Graduation, Field Day, Last Day, Oh my!

Last Friday was Nico's graduation. They sang songs and received certificates and talked into a microphone about what they learned in Kindergarten. I don't even remember what Nico said, though I have it on video. I will post a video next week since I didn't have time this week! What I do remember is that he said something that I didn't understand. I'll have to watch it again to see if I can discern it.

Nico and his teacher Miss Lung

I brought a little potted flower for Nico to give to Miss Lung. And then for HIM I brought a bag of his favorite mint chocolates from Trader Joe's

Brodie, Nico, Olivia

On Sunday we went to church and after church there was a potluck with a water slide. We brought tuna pasta salad. Guy tried out the blow-darts and then told me I should try it out, so I did. It takes a LOT of lung power to propel those things! I couldn't even get my dart to the first target. Guy got his to the furthest target, I was impressed!

Our neighbors, Tiffanie, Sam and Adam

Tiffanie and Sam

Adam

Sunday afternoon was fun. Nico and I got some snuggle time in while Guy took a nap and then Guy mowed Jonny & Alanna's lawn. 

Here's a good shot of the cul-de-sac across the street from Jonny & Alanna's house. On Monday Nico was able to introduce himself to the kids and play with them for a few hours until lunch time. They even let him ride on some of their fun  toys. Here is Nico riding on Lexie's EzyRoller while Guy mowed the front lawn.

Playing with the Panorama option on my phone. This is the view from their backyard!

Dot-to-dots on the couch

 Being silly eating "hockey pucks"

No school on Monday, and Tuesday was Olympic Field Day. Guy was able to take that morning off to take Nico!! He took lots of pictures.

Tuesday was also our last day at Jonny & Alanna's house! It was such a fun experience being there. I will miss their dishwasher!! 

Tuesday night Nico came in from playing with his friends with a 102.2 fever and a really bad headache. We thought it might have ben heat exhaustion, but weren't sure. It went up to 103.2 in the night, and the next day it was hovering around 101 all day, going to bed with it right at 100, and then this morning he was all better. With the fever, at least. He woke up this morning whining that his stomach hurt :( He got sick once so we couch-bound him and them had him take a nap, he woke up feeling fine and so off to school he went for his LAST DAY!!!! I'm so glad he was able to make it to his last day. 

He did make an observation this morning after he got sick. He was pretty matter of fact. "I had throw up in my tummy, and then it just came up. That's what was wrong, it came up, like this *re-enactment* and then I was fine!" I thought it was great, it seems like he doesn't have any fear of it. His tummy ache reappeared shortly and he asked me "Mommy, why didn't my tummy ache go away?" I told him that last time (a few weeks ago, remember that?) he felt better after sleeping, so that's where the nap came in. 

This is all stuff I'm writing down to tell to his doctor next Tuesday when we have a follow up appointment. This doesn't bode well for our gut-healing attempts, but I'm confident we'll get to the bottom of it.

That's it for this week! Expect a video next time :)

House sitting, trampoline, comics, baby chicks

Lots of fun this week housesitting. The sun finally showed itself and we were able to see the sunrise through the big east-facing windows. It was beautiful and warm! Nico and I spent time on the trampoline perfecting his jump, and he has also perfected his use of Lexie's EzyRoller scooter where you sit down and wiggle your feet back and forth to propel yourself forward. Thank you for letting us use it, Lexie! Nico loves it.

Hmm.. I should try to catch some more pictures this week so you can see all our shenanigans.

Nico was able to see his neighbor friends Adam and Sam on Sunday, since they have started coming to our church. Nico has really missed getting to play with them. On occasion we will be at the clubhouse before Nico has to go to school, so he is able to go play with Adam for a few minutes.

We had a play date on Monday with Evelyn. And another one on Wednesday with a larger group of kids, a baby-chick playdate to help get the baby chicks acclimated to people. Lots of baby chicks and baby chick poo.

Nico was again very super gentle.

