Friends, Chili, IEP Meeting

Last Friday was another day that we watched the kids after school. We played games downstairs. While we were down there, two of Nico's neighbor friends came over to see if Nico could play. Rylan's brother Merek, and his sister Madilyn. So they joined us downstairs for a little while, and then they went upstairs with Nico to play. Jeff got home at 5:45, so we said goodbye to the main house and I started dinner. Merek and Madilyn stayed for dinner, we had rice and ground beef, and cheese and cut veggies. They devoured the veggies, I was very impressed with that! And everyone loved the rice and ground beef.

They stayed over until about 7pm, when I sent them home. As soon as they were gone, I started shivering, and quickly realized that my fever was back and that I needed to lie down. I got into bed around 7:30 and didn't get out until the following morning at about 10AM. Except for bathroom breaks, which were very difficult, I could barely lift my body off the bed. Nico was just about asleep around 9:30pm when I asked him if he could get up and get me my water bottle, which he did instantly and then told me that he could be my servant and whatever I needed I could just tell him. What a boy!

Guy took care of everything the next day and I mostly stayed in bed. I loved lying down in the bed and hearing them have fun playing games.

They went and got pizza supplies so I wouldn't have to make crust, and Guy made the best pizza ever. I chose an animated movie called Epic to watch, which we enjoyed.

I stayed home from church on Sunday, it was another slow day. We played Robot Wars on the bed. Guy won.

Monday came and went, Nico didn't have school that day and I don't think we left the house. 

Tuesday was the Blue and Gold banquet at Cub Scouts. This is a banquet that the Bear Den plans and implements. They decided on a cowboy theme. Guy had signed up to bring chili, so he made a huge pot of chili and brought it with him with some toppings. 

Apparently it was a big hit. He was going to make a double batch but he didn't think it would all fit in our crockpot, so he made half the batch for Tuesday night, and half the batch on Wednesday! (more on that later)

Wednesday we woke up to snow - walking to school early for Chess.

Wednesday was also the day that we had Nico's IEP meeting. 

All the testing has been completed and this was the results and eligibility meeting to see if he met criteria to continue receiving speech services. Since his teachers brought up the issue of his struggle with inattention, he was also tested for attention issues to see if he needed services for that. Receiving services for that requires an educational diagnosis (vs medical diagnosis) of attention issues by the school psychologist, which she did not give him based on results. Inconsistent results is what showed up based on testing and questionnaires filled out by us and his teacher.

They also did an IQ test, but did we really question his smartness? He showed up in the 97th percentile for IQ (which qualifies him for GATE program in the future if we're interested). The piece he did the best on, 99th percentile, was the Visual Spatial portion. "High scores in this area indicate a well-developed capacity to apply spatial reasoning and analyze visual details."

One of the points that was made is that the inattention piece, though not "diagnosed", is getting in the way of Nico being able to use his smartness. The school psychologist recommended a book, which I've ordered and should arrive tomorrow, called "Smart but Scattered", and then the possibility of a vibrating watch that vibrates every 5 minutes or however long we want, to remind him to take an inventory of where his attention is. Was he paying attention? Was he making clicking noises? Was he humming? Just to help him stay aware of what he's doing. What they don't want is for him to always be on the receiving end of, "Nico, stop that.", so they're wanting to help him become more aware of what he's doing so he can understand himself and control impulses better on his own. His teacher has already given him a few measures to help with his need to move - a special cushion that allows him to move around, and a "band", I'm not sure what that is but she said that the combination of the two seem to really help him. The Audiologist also gave the input that taking breaks with a snack seems to revive Nico's ability to focus, so we might work that into his day somehow too. Even though there's no diagnosis, they can still accommodate all these things to a reasonable degree.

Based on speech testing, Nico is still eligible for speech services.

A few other tidbits I found entertaining - Nico was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said he wanted to be a builder or a landscaper. They also did a classroom observation, and the psychologist was quietly observing him in class when Nico turned around and looked at her, never having met her before, and asked, "Do you know when Mrs. Williams [his speech therapist] is going to pick me up?"

