The Watershed, and Parent Teacher Conferences!

Nico didn't have any school on Friday, so him and I and my mom ventured out to a market in Caldwell that we'd never been to before - Cliff's Country Market. They had so much gluten free stuff! We will go back there before Thanksgiving to buy a gluten free apple pie, and rolls, and stuffing cubes. While we were there we bought some gluten free bread and snacks, and a few new flavors of Zevia (the most common soda brand in our house these days!)

Friday night we made hamburgers again (Crabby Patties). Nico has decided that he wants to open a burger joint when he gets older. He's working on the menu right now, coming up with all kinds of different names for burgers. It will be called the Diamond ... uh... forgot the last word. Oh yes! Diamond Dominion. There will be the Diamond Patty, and Hot Diamond, and a bunch of other types of burgers. There will even be one with 4 patties on it. And one with a patty on top of the top bun.

On Saturday, Guy took Nico to the Watershed. They learned about what happens to toilet water once it gets flushed. Ew! He also got to hold a snake? This is a python!

Then Saturday evening was the Halloween Chess Tournament. Evelyn joined him. Evelyn was a dinosaur in an egg! Everyone was really impressed with her costume :)

Coach Vellotti handing out trophies. Nico got 1st place in his division. He played 4 games and won 2 of them. Evelyn was in a different division.

All the chess kids from Adams Elementary!

On Tuesday we had our friend Brianna come over for dinner. Wednesday was Nico's Parent Teacher Conference. We took him with us and he played on the playground while Guy and I went in to talk to his teacher. She said that Nico is great, of course! He is excelling in Science and Math. She says he can see problems and understands them quickly. He is struggling with paying attention and getting distracted easily. We've noticed this being more of a problem recently, as well. His teacher was also concerned about him during his recent stretch of tummy aches. She said we could bring in an essential oil roller bottle and can bring in any kind of gluten free snacks that he can eat when the other kids might be having a snack he can't eat. She intuitively didn't let him have any of the gluten free cookies I provided her, ever since that week that he was struggling with his tummy. She said without prompting that she knows that the wrong foods can play a big role in tummy aches. She emphasized that Nico is a very kind and smart boy but is having trouble being all that he could be because of his trouble with being distracted. I sure love his teacher! She is so kind and seemed genuinely interested in working with us to do everything we can to help him! Guy and I will sit down this weekend to talk over some things. It will likely include: less sweets (oh no Halloween!), less iPad, more activity, and more of a commitment to essential oils and supplements (we've been lax...) And, more prayer. His next doctor appointment is in 2 weeks so I'll bring this up to her then.

This morning I took him over to my parents' house for Grandma Camp! He has no school today and tomorrow. Guy picked him up from their house tonight to take Nico to the Corn Maze at the Farmstead farm. Our church was meeting there to do the corn maze tonight. Unfortunately they have been there since 6:30 and have not seen anyone from the church! Sure hope we got the day right! Hehe.

Guy sent me these pictures just now:

I think Nico is playing "9 Square" in this photo.

That's it for this past week!

Halloween and other such fun things!

Last Saturday was the first Saturday in a while that we had nothing going on! In the afternoon Nico and I went to the Discovery Center to see their new display, Mythbusters! They had several stations set up to test things that the show Mythbusters had tested. This particular one is: When you drop a piece of toast does it always land butter side down? There were several different ways you could "drop" bread. We tried all of them and used the provided Abucus beads to keep track of which way the toast landed. It was about 50 - 50. As expected.

 Build a house, and see if a gust of wind will blow it down.

How long can you hang on a ledge? This is HARD. I got about 5 seconds in before I couldn't hold on anymore. Apparently it takes strong muscles in your fingers. I thought it would be more of an arm thing. Nico did better than me.

Other cool exhibits: Try to remove the tablecloth from a table with stuff on it. I was able to try it and succeeded! And do you get more rain on you when you walk, or run? They had two corridors where you could either walk or run through rain. Then you go check yourself under black lights to see how wet you got. Apparently the test on the show showed that with simulated rain, you get more wet when running. With actual rain, you get more wet when walking.

