Dinosaurs and Tigers

Went to the Zoo on Friday. Nico was ok with one of the dinosaur exhibits: the one with two small dinosaurs.

All the other ones we needed to stay away from. He would yell "MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY NO!" whenever I'd try to go near another one. Our zoo circuit was reduced a bit and we stuck around the giraffe slide and the prairie dog tunnel. Not sure how visiting the zoo in the future will go, I'm hoping he'll be interested in trying to get through his fear, but he had no interest in it on Friday. Perhaps I don't have quite the same touch as Grandma! :)

Prairie dog tunnel

On Saturday we went to the market. Nico was intent on getting a balloon in the shape of a yellow train. The young girl that usually does our balloons wasn't there that day but we found another few that were making them. The only vehicle they could do was a motorcycle, and Nico picked orange. He was very happy with it. It was very well done!

Saturday night Guy took Nico to Movie Under the Stars in Julia Davis Park. They were showing Despicable Me 2, starting it at dusk, but the fun started at about 7 PM with activities for kids plus music. Guy and Nico met Jeff and Evie there. Guy said the music was very loud and Nico looked a little shell shocked at first, but after a while he wanted to go up front with the other kids and dance, so they did that. Then after Evie arrived, they ate snacks, sat on the blanket, and waited for the movie. Sunset was at 9:30, dusk was at 10 PM. Nico asked to go home at 9:30, so they left, and they started the movie about 10. 

They had fun, but I think they'll skip the rest of the movies this summer. They'll choose another type of outing to enjoy some bonding time. I think they'd both prefer to go to Red Robin or something!

On Tuesday morning we went to see G.G. She pulled out her piggy bank and Nico had fun putting all her spare coins into it. I think we emptied her purse completely of any change! She gave him a "credit card" (a used Applebees gift card) which he held onto the entire way home until he fell asleep and dropped it. He woke up briefly and said "Oh no my credit card" and then went right back to sleep.

Tuesday night I taught my last essential oils class for the summer. Nico's speech therapist from school, Miss Susie, came to the class with her daughter-in-law. Guy and Nico went out for a while but stayed long enough to see Miss Susie. Apparently Nico kept asking to go back home to see her again! He was very excited about it and I know he just wanted to talk to her and tell her all about everything, he just stood in front of her saying "Miss Susie" again and again, like he was working up to saying something important for her to hear, but I think in his excitement he just couldn't come up with anything more important than just repeating her name. He was very pleased with it. Guy and Nico did come home early enough to see Miss Susie again, which Nico was very excited about. She left soon after and said "see you when school starts!"

Wednesday morning we went up to the cabin. Me and my Mom made a double batch of Cowboy Casseroles so we could put some in our freezer, and so she could show me how she makes it. We finished in record time and spent the rest of the morning just hanging out. Nico wanted to join us in the kitchen with an apron so we let him choose which one he wanted. He wanted the LEOPARD one!

And then later we pulled out the old TIGER costume after we remembered that they existed and that Mom probably still had one. When we were younger, my Mom made me and my brothers tiger costumes. I think there were 4 originally, and this is the one that is left. Just Nico's size! After putting it on, we went upstairs to show Papa.

And then that night, I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk in his tiger costume and he said YES. He decided to ride his tricycle instead. All the neighbors thought he was just so cute. I could hear laughs as we walked along and one of them opened their front door so their 3 year old could look and say hi. He got too hot halfway through so we took the costume off.

Stopping to "fix the sidewalk"

Some more of this week in pictures:

Fish Park

 Beetle

 Playing hide and seek as "Double-O Nico" (Curious George is Double-O monkey)

And, all the snippets from June in a video! Extra points if you can find where I messed up writing one of the text descriptions.

Blueberries and Paddle Boats

Lots of fun this past week, scratched some things off our summer to-do list!

Saturday was the market. We stopped by the fountain briefly, but it was a bit too chilly to get wet. Nico got a balloon animal. He asked for a yellow dinosaur.

