First Day of New School

We came back from Salt Lake City on Saturday and we were very happy to be home! We got to be here for all of Guy's weekend and we got some good family time in.

Tuesday was Nico's first day at his new school. Everything went fine, he got on the bus fine and came home fine. On Wednesday when I told him it was about time to get ready for school, he resisted. That's ok, that sometimes happened before, but in the past I would just tell him that he needed to go to school and he was fine. This time, he resisted, and kept resisting, I almost had to sit on him to put his shoes on. He kept pulling his shoes off as I was putting them on. I had to drag him to the bus where the kind bus driver got down and had Nico sit on his lap. Eventually they brought him onto the bus, but the whole while he was still saying "No, Mommy, no, I don't want to go to school. I don't want to I don't want to!"

When he got home he had quite the welcome committee. Me, Daddy, Allicia, Avery, and Evie were all sitting on the front porch waiting for him. After bringing him from the bus, he came right up onto the porch and pulled out some stuff from his backpack to show all of us.

The same resisting thing happened today but in a lesser degree. As soon as he was on the bus he was fine.

Other strange things are happening… potty accidents for him AND for Evie, and acting out a lot. I'm thinking it must be growing pains, moving pains, change and transition pains. We had to miss a trip to G.G. this week because of time outs going long. We rescheduled for next Tuesday.

Last week I launched my essential oil YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/joannabananaberry), so I have been busy while Nico is at school. We've been eating off of paper plates and I think we'll continue to do that until we move into the clubhouse which they are projecting will be ready in one month's time!

Clubhouse progress

Getting Nico off the bus

Sharing some snickerdoodles with Daddy after dinner.

Moving, New School

We moved officially last Saturday. My parents took Nico up to the cabin overnight so that we could focus on moving and unpacking. Once moved in, we had planned that Nico would sleep in a twin bed in the main suite but he asked to sleep in Guy's bed which is in the closet. So, we let him! It turned out to be a good thing because there is a door to the closet area (it's a large closet), and Guy and I could shut it and then play games of cribbage. Jeff & Allicia got us a cribbage board as a move-in present. We've played it a few times already. We have everything we need except a kitchen sink and a stove. When we move into the Clubhouse (the renovated garage), we will have both of those things! The stove will just be a burner, but we don't need much else. The reduction of dishes and things in our living space has been very freeing. I know that most of them are packed away in storage and will resurface when we move to a bigger place one day, but right now I am enjoying living minimally.

Nico has been very happy to live "in Evie's house", and asks to play with her soon after getting up every morning.

On Monday we went to meet Nico's new teacher, Miss Erica. The classroom has a fish that Nico got to feed. From the looks of it I think Nico will be well suited to be in that class, the older kids are all in the afternoon class and she said there are some good outgoing personalities in that class that will get along great with Nico.

On Tuesday Nico had his last day at his old school. They were sure to give him hugs and tell him they will miss him. Tuesday after school, Grandma and I picked Nico up from school and started our journey to Salt Lake City for 6 days. We are here now! There is a dōTERRA convention here so that is what I've been doing while Grandma and Nico play. At the zoo, all the swimming pool, at the toy store, they are having a lot of fun. And so am I! We plan to drive back to Boise on Monday.

Only a few pictures this week.

Watching his iPad on top of a box

Nico and Grandma at the zoo

Not a very thoughtful composition since the name of the zoo is cut out, but it is the Hogle Zoo. They rode the train at the zoo three times! Nico just kept wanting to ride it again.

And a video! Tuesday morning, eating breakfast in our new place.

Moving, School

Nico was sick with a head cold over the weekend. We skipped church. But he did get to play with Meatball the cat. He brought his airplane outside to show him. The cat followed him around while Nico poked among the rocks.

Tuesday night we went to Jeff & Allicia's to drop off a bunch of stuff for storage. We took it down into their cellar. They had room for all of it! I am so glad we won't need to rent a storage unit. This afternoon I took some stuff up into the suite, kitchen stuff, and blankets. We move this Saturday, in TWO DAYS!

Today while Nico was in school I called the bus to tell them our new address. They told me to call his teacher to have her submit the new address, so I called his teacher. She called me back and I gave her the new address and she asked me "now did you make sure that you are still in the boundaries for Madison school?" Umm… no :( I told her that I had assumed that since we were just moving a mile away that it would be the same school. Uh oh, I was wrong. She looked it up and it looks like after moving we will lie in the district for a different preschool - at White Pine Elementary. My heart broke. I asked her if there was anything we could do to keep Nico at Madison and she said not likely. She called later to confirm that there was nothing they could do, no exception could be made.

