iPad Tickets, Mega Sports Camp, Doctor Update

Nico's first day of summer vacation was last Friday. We didn't plan anything, Evelyn was out of town and Aadam and Sam were nowhere to be found! Nico really struggled with not having anyone to play with. He was near tears he was so bored. But, we got through it. We went for a bike ride and then snuggled on the bed and he took a nap. He was in much better spirits when he woke up.

Saturday was the Sensory Friendly Movie - Ratchet & Clank. It was cute. We've been doing pizza on Saturdays, too.

Friday was the last day of the screenfast, but we didn't end it until Sunday. On Sunday I gave Nico 5 tickets (because he's 5 years old), and each ticket is worth 10 minutes of iPad time. He gets 5 tickets every Sunday and they are for the whole week. The things that don't count toward screen time are the sensory friendly movies, three stooges while eating pizza on Saturdays, and any movies he may perchance watch at the cabin. When he turns 6, he gets 6 tickets per week. Nico used up all his tickets by Monday. But he seems to be okay with it. He used them up and then went right back into playing with his cars and trucks.

This week is VBS at our church - Mega Sports Camp. I am the "Cookie Coach" which just means that I hand out the snacks :) That's a really cool job to have. Nico, Evelyn, and Aadam, are all in the "Round Robin" group which means they get to play each of the sports. Football, Basketball, Soccer. Sam is in Cheerleading. He is really good.

Nico participating in one of the object lessons. (Note he's wearing all his spiderman knee/elbow/hand pads. He wore them all day long, hottest day, 100 degree weather. That's commitment!)

Sammy crunching potato chips, signifying one of the plagues of Egypt. Which one?

Sammy doing silly faces with his cheerleading group

 Silly faces with the Round Robin group

I helped out with the registration crew when I wasn't busy filling water jugs and arranging cookies on a platter.

Monday afternoon Nico had a dentist appointment. While we were sitting in the waiting room I asked him if he wanted me to come back with him or if he wanted to go back all by himself. He said he wanted to go by himself!! What!! So, he did. They noticed all the rest of his molars had grown in so they sealed them to help prevent cavities. His current cavities are doing just fine, not getting any worse. Wahoo! 

Tuesday Nico had a doctor's appointment, follow up for his stool test. There is some inflammation in his gut. I told her about his throwing up episodes in the morning and she's pretty sure it's a food, and told me to do some investigative work and try to figure out which food is causing it. It's likely a food that he had eaten within 24 hours of the tummy trouble happening. If we can't isolate a food that is causing it, and if it keeps happening, she will send him to a pediatric GI. He also had to get his blood drawn to check his Vitamin D level and his white blood count, which was low last time. He asked the nurse if he could lie down on the bed. The nurse asked if he wanted me to come hold his hand, and he said "No". Hehe. Then he laid there super still. They had a bonding moment when she said to him "Look at the blood that's coming out of your body, isn't that cool?" and he said "Yes!" He watched her do the whole thing. When it was all over she said "You did better than some adults!" She also let him use her stethoscope to hear his own heart beat through his arm. She asked him if he wanted to be a doctor someday and he said Yes. His Vitamin D level went way up (yay!) and his white blood count was back to normal. Yay! So glad to hear that.

We signed up for the Summer Fest through the Library. You can earn free books by reading 20 minutes per day.  He loves to read!! He brings his favorite books over to Sam & Aadam's house so that he can read to them. Him and Sam take turn reading books to each other. 

That's it for this week. Check out the Kindergarten graduation video below!

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New Friends

Nico has made friends with the neighbor boys! There's a duplex a few doors down. One side of the duplex has brothers Sam and Adam, 2nd grade, and 4 years old. The other side of the duplex has Aiden, 2nd grade. They ride scooters back and forth on the sidewalk and they play hide and seek. He is able to "go out to play" and I just tell him not to cross the street and to stay close to the house. I go out and check on him every so often, or I see them riding back and forth on their scooters from our window. 

