School school

On Saturday our neighborhood had a block party at the end of our street. I set up a little henna booth there just like last year, but this time the people who organized it said I should charge, so I did! There was a bouncy house just like last year, and just like last year Nico jumped so much he started feeling sick. Guy took him home to bed and he was soon feeling better.

Sunday was Aadam's birthday. He didn't have an official party but he did come over with his brother Sammy and the boys played out front at our table for a while, eating watermelon and playing. Aadam had treat bags for all the kids, it had some sweet treats in it that Nico could eat and a hotwheels car and a Minions cup.

Then another week of school started! Nico has been doing well. We figured out that library day is Tuesday. Our routine after he gets home from school is--> homework-->snack & iPad. It's been good so far. For a few days he wasn't eating his sandwich in his lunch but just eating his crackers and carrots. I told him to focus on eating his sandwich first and ever since then he's been eating his sandwich too.

Last night (Thursday night) was the Parents Orientation. We heard a speech from the principal (very good), and then we went to the classrooms and met our child's teacher. Nico now sits in the very front row. I sat at his desk and Mrs. Smith told us we could look through our child's stuff, so I did. I pulled out all the stuff he had in his desk and looked through it. Oh fun! She explained how homework works and the kinds of things they're doing in the class. "Walk to Read" and "March to Math" are both daily/weekly things that they do with the other 1st grade class. They are put into groups dependent on their skill. At the end she asked us all to write something to our child in their journals. That was very cool. He is at school right now and has probably already read it!

She also talked about "Mindset", about teaching kids that doing hard things grows your brain and making mistakes is how we learn. She said that a good question to ask our kids every day is "What hard thing did you do today, how did you grow your brain?" I did notice that he started saying something new just the other day, he was saying it to himself while trying to put on his suspenders without luck "I can do this, I can do this, I CAN do this." Way to go teacher!!

Thursday was a late night for me so that's why I'm updating this morning! Guy has today off and we are hoping to watch some Netflix together today while Nico is at school. It is a long weekend so Guy also has Monday off!

I perfected the gluten free tortilla! It can fold!!

15 minutes before bed: Can I have some henna? Nico told me where to put every part. "Put a vine here, and here, and here and here"

Treasure Hunt and First Day of School!

Monday was Nico's 1st grade Sneak Peek. We went and found his classroom, found his hook and his very own desk with his name on it! We put his folder and notepad in his desk and his crayons and other supplies into his very own bin. We found out which of his friends are in his class this year.

Tuesday morning was the treasure hunt!

We gathered at 9 AM right outside the clubhouse. I told them all the rules, gave them popsicles to eat and then Allicia hung out with them while I went and hid all the clues. Some of the clues were in the park so I rode my bike there. I came back and we started. They took turns grabbing the clues (youngest first - Ivy!) and Sammy was our reader. We were done a little after 10 AM and then they spent the rest of the time writing their own clues for their own treasure hunts. Sammy, Evelyn, and Nico, all made their own treasure hunts and had the others go through it. We broke at 11 AM for lunch!

Here's some pictures that Allicia took!

Check out the treasure hunt video at the end of the post!

Wednesday was the first day of school! The bell rings at 8:40, so we left at 8:25-ish. There is a line outside that those in Room #2 line up at when the bell rings, so we found that. Then he ran onto the playground and... goodbye! It was quick. 

Wednesday was an early release day, so today was the first full day of school for him. He loves it. He had homework today, just reading through flash cards. We need to do this every day and then on Friday is "Flashcard Friday" where we go through our stack and any that he can read quickly "in a flash" we discard, and only keep the words in the deck that he still struggles with and needs to practice.

Guy and I decided to embark on a "No Spend-tember". We are so close to paying off debt that we are going to try to finish it off by the end of September! We are selling things and reducing our budget significantly. We still have to spend money on stuff like food and gas and rent, etc., but all other spending is cut off for September. We also decided to go through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Univeristy (FPU) again to keep us motivated to stay out of debt. Our church is having an FPU class and we have decided to go to it! Our first night will be next Monday. After we pay off debt we are going to celebrate. Not sure exactly how yet but it will be extravagant (for us) and probably involve a lot of food.

Guy is also going to be helping out at church in the sound booth on Thursday nights and then will be running the sound sometimes on Sunday. He is there tonight for his first training session.

Enjoying pizza on Saturday using GG's tomatoes. The sauce was REALLY good!

Nico didn't want to go to bed so he moved his pillow outside his bed and fell asleep on the floor. He's asleep in this picture. I turned the light on just so I could take his picture :)

That's it for tonight... enjoy the video!

