New Baby, Spring Break Quarantine, Sleepover

Spring Break started after school on Friday, and that evening Nico wanted to jump right into all the fun word work that his SLP sent home with him. By Saturday we were halfway through it.

Saturday was a big day for this house! Allicia went into labor Saturday afternoon, they were pretty sure it was partly because she was dehydrated because she was sick the night before. She went into labor and then a few hours later, meet Ivy Marie! It was quick!

The rest of their family caught the bug that Allicia had, so we had a quarantine. That means that we don't let Nico play with Evie while Evie is sick, and we don't hang out and play with their toys while they are sick. We stay in the clubhouse together or go out. And we use a lot of hand sanitizer spray. Nico and I have gone out several times this week to parks. Quarry View is so close, we have been walking there or riding there. 

Allicia's mom came into town on Sunday and took care of them as they recovered from illness and also with a new baby. What an intense weekend for them!!

Nico and I also went to the zoo this week, maybe on Monday? I don't remember exactly. There is good news on the zoo front: No More Dinosaurs! We were able to easily go see the giraffes TWICE because there were no dinosaurs stopping us.

Me: "There's no more dinosaurs, they're gone!"

Nico: "No more dinosaurs? Where did the go?"

Me: "They took them away, probably to another zoo."

Nico: "Another zoo? Okay! What other zoo?"

Me: "I don't know which one." 

Nico: "Oh okay, let me think, hmmm. "

Then on Tuesday, Grandma Salisbury picked Nico up and Nico spent the night up at the cabin! He waited for Grandma by the front door and when she arrived he was so excited. He ran out to her, dragging his suitcase-on-wheels behind him. He had found his suitcase the night before and packed it himself with a new change of clothes. 

He had soooo much fun up there, chopping wood with Papa, playing with legos, jumping on the trampoline. Guy and I came up Wednesday for dinner to bring Nico back home. Grandma Salisbury once again made some incredible food for all of us. And sent us home with leftovers. Their salads are always the best because of all the sprouts they grow. It's basically a sprout salad. I love it! And their new homemade dressing is pretty incredible too. 

Then today we picked up a bunch of books from the library that were waiting for us. One was a video, a cartoon medley of three Mo Willems books. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog was the first one. Cartoon! Mo Willems is the voice of the pigeon, and his daughter is the voice of the duckling. It's pretty great.

This evening we were able to get a bike trailer for Nico. Nico was very excited about this. We took it for a test spin and I think we have some kinks to work out, but I'm looking forward to using it this spring and summer and next Fall. Greenbelt, picnics, etc, riding him to school, then picking him up in the afternoon and taking him straight to the park for a picnic date. Oh, he got assigned to MORNINGS in Kindergarten, we got the call last Friday. Yay!! That is just what we wanted. 8:40 AM -11:30 AM. We also scheduled our transition appointments with White Pine and with Adams, those take place in early April.

Guy has been mentioning lately that he is intrigued by the idea of celebrating the first day of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. As a way to mark the passing of time and give us something to look forward to. It could maybe even be the first week of each season. A few ideas we had: Put a season-themed puzzle together, watch the corresponding Curious George season movie (they have one for spring, fall, and winter), or doing picnics for summer, or any number of appropriate activities based on season. If anyone has any ideas, we are gathering them at the moment! I was super excited that Guy was super excited about this. We will make it happen! 

Lexie's Bday Party, Cars, Tricycles, Sprinklers

We went to Lexie's Birthday Party on Saturday, what fun! We got to see Jonny and Alanna's new house, it is incredible! There is a little hideaway underneath the stairs that Nico really loved. He was very excited to see Lexie and give her our present. The party games were fun, Nico got to be wrapped up in toilet paper like a mummy by Papa.

The tall one is my brother Jonny all wrapped up. My mom and I helped with that one.

It was a great party.
After we got home, Guy and Nico went out for a few hours. Dollar store, and a few other places. I was in need of a nice break after 3 nights straight putting Nico to bed without Guy. He is testing limits you see :) We added a rule to the house rules - #4) No whining. We are going to be working on mealtime next, teaching table manners and stopping the whining about eating. It basically goes like this: our job is to choose what food to make, make the food, make mealtime pleasant. Nico's job is to either eat the food, or not eat it. Paradigm shift! For "you and me time", he has shifted from color-by-numbers to CARS. We both sit on the couch facing the back of the couch and we race cars back and forth across the top of the couch. We get flat tires, we lose wheels, we run out of gas, we get tipped over in the riverbed and need helicopter assistance, and we chase each other. Another one he did for a few days was called "crash into people" where we start at either end of the clubhouse and run and crash into each other.

Tuesday, Grandma Salisbury took Nico out again while I had Bible Study. They always have fun!

A few random pictures (I'm loving the fact that when I take a picture, it is automatically uploaded to google and I can access all those pictures from this blog!! It makes blogging so much easier!)

And apparently I'm still learning how to take videos.

Tonight we took a trip to the park and when we got home Nico wanted to play with Evie, and Evie was in the front yard running through the sprinklers that her dad was testing. Nico jumped right in and got soaked. Shivers!!!

When he got back inside we got him into some pajamas and under a blanket on the couch, with the "Jesus Loves Me" app on my phone (Bible for Kids app), and a plate full of apples and monster teeth. What a night!

Until next week!

Kindergarten: Registered

I got a new phone! I got an Aquos, which is a smartphone, pretty sleek looking. My very first smart phone. I tested out the camera and set it up to automatically "back up" my pictures online, and somehow that picture storage is connected to this blog, so I am able to pull pictures into my blog post that I took on my phone, with no extra effort on my part. So here's some random pictures from this week.