So it looks like Nico will be going to a different school. Next Tuesday will be his last day at Madison. We told Nico when he got home today and it didn't seem to phase him. I will keep repeating it over the next few days so that it's sure to sink in. It may be more of an adjustment for Guy and I than Nico!

And wouldn't you know it, I forgot to take pictures until today. So you've got three of them.

Hanging out in the cooler

Waiting outside for the bus. We read books, break sticks, or whatever else we think of.

Throwing sticks on the ground

Short and sweet today! Remember next week this blog will be password protected.

BBQ, GF Bread, Zoo

Just a reminder that in two weeks this blog will become password protected. Write me at joannarussell06@gmail.com if you want the password!

On Sunday afternoon all of us headed up to the cabin for a family BBQ. Hotdogs, fruit salad, and a photo recognition game my Mom put together. Each of us had an old picture of ourselves on a poster board and everyone had to guess who each person was. There were prizes and everything!

I left early with Nico because I wasn't feeling well, but Guy was able to stay later and Jonny and Alanna took him home that night. He very much needed time hanging out like that, as this was his first weekend in about 20 days where he wasn't working overtime. He was needing some relax time and he had a lot of fun with everyone at the cabin.

On Monday Nico and I went to Allicia's house and she made us tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. She used tomatoes from her garden, and made a double batch. 8 cups of chopped tomatoes! Also on Monday I tried out a gluten free bread recipe. We use a lot of bread and will likely use more of it after we move into our clubhouse. Bread is easy to eat and very versatile. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, it can be used for everything. Guy will be eating a lot of sandwiches over the next few months or years. But he doesn't mind. He has fond memories of eating cheese sandwiches for lunch in elementary school. And we talk of someday opening a gluten free sandwich shop. Learning how to bake gluten free bread is the start of that.

We all tried the bread out on Monday evening, and Nico woke up the next morning with a tummy ache. He ate more bread for breakfast and his tummy ache persisted. I rubbed some essential oils on his tummy and then he asked to snuggle. He fell asleep for nearly 2 hours on the couch, at 9 AM. When he woke up he said he still had a tummy ache. More essential oils on his tummy and it was about time to make a decision of whether or not he would go to school. He wasn't lethargic or sad, he was very chipper, but always answered "Yes" when I asked him if he had a tummy ache. I decided to keep him home. I called the bus and his teacher. 5 minutes later Nico said "I want a snack"! I fed him and then he said his tummy ache was gone. So I think this episode of tummy problems was due to the bread. I will need to find a different recipe that Nico can tolerate.

Tuesday afternoon we watched Evie and Avery while Allicia went to an appointment. They had a lot of fun playing with Nico's race track and learning how to share.

This morning we met Grandma Salisbury at Whole Foods to go grocery shopping. Then Gma took Nico to the zoo while I finished grocery shopping. It was a fun excursion, and I'm so happy we can do these things in the morning before school in the afternoons. Thanks for the fun time, Gma!

We FaceTimed with Grandma Russell today to sing her the Happy Birthday song. Happy Birthday Gma!! Nico has been hand-writing birthday cards. I write out the words for him and he copies. Then I ask him what else he wants to write in the card and it's always different. We are sending the latest birthday card to his Uncle Tom tomorrow.

We got a tripod for my camera so I can shoot videos, and Nico enjoyed taking pictures of everything while the camera was hooked up to the tripod. I showed him how to use the handle to move the camera around, up and down and side to side, around and around. I went through the pictures later and could see his thought process, taking pictures of everything, not pictures of nothing, but pictures of everything. He took pictures of all his artwork on the walls, one at a time, pictures of me, pictures of the printer, all from the tripod in the same spot in the living room. He would sometimes announce what he was going to take a picture of next.

First tripod test

Nico's picture of the iPad

Then we moved it into the bedroom while I did laundry. For this he just pointed it at the bed and click click clicked to take picture after picture of me folding laundry.

Cleaned my oven. Want to see? I used a homemade paste to clean it, I found the recipe online. You leave it on overnight and then rinse it off the next day. It didn't make all the ickiness go away, but it improved it significantly. I figured I needed to leave the oven looking nice when we move out.

Before

After

I do have a tip for anyone wanting to clean their oven: Hire someone else to do it. Pay any amount required.

Looking forward to just using my toaster oven and having less appliances and things to clean and take care of. There will be plusses and minuses to living so minimally, but it will be an adventure no matter what. T minus 10 days.

Evie, School, Monkeys

This was back to school week! But we'll get to that soon. 

A bit of upkeep first. This blog is going to be password protected starting on Thursday Sept 18th. If I know that you read this blog, then you should have received an email from me telling you what that password is going to be. If you are family or friend that would like to continue reading this blog and you didn't get an email from me, then please write me an email at joannarussell06@gmail.com and I will send you the password.

