Skateboard Park, Another VBS, and Birthday!

On Friday I took Nico in the early morning to one of the local skateboard parks, Fort Boise Skateboard Park. It had a big pit with a bunch of ups and downs and since we were the only ones there I let Nico go down in there to run around. He rode his skateboard for a few minutes but then discovered that it was fun trying to climb up the sides, so that's what he spent the rest of the time doing. When people started showing up, I had him get out of the pit. We watched them ride and jump all over the place. Nico saw that the kids were putting BOTH feet on the skateboard instead of just one (I had tried telling him the day before that he should try to put his other foot up on the board but he didn't want to hear it, hehe!!), so he wanted to try it. He did it! He pushed himself with one foot then brought it up to the board behind his other one.

One of the parents there started talking to me, and him and his 8 year old son were very nice to Nico and the 8 year old boy took Nico down into a smaller pit and helped him ride back and forth on either side of the curve to get him used to the motion. Another 12 year old kid was very nice to Nico too and told me all about how there are skateboarding lessons that could help Nico. They all told me what kind of skateboard to buy for Nico and helmet and gear, etc., and where to get it from. I have not met a nicer group of skateboarders in my life! Nico, after coming home on Friday, has not wanted to skateboard at all. Not sure when he'll try again, but for now he's content to have tried it and had fun for a few days. I didn't get much of a video from the skateboard park, at least none of it when the kids were helping him out in the pit, but I did get a few shots of Nico on his own down there. You can see the video at the end of the post. In the video you'll also see how he skateboards without putting his back foot on the board. This was before the kids showed up.

On Sunday, Nico got to spend the afternoon with Sarah. She is the teenager who watched the kids during Bible Study. Nico loves her and loves going over to her house. She offered to watch Nico to pay me back for some essential oil stuff, so I said YES! Since I had a LOT of coursework to finish up, Guy and I took the time to go to Starbucks. We sat across from each other sipping our drinks, each with our laptops, and we both worked on stuff. It was very pleasant and I hope to be able to do things like that more often!!

Monday started VBS at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Nico thought I was going to stay with him and Evelyn, so didn't want me to leave. But, I convinced him. Today when I dropped him off took a LOT of convincing. I may or may not have told him that we'd have to rethink his birthday party if he didn't let go of my leg and go inside with Evelyn. :/ Don't worry, the birthday party is still on. I was convinced he was just being bored and whiny, and I was right.. but there was probably a better way to handle that. I listened to him, I told him I understood, I reasoned with him, I was nice, then I was firm, then I walked away, then he chased me, then I pulled out the birthday party thing. Thankfully he listened quick and had no more trouble. I think he would have just rather been home playing on his iPad.  Because that's what he usually tells me when I ask him why he doesn't want to be somewhere.

Wednesday was Nico's birthday! Growing up I always remember my parents putting out presents on the table with a card so when I woke up I would see presents on the table and get to open them up right then. I loved it! A day all about me. So this is what I did for Nico. I had Guy stop by Freddies on the way to work one day to pick up Nico a "Dinosaur Car" that he has been asking for for a long while. I wrapped that, put two bows on it, bought him two mylar balloons - a spider man one and a happy  birthday cupcake one. I put $5 in a card for him, I also put figs and chocolate and a brownie on the table. When he woke up I said "Go get Daddy from downstairs and then come up here and look what's on the table for you!" There were no lights on yet so he still had no idea. He was very excited. He had fun opening his present and he said "A dinosaur car!!" It's so fun to see him so excited. We put candles in his breakfast brownie and sang to him. At the last minute he said "WHERE'S MY BIRTHDAY HAT!??!" so we grabbed it for him.

After VBS that day, I took Nico and Evelyn to Reel Foods Fish Market, where they have deep fried gluten free Fish 'n' Chips. The dipping sauce was their favorite part. They ate and were happy. Then I took them to Tree City Juice and Smoothie Cafe and bought them each a smoothie. Strawberries, bananas, peaches, and OJ. We sat for a while and then I took them home.

Nico and Evelyn are like siblings! I remember when I was little, driving my brothers NUTS whenever we were in the car, and that's exactly what Evelyn does for Nico. I think Evelyn is very similar to how I was at that age. I can see it in her eyes... Except her imagination is a bit more than mine was. She likes to tell stories about thieves and animals on our rides to VBS, it's very entertaining. And then she pushes Nico's buttons, which can get him screaming pretty quick. But sometimes it's not without his prompting. He'll finally get her to stop doing something to him and then he'll poke her with his foot, or do the thing that he was trying to get her to stop doing. hah.. Nico often tells me that Evelyn is his sister. I've explained it a few times so I think he understands now.

Birthday party is this Saturday, 4 PM, here! It'll be a great weekend with Grandparents Russell visiting!

Ivy holding Nico's finger. He likes to do "This Little Piggy" on her toes.

