Teddy Bear

Nico and I are still holding onto our illnesses. We've got stuffy noses and coughs over here.

We've had the opportunity to snuggle on the couch and take naps in the afternoon, though, which has been so nice!

On Monday we went to see Allicia, Evie and Avery in the morning. They were just starting to get colds over there, and I'm hoping it doesn't last very long for them! They had a teepee set up that Evie and Nico played in.

On Monday night we drove to Nampa to a going-away party for our friend Josh. He left to go back to Korea yesterday, to resume working as an English teacher. We will miss him!

This week for school, Nico had to bring in a teddy bear. He had 3 to choose from, and he chose Bud, his black bear. They took a picture of him with his bear and sent it home so that we could write a note about the bear on the page, and send it back. The teacher said to try to write down in the child's own words what they have to say about the bear. When I asked Nico about his bear and showed him the picture of him and his bear, the only thing he relayed to me was "Picture of Nico!".  When I asked him to tell me more about his bear, all he said was his traditional "a dah". Tomorrow we return the picture with the note, and also the bear, so that he can show his whole class his bear and what he had to say about it. I added some stuff in my own words. The picture will go into his "About Me" book.

Also this past week we've been working on words that the speech therapist sent him home with to work on. After filling out the sheet, we return it and then he gets a prize. So this morning after breakfast, we finished up the last day of word practice and marked it on his sheet. He did such a great job, that I figured I would record him saying all his words. So, here's the video!

If you notice at the end, he wanted me to take a picture of him. He has just recently started asking for pictures to be taken of him. And this time I got some good ones, but only because he POSED FOR EVERY ONE OF THEM! Each and every one of these pictures was planned by him. I kept pushing the capture button, but he knew when the picture would be taken because it counts down for us.

And then I snuck a hug in there.

And I'll leave you with one more picture - Nico covering his micro machines in play-dough. He spent almost an hour doing this after dinner last night.

Lego

On Sunday all of us went up to the cabin. Nico and Lexie always have fun together. Lexie tried to catch a fish from the pond for Nico. She also built him a road out of blocks so that he could drive his cars on it.

On Monday we had our next big adventure before Nico starts preschool - we made a trip to Urgent Care because Nico stuck a lego up his nose. Thankfully, it was one of the small ones:

The doctor's first attempt didn't work, and the majority of the time we spent there was waiting for them to find a tool that would help. They were concerned that they wouldn't be able to pull it out, and warned us that it might be necessary to go to the ER so that Nico could be sedated in order to get the lego out. Yikes! I prayed that their next attempt would be successful, and it was! Thank you Lord! Nico cried out when the doctor got a hold of the lego and started pulling it out, but he stuck through it. It's not like he could have moved anyway, Guy had a pretty solid hold on him. His nose bled a little afterward, and they had us sign a paper telling us what might happen after a foreign object has been removed from the body (bleeding, infection, etc.) 

I was very grateful that the Urgent Care wasn't busy. We were the only ones there and were in and out within an hour. From start to finish Nico had the lego in his nose for probably an hour and a half.

In the waiting room.

In the room, after the failed first attempt. Watching cartoons to zone Nico out a little before trying again.

Also on Monday, my Aunt Jill gave birth to her 4th daughter, Juvia. I have a new cousin! Her other daughters came over to our house on Wednesday to hang out a bit, as their Mom was still in the hospital then. We watched Spirited Away (in Japanese with English subtitles, hence the serious concentration faces in the picture) and Nico so enjoyed having them there (so did I!)

On Tuesday we went to a BBQ that a friend from Guy's work threw. I got to meet some of Guy's coworkers, and Nico got to jump on a trampoline for the very first time! They also had a swing set that he enjoyed. 

Tonight, Guy took half a night off from work and is attending Rifftrax Live: Starship Troopers in the theater. He is there right now with Josh and another friend, Justin. I am so excited that he got to go to this!

That's it for this week! Here's one more picture, from our trip to Mountain View Park today.

Friends and Family

We visited G.G. on Friday! She got Nico a police car which she had ready for him when he walked in. He was very excited about that. She also shared some of her garden's bounty with us. Onions, beans, lettuce, so yummy! We will get to see her again this weekend at Nico's birthday party. He will be 3 years old!

On Saturday we went up to the cabin for a BBQ. Lots of cousins for Nico to play with. And a Papa, who attempted to build for him the most difficult lego possible, because Nico asked him to :) They have a lot of fun together.

Reading a book with Papa.

Nico's 3 year checkup was good. Right on target for growth, etc.

On Tuesday our friend Josh came over for a visit. We knew Josh in college, and he was the one who played the mandolin at mine and Guy's wedding. He also lived with us for a while when we lived in Washington. He brought us some tools to transfer our VHS tapes to digital. He also gave Nico some Korean coins to put into his piggy bank. He has been a school teacher in Korea for the last few years, and will be heading back there in the next few months. He plans to be at Nico's birthday party, so we will get to see him again soon.

Nico and Josh building towers.

We gave Nico one of his birthday presents early - a $5 sprinkler! He has had so much fun running through it. He liked rotating between running through the sprinkler and playing with his sandbox. He must have been feeling beachy. He also likes picking up little bits of sand and throwing them into the sprinkler.

Nico had his last speech therapy appointment today. He turns 3 on Monday, so he no longer qualifies for the Infant/Toddler Program. He will be a month without speech therapy before he starts school in August. I am so excited for him to go to preschool. He will have so much fun with the other kids. He is quite a socialite these days!

We checked out a "kit" from the library about Music. It has a bunch of instruments in it (tambourine, sticks, other things I don't know the names of) and some books and CDs. Nico looove banging on the tambourine with the sticks. I think he'll like his birthday present from us (a drum!).

The Grandparents Russell are coming this weekend for Nico's Birthday! We have a birthday party planned for Sunday and his actual birthday is on Monday. It will be so much fun, I am looking forward to celebrating my little buddy.

Stay tuned next week for birthday pictures.