Our first Parent Teacher Conference!

On Monday we went to see G.G. in Nampa. Great fun, as always! Got to see some of the sewing projects she is working on. Adorable little dolls with a wardrobe of clothes, so precious and special for the little girls who will be getting them! She gave me sneak peaks of some of the plans for Nico's Christmas gift. So looking forward to that :)

On Tuesday we had Nico's parent teacher conference at his preschool. We met with the speech therapist first, who told us that she thinks Nico is making HUGE progress! If we know the context of what Nico is talking about, then it is actually fairly easy to understand what he's saying. For example, when he came home from school on Tuesday, I asked him what he did in school that day. He made the sign for deer and said "Dee dee duh", and made a few other signs and started singing a song. I didn't know what he was saying until I read the Preschool weekly newsletter which mentioned that this week they'd be learning about the letter "D" using "Deedee dear". 

Back to the conference… a few months ago, testing had told us that Nico had Childhood Apraxia of Speech, but his speech therapist thinks it is actually a phonological disorder. I found a pretty good description online:

"Failure to use developmentally expected speech sounds that are appropriate for age and dialect (e.g., errors in sound production, use, representation, or organization such as, but not limited to, substitutions of one sound for another or omissions of sounds such as final consonants)."

Nico omits the final consonants on the words that he says, that is something the therapist and him are working very hard on.

Then his teacher joined us. They both said that they think Nico is very smart. Of course! ;)

They are going to test his hearing because of a problem he has with not listening/hearing. His hearing was tested and found to be perfect about 6 months ago, but more testing isn't a bad idea.  They aren't sure if he is just not hearing them when they try to get his attention, or if it's intentional on his part, or if something else is going on. It could just be a defiant phase that he is reaching later than normal (usually starting during the "terrible twos").

They are also working on teaching Nico how to respond to kids who take his toys, which happens often. Nico is a pretty laid back kid. I've noticed, though, that he has started saying "Nico's turn" whenever someone takes a toy from him. He's using his words to communicate, and it's so awesome to see him do that. 

After the conference, we stopped by Chicago Connection and got Guy a gluten free pizza. Then we went home and saw the little buddy who got to spend the evening with his Grandma Salisbury!

Nico has today and tomorrow off from school because of parent teacher conferences, so this morning we went to see Allicia, Evie, and Avery. We took Evie home with us for lunch. Evie told me "This is very good. Can I have some more broccoli?" Then they each got a "cookie" after lunch (I mix garbanzo bean flour with apple butter and a little salt, and bake them). Going into Nico's room after we had taken Evie home, I think they had pulled out every toy! Nico sure has fun with Evie over.

We've had nice weather in the afternoons, perfect for Strider rides in the warm sun! Crunching over leaves and shedding our coats halfway through. Nico likes to go up the hill from our house because there is a little asphalt curb that he likes to ride on.

On the cement curb after the asphalt curb.

Naps for Nico have been a hit and miss. Preschool seems to rev him up a bit and he has trouble sleeping after getting home. This puts his bedtime at about 7:30 or earlier (and up in the morning around 6 AM). When he does take a nap, his bedtime usually hits past 9 PM, pushing 10, he doesn't sleep as well, and gets up earlier.

Tonight was Halloween and we stuck around here to pass out candy. We had two trick-or-treaters, one of them was Evie in her warm dinosaur costume, riding her Strider. How cute was that! The rest of the Snickers will go to Guy. He will certainly not mind!

Recovering and Playing

Well, Nico didn't have an overnight miraculous recovery form his cold, so we kept him home from school last Friday. He missed picture day, but he'll be able to make it up in November. I caught the cold on Friday night, and Guy followed suit on Saturday. It was a pretty mild cold overall, no fever involved, just sore throats and runny noses.

On Friday, though he missed school, we went out to the dollar store to get him a new Cars puzzle. He was very excited about it. 48 piece puzzle, and after helping him put together the border, he can put the entire inside together on his own. Saturday we pulled out ALL his puzzles, pushed the couch to the edge of the living room and used the living room floor.

We've also been playing a lot of the memory game, which Nico is getting quite good at. Flipping cards over and trying to find their match. We also pull out the board games for older people and take out all the pieces and pretend we're playing the game. He builds fences or towers with the game pieces.

