Thoughtfulness, Bike Trail, Hot!

On Friday Nico rode his own bike to school instead of the trailer bike. While we were locking up his bike, someone that Nico calls "Grandma" walked by and stopped to talk to us (she was also one that stopped to talk to us in the video last week). She told me that I was raising a very sweet and thoughtful boy. When they were in line and leaving the classroom one day, Nico noticed Grandma lagging behind at the end of the line so he left his spot and went back and grabbed her hand to walk with her. I like hearing stuff like this!

We tried to beat the heat on Saturday by going early to the bike trail (aka Strider Park), but it was still super hot and muggy. It was the first time Nico tried this bike trail with his actual bike instead of his Strider. It took some getting used to because pedaling over the bumps is hard. I pushed him up the bumps sometimes because he lost momentum. But then he would yell (playfully?) "I'm going too fast I'm going too fast!!!!!" This is where he also learned to back pedal to brake his bike. Before this he was stopping himself by dragging the tips of his toes on the ground. 

We did the trail twice.

Sunday, Guy woke up very early due to a Nico outburst. 2 PM maybe. It actually gave us time to sort through a lot of Nico's toys and do some reorganizing and purging. It was great. We even pulled out a bin from storage that had toys in it that Nico hadn't seen since last September. He was very excited, and so, for You and Me Time one morning, he wanted to put together and take apart and put together his airplane toy, all while I played with his other toy that made a different airplane fly around a track. You can see the video at the end of this post.

We had some very hot days here this past week. It was hot! 107 degrees I think on Sunday. We had a heat advisory to stay indoors in an air conditioned building. Our swamp cooler was working hard but we still had some trouble keeping the temperature comfortable in here. We set up our canopy out front yesterday and that actually seems to keep the house a bit cooler. It catches some of the sun for us. This weekend we will probably set up the little kiddie pool underneath it. 

This is the last week of Nico's literacy program. Tomorrow is his last day! He has a week free before VBS Mega Sports Camp starts, which will last one week and Evelyn will be going with him. He is excited about that, and also the dance class that they are also taking together that starts soon. He likes to do stuff with Evelyn.

Guy left work a little bit ago and came home because he wasn't feeling well. Here's hoping he feels better soon! :(

That's it for today. Until next time!

Blueberries and Paddle Boats

Lots of fun this past week, scratched some things off our summer to-do list!

Saturday was the market. We stopped by the fountain briefly, but it was a bit too chilly to get wet. Nico got a balloon animal. He asked for a yellow dinosaur.

We also went into the game store on 8th St. briefly and saw some things that we might come back and get later. Marbles, and a train game. I am dubbing summertime: Nico's birthday summer. Instead of getting him one big gift, we are having fun doing and seeing things this summer, and little prizes like marbles and trains along the way are also factored into his birthday. We are planning a ROCKET birthday party for him on his birthday. We are going to set off rockets at Quarry View Park (Old Park). We already reserved the picnic area.

Also on Saturday we went to the park to fly Nico's KITE for the first time. We got it up in the air about 3 times and Nico had a blast. It was windy and cold so I let him wear my jacket. 

There was once where the kite blew upward so hard that it yanked the string from Nico's hand. We had to chase it, and scream at the same time, and eventually we caught it. That was probably the best part of the kite flying experience.

Sunday after church, the Grandparents Salisbury took us to Smoky Mountain Pizza where Nico and I shared a gluten free pizza. WOW was it good! We had a great time with them and with Lexie, who also joined us. We took one home for Guy, too. For Father's Day Nico and I made Guy a treasure map and buried a treasure for Guy in the backyard. That was fun. Later that afternoon, Grandma and Lexie stopped by for a bit and Nico and Lexie climbed up into Nico's bed to watch Curious George.

Wednesday we went blueberry picking. We wanted to go strawberry picking, but the place we were going was all out of strawberries. It rained the whole time we were there picking, but it was still fun. Nico was worried about the rain but I told him it was okay to be out in the rain. "Remember Piggie and Gerald?" He kept asking for an umbrella but I told him that we don't always need an umbrella. He repeated what I said, as he does quite often now "don't always need an umbrella." Then there was a pause, he was looking out the car window and he said "Need an umbrella!!" The whole blueberry crop was under netting, but there were a few rogue birds in there anyway. We met a group of people there, including Allicia & Evie. Nico climbed into a blueberry bush after Evie; thankfully blueberries don't have thorns! We picked about 3 1/2 pounds. Nico preferred dumping my berries into the box instead of picking them himself. It was actually helpful to have him do that. I wanted to bring my camera, but not in the rain!