We've also been enjoying going through Lexie's picture albums and seeing baby Lexie as she grows up and then eventually Nico started appearing in the pictures once he was born, and that has been pretty special.

Screen fast is going well. He is allowed to watch minimal tv under a few conditions: it has to be on a tv and not an interactive touch screen device, and it has to be a slow paced older movie or show. So, we chose MST3K. Which Nico got bored with after about 2 minutes and then we were done! hehe. His personality is shining and developing very quickly during this screenfast, he is conversing with us more, trying new foods and being nice, helpful, more imaginative, and trying new things. I like it! One more week.

Nico asked for henna on his arm and chose which design he wanted. This was the first time he didn't cry to have it removed after I put it on him!

Then Nico did henna on me, after practicing on his board. He tried to make a flower on my arm but gave up frustrated.

Green smoothies for days!

A few of Nico's favorite comic books from the library:

Benjamin Bear - he read this to Grandma Salisbury recently and it was so funny and Grandma laughed so much that when Nico read it to Guy later that night he stopped after a few pages of silence from Guy and said "When you hear me say a funny part, laugh a lot, ok?" :)

Big City Otto - a story of an elephant who is searching for his friend Georgie, a chimp who was stolen from the jungle, put in a sack, and carried onto a "big floaty thing" by The Man With the Wooden Nose. 

Now a video!

Tapping, House Sitting, Baby Chicks

Friday was the start of the screenfast for Nico. We got him a dot-to-dot book which he spent most of the day doing on Friday. So far the screenfast is going well. Nico is growing in imagination and interaction and it seems like he's more keen to have conversations now and just "hang out", more than he was before we started. I like it!

On Saturday I had my tap performance for the end of the tap year. We had two shows on Saturday, 4PM and 6PM. For each show our group did 2 dances. I was nervous for the first show at 4PM but the second one was a lot easier. Guy and Nico came to the first one, and they recorded the first dance. Check below for a video!

I am glad the performance is over, and that tap class is also over for the summer. I am glad I did it, not sure I will be going back next year, I need a break right now so ask me again in a few weeks :)

We spent the early part of this week packing up for our temporary move to Jonny and Alanna's house. We are staying two weeks. We trekked over here on Wednesday with all the stuff we'd need and then did some grocery shopping. It is like a mini vacation for us and have been enjoying playing all their board games and listening to Nico's music through their awesome speakers, he loves to dance along. He has started trying to breakdance.

Nico was a little sick early this morning, throwing up. But huzzah we have easily accessible toilets here, he made it every time.  I wrote his teacher a note telling her he wouldn't be in school, but after sleeping in until 7 AM he woke up feeling great. I of course made him go slow with the food at first, but he had fully recovered. Sounds like it was a yucky tummy issue, but glad it was over quick for him. I figured it was too late to "cancel" my note to the teacher, so we played hooky and we went and ran errands together (I know, not the best hooky plans, but it was fun). We stopped by the clubhouse to pick up some things we forgot, and Nico got to hold a few of the new chicks that Jeff & Allicia had got. He was super gentle with them.

I don't remember what day this was:

Working on the lego Jonny & Alanna left for him:

And here's the tap video!

Library, Lexie, GG

Saturday was Sensory Friendly Movie day, they showed the same movie they showed last time, Kung Fu Panda 3. Nico got bored after an hour into it so we left. We went straight to the library to pick up a free comic book for Free Comic Book day. Nico then picked out a board game to play while we were there.

This is the game we played, but this picture was taken on Wednesday, not Saturday! We went back to the library on Wednesday :)

Sunday was an extraordinarily fun day. The message at church was fabulous! After lunch we all went on a bike ride on the greenbelt until Nico said "My legs hurt." That was our cue to turn around. There was a part of the greenbelt that Guy had wanted to investigate, with the question "Where does that path go?" And now we know where that path goes. It dwindles into nothing as it reaches Park Blvd downtown.

