On Saturday morning I drove out to Nampa to an Art Jury for the Nampa Public Market. My henna tattoos were approved for a booth at the market for this summer! I plan to be there about 10 of the Saturdays this summer.
That evening we made pizza again and watched Three Stooges.
I'm having a difficult time remembering what else we did this week! We had some incredible wind on Monday. Allicia took all her kids PLUS Nico to the park to fly kites.
We went to the Discovery Center
Bed of nails
On the way in to the Discovery Center, Allicia said "Ok everyone hold hands!" Nico and Evelyn held hands and then he kissed her hand.
We sat outside yesterday morning to count birds.
He's been playing almost nonstop with his friends outside. They ride scooters, bikes, or play in their front yard. We "lock" them in their front yard (they have a fence) so they can play freely. They play with cars and other things. One of the friends goes to his school, Aiden, in 2nd grade, and Nico likes to wait for him when I pick him up from school so we can all walk together. They walk next to each other in front of me and Nico asks "Would you like to play with me?" and then the next day Aiden will ask Nico "Do you want to play with me?" Nico comes home and eats a snack first and then rushes outside. Aiden brings out all his cool toys, cars or Star Wars action figures and they sit at the little kids table in their yard. Adam and Sam join them as well. I go out to check on them throughout the afternoon, and Nico typically comes inside when Guy comes home. Guy "picks him up" from over there and brings him inside. Sometimes I go over and talk with Adam and Sam's mom, Tiffanie, and we sit at the "grown up" outdoor table in their yard. Sometimes Adam and Sam come over here for a play date, and they play inside while I make dinner and then I walk them home when Guy gets home. We've done that twice. Sam laments that instead of coming over to our house he wants to go to Evelyn's house. Hehe. Sometimes Evelyn plays with them too.
Nico and Evelyn have been getting along really well lately. They also enjoy playing outside, in the backyard, and there are days where that is all that Nico prefers. I think it was Sunday they were playing really well together outside and Jeff had to pull Evelyn away because he was taking the kids on a hike, and Evelyn was inconsolable because she wanted to continue playing with Nico, so they invited Nico along on the hike.
I taught another henna class on Tuesday.
And I finally got the April Snippets video put together! Enjoy!
Last Friday was Nico's Snack & Share at school. He got to bring the snack for the day, and then also something to show the class. He brought his batman car to show everyone.
It goes on its own and sends flying discs up into the air.
Saturday was a fun day. We ran errands in the morning, then we went for a walk to find a home for the tadpoles. We did some research about the tadpoles and how to keep them and we figured out we just had too many to take care of, we would need a much larger area for them to live, so we went with the intent of finding another home for all of them but one. But when the time came, it was impossible to just keep one because we couldn't access the water to refill our jar, it was a situation where Guy had to reach through the sticks to dump them out. So, we said goodbye to all of them.
Evelyn came with us.
Nico put his arm around Evelyn for a short while as we were walking home.
Pizza Saturday night! We have restarted the tradition! We made Nico his own personal pizza and he ate the whole thing!!! I think Guy's sauce is winning him over. This is Guy's pizza they're building. Guy put some pesto underneath his own sauce. Nico didn't want pesto on his.
While we were sitting on the couch watching Three Stooges and eating pizza..
Nico chomped hard and lost his very first loose tooth! Milestone!
The tooth fairy gave him $5 for his first tooth and a riddle he had to solve to find a red clown nose somewhere in the clubhouse. The red clown nose was what I bought ($1 at Walgreens) so that I could get the $5 cash back to put under his pillow that night.
On Sunday we were able to see Papa and Grandma Salisbury, and we gave Grandma her birthday presents since her birthday was on Monday. Nico made her a rose with a stem out of modeling clay (I helped a bit, and showed him how). I apparently didn't take a picture of it, just video! But unfortunately iMovie has been crashing so I wasn't able to put together the snippet video! The video will have to come later. So I took a screen shot from the video so you could see. After the clay dried he painted it, green and red like a rose. We put a few drops of lavender essential oil on the flower so it kind of smelled good.
Happy Birthday Mom/Grandma!!! We love you!