Today was a fun day, we had a long list of things to do. I told Nico we had 7 things to do and listed them for him while we were in the car. Number 7 was "home". Nico memorized the list and then would recite it, but when he'd get to 7 he'd say: "Seven… uh.. uh… library! Eight…. bookstore and find a train. Nine… Evies house! Ten… home!" It was so silly, he kept adding things to the list. The list mostly consisted of grocery stores. WinCo, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, the Co-op. Nico was a trooper. We got us both a treat at Whole Foods which held us over until lunch. After our 6 things, we dropped off the groceries at home (#7) and went right back out to do the PADDLE BOATS! 

Nico saying "FIVE BOATS!" He had counted four and wanted to see another one.

There were a lot of ducks, geese, and baby ducks. The ducks sometimes would start going under us so we'd have to stop and back up so they wouldn't get caught in the paddles. Nico had a lot of fun. He couldn't reach the paddles unless he stretched himself and barely sat on the seat. He helped steer for a little bit, and asked me several times to sing "Row row your boat" while I paddled. I decided to do the paddle boats early in the summer because they don't open until 11 AM and in July or August it would be too hot for us even at 11 AM. But today it was perfect.

Nico is mimicking us more and more. I found out that I always say "Oh my goodness, what happened?" whenever Nico has a potty accident because he has started saying that in a surprised voice whenever he has an accident: "Oh muh gaw, wha happen?" And as I'm telling him things he repeats after me voluntarily. I have intended to start doing the vocabulary games the school sent home with him, but I have not remembered. I will! 

Nico found our leftover seeds from last year's garden in our fridge and wanted to plant them. We weren't intending to plant a garden this year, but I figured, why not? So we went outside.

We had to yank some pretty big weeds from the garden bed first, but then we planted the seeds. ALL of them. There was a lot. But we had fun sprinkling the seeds onto the dirt, mixing them in haphazardly with the shovel and then watering with the watering can. We'll see what pops up!

A few more random fun things we did:

Climbing with Evie at the park

We used up all our water balloons in 3 days!

Strider Park

I had a lot of fun using my new camera. It takes really good pictures! And I'm trying to learn all about it. It turns out perfectly to have blog day once a week. I can take pictures all week, use up the battery, and then on Thursday unload all the pictures, change the battery out, and I'm good for the next week. 

Painting a bird house

 He went outside with chalk and drew a hopscotch ALL BY HIMSELF. He even wrote the numbers into the squares. He said "Mommy, a hopscotch!" and then he hopped through it for me. I'm thinking Curious George was his teacher on this one.

He was a good camera subject.

Nico fell asleep tonight at 5 PM, in bed, while he was in time out. I went in there and he had pulled the cover over himself and had zonked out. I'm forecasting a wake-up in a few hours. We will then eat some strawberries, watch some Curious George, and then he'll fall asleep in my bed.

I don't think I'm forgetting anything on this busy week. At this rate, I don't ever want summer to end!

Strider Video!

BBQ on Sunday up at the cabin! I stayed home because of a sinus infection, fever, etc. But the boys had lots of fun! There was a game my mom put together that started with a clue, so the kids could find a hidden butterfly. Guy was the one who found it. At the end of the game everyone split up the prize which was a bunch of coins they got to take turns choosing, so Nico came home with a bag full of quarters to add to his piggy bank. He also came home with a tractor hat that my Mom got for him while they were in Ohio!

Nico was very proud of it and he has been wearing it a lot (whenever we remember!) Thank you Ma & Pa!

On Monday morning I was feeling so much better so I took Nico to the Strider Park with the camera mounted on his bike. I didn't check to make sure there weren't any smudges on the lens before starting, and I also didn't check to make sure I had it on the highest HD setting, but one of these days I will remember both of those things! The video still turned out incredible though, and I am very happy with it. (See video at bottom of entry) We went on the trail twice, and Nico had so so so soooo much fun, going so very fast over the ups and downs, he kept saying that he was going as fast as a race car. It really seemed like it at times. I had to run to keep up with him. It was great exercise for both of us. Then we "relaxed" by playing on the playground.