We also went into the game store on 8th St. briefly and saw some things that we might come back and get later. Marbles, and a train game. I am dubbing summertime: Nico's birthday summer. Instead of getting him one big gift, we are having fun doing and seeing things this summer, and little prizes like marbles and trains along the way are also factored into his birthday. We are planning a ROCKET birthday party for him on his birthday. We are going to set off rockets at Quarry View Park (Old Park). We already reserved the picnic area.

Also on Saturday we went to the park to fly Nico's KITE for the first time. We got it up in the air about 3 times and Nico had a blast. It was windy and cold so I let him wear my jacket. 

There was once where the kite blew upward so hard that it yanked the string from Nico's hand. We had to chase it, and scream at the same time, and eventually we caught it. That was probably the best part of the kite flying experience.

Sunday after church, the Grandparents Salisbury took us to Smoky Mountain Pizza where Nico and I shared a gluten free pizza. WOW was it good! We had a great time with them and with Lexie, who also joined us. We took one home for Guy, too. For Father's Day Nico and I made Guy a treasure map and buried a treasure for Guy in the backyard. That was fun. Later that afternoon, Grandma and Lexie stopped by for a bit and Nico and Lexie climbed up into Nico's bed to watch Curious George.

Wednesday we went blueberry picking. We wanted to go strawberry picking, but the place we were going was all out of strawberries. It rained the whole time we were there picking, but it was still fun. Nico was worried about the rain but I told him it was okay to be out in the rain. "Remember Piggie and Gerald?" He kept asking for an umbrella but I told him that we don't always need an umbrella. He repeated what I said, as he does quite often now "don't always need an umbrella." Then there was a pause, he was looking out the car window and he said "Need an umbrella!!" The whole blueberry crop was under netting, but there were a few rogue birds in there anyway. We met a group of people there, including Allicia & Evie. Nico climbed into a blueberry bush after Evie; thankfully blueberries don't have thorns! We picked about 3 1/2 pounds. Nico preferred dumping my berries into the box instead of picking them himself. It was actually helpful to have him do that. I wanted to bring my camera, but not in the rain!

Today was a fun day, we had a long list of things to do. I told Nico we had 7 things to do and listed them for him while we were in the car. Number 7 was "home". Nico memorized the list and then would recite it, but when he'd get to 7 he'd say: "Seven… uh.. uh… library! Eight…. bookstore and find a train. Nine… Evies house! Ten… home!" It was so silly, he kept adding things to the list. The list mostly consisted of grocery stores. WinCo, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, the Co-op. Nico was a trooper. We got us both a treat at Whole Foods which held us over until lunch. After our 6 things, we dropped off the groceries at home (#7) and went right back out to do the PADDLE BOATS! 

Nico saying "FIVE BOATS!" He had counted four and wanted to see another one.

There were a lot of ducks, geese, and baby ducks. The ducks sometimes would start going under us so we'd have to stop and back up so they wouldn't get caught in the paddles. Nico had a lot of fun. He couldn't reach the paddles unless he stretched himself and barely sat on the seat. He helped steer for a little bit, and asked me several times to sing "Row row your boat" while I paddled. I decided to do the paddle boats early in the summer because they don't open until 11 AM and in July or August it would be too hot for us even at 11 AM. But today it was perfect.

Nico is mimicking us more and more. I found out that I always say "Oh my goodness, what happened?" whenever Nico has a potty accident because he has started saying that in a surprised voice whenever he has an accident: "Oh muh gaw, wha happen?" And as I'm telling him things he repeats after me voluntarily. I have intended to start doing the vocabulary games the school sent home with him, but I have not remembered. I will! 

Nico found our leftover seeds from last year's garden in our fridge and wanted to plant them. We weren't intending to plant a garden this year, but I figured, why not? So we went outside.

We had to yank some pretty big weeds from the garden bed first, but then we planted the seeds. ALL of them. There was a lot. But we had fun sprinkling the seeds onto the dirt, mixing them in haphazardly with the shovel and then watering with the watering can. We'll see what pops up!

A few more random fun things we did:

Climbing with Evie at the park

We used up all our water balloons in 3 days!