Wednesday evening everyone gathered in the Clubhouse for some chili! Everyone loved it. Guy did a great job. He got the recipe from one of his coworkers, it took some convincing, because it was a special recipe, and Guy had to swear to never enter the chili into a competition before he would hand it over. Hehe.. it's a kid-friendly one with no beans and small vegetables and not too hot.

Allicia made cornbread for everyone. 

Thursday, Nico's World Edition of Little Passports arrived. He had been waiting for it. The country this time was Japan, and it came with instructions on how to fold origami plus a few sheets of origami to practice with. Nico made a balloon, and a jumping frog, and a few others. He's really enjoying it!

Nico and Evelyn decided that they aren't going to walk home together anymore. Evelyn expressed her dislike of waiting for Nico after school, and so they agreed to walk separately and they are actually both very excited about doing it. The first day they walked separately was on Wednesday. On his way home he ran into Madilyn and walked home with her. They are still walking to school together, though! 

A few snippets from the banquet and origami

Christmas Time!

Friday, Nico really wanted to decorate for Christmas but I wanted to wait until after his chores were done on Saturday so we could decorate on a clean slate. If he wanted to decorate on Friday he'd have to do his chores Friday. So, he did! After he finished, we opened up our Christmas box and unloaded everything except the tree ornaments, which we saved for Saturday when we got our tree.

Here's our tree advent calendar. Nico wanted to replace the batteries so that the lights would work. We didn't have replacements, so Nico and I walked over to M&W in the dark to buy some.

Then Saturday was Christmas Tree time! When we rearranged the Clubhouse a few months ago we inadvertently got rid of the spot where we usually put the Christmas tree. We thought for a while that we wouldn't be able to get one, but then we decided we could just not use the back door during this season, and we put the tree next to our bed near the back door.

We stopped by Flying M on the way home and got some coffee and an Italian Soda for Nico. He is going through all the flavors, and this time he chose English Toffee.

That night it was Guy's turn to choose the movie, and he chose to watch Labyrinth. Nico stayed enthralled for the whole movie, which he rarely does.

Sunday evening we went to the Botanical Garden's Winter Garden Aglow with Jeff and Allicia and kiddos.

Hot cocoa and hot fire

We visited Santa right off the bat. Nico brought his Christmas List with him. Watch the video at the end of the blog to see that. After he was done, Santa told him to hang the list up where Santa could find it and he asked Nico if it was ok with him if he visited on Christmas Eve to deliver presents. Nico whispered to me afterward, "Is Santa really going to come over Christmas Eve?"

Hollow log lit up with lights.

There was a new attraction there this year, a huge "Tree" of lights, like a teepee, that was controlled by a bunch of aparatuses (aparatii?) inside the teepee. You can catch a glimpse of it in the video below. At first we didn't think that all of the neat tools had any effect on the lights, but after playing with them for a while we were blown away with what each of them did. The rain stick, when used, made the lights on the teepee look like they were raining. The metal wheels you could turn made certain colors of lights go around the teepee, up or down the teepee, or get bigger. There was also a TNT pump and some gongs. It was pretty incredible. That was my favorite part of the night.

We came home frozen, and ate dinner. I heated up some coconut milk from a can (leftovers from a meal I made), and added some maple syrup and vanilla flavoring and put a little bit in a cup for Nico and I to drink. It tastes like hot ice cream. It has quickly become a favorite of ours. Better than hot cocoa I think.

On Monday after school, Nico and I walked our bikes to George's Cycles down on 3rd street. We walked them there because Nico had a flat. I had accidentally poked his tire the week before with a screwdriver while trying to push the intertube back into the metal frame. Oooooops. Nico was very agreeable to the endeavor, because he still needed a few hours of exercise to finish up his Exercise sheet. We made it there and back in about an hour and a half.

