Piggie and Gerald, GG

Last Friday was the Piggie and Gerald show in the evening. We couldn't take pictures during the show but I snapped a few before hand.

Gerald was played by a man in gray clothes, and Piggie was played by a blond haired woman in a pink dress and pig ears. They sang and danced and even acted out parts of their books. There were 3 Squirrels (pronounced Squir-ELLS) It was really fun to watch but very late for Nico. In the middle of their first song Nico asked "When are they going to stop singing?" After that he understood that it was a mix of singing and dancing and acting and he got in the groove. Then about 20 minutes before the show ended, he got very tired and asked every few minutes when it was going to be over. I felt bad keeping him out so late!

Saturday morning Nico and I went to GG's house for a visit! Nico always watches TV for the last half hour we are there, he watched My Little Pony this time. GG gave us a bag full of goodies from her pantry and have been using them up. Thanks GG :)

Then Guy took Nico to the skate park so he could ride his bike. He fell off his bike and got his leg scraped up. Guy says he got back on his bike after this. But eventually it hurt too much so they came home and I bandaged him up so they could go back out and go to the library. They've been going to the library on Saturdays to pick out a video for us to watch while we eat pizza. But Nico chose to check out the Magic Tree House books on tape so we could listen to them while we ate pizza instead of watching something.

Saturday afternoon while we were making pizza I noticed that Nico felt very hot, he had a temp of 101.5 and he ate only 2 bites of pizza. On Sunday he wasn't hungry at all and said he had a tummy ache, but nothing came of it and the only outward symptom was the fever.

Grandma and Papa stopped by on Sunday to drop off eggs and they brought Nico a huge book to help him pass the time while he was sick. It is about things underneath the soil and things underneath the water. You start at one end of the book and flip the pages to learn about what's under the soil, until you get to the molten lava center of the earth, then you flip the book over and go backwards back up to the surface but this time through water. Or you can start with the water and then flip it for the soil. Very fun. We spent a long time reading that.

Monday he said he felt better but still had a temp of 99.5 ish so I kept him home from school.

Tuesday morning Nico and I both had a doctor's appointment. They checked him for some food sensitivities and they say he can eat corn and yogurt and a few other things he couldn't eat before. We tried out eggs this morning for the first time in 8 months and the morning didn't actually go very well after that. On the way to school he told me he didn't want to go and kept pulling me to come back home. He said he was tired and wanted to stay home to sleep. We got to the school but he still insisted and wouldn't let me walk away. I wasn't sure what to do so I took him into his classroom to talk to his teacher before the bell rang. She kept him in there and I left. We communicated throughout the day through email, she told me he went out in the hallway with a parent volunteer to read for a while, and then stayed inside with with her during first recess. He slowly recovered and after lunch he was fine.

That's the first time he hasn't wanted to go to school. I hope he's okay about going to school tomorrow!

That's it for this week!

Butterflies, Rockets, and Potty Training Revisited

Friday was the zoo. Nico let me hold him as we passed by the "Mommy and baby" triceratops so we could get to see the penguins. I told him nothing would happen to him and that the Mommy triceratops was with her baby just like I was with him. He was afraid when we had to pass them again to leave the penguin area, but we got through. We went to see the butterflies, they had just got a large shipment of butterflies there and they were everywhere! Flying all over the place and landing on everyone and everything. Nico had several land on him throughout our time there, including one on his thumb.

He also sat on the dinosaur again. I think he's fine with this one because it doesn't move!

On Saturday he didn't want to go to the market, and I didn't have to, so we skipped it and just went to Trader Joe's, then to Old Park to shoot off foam rockets. I bought this to do at his birthday party so we were trying it out. Good thing, too, because it turns out I needed to tape it together because it very easily falls apart. 

 Setting the rocket to shoot sideways

Every time he'd shoot a rocket off, he wouldn't look up, he would stare straight ahead and wait for the rocket to fall, hear it, then look in that direction to find it on the ground. So I told him I was going to shoot the rocket off and that instead of looking at it being shot off, he should look into the sky and wait for it to come into his view. He did this and when he saw the rocket he was so very excited. This was his expression when he saw it.

