Fuzzy, Lost tooth, Sore tummy

We went to Fred Meyer last Friday and Nico bought a little fox that he named Fuzzy. Fuzzy came with a blue bag (purse?) that he sits in, Nico calls it his bed. He brought Fuzzy and his bed to Bible Study on Sunday, and has been sleeping with Fuzzy right next to him in his blue purse bed.

Saturday morning, I made pancakes per usual, and Nico sat at the table and said it was hard for him to eat because his tooth was loose. He said he was going to pull it out and I thought that maybe he might succeed in a few days, but Nico sat at the table, determined, for about 10 minutes, pulling at his tooth until it came out. He wanted to enjoy his pancakes (it's his favorite day because of the pancakes in the morning) and pulled his tooth out so he could do just that. We forgot about the tooth fairy and in fact I'm not sure where the tooth ended up.. hmm. It's in a baggie somewhere.

On Tuesday, Brianna came over for dinner. We ate tuna pasta salad on a bed of lettuce and roasted veggies on the side.

Wednesday morning, Nico woke up with a sore tummy. He had a slight fever so I wrote his teacher that he wouldn't be coming to school. He laid on the couch and said "I don't think I want to eat fudgesicles ever again." He had eaten an entire fudgesicle the night before, right before going to bed. At about 10 am his fever went up to 101.3, he had a headache, took a nap, and felt a lot better after waking. He never threw up, but drank milk and ate banana bread all day long. He slept well last night and woke up this morning, stood up and said "Hey! I don't feel sick anymore! And when I walk my head doesn't hurt!"

I still kept him back from school for one more day. He has been watching iPad a lot today, lounging. He will go back to school tomorrow!

That's really all we did this week, short and sweet!

G.G., dentist

Last Friday was Nico's snack day at school. He wanted to bring apple sauce and string cheese so that's what we did. He also got to share something with the class and he wanted to bring the Advent Christmas tree with him so we put that in a bag and carried it along.

Friday night was Guy's work Christmas party and it was held at Winter Garden Aglow. Nico stayed home and got to play with Evelyn and Avery. We walked all the way to the top, as high as you could go, and we got a pretty good view of all the lights below. We talked a lot with one of Guy's work buddies, Derek, and his wife (I can't remember her name!) They also went to NNU and that is where they met. They are pregnant expecting their first next year, and they love board games, and we left with the understanding that we would be getting together at some point to play board games. The party was held in a large heated tent and food was served buffet style. Then they gave away awards, and Guy got his 5 year plaque plus a bonus check. Then they did a raffle. 

I told Nico that if he was really good for Jeff & Allicia on Friday that on Saturday we could go to Joann Fabric's and pick up some stuff for a Christmas craft. So... we did! We bought glitter and jewels and sequins. When we got home, I brought out a folder I have that contains all of the Christmas cards we've received in the past. We took turns choosing which ones we wanted, and then we proceeded to decorate our individual poster boards with cut up christmas cards and glitter and jewels. This craft is one my brothers and I used to do as kids, a Grandma Salisbury original! Nico cut out a few of his cards and glued one portion of a card onto his poster board, but he preferred instead to just use glitter.

He kept looking at mine and saying "It needs more detail. There's too much white space." Probably learned that from school, so I tried unschooling him a tad and told him that when you're doing art you get to decide exactly how much detail you want and it's ok if there's white space. But he kept telling me anyway :) Every time I paused what I was doing to look at my picture, he would say "You need more detail. It needs more detail." The funny thing is that when we were done, Nico's poster was mostly white space.

Sunday evening, Guy and I sat down to talk about the budget. It wasn't very encouraging at first. We had been thinking about getting another car so that he could have one to drive to work. But when we started talking about NOT saving up for a car, and plugged in all our numbers, it looks like we will be able to pay off our last debt in 1 year exactly. So we decided we would do it. We can make it one year without a second car if it means paying off our debt so much sooner! We also decided that after we are done paying off debt we will move to a bigger house! We will rent, not buy just yet. It's exciting to think about. 

