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!

Cop, Cough, Food Allergies

Nico came home from school last Friday with his backpack full of art projects and things he had done at school. Every Friday is like this. They had several different people from the community come in to talk about their jobs, community helpers, like nurses and cops and firemen. Then they got to write out what they want to be when they grow up and as expected, Nico said he wants to be a cop. He drew himself with a frowny face because he's angry, because there's a bad guy.

Saturday we went to the Sensory Friendly Movie, they were playing Norm of the North, a cute entertaining animated movie with no real involved plot. Nico enjoyed it, even though he kept asking "When is it going to be over?" hehe. 

We ended Monday night with a slight fever (99.8). He had been sick with a cold for a few days and I  didn't really take heed like normal, he played outside a lot that day in addition to going to school. In the evening after dinner he wanted to go back out and I said yes, then he came back in 5 minutes later and said he was done. He kind of curled up on the couch and I took his temperature. He wasn't hungry and his cough was picking up. There's nothing like a sick child to get you kicked into Mom Gear. I went to the Co-op that night after bedtime to pick up some supplies for his cough. His fever was gone the next morning and his cough is almost gone completely. And he loves his "medicine"...

We got a call from his doc on Tuesday morning letting me know results of most of his blood work except the food allergies. Vitamin D was low so we are putting him on Vitamin D drops. His white blood count was low but that may be due to his cold, or his food sensitivities wearing down his immune system. We will recheck in 3 months. Thyroid was fine, and everything else looked good. Then I got a call this morning saying that his food allergy results were in and asked if we could come in. We weren't expecting results until the end of March, so this was awesome! Went in and found out he has a lot less sensitivities than we thought. Eggs, whey, and peanuts are the only ones he has to avoid completely until we heal his gut. Then there were almonds, potatoes, and red grapes that he shouldn't eat more than every 4 days. Because he does not consume gluten or corn, those results were not accurate, but the doc said that because of mine and Guy's sensitivity, it is safe to assume that Nico should also avoid gluten almost assuredly. No problem there. 

I went shopping tonight for supplies. Nico eats pancakes with peanut butter and syrup for breakfast every morning. I have been making them in the shape of numbers. Can you believe we had gotten up to 85??!?! That was this morning's pancake. It will be his last pancake for a while. I bought some cottage cheese, fruit, sausage, and supplies to make apple muffins. I also found a gluten free bread that is free of potato and egg. It was hard to find that! Potato starch is a common gluten free starch found in bread. He has been loving sandwiches spread with cream cheese instead of mayo (oh no! No more mayo! Just thought of that!) and then with deli chicken meat on top, with mustard.

Nico had a little bit of a hard time accepting the no peanut butter thing. The doc says that after a year we can start reintroducing foods. Apparently kids bounce back from leaky gut a lot easier than adults do. We are supplementing him with L-Glutamine to help heal his gut. 

Ok enough doctor talk. Are there any more pictures? Ah yes! Today we took care of Avery while Allicia and Evelyn went to Adams Elementary for Kindergarten registration! Evelyn will be in Kindergarten next year. Miss Lung (the kindergarten teacher) went up to Allicia and asked "Is this the Evelyn that Nico is always talking about?" Miss Lung told Allicia that she hears about Evelyn at least 4 times a week from Nico, telling everyone what he does with her and when her birthday is.

So here's a picture of Nico and Avery watching the washing machine. Avery can spend literally hours watching the washing machine. Sometimes I'll walk into the bathroom and see him sitting on top of the dryer, naked, looking through the top of the washer. He's even fallen asleep while leaning on the washer. Anyway, Nico joined him for a bit, and pulled up his own stool.

Other than that, we have just been planning and looking forward to our trip to Arlington in 1 week!!!!!!!! Nico knows the exact day we are leaving and tells us almost every day about tit. He is very excited to travel and see Grandpa and Grandma. 

See you next week!

G.G., Grandma's Birthday Party, Park

On Friday we went to see G.G. and helped her baste the firetruck quilt, I wish I would have thought to get a picture! I can't wait to see the finished quilt!