Nico at the skatepark

Christmas in July, dancing, and a skateboard

Nico woke up several times in the middle of the night on Friday night, to ask me if it was time to go to the cabin. On Saturday we got ready and drove up there early. There was a Christmas in July craft that my mom put together for all the girls, and the kids had a craft of their own that Alanna organized. We made Christmas trees from styrofoam and fabric squares, cotton balls, and pins. It was a lot of fun, and I got to see an old friend plus all my sisters! It was a great event that my mom organized. She actually organized it for last November (or was it December?) but they got snowed in and so had to cancel it. To avoid that problem again she decided to do the craft in the middle of July :)

The craft the kids did looked like fun. Painting on canvases with hand prints and foot prints making Christmas shapes like reindeers and santa claus. Nico decided he was done after painting his canvas completely brown with nothing else. I asked him at home just today if he wanted to add anything to it and he said "No". So, brown canvas it is! We'll hang it on our wall. I'm proud! :)

After getting home on Saturday, we woke Guy up and then Guy and Nico went out for a bit. They stopped by the PO Box to pick up a package that Grandma Russell sent Nico. VBS music! (more on that later) They were back by 6 so that we could venture over to Red Robin to celebrate the fact that we paid off our first debt. More yummy food.

On Sunday Nico had a fun day. After church I dropped him off back home so I could go out to eat and a movie with friends from church to celebrate a birthday. Nico got to go with Jeff & Allicia, Evelyn, Avery, and Ivy on an adventure to the "beach". They rode their bikes to Municipal park and then went to the little beach area at the river, near the Fish Park. Nico stripped down all of his clothes but they had him put his underwear back on. I'll have Allicia send me some pictures that she took of Evelyn and Nico playing in the water. When Jeff asked the kids what they should call the place so they know what to say when referring to it, Nico said "Minnow!" So they're going to call it the Minnow Pond. I wonder if they saw minnows there and that's why he said that?

Monday afternoon was dance class. I drove Nico and Evelyn there and then pulled up a chair right outside the window so I could see them in the studio. They did clapping and skipping and hands above the head like a ballerina. It's a jazz/cheer/ballet combo class. I think for the last 2 minutes of class they must have done free dance, because all the kids were dancing all over the place doing whatever they wanted, instead of taking turns walking across the studio doing a specific move. It was fun to watch. I tried to study my aromatherapy flash cards, but I was too intrigued with the dance class to really pay attention to the cards.

Wednesday morning we took Evelyn with us to Target to buy Nico his skateboard for his birthday. He asked if Evelyn could come and I said Yes! Nico chose his skateboard, and wouldn't you know it, they had spiderman knee/elbow pads, so we bought them. Then we went to the park. See the video below for that.

I've told Nico over the past few weeks that skateboarding will take a lot of practice and that it's normal to fall down but that if he keeps at it he will get better and better.  He can push himself on the skateboard but he can't yet bring his pushing leg up to the skateboard and coast. That will take some practice!

While driving around with Evelyn, we were listening to our new VBS CD and it turns out that the first VBS that she went to this summer was one that used those very songs, so she knew all of them. I think this irked Nico a little bit and once Evelyn started singing along with the songs and telling Nico that they were HER songs, he told me to switch it to Sneaky Snake. haha... but then this evening I caught him singing Song #2. And he is very fond of Song #3, having said "This is my favorite song" the very first time he heard it. Thanks to Gma Russell for the CD! Nico told Evelyn several times that Gma Russell gave the CD to him.

Here is the promised VBS Video. But first, a story. Halfway through the VBS week, Nico started asking for a shiny armor costume for halloween. One with shiny boots, and a shield and a helmet. He kept saying he was going to ask Grandma to buy him a shiny armor costume for Halloween. Then I figured out what he was talking about. Shortly after singing one of the VBS songs, he turned to me and said "I want to get a shiny armor costume for Halloween" and I finally put the pieces together.

Hehe... you must watch the video to figure out what he was talking about... it's the last dancing scene and I spell it out for you there in case what they're singing about is hard to hear. Yes Nico, you can be that for Halloween!!

Then the Skateboard video

Grandma Sleepover, Mega Sports Camp

Last Friday was a very special day because Grandma Salisbury came to visit and she stayed the night in the suite upstairs! I had a henna booth to attend to that night and I was going to be home late, so Grandma took Nico up to the suite and played. Then he went to bed in one of the beds up there. He also got to play with Evelyn and some with Avery, too! Evelyn came upstairs and Nico and her put legos together for a while. I got home just before midnight and carried Nico downstairs to his own bed. Soon after I brought him downstairs, he woke up, crying and asking where Grandma was. I told him that she was sleeping but that he could snuggle with me on the couch (where I was sleeping). So, that's what we did.

The next morning, huzzah! We made apple muffins and brought one up to Grandma. We set the timer to go off when the mall opened, then we headed over there to do some shopping. Grandma took Nico to the toy store and came back with a spiderman toy.

It was a lot of fun, thank you Grandma!!!

"It's Mega Sports Camp Time!" This is what Nico says every morning when it's time to leave for VBS. Him and Evelyn have been having a great ol' time. They sing and dance and run around. I am volunteering there this week, I am the "Snack Coach" (everyone is a coach of something).. I bring the cookies and set up the snack table and hand out cookies, then clean everything up. I volunteered for this job because it would give me an opportunity to give the same snack to everyone because I could bring gluten free cookies! As the week progressed, people brought other snacks to share so now it is a mixture of gluten free and glutenous, but it is still pretty cool to say YES to Nico for most things.

I also chose Snack Coach because it doesn't require handling kids. Hey, if I can choose, I might as well not do something that will wear me out even more.... riiiight? ;)

They give out lots of candy. I told Allicia how much candy Evelyn ate the first day and she was worried how the afternoon would turn out. Well the next morning we saw. Evelyn had cut chunks of her bangs off the previous afternoon as part of her art. She was taping her hair to the pictures she was drawing. Very innovative! From then on out Evelyn was instructed to bring home all of her candy.