Strider Park

I had a lot of fun using my new camera. It takes really good pictures! And I'm trying to learn all about it. It turns out perfectly to have blog day once a week. I can take pictures all week, use up the battery, and then on Thursday unload all the pictures, change the battery out, and I'm good for the next week. 

Painting a bird house

 He went outside with chalk and drew a hopscotch ALL BY HIMSELF. He even wrote the numbers into the squares. He said "Mommy, a hopscotch!" and then he hopped through it for me. I'm thinking Curious George was his teacher on this one.

He was a good camera subject.

Nico fell asleep tonight at 5 PM, in bed, while he was in time out. I went in there and he had pulled the cover over himself and had zonked out. I'm forecasting a wake-up in a few hours. We will then eat some strawberries, watch some Curious George, and then he'll fall asleep in my bed.

I don't think I'm forgetting anything on this busy week. At this rate, I don't ever want summer to end!

Movie and Park and Zoo, oh my!

We found out last Friday that Guy didn't get the job that he applied for. It was hard news for him and all of us, but we are moving on. Not sure what will be in store in the future, but I know it will be good things!

On Saturday we went to a sensory-friendly movie. They show them on the first Saturday of every month. They leave the lights on, turn the volume down, and keep the doors open. This wouldn't necessarily be for Nico, but more for me. I am happy that I am able to take him to the movies this way! There are three this summer and we will try to make all of them. This first one was showing Muppets Most Wanted. I think if it would have been an animated movie that Nico would have had more interest. We left about 30 minutes after the movie started. He enjoyed the animated previews, but after he finished eating his sandwich (that's the other thing, they let you bring your own food!), he was ready to go home. I was filled with so much joy being able to experience this with Nico! I love going on new adventures with him. I snapped a quick photo and had to brighten it quite a bit because even though they left the lights on, in a movie theater it is still dark!

On Sunday evening, Guy and I and Nico had some fun together going for a bike and tricycle ride plus a trip to Old Park.

Trying to take a picture of all three of us.

Almost got it..

That's better! It was really hard to hold this pose but I love it because all three of us are looking at the camera and smiling.

On Monday we had another trip to Allicia's house. We brought them muffins, and Evie and Nico played so well together. We were outside, and they both were trying to catch butterflies. Evie had a net and Nico had a broom that he was swinging around. 

Some news that I think everyone who reads this blog knows about: We plan to move in with Jeff and Allicia in September. They are renovating their garage for us and we plan to stay there on a temporary basis to help us pay down some debt. We are very excited and can't wait. A lot of this summer will be spent packing and sorting through things so that we don't have too much to store away while we are staying there. 

Wednesday was my birthday! It was probably the best birthday I have ever had. Guy and I celebrated early because he worked on my birthday, we had a lot of fun talking after Nico went to bed on Tuesday. We don't get a lot of time to chat sometimes, but Nico went to bed early and it was perfect timing. Love my Guy and all his thoughts and ideas. And then on Wednesday my Mom took Nico and I up to the cabin and and we ate sushi, ate brownies, opened presents, hung out, I even got to take a nap! We stayed the night there, and this morning we came back into town and Nico and Grandma went to the Zoo while I did some shopping with my birthday money. Thank you so much, Mom and Pa! 

Nico is looking at Grandma and Papa as they're telling him not to strike the match and to put it back into the box. He's contemplating whether or not to listen to them. Papa and Nico made a fire in the fire pit after dinner that night.

Grandma helped Nico through some fear of the dinosaurs at the Zoo. He was even brave enough to sit on one!! 

This morning, while we were still at the cabin, Guy wrote me an email saying that a package had arrived for me, it was the camera that Grandparents Russell got for my birthday! I opened it up today and started charging the battery, and soon I will be trying it out. You will be seeing some new and improved pictures on this blog! I am so happy about this! In fact, after I am done writing this blog, I plan to sit down with it and play. 