On Tuesday we visited G.G. Nico wanted to bring one of his games, so we did, and G.G. and Nico had a fun time playing it. They took turns. (see video at end!)

We will see her again in a few short days when Grandma and Grandpa Russell come into town!! Wahoo!!!

On Wednesday morning Nico had a dentist appointment to get two of his cavities filled. Allicia let us borrow their white car that day since Jeff was out of town, so that Guy could have a car to drive to work and Nico and I would have our own car. Nico did great at the dentist. The day before I had told him what they would be doing and I told him that afterward we could go get him a small toy. They described everything to him before he sat on the chair, showed him all the tools. He brought his stuffed dog Alvedo with him, and he sat on the chair next to Nico. The hygienist  also put a little paper bib on Alvedo. They hooked him up to the nitrous oxide and boy, Mommy was more nervous than Nico was! Nico did awesome while I was in the corner shaking in my boots. When the dentist came to work on Nico, he would talk to Alvedo every once in a while and check his teeth too, along with Nico's. Nico responded once "He can't open his mouth because he's not real!" hehe. This dentist is the same one I've had since I was 8 years old, and I've had many a cavity filled by him. I love that he still whistles and hums while he works.

After the dentist we went straight to Fred Meyer where he picked out a Spiderman lego. We came home and he put it together. He said he wasn't hungry but I put some food in front of him and he ate it. He chewed too much on the wrong side and his mouth started to hurt. Right before school he said "I'm sick, I can't go to school." because his mouth hurt and he had a tummy ache. I rubbed some diluted clove oil on his teeth and gums and cheek and told him I was going to take him grocery shopping with me if he stayed home. He said "Ok let's go to school!" and he was his happy chipper self.

Guy was able to work from home today. His boss last week texted him and thanked him for something and told Guy to take some time for himself this week. So he's been home today. Pretty cool!

Legos, Mother's Day

I felt like we needed to go out and do something last Friday so I asked Nico what he wanted to do and he said Fred Meyer. To get legos. He had saved up about 15 dollars. When we got to Fred Meyer he was very quick about his decision. I wasn't used to this. When picking out a toy car it takes him forever plus changing his mind. Legos I guess are different. He bought an Ice Crawler. We came home and put it together. He is amazing! He opened up the lego booklet and saw all the related pieces for the Ice Crawler set and asked me to buy him all of those sets too. I think for his birthday we will get him a huge lego. Hmm, but then I talked to Guy about that idea and he reminded me that with big lego sets, he loses interest before getting to the end. So I think we'll do lots of small ones for his birthday. Including a lego block separator, since taking pieces apart is hard work if you don't have fingernails.

Saturday we went to the market for 3 pounds of ground beef. Nico decided to spend his 2 coins from the market's Sprouts Club to buy some asparagus. You have to buy fresh fruit or veggies with it, and no fresh fruit was available. (apparently fruit is for boys and vegetables are for girls?) When I made him the asparagus later he was not happy. ha ha. He didn't even want to try it. 

About a month back he started saying "EWWW YUCKY!!!" to every dinner I put in front of him, so we told him about a nicer thing to say: "This is not my favorite." Sorry if I have already posted about that, I forget what I have already written sometimes :)

We got this cute poem and handprints from his preschool. Oh man, the poem made me imagine what it will be like someday when Nico no longer crawls into bed with me at night and no longer enjoys snuggling and no longer asks me to play cars with him or rough house. I was definitely feeling grateful this past week that for right now I do have a little buddy that is snuggly and wants to spend all of his time with me.