For Nico, I cut up some Nico-safe candies into smaller pieces and re-wrapped them in parchment paper. It totally worked.

I will have a video of VBS probably next week. This week has been so busy I have had barely any extra time. I actually caught on tape when Nico was called on to answer a question during one of the "rallies" they had in the main sanctuary. He loves talking into a microphone. He always raises his hand though he has never known the answer to the question they asked. And here are some of his responses to the questions:

"I'm going to tell you a story first. I had an ant, and a leaf, and the next morning, the ant had died!"

"Uhmm....Jesus died on the cross" (this is the one I caught on video)

"I went to the cabin, and there was an elk, and we saw the elk, and then the elk ran away!"

"The storm rains down on the ground" (this was on topic! The question was about storms in our life)

Everyone is so encouraging of him and they clap or say "Right On!"

Then with the dancing, oh the dancing!! He is enjoying that part of VBS so much.

The dance class with Evelyn, I thought started this week but is actually next week, next Monday. There is actually another dance class I came across, Hip Hop, for Nico's age, that is also on Mondays, right before the one with Evelyn. I am seriously considering signing him up for that one too, since I'm pretty sure that's his favorite kind of music to dance to. But, it would be a long afternoon, with 1 1/2 hours of dancing. Maybe I'll hold off on that for now.

I heard back from Nico's doc. The blood tests came back ALL clear... nothing was amiss. His food allergy tests were all negative. I think we'll sit on this info for a while before we pursue anything else.  Haven't heard from the ultrasound place yet to set up his ultrasound.

Not sure much else has happened this week.

OH WAIT!!! Something very important happened this week!! Look at the picture and guess:

We paid off our first debt!!! A total of $11,000 since last September! I can't believe it happened so quickly! We are celebrating by going to Red Robin on Sunday. We already made a new thermometer for our next debt. We're on our way :)

Ok now that HAS to be it... I'm pretty sure there's nothing else.

Pool time!

Last day of Nico's Literacy Program was last Friday. Nico was excited for his last day. I don't think he enjoyed the program as much as he enjoyed any of his preschools. After we left, we went straight to Pojo's! We met one of his friends Lazarus there.

Then the 4th of July! We chose sparklers and Pop-its. Nico thought it was "puppets", so when we got home he kept saying that soon he was going to open up the puppets, but I had no idea he was saying it wrong until he said to me "I wonder what animal is in there? A little puppet." He bent his index finger up and down like there was a puppet on it. So then I explained it to him.

Guy ducking while Nico throws Pop-its

We did a "random act of kindness" on Monday. While Jeff and Allicia were out of town, we cleaned some of their house. Nico helped me pick up stuff off the floor and helped me with the vacuum cleaner. Also on Monday we set up the swimming pool. Slathered sun screen on (forgot his nose, whoops! It's scabbed over now), and jumped in! I even went in with Nico. I retreated after a while underneath the canopy. It was very pleasant, having a place to sit in the shade and study while Nico jumped around in the pool. We played in the pool twice that day.

From this picture you can also see our cantaloupe plant growing on the left in a pot. 

Tuesday we went to see G.G.! It was great to catch up. The next time we see her will be for Nico's birthday party on August 1st! I need to sit down and plan it. Nico has ideas all the time for what he wants at his birthday party. I can't remember them all.

After we left G.G.'s house, we went to a doctor's appointment for Nico. We are on the road to figuring out what is going on with his tummy. They took some blood to get the normal bloodwork, plus a panel of 22 foods to see if he is allergic to any of them. The doc said that this test, if done on young children, has a tendency to have some false negatives, because sometimes a child's body isn't producing the antibodies to the food (yet?) So, the test won't be complete, BUT, if anything shows up positive then hey, it was worth it. We'll also do an abdominal ultrasound to check for anything abnormal. We're covering our bases. The doc said that getting these tests done helps to give us confidence when we tell Nico "It's going to be okay" whenever he has a tummy ache. I liked that way of looking at it. Rule out all the bad stuff, so we can know better what we're dealing with. The doc said we may want to go see an allergist eventually too.

Nico was brave getting his blood drawn. Earlier that day Nico had asked me to clarify how mosquitoes suck blood from our body (he is very knowledgeable about insects after his literacy program, that was the theme!) So I told him what I knew. I told him a blood draw would be similar, except it would hurt for a little bit but then it would be over. And he'd get to watch the blood come out of his body. The nurse had to poke two arms (Nico insisted she do his right arm, so she tried that one first even though she wanted to do the left one. The right one didn't work, left a bruise, so she moved to the left one) Nico's face wrinkled up when she poked him, but otherwise he was so brave! Unlike Mommy, who had to drop down to the floor to keep from fainting. The nurse asked "Does Mommy need a glass of water?" Hehe...

