Halloween and Parent Teacher Conferences

This year was the first year Nico went Trick-or-Treating. I wanted to take Nico down Warm Springs to experience the crowds and the costumes and the kids and the excitement, I knew he would enjoy it. The candy wasn't something he'd be able to eat but we planned to trade the candy for treats he could eat. Jeff and Allicia were going to be taking their kids to Harrison Blvd in North Boise which is apparently a VERY hoppin' place to go in Boise on Halloween, but they decided last minute to stay in their own neighborhood, so we ran into them on our way out. We joined forces and stormed Warm Springs. I am so glad Nico got to trick-or-treat with Evie!! I took him up to his first few houses to teach him when to say trick-or-treat and to only take one piece of candy and then to say "thank you".

We turned off of Warm Springs and back into their neighborhood and ended up back home two hours later. This was much more time and excitement than I was expecting but it was a great thing. I don't remember the last time I had so much fun. Watching Nico experience something new like that and seeing him enjoying it and enjoying it with his best friend, no less, was awesome.

Check out the Halloween video at the end of this update!

We had Nico's Parent-Teacher Conference on Monday. Guy wasn't able to make it (what, he needs to sleep?) I really like his teacher! She says that she pulls the kids aside individually to work on their IEP goals. For Nico she is working on recognizing emotions, happy, sad, angry, frustrated, and using a mirror to make them himself. As far as I know none of his previous teachers ever did one-on-one time with each of the kids. She doesn't do all of them every day, but one or two a day.

The speech therapist wasn't able to make it to the meeting, unfortunately, but Miss Erica (his teacher) answered all my speech therapy questions really well. I asked if she thought Nico would be ready for kindergarten next year in regards to his speech and she said yes. He will continue speech therapy in kindergarten. He will also get a resource teacher coming into his kindergarten class every day for about 15-20 minutes to make sure he is doing okay and helping him if he needs it. If there's a particular part of the day that is hard for him, they'll come in at that time. That makes me feel so much better. Miss Erica said that sometimes it's hard for kids transitioning from such class (8 kids, 3 teachers) to a large class (22 kids, 1 teacher), so having the resource teacher there for part of the day will help.

I asked her about elementary schools, too. Because our living situation is somewhat up in the air when it comes to next Fall, I feel like we have the ability to choose which kindergarten to send him to and then when we do end up moving from here we can move close to the school. He is currently going to White Pine Elementary for preschool, and Miss Erica said that the Speech Therapist for kindergarten at White Pine is excellent, and so are the teachers. Then there's Adams Elementary which is a stone's throw from here, and a bunch of other ones. I am even considering public charter schools, though they do a lottery to determine who gets to go to those. A lot to think about.

Pictures from school:

Halloween Party!

Volcanoes

Snack time. With his teacher Miss Erica

On Sunday we went up to the cabin for a memorial dinner for my Grandma Salisbury (Nico's Great Grandma Salisbury) who passed away a few years ago. My Dad and Aunt Ellen made us Grandma's famous enchiladas and jello, and then we got to hear some stories from their childhood. They had so many adventures. One in particular that cracked me up was the story about how my dad and his brothers went hiking and found a bunch of salamanders, at least 100 of them, ("we probably should have left some there" Papa says) and they brought them back to their house in a bucket and put them in their pond. The salamanders started popping up in the neighbors' yards and squished on the roads. They got calls from the neighbors about them (how did the neighbors know it was them? hehe!) Salamanders were everywhere for a while.

Papa and Aunt Ellen telling stories

My brothers Jeremy and David

The boys chatting in the living room

Evie and Avery and Nico playing in the Clubhouse.

 Video time!