Saturday was my mom's birthday (Grandma Salisbury!) And we went out to Smoky Mountain Pizza with family to celebrate. I forgot the camera, and then forgot to take pictures with my phone, so we are picture-less. But, it was a nice setting, a large private room with a door right next to the arcade game room which is where the kids played when we weren't eating. We ate some food and then cake.

My mom has been working on writing a book of stories for quite a many months. She wanted it ready for her 60th birthday, and it was! She had some copies printed and gave each of the families one of the books. The book is stories from her life, you can really see the completeness of how God has brought her through from beginning to 60. I love it. You can even purchase them on Amazon!! I cherish the fact that all of these stories of hers are written down now, and I am so proud of her for doing it! Way to go Mom!

Sunday Nico was in the big kids room again at church. He didn't like the loud music and was found in the back, lying on the floor and crying. So sad! He told them that he didn't like the music so they put him in the nursery while they sang music, and then brought him back out when the music was over. Then on Sunday nights, we are going to be transferring him to big kids Bible Study. We'll be dropping him off at a different house before Guy and I go to our Bible Study.

Monday was sunny and warm,
Tuesday Nico woke up sick. I was pretty sure it was the virus his teacher had emailed all the parents about last Friday, but after a few hours it became apparent that his tummy issues were not related to illness, but related to whatever it is he inherited from me :) This means that he was fine a few hours later. I had already cancelled school for him that day so we just hung out at home.

Wednesday evening I took Nico and Evelyn (she insisted on being called Evelyn from now on instead of Evie) to the park. Check out the video at the end of the post.

Evie was taking "naps" at the park, Nico would come up to her and say "Evie get up! We don't have time for this!"

We found a fun place for Nico to sit while he eats his snack. Yay for spring days!

I am thinking and thinking and can't think of anything else we did this past week. He is still reading the words "it" and "was" in all the books I read him. He is spelling out words and trying to figure out spelling. He is still wanting to play with cars during You and Me Time, except now we are starting to use the cars to do other things. Like, playing with cars that want to color, or play with cars that want to put legos together.

I make him a red pancake every morning because I have a bunch of leftover red beet root powder from something else. I also put chocolate chips on his pancake in the shape of something. Sometimes he tells me what to make the shape, sometimes I decide. Yesterday it was "Carwash. Make a carwash on my pancake." Okie dokie, carwash it is. 

He tried chocolate yogurt on Wednesday and loved it. That might be a regular. Only a few ingredients, from Trader Joe's. He was so excited sitting in the car eating it with a plastic spoon, saying in a loud voice every so often: "This won't make me sick!" Or "What's in yogurt, mommy?", I tell him and he says, "Oh, I can eat it, it won't make me sick!" awww. We all need more food in our lives that won't make us sick :)

Scratches, Old Friends, New Friends

On Friday I got a call from Nico's teacher telling me that he had been in a little fight at school. I would prefer to call it a "skirmish". Nico wouldn't let one of the other boys have his puzzle piece, so the boy climbed on top of him and started clawing at Nico's eyes. He came home with 4 deep scratches on his cheeks. We snuggled STAT after he got home, and fell asleep on the couch even before eating lunch.

When I asked him what happened he said "NO no no no no" and pushed me away. I asked him about it again yesterday and he still said "No no no no no". So I'm glad I was able to talk to his teacher. She said that this boy has had aggression issues for a little while that they are addressing.

Saturday Nico and I went to the Botanical Garden to meet my old college roommate, Tawny, and her husband and 4 year old son, Aiden. They came over afterward and Nico showed Aiden all of his toys and they played so well together, better than I've seen Nico play with anyone! We were worn out when the day was done. Lots of sun, lots of playing.

Sunday afternoon, Guy's boss came over with his family so that we could do a Zyto scan on his son who has been having some serious health issues. A Zyto scan is to help you determine which essential oils your body will respond well to. All 4 of them ended up getting scanned. They were impressed with how accurate it was. Their two children, and Nico and Guy spent most of the time in Nico's bedroom playing, and the daughter (9 years old maybe?) plays Minecraft so her and Guy were having so much fun talking about it. We sent them away with some essential oils, and are hoping they help.

