Trailing of the Sheep, and Tummy Aches

This past week has been a doozy! Nico and Guy returned home from band practice last Thursday night after I had updated the blog, and Nico started complaining of a tummy ache. I tucked him into bed and prayed he would feel better in the morning.

Friday was meant to be the day we left for Ketchum, ID to attend the Trailing of the Sheep festival, but Guy and I discussed it and we decided that if Nico was still feeling poorly in the morning that Guy would go to the festival on his own and I would stay home with Nico.

Alas, Nico's tummy ache persisted into Friday and I called the school to let them know he wouldn't be coming in. I prepped everything for Guy to leave for Ketchum at 12:30 and we saw him off. I packed him one of the cupcakes I was going to take with us, to celebrate his birthday in Ketchum on Sunday. I kept the other 3 at home, knowing he'd be back Sunday and we could celebrate with him then.

Nico's tummy ache was unique in that he could continue eating normally. We went to Chipotle Friday night and picked up some food, as well as some smaller cupcakes from Trader Joe's. Nico ate his ENTIRE Chipotle meal (he has never done this before), plus 2 cupcakes, while we watched The Secret Life of Pets 2.

Guy's Friday night was full of Lamb food. I had purchased 3 tickets to "For the Love of Lamb", which allowed each participant 5 "bites" of lamb food from various restaurants in downtown Ketchum. Since Guy had 3 tickets, he got 3 "passports". He gave one to someone who had lost theirs, and used the other two to get 10 bites of lamb food. Guy said the age demographic for Friday was double his own.

Waiting in line.

#1 Lamb Samosa

#2 Lamb Meatball Gyros

#3 Lamb Curry

#4 Lamb Shepard's Pie

#5 (too tasty to remember to take the picture beforehand)

#6 Lamb Pasta with Mushrooms (not tasty, didn't finish it)

#7 Lamb chili - not tasty, didn't finish it

#8 Lamb ribs

#9 Lamb Sausage

#10 ?

He went back to the Airbnb and texted me "Yeah, it was intense. I'm back at the room, glad I saved my ginger ale"

SATURDAY

Saturday, Nico woke up still feeling sick, but he ate his pancakes just fine :) He spent the day playing on his Switch while I schemed to put together Guy's office for him while he was away. I put together the new bookcase we ordered (Nico helped a little) and unpacked a large portion of the boxes that were covering Guy's desk. I put his monitors on his desk as well. Not perfect but a large step forward.

Saturday night I ordered Nico a gluten free Chicago Connection pizza, I made my own pizza, and we rented another movie. Ugly Dolls. Nico ate almost his entire 10" pizza, leaving only one piece behind. 

In Ketchum, Guy went to breakfast and got Lamb Benedict. He told me later that he usually doesn't order eggs Benedict because it's so difficult to make and he doesn't like putting out the chef. But, they were advertising this as a special and since it was a special occasion he went ahead and ordered it. His thought was, "Well, they did it to themselves by advertising it." :)

The Airbnb he stayed in was in downtown Ketchum a handful of blocks away from most of the places he needed to go. It was a "treehouse" (see video at end), but it wasn't built in a tree, more like it was built up off the ground. It didn't have its own bathroom, it shared a bathroom with the other "treehouse" on the lot. The bathroom was outside.

After breakfast on Saturday Guy drove to Hailey, ID (about 15 minutes away) to go to the Sheep Trials and the Folk Life Festival. There are snippets of these in the video as well. He really enjoyed the sheep trials. 

He took this picture because of the dog on the leash in front of him. It's looking intently at what's going on in the field.

Lunch at the Sheep Trials.

He says next year we'll be sure to bring CHAIRS. Near the end of his stay at the sheep trials, he ran into two older women he had met the night before while waiting in line for sausage. He mentioned to them that he wished he had brought a chair, and they told him that they went to a thrift store that day to purchase some, and got 3 chairs when they only needed 2, so they had an extra. They told him they'd save him a seat at the sheep parade the next day. Front row. During the parade the next day they said they had "adopted" him as a stray, after finding out why he was there on his own without his family.

Anyway, back to Saturday. After the sheep trials, he went to the festival. He ran into a woman from our church, Debbie, who plays the bagpipes. She was participating in one of the performances that day (video clip of that below). 

