On Friday Nico woke up with a sore throat. He wanted to stay home from school but I sent him to school anyway. An hour later, the nurse called me and told me Nico had been to see her twice, she said, "You know how determined he is when he wants to go home, do you just want to come pick him up? Or do you want to talk to him?" I said I would come pick him up. I couldn't help laughing and giggling when I went to meet him at the school. It cracked me up. He was fine. We ran to Whole Foods to return an Amazon package and pick up some strawberries, and then visited Allicia and Avery and Ivy that afternoon to play video games.
He had the sniffles over the weekend but nothing much came of it.
Saturday started Gluten Week. We told him he could choose one meal and one dessert a day with gluten. We didn't want to overwhelm his system with 3 meals a day. Saturday he chose Pizza Hut. It was also Odd Saturday at Jeff & Allicia's that Guy and Nico attended. They came home in time for Swiss Family Robinson (my choice) and Pizza Hut! Nico loved it. And he didn't appear to have any negative reaction to the gluten.
Sunday he chose to eat a cheese quesadilla from Taco Bell where I dropped him off after church so he could eat with cousins and the Grandparents Salisbury. Afterward, they went roller skating.
Monday I took him to Blue Sky Bagels for breakfast. The place smelled sooo good. And he was soooo excited. After his first bite he said, "Why does this taste so good?" He chose a cinnamon and sugar bagel with berry cream cheese. He said next time he would get the same kind of bagel but different cream cheese. He couldn't finish it so we wrapped up the rest for later. He ate the leftovers as his chosen "dessert" for Monday.
Monday afternoon and evening was Grandma Camp. Guy picked up dinner for me and him from Thai Basil and we watched a few episodes of Dr Who while we ate.
Tuesday's chosen meal was Jimmy John's. He got a sandwich with cheese and guacamole on it (that's it). I also got him a Jimmy John's cookie and a bag of their salt & vinegar chips (which also have gluten so he hasn't been able to eat them.)
We were going to meet Guy there, but Guy wasn't able to get out of his meeting in time, so we took Guy his sandwich after we were done.
Wednesday we had Evelyn, Ivy, and Avery over for a few hours in the morning. Then in the afternoon, Nico went over to their house for a few hours. A good way to spend a day off. They took turns playing Mario Kart on our Wii.
Nico's chosen meal for Wednesday was Papa John's pizza. He loved it. He couldn't tell a difference between Pizza Hut and Papa John's, he says he loves them both. He had some snickerdoodles for his dessert.
And then today.. Thanksgiving! Nico could eat anything he wanted. He loved the rolls. He ate chocolate cream pie for dessert.
After the food, we had the lego challenge. Grandma Salisbury planned this one well! It was a family challenge so we all worked together to put together our car. Bruce, Rory, and David won that challenge. The next challenge was to see whose car could go the farthest and the fastest. Each car could be pulled back and released. Lexie won both of those challenges; way to go!
Ornament exchange.
Unwrapping the box! This box Nico is working on is covered in duct tape. An entire roll. It took the kiddos quite a while to unravel it. Each kid had about 15 seconds to get what they could from it. The initial box was a large box, and this smaller one was just one box inside of bigger and bigger boxes.
After the box, it was time for dessert. Pie pie pie pie!
It was a wonderful Thanksgiving!
I have a video with Thanksgiving snippets and some snippets of gluten week which I will post next week.
Saturday night was Guy's choice for movie. We started watching the new Dark Crystal tv series, but it turned out being a little too scary for Nico, so Guy switched over to Perry Mason. Nico said, "YES! I love Perry Mason!"
Sunday after church, the Grandparents Salisbury invited us over for lunch. There was a craft to do after lunch that the girls did first, and then we handed it over to the boys. Painting stones. It was fun!
Family picture taken by Grandma.
Thanks for the yummy food and the fun time!
Nico has been creating new video game levels using a game he has on his Switch called Super Mario Maker 2. He then uploads them so that other people can play them too. He also loves playing other people's levels. So this is a normal Monday night for us.
On Tuesday we went to visit GG and picked up Jimmu John's on the way home.
On Wednesday, Pa took the kiddos to Cabella's before he took them to Youth Group, and there was a Santa there!
Guy and I were invited to dinner by an older couple at our church, so we had dinner with them on Wednesday while Nico was at Youth Group. The couple lives over near the church where the Youth Group is at, so we picked up Nico from Youth Group on our way home. It was cool to see where it all takes place and to meet the youth leader and his wife. You can see Nico in his blue jacket here.
Today they celebrated "Friendsgiving" in Nico's class. Nico was able to eat some gluten free pumpkin pie thanks to the mom of another boy in his class who always makes gluten free treats for celebrations. Yay! Nico had two slices. He told us he drank wine, too. He he. Can't fool us!