Nico discovered his book of paper airplanes that was tucked away in the desk, and has spent a lot of time the past few days putting planes together.

He also started asking if he could wear two shirts, one over the other. He did that for several days this week.

Then of course, trick or treating! There is a video at the end of the post of that. Nico has become more aware of candy, and the fact that we've been keeping him from most of it for most of his life. So we're becoming more lenient. Nico ate M&Ms for the first time on Halloween while we were trick-or-treating. When I was pregnant with Nico I would buy the huge bags of M&Ms. I remember leaving a church service once at Marysville Naz while I was pregnant and sitting out in the lobby, just so I could reach into my purse and shove M&Ms in my mouth for a few minutes. Nico loves M&Ms and has declared them his favorite candy. On Halloween he also ate a Crunch bar and a piece of gum. That next day he had Nerds and an Airhead for the first time. Then he ate a Dum Dum! This is big news. We figure it's only once a year, right? But then while trick-or-treating he started asking people at their door if they had M&Ms, and he would spend time flipping through their baskets trying to find something he could eat. At one house he refused to take the glowstick they were offering. We talked with him about that. After we talked to him we told him he had to do 3 things every time someone answered the door: 1 - Say "Trick or Treat!" 2 - Take what they give you and 3 - Say "Thank you!" He did great after that!

 Nico the Ninja. Ivy the Bumble-bee. Avery the dinosaur. Evelyn the witch.

On Wednesday night, Guy & I, and Jeff & Allicia took turns watching the kids so we could all go to our parent/teacher conferences. Ours was first, so we walked to the school and sat down with Ms Lung to talk about Nico. He is doing really well in reading and in math. We are so proud of him! She showed us his first short story. He wrote the story by hand, it was edited, and then he typed the whole thing into the computer. 

Ms Lung said he insisted on doing chapters.

Then his first poem. Nico was adamant on not using their format when writing his poem. Ms Lung said he could do what he wanted as long as he included some of the stuff they were learning about (the 5 senses)

On Wednesday we also got a new Laser Moose book in the mail from the Grandparents Russell! Thank you! He brought it to the dentist with him this morning and read it while we were in the waiting room. As we were leaving the office after his appointment, the lady who was in the waiting room with us at the beginning was just getting into her car, and she stopped us to ask us what the Laser Moose was. I told her it was a comic book where a moose can shoot lasers from his eyes. She said she used to live in Alaska and that she has never seen a Laser Moose before. He he.

The Laser Moose book has a ton of disco balls in it. They get knocked off a cliff and come raining down on the forest and smashing into the ground. After Nico had his cavity filled at the dentist, he went to the treat drawer and found a disco ball keychain! The timing was impeccable.

Then of course we went over to Bricks & Mini-Figs next door and Nico made a new Mini-Fig. He made this one to look like Emmet from the Lego Movie.

Then we ran some errands, went to Target where Nico spent his own money to buy a Minecraft backpack. He is very excited about that. Then we met Grandma Salisbury at Costco! We had fun wandering around. I don't know how it happened but we ended up with a HUGE bag of M&Ms and a new car toy (Thanks Grandma S!) ;)

Brats and sprouts for lunch.

Nico has today and tomorrow off for parent/teacher conferences. This afternoon Guy called to tell me he locked his keys in the car at the dentist. So Nico and I drove to the dentist before realizing that the Ford has a keypad he could have used to get back into the car. Whooooops. Well, neither of us could remember the code anyway! Hah. I'll have to look it up.

Now the video!

Lumberjacks and Halloween

Saturday all of us drove up to the cabin for a Lumberjack Party! We were the first ones there and got to have Grandma and Papa all to ourselves for a few hours! It was perfect. My mom served chili and turkey meatballs and sides. Everyone was supposed to bring a dessert and on Friday Nico and I made Sunbutter Chocolate Pumpkin Cups to bring with us. They were tasty!