We saw Papa briefly that evening as he dropped off eggs and a whole GALLON of milk! Thank you Papa!

On Monday, Nico came with me to meet a friend at a coffee shop. She is a violist in the Boise Philharmonic and teaches lessons. Even to 3 year olds! If Nico ever wants to learn the violin or the viola, we know where to go.

Monday afternoon, Guy had an interview for an engineering position at his work. We are crossing our fingers and praying. The interview went well, we will find out soon when the 2nd interview will take place. He is being interviewed along with a few other people.

Tuesday Nico stayed home from school, he threw up once in the morning but was fine a few hours later. This is the 2nd incident with a short-lived upset tummy. I'm glad he felt better so quickly. Tuesday night I taught another community ed class about making over your medicine cabinet with essential oils. One of the women in the class ended up being the intake coordinator for the Infant/Toddler program and remembered me and Nico when we had our appointment a year ago.

Bought some new foods to try out this past week, as we are continuing to expand our diet to eventually include everything that a supermarket could sell :) Deli ham slices and a new brand of gluten free bread.  Nico requested a peanut butter banana sandwich for lunch yesterday: DONE! He requested toast for dinner tonight: DONE! I even made him little cream cheese rollups with the ham slices, one of my favorite things to eat when I was younger. He is doing so well with new foods, and his rash has not come back since it went away a few months ago. SO SO SO very happy about that!

This week is Teacher Appreciation week. I forgot to take a picture of the cute tea tumblers I put together for his teachers, but I followed the instructions here, so you can click to see a picture of what they are: Iced Tea Cup.

I made one for each of his 3 teachers, then also included a chocolate bar for the teacher assistant. Nico helped me stuff the tumblers with the wrinkled paper, and I used African Honeybush tea. I have never had it before but I picked something that sounded tasty from the Co-op.

A few other snippets from this week:

• Nico told me that if I played with his spinning top that I would need to go to time out
• He told me exactly how to make his peanut butter banana sandwich. Bread, with peanut butter, then slice the bananas and put them on top.
• Fish park, Old park, strider rides, tricycle rides, co-op runs (where Nico gets to pick out a fruit leather), eating watermelon

"Hey Guy!"

Nico and I got re-sick this past week. Over the weekend my sore throat came back worse, with chills, fever, aches. Nico never had a fever, but his congestion got worse. We are still dealing with very stuffy noses and an occasional cough. And I have lost most of my voice.

We were still able to visit G.G. on Monday, though! After finding out that we had lost one of the pull-back cars that goes with the fabric garage that she made him for Christmas, she gave him 3 more! Nico also warmed up to Scamper a bit and actually petted him. 

On Tuesday Guy and I had conflicting appointments, so Grandma Salisbury came by to watch Nico for a few hours. She brought him a jack-in-the-box toy. It was actually a frog-in-the-box with a Sandra Boynton theme. Nico loves it! It looks like they had fun while we were gone, too :)

Tuesday night we went to Fred Meyer as a family and got some shopping done. New shoes and earplugs! 

Nico hit the sack early last night. He ate his supplements at the dinner table and then excused himself because he wanted to "take-a a nap-a". So we let him get into his bed, I tucked him in, and ZONK. He didn't wake up until 2 AM the next morning, when he crawled into bed with me and fell back asleep until 5:30. 12+ hours of sleep is the most he's had in a single night in a VERY long time. And today was a great day for him, only one time-out and was in a great mood most of the day! So Guy and I were trying to brainstorm how to get him to sleep more.

One more food added to Nico's repertoire. Sour cream! He did great with it today, so we will increase slowly. No visible rash on either end, and NO behavior changes after eating it! I was so surprised and so delighted, especially since he loved it and wanted more more more of it. I kept it to a modest spoonful, though, because I didn't want to overwhelm his system. The doc told us to buy Nancy's cultured sour cream, and also to try Nancy's cultured cottage cheese. When she told me to buy the cottage cheese that Nancy makes, I asked her who Nancy was, thinking she was their receptionist, before I realized that it's actually a brand name! :) So we bought Nancy's sour cream at the Co-op.