Tuesday was Guy's work Christmas Party. They held it at the Botanical Garden, so Guy and I got to go back! They had a tent setup with food being served. We ran into someone I knew from Toastmasters. Her husband works at Photronics, too! We sat across from each other and it was great to talk to them and get to know her better. We had fun. After the dinner, Guy and I walked through the garden, up to the top and then back down. It was a rainy night, so there was hardly anyone there!! It wasn't raining while we were walking, which was nice, and it just started to sprinkle as we were getting into our car.

Tonight, Nico was invited out to help them decorate their tree.

They gave us tea. And that ends the night, and the blog! Enjoy the video!

4th Clubhouse Anniversary, and a RAISE!!

Last Friday Nico was able to take his microscope to school with him, the teacher said it would be ok for him to do that. He's been bringing it with him every day since, and whenever the class has time, they open it up.

After Guy got home from work on Friday they went for a walk and picked up some water to put on slides for the microscope. They collected some water on the side of the road, and sure enough it had swimming things in it.  They tested the canal water next and it was clean (I still wouldn't drink it - he he).

On Saturday we celebrated 4 years in the Clubhouse by having a pancake breakfast with Jeff & Allicia and the kiddos. After breakfast, the kiddos played together while the four grown-ups played a new board game. It was a fun way to celebrate 4 years. All of us agreed that among all the people we know, we have the best housemates. It just seems to work so well around here.

Nico had baseball games Monday and Tuesday evenings. Monday when we got home from the game, I had set up the table with two pieces of leftover birthday cake (I froze them after Nico's birthday) and then a wrapped present for Guy. We lit candles and sang Happy Birthday and Nico and Guy both ate some cake. Guy's birthday is not until October, but the present I got for him he was wanting and was planning to buy it himself, so I told him not to buy it, and gave it to him that Monday, the day it arrived. We will still celebrate on his actual birthday, too, but this was a fun precursor!

On Tuesday evening, Nico's cousin Lexie had a soccer game in the same sports complex as his baseball game, so I walked over to try to find her game. I found Jonny and Alanna and sat down with them for a while and watched Lexie play, she is an awesome goalie! After both their games were over we met up again in the field, Lexie and Nico ran toward each other when they saw each other, and gave big hugs. It was really sweet.

On Wednesday Guy stayed home from work because he wasn't feeling well, but we got a call telling Guy that he got a promotion and a 9% raise! That was great news!!! I am so very proud of him. He is a Technical Engineer II now. They told him it would be more responsibility but that he's probably already doing all of it anyway. Hehe. His boss said that when Guy called in sick he said Oh Shoot! because that was the day he was going to tell Guy about his raise. I am glad that they called to tell us :)  And Guy had today off from work and has tomorrow off too! He has been working non stop the past two weeks, evenings and weekends. He's been working on issues that were popping up at work, so his boss gave him a few days off. 

Tonight Evelyn came over for dinner. They did art. Well, Evelyn did art while Nico did a workbook on how to write cursive. After dinner they made Halloween decorations at Evelyn's art desk in the garage.

Nico wearing his new Newport, OR sweatshirt from Grandma and Papa's recent vacation. He also received a chocolate truffle from a chocolate shop. He says "All this Newport, Oregon stuff makes me want to move to Newport!"

Readathon is still on the back burner for Nico at the moment, but we have still been accruing reading minutes. He gets minutes when someone reads to him, so several hours have been spent lately reading the book Matilda. Guy reads this to him. When Guy was younger, apparently he liked this book so much that as soon as he finished it for the first time, he went right back to the beginning to start again. We are up to about 16 hours total for Readathon. 

The moment when Nico sees the swimmers in the ditch water!

Sun Shade, GG, and hugs

Last Friday Guy worked late, but it worked out just fine because Nico fell asleep around 4:30 PM and woke up at 6:30, right before Guy got home. (6:30 is the usual bedtime around here). So after eating dinner we decided to go to the park since it's rare that Nico naps. We rode our bikes.