Nico practicing henna

Wednesday morning was Nico's IEP meeting and re-evaluation. Every 3 years they re-evaluate the need for services. It's been 3 years already for Nico! They changed his classification from having a Language impairment to having a Speech impairment. This is big improvement. They also think he is much improved socially, so he will no longer need the resource teacher to check up on him every week. So basically, all Nico needs now is speech therapy. Big steps forward! Guy was able to be at the meeting too. The principal has a brother named Guy, so they bonded.

On Thursday Nico had a doctor's appointment with his new doctor. The waiting list for this doctor for new patients was supposedly out to May & June, but we got a late March appointment, and then a cancellation happened and we got to slip in to see her yesterday. They are running food allergy tests and a few others. We will find out the results when we go back in late March. These allergy tests are different than the ones that his previous doctor ran, they will check for sensitivities instead of just allergies. Nico did GREAT getting his blood drawn, the nurse said that she has done a lot of blood draws but that Nico is definitely one of the best child patients she has ever had. Nico watched the whole process and didn't even flinch with the needle poke. I took him to get a smoothie afterward. Strawberry, banana, orange. He wanted to sit in the cafe for a while drinking his smoothie, so we did.

That's it for this week.

Until next time!

Pool time!

Last day of Nico's Literacy Program was last Friday. Nico was excited for his last day. I don't think he enjoyed the program as much as he enjoyed any of his preschools. After we left, we went straight to Pojo's! We met one of his friends Lazarus there.

Then the 4th of July! We chose sparklers and Pop-its. Nico thought it was "puppets", so when we got home he kept saying that soon he was going to open up the puppets, but I had no idea he was saying it wrong until he said to me "I wonder what animal is in there? A little puppet." He bent his index finger up and down like there was a puppet on it. So then I explained it to him.

Guy ducking while Nico throws Pop-its

We did a "random act of kindness" on Monday. While Jeff and Allicia were out of town, we cleaned some of their house. Nico helped me pick up stuff off the floor and helped me with the vacuum cleaner. Also on Monday we set up the swimming pool. Slathered sun screen on (forgot his nose, whoops! It's scabbed over now), and jumped in! I even went in with Nico. I retreated after a while underneath the canopy. It was very pleasant, having a place to sit in the shade and study while Nico jumped around in the pool. We played in the pool twice that day.

From this picture you can also see our cantaloupe plant growing on the left in a pot. 

Tuesday we went to see G.G.! It was great to catch up. The next time we see her will be for Nico's birthday party on August 1st! I need to sit down and plan it. Nico has ideas all the time for what he wants at his birthday party. I can't remember them all.

After we left G.G.'s house, we went to a doctor's appointment for Nico. We are on the road to figuring out what is going on with his tummy. They took some blood to get the normal bloodwork, plus a panel of 22 foods to see if he is allergic to any of them. The doc said that this test, if done on young children, has a tendency to have some false negatives, because sometimes a child's body isn't producing the antibodies to the food (yet?) So, the test won't be complete, BUT, if anything shows up positive then hey, it was worth it. We'll also do an abdominal ultrasound to check for anything abnormal. We're covering our bases. The doc said that getting these tests done helps to give us confidence when we tell Nico "It's going to be okay" whenever he has a tummy ache. I liked that way of looking at it. Rule out all the bad stuff, so we can know better what we're dealing with. The doc said we may want to go see an allergist eventually too.

Nico was brave getting his blood drawn. Earlier that day Nico had asked me to clarify how mosquitoes suck blood from our body (he is very knowledgeable about insects after his literacy program, that was the theme!) So I told him what I knew. I told him a blood draw would be similar, except it would hurt for a little bit but then it would be over. And he'd get to watch the blood come out of his body. The nurse had to poke two arms (Nico insisted she do his right arm, so she tried that one first even though she wanted to do the left one. The right one didn't work, left a bruise, so she moved to the left one) Nico's face wrinkled up when she poked him, but otherwise he was so brave! Unlike Mommy, who had to drop down to the floor to keep from fainting. The nurse asked "Does Mommy need a glass of water?" Hehe...

