Routine

We're getting our routine down surrounding preschool. Nico and I read books while we wait for the bus every morning, and when it gets reeeal close, we put his backpack on and hang out by the window.

 Waiting for the bus.

On the bus, getting strapped in. I wave at him from our front step until the bus drives off.

Coming home.

When he gets off the bus in the afternoon, I have lunch ready for him. I eat earlier, so while he eats I read him books. Then after that I give him 5 minutes with his beloved iPad, and then it's time for nap. Maybe. Twice he hasn't taken a nap. He fell asleep on the bus ride home on one of those days, but then today I'm not sure if he fell asleep on his way home, but he skipped his nap anyway. He's a tired buddy in the evening without a nap!

This week he has started counting things regularly. The steps across the bridge at Memorial park: "One, two, three, five, four, five, four, nine, ten!" He says it with his own sounds, but some of them are very close to sounding correct, like FOUR. My favorite is how he says "Siggy" for seven.

He also says the word "Down", and also signs it. They told me that they teach signs along with words, because his need to communicate is larger than his need to say words correctly. He used it (the word and the sign, at the same time) correctly at the park when he told me he wanted to get down from the equipment. They must have also taught him how to be a monkey, because he's been attempting to climb poles, like he has been taught how. Grabbing it with his legs correctly and everything.

Homework this week was a book called the "My Can-Do Book" with pictures to color of kids doing things that we should reinforce to them that they can do too: Brush their teeth, pick out their own clothes, ride a tricycle. They must be teaching him how to write his name, too, because when I wrote his name on the front of the book, he pulled out his crayon and wrote an N, and kept saying his name! But sometimes he would say "Tico" and he drew a bunch of Ts. He drew lots of Is, too, and one O.

I know I said this already, but I am looking forward to being able to ask him what he did in school! It is strange not being able to know exactly what they did. Except twice this week he did bring home projects that he had done at school - a finger painting picture of his hand prints, and a bracelet (which I am currently wearing on my wrist).

Guy said that this is the first of two times in Nico's life that we won't be hearing about his day at school. Now and when he is a teenager. :)

Doing homework

Also, notice his hair in the previous picture! We got a new hair cutting apparatus, so we tested it out.

It buzzes, so Nico cringed a bit.

Last but not least, I finally finished Nico's quilt for his new bed. Grandma Russell and I both worked on this quilt for Nico. He slept with it for the first time last night. 

First Day of School

Open house on Tuesday was great, we filled out a form that asked some questions about Nico. They are doing an "About Me" segment that it will be a part of. Questions like: What is Nico's favorite color?  (Blue).

Nico got right into the toys and had lots of fun in the 30 minutes we were there. We also got a picture of him and his teachers. Miss Candace is his teacher (left), Miss MaryBeth is the helper (right), and Miss Suzie is the speech therapist (middle).

We talked about Nico's food allergies, and Miss Candace gave me a paper that lists the snacks they'll be having in a 3 week rotation. The Boise School District provides a carton of milk and a small snack every day for the children, and I'll be sending in snack replacements for Nico every day so that he can participate in snack time (they teach a lot of valuable skills during this) but still avoid the foods he's allergic to. 

Wednesday was his first day, and I am so grateful my Mom came with me! We started the morning off with a bang when I knocked the rear view mirror off and then took a wrong turn. But the mirror incident got Nico laughing and we showed up to the school with time to spare. 

Someone came out to get him when we got to the gate, and we went with him into the school.

Miss MaryBeth taking off Nico's backpack to put into his cubby.

He had no trouble saying goodbye, and then we were off. We spent the morning at Target to help distract me/us. We had so much fun! (Thanks Mom!)

Picking him up was super sweet.

The teacher told me that he had asked for Mommy several times, but more in a questioning type way, and there were no tears. He did just fine! He has a folder in his backpack that always stays in there and they send home a weekly newsletter to tell us what they're going to be focusing on. This week it's all about back to school. They are talking about following directions, buses and the color yellow, and also starting the "About Me" segment. They sent home some homework for Nico and I (and/or Guy) to do together some time this week: coloring a picture of a bus and a large pencil. Then we put it back into the "Return to School" side of the folder.

Today I dropped him off again, but he took the bus home. I waited for the bus outside, watching watching watching, and watched it turn the corner and pull up. Nico couldn't see me until he was at the door of the bus, and it was sweet to greet him there. The same will happen tomorrow - I will take him to school and the bus will take him home. Then next Tuesday he'll be taking the bus both ways.