And here's a glimpse into our mornings. Nico took a picture of himself and you can see me in the background looking out the window, thinking I heard the bus.

One day last week, Nico realized that he could say "Guy" and get Guy's attention. After Guy went to bed in the morning, Nico walked into the living room and called "Hey Guy! Hey Guy!" And of course Guy tumbled out of bed and ran into the living room to see Nico, because it was just too darn cute not to. We both had a good chuckle. It reminded me of a story my Mom tells about my older brother Jeremy as a youngster, barely learned to talk, called out to them both: "Heeeey Dick! Heeeey Dot!"

Not much else to report this week!

Foods

On Monday we went over to see Allicia and Evie and Avery. We hung out in their garage (heated!) Nico got to ride on Evie's tricycle and there was also a sand box to play in.

Evie loading up the tricycle so Nico can ride it.

Monday was also mine and Guy's anniversary. It was actually Facebook that reminded me of it! And even after that, I forgot to mention it to Guy, who also forgot. I didn't wish him a Happy Anniversary until the next morning. Whoops! :) No biggie, though, we are buddies and we understand that life is busy. It has been 8 years!! 

Tuesday, while Nico was at school, I went with Allicia and Evie and Avery to a "Mothering Connections" meeting. A group of moms gets together and talks about all the things related to mothering. To offer support and to receive support if needed. It was very cool.

We had some warmer days this past week. Enough to go for a looong Strider ride, a trip to the Fish Park, and then a walk around the block. Not all on the same day:) Nico has been talking a lot about playing outside. "Play outside. Go Strider ride." We've already come up with a list of things to do this summer. Well, a two item list: Fly a kite (we have one sitting in our closet that we've never used) and shoot off a rocket. We'll expand the list as we think of things. We do have a long term list of things we want to do but not necessarily this summer: go for a train ride, go to the beach and build a sand castle, fly in a plane.

Building a tower with Daddy before breakfast.

Playing outside. Digging a HOLE!

Yesterday (Wednesday), we hit a milestone in that I experienced my very first call from the school to come pick Nico up because of illness. Apparently he was lying down on the floor in the classroom and when they took his temperature it was 101.4. I came and picked him up, and as soon as we got home he crawled onto the couch and fell asleep. He woke up for about an hour and told me he felt sick. I rubbed some essential oils on his tummy, he fell back asleep for another hour and when he woke up in his bed he popped up and started asking for food. He burned off his fever last night and woke up fine this morning. I kept him home from school, but he will go back tomorrow. I'm pretty sure this episode was food related (well, supplement related). We have been introducing many new foods into his diet recently, per doctor's orders "Expand his diet!" she said :) He has enjoyed oatmeal, quinoa, cream of buckwheat, eggs, chicken, tomatoes, potatoes, brown rice, carrots, onions, and tonight: salmon! He ate more than I did at dinner. Unfortunately we are still dealing with bad flares of his rash and his emotions, but we are pushing through. But back to this fever thing. He was perfectly fine Wednesday morning until after he ate his supplements. It was almost like he was a robot that had just been turned off. You can imagine the power down sound, as he slumps his shoulders in his high chair and says "no eat", crawls onto the couch, and asks for a nap. This had been happening on several mornings, so I didn't think it was any different. But I think he reached his threshold for one of the supplements that hadn't been agreeing with him. I will be talking to the doc tomorrow to see what she wants us to do.

This week in preschool they are reading "Snowmen At Night" by Caralyn Buehner, "Snowballs" by Lois Ehlert and "That Hat" by Jan Brett. They are learning about winter clothing and animals. And tomorrow is the end of the quarter, so they have an early release!

G.G., Cabin, and Dentist

We had quite a full week!

On Friday, Nico and I drove to Nampa to see G.G.

She had all her toy cars out and ready for him when we walked in. She also gave him a stuffed dalmation dog that he loves and we have tentatively named Spot. (Thanks G.G.!) We had a great time and will be back again next month!

