First Snowfall, and Advent Calendars!

Last Friday I had Ivy and Avery over for lunch. Avery looked at my calendar and said "how many more years until you play Zelda again?" he pointed to November 11th and said "That's when you're going to play again, ok?" They love to watch me play Zelda, and I had played right before lunch.

After school on Friday, Nico was excited to hear the news that Grandma Russell purchased him the online advent calendar again this year. He couldn't do much with it on Friday but he did play the games available as we waited for December 1st to arrive.

Saturday morning, Guy took Nico to a sensory friendly movie, Small Foot. I had some work to get done that day so Guy took Nico out for a bit. I'm pretty sure Nico got another Italian Soda that afternoon, too!

Saturday night it was my turn to choose the movie, Incredibles 2! And then later that night as Nico was reading in bed, we heard a knock on our front door. Avery was outside, frantic to ask Nico to come out and play in the snow. It was wet snow, and after a snow ball fight, Nico arrived home looking soaked to the bone. He had his first chance to play with our new neighbors across the street. They have 3 boys. One of them threw a snowball at Nico and it got him on his right ear.

Sunday morning, Nico was invited to the field behind the school with Jeff & Allicia and the kids, to play in the 4 inches of snow that fell overnight. I picked him up for church and he was making snow angels.

Sunday night, he was invited to build a snow fort in the front yard of the boys' house across the street. He was over there for at least an hour before we called him in as it was getting dark.

Advent calendar, reading important things about Scotland.

Two Saturdays ago, when we watched the Labyrinth (which Nico now claims is his favorite movie), we encountered some "impossible shapes" near the end. Ever since he played the Monument games on his iPad, he has been interested in impossible shapes. At the library he picked up a book of optical illusions.

Playing Life. Nico is getting more and more interested in board games, he asks to play them a lot. He got this new game called "Dos", similar to Uno but with different rules. It is really fun. We play that a lot. Whenever there's a free moment, he asks if we can play a game.

That's about it for this week! Here's a 4 second clip of Nico making a snow angel.

Christmas Time!

Friday, Nico really wanted to decorate for Christmas but I wanted to wait until after his chores were done on Saturday so we could decorate on a clean slate. If he wanted to decorate on Friday he'd have to do his chores Friday. So, he did! After he finished, we opened up our Christmas box and unloaded everything except the tree ornaments, which we saved for Saturday when we got our tree.

Here's our tree advent calendar. Nico wanted to replace the batteries so that the lights would work. We didn't have replacements, so Nico and I walked over to M&W in the dark to buy some.

Then Saturday was Christmas Tree time! When we rearranged the Clubhouse a few months ago we inadvertently got rid of the spot where we usually put the Christmas tree. We thought for a while that we wouldn't be able to get one, but then we decided we could just not use the back door during this season, and we put the tree next to our bed near the back door.

We stopped by Flying M on the way home and got some coffee and an Italian Soda for Nico. He is going through all the flavors, and this time he chose English Toffee.

That night it was Guy's turn to choose the movie, and he chose to watch Labyrinth. Nico stayed enthralled for the whole movie, which he rarely does.

Sunday evening we went to the Botanical Garden's Winter Garden Aglow with Jeff and Allicia and kiddos.

Hot cocoa and hot fire

We visited Santa right off the bat. Nico brought his Christmas List with him. Watch the video at the end of the blog to see that. After he was done, Santa told him to hang the list up where Santa could find it and he asked Nico if it was ok with him if he visited on Christmas Eve to deliver presents. Nico whispered to me afterward, "Is Santa really going to come over Christmas Eve?"

Hollow log lit up with lights.

There was a new attraction there this year, a huge "Tree" of lights, like a teepee, that was controlled by a bunch of aparatuses (aparatii?) inside the teepee. You can catch a glimpse of it in the video below. At first we didn't think that all of the neat tools had any effect on the lights, but after playing with them for a while we were blown away with what each of them did. The rain stick, when used, made the lights on the teepee look like they were raining. The metal wheels you could turn made certain colors of lights go around the teepee, up or down the teepee, or get bigger. There was also a TNT pump and some gongs. It was pretty incredible. That was my favorite part of the night.

We came home frozen, and ate dinner. I heated up some coconut milk from a can (leftovers from a meal I made), and added some maple syrup and vanilla flavoring and put a little bit in a cup for Nico and I to drink. It tastes like hot ice cream. It has quickly become a favorite of ours. Better than hot cocoa I think.

On Monday after school, Nico and I walked our bikes to George's Cycles down on 3rd street. We walked them there because Nico had a flat. I had accidentally poked his tire the week before with a screwdriver while trying to push the intertube back into the metal frame. Oooooops. Nico was very agreeable to the endeavor, because he still needed a few hours of exercise to finish up his Exercise sheet. We made it there and back in about an hour and a half.