After we got inside we ate lunch and then he went right down for a nap. At the table during lunch he started counting the water bottles that were on the table. Something he learned in school? He said "Wuh wah, two wah" (One water, two water). 

When Guy asked him what he did in school today he responded with "buh!" (Bus). I am looking forward to Nico being able to tell us more about his days! 

The other thing we did this past week was go to a car show in Nampa on Saturday. We searched the lot for a Mini, but there were none. Nico picked a car he liked and I took a picture of him with it.

We were surprised by the presence of a quilt show inside the church that was having the auto show. So, we went there, too! This time I was the one to choose one I liked, for a picture. I liked the fall colors of this one.

That was our exciting week!

Buses, Friends, and Candles

We had some extended family in town this past week for a wedding, and Nico and I got to see some Aunts and Uncles briefly on Sunday after church. On Monday, my Aunt Mary came over with my Mom to say hello for a little while. It was great to see everyone!

On Tuesday we went to see G.G. in Nampa. She gave us more bounty from her garden. Yum! The next time we go to Nampa to see her it will be a Monday because Nico will be in preschool Tuesday through Friday. PRESCHOOL!

Preschool starts next Wednesday, 6 more days! I can't believe it. We got Nico's bus schedule in the mail yesterday. On Monday while my Mom and Aunt were over, we saw the school bus drive by and stop in front of our house for half a minute or so. I knew she would be doing this to get her route down, but it was neat to see it. It made it all the more real! And then of course, getting his official pickup/dropoff times in the mail made it even MORE real. He will be picked up at 8:35 AM and dropped off at 12:29 PM. Four whole hours he will be gone! It is hard to believe. He won't be taking the bus his first day, we are going to ease into that. I think my Mom and I are going to drop him off in the morning and head over to Target to do some shopping, to distract me from the fact that Nico won't be with me :) Shopping is a great distraction technique!

Next Tuesday is the open house where he will meet his teacher and get to show him around the school. I am looking forward to that.

We got a package today with a backpack in it for Nico - a gift from the Grandparents Salisbury! He chose one that had a car on it. While Guy was leaving for work, Nico noticed he had his bag around his shoulder, which Nico called a backpack (buckabuh). He said "Two buckabuh! Cah buckabuh. Daddy buckabuh." A nice story from Nico - he saw two backpacks. His own car backpack and Daddy's backpack. On our walk tonight he also was talking about puddles (putteh), and told me that the pickup went through a puddle (puckabuh putteh).

Nico wearing his new backpack.

We spent this morning with Evie. We went to see the little family and then took Evie with us for another lunch date. We went to Memorial park and then to the Co-op. A good lesson in handling two kids in a grocery store! It wasn't that bad, as they are both very well behaved. We even went potty in the Co-op. Then we went back home and ate lunch. Evie told me "I'm ready to go home now." after playing for a while after lunch. It was the exact time we were going to leave anyway, so I said "Ok, let's go!" Nico then took a two hour nap. In the video you can see how they typically interact when together. Evie is good at picking up the words Nico says and repeating them back to him. When Nico would say "tickie" for train, Evie would say "Where is the tickie? Where do you see it?"

Tonight we had a flash thunderstorm. We didn't lose our electricity, but I had a sudden urge to do a "candle factory". We used to do these when we were little whenever the lights would go out due to a thunderstorm. Pull all your candles out and light them, then play with the wax on aluminum foil spread over the kitchen table. Playing safely with fire is a good skill to have :) Nico is likely a little too young for this, so we did a slightly modified version of it. We just lit the candles and held them and then blowed them out, and poured some wax onto the foil. Nico loved blowing out the candles. Blowing is an excellent skill to have for speech development. I also had an urge to make some hot chocolate, but we weren't able to do that. An hour later the sun was back out, so we went for a Strider ride. When we came home, our landlord was on our roof cleaning up all the dead and broken branches. Wind storms can really tear up the trees!

Candle Factory. Yes, this is exactly where Nico burnt his finger.

VIDEO: Evie and Nico Snippets

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.

State Capitol and Tomatoes

I've been trying to think of things I'd like to do with Nico before preschool starts. Just 3 short weeks before it's time! One of the things I wanted to do was take him to the State Capitol. I have taken him before, but never with a camera, and never armed with pocket change so we could buy a postcard. So on Wednesday I took him to the Capitol with these two things in hand. His favorite part of the Capitol building is the stars that they have painted on the very tippy top of the dome. The postcard we bought has a picture of the stars on it.