Grandma Caaaaaamp!

I had another henna booth on Saturday, then we made pizza that night, watched 2 episodes of Three Stooges. Sunday was Father's Day! Nico had made something for Guy in school and we had saved it until Sunday to give to Guy. It was a little card with buttons glued onto it. 

On Monday we went to the playground at Adams Elementary with the WHOLE crew. For the past 2 weeks, Tiffanie and Aadam and Sam have joined Allicia and I in our play dates. This week we took the kids to the school playground. Allicia wants Evelyn to become familiar and comfortable with the playground since she will be going to Kindergarten next year. Aadam is also going to Kindergarten, and they will be in the same class. We are hoping that all the kids have recess together, but I'm not sure if they will.

Sunday through Wednesday I was struggling with a cold and a fever that kind of put me out for the count on Sunday afternoon and then again at various times during the next few days. Tiffanie said she would keep an eye on Nico outside for me on Tuesday morning while the kids played. I was super grateful for that. Then Allicia let Nico and Evelyn play in the main house Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday afternoon she took Nico to the Discovery Center with them. Oh what blessing to be surrounded by good friends! 

This is how you multitask without an iPad - Nico is listening to his Curious George book on CD while reading a comic book. He was keeping up with the Curious George page turns just fine. 

Yesterday Nico and I went down to the cellar to pull out the gallon of Zinc Oxide I have down there so I can make some more sunscreen for him. Nico is already super tan! We don't use much sunscreen unless he's in direct sunlight for extended periods. In Tiffanie's yard (where he spends a lot of time) he gets filtered sunlight through the trees. ANYWAY, we found an old binder of Guy's with pockets to hold cards. I think Guy used it for Magic cards back in the day, but it was completely empty. I asked Guy what he wold think about letting Nico fill it with Pokemon cards and Guy said he couldn't think of a better use for it. Nico put his Pokemon cards in there, slightly more than 300 of them!

Wednesday afternoon I picked Nico up from the Discovery Center and drove him up to the cabin for the very first Grandma Camp! There are 4 Grandma Camps this summer, each starting on a Wednesday night and going through Saturday morning. There are themes to each one and this first one is called Grandma Camp: Hiker. All the cousins except Karli were able to make it. All the kids need to be dropped off Wednesday night between 5 and 7 PM. We were the first to arrive and Grandma Salisbury had everything in place. Each grandkid had their own bin with a t-shirt, fanny pack with water bottle, and an emergency whistle to hang around their necks. What goes in the other end of the whistle? Bubble gum. They went for a hike this morning (Thursday) and they will also be hiking tomorrow morning.

Kai, Leah, Bruce, Lily, Lexie, Rory, Nico

Rory

Grandma told me that Nico insisted on being in the front because he knew the way to go. Everyone was happy to oblige!

Today was a relaxing and different day for Guy and I. I woke up without a fever, yay! I think this is because of the concoction Grandma Salisbury gave me last night when I dropped Nico off. Thanks Mom! I was so out of sorts this morning without Nico around that I forgot to make Guy's lunch! Unfortunately, I wasn't in the clubhouse when he left for work, so when he discovered that there was no lunch in the fridge, he grabbed a handful of vegetables to take with him. That's it! I felt so bad. So for dinner I picked up food from a restaurant we had a gift certificate for and got him a cheeseburger! 

I think I may have promised you guys a video this week, but, I've got an "I was sick" excuse, so it'll have to be some other week! Sorry guys!

Halloween Party and Climbing Trees

Guy has been on days for a few weeks now, he is having trouble sleeping at night but for the most part things are good. He is able to hang out with us more, though some of our normal activities have gotten lost in the shuffle. Nico, for example, used to wake up at the crack of dawn to run downstairs and play games with Guy on his computer. But that hasn't happened since the switch. In fact, Nico is now sleeping in most mornings. This morning he got out of bed at 5 AM and passed our bed and headed for the door, but then turned and came back, crawled over me and planted himself between me and Guy and fell asleep for another hour and a half. Nico sleeps much better when Guy is there. But Guy sleeps terribly when Nico is there. Nico goes through fits and starts in the middle of the night during certain times. You can hear his teeth grinding together and he is kicking and bouncing his head around knocking into me and Guy. Nico always starts off in his own bed, but transfers to our bed at some point during the night, nestling in between us. We know he's there when he starts kicking us in his sleep.

The other previously normal activity that hasn't occurred since the day switch is me and Guy watching Netflix together.

Sunday was fun again to have Guy at church.