After we left, I told him that he was SO BRAVE! And Nico said "I was not brave, I was MAD!" hahaha!!! I asked him to expound on his feelings and he said he was mad because the nurse poked him with a needle. :) We went straight to Freddies afterward to buy him a toy :) (not just because he was mad, but because we had planned to get him a new toy after the blood draw)

Wednesday, what a day! Nico and I sat down to do some legos after Guy had gone to work and after the dishes were done. But then I remembered! Nico doesn't have a tooth brush! So I said "Come on! Let's go to the Market to get you a tooth brush!" Nico was all for it, so we got our shoes on and walked over to M & W Market. As we were walking there the wind started, slowly. After we bought his toothbrush and left, it was a whirlwind outside. There was so much sand and dust blowing everywhere that I could barely see through my squinting, so we went back in to the M & W to wait it out a bit. After sitting for a few minutes Nico said: "I like wind! Let's go!" so we left. And thank goodness we did! It started raining on the way home and a few minutes after making it through our door, the torrents started. SO MUCH RAIN! Nico insisted that we finish putting the lego together with the lights off, and just the desk lamp on. So we did. Every time we heard the thunder, we jumped and yelled from surprise.

I looked outside and saw that the pool was being blown away, so I ran outside, flipped it over the right way and put a heavy pot inside it. When I got back inside I was very soaked. The canopy had waterfalls coming off it which I had to walk through.

Then we went outside in the front to play in the rain with Evelyn. They played in the water in the street, I have fond memories of doing this when I was younger too, when our street would flood. It wasn't very deep for them, and Nico didn't really get IN the water, but he played around it while Evelyn was in it.

They were playing very nicely, and I was chatting with Jeff on the porch, when we heard a CRUNCH, CLANG! coming from the side of the house near the clubhouse. I thought Avery may have hurt himself but I looked around and saw him just fine. We peeked around the corner and there in front of the clubhouse was our canopy, collapsed in on itself. The water must have pooled on top until it couldn't hold anymore. It was a mess! This picture is after I took off the canopy material.



Papa mentioned that there might be replacement parts that we could buy. And indeed there are! Nico and I took some of the canopy apart today and will work on getting the rest taken apart soon, so we can find out which parts are salvageable.

Nico has been making forts and for two nights he has slept in them. Such fun.

Nothing else to report at this time. Until next week!

Docs and Potty Training

They hired nursery workers at church this past week, and it was fabulous! Both Nico and I had a blast on Sunday. He stayed the whole time in the toddler room and I was able to hear the entire sermon! What a blessing. Nico did great and really likes the teacher. He barely knew that I was missing. What a change from a few months ago!

Also this week, we took Nico to his new pediatrician for the first time. The one he used to have retired when Nico was 1 year old, and now he is 2 1/2. I figured it was about time to find a new one! She is a family doctor as well, so we are ALL seeing her! Guy's first appointment was on Monday and Nico's was on Tuesday. Guy got some nifty nose spray for his sinus inflammation, and everyone has to get blood drawn as a baseline. Nico had his blood drawn on Wednesday morning and he did great! As a precaution, one of the nurses held his arm still, but he didn't try to move it anyway. He watched them prick his arm and he barely flinched at all. As they were taking the blood I kept telling him what was happening: "Cooool look at your blood! They're taking blood out of your arm!" The nurse said that she had never seen a calmer kid. Nico does pretty well for himself.

Wednesday is when we started potty training. As soon as we got home from the blood draw in the morning, we started. We are doing the 3-day potty training via 3daypottytraining.com. We bought the ebook, bought tons of underwear, a new potty seat for our toilet, and threw away all the diapers. No looking back! I had Nico throw the diapers away, and then we put some underwear on one of his stuffed bears after putting some on him. He will be running around in underwear for at least 3 days. Near the end of Wednesday, Nico learned how to hold it in, so the number of accidents slowed down considerably. Thursday was a mix of accidents and successes. He has stayed dry during naps, but night time he has been wet. The plan tonight is to wake him an hour after having put him down to take him to the potty. There are other tricks to help with night time peeing, but we will start with that.

I'm unsure if we will make it to church on Sunday! I'm hoping we'll be able to. Staying cooped up without pants on is probably not Nico's idea of fun.

Now for some pictures! (And a video!)

Nico and Guy watching a video on the iPad

And this here is how we broke the crib :)

A normal afternoon in the living room, listening to music and coloring.

And now for a video! I won't be doing these every week, but it's fun to put these together on occasion.