While at Target today, I bought a bag full of water balloons. Nico wanted to try them out tonight so we did. Man I love seeing this boy experience things for the first time, it is so thrilling. We had to fill them up at our sink with the filtered water, since the hose connection that came with the balloons didn't work on either of our hoses, and the water balloons were too frail to stretch out to put on the hose or the sink faucet. The filtered water faucet was the perfect size. We filled up our big colander twice with balloons and then went outside and Nico threw them on the grass and the sidewalk. We pierced a few with needles. They splash everywhere when you do that! I thought I had remembered that putting soap on water balloons and THEN pricking them would leave a hole that water would squirt through, instead of puncturing the whole balloon, but this did NOT work. I will have to research how to do that. If it's possible.

Filling up a water ballon at our sink.

That's it for this week! More adventures to come!

Last Day of School!

Friday I went to Nico's school to see what they've been doing in the music program. All the parents were invited. They had chairs set up so we could sit and watch. There was singing, keeping the beat, hand motions, and "draw a lowercase 't' in the air" along with a rap video (see video at bottom of entry).

They served cookies to the kids afterwards, but I was prepared with homemade snickerdoodles. Nico got a plate with his own cookies and he was very excited. Boy those cookies tasted good. Guy even said that it would take a very skilled baker to discern that the cookies were gluten free. YES! Snickerdoodles are Guy's favorite cookies. All 27 cookies were gone that day.

On Friday we also received Nico's complete "About Me" book. It included a page with the pictures from the Easter Egg Hunt.

And speaking of Easter, I forgot to post a picture from the Easter BBQ we had at the cabin.

Nico and his cousins Alexis and Rory

On Saturday Nico got to jump on a trampoline and played really well with new friends Olivia and Megan. They are the daughters of an old high school friend of mine. My friend gave all the kids their own orange with the top cut off and a straw stuck into it. It was a novel idea and kept them occupied for a little while.

On Sunday after church, Nico got to go home with Papa and Grandma, as I had an essential oils appointment that afternoon. Nico was so excited to help Papa chop some wood.

Action shot

Monday we saw Allicia and Co. Nico got to pick one of their strawberries and eat it. This inspired us to plan a trip to the Strawberry fields, so that is on the calendar this summer. And speaking of calendar… on Tuesday while Nico was at school, I spent the whole morning building our summer calendar. Schedules will be important for both me and Nico, to make sure we get out of the house and accomplish all the things we want to do this summer. Regular Zoo visits, regular Garden visits, then the only-once things like the Discovery Center, Paddle boats, go-carts, etc.

On Tuesday the ice cream truck came to Nico's school and they were each given a dollar to spend on a soft serve ice cream cone. I found a recipe to make for Nico's ice cream and I bought gluten free cones to send with him. His teachers wrote a note back saying that Nico loved the ice cream I made. He's been eating up the rest of the ice cream over the last few days.

On Tuesday night, Guy took Nico to the library. They came home with 3 new books to read. Guy always puts Nico to bed on the nights he has off, and they always read books.

Lately I have been telling him stories before bed. Stories with Sammy the muskrat, which is a character from the stories that my Mom used to tell us. In the stories, Sammy always comes over to Nico's house to go on an adventure. Having Nico as a character seems to make it more fun. I certainly remember all the Sammy stories where I was a character. In fact, all of them I ever heard had me in them along with whoever else was listening. 

I am not a very good story teller, Guy and I joked that perhaps by the time Nico was old enough to recognize story quality, I would be better at it.

Wednesday was the last day of school for Nico. We gave treats to all his bus drivers and took a picture of him with his favorites.

Nico handing them their treat.

Oh memories!

Today was a successful first day of summer vacation. 

We have recently been starting to go on bike rides on my bike, with the toddler seat hooked up. Nico sits between me and the handlebars.

The only downside to this arrangement is that Nico doesn't get any exercise. But I do really like being able to have conversations with him while riding.

Looks like I remembered to add all the pictures. Does that mean we're all done? I think so!

Oh, we did find out that Nico will be in the afternoon session next year, and will be with a different teacher. I am sad that he won't have the teacher he had this year again, but I'm sure Nico will thrive with his new one!

And, we were told we would hear something about Guy's job by this Friday. So, tomorrow.