I put some Halloween Jamberry nails on Lexie, just like the ones I put on Nico.

They matched up their fingers with matching nails

Showing everyone their matching nails

Nico not smiling at the camera when I told him to smile. hehe

There was a contest to guess the weight of a HUGE pumpkin, and also games to guess how many candies were in a jar, and how many M&Ms were in a bottle. Nico asked if his two imaginary friends Bico and Dico could also place guesses, and Bico ended up winning the pumpkin! I forgot to take a picture of it but it's sitting right outside (68 pounds!) I think Allicia and I are going to try to cook it up and freeze it so we have pumpkin puree throughout the year! Then, Nico won the jar of candy. The jar is a beautiful clear glass pumpkin with candies in it and a removable lid. 

It was a fun and full day, we came home happy. Thanks so much for the yummy food and the fun time Papa and Grandma!

Monday was Halloween of course, and we met everyone at the Roosevelt Market and then walked home from there, trick-treating on the way. Just like last year! I left early so I could catch the Financial Peace University class that was all about real estate and mortgages. 

Guy told me that Nico was very focused on trick-or-treating, and he got a lot more candy than the others. He was really committed and ended up with 125 pieces. He has been sorting them, trucking them around on the Spring Fair trucks, counting them and recording how many of each type he has (in his new red notebook that Gma Russell sent his way). 

Check out the video of the Boo Bash and of Halloween at the end of the entry!

Nico had a doctor's appointment today and we will be starting a few new supplements. I am excited to see how they may help his sleep and stomach.

Today was our parent-teacher conference, and Nico is doing really well in school, has a lot of friends, and has very good handwriting. He is in the upper level reading group and the upper level math group. They said he's very humorous and they enjoy having him in the class (this was the teacher and the student teacher talking). When he stood up front during his Star Student week showing his friends his pictures, he showed everyone a picture of someone reading him a book (this would be GG or Grandma Russell) and asked everyone to make 3 guesses what the book was. No one could guess so he kept asking them to try again. No one could see the picture closely so the possibility of books was really endless. They say he's very precise, and is good at seeing patterns in math.

They showed us his journal, and I wish I could show you guys every page, but I only took a picture of one of them. He's been really into car symbols lately and so notice that on Grandma's truck he wrote "GMC" because that is what she owns. 

Nico was very curious about Horseflies so we looked them up in the book that GG gave Nico. We ended up looking up a lot more than just Horseflies, and we even got out the ruler so we could see in real life how big some of these bugs get. Horseflies are HUGE!

We heard yesterday that GG is in the hospital with congestive heart failure, looks like it can be managed with the right combo of meds and we are praying for health and recovery! Love you Grandma!!

Enjoy the two videos this week!

Preschool Program, Cabin

On Friday was Nico's preschool program. Grandma Salisbury and I were there. You can see a video of clips from it at the bottom of this entry!

Then over the weekend we were able to go to the cabin TWICE. Nico and I went up on Saturday to hang out and eat lunch. We saw Grandma on her walk once we got to their subdivision, so we picked her up. The first thing Nico said to her: "Do you have a lego for me at the cabin?" hehe.. turns out, she did! We had a great time there. Nico and Papa spent some time chopping wood, of course! Then I think he helped Papa build a fire. Here's some of the prizes Nico came home with. A glow-stick flag mask, and a hat with a big red spider printed on it. He wanted me to take a picture of him like this.

Then on Sunday we went to the cabin again! Papa picked up Nico after church to take him out there, and then once Guy woke up, him and I headed out there too for a family BBQ. Lots and lots of fun.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, don't remember much of those days. Nico had school I guess! Not much more of that left.

Oh, right, on Monday Guy took him to his Summer Literacy Academy testing, to see where he's at with his letters and sounds before the Academy starts in June. Nico was apparently quite uncooperative and didn't respond to any questions after reciting the ABCs.

