Birthday Party, New Bike, Sourdough

On Saturday, Nico had a birthday party to go to. His friend Isaac from school turned 6 years old. I asked Nico what he wanted to get for Isaac and he said a transformer, so we searched on Amazon for one and Nico picked it out. He also wanted to get him some silly putty from the dollar store, so that we did. Isaac's family lives across from Municipal Park, very close to us. It was the first "drop off" birthday party that Nico has been do, where you drop the kids off and then come back 2 hours later to pick them up. Cool! I dropped him off, gave the mom a large packaged gluten free cookie to substitute for cake, told her which drinks he could have, and then went home. Guy and I got our bikes ready and we rode to pick him up two hours later. I had the trailer bike hooked up to my bike. It was a nice day that day. Nico was playing with his friends still when we got there. Happy Nico = Happy Mommy. I told him we had the trailer bike with us for him to ride home with us and he instantly wanted to leave, he said "Bye! I have to go now!" 

On Monday we went to the Discovery Center again, spent the whole time building walls and trying to keep everyone getting along.

Nico wanted to try to ride his actual bike to school, so we got it ready but he couldn't get on by himself and I had flashbacks to last Fall as he teetered and tipped along. The bike is just too big for him. I told him we couldn't ride it that day, but that we would go shopping for a different bike for him that would fit him. The next day I figured we'd give it a shot so we went to the Youth Ranch and found the perfect fit, for only $7.99. The tires were a bit messed up and after a botched attempt to patch the intertube, Jeff patched it up for us and it was good to go. Nico can get on and off this bike all by himself, and when he stops the bike he doesn't fall right over onto the ground. Perfect! He rode the bike to school yesterday and we locked it up in the bike rack. Fun.

Practicing at the park

This past week I also made my first loaf of gluten free sourdough bread. It will become a staple, because Guy loved it. LOVED it. I also made 2 sweet treat recipes recently that he loves. My cooking is adding up points!

The dough for the first rise (12 hour rise)

In the pan for the 2nd rise (8-ish hours)

The finished loaf

Sourdough bread is basically fermenting the flour, a lot like sauerkraut is fermenting the cabbage, so vitamins and minerals are quadrupled in many cases and the proteins in the flour are broken down so are easier to digest. Even I can eat it! Nico isn't too fond of it, but I am thinking of getting a milder-tasting sourdough starter so it doesn't have that ZING to it.

That's it for this week. Short and sweet and sour.

Watching Birds, G.G., Video

This weekend was The Great Backyard Bird Count, where you count and record how many birds you see in a time frame of at least 15 minutes. You could count birds on any of the days from Feb 12th-15th. Grandma Russell told us about this and we wanted to participate. She sent Nico some information and some bird sticker books (which he completed the morning he opened the package!) It was a great way to practice saying words - he wanted to say all the names and compare them between sticker books.

Our first bird counting took place last Friday, the 12th, at 6 PM, we went out on the front porch to count. We couldn't identify any species (except geese) because most of the birds we saw were far away and flying in the air. We counted 97 in 15 minutes! Nico kept track using tic marks on a sticky note.

In the last 30 seconds or so, we counted 33 geese flying in a flock. That was pretty cool.

We went to the cabin on Saturday. Lily, Lexie, and Kai were there visiting (Nico's cousins) and so Nico got to play with them (and with Grandma Salisbury!) He also wanted to count birds, so we went outside for about 12 minutes before Nico gave up - we didn't see any birds! We heard a bird squawking in the distance but never saw it. But, it was fun counting, there was snow and our weight often pushed us through the top layer of crusty snow all of a sudden, so we would "fall" into the snow a lot.

We had a great time hanging out at the cabin! Guy didn't come with us, he was trying to meet up with his friend Josh who is visiting from Korea. It didn't work out on Saturday for him to see Josh, he saw him later in the week though. Thanks for the yummy chicken and rice and hot cocoa Grandparents Salisbury!

For the rest of the weekend and even into the week, Nico asked to go count birds outside. A few minutes here, a few minutes there, he has several post-it notes with tic marks on them for all the times he went outside to count.

