Christmas in July, dancing, and a skateboard

Nico woke up several times in the middle of the night on Friday night, to ask me if it was time to go to the cabin. On Saturday we got ready and drove up there early. There was a Christmas in July craft that my mom put together for all the girls, and the kids had a craft of their own that Alanna organized. We made Christmas trees from styrofoam and fabric squares, cotton balls, and pins. It was a lot of fun, and I got to see an old friend plus all my sisters! It was a great event that my mom organized. She actually organized it for last November (or was it December?) but they got snowed in and so had to cancel it. To avoid that problem again she decided to do the craft in the middle of July :)

The craft the kids did looked like fun. Painting on canvases with hand prints and foot prints making Christmas shapes like reindeers and santa claus. Nico decided he was done after painting his canvas completely brown with nothing else. I asked him at home just today if he wanted to add anything to it and he said "No". So, brown canvas it is! We'll hang it on our wall. I'm proud! :)

After getting home on Saturday, we woke Guy up and then Guy and Nico went out for a bit. They stopped by the PO Box to pick up a package that Grandma Russell sent Nico. VBS music! (more on that later) They were back by 6 so that we could venture over to Red Robin to celebrate the fact that we paid off our first debt. More yummy food.

On Sunday Nico had a fun day. After church I dropped him off back home so I could go out to eat and a movie with friends from church to celebrate a birthday. Nico got to go with Jeff & Allicia, Evelyn, Avery, and Ivy on an adventure to the "beach". They rode their bikes to Municipal park and then went to the little beach area at the river, near the Fish Park. Nico stripped down all of his clothes but they had him put his underwear back on. I'll have Allicia send me some pictures that she took of Evelyn and Nico playing in the water. When Jeff asked the kids what they should call the place so they know what to say when referring to it, Nico said "Minnow!" So they're going to call it the Minnow Pond. I wonder if they saw minnows there and that's why he said that?

Monday afternoon was dance class. I drove Nico and Evelyn there and then pulled up a chair right outside the window so I could see them in the studio. They did clapping and skipping and hands above the head like a ballerina. It's a jazz/cheer/ballet combo class. I think for the last 2 minutes of class they must have done free dance, because all the kids were dancing all over the place doing whatever they wanted, instead of taking turns walking across the studio doing a specific move. It was fun to watch. I tried to study my aromatherapy flash cards, but I was too intrigued with the dance class to really pay attention to the cards.

Wednesday morning we took Evelyn with us to Target to buy Nico his skateboard for his birthday. He asked if Evelyn could come and I said Yes! Nico chose his skateboard, and wouldn't you know it, they had spiderman knee/elbow pads, so we bought them. Then we went to the park. See the video below for that.

I've told Nico over the past few weeks that skateboarding will take a lot of practice and that it's normal to fall down but that if he keeps at it he will get better and better.  He can push himself on the skateboard but he can't yet bring his pushing leg up to the skateboard and coast. That will take some practice!

While driving around with Evelyn, we were listening to our new VBS CD and it turns out that the first VBS that she went to this summer was one that used those very songs, so she knew all of them. I think this irked Nico a little bit and once Evelyn started singing along with the songs and telling Nico that they were HER songs, he told me to switch it to Sneaky Snake. haha... but then this evening I caught him singing Song #2. And he is very fond of Song #3, having said "This is my favorite song" the very first time he heard it. Thanks to Gma Russell for the CD! Nico told Evelyn several times that Gma Russell gave the CD to him.

Here is the promised VBS Video. But first, a story. Halfway through the VBS week, Nico started asking for a shiny armor costume for halloween. One with shiny boots, and a shield and a helmet. He kept saying he was going to ask Grandma to buy him a shiny armor costume for Halloween. Then I figured out what he was talking about. Shortly after singing one of the VBS songs, he turned to me and said "I want to get a shiny armor costume for Halloween" and I finally put the pieces together.

Hehe... you must watch the video to figure out what he was talking about... it's the last dancing scene and I spell it out for you there in case what they're singing about is hard to hear. Yes Nico, you can be that for Halloween!!

Then the Skateboard video

Sloooow Week

We have had a very slow week, but we had fun relaxing!

Last Friday my Mom took us shopping at Target. She got Nico some trucks and we picked up some other things we needed. Then we had sushi takeout! So much fun. That was our one adventure this past week.

Saturday was the sensory-friendly movie but we didn't end up going. We spent the morning filtering things from our living room closet and into bins. That sure felt good when it was finished.

On Tuesday morning I was writing some cards and Nico saw me doing it and asked if he could write a letter. I said Yes! And I asked him who he wanted to write to. He kept answering "Yes" to this question and I kept trying to explain to him what "Who" means but I'm not sure he understood. Until I gave him choices: "You can write a letter to Grandma or Papa, Grandma or Grandpa (he knows the difference between these two sets!), Evie, or Daddy. Who do you want to write to?" and he said Evie. I wrote out her name on a piece of paper and he copied it onto the card twice. I asked him what he wanted to say to her in the card and he answered Mommy. Then Daddy. Then Nico. Then he got one "P" into Papa when he stopped. So all of our names were in her card.