Saturday was a fun and full day. We celebrated Grandma Salisbury's birthday at Smokey Mountain Pizza. Our private gathering room has its own door to the parking lot, so I took a video of the kids after they ran out to greet Grandma and Papa when they arrived. Watch the video and beware when Nico starts running back toward me, WHACK! Yeouch!! The video is at the bottom of the blog post!
Happy Birthday (today!) To Grandma Salisbury!
Straight from the party, Guy drove Nico over to JUMP (Jack's Urban Meeting Place) for a Chess tournament/party. They went a little early because JUMP has a slide from the 5th floor of the parking garage that goes all the way down to the ground and Nico wanted to try it. But it was closed! Instead, they climbed on the jungle gym until the party started.
This afternoon I received this email from his chess coach:
We already signed him up for next year chess.
Saturday night we rented Mary Poppins Returns from RedBox, it was my choice. We all loved it. After the movie was over, Nico asked, "I want to watch ALL the Mary Poppins movies, are there any more?" Nope, shucks!
There was one evening this week (I think Sunday night) when Nico was very sad. We had said no to something he wanted. So here is Guy snuggling him on the couch. Guy sang to him the song he used to sing to him several years ago when we lived on Krall st. "The sun is sinking in the west...." Nico remembered the song and started crying. It was a very sweet moment. I'm surprised Nico remembered the song! When Guy put him into bed, he whimpered in his bed and started crying again and said "Daddy I want to spend more time with you." So Guy got up into Nico's bed and they hung out for a while.
On Mondays and Wednesdays, swimming nights, if we get to the Y a little early, Nico is able to play in the kiddie pool. Here's a shot of those shenanigans.
I love the Y swimming lessons. There are 4 life guards on duty. And, the air is very warm, not just the water, which means Nico doesn't get cold and shivery! He's able to make it through the entire 30 minute lesson. I am hooked and will probably never go back to lessons at the Natatorium.
Tuesday night at Cub Scouts, the Birds of Prey were there!
Cub Scouts snack.
Nico has been on a nacho kick lately. He made these by himself.
Nico's friends across the street are moving in June, and I chatted with their mom about it and asked if she'd be willing to share their landlord's phone number with us so we could potentially move in after they move out. If across the street doesn't work out, we plan to move somewhere else THIS SUMMER! The time has come! We would love to stay in this area so we are hoping for the house across the street. We are super excited and being very dreamy about it. We are working hard to make it work!
This week was Nico's first standardized testing day for 3rd grade. It was a math test today. 1-2 hour tests, about 7 tests total in the next few weeks. We ordered him a vibrating wrist band that vibrates every 5 minutes to help keep him on task. I am looking forward to hearing from his teacher how it works for him at school. It will arrive on Saturday!
Nico came home from Grandma Camp (not technically a Grandma Camp but we're calling it that) last Thursday night with a diary he could fill out a la Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He was working on it Friday and created his Dream House. I love that it has an art gallery in it.
Friday was a total relax day. It wasn't the best weather outside so we stayed indoors and watched Three Stooges. Saturday was a slow day as well, I had some cleaning and organizing planned, but I hurt my back Friday night so we made Saturday a slow day as well. Nico went over to Rylan's house for a while in the afternoon. It was my turn to pick the movie for pizza night and so we rented Ralph Breaks the Internet from RedBox at M&W Market. It was funny, we all liked it! Sunday started like any other day, but after church I noticed Nico was itching. Nico had bed bug bites! Uh oh! Guy went on a search and found a live bed bug in Nico's bed frame. So he killed it. Then he got meticulous, and pulled out the rails on Nico's bed, searched the wardrobe, and our bed. He found no other live bed bugs. But what we did find was a previous infestation in the frame of Nico's bed. Lots of bed bug casings and in the cardboard room separator Guy found EGGS. They are visible to the naked eye, as are bed bugs. Can you see them in this picture?
