Lexie's Bday Party, Cars, Tricycles, Sprinklers

We went to Lexie's Birthday Party on Saturday, what fun! We got to see Jonny and Alanna's new house, it is incredible! There is a little hideaway underneath the stairs that Nico really loved. He was very excited to see Lexie and give her our present. The party games were fun, Nico got to be wrapped up in toilet paper like a mummy by Papa.

The tall one is my brother Jonny all wrapped up. My mom and I helped with that one.

It was a great party.
After we got home, Guy and Nico went out for a few hours. Dollar store, and a few other places. I was in need of a nice break after 3 nights straight putting Nico to bed without Guy. He is testing limits you see :) We added a rule to the house rules - #4) No whining. We are going to be working on mealtime next, teaching table manners and stopping the whining about eating. It basically goes like this: our job is to choose what food to make, make the food, make mealtime pleasant. Nico's job is to either eat the food, or not eat it. Paradigm shift! For "you and me time", he has shifted from color-by-numbers to CARS. We both sit on the couch facing the back of the couch and we race cars back and forth across the top of the couch. We get flat tires, we lose wheels, we run out of gas, we get tipped over in the riverbed and need helicopter assistance, and we chase each other. Another one he did for a few days was called "crash into people" where we start at either end of the clubhouse and run and crash into each other.

Tuesday, Grandma Salisbury took Nico out again while I had Bible Study. They always have fun!

A few random pictures (I'm loving the fact that when I take a picture, it is automatically uploaded to google and I can access all those pictures from this blog!! It makes blogging so much easier!)

And apparently I'm still learning how to take videos.

Tonight we took a trip to the park and when we got home Nico wanted to play with Evie, and Evie was in the front yard running through the sprinklers that her dad was testing. Nico jumped right in and got soaked. Shivers!!!

When he got back inside we got him into some pajamas and under a blanket on the couch, with the "Jesus Loves Me" app on my phone (Bible for Kids app), and a plate full of apples and monster teeth. What a night!

Until next week!

Kindergarten: Registered

I got a new phone! I got an Aquos, which is a smartphone, pretty sleek looking. My very first smart phone. I tested out the camera and set it up to automatically "back up" my pictures online, and somehow that picture storage is connected to this blog, so I am able to pull pictures into my blog post that I took on my phone, with no extra effort on my part. So here's some random pictures from this week.

We have been dealing with some discipline issues with Nico that at times have seemed unmanageable. Guy and I decided that it was pretty important to be able to sit down and talk with each other without Nico around, as often as we can, so we can discuss these issues on a regular basis. So far our adventure into parenting has been mostly unagressive, meaning that we haven't really taken an active role in working together to raise Nico with the right sense of self - to be able to make good decisions and not bad, among other things! So on Monday afternoon, Guy and I left Nico with Allicia and went to the Co-op for an hour. We each got a treat. I chose an apple and Guy chose ginger ale. Then we sat in the common area and pulled out a pad of paper, and made a plan. We each left the meeting with action items. One of the things Guy did this week is make some clubhouse rules with Nico. Nico was very responsive to this. Just tonight he kept pointing to #2 and saying "Mommy you have to be polite, you have to tuck me up!" This was part of a bedtime struggle (which has become increasingly more common), in which he had made a choice that led to me not tucking him up. Tucking up means that I put his blanket on him. He had to do it himself tonight, and he was very upset. But he was being very polite when he was trying to convince me to be polite.

Guy and I are both realizing that in order for Nico to learn good manners and clean up after ourselves, that we have to model that behavior. I tell ya what, having a child has grown me up in so many ways, it's the toughest job I've ever had.

Tuesday morning Grandma Salisbury took Nico out again and got him a few treats including another Lego, which him and Guy put together that night before they made the chore chart. Tuesday I drove out to Mountain Home to hang out with my sister-in-law Bambi, and my nieces and nephew. I brought my henna supplies and gave all the girls a henna tattoo.

Made a good dinner on Wednesday night, except we only have one burner, so it took a lot longer since I didn't read the directions very carefully and I needed two pots going at the same time. Whoops!  Oh well. Yummy pecan-crusted chicken.

 This morning, went to the library and then visited this bridge.