This next one was a nice Mother's Day Gift, except I don't think Nico understood about it. He showed it to me and I asked him what it was and he said it was a flower. I asked him who it was for and he told me it was for himself. Oh well! I did get quite a treasure of things from Guy - a whole stack of coupons he wrote himself!!! It was fabulous. I am already making a mental list of things for him to do when I cash in his "One weekend of complaint free and instant 'honey-doing'"

And here's the envelope that the first one with the double handprints came in. Nico thanked us for his chocolate yogurts from Trader Joe's.

I saw my Mommy on Mother's Day and Guy called his Mommy on Mother's Day, it was a pretty complete day. No Bible Study that night but we did go out as a family to the Co-op and WinCo. Running errands is fun together, we don't do that very often.

Guy started a long stretch of work days on Wednesday. He is working for about 15 days, though some nights he will be going in at 9 PM instead of 5 PM, which gives us more time with him.

Nico brought home the flower on the left today from school. The flowers on the right are ones that Nico has found growing wild on his adventures outside with Evelyn. He comes running to the front door yelling "JOANNA! JOANNA!" I open the door and he says "I have a flower for you!" The stem on the yellow one was about 2 feet long so I trimmed that one before putting in this jar.

Here is Nico's recipe for lemonade. You can see he numbered the steps 1-3. 

1 - 8 lemons

2 - 1 cup of sugar

3 - 4 cups of water

He was watching Leap Frog this morning on his iPad, and a character in there called Burfder really likes lemons and wanted to make lemonade. Nico was inspired and asked me to pour him some lemon juice in his cup so he could drink it. I explained that it was going to be sour and he said "I want sour lemon juice!" So I poured him about 2 tablespoons and he drank it all. 

He's been drinking from his "baby cup" lately, which is actually a shot glass. He likes having a tall glass full of water next to his baby cup so that when the baby cup runs out, he can refill it.

He is in bed right now singing songs. He stopped for a minute and whined and said "Mommmmmmy, I need some tea."

Me: You need some tea?

Nico: Yes

Me: Why do you need tea?

Nico: Because I want to go to the cabin and have tea

Me: When we go to the cabin on Saturday we can have some tea

Nico: Ok

I think that's it for now. Nico has had no more tummy aches, thank you for the prayers!

Papa, Spending Money, and Strider Games

On Friday morning, Nico woke up asking to go to Papa's house. I told him I would see if we could go visit them on Saturday. When he climbed onto the bus that morning, he told the bus driver "a Papa!" The attendant turned to me and asked, "Papa?" And I told her that we might be going to see Papa and that Nico was really excited about it.

So on Saturday morning we took a trip up to the cabin to see Gma and Papa. We had a great time! Nico kept asking to fly an airplane when he found out that Papa was going to be flying an airplane that day. We told him that in 3 years he can go up in the plane with Papa. He kept saying "fly in a airplane a 3 years!"

On Sunday Nico pulled out his piggy bank and wanted to go buy legos with the money. So we told him that on Tuesday we could take him to Fred Meyer to buy some legos. We counted up all his money and he had $36! Guy took him on Tuesday night, and they came home with a toy motorcycle and a "car wash" toy with a car that changes colors when you put it in cold water. Nico had changed his mind! He didn't seem interested in legos when confronted with all the other toy possibilities.

Nico playing with his color-changing car while Guy assembles the "car wash".

On Monday we went to visit Allicia, Evie, and Avery. We always have fun over there!

And warm weather means more Strider rides! I got quite a jog in with this last one. He had just been playing with his new toy motorcycle, so while riding the Strider he all of a sudden said "motorcycle!" and zoomed off fast. He sustained the speed for quite some time.

We've been practicing "STOP!" while on the Strider. I say "STOP!" and he stops immediately. It's a game, so it's fun :) We practice that a lot. Then I also have been showing him where to stop when he gets up to a crosswalk ahead of me and I'm not there yet. Still working on that one. He is precise like me, so he puts his front wheel right on the VERY EDGE where the sidewalk stops and the road starts. I'm trying to teach him to stop a little further back.

He climbed up onto the chair while wearing Guy's shoes.