We had enough time on Wednesday afternoon to take another trip to the park to do another circuit.

So, my Mom also got me something from Ohio - pure maple syrup! She came over last night and we split a banana pancake (1 egg + 1/2 banana, a little salt) with butter and maple syrup on it, just to try it out. Incredible syrup! Guy and I and Nico all had it this morning on our pancakes. (Did you know that we eat pancakes almost every morning?) 

Today we had pizza for dinner. This was the first time Nico has ever had pizza. He made his own:

After he put all the cheese and toppings into one big pile in the middle of the pizza, I helped him spread them around a bit. He said that he really liked the pizza, but he barely ate any of it. Maybe it was the big sandwich he had for lunch. 2 big pieces of bread, turkey, cheese, mayo, mustard. He really liked that.

So here's the Strider video. Be sure to switch the HD on because it looks much better that way. (After the video starts playing, click the gear symbol on the bottom right of the video and choose the highest setting)

Adventure!

Saturday we went to the Saturday Market where we discovered the Sprouts Kids Club. Every week they have an activity for the kids. This week the activity was coloring a plate with whatever foods the child wanted. They also give every kid 2 tokens each week. Each token is worth $1 at the market and they can go buy any fresh food item (fruit, veggie, meat, cheese) at the market. They just can't buy from the food trucks. And if they want something that's more than $2, they can save up! So we decided on 2 roma tomatoes and ended up spending just one of his tokens, so we are keeping his 2nd one for next week. Nico drew his two tomatoes onto his plate. We also ran into his teacher at the market, whose daughter was also participating in the Sprouts Club. We often see her there, so much so that Nico mentions her every time we go to the market, even if we don't see her.

On Sunday, all of us went over to some friends' house for a potluck and game night. We ate hamburgers and played Munchkin while the kids entertained themselves with the Wii. It was a lot of fun.

Monday we went to visit G.G. I was talking about maybe taking Nico for a go-cart ride for his birthday, but that he had to be 40 inches tall in order to be a passenger. So G.G. pulled out the yard stick and we measured him. He looked to be right at 40 or maybe even taller (a yardstick ends at 36 inches so we weren't 100% sure). When I got home I verified it. Looks like we'll be doing the go-carts! He was about 40.5 inches. I plan to take him for a Mommy-Son birthday date where we'll also play miniature golf and then go out for lunch afterward. This summer will be a hoot!

On Tuesday I taught another class and the boys hung out at home. Wednesday I woke up with a bad runny and stuffy nose which I am still fighting.

Today, oh today! We went on an adventure. It happened like this:
After lunch was over and the dishes were done, I came into the living room and said "Hey Nico! Do you want to go on an ADVENTURE?!? I hear there is a Strider Bike Park near by, do you want to go try to find it??" He was excitedly up for it, so we packed ourselves into the car and took off.

I had heard about this park from someone who was in one of the classes I taught. He told me it was downtown, turning on a specific street and going up close to the foothills. I knew the street he was talking about so we went down there and turned onto the road, followed it up and up and up. We couldn't find the park. We took several detours on connecting roads, but just had no luck. So I told Nico that we would go home and I would do some quick internet research and if I found anything that then we could head back out. He was all for that, so we did. After about 5 minutes of internet searching, I found it!

Off we went! It was on the one street that we didn't venture down! We found it easily now that we had directions.

This trail was apparently just built last November. It is for kids age 12 and under, for Strider bikes and any other kind of bike. It makes a .6 mile circuit, with ups and downs and curves. There was no shade and starting to get hot, so we only went a short distance before turning around. We will come back some early morning after summer vacation starts so we can beat the heat and make the full circuit.

Right next to it was a playground with a spongy floor and lots of neat new toys. It has a small climbing wall and twisty turny poles and bars and climby parts. It was a lot of fun. It had no shade, either, so we will need to come back soon to play longer.

Nico's last day of school is June 4th. They invited all the parents on May 30th to watch the kids as they have their music class. Cookies afterward and certificates. I am looking forward to seeing what they've been doing in music class.

That's all the news this week!