Grandparents, Christmas

Nico was sick in the night last Thursday and wasn't able to make it to his last day of school on Friday. His teacher had sent an email to everyone earlier in the week asking us to let her know if our child would miss Friday so she could send home all the holiday stuff early. If only I had known ahead of time! ;) Oh well, he will get his stuff when he goes back.

Nico was weak for a while but was cheery enough on Saturday to welcome the Grandparents Russell over for our yearly Christmas celebration days with them. On Sunday, G.G. joined the Grandparents and headed over here to celebrate and exchange gifts. It was fun to show everyone the Clubhouse.

On Tuesday we were able to go visit the Art Museum with the Grandparents. I really enjoyed looking at the art, I was pleasantly surprised. Nico really enjoyed the interactive room they had where he could play with all the toys. He built a castle that was completely symmetrical.

random one from school

They headed home on Tuesday afternoon. It was a really great visit! I got to watch Holiday Inn with Grandma Russell which I hadn't seen in a while and fell in love with it. We also tried out "Hello Dinner!" for the first time, which is a place in Boise that makes gluten free meals. We had them make us meals for Sunday and Monday. Their finger steaks and BBQ sauce were very tasty!

Wednesday morning Nico and I went up to the cabin. We intended to do this because the geothermal water had gone out at the Clubhouse/Main house since Saturday night, and I wanted a shower. But the geothermal was fixed on Tuesday. We still went up to the cabin, though :) We had a nice meal and then left in a hurry because it started snowing. Fast! We got out in time to not have to use our chains. It was a very fun visit.

Thursday was Christmas, and I wish I had on video when Nico opened his stocking. He pulled everything out one after the other and glanced at each thing before dropping it to the table so he could pull out more from the stocking. No facial expressions or anything, no "cool!" or "a car!" or anything! Straight faced the whole time. Presents were different though.

Guy seems to have caught the nausea bug that Nico had. Or something different! He has a 102 fever. I'm praying all this illness ends here, I am tired of it! Poor Guy! I asked him if he was going to go to work, and while feeling sick he said "If I don't have a fever". He was so sad that he was missing work, mostly because he knew he was leaving his boss in a pickle because of it. Well, there are two more nights of work this week, perhaps he can swing one of them :)

Off to rest my sleepy head.

Kites and Trains

On Friday, after school was over but Nico was yet to come home, his teacher emailed us with pictures of what they did that day. Apparently there was SO MUCH WIND that they improvised and made kites out of plastic bags. It was fun to ask Nico about them after he got home and show him pictures of his day at school. Nico looked at the group picture and told me that his kite had gotten tangled with someone else's.

On Saturday we went to Jimmy John's because Nico insisted on spending some of his piggy bank money on a sandwich. Before we left, Allicia told me that downtown they had a miniature train exhibit and it happened to be right next door to Jimmy John's, so we went there first. Nico got to control one of the trains using a remote. He took his stool around with him and stopped every few feet to set it down and stand on it so he could see the trains. Not just the trains, though, but all the towns and villages and other things they had set up. There were miniature people doing things like having bonfires and hanging out on the streets. It was very intricate and well put together. Apparently this happens every Saturday from Thanksgiving 'til Christmas. And the rest of the year they do it every Tuesday night.

On Sunday after church, we got to see Papa and Alexis. Jeff had asked if Papa could sit down and talk with him a bit about contract work because Jeff and Allicia are thinking about going that route with Jeff's job. So while Papa talked to them, we got to hang out with Alexis and Evie in the Clubhouse. They watched Jake and the Neverland Pirates on the iPad and ate cheese. Lexie asked "Is this just one big room?" I told her yes, but that it was just temporary.

The rest of this week has just been playing and such, and preparing for Grandma and Grandpa Russell's visit on Saturday! We are excited! More to come next week on that…

When I asked Nico if he had fallen asleep on the bus today he said No, so I put him down early tonight. This is very unusual! He usually always falls asleep on the bus. But, early night is good. He didn't sleep well last night so I'm hoping he gets a good chunk tonight.

Family, School, Friends, Jan Brett

The Grandparents Salisbury invited us up to the cabin on Monday, it was nice to see them after missing Thanksgiving! We also celebrated Chrtistmas! Nico got a Fireman costume and legos which he loves. We also had wonderful food, all gluten free, and very very tasty. Nico ate a ton of sausage and meatballs. Thank you Pa and Ma!

Guy and Nico put legos together while we were there and then more when we got home, then the next day Nico decided to put the legos together himself. He followed the directions and put together an excavator all by himself. He brought it up to me with it hidden behind his back and then he said "Surprise!" and showed it to me. I was so proud of him!!

Lately Nico has been fond of Color-by-Numbers. I print free ones from a website. He has done about 4 of them so far and is on his fifth one.

Next up: A slew of pictures from school. I think these are from his field trip to BSU where they did Special Olympics. Nico said they got to let their balloons go in the air after they were all done. Cool!