On Monday was Nico's next doctor's appointment to check on progress. Everything is going well in that regard. Since stopping his allergic foods he hasn't had many tummy aches and when he did it was easy to tell what caused them. He's had just 2 since his first appointment. Of course, when he goes to bed he sometimes will stay in there for a minute before coming out with a smirk on his face telling me his tummy hurts. I ask him when his tummy ache started and it's always the same: "When I got into bed". I haven't been counting those as tummy aches. He has them only on the nights when he is having a hard time winding down and seems to just not want to be in bed. I hope I'm making the right call on not calling them tummy aches! I usually rub some oils on his feet and he goes back to bed just fine.
In a few weeks we are doing a stool test on him. This will check for inflammation and bad bacteria and a host of other things. Then we'll start him on probiotics...
On Tuesday I taught an essential oils class in the evening.
Some random pictures..
We went to a playdate at Quarry View on Wednesday morning and one of Nico's school friends, Wendy, was there. We walked her to school that day. They ate watermelon on the way.
We tried out his new adjustable crayons. He drew a sun.
Sorry for lack of video this week, we will hope for next!!
Last Friday Guy worked late, but it worked out just fine because Nico fell asleep around 4:30 PM and woke up at 6:30, right before Guy got home. (6:30 is the usual bedtime around here). So after eating dinner we decided to go to the park since it's rare that Nico naps. We rode our bikes.
We got home around 8:30 and started bedtime. Didn't work, really. He was awake until I went to bed at 10:30, when he crawled into bed with me. He didn't stop tossing and turning until 11:30.
On Saturday we met outside with Jeff & Allicia and crew so we could put up our new sun shade! They purchased us our very own sun shade, they had initially intended to put it up for us while we were gone on vacation so we would come home to it, but thought instead that they would wait so we could have input into the process.
Cutting back branches
The main work crew
The helper crews
Nico's stick and rock collection. Arranged by him. We thought of you, Grandpa Russell! :) Guy said: LOOK! Take a picture of that!
Avery "helping" sort screws
Aaaaaand... DONE! 2 hours later!
We ate lunch and I took a nap while Guy and Nico went out to the library and to get coffee. That afternoon we met up with the crew again in the backyard where they had stacked a bunch of compost on a tarp, on its way to the garden. Nico thought to bring out the digger.
Balancing on a board
Then when they were nice and dirty, they turned the sprinklers on!
That was a full day!
Sunday was a risk-filled day as our car was developing problems with starting. It would take longer and longer every time we tried to start it. We ran errands after church (leaving the car running at our last stop so I could run in without having to turn off the car), and then drove the car home and parked it. We borrowed Jeff & Allicia's car Sunday night to make it to Bible Study, we wanted to save as many starts as we could so that Guy could start the car Monday morning and drive it straight to the shop to get it fixed. But alas, Guy could not start the car Monday morning, and the engine started smoking. I am so grateful for USAA's Roadside Assistance! We have used it several times now to tow our car. The tow truck came and took it and Guy to the shop. The shop of course drove Guy to work. I didn't have to think about it at all, because the car was fixed that day and Guy drove home with it good as new! It was the starter. Makes sense.
On Tuesday we drove Guy to work so we could have the car to visit GG! Nico brought his iPad with him to show her his current favorite iPad game which is called Around the World in 80 Days, it's a hidden objects game. You can click on the objects you find and it gives you points and removes them from the page so you can move on to the next item. We got it when it was free a few weeks ago. The first time we went "Around the World" it took us a while (several days), but now he pretty much has all the object placements memorized. Him and GG played it for a good 30 minutes during our visit!
It's so fun to see him so excited to show her his favorite things! GG gave us a foldable table to put under our sun shade. Thank you GG! We set it up outside yesterday and we ate dinner on it. Guy pulled it back inside when it started raining. It looks like a big suitcase, but you unfold it and it's a table with 4 chairs! Incredible!
We ran into one of Nico's school friends on the way to school on Tuesday. Her name is Brody and she yelled from down the street: "NICO!!!!" Nico turned around and yelled "BRODY!!!!" and they ran to each other and gave each other a hug. Nico patted her back afterward and then took her hand to walk to school with her. Brody's little sister joined in and took Brody's other hand, and I was holding Nico's other hand, so we had quite a line. Brody's great grandmother was walking her to school so we were able to chat.