For our drive home, I had prepared a snack for Nico of (no kidding) cut up piece of beef liver along with cut up pieces of cheese. He (no kidding) loved this. The way that I've been cooking the liver has been very tasty, and it is even better COLD. So he munched on his liver and cheese while I just munched on a big slab of cold liver. He has been eating liver and cheese for a snack after nap time this whole week. It appears to be one of his favorite snacks.

After Nico's nap on Friday, we drove up to the cabin to see Papa and Grandma and stay the night! We took the opportunity to spend some time up there while Guy was out of town. We had a lot of fun. Good food and good company! Nico slept on a cot in a sleeping bag for the first time, and seemed to enjoy it. He slept pretty well!

Grandma caught this rare video of Papa and Nico dancing to a song on the iPad:

We left Saturday morning and all of us came back to our place. I went and did some shopping while the Grandparents played with Nico. It was a fun day, Nico got to eat Jimmy John's TWICE (and then again on Sunday!)

On Sunday, about halfway through the church service, someone came to tell me that Nico looked very troubled and looked about to cry in the nursery/toddler room, so I went in there. He RAN to me and hugged me really big. I took him into the service with me after that. I'm not sure why he's starting to have trouble in the nursery again, but I think next week I will stay in there with him like I used to do.

Monday morning we picked up Guy from the airport. It was great to see him again after 4 days away, we missed him! He had a great time in Portland. The comedy show was great, and he got to spend time with his brother Tom and Tom's girlfriend Emily.

Tuesday morning was Nico's very first dentist appointment. It was a "Happy Visit" and they didn't do much more than have him sit on the chair, recline, and poke around his teeth for a few minutes. They attempted to polish one of his teeth briefly, too. Nico didn't like that, but over all he did very well. 

The hygienist made things fun for him and let him hold and touch and play with everything. He enjoyed holding the mirror in his mouth. He also kissed the suction tool when she asked him to, and enjoyed watching it suck up an entire cup of water.

We'll go back in 6 months to get reacquainted and maybe try a bit more of the tooth polishing. His teeth looked good, though, no signs of cavities anywhere, just a normal amount of plaque. The hygienist said she could tell that he uses a binky, but that his front teeth will come back down pretty quickly after he stops using the binky and that it's nothing to worry about right now. Her son apparently used a binky for quite a long while and his teeth had no trouble returning to their normal position.

Family trip to the library on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday we had a play date with Tricia and her 15 month old daughter Brynnlynn. When we were leaving he asked to give Brynnlynn a hug. First time ever asking for a hug from one of his friends! It was too cute.

Then there was the random walk and park visits this week, as it's getting warmer I find that being outside is a great way to spend time! :)

Fresh Air!

This week we finally got out for a big dose of fresh air. After being cooped up inside being sick and/or too cold to go out for long, we were ready to PLAY! We went to Old Park and stayed for at least an hour. The temp was around 60 degrees and it was beautiful and smelled great and both Nico and I really needed it.

We were also able to take Nico's tricycle out for a ride. His legs are finally long enough to reach the pedals and actually use the tricycle, though he prefers to stand up and walk awkwardly while on it, like he does on his Strider bike. We'll have to pull out his Strider bike soon and raise the seat a bit and see if he still prefers walking with it instead of sitting. 

I got Nico his very own knife for use in the kitchen. So, while I'm chopping vegetables, he can stand near me and chop his own vegetables! I need to get him a little cutting board, because cutting on a plate is hard. The knife isn't sharp at all, but it's serrated. Nearly impossible to cut anything with it, but whenever I do soft vegetables (zucchini maybe?) he'll be able to help out. 

Posing for a picture with his new knife.

Church on Sunday. Nico was in the toddler room and asked for me about halfway through the service, so they came and got me. I took him potty (he actually went potty! I forgot to mention last week, that his very first time going on the potty in public was at the pharmacy. While waiting for a prescription he told me that he had to go! Of course, once we started toward the restroom, he tried to take it back.) After I took him potty at church, he didn't want me to leave the nursery, he had the bottom lip quiver. So I stayed. No problem for me, it was fun!