I picked Nico up early from preschool today so we could make it to Kindergarten registration on time. It started at 3:30, and we were there at about 3:20, and were the 2nd people in line. We got our packet of stuff, then we went to 5 different stations so Nico could be tested in Reading, Writing, Language, Color, and Math. The only thing he struggled with is knowing whether two words rhymed or not. That is something we have never worked on, so that wasn't much of a surprise. But he knew his letters and numbers and colors and could write his name. He was quick as a whip. When I filled out the paperwork a month ago, I had told them that I preferred AM kindergarten, but they didn't say anything about that today, so I'm not sure what the plan is yet.

I am spending some of my energies organizing the Clubhouse and trying to get it into better shape so it doesn't feel as cluttered. That has been fun!

Oh, Nico made a card for his friend Lazarus at church, but he couldn't remember his name. So I told him that the next time he sees this boy that he should ask him his name and then we can give him his card. So after Bible Study on Sunday, Nico tells me that the boy's name is Lazarus and asks for the card to give to him. But we didn't have it with us, so we will try next week (if we can find the card!) Lazarus is 2 years old. Nico loves going to Bible Study because he gets to play with his friends and watch movies while the adults talk :) We love it, too, and are making friends.

That's it for now!

Mall, Grandma!

Nico was able to hang out with Grandma Salisbury twice this week. On Sunday we met up with her and Lexie at the mall. Grandma bought them each something from Kohl's so she snapped a picture of them carrying their bags like backpacks.

He got to see her again on Tuesday while I went to my Bible Study. He came home with a lego bulldozer that him and Guy put together later that night. Thank you Grandma!

The bulldozer was probably the biggest lego to date, and Guy told me that he stayed focused on it for a good 45 minutes before he started losing steam. So Guy raced through the rest of it while Nico started playing with the lego guys, role-playing with the half-built bulldozer. They had fun.

Nico's really been digging the color-by-numbers. There is a website where you can print free copies and they add to them all the time. They just added about 7 of them and Nico's been rifling through them. We are burning through markers! He supplements with crayons.

We've been implementing something we call "You and Me Time" which is where Nico and I play together doing whatever he wants to do for 10 minutes, no distractions, no phone, computer, no iPad. We play at other times, too, but this gives us structure and a name to it, so he knows he can expect at least one You and Me Time per day. Guy has been trying to do this with him too. It's supposed to cut down on the acting out, which, it does! I am going through some parenting videos and lessons from Positive Parenting Solutions online. It's been helpful. We have a parenting TOOL BOX, and the #1 tool is You and Me Time. The #2 tool is Calm Voice. That's as far as I've gotten. Because we don't have a separate room for Nico it's hard to implement time outs, so we're trying to find other ways.

Anyway, for You and Me Time this week, he has almost always chosen color-by-numbers. 

Here's some preschool pictures from a few weeks ago, I forgot to add them last week. This is him and his friend Ella.

On Friday we visited the Language and Learning Center at Calico to check out their program there. We are considering it for summer time. It would be twice a week for three hours. They read the same book every day for a few weeks and focus on speaking correct sentence structure and using right language. Then he'd get pulled out for 30 minutes every day to do 1:1 speech therapy. We want him to be as prepared for kindergarten as he can get… and the time this summer will be pretty important. So, he'll be tested in May so we can determine how necessary it would be to enroll him in the program. 

And speaking of Kindergarten - AH! Official registration day is next Thursday. I already filled out the forms, but I have to go in with Nico and they need to give him a quick test to see where he stands, then they send us home with a packet of stuff to make sure to go over this summer. The whole town will be there so I'm going to try to show up a tad early. Ok, not the whole town, but all the people within the school's boundary that have kindergarteners.

Until next time..

G.G., Toddler Open Gym, Frozen

On Friday we went to see G.G. I am lovin' the firetruck quilt she is working on! It was great to see her and catch up. Didn't get many photos but here's one!

Then that afternoon I watched Evie and Avery for a while. We listened to the soundtrack from Frozen, both Evie and Nico know all the songs, and they danced and danced and danced. I caught a picture of one of Nico's signature dance moves:

They had a fun time playing togethers. Pretty sure we listened to the whole soundtrack twice.

Did you know, that Nico watches Frozen almost every single day? This evening he even asked me to take a picture of him eating his orange while watching Frozen. I obliged, of course.

Nico has been asking to go back to the Toddler Open Gym. Remember that place? We pass by it whenever we go to the Co-op. He asks to go there and I tell him "It's not open" and then he tells me to go find the key and then we can open it. hehe.. so we put Toddler Open Gym on our calendar so we could be sure to go to it when they're open. That was this morning! We showed up right when they opened, paid our dollar, and off we went to the gym. They have new climbing toys since last we were there!