We have been dealing with some discipline issues with Nico that at times have seemed unmanageable. Guy and I decided that it was pretty important to be able to sit down and talk with each other without Nico around, as often as we can, so we can discuss these issues on a regular basis. So far our adventure into parenting has been mostly unagressive, meaning that we haven't really taken an active role in working together to raise Nico with the right sense of self - to be able to make good decisions and not bad, among other things! So on Monday afternoon, Guy and I left Nico with Allicia and went to the Co-op for an hour. We each got a treat. I chose an apple and Guy chose ginger ale. Then we sat in the common area and pulled out a pad of paper, and made a plan. We each left the meeting with action items. One of the things Guy did this week is make some clubhouse rules with Nico. Nico was very responsive to this. Just tonight he kept pointing to #2 and saying "Mommy you have to be polite, you have to tuck me up!" This was part of a bedtime struggle (which has become increasingly more common), in which he had made a choice that led to me not tucking him up. Tucking up means that I put his blanket on him. He had to do it himself tonight, and he was very upset. But he was being very polite when he was trying to convince me to be polite.

Guy and I are both realizing that in order for Nico to learn good manners and clean up after ourselves, that we have to model that behavior. I tell ya what, having a child has grown me up in so many ways, it's the toughest job I've ever had.

Tuesday morning Grandma Salisbury took Nico out again and got him a few treats including another Lego, which him and Guy put together that night before they made the chore chart. Tuesday I drove out to Mountain Home to hang out with my sister-in-law Bambi, and my nieces and nephew. I brought my henna supplies and gave all the girls a henna tattoo.

Made a good dinner on Wednesday night, except we only have one burner, so it took a lot longer since I didn't read the directions very carefully and I needed two pots going at the same time. Whoops!  Oh well. Yummy pecan-crusted chicken.

 This morning, went to the library and then visited this bridge.

I picked Nico up early from preschool today so we could make it to Kindergarten registration on time. It started at 3:30, and we were there at about 3:20, and were the 2nd people in line. We got our packet of stuff, then we went to 5 different stations so Nico could be tested in Reading, Writing, Language, Color, and Math. The only thing he struggled with is knowing whether two words rhymed or not. That is something we have never worked on, so that wasn't much of a surprise. But he knew his letters and numbers and colors and could write his name. He was quick as a whip. When I filled out the paperwork a month ago, I had told them that I preferred AM kindergarten, but they didn't say anything about that today, so I'm not sure what the plan is yet.

I am spending some of my energies organizing the Clubhouse and trying to get it into better shape so it doesn't feel as cluttered. That has been fun!

Oh, Nico made a card for his friend Lazarus at church, but he couldn't remember his name. So I told him that the next time he sees this boy that he should ask him his name and then we can give him his card. So after Bible Study on Sunday, Nico tells me that the boy's name is Lazarus and asks for the card to give to him. But we didn't have it with us, so we will try next week (if we can find the card!) Lazarus is 2 years old. Nico loves going to Bible Study because he gets to play with his friends and watch movies while the adults talk :) We love it, too, and are making friends.

That's it for now!

Mall, Grandma!

Nico was able to hang out with Grandma Salisbury twice this week. On Sunday we met up with her and Lexie at the mall. Grandma bought them each something from Kohl's so she snapped a picture of them carrying their bags like backpacks.

He got to see her again on Tuesday while I went to my Bible Study. He came home with a lego bulldozer that him and Guy put together later that night. Thank you Grandma!

The bulldozer was probably the biggest lego to date, and Guy told me that he stayed focused on it for a good 45 minutes before he started losing steam. So Guy raced through the rest of it while Nico started playing with the lego guys, role-playing with the half-built bulldozer. They had fun.

Nico's really been digging the color-by-numbers. There is a website where you can print free copies and they add to them all the time. They just added about 7 of them and Nico's been rifling through them. We are burning through markers! He supplements with crayons.

We've been implementing something we call "You and Me Time" which is where Nico and I play together doing whatever he wants to do for 10 minutes, no distractions, no phone, computer, no iPad. We play at other times, too, but this gives us structure and a name to it, so he knows he can expect at least one You and Me Time per day. Guy has been trying to do this with him too. It's supposed to cut down on the acting out, which, it does! I am going through some parenting videos and lessons from Positive Parenting Solutions online. It's been helpful. We have a parenting TOOL BOX, and the #1 tool is You and Me Time. The #2 tool is Calm Voice. That's as far as I've gotten. Because we don't have a separate room for Nico it's hard to implement time outs, so we're trying to find other ways.

Anyway, for You and Me Time this week, he has almost always chosen color-by-numbers. 

Here's some preschool pictures from a few weeks ago, I forgot to add them last week. This is him and his friend Ella.

On Friday we visited the Language and Learning Center at Calico to check out their program there. We are considering it for summer time. It would be twice a week for three hours. They read the same book every day for a few weeks and focus on speaking correct sentence structure and using right language. Then he'd get pulled out for 30 minutes every day to do 1:1 speech therapy. We want him to be as prepared for kindergarten as he can get… and the time this summer will be pretty important. So, he'll be tested in May so we can determine how necessary it would be to enroll him in the program. 

And speaking of Kindergarten - AH! Official registration day is next Thursday. I already filled out the forms, but I have to go in with Nico and they need to give him a quick test to see where he stands, then they send us home with a packet of stuff to make sure to go over this summer. The whole town will be there so I'm going to try to show up a tad early. Ok, not the whole town, but all the people within the school's boundary that have kindergarteners.

Until next time..