave him a stick of raspberry chocolate when we got home. It was a large stick. 

Nico was invited to a birthday party for one of his school friends next Saturday. Wahoo!

Ok so now some explanations for what you will see in the Snippets video. You and Me Time one morning consisted of us taking turns singing songs and recording each other doing it on the camera. You'll see some of that. Also, Nico helps me make Guy's lunch every morning. He sits up on the stool at the counter and fills up a jar with yogurt and granola. Lately he has taken to singing while doing this. He sings all the songs he knows and sometimes we take turns. Singing while we work! We make Guy's lunch while Guy takes a shower in the morning. 

Ok I think that's it. I'm hoping I didn't forget anything!

Valentine's Program

Snippets

Happy Birthday Papa, and Tap Test

Last Friday, Nico's fever came back in the afternoon (102.3) and he felt really sick that night, but fever was mostly gone by Saturday. Saturday he ate bits and pieces of food but never committed to anything. Sunday morning, right as rain! Glad he is feeling better now, I'm not sure what was going on!

Sunday after church, Guy helped Rhema's family pack up their Uhaul so they could move. It was a big crowd so it was done quickly. They fed everyone lasagna.

Sunday afternoon we were able to give Papa his birthday present that Nico made for him. We knew we wouldn't see Papa on his actual birthday (tomorrow! Happy Birthday Papa!!!), so we gave it to him early. Scroll down to watch the video of Nico making it (well, painting it:))

Sunday night Bible Study went well. And Nico was back at school on Monday. He was excited to be going back. We skipped the Discovery Center this week and instead hung out with Evelyn and family at home. Before this, we went to Ace Hardware to buy a large wood board that I could practice tapping on. We brought the board downstairs and when the kids heard that it was a dance floor, they all hopped onto it and started dancing. Then I pulled out my tap shoes and the Nico took a turn tapping. (Video below!) The board worked really well for me when I practiced Monday, but on Wednesday it had bowed beyond repair. Whoops! We'll have to find another option.

Nico really digs dancing. For almost 45 minutes today we took turns dancing to a few of his favorite songs on Youtube. One of them is the Marching Song from his VBS experience last summer. It has the perfect rhythm to tap to...

Hmm.. not much else to report this week. Guy loves his job, his boss has given him free reign and Guy is blowing everyone's socks off. They took Dr. Who off of Netflix. Banana cookies = 1/3 cup oats, 1 small banana, a tad vanilla, mix together and bake at 350 for 14 minutes. Nico loves them. 

Cabin Fever! Wait. Cabin, and then also a Fever

On Saturday the boys went up to the cabin for a visit! I was helping a friend out that day so I stayed behind. Bruce and Rory and Lexie were also at the cabin and Nico was able to play with them. He spent a lot of time hanging out with Bruce, they played in the snow on the porch. They also went sledding down the driveway. I forgot to pack Nico's boots in the bag, so he wore his shoes most of the time. Poor wet feet! But he didn't really care.

I love that last pic of Nico sliding down the ice with Bruce racing next to him. Nico sometimes refers to Bruce as his brother. I am so happy they got to spend so much time together. It makes my heart happy!

Grandma also had a little surprise for him - a brand new dot-to-dot book! Before they had left that morning, Nico had chosen 10 color-by-numbers to print out to take with him, saying that Grandma and others might want to do some with him. So he had some to hand out and it looks like Rory is doing one of those while Nico works on his dot-to-dot book. He was very excited to show the book to me when he came home. "Guess what IIIII got.... A DOT-TO-DOT BOOK! A RED ONE!" Grandma had sent him a blue one a few weeks earlier.

Thanks for having the boys over Ma & Pa! They had a blast!

The next morning before church he got down on the floor to work on his dot-to-dot book with his special pencil.

For a few days he was watching the movie HOME over and over and over again on his iPad. It is a great movie, I don't blame him.

Sunday night was the start of the Bible Study that Guy is leading, it was a low key night, we just did introductions and talked a little about the book we'll be reading. It went really well and are happy to be a part of it. Nico came with us and they had some fun things for the kids to do in the other room. Legos for Nico.

On Monday we went to the Discovery Center again, Nico spent the whole time (we stay for 1 hour) at the engineering station building a race truck. Evelyn joined him and she built a race car. After his was built, he tried it out on the tilted race track.

