Swim

Nico and I went swimming today at the hotel that Grandma Salisbury is staying at. Nico's cousin Lexie was also there. Nico enjoyed the water a lot this time, but came out shivering. We gave him a warm bath afterward and that perked him up.

We got Jimmy Johns for dinner and Nico ate his entire sandwich. Breadless, but still mighty big!

Coffee

Grinding the coffee and waiting for Daddy to count to 20.

Cupcake

Nico, modeling the new pumpkin cupcake.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!! This morning was like any other morning except we read the Christmas story over breakfast and then opened a bunch of presents! Nico loved all his new things, but may have been a bit too overwhelmed by all of it because he had some crabby parts throughout the day. He watched his hour-long Curious George movie a few times, we ate a nice roast chicken dinner, played with his new train set with Daddy in the evening, and then we finished watching Totoro. A very nice day indeed.

We took the picture with our new camera (stay tuned for high def videos, I'm sure I'll be posting some!) We sat in front of the tree for a while, not sure when the self timer would go off, then we realized that it was taking a picture every 5 seconds until we turned it off. Cool feature, because we have a nice collection of about 10 pictures and we actually got a good one!

Christmas Eve

Grandparents Russell stopped by this morning for one last visit before they headed to the airport. We hung out at the table talking and playing with Nico and his cars.

This evening we watched the first half of the movie My Neighbor Totoro. It is so cute! Nico loved it the first time he saw the tiny totoro appear. When he disappears in the movie, Nico signed "MORE MORE MORE MORE" and then when the totoro reappeared, he laughed joyfully. It was very nice to snuggle on the couch with my boys.

Family!

Church this morning, then nap, then more family this afternoon! This evening we made popcorn in our new popcorn popper and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Nico ate his with our new collection of tiny Santa forks.

The picture is from a few days ago, but I had to share this great picture of Nico that Grandpa Russell took.

Family

Grandparents Russell came by again today, bringing G.G. (Great Grandma Russell) with them! We did a gift exchange, ate dinner, then FaceTimed Tom (Uncle Tom to Nico). Lots of fun was had!!

A Visit!

Grandparents Russell came into town today! We ate breakfast for dinner, opened a few gifts and then hung about.

The picture is of Nico and Grandma playing with his new sticker book.

Smelly bed

Nico's big boy bed was delivered today! After Nico was crawling on it for a while, we noticed that he had brown all over his hands. The bed's stain had not finished drying! And his room smells mighty terrible at the moment. By proxy it smells in our bedroom, too, but he'll be spending the night in my bed tonight. I'm hoping by tomorrow the smell has gone down a bit.

We'll get a picture of Nico with the bed as soon as the bed is approachable. The picture for tonight is of Nico playing with cars on our bed. We will turn in shortly and hopefully snuggle ourselves to sleep.

Advent train

Nico and Guy rebuilding the train on the advent calendar and watching it run. A daily occurrence.

Cars

Lining up his cars on the couch.

All better

Nico's fever broke a bit before midnight last night. He woke up as cool as a cucumber and quite his normal self. Go immune system! I gave him some homeopathy last night, perhaps that helped a bit.

I made scones tonight for when Guy comes home from work tomorrow. Saturday morning is our "date night". But I burnt them! Whoops!

Picture is of Nico watching MST3K on the iPad. He enjoys listening to the opening song and rewinds it after the song is over so he can hear it again. You can see his cupcake on his plate, and a little piece of the failed scones. Nico wasn't a fan of the burnt.

Fever

Nico woke up from his nap this afternoon with a fever. 102.2. We snuggled and watched Shaun the Sheep for most of the afternoon. He only nibbled on a banana, and he is asleep now at 5:45. I'm hoping he wakes up feeling better! He's got some reddish cheeks in this photo. Fever topped out at 102.9.

Ho hum

Sitting on the couch at the end of the day.

Coloring

Nico asked to color 3 different times today, always with VBS music playing. He is quite a fan! In the picture, you can see his plate, he was eating a "cookie" (a few slivers of a lara bar).