Nico had his follow up doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning. The doc looked in his ears and told me that they both looked pearly white and there was no sign of infection in either of them. His left ear did have some fluid behind the ear drum, she said it is likely just congestion left over from the cold. She said a humidifier would probably help thin it out to get rid of it. She used the word "bubbling" when describing the look of the ear. His right ear, the one that had perforated, looked perfect. No scar tissue and not able to tell at all that it had burst. His blood pressure was 95/55, weight was 131.8 pounds and height was 36 inches.

Drawing while waiting for the doctor.

I'm still unable to hear well out of my right ear. If it doesn't resolve soon then I'll make an appointment to go have it looked at. 

Now to talk about potty training. Nico was having a hard time with pooping, so we decided to allow him to play on the iPad while he tries. This has solved the pooping problem completely, and then some! It has been hard to teach him that he doesn't always get the iPad when he goes potty. He especially likes to ask me to take him potty while we are in the middle of chores, or right before he knows we're going to start cleaning up dinner or lunch. He makes the Potty sign and says "Pah". I say "Ok, let's go potty!" and then he asks for the iPad. When I tell him no iPad this time, he then signs "all done" frantically and does a cute little whine. We'll get the hang of all this soon enough! :)

Another new recipe this week for Nico - banana pancakes. It's just 1 banana mixed with 2 eggs. Fry them up, and then I smothered it in butter. He loved it!

Nico and I took Guy to the airport tonight, he is off to Portland for 4 days. I am so excited for him, he is going to see a comedy show that includes several of the people from MST3K. Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, and Frank Conniff are each doing a comedy routine, and afterward they are live-riffing a movie called Plan 9 from Outer Space. An added bonus is that he gets to stay with his brother Tom! Sweet deal!

Nico and I will be staying with my parents for a night or so. We should have a pretty fun weekend!

Time to sign off, but I leave you with a video from this past week. Nothing big, just some shots from the park and of Nico dancing to one of his favorite Pocoyo episodes.

The other half of the flu

So I mentioned in my blog last week that Guy and I didn't seem to have as dire an illness as Nico's. Well, the weekend brought with it all the goodies that we're sure Nico had also experienced. Guy and I were pretty much at the same stages of everything at the same time. So our fevers went up (Guy always beat me there, though. His got up to 102.6 and I think my highest was 101.4) and the chills and the body aches started. Guy had a rough cough that hurt his chest quite a bit, and I started getting sinus pain right off the bat.

On Saturday night we both laid down on our bed with Nico between us and let Nico play on the iPad while we both rested and took turns parenting.

On Sunday, the Grandparents Salisbury were kind enough to go shopping for us to get us a few needed essentials. Toilet paper, for one, since that is what we use for kleenex. Bananas (can't be without bananas!) a neti pot for myself, and a few other things. They also brought Jimmy Johns! Nico fell asleep a few minutes before they showed up, having stayed awake during his entire nap playing in his bed :) So here's a rare picture of Nico sleeping on the couch.

I ended up with a sinus infection that is being treated by antibiotics. Guy had a follow up appointment with our doctor on Monday and he very kindly let me take over his appointment so I could get looked at. My very first sinus infection! It settled in my right ear for a few days until my ear started draining. Wow, painful! The pain has been moving around my face quite a bit. I feel for Guy, who told me that what I was describing was how he feels a lot of the time with his chronic sinusitis. 

Guy thought he might be getting an ear infection, but it waned, thank goodness. We're all on the mend now, and have finally gotten back to our normal routine, be it filled with lots of toilet paper still! It's nice to see Nico slowly returning to his old self.