After we left, I told him that he was SO BRAVE! And Nico said "I was not brave, I was MAD!" hahaha!!! I asked him to expound on his feelings and he said he was mad because the nurse poked him with a needle. :) We went straight to Freddies afterward to buy him a toy :) (not just because he was mad, but because we had planned to get him a new toy after the blood draw)

Wednesday, what a day! Nico and I sat down to do some legos after Guy had gone to work and after the dishes were done. But then I remembered! Nico doesn't have a tooth brush! So I said "Come on! Let's go to the Market to get you a tooth brush!" Nico was all for it, so we got our shoes on and walked over to M & W Market. As we were walking there the wind started, slowly. After we bought his toothbrush and left, it was a whirlwind outside. There was so much sand and dust blowing everywhere that I could barely see through my squinting, so we went back in to the M & W to wait it out a bit. After sitting for a few minutes Nico said: "I like wind! Let's go!" so we left. And thank goodness we did! It started raining on the way home and a few minutes after making it through our door, the torrents started. SO MUCH RAIN! Nico insisted that we finish putting the lego together with the lights off, and just the desk lamp on. So we did. Every time we heard the thunder, we jumped and yelled from surprise.

I looked outside and saw that the pool was being blown away, so I ran outside, flipped it over the right way and put a heavy pot inside it. When I got back inside I was very soaked. The canopy had waterfalls coming off it which I had to walk through.

Then we went outside in the front to play in the rain with Evelyn. They played in the water in the street, I have fond memories of doing this when I was younger too, when our street would flood. It wasn't very deep for them, and Nico didn't really get IN the water, but he played around it while Evelyn was in it.

They were playing very nicely, and I was chatting with Jeff on the porch, when we heard a CRUNCH, CLANG! coming from the side of the house near the clubhouse. I thought Avery may have hurt himself but I looked around and saw him just fine. We peeked around the corner and there in front of the clubhouse was our canopy, collapsed in on itself. The water must have pooled on top until it couldn't hold anymore. It was a mess! This picture is after I took off the canopy material.



Papa mentioned that there might be replacement parts that we could buy. And indeed there are! Nico and I took some of the canopy apart today and will work on getting the rest taken apart soon, so we can find out which parts are salvageable.

Nico has been making forts and for two nights he has slept in them. Such fun.

Nothing else to report at this time. Until next week!

Thoughtfulness, Bike Trail, Hot!

On Friday Nico rode his own bike to school instead of the trailer bike. While we were locking up his bike, someone that Nico calls "Grandma" walked by and stopped to talk to us (she was also one that stopped to talk to us in the video last week). She told me that I was raising a very sweet and thoughtful boy. When they were in line and leaving the classroom one day, Nico noticed Grandma lagging behind at the end of the line so he left his spot and went back and grabbed her hand to walk with her. I like hearing stuff like this!

We tried to beat the heat on Saturday by going early to the bike trail (aka Strider Park), but it was still super hot and muggy. It was the first time Nico tried this bike trail with his actual bike instead of his Strider. It took some getting used to because pedaling over the bumps is hard. I pushed him up the bumps sometimes because he lost momentum. But then he would yell (playfully?) "I'm going too fast I'm going too fast!!!!!" This is where he also learned to back pedal to brake his bike. Before this he was stopping himself by dragging the tips of his toes on the ground. 

We did the trail twice.

Sunday, Guy woke up very early due to a Nico outburst. 2 PM maybe. It actually gave us time to sort through a lot of Nico's toys and do some reorganizing and purging. It was great. We even pulled out a bin from storage that had toys in it that Nico hadn't seen since last September. He was very excited, and so, for You and Me Time one morning, he wanted to put together and take apart and put together his airplane toy, all while I played with his other toy that made a different airplane fly around a track. You can see the video at the end of this post.

We had some very hot days here this past week. It was hot! 107 degrees I think on Sunday. We had a heat advisory to stay indoors in an air conditioned building. Our swamp cooler was working hard but we still had some trouble keeping the temperature comfortable in here. We set up our canopy out front yesterday and that actually seems to keep the house a bit cooler. It catches some of the sun for us. This weekend we will probably set up the little kiddie pool underneath it. 

This is the last week of Nico's literacy program. Tomorrow is his last day! He has a week free before VBS Mega Sports Camp starts, which will last one week and Evelyn will be going with him. He is excited about that, and also the dance class that they are also taking together that starts soon. He likes to do stuff with Evelyn.

Guy left work a little bit ago and came home because he wasn't feeling well. Here's hoping he feels better soon! :(

That's it for today. Until next time!

Red Robin, Bike Trailer

Well, last week I forgot to mention two things that happened, both were Birthday parties. You can see a video at the end of this post of the highlights of each. Nico's friend Vincent turned 3, and then Nico's cousin Rory turned 6!

Now on to this week...
Sunday was Father's Day. It was also the summer solstice, which we completely forgot about. Whoops. We considered celebrating last minute, but we are going to try to instead, celebrate this coming weekend, so we can have some time to plan ahead. I think we are going to attempt a picnic. Someone at church gave us a $25 Red Robin gift card, so Guy had a pretty good Father's Day. Nico even ate the tomato they put on his cheeseburger. Surrprise!

Then we did other things that Guy loves - we bought coffee and went to the Co-op. Happy Father's Day Guy! 

Then started another week of school. One thing I like about our bike rides every morning is that Nico has adopted the habit of saying "On your left!" whenever we pass someone. So the person hears it twice, first from me, then Nico echo. It is pretty cute and most people laugh and say Hi as we pass them.

On Monday we bought Guy a bike, which we've been saving up for for a while. On Tuesday we bought Nico a new helmet. This is part of his birthday present. The rest of his birthday present is going to be a skateboard and knee/elbow pads. He knows this and we are likely going to be purchasing this for him sooner than his birthday.