So after the cabin on Saturday, our church was having a Parents' Night Out, where you drop your kids off at the church and they watch them for 4 hours while you go out on a date. So, we dropped Nico off! And Guy and I, we had NO idea what to do, we really should have planned ahead a bit. We went to Whole Foods and then picked up the mail, went through a car wash, and then walked around downtown for a little while. We went into a bookstore and Guy found a graphic novel of the book The Graveyard Book (I think Gma Russell has read this?) He really wanted it but we didn't buy it (more about that later...)

Then we sat in the Co-op parking lot and talked while Guy sipped on his cold-brew coffee. We picked Nico up a little after 8 PM and there were no other kids there! He had been the only kid there, with 5 adults/older kid helpers there hanging out with him, they were watching movies. Nico had piled up the large bin of stuffed animals into the middle of the floor and was lying in it while watching a movie.

Sunday night, Guy wasn't feeling well and had a fever, so I picked him up some Pho and his desired graphic novels as a surprise from downtown, and then Nico and I went to Bible Study that night without him. Guy was delighted about the comic books (ahem... graphic novels), I had the store wrap them up as a gift. Guy was all better Monday morning, good thing because he was meeting Josh for breakfast. He was also able to see Josh & some other of the NNU crew in Nampa on Tuesday night, they met to play games. Allicia watched Nico that night and put him to bed since I had tap class. Allicia actually put all 4 kids to bed herself!

Tuesday morning we went to see G.G. in Nampa. Nico likes to bring games with him sometimes, so he brought Doodle Dice (G.G. won!), and then also a book called Hug Time.

Here Nico is, explaining something about the book.

On Wednesday we went to the library to pick up some comic books. The "comic books" I bought for Daddy on Sunday, Nico wanted some of his own, so Library. In the comic book we bought Nico for Christmas, Stinky, there are other comics listed in the back, so we looked some of them up on the website and wrote down their call numbers, then went and found them on the shelf. Guy and Nico have been reading through The Graveyard Book graphic novels at night, too. I think comics are going to be a big push for him learning how to read.

On Thursday we went to the Discovery Center. We didn't go on Monday this time because Monday was President's Day and Jeff had the day off, so their family spent the day together and we postponed our playdate. Nico played with two other kids there, working together to build a HUGE wall of cardboard boxes that they then crashed into.

Nico building an arc with one of the volunteers

This is my favorite face, after pulling one of the blocks from the arc and watching it topple.

I think that's about it......................

Now a video! Some of the things I mentioned in this post are in it. Huzzah!

Valentines, Singing, About Me Book

Looks like the update I did last night was saved as a "draft" and was never posted. Never fear! Everything is A-OK here, I had a late night teaching a henna class and didn't have time to update. Last night's update was just to tell you that the blog would be updated mid-morning on this very day (Friday!)

So, jumping right in!

Last Saturday was the sensory friendly movie, The Good Dinosaur. I was looking forward to seeing it but it wasn't as great as I had hoped. On the way home from the movie Nico told me "I didn't really like that movie" and I told him that I didn't really enjoy it either. I asked him why he didn't like it and he said "because of all the bad stuff in it". Yep, it wasn't the super feel-good animated movies we're used to.

Sunday was the Super Bowl, and no Bible Study that night. Monday was the Discovery Center! Got a video this week with some Discovery Center stuff in it, you can take a look at that at the bottom of the entry.

On Tuesday I volunteered in Nico's class. I really enjoy watching them do the calendar. Nico has become really good at recognizing days. If I already mentioned this, I apologize! When he tells us about things he has done in school he sometimes stops himself and says "No wait, that wasn't today, that was on the 2nd" or whatever day it was. hehe. He told the class on Tuesday that on Monday he went to the Discovery Center with Evelyn. So the kid in charge on that day (Michael) gets to drag and drop stars onto any special date on the smart board at the front of the class. So he dragged and dropped stars onto Monday because of Nico's special Discovery Center date. Wednesday morning on the way to school we encountered Evelyn in the front yard and after we said goodbye to her he said "My friend Evelyn is very nice and very pretty."