Then on Saturday night Papa and Grandma Salisbury came by to bring us some fruit. Guy had left for work already and so we weren't able to go get some pears, which is what I was wanting. Nico wanted a green apple, and so the Grandparents Salisbury went and got us some fruit since they were in town already. It was just what we needed after feeling icky all day with a cold!

I made some apple butter this week in the crockpot. It turned out REALLY yummy, so I think I'll be making more of it when the apples go on sale. Five pounds of apples made more than a quart of apple butter. No sugar or spices added, and even Guy said it was really good! (G.G., I am bringing you some on Monday!)

Guy worked Saturday night and then he has a total of 9 days off in a row. Wowww! He has worked every night for the past 2 weeks (at least! It may be closer to 3 weeks), and he was ready for a break. We have been having fun so far. Going to parks, and having friends over. On Wednesday, Jeff and Allicia came over. Evie and Nico played in Nico's room while the adults (plus Avery) played a board game - Pandemic - the one that we got Guy for his birthday. It was a lot of fun.

Nico and Evie playing in Nico's bed.

Today I volunteered again at Nico's school, this time cutting out leaves! I got to see Nico this time, too. I went into his classroom to pick up the stuff. He was excited to see me, and showed me what he was playing with. This week they are learning about scarecrows and pumpkins and the colors black, orange and white. They are doing a pumpkin patch activity tomorrow and they have an early release.

Tonight, Guy is out with friends at another Rifftrax event (MST3K spinoff). He was very excited about it and I'm so glad he has some major relaxing and enjoying going on this week.

Nico has been talking a lot about bumpy things lately. The road is bumpy when the car bounces, so he says "Buppy Row" (bumpy road). Bumpy hand (when he's driving one of his cars over his hand) or bumpy _____ depending on what his cars are driving over when he says it. He repeats most everything we say now, using his own words. It is difficult sometimes trying to figure out what he means, but when we do figure it out it's just genius, that he can say that particular thing. Lawn mower, for instance, or Sound, Big, one more piece, too big, nico's turn, fix it, broken bumper, Nico too big bus (Nico is too big to fit into his toy bus), wheels, broken train... he has even started saying "cooo" for Curious George! He has also learned how to scream at the top of his lungs :)

Birthday Week!

Sunday was Guy's birthday. Him and I got to celebrate the night before while Papa and Grandma Salisbury watched Nico (thank you!). We went to the game store downtown and bought the board game Pandemic. Guy has been playing this game with his friends on Monday nights and it was about time we owned it! It is a cooperative game, so Guy and I had to work together in order to save the world from being overcome by disease. It was a lot of fun. We took the game to a coffee shop and played it 3 times. Then we wandered over to Freddies to do some preliminary Christmas browsing for Nico, and Guy spent some of his birthday money on a 2DS. Then we got Guy a vanilla milkshake and on homeward.  He worked overtime over the weekend, going in at 10 PM and staying all night. There is an end in sight, though. After work this Saturday, he has an entire week off! He is looking forward to that!

Getting ready to go out

Nico with Papa

On Sunday, Nico and I went to watch Avery's baptism. It was a nice ceremony. Nico got to spend some time with new friends in the church nursery during the rest of the service, after the baptism. That night we went to Goose Park (Nico says "Gee Pahkuh") and a boy there played with Nico and Nico had so much fun. It was a hoot watching him run around and play and laugh. He didn't want to leave, and then asked to go back to the Goose Park on Monday. We took him back there, but what he really was looking for was the boy he had played with. When we got there, Nico looked around and shrugged his shoulders with an "NNn duh!" Guy took the place of the lost boy and played really hard with Nico.

At Goose Park the 2nd night. (Guy is in the tube behind him).

This morning, Nico woke up with a bit of a sniffle. We sent him off to school anyway. He was fine today, but I think he may need to stay home from school tomorrow. This is unfortunate since tomorrow is picture day! We will see how he feels in the morning. I have his humidifier in his room and a bunch of essential oils on his chest and feet to help him breathe and sleep and fight infection. If you read this on Thursday, then please pray for a miraculous recovery by tomorrow morning! There is a picture retake day next month, though, so I suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world.

This morning, waiting for the bus.