On Monday I went up to the cabin by myself to help my mom with computer stuff. Of course we took advantage of it and went for a hike and ate a wonderful lunch that day too. When I told Nico that he got to hang out with Daddy that day he said "Awwww I LOVE staying at home with Daddy!" He was very excited about it, even though he knew I was going to the C-A-B-I-N.

The view was beautiful up there, I don't ever remember it being that beautiful. Thanks for the wonderful day, Mom!

On Tuesday was Nico's Halloween Party at school! I brought some Nico safe treats with me in case they handed out candy. Gluten free peanut butter cups to the rescue! He decorated a cupcake but didn't eat it, and ate his peanut butter cup instead. Guy and I were BOTH able to go! The kids played musical chairs (Nico was the first one out and he started to whimper and cry when he had to sit by himself. Pretty soon everyone but 1 person was sitting with him, though, so he got over it fast). Then they played Bingo (everyone won something!).

Today was a fun day. Guy has had to go into work late (11 AM) so that he could stay late (8 PM) so he can train someone. This morning was our parent teacher conference and Guy was able to come!! Nico is a smarty pants, as we all know, and Ms. Lung is finding that she has to challenge him in Math. He is exceeding expectations there. He struggles a bit with social stuff but we are working on that. 

Two things the teacher gave us, is Nico's Blood Ghost, who apparently ate too much red blood, and then an About Me page where he was supposed to sound out the words he wanted to write and fill in the blanks. In Kindergarten they're not concerned with spelling, and as you can see Nico's favorite food is aplpi - a perfect phonetic reproduction of his beloved Apple Pie (which he's never actually eaten before).

After the parent teacher conference we came home and put on spooky scary nail wraps on Evelyn and Nico. I bought some MONSTER nail wraps and so for Halloween Evelyn and Nico are wearing them.

Here they are showing off their Zombie/Vampire/Mummy/Monster/Spider Web fingernails. 

This afternoon we went to Quarry View. Nico asked me if there was going to be friends there. He didn't mean friends that he knew, but kids in general. When he is on the playground with a group of kids he always says "Look at all my friends!!"

Evelyn showed up to the playground with her cousin and Aunt, and Nico joined in as they played soccer and climbed trees. Evelyn wore her dinosaur costume all day today. And Nico called out to her from the playground when he saw her: "Evelyn! Do you want to play with me with all my friends?" There was a large group of children on the playground and I was thankful for that. Nico has so much more fun when there are other kids around. He has no trouble asking other kids to play and always asks them what their names are. 

And then a random picture of Nico ironing. It was his idea and I had him use a cold iron.

Did you know Nico can read a bit? I'll have to video it. Ms. Lung sends home homework and it includes sentences. The first time I asked him to read a sentence I didn't expect much. But, yep, looks like he can read. And he has got his Ls down. He says "like" just fine! I am proud of him.

What a life! I am loving it!

First day of school!

Last Friday was the Open House in the afternoon, which we went to. We dropped off our school supplies and ran into Nico's friend from preschool last year, Michael. Nico was excited to see him, and likewise! Here's his classroom. The teacher is in the white dress on the left. Ms. Lung.

His first day was on Monday, it was an early release day which meant his class started at 11:30 (instead of 12:30), and got out at 1:15 (instead of 3:15).

Nico wanted me to take a picture of him while he was pretending to fly his water airplane. So this is him in action:

We walked to school, and on the way we ran into another mom and son walking to kindergarten. Silas was the boy's name. Nico and Silas:

We are supposed to wait at the playground until the bell rings. Then they line up and on we go into the classroom. The parents were invited in for a story. All the kids sat down on the mat and Ms. Lung read them "The Kissing Hand". It is a story about a mommy and child raccoon. The child didn't want to go to school, so the mom had him open up his palm and she kissed his palm. Then he could grab onto the kiss and use it to kiss his own cheek whenever he missed his mom. Then, as the child raccoon is saying goodbye to his mom at school, he comes up to her and has her open her palm and kisses her palm, so that whenever she misses him she can open her palm and use his kiss to kiss her own cheeks.

After the story was over Ms. Lung had all the children go find their parents and have the parents kiss the child's hand and the child kiss the parents' hands. Ms. Lung said if you don't have someone there then kiss your own hand. She also said that it could be your mom or your dad or your grandparents or whoever was there with them. Nico was sure to point out to her that his daddy and grandma and grandpa were not with him, just his mommy. So he came over and I kissed his palm and he right away pressed it to his cheeks. Then he kissed my palm.