After the bike ride, we relaxed for a bit before heading over to Jonny and Alanna's house for dinner! We are going to be house and dog sitting for them while they are on vacation, so this was a good opportunity for them to show us their house. We had BBQ and kabobs and then after dinner Nico and Lexie had a dance party, and then they did a workout along with a workout video, Nico worked out during the whole thing! That workout was pretty intense and was 20 or 30 minutes long, can't remember exactly. We just sat back and watched Nico and Lexie exercise. Check out the video at the end of the entry to see part of it.

Happy Mother's Day to both of my moms!!!

On Tuesday we visited GG!! Evelyn came with us. Nico and Evelyn have been getting along lately, though I had to jump in right away when we all got into the car, to stop the name calling which was just about to start. I told them that if they were good and could follow the rules, that when we came home they could watch an episode of Curious George. Rule #1 - No name calling, Rule #2 - Keep your hands to yourself. They pulled it off! They got a tad rambunctious at GG's house but we were able to stop that. GG was a very gracious host! :)

After going over the rules.

Wednesday evening, we had a "house dinner", which I think we are going to try to do more often. Allicia and Jeff had leftover Spring Rolls from their dinner on Sunday, so we had those.

Tomorrow we are starting something called a screenfast with Nico, where we take away all screen time for 3 weeks at least. I told him that we were going to do this just today, and explained to him why (I told him it would be good for his brain, which is the truth!) So tonight before bed, Guy and Nico took the iPad downstairs and put it into Guy's desk drawer. We won't be seeing it for a while!

We went over to see a friend, and Nico showed her son (Paul) his pokemon card that Lexie gave him, and Paul got excited and said "I've got something for you!" and ran upstairs and brought down a large collection of Pokemon cards to give to Nico. Paul is older and isn't interested in them. Guy was so excited about this, when he got home from work Nico and him sorted through all of them and made new playing decks. for each of them. Nico has also been taking his cards to school to show his friends.

Wednesday his class went to the Botanical Garden!

I think that's it for this week.. this next week is very busy, so next week's blog should have some fun stuff in it!

Cafeteria, Redundant, Spring Days

Last Friday I got to go with Nico to school and go to the cafeteria with him where he ate lunch for the first time. They did a test run for next year so the kids could learn where to go to get hot lunch and where to sit, where to throw their trash away afterward, etc.

He sat next to his friends Cooper and Olivia.

Then on Saturday Nico and I went up to the cabin! Grandma Salisbury helped me make the rest of the henna aftercare balms I needed to make and then we just hung out and had a great time! Nico chopped wood and played Mastermind with Papa. 

Nico went through a little flip book of "moods" with Grandma and she read each one to him so that Nico could decide what his mood was. He decided that he was redundant. So he started repeating everything that he said several times. "I'm redundant, I'm redundant, I'm redundant", then he'd laugh and laugh and laugh. 

 Comparing teeth

Lots of hugs

A sprout growing through Nico's missing tooth hole.

We went to the park on Tuesday, we took Avery and Evelyn with us. Nico brought his "homework" which is just a workbook that is for Kindergarten, purchased at Costco. He calls this his homework. At the park, Evelyn and Nico took turns doing stuff in the workbook. On Monday he had taken this workbook over to Adam's house and worked on it while Adam played with cars.

Here is my favorite part about going to the park in the Spring and Summer, this little path right here. Big sigh and big breath in when I get to this part. 

Here is Nico and Aiden. Aiden is very soft spoken. When I ask him how his day at school was he makes a soft noise but never answers with words. He talks to Nico just fine.

Nico said "Mommy, take a picture of me!" Then he chose all these poses himself. I didn't have to say anything, he moved to a new pose automatically and waited for the click.

We have a new neighbor who is very sweet. Her name is Laura and she is older and very friendly to the kids. A tow truck had to come pick up her car this morning and she saw that Nico and Adam were interested, so she grabbed both of their hands and took them over to watch. She lives in the house between ours and Adam's.

I think that's it for this week.