We had a few ho-hum days there, then yesterday (Thursday) I woke up with Nico snuggling me and he felt a little hot. Then he coughed sporadically that morning. I thought he might be getting sick, but I kept writing off the heat I was feeling from his forehead. After Guy left for work I figured what the heck I'll check his temperature, and he was 100.7. Bunker down time! Unfortunately he had lost his iPad privileges for the day, so we couldn't zone out on the iPad. We spent most of the morning doing color-by-numbers. We snuggled on the couch at about 11 and he zonked out for a nap. He woke up feeling groggy and icky and complained of a tummy ache. Essential oils really perked him up but then he was down again a few hours later. His tummy was really bothering him. He never got sick, but we spent the evening reading books to him on the couch because he just didn't want to move. His temp stayed at about 102.5 for a while and his fever finally broke in the middle of the night sometime. Strangely, he hasn't coughed at all since yesterday morning. I figure the illness was probably just a stomach thing? He's been nibbling on food this morning like he's recovering from a stomach bug though he never threw up.

So that's the story of yesterday, and last night why I just couldn't squeeze in a blog update!

Today we're just hanging out. iPad is back.

Late

Blog update coming your way tomorrow! (Friday!)

G.G., Nora

Saturday was a fun family day, we went to the Dollar Store and Fred Meyer.

On Sunday we went to church, and the Pastor asked Guy if he would like to lead the small group Bible study that would be meeting at his house on Sunday nights. Guy asked him what made Pastor think of him and Pastor said he was praying about it and his name came to mind. Awesome! I had just heard from someone the previous week that they had really enjoyed when Guy led the Bible Study for a few weeks last year. So, Guy agreed to lead! The book we'll be reading is called Broken Escalators: Funny and Frightful Lessons About Moth Eating and Moving to the Next Level. Bible study starts up this Sunday!

Monday morning we went to The Discovery Center again. Nico made a rock from clay and pressure. We also built an arch several times and then made it crash. We were able to stay a little longer this time because Nico had no school Monday.

Tuesday morning we went to visit G.G. At the last minute Nico asked if Evelyn could come with us and I said SURE! So we all piled into the truck (we are using Papa's truck for a little while!) and off we drove to Nampa. On the way there Evelyn told Nico about how she only has two friends at school and how the other ones forgot they liked her so they stopped talking to her, and Nico was very empathetic and said "Awwww.. that's too bad. You only have two friends." This was a good thing to see coming from him. He also said "Will you only have two friends forever?"

G.G. is always well set up with things to entertain little ones, so Evelyn went right to work doing what she loves best - art! She colored two coloring pages and G.G. provided envelopes for her to put them in so she could give one to her mom and one to her dad.

G.G. showed me her new Kindle and we loaded a game on it for Nico to play.

We also loaded Netflix onto her kindle, just because :) G.G. let both Nico and Evelyn feed Scamper a snack, and we watched the tail end of a cartoon before we left. Thanks for the fun, G.G.!

A new Ladies Bible Study has started up and Pastor Debbie is not only teaching on Tuesday mornings but also Wednesday evenings! This means I am going! We are going through a study by Priscilla Shirer called The Armor of God, which focuses on the armor of God and prayer. Our first session was last night and we watched The War Room movie. It has Priscilla Shirer in it and is also about prayer. It was a good way to get the session started.

Then today we had a toddler friend from church over, Nora. We played with her all day today. She is almost 3 years old and fit in perfectly with the crowd. Evelyn and Avery also hung out in the clubhouse for a while and they all took turns playing Endless Alphabet on the iPad, and then other games later.

She ate lunch with us and then helped me walk Nico to school. Nora and her family are moving away at the end of January, and we will miss them. Nora has two older siblings and her parents have been coming to our Bible Study on Sunday nights. Nora's mom, Rhema (her name means Spoken Word), needed some time to pack so we took Nora for the day.

Nico has been learning about 2D and 3D shapes in school.