In the previous picture, the teacher had just read that the child raccoon didn't want to go to school. She added that she knows some of the kindergarteners probably weren't excited about school but that's okay. Nico called out "I am excited for school!" heehee. Ms. Lung had to put her finger to her mouth to show that they had to be quiet, that's what she's doing in the picture. 

When she called roll and got to Michael, Nico called out "But Michael isn't here!" Ms. Lung pointed behind him and so Nico looked and there was Michael! Nico smiled and did a little wave to him.

Nico asks sometimes for me to pick him up in the car next time because he doesn't like walking. It's usually right in the middle of walking home in the hot sun that he says this. We continue walking to/from school, though. We wear hats to keep the sun from scorching us, and it's about a 7 minute walk.

On Thursday morning we took Evelyn up to the cabin for a quick morning visit. Grandma Salisbury fed us apples, asian pears, and cheese. Evelyn helped pluck the seed-hats off of the sunflower sprouts, and she also really loved eating them. They played really well together and Nico enjoyed showing her everything. We raced back before school and ate lunch and then off to school. Thanks for the fun visit, Grandma!

A few funny things Nico has said this week..

Snuggling before bed one night, Nico asks me what comes after Kindergarten. We go through all the grades and then I tell him about turning 18 and moving out and getting a job to make money and maybe going to college. He asks me why we need to make money and so I tell him we need to make money to buy food, shelter, clothes, cars, and then other things that you want.

Nico instantly started listing the things he was going to buy when he turned 18.
#1 Go to Fred Meyer and buy a Thomas the Train Engine toy
#2 Go to Fred Meyer and buy another Thomas the Train Engine toy
#3 Go to Pojo’s and play games
#4 Play another game at Pojo’s
#5 Come home

Then another time, Nico and I were talking on the couch and the topic of Jesus came up. Nico jumps off the couch and goes into storytelling mode, animated and acting everything out.

"Jesus was on a boat, and he was going and then a STORM CAME! The waves were really big. Then Jesus PUSHED JONAH OFF THE BOAT! He got swallowed by a big fish. He was in his stomach and he was really gooey and slimy. Jesus was talking to the captain and asked him "Where's Jonah?" and the captain said "Hmm.. THERE HE IS!" Then Jesus flew away off the boat and all the animals were safe."

heehee...

That's it for this week!

Kindergarten, Discovery Center, VIDEO Dinosaur Poem

On Saturday, since Guy didn't work, he took Nico to the Discovery Center in the afternoon. They have their rocket display going on. They spent two hours there, then they went and got coffee, and maybe went to a few other places.

On Monday was our meeting at Adams Elementary so we could meet his new teacher and SLP and the Resource Teacher. All very nice! They asked me if I would be willing to switch Nico to the afternoon class because there is another kid in the afternoons that needs speech therapy, and it would make it easier if they could be pulled out together to do speech at the same time. They usually do speech in groups, but if there is not anyone from a matching grade then Nico would be matched with an older kid, and they like to avoid that if at all possible.

I had actually been thinking about the afternoon class, because Nico's friend from Beautiful Savior Preschool, Michael, is going to be in the afternoon class. So when they brought it up, I said, Yes! I am open to it! So he's officially going to be in afternoon preschool. 12:30-3:15 PM every day.

We also decided to sign him up for the BSU Literacy Academy this summer. (Here's a link to the .pdf brochure) I think he will enjoy it. It goes through the month of June, 4 weeks total I think.

Tonight at the park, a 6 year old boy became quick friends with Nico. The 6 year old ran up to his dad and said "Dad! Dad! Want to know something awesome?? I made a new friend!" "Great! What's his name?" "I don't know, he didn't tell me." 

Then when Nico ran up to him the 6 year old said "Dad! Dad! That's my friend, that's my new friend!!"

Nico makes friends, and says Hi to everyone. I really like that!

The one time we went to the park this month and there were NO kids to play with, we stayed for a measly 5 minutes before Nico asked to go home. In the past he wouldn't have cared, but now it's pretty imperative that there are other kids at the park. On our way to the park tonight he had told me "Mommy, I'm going to go play with my friends at the park!" not knowing yet who his friends were going to be. 

This week Nico also got to put some legos together with Evie for the first time. He helped her learn how to do it. Guy was telling me that Evie approached legos in a different way than Nico did. Nico: rules. Evie: general idea. She knew the roof of the car went on the top of the wheels somehow, so she just did that. Then after the legos were put together they played with them.

Video at the very end!

At the Train Depot checking out the huge steam engine

Evie asked if she could paint Nico's toenails red. Nico got her a red marker and let her do it.

Heave ho!

Watching construction out the front window