He met a nice friend named Piper whom he played with very nicely.

When we were leaving, we found some statues outside the entrance that weren't there last time we had been there. In fact, these particular statues used to be located in downtown Boise on the Grove. They have demolished the spot where they used to be, so apparently now they have a new home at Fort Boise Community Center. Lots of memories with these statues when they used to be downtown.

Until next time!

New Preschool, and New Books!

Monday was a holiday, so Nico's first day at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Preschool was on Wednesday. And darn, I did forget to bring my camera to take pictures. I will try to remember tomorrow. When he gets to class the first thing they have him do is wash his hands, then he can play! I brought in a whole bag of safe Nico snacks for them to use as needed. One of the other students, Michael, made Nico a Valentine even though Nico didn't go to their Valentine's Party. Michael and Nico really hit it off as friends, too. Nico came running up to me excitedly while I was talking to his teacher after school, and asked me if he could go play in the grass with Michael and another boy. Michael is also going to Adam's Elementary next year, just like Nico! They are trying for afternoon session, though, and I am vying for mornings. But, it might work out anyway.

Nico did get to go to his Valentine's Party at White Pine, though! Grandma Russell had sent Nico some boxed valentines that she had found in Great Grandma Gohl's stuff, so Nico chose the Spiderman ones and made all his friends a valentine. He wrote their names on the valentines all by himself, and also signed his name. Going down the list of kids in his class, he came to his own name and made himself a valentine, too. To Nico, From Nico. He also made some for his teachers. They were going to decorate cookies in class, so I sent him with a huge gluten free chocolate chip cookie plus some homemade pink frosting and some pink sprinkles from Whole Foods. I couldn't find a good gluten free sugar cookie, so he got to make himself a frosted chocolate chip one :)

So he still loves his pigeon books, but lately he has been really getting into Curious George. He has "The Complete Adventures of Curious George" book that we got him for his birthday 2 years ago, that came with a CD. He loves to listen to the stories and flip through the book. He is getting very good at this, even though the stories that are read aloud do not have that useful sound that tells you when to turn the page. He has figured it out. He is recognizing more and more words. Orange and zoo are two I can think of off the top of my head.

Then a few days ago he pulled out a different Curious George book that he had, and we read it, and then he flipped the book over and saw that there were 7 other Curious George books that he DIDN'T HAVE! So he asked me to get them from the library. I put them all on hold and this morning we picked up the first two. He is turning into quite the reader. I think he would enjoy more read-aloud picture books so I think I will search for some of those at the library. Any suggestions?

Nico had a stuffy nose for the past week, and then on Monday he had a fever, I think it got up to 101 something. I kept him back from school on Tuesday so he could rest. He now just has a slight cough and stuffy nose.

Tonight at dinner Guy and I were talking about this funny website about Women Laughing Alone With Salad. I just happened to be eating a salad so I joked about taking a picture of me eating it while laughing. Nico heard me talk about taking a picture so he asked me to take a picture of him eating his hot dog. So I did. Then I gave the camera to him and he took a picture of me eating my salad while laughing. He did a pretty good job of framing it I think.

Speaking of salads, the Grandparents Salisbury have been providing us with sprouts that they have grown. Sunflower sprouts, alfalfa, bean, all kinds! Grandma gave us a tray of sunflower seed sprouts that were still growing in their soil and everything, so I've kept it on the counter to harvest them at will. At dinner time I tell Nico to go pick out two or three for himself and he harvests them and then eats them. He doesn't seem to mind that they're green and vegetable since he gets to pluck them out of the soil himself.

See you all next week!

Low on Pictures, High on Life

I only have one picture from this week - the pile of used boys clothes we inherited from one of Jeff and Allicia's friends. Since Avery won't fit into them for a while, they went to Nico. We have pants, and pants, and shorts, and shirts, and pajamas, all 4T. We were totally blessed! I don't think we'll need to buy any clothes for him for summer.

Take a look at that shirt, totally cute right? I love it!