Tuesday was Guy's work Christmas Party. They held it at the Botanical Garden, so Guy and I got to go back! They had a tent setup with food being served. We ran into someone I knew from Toastmasters. Her husband works at Photronics, too! We sat across from each other and it was great to talk to them and get to know her better. We had fun. After the dinner, Guy and I walked through the garden, up to the top and then back down. It was a rainy night, so there was hardly anyone there!! It wasn't raining while we were walking, which was nice, and it just started to sprinkle as we were getting into our car.

Tonight, Nico was invited out to help them decorate their tree.

They gave us tea. And that ends the night, and the blog! Enjoy the video!

Winter Garden Aglow, Advent Calendars, Birds!

Last Friday we went to the Botanical Garden to see the Winter Garden Aglow! You know how we typically get our picture taken there, but for the past 2 years there has been no photographer there like there used to be. So our family picture this year is coming from a different source (stay tuned for that!)

We went straight to Santa to avoid the lines. Nico asked for Alphabots and Numberbots (toys from a catalog that he looked through last week)

Nico knows that Santa does not actually exist, but he still enjoys playing along.

Then we walked up the mountainside a bit and found this view. You can see downtown Boise in the background, and the Key Bank building with the Christmas tree on top.

We visited the trains as usual.

You can see Nico's red eye in this picture.

Like the doctor said, the red spot is disappearing slowly. Nico told me that a few days ago two girls were running around screaming on the playground because of his red eye. And that his classmates asked him to look to the right so they could see the red part, because it's creepy. I asked him how he felt when they said that and he shrugged "fine" and then kept right on talking about something else. Pretty sure it hasn't fazed him!

Saturday was a FULL day. We first went to the church to help them set up for Christmas. We helped decorate the Christmas tree. Afterward we headed straight to the MK Nature Center. There was a birdseed sale going on plus other activities and a bird presentation where you could meet the birds. They had a peregrine falcon, an owl (can't remember what kind) and an American Kestrel. We learned all kinds of things, like how they swoop to get their food.

Kestrel

 The falcon

The falcon had part of his wing missing but twice he tried to fly away and started hanging from his string, flapping. The handler said "Oh stop, that's so undignified" and everyone laughed. He/she (they're not sure) kept looking around the room up in the rafters like he was looking for a place to fly up to. 

Nico laughed whenever it would poop on the floor (they put protective papers on the floor for the occasion).

The owl (Nico remembers that it was a burrowing owl)

After this we went home and had lunch, then went out again to get our Christmas tree!

I should have taken a picture of the tree in our car and Nico smooshed by branches. We didn't think about putting it on top of our car. Maybe next year? Inside the car Guy started getting a bit of a headache. In the past he has struggled with headaches and Christmas trees, but it hasn't happened for a few years. He had a headache that day and the next day but hasn't had trouble since then. The smell from the tree has died down a bit, so that may be why. We enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree! It is a little squishy in here now, we chose too WIDE of a tree this time. We had no thought to whether we would have room to get around it! Heehee. Then we made pizza and watched a movie.

At church on Sunday Nico got a prize for finishing his weekly Gratitude Journal. For the month of November he had to write down 3 things every day that he was thankful for. Here's the list starting from the beginning. Long list, but fun to record for later. All punctuation is true to what he wrote. Parenthesis are my comments.

Trading candy.
pizza.
Fall.
Good pancakes.
My mom.
Halloween.
My G.G.
God.
Heaven.
Going to Washington.
My dad.
The world.
Having Mario Kart.
School.
United States of America.
To learn chess at school.
Going to Grama and Papa's house.
Going to Kids Discovery Expo with Grama and my cousins.
Grama and papa.
Winter.
A house.
My Grama and Grampa .
Books.
Clocks.
G.G.'s birthday.
Alexa.
Frinds. (friends)
Water.
Animals.
The sun.
paper.
My cousins.
farmers.
Thanksgiving.
car
Bed
Christmas
Backpack
Clothes
Bunnies
Money
games
flowres
stuffed animals
pencils
Homework
Grama and papa moveing.
Flashlights.
popcorn
chips
Lexie
Rory
Bruce
Lily
Kia (Kai)
Foth of July.
doors
meldls (medals from advancing in his Chess class)
smiles
soap
light
droors (drawers - because then everything would just be sitting on top of the counter)
graveyard
Oils
Henna
TVs
Christmas Trees
stickers
Bookshelves
Pictures
Glasses
Legos
Cups
Songs
A heart
tape
a diary
an Addvint calider (advent calendar)
cafe drops (cough drops)
rugs
me
angels
tissues
ornaments

It was a really good exercise, it got Nico thinking. I'd like to do the same thing next year if the church doesn't happen to do it. 

Sunday afternoon Nico and I went to the Grandparents Salisbury house and hung out for a few hours!