That night he went to Smokey Mountain Pizza, and who do you guess was there, but Coach Vellotti, Nico's chess coach! Coach Vellotti was putting on a chess tournament at the Smokey Mountain Pizza in Ketchum, ID the same time that Guy was there! Crazy!

SUNDAY

Happy Birthday to Guy!

Nico woke up feeling sicker. He ate no breakfast and complained of a progressively worsening tummy ache. This was the day he started throwing up.

Guy attended the Sheep Parade on Saturday after breakfast. I wasn't able to get that video off Guy's phone to include in the video at the end of the blog, so I will post snippets from the parade video next week. They move the sheep from summer pasture to winter pasture, right through the middle of town. They make a parade out of it!

Guy arrived home with just enough time to open his presents and eat a piece of pumpkin pie (a present from Jeff & Allicia) before he had to head to the church to help with an event that night. It was a long Birthday day for him, he even stopped by the store on his way home from church to pick up a few things for me.

Nico continued to throw up through Monday. Tuesday evening I called the doctor and he prescribed some anti-nausea meds to give to Nico since he wasn't able to eat, and drinking hurt his tummy. The anti-nausea meds helped a little bit, but he is still complaining of not feeling well and not able to eat much. 

Nico has a doctor's appointment tomorrow at 11:15, for an unrelated reason (a sore on his foot), but we will certainly talk about Nico's tummy issues. I am concerned about getting him into the doctor's office, because he can't sit up or stand up for very long. I will call ahead to arrange to have a room ready for him so he can go straight in to lie down. That's my plan at least. I suspect he is dehydrated though I'm pushing fluids on him, as much as he'll take. I bought a pack of 6 fresh pressed juices from Boise Juice Co. yesterday (Allicia picked up my Fred Meyer grocery order AND went to Boise Juice Co. for me!!) Most of the juices also have coconut water in them which is good for rehydration.

Nico unfortunately has missed 5 days of school so far. Tomorrow there is no school anyway, so that's good. He also missed a field trip on Wednesday, as well as the yearly Boo Bash celebration at his school tonight. Just this weekend we had ordered a new costume for Nico on Amazon, he said he doesn't want to be a ninja this year (boy that ninja costume, though, he wore for 4 years!!!) But Nico is not complaining about missing anything, he is happy to stay in bed because he feels terrible whenever he tries to get up. When I ask him how he's feeling, he says "Still not very good" every time.

But he has his humor still, Guy and him watched Three Stooges last night and Nico was being his silly self. Then tonight as I'm updating the blog, he has asked me several times into his room to show me cakes on Youtube that he wants to make with me. He watched a food video today and moaned the whole time, "I wish I could eat that food it looks sooooo good!"

Yesterday he told me he wanted strawberries so I drove to M&W Market, leaving him at home. I kept him on FaceTime the whole time and showed him what other fruits they had. He told me to also get a watermelon and a cantaloupe. He said no to the bananas and the asparagus ;)

Today he said he wanted Great Steak and Potato (a restaurant in the mall), so I asked Guy to pick some up on his way home (Turkey sandwich, no bread, with cheese on a bed of lettuce). Nico could only eat a bite of it, even though he asked for Guy to buy a LARGE. Oh well. We have leftovers now so he can try again tomorrow.

If he didn't have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, I probably would have called the doctor today to get a recommendation. Nico might need IV fluids to feel better. We'll ask the doc tomorrow and do whatever is needed.

From Guy's pumpkin pie. I texted Guy this picture "Happy Birthday ants!"

Drinking Nuun electrolyte drink through a straw. Everything through a straw.

Allicia brought these Nuun tablets over with the pumpkin pie on Sunday, knowing that Nico wasn't feeling well.

We received mail at Louisa St address that Avery biked over to us. Nico was happy for the distraction. Also, Allicia brought him some treats from the dollar store, some fun activities to do as he starts feeling better.

Me getting out of the house yesterday evening. A walk next to the foothills.

Oh, on Sunday night, I was a little worried going to bed in our bedroom with Nico being so far away in his bedroom. Nico didn't like it either, he ran to our bedroom in the middle of the night feeling sick. He didn't want to be alone and sick. So I camped out on the couch that night, and have stayed there all the nights since. It's a comfy couch, so I don't mind!