Also, every evening Nico and I do our computer-based advent calendar gifted to us from Grandma Russell. Tonight we built a train! Nico picked out the cars and I dragged them into place, then we got to watch an animation of our train on the move.

Curious George

Daddy and Nico finishing up watching Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas. A present from Grandpa Russell!

Aglow

Winter Garden Aglow tonight at the Botanical Garden. Yearly picture done!

Snuggles

Nico has lately been taking his blanket out of his crib and crawling up onto the couch and lying down with it. It's been a daily thing for about the past week.

WinCo

We went to WinCo this morning. Nico likes WinCo for a few reasons - he likes to "jump" over the lines on their floor. And he likes to help me with the self checkout. He squeals whenever he helps me put the money in the money taker. I also let him push the buttons on the screen.

We wrapped up our day by hanging out on the couch. Nico is playing with the "Little Red Hen" story book on the iPad. And I am updating the blog!

Also of note - you can see the rash on Nico's chin. I've surmised that he didn't have hand foot and mouth disease last month, because the rash on his chin, though it went away for a few days, came back and is still there. Not sure what that week long illness was that he had, but I'm guessing it likely wasn't HF&M.

Car Line

A lot of the time, Nico likes to take toy cars with us whenever we go anywhere. He piles them in his diaper bag. Well today, we emptied the diaper bag of all his cars, so he sat on the floor in his room and lined them all up.

Aquarium

We went to the Idaho Aquarium today for the first time. I remembered afterward that I was going to stay away from the mall area because of holiday traffic. Whoops! But we had fun. Nico was so excited he ran around to everything several times.

We also saw a real live train today! The tracks run right by the aquarium.

Matching

Nico and Daddy playing a match game. Nico loves playing this!

Train

We went to the market this morning. After Nico's nap we went to Barnes and Noble so he could play with the train. The traffic around the mall is really bad so we likely won't be going back until after Christmas!

Jump Time

We went to the library today and then walked over across the nearby bridge. Nico practiced his jumping.

Coloring

Nico likes to color on the floor while listening to our VBS CD given to us by Grandma Russell.

Nico is recovering from a cold! Caught another one.

The Snail

Rediscovered an old toy today!

Christmas!

We picked up our Christmas tree today. It's a leaner!

And Nico wasn't a fan of planned pictures :)

Park

We haven't gone to many parks lately, it being cold and all. But today we went to Old Park.

Cars in Bed

Church, then nap, then Guy and Nico went up to the cabin. Grandma Salisbury says that Nico wanted to play with cars in their bed, so she snapped a picture of him! He sure likes to play on grown up beds. I'm hoping he'll be just as excited when he gets his very own grown up bed soon.

Adventure

This morning we went to the Saturday market, as usual.

After Guy got up this afternoon, we went on an adventure! First to pick up some coffee beans downtown, then to the Co-op, and then to the new Whole Foods to wander around and check out the goods.

Picture is of us at Dawson Taylor's coffee, Nico is admiring the mural on the side of the counter.

An Old Friend and a New Toy

On our walk tonight, Nico pulled out our old friend the planter. We took a walk with it and he used it to store his chosen rocks.

Then tonight, Grandma Salisbury stopped by to give Nico a Thanksgiving present, a duplo block set that had a train in it. Nico was very excited!! He spent most of the night playing with it.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. FaceTime with Grandparents Russell and Great Grandma Gohl. Walk. Shaun the Sheep. Sleeeeep.

Thanksgiving Prep

Today we spent a lot of time in the kitchen. We made stuffing, cranberry sauce, and the pumpkin pie is still in the oven. 

The picture is of Nico helping me sort through cranberries. He ate a few and puckered up from the sourness. While making the pumpkin pie he also enjoyed eating lemon zest and licking the measuring spoon after every spice we added. 

We went for a walk tonight after Guy left for work, he is still limping a tad.

Toddler Open Gym

If you remember from last winter, we often went to Toddler Open Gym at the Fort Boise Community Center. Well, they have started it up again for this winter, and we went today! We met friends there, Tricia and one year old Brynnlynn.