A common occurrence after lunch: iPad and cashew butter/molasses ("cah-oo appa buttah")

Croup

No school since I last wrote, Nico caught a pretty bad chest cold that turned into several days of croup. It started with a raspy voice and a slightly raised temperature. I thought it was just another mild cold, so when his temp dipped to normal on Sunday morning, we ended up going to church. He seemed fine the first few days of it. But Monday night it hit him, he woke up with that barking sound that he's only had one other time. No phlegm to speak of and it sounded like the coughing hurt. Guy took him into the bathroom for some steam treatment several times, and I put essential oils on his chest to help him breathe (Eucalyptus!) Waking up in the mornings has been the hardest part of the days.

The BEST part of the days is the snuggling. OOOooo the snuggling! I love sitting on the couch with Nico, covered in a blanket, and watching Curious George. Yesterday he took an early nap and then fell asleep again at 3:30 and he was out for the night. We got him up this morning at 7:15 to see if he wanted to eat breakfast with us as usual since he hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before. He did eat a little bit. Then this afternoon after a nap, he ate some rice and ground beef and he has felt MUCH better. He perked up a bit and we actually got off the couch for a while.

Back to last week - we went to Fred Meyer on Friday morning to get another fuzzy poster to do over the weekend and Guy and I also agreed that we should get him another car. I told him that our trip to Fred Meyer was a "Yes Car" and a "Yes Poster" day. And Nico repeated. He's been saying "picky car" quite often since then, which is him telling me that he wants to go pick out another car. 

At Freddy's he chose a hummer pickup, after changing his mind twice mid-store. I think he just needed to test them out before committing. He chose the ambulance first, a few minutes of walking around and then he wanted the tow truck, a few minutes of walking around, and then the hummer. We got home and he put the head lamp on and played with his hummer pickup at the table. You can tell he was serious because he still has his coat on from going to Freddy's. No time to stop to take it off.

Guy teaching Nico how to play Pokemon.

Another funny tidbit - Papa brings him a little hot wheels car every time he comes over. Nico has started saying "Papa" whenever he sees something that he wants. We've been getting a lot of toy magazines in the mail, and when he looks through them he sees toys he wants and says "Papa" and points outside.

Not sure yet if Nico will be going to school tomorrow. He had an early nap today and another early night (6:30). I'm thinking it's likely he'll stay home one more day. Then we have a week of school and then a week off for Thanksgiving! Can't believe Thanksgiving is almost here!

Stuffed Dog

Yesterday, Guy took Nico to Fred Meyers where his cuteness got him a free stuffed dog. Nico attached to it right away and tells us about it all the time by signing "dog" and pointing to it. He brought it to the dinner table tonight and wanted to bring it into the bath, too.

This picture is from yesterday, we were playing with our big bin of Legos. Nico doesn't know the full range of activities to do with Legos, but he likes pulling them apart and playing with a small Lego parrot and a Lego horse.

Coffee Helper

This morning, Guy was up with us while we were preparing breakfast, which is very unusual, so Nico kept walking over to the bedroom door and signing "Goodnight" over and over again, we figured he was telling Guy to go to bed! So, he did! :)

Then this afternoon Guy and Nico went out. They returned something to Home Depot and also stopped at Fred Meyer so Nico could ride in the car carts. I stayed home and slept. Much needed!

Nico is quite the coffee helper, and asks Guy every day to make coffee by signing "coffee" and pointing to the cupboard where he keeps all his stuff.  You can see the pot of soup on the counter too, I made leek and onion soup with ground pork meatballs and Nico was quite the fan! He ate a lot of it.

Nap Grump

Tonight Nico and I went to Fred Meyer to pass the time before bed. He woke up really grumpy from his second nap, so a distraction was good. When we got home I wrapped Guy's birthday presents and Nico had a blast playing with the wrapping paper and the empty roll (what we call a dodo). He was his happy self until bedtime!