We got home around 8:30 and started bedtime. Didn't work, really. He was awake until I went to bed at 10:30, when he crawled into bed with me. He didn't stop tossing and turning until 11:30. 

On Saturday we met outside with Jeff & Allicia and crew so we could put up our new sun shade! They purchased us our very own sun shade, they had initially intended to put it up for us while we were gone on vacation so we would come home to it, but thought instead that they would wait so we could have input into the process. 

Cutting back branches

The main work crew

The helper crews

Nico's stick and rock collection. Arranged by him. We thought of you, Grandpa Russell! :) Guy said: LOOK! Take a picture of that!

Avery "helping" sort screws

 Aaaaaand... DONE! 2 hours later!

We ate lunch and I took a nap while Guy and Nico went out to the library and to get coffee. That afternoon we met up with the crew again in the backyard where they had stacked a bunch of compost on a tarp, on its way to the garden. Nico thought to bring out the digger.

Balancing on a board

Then when they were nice and dirty, they turned the sprinklers on!

That was a full day!

Sunday was a risk-filled day as our car was developing problems with starting. It would take longer and longer every time we tried to start it. We ran errands after church (leaving the car running at our last stop so I could run in without having to turn off the car), and then drove the car home and parked it. We borrowed Jeff & Allicia's car Sunday night to make it to Bible Study, we wanted to save as many starts as we could so that Guy could start the car Monday morning and drive it straight to the shop to get it fixed. But alas, Guy could not start the car Monday morning, and the engine started smoking. I am so grateful for USAA's Roadside Assistance! We have used it several times now to tow our car. The tow truck came and took it and Guy to the shop. The shop of course drove Guy to work. I didn't have to think about it at all, because the car was fixed that day and Guy drove home with it good as new! It was the starter. Makes sense.

On Tuesday we drove Guy to work so we could have the car to visit GG! Nico brought his iPad with him to show her his current favorite iPad game which is called Around the World in 80 Days, it's a hidden objects game. You can click on the objects you find and it gives you points and removes them from the page so you can move on to the next item. We got it when it was free a few weeks ago. The first time we went "Around the World" it took us a while (several days), but now he pretty much has all the object placements memorized. Him and GG played it for a good 30 minutes during our visit!

It's so fun to see him so excited to show her his favorite things! GG gave us a foldable table to put under our sun shade. Thank you GG! We set it up outside yesterday and we ate dinner on it. Guy pulled it back inside when it started raining. It looks like a big suitcase, but you unfold it and it's a table with 4 chairs! Incredible!

We ran into one of Nico's school friends on the way to school on Tuesday. Her name is Brody and she yelled from down the street: "NICO!!!!" Nico turned around and yelled "BRODY!!!!" and they ran to each other and gave each other a hug. Nico patted her back afterward and then took her hand to walk to school with her. Brody's little sister joined in and took Brody's other hand, and I was holding Nico's other hand, so we had quite a line. Brody's great grandmother was walking her to school so we were able to chat.

This reminded me that last Thursday on the playground (I had volunteered in the classroom Thursday so I was able to see it, Nico's teacher pointed it out to me), him and an older girl (1st grade maybe?) were hugging on the playground. Then they would stand with their arms around each other. Then another girl came over and all three of them hugged as a big group. He is a hugger! 

On the way to school yesterday Nico asked me "Where's Brody?" and I told him I didn't know. I said "Brody's really nice, I like her." and Nico said "Yeah, Brody's really nice to me. She's cute too." hehe

Do I need to be worried? :)

I think that's it for this week. I captured some video but didn't have time to put it together for this week, so maybe I'll do a snippet video next week? 

Ta ta!

Christmas Visit!

What a fun filled week! On Friday was Nico's Christmas Party at school. It was Miss T's last day (she was the student teacher). The kids had each written her a page in a book saying their favorite thing about her and drawing her a picture. Miss T went through the book and as each child's page came up, they had the opportunity to go up front and read what they had written about her. Miss Lung said to the children that if they were too shy they didn't have to come up front, and most of the class did not. Nico did! He went right up there and told everyone what he had written. After he said it, Miss Lung came up and pointed him toward the audience and whispered to him to speak in a loud voice and repeat what he had said.