We've been having what I like to call "limp Nico syndrome" where he takes a big sigh and then just goes limp. That's kind of what happened on Monday.

Now I'm remembering more! On Wednesday I had his parent-teacher conference with Teacher Chris from Beautiful Savior Preschool. She told me that he was right on course for everything, except a little behind emotionally.

The fort Nico built today.

Videos... First one is him playing with a huge puddle outside with a big stick while waiting for the bus. The second one is clips from his preschool program.

Our first Parent Teacher Conference!

On Monday we went to see G.G. in Nampa. Great fun, as always! Got to see some of the sewing projects she is working on. Adorable little dolls with a wardrobe of clothes, so precious and special for the little girls who will be getting them! She gave me sneak peaks of some of the plans for Nico's Christmas gift. So looking forward to that :)

On Tuesday we had Nico's parent teacher conference at his preschool. We met with the speech therapist first, who told us that she thinks Nico is making HUGE progress! If we know the context of what Nico is talking about, then it is actually fairly easy to understand what he's saying. For example, when he came home from school on Tuesday, I asked him what he did in school that day. He made the sign for deer and said "Dee dee duh", and made a few other signs and started singing a song. I didn't know what he was saying until I read the Preschool weekly newsletter which mentioned that this week they'd be learning about the letter "D" using "Deedee dear". 

Back to the conference… a few months ago, testing had told us that Nico had Childhood Apraxia of Speech, but his speech therapist thinks it is actually a phonological disorder. I found a pretty good description online:

"Failure to use developmentally expected speech sounds that are appropriate for age and dialect (e.g., errors in sound production, use, representation, or organization such as, but not limited to, substitutions of one sound for another or omissions of sounds such as final consonants)."

Nico omits the final consonants on the words that he says, that is something the therapist and him are working very hard on.

Then his teacher joined us. They both said that they think Nico is very smart. Of course! ;)

They are going to test his hearing because of a problem he has with not listening/hearing. His hearing was tested and found to be perfect about 6 months ago, but more testing isn't a bad idea.  They aren't sure if he is just not hearing them when they try to get his attention, or if it's intentional on his part, or if something else is going on. It could just be a defiant phase that he is reaching later than normal (usually starting during the "terrible twos").

They are also working on teaching Nico how to respond to kids who take his toys, which happens often. Nico is a pretty laid back kid. I've noticed, though, that he has started saying "Nico's turn" whenever someone takes a toy from him. He's using his words to communicate, and it's so awesome to see him do that. 

After the conference, we stopped by Chicago Connection and got Guy a gluten free pizza. Then we went home and saw the little buddy who got to spend the evening with his Grandma Salisbury!

Nico has today and tomorrow off from school because of parent teacher conferences, so this morning we went to see Allicia, Evie, and Avery. We took Evie home with us for lunch. Evie told me "This is very good. Can I have some more broccoli?" Then they each got a "cookie" after lunch (I mix garbanzo bean flour with apple butter and a little salt, and bake them). Going into Nico's room after we had taken Evie home, I think they had pulled out every toy! Nico sure has fun with Evie over.

We've had nice weather in the afternoons, perfect for Strider rides in the warm sun! Crunching over leaves and shedding our coats halfway through. Nico likes to go up the hill from our house because there is a little asphalt curb that he likes to ride on.

On the cement curb after the asphalt curb.

Naps for Nico have been a hit and miss. Preschool seems to rev him up a bit and he has trouble sleeping after getting home. This puts his bedtime at about 7:30 or earlier (and up in the morning around 6 AM). When he does take a nap, his bedtime usually hits past 9 PM, pushing 10, he doesn't sleep as well, and gets up earlier.

Tonight was Halloween and we stuck around here to pass out candy. We had two trick-or-treaters, one of them was Evie in her warm dinosaur costume, riding her Strider. How cute was that! The rest of the Snickers will go to Guy. He will certainly not mind!