Then he saw me printing pictures and wanted to print some too, so we chose some to print for Evie and took those with us when we went to visit them later that morning.

We also saw them this morning!

We've started doing quiet times in the afternoon, where Nico hangs out in his room and plays quietly for an hour. Not "nap time", but occasionally he falls asleep. He climbs into his bed and pulls the covers up. When I don't hear noise for a while I go in and check. So if he's sleeping I close the shades and turn the light off. The first few times we did quiet time Nico would come out of his room every 5 minutes or so to ask if the time was up. So yesterday I put the iPad in there with a timer set for one hour. It's a pie chart that counts down to zero. He climbed into his bed and stared at it the whole time, sometimes reading the numbers from it and counting down with it for each minute. We went back to no timer today and everything was fine. He did fall asleep today, which means he is up tonight!

I will give him a bath in a few minutes and put him to bed. What usually happens when he takes a nap during the day is that after I put him to bed, later than usual, he doesn't fall asleep, but keeps getting up. Over and over until finally it's time for ME to go to bed. And so he comes to bed with me and is asleep quickly.

I'm trying to think of any other tidbits this week but I just can't recall anything else.

Here are the few pictures I took.

Reading "Too Much Noise", Nico has most of it memorized.

Playing during quiet time today

Movie and Park and Zoo, oh my!

We found out last Friday that Guy didn't get the job that he applied for. It was hard news for him and all of us, but we are moving on. Not sure what will be in store in the future, but I know it will be good things!

On Saturday we went to a sensory-friendly movie. They show them on the first Saturday of every month. They leave the lights on, turn the volume down, and keep the doors open. This wouldn't necessarily be for Nico, but more for me. I am happy that I am able to take him to the movies this way! There are three this summer and we will try to make all of them. This first one was showing Muppets Most Wanted. I think if it would have been an animated movie that Nico would have had more interest. We left about 30 minutes after the movie started. He enjoyed the animated previews, but after he finished eating his sandwich (that's the other thing, they let you bring your own food!), he was ready to go home. I was filled with so much joy being able to experience this with Nico! I love going on new adventures with him. I snapped a quick photo and had to brighten it quite a bit because even though they left the lights on, in a movie theater it is still dark!

On Sunday evening, Guy and I and Nico had some fun together going for a bike and tricycle ride plus a trip to Old Park.

Trying to take a picture of all three of us.

Almost got it..

That's better! It was really hard to hold this pose but I love it because all three of us are looking at the camera and smiling.

On Monday we had another trip to Allicia's house. We brought them muffins, and Evie and Nico played so well together. We were outside, and they both were trying to catch butterflies. Evie had a net and Nico had a broom that he was swinging around. 

Some news that I think everyone who reads this blog knows about: We plan to move in with Jeff and Allicia in September. They are renovating their garage for us and we plan to stay there on a temporary basis to help us pay down some debt. We are very excited and can't wait. A lot of this summer will be spent packing and sorting through things so that we don't have too much to store away while we are staying there. 

Wednesday was my birthday! It was probably the best birthday I have ever had. Guy and I celebrated early because he worked on my birthday, we had a lot of fun talking after Nico went to bed on Tuesday. We don't get a lot of time to chat sometimes, but Nico went to bed early and it was perfect timing. Love my Guy and all his thoughts and ideas. And then on Wednesday my Mom took Nico and I up to the cabin and and we ate sushi, ate brownies, opened presents, hung out, I even got to take a nap! We stayed the night there, and this morning we came back into town and Nico and Grandma went to the Zoo while I did some shopping with my birthday money. Thank you so much, Mom and Pa! 

Nico is looking at Grandma and Papa as they're telling him not to strike the match and to put it back into the box. He's contemplating whether or not to listen to them. Papa and Nico made a fire in the fire pit after dinner that night.

Grandma helped Nico through some fear of the dinosaurs at the Zoo. He was even brave enough to sit on one!! 

This morning, while we were still at the cabin, Guy wrote me an email saying that a package had arrived for me, it was the camera that Grandparents Russell got for my birthday! I opened it up today and started charging the battery, and soon I will be trying it out. You will be seeing some new and improved pictures on this blog! I am so happy about this! In fact, after I am done writing this blog, I plan to sit down with it and play. 

While at Target today, I bought a bag full of water balloons. Nico wanted to try them out tonight so we did. Man I love seeing this boy experience things for the first time, it is so thrilling. We had to fill them up at our sink with the filtered water, since the hose connection that came with the balloons didn't work on either of our hoses, and the water balloons were too frail to stretch out to put on the hose or the sink faucet. The filtered water faucet was the perfect size. We filled up our big colander twice with balloons and then went outside and Nico threw them on the grass and the sidewalk. We pierced a few with needles. They splash everywhere when you do that! I thought I had remembered that putting soap on water balloons and THEN pricking them would leave a hole that water would squirt through, instead of puncturing the whole balloon, but this did NOT work. I will have to research how to do that. If it's possible.

Filling up a water ballon at our sink.

That's it for this week! More adventures to come!

Target

Wiped out from our trip to Target with Grandma Salisbury.