"My favorite thing about Miss T is that she plays with me."

The kids were able to decorate cookies, decorate an ornament, pin the heart on the Grinch, and play Bingo. I was at the bingo station with the Grandma of one of Nico's classmates. Nico decorated a cookie and gave it to Miss Lung.

Here he is making an ornament.

Nico brought home a gift for me and Guy, it was to "Mom and bad" ha ha ha! It was a beautiful ornament that he had made at school.

On Saturday Grandpa and Grandma Russell came into town!! Nico spent the whole morning asking when they were going to come. When they were on their way, Nico went outside with his umbrella and waited for them.

Nico opened a few of his presents on Saturday, coming in a video soon, will it be tonight when I upload it? We will see! You will know by the time you reach the end of this entry whether or not there is a video at the end of it ;) (p.s. no video tonight, will work on it this week and try to have it next week!)

Nico got a beautiful new quilt from Grandma Russell - it has a winter side and a summer side, and fits perfectly on our bed. I'm sure Nico won't mind us using it, and hey he sleeps in our bed sometimes anyway right? :) He also got a stuffed animal that used to belong to Guy, along with the book, "Beady Bear". Nico was so excited about that! He slept with Beady that night (and has been sleeping with him every night since then). But that first night, he got up in the middle of the night to crawl into bed with us and as he was crawling over Guy he yelled, "MOMMY! I can't find Beady Bear!" I told him we could look for him in the morning and that seemed to appease him.

Quilt on the Winter Side

On Sunday G.G. came with the Grandparents Russell and we all went to church, it was the Madrigal play they put on every year. The content is always different but it always takes place in Medieval times. They fed us food and the play was good. 

I should have snapped a picture of the stage. It was cool to see our friends in the play. Lots of great costumes. Last year we didn't know many people at the church yet, and Guy wasn't with us last year. But Guy was with us this year!! Wahoo!!

We came home afterward and opened the rest of the gifts. It was a lot of fun. Nico claimed that his nose was hurting so we gave him an ice bunny we have in our freezer (a tiny ice pack surrounded by a soft bunny), he would put it on his nose and it helped.

He spent some time putting together his new lego from G.G. that afternoon.

Monday was a relaxed day. Talking, hanging. Gma Russell and I and Nico went grocery shopping in the morning and Nico claimed tummy ache and was feeling sick for a large part of the day, even after a nap that afternoon. He had a slight fever after waking up. (100.3) Then he spoke up all of a sudden and said "I want a hamburger!" all he wanted was the meat. After he ate 3 small hamburger patties he was fine. The fever was due to the cold he caught. Guy started feeling the cold coming on him Tuesday morning. I might be fighting it at the moment too, kind of a scratchy throat. 

Tuesday we were able to see Gpa & Gma briefly before they had to be at the airport. Nico and Grandpa played a bit of one of our new board games - Ticket to Ride. They also did a lot of color by numbers together.

Some more pictures from the weekend..

Snuggle City!

Watching the iPad

Activity Book

Putting together a wood tractor

Overall it was a great visit!

Nico has been enjoying doing advent candles every night. We let him light them and strike the match himself. Tonight was the last night for it, Christmas eve! Also tonight we had dinner with Jeff & Allicia and family. Turkey sandwiches. Then Guy was excited to bring out the pumpkin rolls he received from Gma Russell. Then for the third year in a row we put a candle in an orange and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus! Nico led us in prayer for the dinner and Evelyn led us in the Birthday song for Jesus. Then after the kids went to bed we congregated in the living room. Guy is currently playing Ticket to Ride with Jeff and Allicia and their friend Justin, and I am happily plucking away at the computer. Living here has been a blessing and I'm enjoying the times like this that wouldn't happen if we didn't live here.