Today we went to the PO Box and picked up a box that Grandpa Russell sent to Nico. He got a frisbee that lights up and Nico was so excited about it he went to bed with it, telling me that it was great because it would be a nightlight for him, and he put it right by his head. Then he got up several times, "What color is that?" (the color on the frisbee changes, and he was curious what the non-color was, the normal flashlight color. White!) "Can I get Daddy's flashlight?", "Can I put together some legos?" then he got out of bed silently and walked across the room holding the frisbee in front of him. I asked him what he was doing out of bed, as he had walked right in front of me without looking at me while I was sitting on the couch. "I am looking over here with the frisbee." then he turned more lights off. hehe. I had showed him briefly how to throw it like a frisbee, so we will make it to a park soon to try it out. 

Tonight I told him it was time for a shower and he said no. So I told him that we'd have to skip reading books tonight if he didn't take a shower. He said no. Then he looked very concerned and asked me: "Am I going to turn into a potato?" I explained to him that even if he didn't take a shower, he would not turn into a potato. Then he asked me if he would turn into a potato while he was sleeping. I told him that he would never in his whole life turn into a potato. 4 months ago Guy had told him a story about a little boy that didn't take showers, and how this little boy turned into a potato.  I didn't think that Nico had taken it so seriously, but he had!

When he asks to play with legos at night in bed I say "Try to sleep for 10 minutes, then if you're still awake you can do legos." Every time, he falls asleep. Then in the morning, DING! Lego time. One morning last week when this had happened the night before, Nico woke up at 5 AM and said to me from his bed "Where's my legos? It's too dark in here. Mommy! I can't even see my BED! It's too dark in here, I can't see anything." Then he got up, got his legos, took the lamp with him, and went into his bed and put his lego together. When he was done, it was then time to get up.

Hmm... I am pretty sure nothing else happened this week. I hope I'm not forgetting something.

Enjoy a few more pictures from last week's Parktacular...

Video time!

I found out that for some reason, YouTube is really sensitive to GoPro camera settings and I obviously haven't researched it enough to get good results. All the biking videos I upload there are translated into bad quality, though they look pristine before the upload. :( I will try to fix this, but in the meantime, here's the bike trailer video of us going to school (I enjoyed picking out the circus music, it's kind of silly). And just a warning, there is fast forward movement in this video in case you need to prepare yourself (for those who may get dizzy:))

I keep editing this entry, because I keep forgetting things. The part where the video slows down (where it's not in fast motion) is the part where Nico and I go downhill really fast. You may be able to perceive the really big bump we go over.

Also, if you switch the settings to HD in the lower right corner of the video - click on the gear symbol and select HD, then the quality will improve a bit.

Birthday Party Video

Parktacular, comic book, and bike bumps

On Sunday Nico came with me to Settler's Park where we were meeting Pa and Ma, to set up the henna booth for the Parktacular event. After setting it up, we had about an hour before the event started, so we sat down to eat some lunch. It was a lovely day that didn't get too hot and there was a nice breeze. While Ma and I manned the booth, Papa took Nico to play on the splash pad, on the park equipment, and on the bouncy house.

It was a long day but so much fun. Jonny and Alanna stopped by as well as our friends Cassi and Cory, and a bunch of ladies from our church. David and Jill were going to stop by but they couldn't find a parking spot, it was that packed!! Thanks to Pa and Ma for helping make everything work. It was a blast and I hope to do it again soon. Papa took Nico home at about 4 PM so Guy could watch him for the remainder of the evening.

Literacy Program started up again on Monday. Nico was having a very hard time being dropped off on the "playground", which, if you remember, is just a field with a concrete slab and a couple basketball hoops and tether ball poles. I'm thinking if there had been a playground it would have been different for Nico. So we concocted a plan (divine intervention here, I was clueless what to do with Nico not wanting to be at school and wanting to go home and clinging to me. I prayed and got an answer pretty much 30 seconds later, just like last time), I asked Nico if he'd like to go hang out with me at the front of the school, and when his class walks by he can just join them there. He said YES! So now he has no issue going. We pull our bike up to the front of the school and sit down in the shade. The resource director, Lisa, usually joins us and we have a pleasant conversation. When Nico's class passes by he says "There's my class!" we put his backpack on and he joins the line. No prob Bob! 

Nico has not had speech therapy for a while and has been losing his S sound. I noticed a few days ago  that his lisp was back so I started asking him to say the correct S sound whenever he says a word with an S in it. It is hard for me to remember sometimes, but I really don't want him to have to relearn how to integrate the correct S sound back into his speech when he starts school in the fall. I wasn't expecting him to lose ground this summer, so I think we'll just have to work harder and maybe even do some of the fun activities the speech therapist sent home with him from preschool.

Nico asked for a comic book so we checked one out from the library at random. Looked good, but there are a few words in it that I don't want him to use... "jerk, brat, murder"... so we skip over those :) It's about a boy who can be invisible, and his sister. He memorized one of the lines from the comic, well, more than one, but this one is special because on our way to school a few days ago, riding our bikes in our quiet neighborhood at 8 AM, Nico is crying out almost at the top of his lungs "KEEP THAT CHALK MOVING, LEOPOLD! KEEP THAT CHALK MOVING, LEOPOLD!" I told him to try to use a quieter voice in the neighborhood and he obliged. 