This reminded me that last Thursday on the playground (I had volunteered in the classroom Thursday so I was able to see it, Nico's teacher pointed it out to me), him and an older girl (1st grade maybe?) were hugging on the playground. Then they would stand with their arms around each other. Then another girl came over and all three of them hugged as a big group. He is a hugger!
On the way to school yesterday Nico asked me "Where's Brody?" and I told him I didn't know. I said "Brody's really nice, I like her." and Nico said "Yeah, Brody's really nice to me. She's cute too." hehe
Do I need to be worried? :)
I think that's it for this week. I captured some video but didn't have time to put it together for this week, so maybe I'll do a snippet video next week?
On Saturday we had the sensory friendly movie, they played Kung Fu Panda 3. It was a good movie with a good message. I loved it! We met some friends from the church there.
Saturday afternoon, Papa picked Nico up, they met up with Lexie and Grandma Salisbury and all drove up to the cabin for an overnight visit! When we were at the cabin on Easter, Jonny and Alanna had brought a game called PieFace:
Nico kept asking to play it and we kept saying "later, after the egg hunt..." But when the egg hunt was over, it was time to head home! So this sealed the deal for him coming over on Saturday, because the game would be there. And here he is on Saturday...
Papa and Grandma also took Nico and Lexie to Elk Pond where Grandma had heard a bunch of frogs croaking earlier. The frogs were still in full force when they arrived (see video below for the volume of frog sounds they heard!), and they even found some pollywogs to bring home. The pollywogs were in the egg sack and are still currently there, growing tails, in a jar on our windowsill.
Here they are today. When Nico brought them home, they were just dots. Now they have some tails growing.
Apparently Grandma returned to the pond yesterday and there was no sign of any frogs or pollywogs! Did a raccoon get them??
Nico also got to eat coconut milk ice cream, and chocolate chips! He returned to us Sunday morning right before church. Thank you so much Papa and Grandma for the fun time Nico had!!!
While Nico was gone on Saturday, Guy and I attempted a hike. But, it was 2 in the afternoon in full sun and we wilted very quickly. Hehe. We need to build up some endurance! We then decided to go see Star Wars: The Force Awakens! We have been wanting to see this movie for a very long time, and we wanted to see it together. And, we finally did! We used some movie tickets that Allicia had given to us a few months ago.
And did you know... that this movie is the very first movie Guy and I have seen together by ourselves in a theater? There was one time where we went to a movie with a group of people. But this was the first time we have been by ourselves. Pretty exciting! So we had to take a picture, though there is no indication that this is a movie theater we are standing in front of. We couldn't fit everything into the picture :)
On Tuesday Nico had a nutritionist appointment, to help us figure out what Nico could eat based on his allergy testing. She said we should take him off dairy completely for 6 months, though an occasional cheese is ok. So, no cream cheese or sour cream. She gave me ideas for how to replace those, and I diligently went and bought some cashew cheese to spread on his sandwiches, and then dutifully attempted to make vegan mayonnaise. The cashew cheese made Nico feel really sick, so that's a no go. He went to school on Wednesday with a tummy ache. And the mayonnaise didn't emulsify so it's just a cup of liquid. But, we're learning :)
A few more random pictures...
That's it! Enjoy the sound of frogs in the video! :)
Friday was Ivy's birthday party! She turned 1 year old. Allicia kind of combined it with Easter, so each child at the party had a different color of egg to find, each had 8 eggs. After Nico opened his eggs, he went up to Camden (one of Ivy's cousins)...
"Can I help you open your eggs?"
She was happy to let him help. There was also egg coloring at the party. And a cute one year old that smooshed a bunch of cake into her face.
We colored eggs ourselves on Saturday. Allicia had given us an egg coloring kit and so we used it. It came with props to decorate the eggs as animals. So, we did!
I decorated one with a henna flower and then Nico followed suit and decorated one of his that way too. I think he did a pretty good job!!