One setback we've had is in the realm of potty training. Nico has had a lot of accidents, and seems to now have something personal against the potty. We're being diligent with the underwear, though. He does still wear a diaper at night. One thing he has learned to do is when I ask him to get up on the stool to help me with dishes, he tells me he has to go potty. We get to the hallway and he shakes his head and turns around, intending to go play. He whines and protests when I tell him to go back to the stool and stand up on it, he gets to the stool and then tells me he has to go potty again. We went back and forth a few times before I figured out he was trying to get out of helping with the dishes! He only did this for 2 mornings. I think we've all just been a little more stressed and emotional with all our bodies have gone through, so I understand the difficulty of restarting our routine. It was hard for me, too!

I tried a new recipe for Nico that turned out to be a SUCCESS! Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf Bites. He calls them cupcakes and he seems to enjoy eating them just as much as he enjoys eating regular cupcakes! They are very easy. He ate 6 of them the first day I made them. He's also become a fan of raw red and orange peppers. I think I'll try more raw veggies with him, since he dislikes the steamed veggies so much.

And then, a random picture of Nico stapling his cookie. I thought this was very innovative.

Welp, I guess that wraps up February! I wonder what exciting new things March will bring??

Swim

Nico and I went swimming today at the hotel that Grandma Salisbury is staying at. Nico's cousin Lexie was also there. Nico enjoyed the water a lot this time, but came out shivering. We gave him a warm bath afterward and that perked him up.

We got Jimmy Johns for dinner and Nico ate his entire sandwich. Breadless, but still mighty big!

Camel, Crane, Bistro

Right after Nico woke up from his nap I put on his socks and shoes and asked him which park he wanted to go to. He signed for Memorial Park but on the way to the car, he shook his head and resisted, telling me that he changed his mind. I asked him again and he signed for Camel's Back Park, so off we went.

This evening we went downtown to meet some of my high school friends at the Brick Oven Bistro since they are closing soon. We got to see the crane that is in the middle of downtown. We see it every time we're at the Saturday market, but this time it was in much clearer view.

Nico ate all of his turkey and most of my chicken. He was hungry. After he was done he signed "All done" and then "Home" over and over again until we left.

Doubling Up

Nico drinking his milk and water at the same time.

Meatloaf and Halloween Party

"But if you bake the carrot into a meatloaf, then I will eat it! A lot of it."

We went to a Halloween party today. Guess who Nico dressed up as.

Veggie Eater

"Mom, I really don't want to eat this carrot!"

All Sorts of Things

Nico is definitely feeling better. He is eating much more and his energy level has returned to normal. This means that we needed to get out of the house more to burn off some energy! Yesterday I didn't read the signs very well so we stuck around the house a bit too much, and it was evident in his sleeping last night. He was up every few hours and woke up for the day an hour earlier than usual. This usually happens when he hasn't been active enough during the day.

We went to the zoo this afternoon after his nap (picture is him climbing up the giraffe slide at the zoo). It is getting colder outside so we tend to do things outdoors in the afternoon instead of the early morning.

Then this evening we went to play with the train at Barnes and Noble after buying some groceries.

His appetite is high for avocados. He has eaten two avocados today. I mix up mashed avocado with parmesan cheese, mustard, and a cut up chicken pancake, put it in a bowl, and he shoves big spoonfuls of it into his mouth. He has also been drinking "juice", which is an apple cider vinegar drink that has added grape juice to it. He loves those.

Oh and check out the picture I added to the VBS entry!

Grilled Cheese

Nico eating a grilled cheese sandwich for the first time, while watching Go Diego Go.

Chicken Sandwich

Eating a chicken sandwich, made with chicken pancakes as the bread (chicken and eggs mixed in a food processor, then fried into pancakes) and avocado, cheese, and mustard inside. Yum! He approved.

Cabin

We went up to the cabin this afternoon. We got to see Sarah and Aunt Ellen as well as the Grandparents Salisbury. Nico ate so much at dinner! He had such fun time eating all sorts of things. There is always lots to eat at the cabin.

Sarah was nice enough to take some pictures of us. Here is one of them!

Feeding Daddy

Nico can say "Dada" when you ask him to. I'm not sure he has associated the word with Daddy yet, but he is definitely taking steps toward talking.

Today he sat on Guy's lap and fed him his dinner. He took a bite himself and grabbed his tongue with his hand because it was spicy hot.