There is one part of our bike ride where we rocket down a hill and at one point Nico says "WATCH OUT!" to remind me to duck so the tree doesn't hit me. After which I say "Hold on tight, here comes some bumps!" to remind him that they're coming. The bumps are huge, caused by tree roots, and afterward Nico says "My feet left the pedals!" 

I keep forgetting to attach the camera to my bike so I can video it. I will set the camera out tonight so I will remember tomorrow.

I think that about wraps it up for me! Enjoy the video of Nico dancing to his favorite song: Ready Set Go by Royal Tailor.

Literacy Academy, G.G., BBQs!

On Friday we went to see G.G. She brought out the chalk and Nico was excited to use the chalk on her back porch, but he only drew a few things before wanting to go back inside. One of the things he drew was G.G., with an owie on her hand. He had noticed her bandaid and had asked her about it and how it happened.

Saturday was a full day! We had a birthday party to go to for one of Nico's church friends, Lazarus. He was turning three years old. We went over to their house for a BBQ. Then in the afternoon we came home and woke Guy up and Guy took Nico to Roaring Springs, which is the major water park in the area. They met Lazarus and his family there. They stayed for 3 hours!! Nico apparently really loved the wave pool. Guy was so sore after getting home, from needing to carry Nico and keep him safe/holding him in the water. Guy zonked out for a solid 5 hour nap that night, and still went to bed at normal time in the morning.

Sunday was church. Nico successfully stayed in the big kids' room for the whole service! He had been staying with me in the big service off and on the past few weeks. Sunday night was the last night of Bible Study, but it wasn't really Bible Study, it was another BBQ! Guy has been counting calories but he gave himself a cheat day for this. Totally worth it, there were hamburgers and hot dogs and sausages and ice cream!! He didn't eat anything after this for the rest of his night, he was stuffed. We unfortunately didn't leave until close to 9 PM, and Nico wasn't in bed until 10 PM :( He had an early start the next morning for his first day of the literacy academy. He slept in until 7:30, a few minutes before I would have woken him. We had to leave at 8:05, so he ate his pancake and off we went.

I brought him to the Literacy Academy, met his teacher, he got a name tag and a connect-the-dots to start working on, and I left. He had a good first day but he has been a little resistant in going back there each morning. On Tuesday I got him excited about it because it was the first day we were going to ride the bike there. (We drove there on his first day)... Yay! You're supposed to bring them to the "playground" which is just a big field with some tether balls and a few basketball hoops. There are adults there to watch the kids. Nico was a little unsure and so held my hand. I prayed that someone would come and include him and 30 seconds later a little boy came up and asked him to play ball. He connected with one of the male teachers who was also playing ball and ever since then, that is who he goes to when I drop him off in the field. He had a hard time today and didn't want me to leave, and I ended up walking him to his classroom when it was time. His smart teacher said "let's take your backpack off, Nico," and took him, turned him away from me, smiled a mischievous smile and closed the door behind them. If I knew how to just walk away when Nico was clingy, it would be a lot easier. But something like concrete holds me in place when he says "don't leave please".

It is very unlike preschool, because I have little communication with the teacher, and no weekly typed updates about what they're working on, and no little notes from his speech therapist, etc...

They are talking about bugs this week, I know that, because Nico always tells me a story about bugs after getting in the car, and he comes home with a card every day with a picture of a bug on it. The first story he told me was about an ant and his travels through the classroom. The second day he told me that honey bees sting spiders and ladybugs and praying mantises and cars. ?

I pick him up in the car, not on the bike. Too hot in the afternoon for bike riding.

I am preparing this week for my booth at Parktacular. This event happens this coming Sunday, June 14th, from 1-7 PM at Settler's Park in Meridian. I am going to have a henna booth and will be applying henna tattoos to people that illustrate stories or verses from the Bible. My mom is going to be manning the booth while I do the tattoos. It should be pretty fun. Lots of stuff to prepare this week. I have a list of stuff to finish tonight, maybe I should get started.

My birthday is today! I told Nico this and he asked me if he could eat some of my cake. Hehe.. I didn't make a cake this year. He told me for his birthday he wants a chocolate cake in the shape of a star, with chocolate frosting and chocolate chips on top. Did I already mention that? He may change his mind before his birthday comes.

Speaking of Nico's birthday, we are having the party HERE, outside, on Saturday August 1st (Happy Anniversary to Jonny and Alanna that day!:)) at 5 PM most likely. There will be a covered porch with misters and a small kiddie pool and a canopy set up, to try to keep us cool.

I feel like I'm forgetting something,,,, hopefully not!
Pictures?

Putting legos together in bed because he couldn't sleep

Hot day, but he wore this vest all day, with the hood on. Here he is playing with water, using Bill Nye as inspiration.

Goodbye school year!

On Friday Nico had his end of year party for Beautiful Savior Lutheran Preschool. This was at a park at 10 AM, we ate lunch there. He played in the sand. He told me he wanted to wear his suspenders that day, so we pulled them out and put them on him. This makes spotting him in pictures easy. That and his red hat. It was held at what Nico at one time dubbed "Picka Park". The proper name for this park is Baggley Park. (For a treat, click here to watch Nico dub this park Picka Park. We told him to pick a park, and he said he wanted to go to Picka Park)

Then we came home for an hour and then headed back out to go to his preschool graduation from White Pine Elementary. Grandma Salisbury was also there. You can go see a video clip from this at the bottom of this post.