After climbing the steps.

Looking up at the stars, comparing it to his postcard.

Another thing I wanted to do was take Nico on a bus ride. Guy showed some interest in this one, so I think Guy and Nico will be going on a bus ride in the next few weeks.

A drawing Nico made today. He's drawing faces now!

The backside. He drew an "E". A SUPER E! :) He was very proud of it.

We also harvested our first tomatoes from the garden. Nico is showing great interest in plucking tomatoes and we've gone out there every day for the past 3 days so that he can pick a tomato. Then we go inside and wash it off and I cut it up for him. He loves them! Seeing the bounty from the garden got me a little more motivated, so I cleaned the garden bed up, soaked some seeds, and planted them today for a fall harvest of lettuce, beans, chard and basil.

I've stopped keeping track of Nico's new words, because he tries to repeat a lot of what we say and is adding new words daily. But a phrase he has started saying is "Byebye Mommy!" He practiced saying "Byebye Van" the whole way to church on Sunday. He got it right some of the time, but kept trying and kept trying, often falling into the habit of saying Mommy instead of Van. Whenever he'd say Byebye, he would also wave his hand. It was interesting to hear him practice over and over and over again. So proud of him!

I figured it was about time for a video. A video from Nico's birthday party of us singing Happy Birthday to him, and then a Summer Snippet video.

Birthday Week

Nico's Birthday was Monday, and we celebrated lots of days with lots of family! Guy's parents came into town on Friday and we were able to see them often. We had a party on Sunday for Nico at our place and it was so much fun! Nico had fun with his cousins and he definitely knew he was the center of attention. We had an activity for the kids - dipping foam shapes into water and sticking them to the window to fill in the words "Nico is 3" that I had written on the window beforehand. They also had fun playing with the toys after they were opened. Nico got his heart's desire in trucks and cars.

 Nico enjoyed being sung to.

The whole Russell crew.

On Monday we went to the zoo in the morning with the Grandparents Russell and G.G. We got Nico's yearly picture in the jeep. It was a nice cool morning and very enjoyable. We let Nico lead the way, and he spent quite a bit of time in the zoo sand box, covering and uncovering dinosaur bones. He stayed in Grandpa Russell's arms most of the rest of the time. Grandpa kept him safe from the large, growling dinosaurs sprinkled throughout the zoo.

While at the zoo I ran into an old high school friend who was visiting from Florida. She was able to come over Wednesday morning so that we could catch up. Nico enjoyed showing her daughter Elizabeth all his toys. Elizabeth is 13 months old.

This morning we went to visit Allicia and Evie, and the newest addition to their clan: 2 week old baby boy Avery. You forget so quickly how small newborn babies are! Nico was a little put off while I was holding Avery and asked me to give him back to Allicia. After I did, Nico crawled up into my lap and curled into my arms just like Avery had been doing.

Nico and I then took Evie with us. We packed up our lunches and went to Old Park. We ate in the shade of a tree and then played on the playground until it was time to take Evie back home. Evie cracked up at Nico saying "Uh-oh" and several other funny things Nico was doing, like slapping his face with his hand and pretending his hand hurt. Evie just thought this was hilarious, and Nico knew it and was having so much fun making Evie laugh. He reminded me so much of Guy, enjoying making others laugh.

Kicking up bark at the park.

Eventually I will post another video!

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.

Sprinkler

Jumping right into pictures here..

We harvested from our garden for the first time - broccoli!

Playing

 At the Aquarium

He read his tractor books and decided to attach some floss to the hitch on the back of his tractors. You can kind of see the floss at the bottom of the picture.

Nico wasn't feeling well on Saturday, woke up with some stomach problems. But we have finally reached the milestone of Nico knowing when he is going to throw up! He asked for his bucket several times, and hung his head in there to wait for it. I don't think it was viral, as he made up for missing breakfast and more after his nap. I think we're dealing with some food intolerances.

We skipped church on Sunday to make sure he was fully recovered.

Nico seems to be a lot more interested in repeating sounds and words this week without being asked. I've stopped recording individual words that he says, because he now repeats too many things to keep track.

Short and sweet today. Leaving you with a sprinkler shot!