Nico is naturally a very snuggly boy. We do lots of cheek kisses in our house and lots and lots of hugs. He is mirroring me when he says: "Awww I love you so much." and gives me a hug. He likes to say "Awwww" a lot, again mirroring me when we hug. There was one time when I dropped him off at school that one of the girls in his class came right up to him and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He thought nothing of it and hugged her again and gave HER a kiss on the cheek. It made me wonder if Nico one day gave her a kiss on the cheek (he does this sometimes to people, we do it a lot at our house so I wonder if he may think that's how you greet people sometimes??!) and then she could have felt comfortable giving one to him straight away after seeing him. I didn't think anything of it at the time but then I wondered... do they allow that kind of thing in a kindergarten? Should I have told them not to do that anymore? Well, they haven't done it again after that day.

On Tuesday Nico came home from school with a  rice krispsy treat on a stick and dipped in frosting. We left that one for daddy and then made our own rice krispy treats with stuff that Nico could eat. It was a fun experiment, a few things will change next time, since I had to make the marshmallow from scratch and the treats were more like marshmallows filled with crispy rice instead of the traditional rice krispy treats. Oh well. Adding raspberry frosting to them made them more palatable for Nico. He doesn't appear to like marshmallows all that much!

It was a great week!

Boop Snoots

On Friday we had a game night here and invited some other couples over to play board games. Jeff & Allicia also participated, so we were able to use their living room. We had Cassi and Cory over and a couple from our church, Matthew and Elizabeth. Their kids played downstairs in the basement. Nico and Evelyn, Avery, Ivy were all asleep. We played a really fun game called Takenoko.

At one point Nico poked his head out of the clubhouse and furrowed his brow: "YOU GUYS!" and then closed the door. Guy followed him and tucked him back in and Nico told him that we were being too loud.

While we were helping to clean the house before the guests arrived, Nico crawled onto the couch while Guy vacuumed, and Avery came over and watched him play on the iPad. The slide was on the couch so Guy could vacuum.

On Saturday, Guy took Nico out for a few hours so one of my friends could come over so I could show her how to mix henna paste. Guy took Nico to Camel's Back Park and they followed one of the trails there, around and around and then afterward they played on the playground. Outside for 2+ hours, Nico was pretty exhausted that night.

Monday morning we went to the Discovery Center again! We skipped the first two rooms straight away, since we had spent our whole time there last week. We went to a new room with things we had never seen before.

Nico told me his tooth was hurting on Monday. It was hard for him to eat. I took him in to see the dentist Tuesday morning. I was afraid it was Nico's cavities getting worse, but it turned out it was just 3 of his molars coming in! Ouch. But so glad it wasn't worsening cavities.

On Tuesday I volunteered in Nico's class. I'm sure the teacher had forgotten I was coming in, because she had nothing for me to copy/cut/produce so she put me at one of the centers to help the kids write numbers from 71-80. They were celebrating their 80th day of school that day! It's interesting to see how Nico interacts with his classmates and his teacher. His teacher is very strict but I think the kindergarten class needs it.

Nico often asks me when he will get to go to 1st grade, and I tell him it will be about 8 more months. He told Evelyn very succinctly today what was going to happen. Evelyn told him that he was going to a different school than her next year and Nico responded, "Not a different school, just a different classroom with a different teacher. I'm going to be in 1st grade tomorrow. I mean, in 8 months." I was proud of the way he expressed his thoughts!

Guy and Nico have been doing this cute thing when they snuggle in bed before bedtime. Guy takes Beady Bear and does "boop snoots" which just means that they bump noses. So Guy says "boop snoots" and then taps Beady's nose on Nico's nose. He does this a bunch and then Nico will take Beady and turn him around and tap Beady's bottom onto his nose and say "poop snoots". Guy just told me this and I laughed! I have to admit that I have been quite the encourager with saying that word, for some reason right now we all just find that word hilarious and Nico and I add it into most of our silly games, especially games where we have to come up with silly words or phrases.. For example, reading books at night, he will cover one of the words in the book with his finger and I have to guess what the word says. I often already know what the word is, but I make something silly up anyway. I'm sure this is just a phase...

Guy and Nico have also played the "laughing game"where they take turns trying to make each other laugh. If you make the other person laugh, you win.

Wednesday was mine and Guy's 10 year anniversary! Here's a throw-back for you: NNU graduation, about 10 1/2 years ago.

Guy has wavy hair!

This morning Evelyn had 2 cavities filled at the dentist. We played with Avery in the main house while they were gone. Ivy was asleep and actually slept the whole time they were gone. When they got home, they all climbed onto the couch and watched some Chitty Chitty Bang Bang until lunch time. They also got to play a little more tonight.