Reading a devotional in the morning. We've decided not to style his hair with pomade in the winter, because it prevents him from wanting to put on a hat or a hood, rightly so, because it really messes it up. This is the fuzz-ball look. You just need a little water on a comb and it calms right down.

We have started our Advent calendars. Our traditional Christmas tree one and then the online one Grama Russell gets us each year. Here's a few screen shots from that one.

This is what it looks like at night. In the day time (starting at 6am) it is light outside.

Snowflakes designed by Nico

We've also started doing our Advent candles. Nico has been enjoying lighting matches and blowing out flames every night. He has even learned how to extinguish a flame by pinching the wick with wet fingers. We have a little book we read from every night.

Nico has had a cold this week, some coughing and phlegm going on, but no fever.

And that's about it I think..

See you next week!

Returning to School

Guy and I were without Nico last Friday, we had a quiet day at home sorting through some stuff. Nico came home on Saturday from the Grandparents Salisbury's house. He had so much fun while there. He has been asking ever since when he will be going back.

On Sunday our church dedicated the new construction starting on Monday, to add on to the children's wing. All the kids wore construction hats and were given a shovel to be a part of the groundbreaking. We helped Nico push his shovel through the grass, it was difficult. He dug a big hole and would have kept digging if we hadn't stopped him. It's not often you can dig a hole in the middle of thick grass in a big yard. The rest of Sunday was a lazy day at home! Miss Erin, the children's pastor, asked Nico if he wanted to read a verse in front of the congregation during our Christmas Eve service. He said Yes! He will be reading Luke 2:10-12.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Nico went back to school on Monday after having the week off for Thanksgiving. The book fair has been happening this whole week and we always let him pick out a book to buy. This year he chose a diary with a lock and key on it! He picked it up today and has been working on it all afternoon and is now even working on it while he's in bed (he gets to read for 30-45 minutes before lights out. Most of the time he chooses to do a workbook, or something similar like filling out his diary). It's a diary that asks questions "What do you and your friends like to do for fun?" Or, "Whats pets do you own or want to own?" I don't know most of what he's writing because whenever I look at him he says "DON'T LOOK AT MY JOURNAL!" Heehee. But I have caught snippets of it because he has to ask me how to spell things sometimes. Currently he's filling out a free-write section where he has to write all about his life up until this point. He started with talking about how he was a baby in my belly and all of a sudden at the hospital he popped out. I hope I get to read the rest of it someday!

A few of his other before-bed reading choices this week:
An advent calendar that belongs to Evelyn but Allicia is letting Nico read it until before December 1st comes (we returned it tonight). It tells the story of Christmas in 24 little tiny books. Nico loves to know if something he is reading or watching is real, and he asks us all the time, "Is this real?" He asked me while reading this story if the places were real - Bethlehem, Jerusalem, etc. I said yes and he was very excited and said he wanted to visit Jerusalem someday. Then he got down to the details and asked When. Can I miss school for it? How long will we be gone? :)

Filling out his project journal with bird facts. He chooses a card from his bird deck and first draws a picture of the bird and colors it in, then flips the page and writes down all the facts about the bird as listed on the card. The journal even has a little flap/envelope in the back where he stores the card he is working on. He did 2 1/2 birds over a few days and then it kind of petered out.

Yesterday morning Nico told me it felt like he had an eyelash in his eye. Yesterday evening I noticed a blood bruise on his eye in the corner. When I saw it I freaked out (quietly) and did a quick internet search. That helped quite a bit, and it supposedly just looks worse than it is, especially since it wasn't hurting him or affecting his vision. I figured it happened because he was rubbing his eye too much when he had something in it. But the next morning (this morning) it had grown much larger, so we decided to take him into the doc just to be safe. His finger in this picture is covering up the exact spot on his eye that the red blotch is. This is him in the doc's office signing the word "No". Which means, Mom, stop taking my picture.

Doc said it was nothing to worry about, even though it had grown. Because there is no pain and no restriction of movement in his eye, it is fine. It's like a bruise under the skin but since it's on the eye it's red and it looks so dark because the eyes are white. She explained that his eye was bleeding between two of the layers and Nico asked in shock "SO MY EYE IS BLEEDING?".

After the appointment Nico said it didn't turn out as bad as he thought it was going to. If he was nervous or scared at all he didn't show it one bit. He ate a huge lunch right beforehand (I mention this because when I'm nervous I can't eat!) and was his normal happy self while waiting for the doctor.

 I asked him if I could take a picture of his eye for the blog and he said NO.

Tomorrow is Dec 1st! We have our advent tree out ready and waiting, and we received our Jacquie Lawson advent calendar from Grandma Russell, we are looking forward to starting both of them tomorrow!

