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!