Sledding and the Discovery Center

On New Year's Day, Nico and I headed up to the cabin for the day. Guy was meant to come, too, but his cold had worsened and he needed sleep, so he stayed home to rest.

There was SNOW at the cabin and Nico enjoyed playing in it. The porch was covered with the stuff so he went outside on the porch to poke around. He ate some snow and stomped around and had fun.

Later that day he also went outside with Papa to go sledding! Nico went down first with Papa in back but then decided he wanted to be in the back, so they switched spots for the next round. I even went down the hill a few times with Nico. It has been a long time since I have done that. You can catch a video of this at the end of the post.

We had a nice lunch and dinner, we put together some of a puzzle, I even had a bit of a nap! It was so fun to spend the whole day with them!

Saturday was the sensory friendly movie. They played Peanuts. Afterward we went to Toy World to spend the $20 that Nico received from his Great Grandma French for Christmas. He bought a new lego and a couple smaller things.

On Monday we all went to the Discovery Center with Allicia and kids. We spent an hour there and only got through the first two rooms. We paid $10 to be added to Allicia's membership so now we can go whenever we want. There are so many cool and interesting things there. This time there was a suspended tunnel/bridge made entirely of packing tape that the children could walk through. I don't have a picture of that, unfortunately.

Discovery Center was in the morning and then Nico went back to school that afternoon.

The rest of the week has been ho hum. I think. Nico has been enjoying connect-the-dots. I download the really hard ones with 600+ dots on them. We have about 5 ones that are half done, as Nico likes variety and has been getting discouraged whenever he messes up.

We hooked up the Wii and introduced Nico to Wii Games like golf and bowling. We are limiting his time on the Wii currently because he has been very demanding about wanting to play games.

He was up at 4:30 this morning and is struggling to fall asleep tonight and it's almost 8 PM. Not sure why he's had such an awake day today!

Now it's time for the videos! Up first is Evelyn's Birthday video. Then, sledding!

 

Playing with Papa, and Parties

I forgot to mention last week a special gift that we received at Christmas, from G.G., a story written by her late husband, Walter Russell. It's called Cowbells and Ice Cream, very cute story about the Boss Cow (the one with the bell around her neck), and how taking care of cows is worth it in the end because you get to make ice cream. She had it bound into a little book with illustrations. I am so happy to have this keepsake!

I caught the cold going around, the next day after writing my last blog post. I am feeling pretty good now. It lasted a few days.

A few pictures from Christmas morning.. Nico putting together a small lego from his stocking

Sunday was special because Papa came over to play with Nico, Alexis with him. They tried going to the park first but didn't stay long, it was coold! They came home with rosy cheeks. I turned on the space heater and they warmed their feet by it. 

Wednesday was also a fun day with Papa. Papa and Grandma Salisbury took Nico out to Chicago Connection for lunch, then Papa and Nico came back here and played for about 3 hours while Grandma and I took a trip to Costco. They played games, and played games, and had a really fun time. 

On Monday our car wouldn't start, so after trying to jump it unsuccessfully, we called roadside assistance and a tow truck came and towed it. Turns out it was just the battery, which lasted almost exactly a year! We upgraded to a better quality one this time, since this is the second time our battery has died within warranty, same brand, the first time the battery had only lasted a few days! 

Today is Evelyn's birthday and we celebrated with her twice! This afternoon she had a party at a ceramics place. Every child got to pick out ceramic figurines to paint. Nico chose a boat, airplane, and tank and painted each one. We left the pieces there so they could fire them in a kiln and then we'll pick them up next week.

Nico asked first before helping Evelyn open aaaaall her gifts

I got some video but that will have to come later. Then this evening we celebrated Evelyn's birthday again but over here at the main house with their family.  None of Allicia's extended family were able to make it because they are sick, so it was just a few of Jeff's extended family. It was a pretty low key party and was very fun! The theme was a hotdog party a la Pigeon. Then we set off fireworks, just like last year. Then before bed Jeff read all the kids "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late." It was very cute. All will be included in a video to be posted later.

Now it's time for the Christmas Snippets Video! I couldn't seem to locate the snippets from the Thanksgiving "Christmas" we had at the cabin. So this video picks up in December some time.