Christmas Tree

On Friday we got a visit from the Grandparents Salisbury, they brought Christmas presents, and so, we opened them early! I don't think Nico's would have fit under the tree anyway :)

He loves this chair! He has since discovered a better way to sit in it and I will get a picture of that soon. It also folds up and is easily tucked away. Thank you to Grandparents Salisbury!

Saturday we bought our Christmas tree!

Nico pointed out his name and date on the back of one of them. Every year, the Grandparents Russell give Nico a new ornament. Nico was very excited to rediscover this, and the next morning for You and Me Time we spent our 10 minutes finding all of the ornaments from them and saying them in order by year.

We also pulled out the trusty lego advent set and he put them all together and arranged them by day.

This morning, being the very first day of December, means that we got to do our advent calendars. We got our yearly computer-based advent calendar from Grandma Russell (thank you!) which we booted up today. Nico decorated the tree and we watched the Dec 1st animation.

He chose to purchase the Pokemon Handbook from the school book fair. He is excited about that. 

That's about it for this week! On to the next!

Thanksgiving Pictures, and Dentist

As promised last week... Thanksgiving pictures!

Papa and Nico playing games

This was Guy's set up for most of the morning until the rest of the crew came. MST3K Turkey Day marathon on his iPad while playing on his computer.

Preparing to chop onions

Nico and Lexie stuffed themselves with olives shortly before turkey was served. 

Nico and Lexie playing a game

Other pictures from last week...

Playing in the snow

Well deserved hot cocoa after coming back inside (cacao powder, maple syrup, water)

Now on to THIS week!

We were planning to go to Winter Garden Aglow on Saturday, but the temp that day only got up to 22, and it was super super cold. Not to mention Guy and Nico were getting over colds (well, Guy was just starting to get one...) So we stayed inside! It was a nice 4 day weekend. 

On Monday Nico had a dentist appointment, and they took X-rays for the first time and he had *ahem* 8 cavities. None of his front teeth are touching, but the molars in the back are all touching, and right at the spot where each of them touch the other, that is where the cavities are. So 4 on each side, two on the top and two on the bottom. That will likely tell you how much we FLOSS his teeth. They also said he had a lot of plaque, and recommended buying him a spinning toothbrush. 

He is getting two of his cavities filled on Dec 16th. The other 6 we are letting sit. The dentist agreed to allow me try some stuff to see if we could get them looking better (always an experimenter...) if we come back in 3 months for additional X-rays to see his progress. The two we are getting fixed on the 16th are two that the dentist didn't feel comfortable waiting on. Fine with me, that gives me 6 others to play with :) I'm trying some essential oils and other things... more bone broth too which I'm conveniently making more of this very night. More flossing of course, and a spinny brush that has Mario on it. I went to WinCo Wednesday morning and texted back a picture of the spin brushes they had there so that Guy could show Nico (they were both at home), and Nico chose Mario. We started his new brushing routine last night with some tooth oil and flossing. And I taught him how to spit. Swish swish spit. 

Nico requested pancakes in the shape of letters. We just finished H the other day, but here is the E one. 

This morning he told me to do a number instead, so I did 100. Oh our routines, they are fun, and Nico reminds me if I forget. I'm trying to get him to not tell me I forgot something in a whiny voice. "Mommmmmyyyyyyyyy, you forgot my waaaater!!! Mommmmyyyyyy where's my fish oil??!?! WE FORGOT TO PRAY!!!"

OH, you may not remember, but Nico used to say six as "sickie". He was randomly counting the other day and absentmindedly said sickie instead of six. It was funny, I mentioned it to him and he laughed. It was strange to hear it again, makes me remember that at one point all he knew was signs and couldn't say many words at all! Here's a flashback for you..

On Tuesday I volunteered in Nico's class. For some of the time I was pulling kids out of the class to practice letters. They have a list of letters and they have to say them as fast as they can. They are tested formally on this specific thing every quarter I think. So they practice a lot. And also so they can get used to the test format. They have one minute and I used a timer.

We received an advent wreath with candles for Christmas from the Grandparents Salisbury, so we have been lighting the candle every night since Sunday (except Monday when Guy wasn't here and I forgot). Nico can light the match himself and then the candle. He likes "accidentally" blowing the candle out. (He's been playing with the idea of "accidentally" doing all sorts of things this week!  As his hand is scraping across my keyboard "Oh look, I accidentally typed some letters. It was an accident!" So we've had to talk about calling things accidents when they were actually done on purpose.) 

We've also started our Christmas Tree advent calendar, and the computer one that Grandma Russell buys us every year! We put it on his iPad this year, and left to himself for a while on it he says "Mommy, 3 isn't working"... that's because it's not the 3rd yet. It's a good thing it prevents you from going ahead, or else he'd be all done with it already! It's fun to have something new to do every day on it. Here's one of the snowflakes he made.