I'll have more pictures next week :)

I talked more with Nico's teacher about reducing his days at school, and she told me that Guy and I have a major part in the decision, they can't just cut his days without our go-ahead. So we decided we agree that cutting his days to two days per week will be the best, and then on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he will be going to a different preschool. We enrolled him in Beautiful Savior Lutheran Preschool in the afternoons on those days. 12:30 - 3:00. No bussing, obviously, so I will be dropping him off and picking him up, it is about a 10 minute drive from here.

We visited this preschool on Monday afternoon to meet the teacher and the assistant and all of the kids. Nico LOVED it, he jumped right in and started playing with the toys. The teacher answered all my questions about food allergies and we set up a plan for that, I filled out all the forms, we gave them our deposit, and he's all set to start next Wednesday (since Monday is a holiday). He keeps asking to go back to the "New Preschool", so I think he will enjoy himself. And I am excited they have a Bible lesson every day!

Oh boy, I am so excited for Nico, he is blossoming in so many ways. He took an incredible stride forward and is really blowing us away with all of his socialite skills. He is ASKING kids and adults what their names are, when their birthdays are, how old they are, and then introducing himself to them. He is talking more and more and more and in conversational ways, like asking me "Mommy how are you feeling? Did you sleep well?" He's telling stories, and imagining scenarios. The bus driver even told me that he has noticed in the past few weeks that Nico is talking more and interacting with the bus attendant and the other kids. He said that usually you don't see kids change that much in such a small amount of time, especially because Nico has been the same quiet kid since school started… until a few weeks ago! He is chattering about clouds, and books, and all sorts of things while riding on the bus. Last week he gave the bus driver an imaginary letter because he was pretending to be the mailman delivering letters. He says "Hi" to the bus driver now instead of being silent. He is more confident and comfortable in situations. I love to see that!

That's all the news from this past week, I think.

I will bring the camera to his first day of his new preschool next Wednesday and hope to get some good pictures.

Cabin, Hair Cut, Scooter

Nico got another hair cut this week, he's back to short hair now!

On Sunday Nico got to go to the cabin. The Grandparents Salisbury picked him up before church and took him to church with them, then they drove to the farm, then out to the cabin. Lexie was with them, too. Nico had a lot of fun and came home with a new lego set!!!! (Which he has already put together and taken apart about 5 times). Check out the video at the bottom of Nico reading the Bible.

Eating lunch with Lexie while watching the iPad

Nico has really been enjoying watching the movie Frozen. He has memorized a large portion of the movie and recites it throughout the day, and sings the songs. I agree that it is a pretty good movie, I like watching it too.

We went for a our first outing to the park this year. We did it in the evening and we didn't need a car! It was the first time we had entered the park from this direction since way back when we lived on Warm Springs. Nico rode his scooter and I walked.

"It's an emergency!" he said, as he ran to the fire engine

Nico is getting very agile with his scooter. I am very proud of him. He can turn and stop himself using the brakes.

On Monday after eating lunch I noticed that one of my teeth in the upper back right had a big hole in it. I figured a filling had come out, so I called the dentist and went in that afternoon. They said it wasn't a filling, but that a chunk of my tooth had broken off and I would need a crown. My very first crown! They had a cancellation the next morning and I took it. Got it over with. And I'm fine now. Phew!

His teacher also sent some pictures over.

Nico loves looking at these pictures with me.

Lately Nico is enjoying his Curious George read along book. We're kind of on an iPad hiatus the past week, so he has had to entertain himself quite a bit more than usual.

I can't think of anything else that happened this past week. We're still waiting for word from his preschool whether they'll be reducing his days or not.

Video time!

Preschool Changes? And Pigeons and Packages.

Nico got his progress report back last Friday. He has met two of his goals! He can successfully identify emotions and responds to the question "Why is he sad/happy?"

Then on Monday I called the school to ask a few questions about Kindergarten, and I ended up talking to his teacher. She said that she had been talking to Karen, the speech language pathologist and they both thought that perhaps Nico didn't need to come to preschool for all 4 days but could reduce his days to 2 or 3. She said that Nico was doing very well with fine motor skills and academically, so they didn't see the point in him continuing to come for the whole week. She did say, however, that Nico might benefit from being a part of a more traditional preschool with kids that had normal speech development.

So, we've been looking into other preschools. The one that Evie goes to might be an option for us, she goes to Beautiful Savior Lutheran Preschool. But we're still waiting to hear back from Nico's teacher about whether his switching to 2 days is actually going to happen. Right now it's speculation!