Here's the video snippets from Guy's trip. I'll include the ones from the parade next week! I forgot to label one part of the video, when there's a man sheering the sheep. The sheep is OK, he's just shaving it ;) 

Cub Scouts Camping, Train Ride, Sore Throat

The boys left for Baker City, Oregon last Friday afternoon for a Cub Scouts camping trip. It's a good thing they brought a huge comforter with them, because the nights were cold and Nico was having trouble. I'll let Guy blog for this part:

Left boise on time around 6pm. Led the pack early, but fell behind.  Near the turn off toward sumpter we were caught by a few other families and followed them to the Union Creek Campgrounds.  I helped Isabell put up her new tent, Nico then helped me put up our tent.  It was dark, and the ground was wet.  Got ready for bed, Nico was freezing, it was hard for him to focus.  I tried to zip our sleeping bags together, but I couldn’t figure it out and gave up.  It was good to have the comforter.

I awoke to a coyote alarm just before 6am (coyotes singing yelling etc)  Kids woke up and started playing tag. Nico stayed asleep in bed, when he woke up he wanted to leave immediately, (he was very cold) I told him we could leave after the train ride if he still wanted to. Before breakfast the kids went down to the lake, and Nico got a shoe stuck in mud.  We had to borrow a pair of shoes from Max, a kid a year younger than Nico, that we went camping with this summer (City of Rocks)

Breakfast was oatmeal.

Nico got his buddy (Max) and we all went on a nature walk to the lake, some avoiding mud.  We saw a frog, and an osprey carrying a fish. Later we saw an osprey hit the lake for some food.  Saw some rusty engines that had been in the lake at some point, but when the waters went down for the fall they were revealed.

Upon return, Nico and Max did dot to dots in the tent.  Lunch was walking tacos (taco stuff in a bag of chips).

We went to McEwan station, a small station where we got on our train to head into Sumpter.  The kids were given fake gold and fake money and necklaces.  There were some young girls on the train (not with the pack) who were telling stories of the dreaded rockodile which didn’t move during the day, but that would swim around at night and each children.  

The Rockodile

Also, that there were bandits in the area.  Our train was “attacked” by bandits, who forced the train to stop and they stole all the “money” from the children and took the “gold” from the head of the train.  We got into Sumpter station, where the kids were allowed to ride the bandit’s horses.

We then took a tour of the gold dredge, a giant boat / machine which was used to dredge huge amounts of soil for gold.  Nico and the kids also got to practice panning for gold. Nico found a few flakes, (we had to give them back).

We got back and the kids practiced their skits they made up for the campfire program that night (Saturday).  Dinner was chili, salad and rolls.  Nico was in several skits, including “night at the museum”, “Forest of Death” and another one he made himself involving preying mantises and leaves.

Another cold morning, Nico wanted to leave immediately. We stayed for breakfast and after a bit in front of the fire and sipping some hot chocolate he was ok waiting until all the other kids left.  Breakfast was eggs / sausage / and stuff potentially burritos.  Nico played around, I had done most of the packing up when he was relaxing at the fire.  Nico made some sandwiches for our trip home, then we left.  We stopped for a few snacks then drove straight home.

Ok it's me again (Joanna)! The first thing Nico wanted to do when he got home on Sunday was to open up his bath-bomb kit and start making bath bombs. He ordered this kit with his own money from a catalog we received in the mail. He also bought himself a dot-to-dot book.

He then dug into his Little Passports World Edition, where there was a 3D puzzle of Big Ben.

Monday afternoon I got a call from Nico's school and Nico was on the other end. He told me that he started getting a sore throat soon after getting to school that day, and then he got a stomach ache and a headache. The nurse told me he had been to her office 3 times that day and there was nothing else she could do for him. I picked him up and took him home. I loaded him up with all the good anti-virus things I have, and he happily ate nachos and watched his iPad and played on his Switch for the rest of the day. He had a low grade fever (100.1).

He stayed home on Tuesday. He spent all day on his iPad and Switch. Halfway through the day he said his sore throat was gone, and he no longer had a fever.

Wednesday was a full day for him. He goes to school early for Chess, and then after school he gets picked up for Youth Group. Papa picked him up. They went to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner.