OH are you guys ready for some cute school work?

They did an experiment with soda and found out that it eats the enamel of your teeth. I explained to Nico that this doesn't refer to the soda he drinks, in case he was scared, since his soda is just carbonated water. Unless it's the carbonation that hurts the teeth? I sure hope not!

"Tell me about this picture, Nico."
Nico: "This is me and Bruce, we're eating cake"

Nico would like to travel to California. Why? Because they have many cool things there, like horses for example. And he does want to be a cop when he grows up! Just like his Uncle Jonny!

His favorite thing about himself is his heart. I asked him why and he said "Because it's sooooo biiiiiiig, because I love you sooooooo much!"

This is Nico and me on the left, and Allicia and Evelyn on the right. With a door between us. He was sorry he forgot to put arms on me and him.

On Wednesday Nico had his Valentine's Program at school, all the parents came, and they performed songs in the gym. See the video below!!

Thursday was his Valentine's Party at school. Games. Fun. The girl on the right sitting next to Nico is Cairah (pronounced like Kara) is his speech buddy. They are pulled out of class together to get speech therapy with Mrs. Williams every Monday. On Tuesday while I was helping in class, I spent some one-on-one time with Cairah helping her with her math journal, and she snuck the word "poop" into our conversation about how many hearts there were on the page. She giggled uncontrollably. I couldn't help thinking that Nico may have influenced her. Acelyn is on the left, she was in Nico's preschool with him.

To compensate for Nico not being able to eat cookies at the party, I gave him a stick of raspberry chocolate when we got home. It was a large stick. 

Nico was invited to a birthday party for one of his school friends next Saturday. Wahoo!

Ok so now some explanations for what you will see in the Snippets video. You and Me Time one morning consisted of us taking turns singing songs and recording each other doing it on the camera. You'll see some of that. Also, Nico helps me make Guy's lunch every morning. He sits up on the stool at the counter and fills up a jar with yogurt and granola. Lately he has taken to singing while doing this. He sings all the songs he knows and sometimes we take turns. Singing while we work! We make Guy's lunch while Guy takes a shower in the morning. 

Ok I think that's it. I'm hoping I didn't forget anything!

Valentine's Program

Snippets

Happy Birthday Papa, and Tap Test

Last Friday, Nico's fever came back in the afternoon (102.3) and he felt really sick that night, but fever was mostly gone by Saturday. Saturday he ate bits and pieces of food but never committed to anything. Sunday morning, right as rain! Glad he is feeling better now, I'm not sure what was going on!

Sunday after church, Guy helped Rhema's family pack up their Uhaul so they could move. It was a big crowd so it was done quickly. They fed everyone lasagna.

Sunday afternoon we were able to give Papa his birthday present that Nico made for him. We knew we wouldn't see Papa on his actual birthday (tomorrow! Happy Birthday Papa!!!), so we gave it to him early. Scroll down to watch the video of Nico making it (well, painting it:))

Sunday night Bible Study went well. And Nico was back at school on Monday. He was excited to be going back. We skipped the Discovery Center this week and instead hung out with Evelyn and family at home. Before this, we went to Ace Hardware to buy a large wood board that I could practice tapping on. We brought the board downstairs and when the kids heard that it was a dance floor, they all hopped onto it and started dancing. Then I pulled out my tap shoes and the Nico took a turn tapping. (Video below!) The board worked really well for me when I practiced Monday, but on Wednesday it had bowed beyond repair. Whoops! We'll have to find another option.

Nico really digs dancing. For almost 45 minutes today we took turns dancing to a few of his favorite songs on Youtube. One of them is the Marching Song from his VBS experience last summer. It has the perfect rhythm to tap to...

Hmm.. not much else to report this week. Guy loves his job, his boss has given him free reign and Guy is blowing everyone's socks off. They took Dr. Who off of Netflix. Banana cookies = 1/3 cup oats, 1 small banana, a tad vanilla, mix together and bake at 350 for 14 minutes. Nico loves them.