Last Friday we also saw G.G., Nico really enjoyed playing with the large lego blocks that she has. He made several of the things that were printed on the side of the bucket. G.G. showed me the Fire Engine quilt she is making. Amazing! I can't wait to see it when it's finished! Then we watched a little bit of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (one of his favorite shows).

So, after last week's update, Grandma Salisbury decided to order Nico the Pigeon Activity Book, the only one he didn't have. She told me the box would be here on Tuesday. I told Nico he would be getting a box on Tuesday and the first thing he said was "With a pigeon activity book in it?"  ha ha! He knew. There is so much to do in that activity book. Guy and Nico have been playing with it. I went out for a bit on Tuesday night and when I got back, there were finger puppets, a bus stop, and they were working on putting together a Newspaper. I was impressed! And there's still so much more to do. Thanks Grandparents Salisbury!

Oh and I forgot to mention, the VERY FIRST THING he did with his pigeon activity book is line it up with the other pigeon books, as it appears on the back of the "Pigeon Takes a Bath" book. Same order and placement. THEN he could go play with the book.

At night while he's in bed he sometimes asks for his books, so I hand him a flashlight and his tall stack of Pigeon books and he reads them while "tucked up" into bed. Out loud, of course, and it's fun to hear him.

Then today, Nico and I went to the post office. He doesn't often come with me but this time he did, and there was a KEY in our box to open another box. This is his favorite thing ever. It's like opening treasure boxes. And this time was sweet because when we opened the 2nd box, the package inside had HIS name on it! He was so excited. What a morning, too, because we were on our way to the dollar store to spend two of his dollars. He purchased a Mickey/Donald/Pluto puzzle, and a car.

The package contained a few boxes of Valentines that Grandma Russell found in Great Grandma Dee's stuff. Nico can use them for Valentine's Day at school! There was also a Curious George look-and-find book, which we read through immediately. This is the book he took to bed tonight with a flashlight. There was also a picture in the package that Grandpa Russell had drawn for Nico. Nico said "OOOOOOOH".  Thanks Grandparents Russell!

Nico tried to catch Avery in a bucket as he came down the slide.

That's all for this week. Sorry for being a day late! I remembered about the blog this morning while we were running errands. Whooops!

I forgot!

Update is coming tonight :)

Ice skating and pigeons

We went to the ice skating class on Saturday again, and Nico seemed excited at first, but as soon as he got on the ice he just kinda stopped. He stayed in the middle of the rink for the whole class and didn't want to get off the ice and didn't want to join his class. There was the teacher for the class and a volunteer helping out with the class, and one of them was always over with Nico trying to convince him to come to the class, or to come over to where I was so he could get off the ice. He wouldn't let anyone touch him and when they talked to him he would turn his back to them. When they tried to pick him up under his arms to try to move him to the class or closer to me, he said No and wriggled free. So, 30 minute class. After it was over, Lexie skated up to him, where he was with both the teacher and the volunteer trying to talk to him. The teacher asked her "Is he your brother?" No, cousin. "Great, can you help him? We're having trouble." She gracefully brought him back to the exit with no problem or resistance on Nico' part. Then he wanted back on the ice so Lexie helped him over to the coned off section. There were no "ice walkers" that they could play with, so he just stood in the coned off section for a while before making it back to the exit, with a little help from Lexie.

I talked briefly with the teacher, who said that it might be that he's just not ready to take a class. I think she's right.

When I sat down with Nico a few days after that to talk to him about it, he told me he didn't want to go back to class but instead wanted to go to the rink with just me. "Just you and just me" So that's the plan. We didn't go this week at all, but will try to go next week.

Pictures from school. He pointed to one of his friends and told me her name was "Erra", to which I said, "Erra?" and he said "No, Erra!" I obviously was hearing him wrong so he SPELLED her name for me. I was impressed. "E, L, L, A" OHhhh.. "Ella!" Of course!

So, Nico memorized his Pigeon books, both of them. See the video below! There is one page that says SPLASH! You can notice how he says it loud first, then soft, then loud again. The soft version is when he covers up the exclamation point at the end of SPLASH! Guy taught him that the exclamation point makes things loud. So he covers it up (you can see him do this in the video) and whispers <splash> , then takes his finger off the exclamation point and says it loud again SPLASH!