These are likely dead eggs that were killed in the first heat treatment. We called the bed bug guys on Monday and they were able to come out on Tuesday for another heat treatment. We spent Monday afternoon getting everything ready for the treatment, and Tuesday he showed up bright and early before 8AM to get started. In addition to the heat treatment, he also sprayed a "safe"? pesticide on Nico's bed frame. We stayed the night at my parents' house on Tuesday night. We played a game I don't remember the name of, and Grandma made these things called "Ogre Bars" that we ate while we played. The game was fun, and the ogre bars were delicious! We arrived home Wednesday morning for an early school day with chess. I spent Wednesday cleaning up the Clubhouse after the heat treatment. For the next few nights Nico is sleeping in our bed, to let his pesticide bed air out. Not that our bed is much further from his bed than his own mattress, but the less exposure he has to it the better I'd feel! Some unexpected melted things upon our arrival home Wednesday:
Nico made a big decision this week. Baseball season is starting up, and every Tuesday he has baseball practice or a baseball game. Tuesdays are also Cub Scout nights. We asked Nico to choose between Cub Scouts and baseball, and he chose Cub Scouts. So, we are dropping baseball for now. We recently signed him up for swimming lessons at the Y, they start next Monday. Twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays until he knows how to swim! Yesterday Nico came home from school and asked Alexa to play Potato Dog. Funny song! I asked Alexa who sang it and she said Perry Gripp, so I asked her to play songs by Perry Gripp and all of a sudden Alexa was playing all these songs that Nico knew! He was stoked!! He had his very own dance party. You can check it out in the video :D :D :D Nico knows these songs from his Chess class, Coach Vellotti plays them. They are really hilarious. Some of them even have videos on Youtube. Playing the Game of Life!
When I picked up Nico from Drama today, we passed by his classroom and we talked to his teacher a bit about the project he was going to do that requires a tri-fold poster board. It's a voluntary project that requires research and presentation. For the previous 2 years Nico has done it. The first year it was about a particular bird (can't remember which!), last year he only started it but didn't finish, it was about different boat sizes (based on a YouTube video he had seen). This year he has chosen to do his report on India. He spent some time researching tonight on the computer. I had to find a safe internet search site for kids, and came across kidtopia.info, run by Google. He found some good stuff from National Geographic Kids about India that he copied down.
After dinner tonight we all went to band practice at the church. Nico and I only stayed a little while. Myself and another girl will be doing a piano/flute duet for Easter, so I was giving her the sheet music. Guy is bringing home a keyboard for me to practice on for the next month.
I had an interesting discussion with Nico tonight on our way to church about God, after the radio mentioned the sometimes-used tactic to disprove God by asking, “If God can do anything, can he create a rock so big that he can’t pick it up?”
I think God already did that by creating the law. A rock that he can’t “pick up” (dispose of), and by creating his promises, which he can’t break. Sin requires death, and that can’t be changed, so he created a way around it by sending Jesus to die.
Nico asked so many questions, and he reframed back to me what I was saying. I've never seen him repeat back to me what I was saying in different words just to make sure he got it right. We talked about sin requiring death, that's why the Israelites sacrificed animals. But then Jesus came and died once for all. So Nico said, "So sin is like all balled up into one place, and Jesus takes it away. Then we sin again, and he takes it away, then we sin and he takes it away. Like we're fresh."
Well Hello! It's been a while! I think that was the first time I ever skipped a week. Let's jump right into it!
On March 1st, Friday, Guy woke up sick, with whatever it was that I had while in Redding. I told him to stay home from work and he quickly got worse. He spent all Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in bed, he finally started feeling himself again only a few days ago.
Jumping on the trampoline with Merek on Friday the 1st
Saturday visit to the library. I parked across the street and we took the Greenbelt tunnel to the library. A bit of fresh air.
On our way back to the car with our goodies.
Nico chose our movie on Saturday and he chose one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies. Guy ate a few pieces of pizza and then went to bed while Nico and I stayed up to watch it. Those movies are funny, I enjoyed it.
Nico had told me about a STEM activity they had done in the library on Friday. On Saturday I saw pictures on Facebook that were posted of the event, and downloaded a few of them. Nico won this challenge - how many squares can you fit onto your popsicle stick without them falling over?
Practicing a magic trick
It was Sunday night, while Guy was lying in bed staring at the wall, that he saw a bug crawling up that wall, right next to our bed. He called me over and we identified it as a bed bug. Ah shucks! With a toothpick, Guy went fishing in the crack between the wall and the baseboard, and pulled out a shed bed bug skin. We slept in the bed that night, I was hoping that perhaps those two bug signs would be the extent of it. But, you know that's rarely the case.
Monday afternoon I pulled all the sheets off our beds and scoured the mattresses while sanitizing the sheets in the washing machine. I found NO signs of bed bugs on either mattress. Guy and I were casually talking about how to prevent a bed bug outbreak when he tapped lightly on the wardrobe and I watched as something fell from the spot he tapped, right onto the bare mattress. Boom. Another shed bed bug skin.
That dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach - uh oh - they're in the wardrobe!!
We indeed found bed bugs hiding between the cracks on the back of the wardrobe.
You can only see one bed bug in this picture, but there were about a dozen scattered in the crack right here.
We decided to go professional, and we called around and found a good place that specializes in bed bugs. The treatment involves spraying a pesticide around the baseboards, then heating up the house to 135 degrees for 6 hours. Afterward, they sprinkle silica around the baseboards.