His whole class. Miss Erica (teacher), Miss Joanne (Assistant), and Miss Karen (Speech Language Pathologist). Nico can name some of the kids.

The next picture is Nico and his class dancing along to the DINO STOMP. Nico had us search for this on YouTube. I wasn't sure what he was saying at first but he insisted it was called "Dino Stomp" so that is what I searched for. He saw the video and pointed to it. voila! And then later that week I get this picture and see all his class dancing to it.

We decorated Christmas last night with Jeff and Allicia and kids. We used our own ornaments and decorated the silver tree. They are not putting up their HUGE tree this year, too big, nowhere to put it, and it takes a lot of time. I totally understand! So we did the silver tree.

Nico keeps coming home with surprises from school, a slinky yesterday and today some cool star sunglasses. He says he got the sunglasses out of the treasure box. And the slinky he says he got because he made it "all the way to the top."

Today we went to the library to see Jan Brett! She is a children's author that Mom Russell introduced to me/us many years ago. We got there at 9:30 (it started at 10) and were lucky enough to find a parking spot in the library parking lot. Yay! See the video below for our adventure. We sat very close to the front and Jan's husband needed help carrying the box that the LIVE bunny was in, so he asked me. So yes, I had a conversation with Jan Brett's husband as we walked the big box back to the TOUR BUS which I got into. We talked about Boise and bunnies and hedgehogs. Apparently Jan's husband really likes bunnies and the particular one they brought with them he calls "Spoo" and it hangs out with him in a cage in his office while he works. They used to have hedgehogs, four of them, but he said they are too wild and are hard to take care of, so they stopped. But they do keep chickens. He was also very worried about the amount of people stuffed into the library room, he told the bus driver that they were breaking a lot of fire codes. hehe. It was super crowded in there. The video shot of the crowd was taken about 15 minutes before it started, and by the time it did start, there were many more people.

I bought a copy of her new book Animal's Santa, and they had signed name plates to put in the book if we didn't want to stand in line to have her sign one for us. We did have to leave early to get back in time for lunch and school, so we didn't stand in line for an autograph, but Allicia took our book and stood in line for us and had it signed. They were apparently 3rd in line and were out of there pretty darn quick!

Now the video! Plus another video about our first day of December with Nico enjoying his two advent calendars.

Winter Garden Aglow, The End of Vacation

Well we got through Nico's illness just fine and Guy and I both stayed well. Yay! On the Friday after Thanksgiving we ventured to the Botanical Garden for Winter Garden Aglow. We usually don't get to do this until December, but since Guy had the night off we were able to do it early, which meant that it was in the 40s and no heavy snow gear was needed. It wasn't too busy when we first got there, but after being there for an hour it was packed and hard to get around. We had never stayed that long before, because it is usually too cold to last very long. Nico spent a lot of time watching the trains, which he loved.

On our way!

The photographer said: "See you next year!"

On Saturday the Festival of Trees was going on downtown. This is a big event where people create and then donate decorated trees that people can buy. All proceeds go to a local Children's Hospital. Guy and Nico went in the afternoon so I could get some sleep done. There's a lot more to do there than just look at trees, though that is the biggest attraction. There was apparently one decorated with CARS that Nico really liked! There were interactive model trains set up there that Nico enjoyed. He got to control one of the trains and honk the horn and speed it up with dials.

On Monday the Advent Calendars started. We got a computer based one from Grandma Russell and that has been a fun thing for Guy and Nico to do every day. Each day has a new animation to watch, and you can decorate Christmas trees and play puzzles and chinese checkers. Here's the tree that Nico decorated. He "decorated" it by pointing to ornaments, then Guy would click them and move them over to the tree and Nico would guide him to where he wanted them placed. He definitely did not want more than one of the same ornament on the tree. 

He went back to school on Tuesday. And things have been the same as ever ever since. I've been keeping track of funny things Nico says, here's a few:

Nico says: I don't want to live in Evie's house, I want to live in a tall building
Me: How come?
Nico: So I can play with my toys.

At Dawson Taylor's with Daddy, looking across the street at Thomas Hammer coffee building Nico says: A taaaall building, like tehhhhn stories.

A few mornings ago, after he prayed over his pancake: Praying makes Daddy's tummy hurt, Praying makes Mommy's tummy hurt, Jesus loves me makes me happy!

This is translated as him saying that he doesn't want Mommy or Daddy to pray, but only Nico gets to pray. Sometimes I accidentally start praying for the meal and Nico says "No no stop, let me do it." Then he prays and it sounds like "Dear Jesus, thank you for aday ah body Amen." (see previous blog post with the video)

Speaking of videos! I will sign off and leave you with a few. These are oldies that I just put together for you all this week. Apparently the whole moving thing put me behind in my snippets. Here's the last of the Krall Street snippets, and then a short one of Evie and Nico at the park.