Grammy, G.G., Roller Derby

Saturday was my very first henna booth at the Nampa Public Market. On Friday Nico and I practiced setting up my canopy so I could see if I could do it all by myself. I could!

Saturday I woke up to a card on the desk that Nico had made for me for my birthday. It was very sweet. Guy had given me his card the night before. Saturday at the Market went smoothly except I forgot to bring chairs with me, so Nico and Guy had to rush over to bring them to me.

Saturday afternoon, Grandma Salisbury came over and she brought with her a very special guest, Great Grandma French (aka Grammy). Grandma had brought Grammy back from Moscow for a visit. The last time Grammy had seen Nico, it was up in Moscow and Nico wasn't even a year old. Grammy brought Nico a toy car and then they sat on the couch and chatted for a while about all manner of things. I got a few exchanges on video, but alas this week has gotten away from me and I was not able to put a video together.

We got to see her again on Sunday at church and then afterward we all went to the mall to eat. Sunday evening I also went over to the hotel where they were staying so I could hang out with them for a few more hours before they were going to head back to Moscow the next day. I'm so glad we got to see her and spend time with her! 

Saturday evening was another special event, Allicia (aka Aleesh the Beast) had her very first Roller Derby game that night!! Guy wasn't feeling well, so he didn't end up going, so Nico and I went. Nico was very excited to see Allicia skate, and also very excited to park in a parking garage and walk downtown to the Centurylink Arena. The derby game started and Nico said he wanted some roller skates so that he could do that. I explained how the game worked to him and we were following along as the "Jammers" would break through and get ahead.

Allicia is in the white helmet in the center-right.

Nico's bedtime is usually 6:30, and the game didn't start until 7 PM, so around 7:20 he was asking when we would be going home. We left after the first half, at 7:30 PM. Once we got outside and started walking downtown to get to the parking garage, Nico said "I'm not tired over here, so can we walk around some more?" I said no, that we had to get home to bed. 

Tuesday was our visit to GG. Nico brought more books with him to read to her. Grandma Russell had sent Nico a little comic book called Moo Bird that Nico wanted to read to GG. He also brought over another of his comic books called Stinky. 

As always it was really great to see her and catch up. We'll have to find a different time to come see her once 1st grade starts in the Fall! Mornings won't work anymore. 

Tuesday we also went to the library and Nico picked out some comic books from the "Hazardous Tales" series, which are stories from America's history. One of the books is called "Donner Dinner Party". I wasn't exactly clear on why this creeped me out because I couldn't remember the story exactly, but I read the book (comic books that tell true stories have been super interesting to me lately), and now I know. While we were in the car on the way home, Nico says "This would be too scary for you. But I'm not scared of anything." Very interesting picks! I chose some "We Both Read" books where the parents read one side of the page and the child reads the other. I'm really digging those!

Tuesday afternoon/evening Nico and I went for a hike. Guy was working late and it was nice and cool out, so we went and started hiking up Table Rock, stopping just short of the most arduous climb and turning around. Nico was gung-ho climbing the trail, but as soon as we turned around, I mean like the second we turned around to come back, I hear a long whine and "is there a shoooooorter way home?" He really struggled with the return trip. 

Tuesday night after Guy arrived home and all the kids were in bed, we had a game night with Jeff & Allicia. Allicia said I could pick the game because it was my birthday and I chose Ticket to Ride. Mostly because Nico and I have been playing it and the rules are fresh in my mind, so it meant I wouldn't have to spend brain power to learn a new game! Guy won the whole world that time, and lapped almost everyone in points. He said that he should just never play Ticket to Ride again because there's no way he would ever beat that score.

Today (Thursday) was "Surprise Day". I surprised Nico with a trip to Pojo's. We rode the bumper cars and Nico got 177 tickets from the games. The next surprise was a trip to the toy store in the mall, where we got him a Dominoes Rally game. We came home and played that right away, setting up dominoes and watching them fall.

Nico inspecting his henna tattoo

 Posing for a selfie to send to Grandma and Grammy and my Aunt Mary in Lewiston

Sitting outside reading "Stinky" out loud

It has been a great week, more fun ahead!

iPad Tickets, Mega Sports Camp, Doctor Update

Nico's first day of summer vacation was last Friday. We didn't plan anything, Evelyn was out of town and Aadam and Sam were nowhere to be found! Nico really struggled with not having anyone to play with. He was near tears he was so bored. But, we got through it. We went for a bike ride and then snuggled on the bed and he took a nap. He was in much better spirits when he woke up.

Saturday was the Sensory Friendly Movie - Ratchet & Clank. It was cute. We've been doing pizza on Saturdays, too.

Friday was the last day of the screenfast, but we didn't end it until Sunday. On Sunday I gave Nico 5 tickets (because he's 5 years old), and each ticket is worth 10 minutes of iPad time. He gets 5 tickets every Sunday and they are for the whole week. The things that don't count toward screen time are the sensory friendly movies, three stooges while eating pizza on Saturdays, and any movies he may perchance watch at the cabin. When he turns 6, he gets 6 tickets per week. Nico used up all his tickets by Monday. But he seems to be okay with it. He used them up and then went right back into playing with his cars and trucks.

This week is VBS at our church - Mega Sports Camp. I am the "Cookie Coach" which just means that I hand out the snacks :) That's a really cool job to have. Nico, Evelyn, and Aadam, are all in the "Round Robin" group which means they get to play each of the sports. Football, Basketball, Soccer. Sam is in Cheerleading. He is really good.

Nico participating in one of the object lessons. (Note he's wearing all his spiderman knee/elbow/hand pads. He wore them all day long, hottest day, 100 degree weather. That's commitment!)

Sammy crunching potato chips, signifying one of the plagues of Egypt. Which one?

Sammy doing silly faces with his cheerleading group

 Silly faces with the Round Robin group

I helped out with the registration crew when I wasn't busy filling water jugs and arranging cookies on a platter.

Monday afternoon Nico had a dentist appointment. While we were sitting in the waiting room I asked him if he wanted me to come back with him or if he wanted to go back all by himself. He said he wanted to go by himself!! What!! So, he did. They noticed all the rest of his molars had grown in so they sealed them to help prevent cavities. His current cavities are doing just fine, not getting any worse. Wahoo! 

Tuesday Nico had a doctor's appointment, follow up for his stool test. There is some inflammation in his gut. I told her about his throwing up episodes in the morning and she's pretty sure it's a food, and told me to do some investigative work and try to figure out which food is causing it. It's likely a food that he had eaten within 24 hours of the tummy trouble happening. If we can't isolate a food that is causing it, and if it keeps happening, she will send him to a pediatric GI. He also had to get his blood drawn to check his Vitamin D level and his white blood count, which was low last time. He asked the nurse if he could lie down on the bed. The nurse asked if he wanted me to come hold his hand, and he said "No". Hehe. Then he laid there super still. They had a bonding moment when she said to him "Look at the blood that's coming out of your body, isn't that cool?" and he said "Yes!" He watched her do the whole thing. When it was all over she said "You did better than some adults!" She also let him use her stethoscope to hear his own heart beat through his arm. She asked him if he wanted to be a doctor someday and he said Yes. His Vitamin D level went way up (yay!) and his white blood count was back to normal. Yay! So glad to hear that.

We signed up for the Summer Fest through the Library. You can earn free books by reading 20 minutes per day.  He loves to read!! He brings his favorite books over to Sam & Aadam's house so that he can read to them. Him and Sam take turn reading books to each other. 

That's it for this week. Check out the Kindergarten graduation video below!

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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!