Now it's off to bed. I had a brief hiatus from typing when Nico came out of his room and needed to be re-tucked. I climbed into bed with him and had an accidental 5 minute snooze. I am left feeling quite drowsy. But the snuggle was good :)

Apples and Fried Green Tomatoes

Nico had Friday off from school so we took a trip to the Aquarium. We got there a little early and so we sat in the car eating our snack, and we were pleasantly surprised when a train decided to pass by. Nico was excited about that. At the Aquarium we saw a turtle eating sand. That evening around the dinner table, Guy asked Nico what he saw at the Aquarium and he told him turtle. eat. Then he signed sand. Sure do love it when Nico tells us about the things he sees. He is repeating so many more words and phrases. It is a marvel to be able to communicate with him on this level!

Saturday we went to the Market. We walked to one of the fountains downtown, and then ventured into a game store to look around. It's never too early to get Christmas ideas! :)

On Monday my cousin Sarah came over for a visit. Nico, Sarah, and I spent some time coloring on Nico's collection of fuzzy posters. It was so great to see her and to catch up!

On Wednesday I went to Nico's school to volunteer for the first time. This week is apple week so I cut out a lot of apples! I didn't get to see Nico in his classroom, but it was fun thinking that he was in very close proximity to me. In another two weeks I'll be volunteering again.

For apple week, Nico and his classmates are learning about the life cycle of apple trees. Today they got to taste three different kinds of apples and choose their favorite one. Then they made apple pies. Homework was coloring three different apple trees: one for Spring, Winter, and Fall.

This week we also picked the rest of the tomatoes in our garden and tried out a few green tomato recipes. Nico LOVES picking tomatoes.

You can also see the small leaves of a chard plant sitting on top of the bowl. None of our beans or greens grew very big this year. I'll do some troubleshooting and try again next spring. I think the bulk of our crop next year will be beans. Probably 1 tomato plant, and maybe a lettuce or two. 

So the first recipe I tried was fried green tomatoes. I didn't add enough seasoning and Guy said they tasted much like breaded broccoli stems. ha ha! So I spiced 'em up the second time around and Guy loved them! Adding sugar to the mix seemed to make a difference.

With the rest of the tomatoes I made a salsa. Just green tomatoes, 1 jalapeño, 1 red onion, 1 clove garlic, some olive oil, and that's that! I pureed it all in our food processor and Guy ate it with chips. Yum. Garden success!

On to next week!

Fish Park and Botanicals

We did much more this past week, and I was sure to bring our camera along so as to catch a few moments. It's been getting cold here, but we went to the Fish Park on one of the warmer afternoons. 

On Monday we went to visit G.G. in Nampa. We brought Nico's "Brown Bear" book with us so he could read it to her (check out the video at the end of the post to see this book). She sent us home with some of the tomatoes from her garden. Wow they are good! We had a few more ripe tomatoes on our own vines at home, but the rest are green.

On Tuesday ALL of us went to the Botanical Garden with Jeff, Allicia, Evie, Avery and Sheila (Allicia's Mom). The Garden was decorated with a lot of fall pumpkins, leaves, and the scarecrows from last week's Scarecrow Stroll. We saw a frog and a bunny (you can see them in the video!) It was a very nice evening and we had a lot of fun. It was the first time that Guy had seen Jeff since that fateful afternoon when we all first met. 

Guy has been working over over overtime. But he's been going in at 10 PM for overtime, so we are still able to hang out with him in the evenings like he wasn't working. But then after we're asleep, off he jets.

Nico has today and Friday off because of teacher inservice, so this morning we went to Fred Meyer to buy him a fuzzy poster to color. He's been doing great work coloring pictures and staying in the lines, and we thought he'd enjoy a fuzzy poster. He DOES enjoy the fuzzy poster! I was sure to tell him beforehand that we weren't going to be buying any cars at Fred Meyer. I forgot to prepare him like this the last time we went, and so the trip ended in a lot of tears. But we practiced on the drive there and in the car before going in, we both would say "No Cars. YES Poster! No Cars. YES Poster!" So when he saw the cars in Fred Meyer (and boy there are a lot of them!) I just had to say "Remember, No Cars, YES Poster!" And he would say it with me. I adapted this strategy from my something my Mom used to implement when we were younger. "Looking days" versus "buying days". It works!

We also went to the Library today to pick up some more books for all of us. We sat in on story time for a little while. Nico sure does like singing and moving with other kids!

That's it for this week, enjoy the video!