So, Nico is out of school now! He has this week off and then next Monday he starts the literacy program. On Tuesday Nico and I rode the trailer bike to Municipal park, but on a whim we PASSED it, crossed the Parkcenter bridge, and rode all the way to Sage International school, which is where the literacy program is happening. So I decided that we will ride our bikes to the school every morning so I can drop him off. When we got home (we stopped by the park on the way home, don't worry), I looked up a map of the greenbelt and found that there was an even shorter way to get to Parkcenter. We tested it out on Wednesday and it took us 10 minutes to get to Parkcenter. I added another 5 to that to come up with 15 minutes, because we also have to cross Parkcenter to get to the school. 

I should have shown where we cross Parkcenter. 

Other things we did... park! Nico and Evie were picking "poison cherries" from the trees and Evelyn was stuffing some in her pocket.

Today we went up to the cabin! Lexie was up there so Nico had someone to play with. They did legos and played with squirt guns, and watched movies. He had a lot of fun. I did too! Thanks Pa and Ma!! Then tonight after dinner and after Guy went to work, Nico wanted to get all wet so we put his swim suit on and he told me to squirt him with the squirt gun. So, I did! Then shower and then bed.

Now I am sitting outside on our "porch", enjoying the pleasant evening, and writing the blog. I have dreamt about having a place to sit outside in the evenings, and now I have it! I am soaking it in.

The teacher who is speaking is Miss Erica, Nico's teacher. 

Milestone

Last week of school, just one more day tomorrow of playing in the park with "new preschool" friends, and then a graduation ceremony with "old preschool" friends. Busy day. Last day. Sad day. Happy day! He will then be ready for a New Day. Ok that's enough of that.

Guy has worked like 15 days straight, and has 3 more to go before he has a day off. Wow! Even though he's working overtime, he still took Nico out on Saturday, to the Aquarium! They had a lot of fun and Nico apparently touched a fish! He asked to go back to the Aquarium the next day.

Sunday was Ivy's baptism, so Nico and I went to Jeff & Allicia's church to join them. They go to Beautiful Savior Lutheran church, the same one where Nico has his preschool, so Nico was familiar with it. He asked where Teacher Chris was. He looked for her. He found her! There was no Bible Study that night, so we had time to hang out as a family. To the park we went! Tried to fly a kite, we were successful for a little while, I think the wind kept changing directions so we couldn't keep it up for long.

And so on to the milestone. Nico has learned to ride a bike! I think it was Monday night, Nico was hanging out outside in the backyard like he is oft to do in the evenings lately. Apparently Jeff was in the garage working on some stuff and Nico was showing interest in riding his (Nico's) bike, so Jeff helped him with it and took him out to the alley. And a few minutes later they had gone around the block and showed up at our front door. Jeff knocked. I answered. "Do you want to show your Mommy what you can do?" Huzzah! We went back around the block to the alley and it was incredible! He still couldn't steer very well but he was riding a bike! The next morning we booked it to the park, with Evie, to practice riding his bike in the big basketball court there. A LOT of room to learn how to correct steering and balance issues. He was PRO after only a few minutes on the court. I felt myself bursting with pride that he learned a new skill. I just couldn't believe it. I often forget that he is a child and is still learning things, I expect him most times to just stay the same. SO when he learns something new, when he improves in speech, when he is kind and thoughtful out of the blue, I am taken aback and I just marvel. He has been so much easier to talk to these days about feelings and how to treat people, he is responsive and I have actually been seeing fruit from it.

Anyway, Evelyn didn't bring her bike and so Nico gave her a turn on his. You can see all this in the video below.

We went to the park the next morning. And then this morning as well. Early morning park visits are awesome. I am feeling a tad bummed that the Literacy Academy will take up Nico's mornings for a whole month this summer. It will be harder to play outside in the afternoons when it is sunny and hot, and when bedtime is 7 PM that doesn't leave a lot of time for the air outside to cool down before having to hop into bed.

We have started watching Bill Nye the Science Guy with Nico, and he is very interested in it. There are a few that he is watching over and over again. One about volcanoes and one about digestion. He knows the word "chyme" now. hehe. There is a scene from the volcano one that he rewinds and watches over and over again, laughing every time. He quotes it, too. You can see him do this in the video.

We put a Bill Nye book on hold at the library, as well as a few books about volcanoes. Nico asked this morning "I want a volcano Bill Nye activity book" haha.. well, there is no such thing. Oh well.

Picture below is of Nico doing one of his "challenges". I would never have thought of this if it wasn't for my mom doing this same sort of thing for us when we were little. "Nico, I have a challenge for you. Ride circle-eights in the basketball court 3 times." "Nico, you're next challenge, is to ride your bike over to the park, go down a slide, and then come back, and do that 3 times." I did this for both Evie and Nico when they got tired of just riding in circles on the basketball court. I had to give each of them different challenges because Nico didn't want Evie to have the same ones as him.

Bill Nye the Science Guy

Waiting for the bus. No more bus for this little dude.

May 2015 Snippets

High Fives while Biking

Preschool Program, Cabin

On Friday was Nico's preschool program. Grandma Salisbury and I were there. You can see a video of clips from it at the bottom of this entry!