On Sunday after church, the Grandparents Salisbury treated us to Idaho Pizza Company. Nico walked up to complete strangers while we were there to tell them about his haircut. First time I've seen him be that forward! We got a plate for the salad buffet and I got Nico a variety of things covered with cheese and ranch dressing. It was his first time trying ranch. But he seemed to prefer the little ham cubes with nothing else on them. So, that he ate. We got to see my brother David, which was great! Nico had cousins and Uncles there, plus Grandparents. We took up two tables.

Monday was Nico's Open House at his school. Nico and I met his new teacher, the assistants, and his new speech therapist, Miss Marianne. I am very pleased with his new teacher, Miss Carol! 

Miss Yvonne (assistant), Miss Carol (teacher), Miss Bianca (student teacher)

Miss Marianne (speech therapist)

Miss Carol seems very laid back and outgoing. She was sure to tell me that they get messy in the class so don't send Nico to school in nice clothes except on picture day :) Homework every week is a new book which Nico gets to pick out. They are simple books. This week he chose The Farmer in the Dell. Which is literally 4 pages long. The farmer in the dell, the farmer in the dell, hi-hoe the derry-oh, the farmer in the dell. She told me that they'll be reading it back to us by the end of the week. This evening while I was washing dinner dishes, I could hear Nico in his bedroom singing the book, which we had done together earlier. 

Miss Marianne took us to her office and talked briefly about how she does speech therapy. It will be a lot like last year in that it is usually 2 kids at a time that she teaches. 

Nico has 9 kids in his class this year, but with 3 adults in the class that is still a pretty good ratio!

Miss Carol and Miss Yvonne had interacted with Nico before, so they knew him. They were surprised with how well he was speaking compared to last year. I must say, that it's been just in the past few weeks that he has made leaps and bounds in his speaking. Not just in speaking, but in relating! He is able to hold short conversations with me and keep eye contact for much longer.

Tuesday was his first day. But before school, we took Evie to the park. This is a major plus side to having afternoon preschool. The mornings are fresh and new and there is always time to play! We can run errands or play at the park. We picked up Evie and took her to Quarry View.

They played a game of animal rescue on the fire truck.  They would hear an animal in distress and then go rescue it. First one up was cats. Evie said the cats were on fire stuck in a tree, so they climbed into the fire truck and drove to the rescue. They first put the fire out so that the cats weren't on fire anymore, then they took the pretend ladder and propped it up against a tree so they could climb up and get the cats. They climbed trees to get: a dog, horse, and cow. Then they picked wormy apples, crab apples, and splashed in a puddle. Evie put all her crab apples into her hat and then dipped the hat into the water. A present for her Mom.

Also snapped a picture of clubhouse progress:

We've got a door and a kitchen window!

Then school in the afternoon, after a large lunch of hot dogs and strawberries.

I took him to school for his first day. Even though I'd already been in his classroom and met his teachers, I still wanted to take him.

But he took the bus home. Looks like we got one of the same bus drivers this year!

Tuesday night, Guy got a call from work telling him that he didn't have to come in for overtime that night. He had worked 13 or 14 nights straight and this call provided him a much needed rest. Wahoo! We were able to hangout together and watch Miss Marple after Nico went to bed.

This morning before school we went to the zoo. We hadn't been there in a while. Our plan to go every Friday in the summer wasn't working for August. I kind of put it on the back burner because the dinosaurs made it more difficult. But we had SO much fun at the zoo. We spent most of our time watching the monkeys. The large monkey exhibit is underneath several large acorn trees, and acorns were dropping all over the place. Whenever one would hit the monkey cage, Nico would erupt into laughter and ask me what that sound was. "It was an acorn falling on the cage!" Nico: "A acorn falling on a cage!" and then he would laugh and laugh and laugh. He got several other people around him laughing, too. They would come and go but we stayed glued to the exhibit for quite a while. The baby monkey played with rocks, and would climb to the top of the cage to pull the acorns through the cage because most of them were a little too big to fall right through. Then he'd pop the top off of the acorn and start eating it.

That's a full week for us!

Apples, G.G., Tiny Houses

We had an epic time-out last Friday that lasted 3 hours. Nico lost iPad privileges for two days, too. That was a first for him. He didn't seem to mind too much to be without the iPad, he never threw a fit about it, just asked every once in a while and I'd always remind him that he had to wait.

On Sunday we took a family trip to Quarry View (I think I'll officially switch to calling Old Park by its real name - Quarry View). On our way there we noticed how much wind there was, so we excitedly got out the kite once we arrived at the park. Wind wind wind, I could sense the kite wanting to take off in it while we were walking to the field. But the minute, no, the second, that we got into the field, the wind stopped. Completely! Guy tried running with the kite, which got it up in the air temporarily, but it always came back down. 