Ten-tee

Nico said a sentencey phrase on Monday! I went to the dentist and when I came home, Nico said "Mommy. Ten-tee. Car. Daddy." Interpretation: Mommy went to the dentist in the car, and Daddy stayed home with me! I told the speech therapist about this on Tuesday and she was excited. Also, Nico was really cooperative on Tuesday and Marcia was able to move on to more advanced techniques, like trying to say a word with a consonant on the end, like BED. He's not able to copy the sounds just yet on those. She also worked on repeating sounds a certain number of times, or alternating sounds. Like "buh buh buh" or "buh ba buh ba". Nico caught on to the repetition, but not the alternating. On Thursday (Marcia came over twice this week!) Nico initiated his own ABC app on his iPad and took Marcia through it, repeating everything in it, just like she would have asked him to do. He seems more eager these days to repeat words.

Nico has also been doing a lot of two syllable words all on his own. He said "meatball" by saying "Ha (the Hhh sound that an H makes) bah". The "Ha" means that it was hot. So, he said hot ball! He strung two words together to describe something else! This is definitely a milestone for him. Also, cocoon, and various other random ones.

On Sunday we went to the cabin to hang with family. Nico got to see his cousin Alexis, they have a lot of fun together!

We also saw Sarah, and Allicia and Evie this week. The speech therapist also was here twice, trying to get more appointments in before Nico turns 3 in a few weeks.

Nico got a black eye this week from falling into his bed after trying to swing his leg over the last step without holding onto anything. Ouch!

Now for some pictures..

Playing with the sandbox.

 Helping me sort foam shapes for an activity we are doing at his birthday party. He was getting really fast at this near the end. He would hold two different colors, one in each hand, then scope out where they went, and then ... paused... and said GO! And then would put each color away at the same time.

 Our broccoli is almost ready to harvest!

An interesting seed pod on our walk tonight.

And one last note - on a walk earlier this week, Nico spotted a MINI on the street, and pointed to it and said "MINI!" So impressed with his car recognition!

Pee, Ah-bee!

Before I talk about this week, there is one thing about last week that I forgot to mention. We checked out a book from the library for Nico about Classic Cars. He loves it, and on his way through it the 3rd or 4th time, we turned to a page with a Mini on it. I said "Mini" and he repeated it right after me. Then he said "Dah dah!" and pointed to his room where his cars were. He went to his room and found a hot wheels MINI! He kept saying "Mini" over and over again. He talks about the Mini all the time, finds it in his book, pulls his own out, points to both.

He is also now able to identify a Beetle ("Bee-dee") and a Bug ("Buh"). He says so whenever he finds them in his book. I've started pointing Bugs out to him whenever we're out and about.

We went to the zoo on Friday. I brought Nico's snack with us and we ate it on a bench. We stayed at the zoo longer than usual. We saw the butterflies, fed the goats, and tried to avoid the dinosaurs.

Saturday we went to visit Lizzie and Bruce and Rory again. 

On Monday, the Library. We've been trying to go to the Library as a family every Monday afternoon.

At the Fish Park on Wednesday, we saw 3 fawns total, two of them were feeding on the Mommy deer, it was sweet to see. Didn't catch a picture of that, but was able to get a picture of Nico and the deer.

And Nico and the owl.

Fun with water (it's been so hot lately!)

Fun with holey socks.

Advances on the potty front: Nico pees standing up! For the first time today. All over the iPad. I've been letting him go into the bathroom by himself sometimes, and this morning I went in there about a minute after him, and there was pee all over the floor and he was standing up. I figured he had tried to empty the potty into the toilet and had missed. But then it happened again, and this time he was standing over the iPad, saying "Pee, Ah-bee" (Pee, iPad!) I wasn't sure what had happened... But then Guy got up for the day, took Nico potty once, and before he left for work he warned me: "Nico peed standing up today, so be careful if you ever let him try to pee by himself." Ah ha! So this evening, whenever he walked into the bathroom, I bolted in after him. Sure enough, he lifts the lid on the toilet and tries to pee right into the bowl. I think after his practice sessions today, he almost has it down!

Another new-ish thing that Nico has been doing is getting out of his bed at night. I told him that if he has to go to the bathroom, that he is able to get out of bed and go potty. Last night we hit a new record, he got out of bed about 4 times right in a row before he finally admitted he had to go potty. Once he went potty, he went right back to sleep. Cool!

That's it for this week!