Then over the weekend we were able to go to the cabin TWICE. Nico and I went up on Saturday to hang out and eat lunch. We saw Grandma on her walk once we got to their subdivision, so we picked her up. The first thing Nico said to her: "Do you have a lego for me at the cabin?" hehe.. turns out, she did! We had a great time there. Nico and Papa spent some time chopping wood, of course! Then I think he helped Papa build a fire. Here's some of the prizes Nico came home with. A glow-stick flag mask, and a hat with a big red spider printed on it. He wanted me to take a picture of him like this.

Then on Sunday we went to the cabin again! Papa picked up Nico after church to take him out there, and then once Guy woke up, him and I headed out there too for a family BBQ. Lots and lots of fun.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, don't remember much of those days. Nico had school I guess! Not much more of that left.

Oh, right, on Monday Guy took him to his Summer Literacy Academy testing, to see where he's at with his letters and sounds before the Academy starts in June. Nico was apparently quite uncooperative and didn't respond to any questions after reciting the ABCs.

We've been having what I like to call "limp Nico syndrome" where he takes a big sigh and then just goes limp. That's kind of what happened on Monday.

Now I'm remembering more! On Wednesday I had his parent-teacher conference with Teacher Chris from Beautiful Savior Preschool. She told me that he was right on course for everything, except a little behind emotionally.

The fort Nico built today.

Videos... First one is him playing with a huge puddle outside with a big stick while waiting for the bus. The second one is clips from his preschool program.

Legos, Mother's Day

I felt like we needed to go out and do something last Friday so I asked Nico what he wanted to do and he said Fred Meyer. To get legos. He had saved up about 15 dollars. When we got to Fred Meyer he was very quick about his decision. I wasn't used to this. When picking out a toy car it takes him forever plus changing his mind. Legos I guess are different. He bought an Ice Crawler. We came home and put it together. He is amazing! He opened up the lego booklet and saw all the related pieces for the Ice Crawler set and asked me to buy him all of those sets too. I think for his birthday we will get him a huge lego. Hmm, but then I talked to Guy about that idea and he reminded me that with big lego sets, he loses interest before getting to the end. So I think we'll do lots of small ones for his birthday. Including a lego block separator, since taking pieces apart is hard work if you don't have fingernails.

Saturday we went to the market for 3 pounds of ground beef. Nico decided to spend his 2 coins from the market's Sprouts Club to buy some asparagus. You have to buy fresh fruit or veggies with it, and no fresh fruit was available. (apparently fruit is for boys and vegetables are for girls?) When I made him the asparagus later he was not happy. ha ha. He didn't even want to try it. 

About a month back he started saying "EWWW YUCKY!!!" to every dinner I put in front of him, so we told him about a nicer thing to say: "This is not my favorite." Sorry if I have already posted about that, I forget what I have already written sometimes :)

We got this cute poem and handprints from his preschool. Oh man, the poem made me imagine what it will be like someday when Nico no longer crawls into bed with me at night and no longer enjoys snuggling and no longer asks me to play cars with him or rough house. I was definitely feeling grateful this past week that for right now I do have a little buddy that is snuggly and wants to spend all of his time with me.

This next one was a nice Mother's Day Gift, except I don't think Nico understood about it. He showed it to me and I asked him what it was and he said it was a flower. I asked him who it was for and he told me it was for himself. Oh well! I did get quite a treasure of things from Guy - a whole stack of coupons he wrote himself!!! It was fabulous. I am already making a mental list of things for him to do when I cash in his "One weekend of complaint free and instant 'honey-doing'"

And here's the envelope that the first one with the double handprints came in. Nico thanked us for his chocolate yogurts from Trader Joe's.

I saw my Mommy on Mother's Day and Guy called his Mommy on Mother's Day, it was a pretty complete day. No Bible Study that night but we did go out as a family to the Co-op and WinCo. Running errands is fun together, we don't do that very often.

Guy started a long stretch of work days on Wednesday. He is working for about 15 days, though some nights he will be going in at 9 PM instead of 5 PM, which gives us more time with him.

Nico brought home the flower on the left today from school. The flowers on the right are ones that Nico has found growing wild on his adventures outside with Evelyn. He comes running to the front door yelling "JOANNA! JOANNA!" I open the door and he says "I have a flower for you!" The stem on the yellow one was about 2 feet long so I trimmed that one before putting in this jar.

Here is Nico's recipe for lemonade. You can see he numbered the steps 1-3. 

1 - 8 lemons

2 - 1 cup of sugar

3 - 4 cups of water

He was watching Leap Frog this morning on his iPad, and a character in there called Burfder really likes lemons and wanted to make lemonade. Nico was inspired and asked me to pour him some lemon juice in his cup so he could drink it. I explained that it was going to be sour and he said "I want sour lemon juice!" So I poured him about 2 tablespoons and he drank it all. 

He's been drinking from his "baby cup" lately, which is actually a shot glass. He likes having a tall glass full of water next to his baby cup so that when the baby cup runs out, he can refill it.

He is in bed right now singing songs. He stopped for a minute and whined and said "Mommmmmmy, I need some tea."

Me: You need some tea?

Nico: Yes

Me: Why do you need tea?

Nico: Because I want to go to the cabin and have tea

Me: When we go to the cabin on Saturday we can have some tea

Nico: Ok

I think that's it for now. Nico has had no more tummy aches, thank you for the prayers!