Then we went home and I set up the rocket launcher in his room so he could shoot the ceiling, the window, down the hall, which he did happily.

On Sunday my parents had another family get together. Guy had to work overtime that night and really needed sleep, so he slept in while Nico and I went up there. It turned out to be a great thing, because Guy was able to FaceTime with his parents, grandma, and brother. He was Facetiming for a few hours. I was so happy to hear that!

Rory, Nico, Lexie, watching Curious George

Nico took Papa's iPad to the very corner of the porch. A nice quiet spot to sit.

 On the way home I had to pull over to find Nico's water bottle and I asked him if he'd like to see the lake, he said YES, so, we got out of the car and took a gander. The mountains are so green this time of year, it was very beautiful.

On Tuesday we went to visit Evie, twice! Once in the morning to play, and once in the afternoon to watch Evie and Avery while Allicia ran errands. When we arrived, Evie was weeding their container garden. Nico was so excited about the plants! 

Nico harvesting chicken eggs. We got to take home all of the ones he gathered, and he chose the two of them he wanted scrambled for lunch. 

Working together to fill up Evie's tricycle container with rocks.

Nico was very sweet with Avery while we were watching them in the afternoon. I suggested that Nico show Avery the book he was looking at, so he kept saying "Look Avery" (Ay-vuh-E), and telling him about the octopus and all the other things in the book. Then he said to Evie "Story time, Evie, come on the couch. Story time Evie!"

Nico has been having some potty accidents in the last few weeks, #2. He doesn't seem to like to sit on the toilet. We were going through 10 pairs of underwear every day. We weren't sure what to do so we had started giving him timeouts whenever he'd do it. This didn't work so we turned to rewards. We went to Fred Meyer this morning and picked out 4 Hot Wheels cars and one large monster truck in a box the size of a loaf of bread. We came home and I drew him a chart. After one successful bathroom trip, he got one car. After two more, he got another. After a total of 15 times, he gets the monster truck. We also bought stickers to fill in the boxes.

So, there's a few things to note here:

1.) He went to the bathroom successfully today SEVEN TIMES. Not a whole lot each time, but he was persistent, going to the bathroom every 15-30 minutes for the entire day. He wants that monster truck so bad, he cried off and on the entire evening because he wanted it so badly and there was nothing more he could do until he had to poop again. I have realized how much he's not used to delayed gratification! He did really enjoy getting THREE Hot Wheels cars though!

2.) The boxes for the stickers are BIG because I bought a sticker sheet with BIG stickers on it. But he is choosing the tiny traffic signs and traffic cones, putting them right in the middle of the boxes. The one big sticker you see on the page was one that I picked.

After I hung up the chart, he stood in front of it for 5 minutes, repeating what I had told him about it. "Poop one, then a car. Poop one, two, then a car." He spent time counting all the boxes, counting all the cars on the chart, counting the numbers on the chart, and saying "monster truck" a lot. He says "monter".

I found out some sad news this week! We are not allowed to shoot off rockets in the parks, so Nico's rocket-launching party is not going to be what we thought it would be. I already reserved the spot, so we will still have the party and shoot off foam rockets and eat cupcakes. Unfortunately we had already purchased the rockets, too. I will need to find out where we can go to shoot those off.

I think that's it for this week! I have a nagging feeling I forgot something, but I'm not going to stress it. Until next time! 

(I remembered what I had forgotten - Guy's FaceTime! Just added it to the entry.)

Feeling Better

I definitely think Nico is on the mend. He asked to eat EGGS today and also ate an entire avocado. That was a long "7-10 days" for HF&M disease.

Here he is towing a bus behind his new tow truck that Gma Salisbury brought him.

Dinner

Today we met Allicia and Evelyn (16 months) at the fish park today. Fun was had!

Dinner tonight was leftover breakfast. Eggs and avocado. And...olive oil for dessert?

Breakfast

Breakfast is two scrambled eggs, with salt and extra parmesan.

Today Guy and Nico ran errands together, and after Guy left for gaming tonight, Nico and I went on a walk. An older lady told me she was admiring Nico's little dance, and I told her that he was signing "car". We sure do see a lot of cars when we go for a walk!