The guy (Dave) came to take a look before telling us whether he could do it, because we live in a small place he was worried about clutter, which can make the treatment harder to do. He said there wasn't much clutter, just that everything was all together in a small space. He said he could do it! He said it would either be Thursday the 7th or the following Monday, the 11th, that he could do it.
So that night we moved out of the clubhouse and into a hotel for 3 nights. Dave asked us to remove all the clothes from the wardrobe and from our cube storage dresser and heat-treat them in the dryer and then get them out of the house. So I spent the next few days doing that. We slept at the hotel but then came back to the Clubhouse in the mornings for breakfast and school, then after school went back to the hotel.
When we discovered that it would not be Thursday that the treatment would take place, we booked another 5 days at an AirBnb close to downtown. We decided then to stay away from the Clubhouse. The bed bugs, having nothing to eat, would likely migrate. They can sense when someone comes into the room because they can smell the carbon dioxide and feel the heat of a body. If they are hungry, they can move fast to get a quick meal, even if you are standing on the floor for even a few minutes. To prevent migration, we had the door that leads to the main house sprayed with a pesticide. And so we stayed away. The only things we brought with us were heat-treated clothes, food, and plastic bags to put everything in. We left purses, back packs, bags, EVERYTHING, at the Clubhouse. Hmm... except the iPads and the Nintendo DS. We removed those the first day we went to a hotel, so we felt safe that the bed bugs hadn't migrated to them. And because the bed bugs weren't in the bathroom, we were able to bring our bathroom overnight bag filled with all our shampoo and combs.
At the AirBnb
The week that this all took place, my Aunt Liz was in town. I was able to see her on Thursday, and then on Friday there was a get together at my parents' house with Aunt Liz, and other family.
Saturday morning Nico and I researched which library we could go to to get the rest of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. There were four more that he needed to read. We realized after leaving that it didn't open until noon, so we drove to the park that was a few blocks away and I let him play while I stayed in the car figuring out what to do (and because brrrr it was cold I didn't want to get out!) I decided to take him somewhere as a surprise. He tried to guess where we were going the whole way there. He finally got it right when I turned into the parking lot, Lakeshore Learning. I told him he HAD to buy something with MY MONEY or he couldn't leave the store. He seemed pleased with that idea.
He chose some magnetic putty, and an archeological dig activity where he had to excavate five stones from a block of dirt.
We waited until after noon and then ran to the specific library we needed to go to, and we came home with four books for Nico to read.
For dinner that night we chose to go to a place called Asian Cuisine, we ordered to go. Guy chose Dark Crystal for the movie. Nico mostly played with his magnetic putty and came over to see what was going on every once in a while.
We really took advantage of the opportunity to eat out. Sunday we ordered pizza. Monday we had Boise Fry Company, Tuesday was Jimmy Johns. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Breakfast on Sunday (no pancakes, so it was toast with peanut butter and jam. No toaster, so it was microwave-heated bread with peanut butter and jam).
Sunday afternoon we visited the park again, and then got Nico's hair cut.
Monday after school Nico had an eye appointment. He needs glasses, so we chose a pair for him and they should be ready in a few weeks.
Green is Nico's favorite color. These glasses are green on the bottom, and slightly leopard print on the top. They happen to look a lot like Guy's glasses, but not on purpose. It was the green that got him hooked.
Nico is VERY excited about having glasses.
The heat treatment took place this past Monday. We didn't bother coming home Monday evening, because I knew there would be a layer of dust on everything and I would have more time to deal with it the following day.
The next day I spent at the Clubhouse washing sheets and dusting, mopping, etc. No sign of bugs anywhere... yay! We are guaranteed bug free for at least 30 days after treatment. We are thinking that the bites were causing hives on Nico, and that's where his hives were coming from. He's been hive free since we left the Clubhouse.
After school on Tuesday we went to visit GG and Aunt Pat. Melody (Aunt Pat's daughter) stopped by and we got a few handfuls of seeds from her! Peppers, Cucumber, and Radishes. We'd like to plant them out front. We picked up Jimmy John's on the way home, then Guy and Nico went to Cub Scouts that night. There was a magician there that showed them 3 magic tricks and Nico came home with the tricks to show me, they are pretty good!
Wednesday was the parent baseball meeting at Timberline High School. We skipped the spaghetti feed this year, and just showed up for the meeting. It was a quick and informative presentation, and afterward we met Nico's baseball coach. He is on the REDS team. Practices could possibly start next week depending on weather, otherwise they will start closer to April. The coach is very laid back.
On our to do list: Make sure Nico's equipment will still function for another season. He may have grown out of some of his stuff.
Some quick snippets of the past two weeks. We are welcoming the Grandparents Russell into town tomorrow, as Spring Break is upon us! Stay tuned!