Here was mine
Then Sunday was Eeeeeeeaster! We invited Nico's neighbor friends and their mom to go to church with us for the egg hunt there and the breakfast they serve before the service. Nico was totally psyched that they got to go with him. All of them had a lot of fun and they all came home with prizes. Because Nico can't have corn syrup, they made special eggs for him and put an N on them for him to find.
After church we headed straight up to the cabin!! Yay!! I helped Mom get everything ready for the Easter meal at 4 PM, we had a wide selection of sandwich fixins plus a microgreen salad. Yummy food. And then the Easter Egg Hunt! I forgot to snap many pictures, but did get one.
Thanks so much Ma & Pa for the great time, all the goodies for the kids, and the yummy food! Happy Easter!!
On Monday I had a dental cleaning and then Nico just had a follow up with x-rays from the cavities he had before. His cavities are the same and have not gotten ANY worse! Woohoo! The dentist said we could just leave it (as long as I understand the increased risk of needing to get something done quickly to his mouth if they do start to go downhill), and we don't have to do x-rays every 3 months, he will just check cosmetically at Nico's 6 month appointments and will be able to see if any of them are degrading. He said it would be different if these weren't baby teeth, and I understood that. What we had started doing to arrest the cavity development is consistent flossing plus using an essential oil tooth blend that I put on his toothbrush instead of toothpaste.
RIGHT next to the dentist is a LEGO store buy/sell/trade (called Bricks and MiniFigs), that just opened last week. So, after we were finished at the dentist we walked over there and looked around. They have a room to have birthday parties and so I got information about that. I figured after we were done, we had time, so we drove to the OTHER lego place (called Bricknowlogy) located in Eagle to look around there, so Nico could make a good decision about which one he wanted to have his party at. He decided he wanted his party at Bricknowlogy because each of his friends would get their own lego set to put together at the party. I reminded him that if he chose that option, that he would only get to invite 5 friends, as opposed to 12 for the other place. He was okay with that. So we plan to have 2 birthday parties for him (Phew!), one for his friends at Bricknowlogy and one for family the next day.
That afternoon after school we met Allicia and Evelyn and crew at the Discovery Center. They had a BUBBLE maker!
We left from there to pick Daddy up from work. It was a full day!
Tuesday was a nothing day. Who even remembers what we did? Not me!
Today Nico's friends next door came over for about an hour. They colored and played with cars.
Friday we started our trip to Arlington! Well, Yakima. We decided to split the trip up into two days. We didn't give Nico his headphones with music right away, decided to wait until Baker City (2 hour drive) where we stopped to have lunch. We were barely passing Nampa when Nico said his first "Are we there yet?" It was hilarious. I know he doesn't really have any context for how long the trip takes, he was a few years younger the last time we made the trip. He asked a lot of questions on the trip, mainly, stuff like "What time is it?" and "Are we in Yakima yet?" Guy kept track of how many times Nico asked "Are we there yet?" (14 times) and how many times he asked a question that wasn't exactly that, but was in the spirit of it, like "When are going to be in Yakima?" (26 times)
When we gave him his headphones with music, he was very very excited, and bip bopped along with the music he was listening to.
When we got to Yakima, we checked in, and then drove to Miner Burger. Guy always breaks his gluten rule for Miner Burger.
Then we went to Jimmy John’s to pick up some grub for Nico. 30 minutes after eating, we went to the pool! Watching Nico walk down the stairs with flippers on was funny. The two people behind the front desk got a real kick out of his getup.
He started shivering and turning blue after about 30 minutes. We stayed for a little bit longer and then trucked it upstairs so he could take a warm shower.
Saturday morning it was time to drive to Arlington!
We arrived around 10 AM. Lots of hugs all around! When Nico "met" Uncle Tom again, he said to him "You used to hold me up when I was baby". He was referring to a picture we have on our fridge where Tom is holding up Nico.
We hung out for a few hours until it was time to eat Pizza! A puzzle, cars, and some toys from when Guy was little.
Mom showed me her Microgreens!