So we scrapped the idea and instead we took some pictures by the apple trees.

Nico wanted to pick apples so he got on Guy's shoulders.

Apples keep fallin' on my head

Saw Allicia on Monday, brought some of Nico's toys over, the ones we plan to keep downstairs so everyone can play with them. I chose Nico's floor puzzles, his train set, duplo blocks, some large trucks and his wooden trucks. We put together both floor puzzles while we were there. 

They have made a lot of progress on the garage! While Allicia was out of town with the kids last week, Jeff and his dad got a lot done. They tore down all the external walls and put a fireproof layer on the outside. Since the garage is so close to the garage next door (separated by maybe 2 feet, with a fence down the middle), the city code requires some fire protection. Then they'll put siding on it. 

Allicia told me where the kitchen sink and counters will be. The fridge, more counters, and a bar for our table. The rest will be living space, which we will figure out later. I am very excited.

Allicia shared this article with me written in the Idaho Statesman about a woman who lives in a tiny house. She lives in a 196 square foot house with her infant daughter. You can see the pictures slideshow on the article page. Apparently there is a group in Idaho called the Tiny House Enthusiasts! I didn't even know we were part of a movement :) Our situation is of course a little different, but it's similar.

On Tuesday we went over to Allicia's house again to watch the kids while she flipped the suite because she had back-to-back bookings. My Mom came with me for a few minutes so she could meet the house and the suite and see the garage they're working on. 

On Wednesday we went to visit G.G. She gave Nico a book that has a CD to follow along. His favorite! We watched a little bit of t.v. while we were there and it was quite a treat this time since she now has Netflix hooked up! Thanks to Grandpa Russell for doing that while they were visiting. Nico chose a Curious George movie and recited a lot of it as it was playing. He loves interacting with people while he's watching something he knows. He loves to share his favorite t.v. shows.

Today we had to get our tires rotated. Nico got 2 bouncy balls and 2 trinkets from the machines in the lobby while we were waiting. Then we got our emissions test done, and since the emission testing place is in the same parking lot as Pojo's (arcade games!), we decided to go. Nico had about $10 of birthday cash left that I've been keeping in my purse, so we took $5 and spent it all on games. This was a fun place, and much quieter than Wahooz. There were less people, it was smaller, and it didn't seem as loud. Nico played a fishing game and a claw game that he really enjoyed. Also bowling, and a few other ones.

Then this afternoon we took a trip to the fountain downtown to throw some coins in.

Reaching into his pocket to get coins

 Popping ice cubes from our new ice cube tray. Push the bottom of them and they POP out.

Running through the sprinkler

Fuzzy new hair cut. I see a stray hair!

Guy has been in serious overtime mode. He worked all through his last weekend. Not full nights, but 6-8 hours each night. Which, goodness, is still a lot! And he is working through his next weekend, too.

Garden, Fish Park, and the iBee

We tried several times this past week to fly a kite. The gusts of wind seemed wild enough to carry a kite but when we got to the park there was hardly anything! Oh well. We keep the kite in the back of the car in case we need to make an emergency kite flying stop.

On Sunday after church we went to Louie's for lunch with family. Then afterward, Nico drove to Nampa with Papa to pick up the eggs and milk from the farm. The Grandparents Salisbury gave us 2 dozen farm fresh eggs this week (thank you!!), the darkest orange yolks you ever did see! Papa also let us borrow his wheelbarrow and a big shovel (we already have a small Nico-sized one) so that we could move the dirt from our garden. On Tuesday we moved it to the area under our pine trees. We don't plan to take the dirt with us when we move, but will definitely be bringing our garden bed!

Nico happened to be wearing a nice shirt that morning and me a skirt. But it turns out all you need is good shoes and you can get the job done. We were done quickly.

Cold water, juice, cheese stick, and iPad to relax after digging dirt.

On Monday we went to see Allicia and crew in the morning and brought some bins with us to store in their cellar.

Tuesday, Fish Park!

His favorite part of the Fish Park is the stream-bed in the lobby and the big sturgeon fish that swim under the bridge. So we just did those two things.

We've been… eating cinnamon raisin bread, going for bike rides in the morning, sorting through closets, snuggling, reading, and playing iPad games and watching videos. He is really enjoying read-along books that come with a CD of the story. And of course truck/car books from the library.

Two more weeks until school starts! I am mentioning it to him every so often so he knows it's coming. I've also been trying and trying to remember to enforce him saying "iPad" instead of "iBee". It was one thing that his speech therapist wanted him to work on, but I am so used to him saying "iBee" that I haven't remembered to correct him! We practice saying "iPad" on purpose and he can do it just fine, but it's a habit to say iBee and it's a hard one to break.

Onward!

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!