Nico discovered basketball! I'm not sure where he had ever seen it before, or if Guy has shown him how, or if he just discovered it on his own, but he took the basketball and lifted it up over his head to put it through the hoop. Over and over again!

Still has a bit of a limp!

Ankle Update

No picture for today, but wanted to give an ankle update. We went to the chiropractor this afternoon and he tested out Nico's ankle and found that it was out of place (not out of socket, just out of place), so he popped it back in for him. Nico could walk much better afterward, but he still has a tiny limp.

Ankle

Went to church this morning after stopping by the Co-op to get some bananas. Our after church snack on the way home is bananas and cheese, and we were out of bananas!

After Nico's nap, we were playing in his room and I was helping him do a backwards somersault. When he came down on his legs, I heard a loud POP and Nico started crying. I was afraid he had a broken bone, but he was moving around okay, so I think it is just a strain. He isn't able to walk on it, though. I went and bought an ace bandage to stabilize it, and Guy pulled out an ice pack for a while to try to ice it. We also used homeopathic Arnica 30c by mouth and Arnica Gel on his ankle.

We hung out on the bed (not much different than usual), but I DID make him some cupcakes. You can see we put a sock over his ace bandage so that he wouldn't try to pull it off.

Love Those Dried Apples

Went to the market this morning to get two bags of dried apples. It wasn't too cold outside, which was nice. We also got some beef liver. We sat on a bench for a while (two benches, facing each other) munching on our apples before heading home.

Also went to the Fish Park. We've been going for walks shortly after Guy leaves for work every evening. Just a quick one around the block. Nico grabs a few rocks every time and when we come home we put them in a tiny jar. This morning I found the jar in the fridge!

Magnetics

Playing with his magnetic puzzle.

Under the Table

Nico discovered a not-so-comfortable place to sit and watch "Busytown Mysteries".

Cupcakes and Smoothies

Two pictures today.

Grandma Salisbury sharing a banana nut cupcake with Nico.

And then this evening all of us went to Tree City Juice and Smoothie! Guy got a peach smoothie, Nico got a banana/strawberry/peach smoothie and I got a veggie juice with carrots/spinach/celery. Nico still hasn't learned how to drink from a straw, so we took the lid off for him to drink it that way.

Snuggles

Nico loves to go into our bedroom in the evenings and sit on our bed, eat cheese, and watch his shows. Tonight is no different!

Stir the Coffee

Nico stirring Daddy's coffee while wearing his winter coat.

Farm

Kelso Farms had a sale on ground beef today, so we drove to Eagle to get ourselves 20 pounds, and 10 pounds for a friend. It was a cold one! Nico enjoyed seeing all the animals.

We tried to go to the Saturday Market today, but the Parade (Veteran's Day?) had most of the streets blocked so we couldn't find parking. We will pick up our lard, liver and dried apples next week ;)

Also, the little buddy has the sniffles again. Not much more than an incredibly boogery nose and some congestion. He had no fever.

Daddy Snuggles

Early morning snuggles with Daddy

Target

Wiped out from our trip to Target with Grandma Salisbury.

Late

We took a late trip to the park tonight. I was fooled by the new early darkness, so it was barely 5 PM when dusk started and we arrived to the park after the sun had set.

We were also late in carving our pumpkin, which Nico and I did tonight. There is an iPad app called Tizzy Seasons, and they have a pumpkin you decorate and then you tap the light switch and the pumpkin glows from the inside. So I carved the pumpkin, we decorated the one on the iPad, lit it up, and then I asked Nico if he wanted me to light OUR pumpkin up. He said YES! Well, he said "Dah!" So I put a candle in our pumpkin, lit it, and then turned off all the lights. He was intrigued.

Camels

Another trip to Camel's back park. He asks to go all the time.

Another thing he asks for all the time: cupcakes. When he woke up from his nap today it sounded like he was crying and whining. I tiptoed over to his door and listened in: he was saying cupcake over and over and over again, in a very whining voice. He has woken up in the mornings twice this past week and the first word out of his mouth: cupcake. CUPCAKE!

Airplane

Nico and Evie looking up at an airplane passing above us.

We met new friends today, too. Emily and her son Gus and daughter Lucy.