Then we went to the beach cottage on Camano Island. Wow!! It was quite a retreat. It was so peaceful. Don't worry, there is a video below showing you guys the walkthrough. It was beautifully decorated and had everything we needed. It had two rooms, one for the bed and one for the tv. After Nico went to bed every night, Guy and I would watch a movie. And the beach you could see out the front door. It was a short walk away....
We taught Nico how to throw rocks over his head into the ocean or at things on the beach. He practiced a lot, it was sometimes scary to be near him while he did it. Sometimes the rocks went straight up into the sky.
DUCK, GUY!
Then they started a band. It was pretty good. Mom did the shuffle on the gravel for some added sound.
(Mom provided some of these pictures. Thank you!!!)
That night we went to the Chatterbox for dinner, which is a restaurant in Stanwood that serves Thai, Indian, American food (and more maybe?). They were happy to make Nico fried rice with no eggs and no onions, so it was basically rice and beef. If you didn't know already, one of Nico's favorite dishes is rice and ground beef. So this was perfect.
Sunday we went to church at Marysville Church of the Nazarene, which is where we used to go when we lived there. We saw a lot of people we hadn't seen in a while, it was really great. Nico even remembered to tell his Sunday School teacher that he was gluten free and he said No to a cookie!
After church we drove by our old house. They had painted it yellow and it didn't look the same.
Sunday we ate roast chicken and a bunch of yummy sides for lunch. That afternoon we went to the Kangaroo farm and fed kangaroos and other animals.
I asked Guy if he wanted to own a kangaroo farm and he said No. Good to know. It was really cool to see all the animals they had there.
Some other Sunday moments.
Nico and Tom raced to put their nesting dolls together. Nico spent several occasions playing with these nesting dolls on this trip.
Guy took a short trip to the beach that night
On Monday we took a trip to the beach right before heading over to the Grandparents Russell.
Other pictures from that day...
At the river
Looking for birds through his new binoculars (thanks Grandma & Grandpa!!)
Coloring eggs
Helping Grandpa barbecue our lunch
We left Guy there that night and we took Grandma with us to the beach cottage! Nico read Grandma two comic books before bed, and then me and her watched a girl movie!! 27 Dresses, it was very cute.
Tuesday morning we snuggled him up with blankets in front of the tv to watch a movie while eating his breakfast muffin. Nico definitely took advantage of their wide range of movie titles on our trip. We usually had time for an entire movie in the mornings before we would leave to head to Arlington.
Tuesday was a slow picture day. I took a trip to Safeway to walk around while the crew went to the creek for a walk. Thanks Mom for taking pictures! I love that he got a piggy back ride from both Guy and Uncle Tom!
Tuesday afternoon Guy and I and Nico went to visit Rusty and Ellen. They were our mentors when we were living in Arlington, so we really like to stay connected with them. They had a Thomas the Train set that Nico played with while we were there.
Tuesday evening was a yummy pot roast with potatoes and parsnips and carrots. It was very tasty. Then we said our goodbyes and drove out to the beach house for one last night before heading home.
Our trip home on Wednesday took 10 1/2 hours! I think we agree that next time we will break up our trip in both directions, and perhaps stay over in Pendleton on our way back to Boise. The traffic in Seattle area was very bad, we hopped over to the express toll lane thinking we could do that with 3 people in the car, but I think we'll be getting a bill for that, I think you need to have a flex-pass to be able to do that. Totally worth it, though! It would have added at least another 45 minutes to our trip if we would have been stuck in that traffic. We listened to my phone and even took a short cut through Alderwood Mall Parkway to get on 405. It saved us 7 minutes. :)
We were very tired when we got home that night. Nico's friends were outside when we pulled up, and he jumped right on his scooter and started playing. Nico needed that outdoor running around time. Then dinner, showers, a quick trip to Flying M, and then bed time! While we were gone, Jeff cleaned our shower tiles, it looked like a completely new shower. It was an awesome thing to come home to!!
Today we did some reorganizing in here and ran some errands. I can't believe it's already past Nico's bed time and it feels like the day has just started. Wow! Time is just fleeing!
We had so much fun in Arlington and are looking forward to doing it again next year! Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Russell for all the food and all the gifts and the hospitality and fun and adventure. We had a blast and can't wait to see you guys again in July for Nico's birthday!