Guy and I usually make dinner for ourselves on Wednesday nights and then watch a show or two. This time we tried to get some unpacking done too, since that is an ever-present issue at the moment!

Thursday is a long day for Nico as well, he is at school early for his hall monitor shift, and at school late for Drama Club. Evelyn is in Drama Club with him this year. When he came home I asked him how the hall monitor thing went, and he said "Bad. Very very very bad." Then he smiled and said "just kidding!" Hah!

Here's a video of the Sumpter Train Ride!

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 and Grandparents Russell!

Late last Thursday night, after I was done updating the blog, I noticed I had a fever! It looked like I had caught whatever Guy and/or Nico had! I laid low the next few days. Friday morning Guy sent Nico off to school and then we welcomed the Grandparents Russell into town! Nico had an early release and Grandma Russell went to meet him. Nico opened a few presents that day, and I slept into the afternoon while the boys went up to the suite where Grandpa and Grandma were staying. They went to Fresh Healthy Cafe for dinner and brought me home a juice. It was yummy!

Guy putting together his hurdy gurdy.

Nico opening his Little Passports: World Edition from the Grandparents Russell.

Hanging out upstairs playing Life with Grandma

Saturday I was feeling mostly better. Guy made pancakes for everyone and we started our day. We had originally planned to see a movie on Saturday but we decided against it. We made Crabby Patties for lunch so the grandparents could experience them, and for dinner that night we made PIZZA and watched "I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown". We brought a computer monitor upstairs so we could watch the movie in the suite while we ate our pizza.

Sunday morning, Guy had to be at the church at 6:45AM for play practice. Nico and I had to be there at 8AM. Practice went well, and the bell choir opened the play at 10:30.

GG was able to join us at church that morning, and after church we came back home and ate Jimmy Johns for lunch, then exchanged gifts with GG.

Presents from GG

Cup Stacking!

Monday the boys hung out with the Grandparents Russell while I worked for a few hours on Audio Pile stuff at my parents' house. I was able to give them their gift and say Merry Christmas!

Guy, Nico, and the Grandparents Russell went to Barnes & Noble that day and spent a gift certificate we had. Guy brought home for me a Nano Blocks lego (my favorite!) and some Fuji water (my favorite!). Nico got a few things too (wish I could remember what!)

Monday night was the Christmas Eve service at church. Guy and I had to be there at 3:45 PM. Guy was running sound and I had a piano solo. It went well! That night after coming home and putting Nico to bed, it was time to finish wrapping the rest of the gifts. We pulled out Nico's big gift from the garage and wrapped that up, and Guy had to carefully get the stockings down that were hanging above Nico's bed. Guy filled his stocking and then carefully hung it back above Nico's bed.

Christmas morning Nico was up about 6AM and he opened his stocking. I also let him open the gift that Jeff & Allicia had left for us outside our door. It was a lego that he put together right then. We ate breakfast then - cinnamon rolls, bacon, and eggs. After that, we opened presents!

Robot shirts from Pa and Grandma Salisbury!

Grandma took Nico to the park that afternoon to try out his new scooter.

We had a chicken dinner that night with rice and broccoli, and brought the computer monitor upstairs again to watch some Christmas shorts that Guy had grown up watching. We had poppers that we popped before our dinner so we could put our paper hats on. Looks like I didn't catch any pictures of that. Each popper also had a small toy plus a Christmas joke in it.

That evening we went to the Winter Garden Aglow.

We went into the gift shop while we were there, and Nico got a pair of glasses that turns all the lights into reindeers. We each took turns looking at the Cross through the glasses. It turns the Cross into a huge reindeer face.

We said goodbye to the Grandparents Russell the next morning, they had an early flight back. The time just flew by, we really enjoyed their visit.

I worked on Wednesday and Guy took Nico for a several-hour trip to the library. They had a pretend ice-cream stand set up and Nico "worked" there for almost 3 hours. Guy had plenty to do, too, they apparently had a sticker poster on one of the tables that Guy worked on.

Thursday morning we realized that the internet wasn't working. Apparently Centurylink had a nationwide outage and a lot of people were without internet. This morning, we're back in business! Yay!

I've separated the videos into two different ones, since it was easier that way. The first one is a compilation of videos that Grandma Russell took, the second one is made up of videos that I took, plus one thrown in there that Grandpa Russell took.