Nico noticed the list of other Pigeon books on the back of one of his, and asked about them, so I logged onto the library website and looked them all up and put them ALL on hold. Except the activity book, which a library would obviously not have anyway. I told him that I'd receive an email from the library when they were ready for us to pick up. We got to experience the excitement of picking up pigeon books TWICE this week, 3 new books each time. "Nico! I just got an email! Guess where I got the email from?" "Library?" And then he would literally watch the clock for the next three hours until the library opened.

When we got the books back home, he attempted to read the books with me by following with his finger on the words and repeating what I was saying. It became confusing because the book was new to both of us and our words became a jumbled mess. So I told him I would read it to him first, and then he could read it to me. He is halfway to memorizing all these other pigeon books too.

A few nights ago he was cracking himself and me up while we were reading the Bath book before bed. He was being silly and saying the wrong words sometimes while "reading", and the word he always used was "car".

"Don't let the pigeon take a car!""wash wash car" "That is a matter of car". Or he would add the word car to the end of the sentence, "Don't let the pigeon take a bath car!" or would leave off the last word of a sentence "Don't let the pigeon take a"

Then he'd laugh hysterically and read it the correct way. This was really hilarious to see him read himself the whole book while I was holding it flipping the pages for him, saying every sentence wrong and then laughing.

That's it for this week. Enjoy the video!

Ice Skating

Saturday was Nico's first ice skating lesson. Alexis also had a skating class that morning and we ran into them in the parking lot as we were making our way inside. Lexie and Nico were in different classes since Lexie had already gone through SnowPlow 1. She was in SnowPlow 2 now. Nico was in a class with other 4 year olds, and 5 year olds and maybe a 6 year old. He was very excited about it at first. The place was packed with kids and parents, and we tried to keep up as his class made their way to the ice through throngs of people. He got a little behind, and spent a few minutes on the ice waiting for someone to notice him to take him to the spot where his class was, since he lost track of them and couldn't skate on his own. Me not having skates was very hard for me! I couldn't go get him when he was wandering, and couldn't let him know that I could see him. Then one of the volunteers found him and took him to his class. Yay!

When he got there, he was so afraid of falling that he was pretty immobile. I could see his mouth moving "Please help me", he was saying it over and over and over again. It was so loud in there I'm not surprised no one heard him. His lip was quivering. I was in full blown Momma anxiety wanting to run out there and grab him to tell him he wasn't alone and that I heard him and that of course I would help him. The class was fast paced and Nico spent about five minutes making his way slowly to the exit. I wanted to run out there and scoop him up. When he got to the exit, I was waiting, and he finally saw me, lamented the fact that he wanted to skate with Lexie, and then told me he wanted to go back to his class. Yay! He was on his way. And he knew now that he could see me through the glass. A volunteer helped him back over there, he engaged in the play for a few minutes and then the rest of the class he spent making his way again back to the exit. While he was on his way over, class ended. When he made it to me his eyes were red and welling with tears and told me he wanted to leave. I said OK and we put his name badge away and then he said "No I want to skate with Lexie." After the classes they let the kids play on the ice in a section that has been coned off. This is what Nico had been looking forward to the whole time, to re-enact what him and Lexie and Bruce did that day a few weeks ago when we went ice skating for the first time. He wanted to get himself one of those ice skating walkers and let Lexie push him around in it. So that's exactly what he did. He smiled so big the whole time! They played for about 10 minutes. When we got in the car, Nico kept telling me he didn't want to come back.

I don't want to force Nico to do anything that he doesn't want to do, but I know also how much he wants to learn to skate. So I gave it a day or two and then sat down with him and we talked about it. I told him that it will take a lot of hard work to learn how to skate, and that it was going to take time. I gave him 3 steps to do whenever he needs help on the ice. 1 - Ask God for help, 2 - Ask someone else for help as loud as he can and 3 - Keep trying until help comes. Then I asked him how he would like going skating with just me so we could practice his skills before his next lesson. He said OK and we planned it for Thursday. Today! So this morning we showed up 5 minutes after they opened and when we got on the ice there was just one other person besides us. They hadn't even started up the music yet so it was very quiet.

The very first thing we practiced was falling. Once Nico learned how fun and OK it was to FALL and then get back up, it was a lot easier on him. We got some good tips from an elderly gentleman to look straight ahead and to keep your feet together. We were there for about an hour, but only on the rink for about 30 minutes.  Potty break, tying/untying shoes, and then we stopped to play an arcade game and get a prize from one of the machines.

Getting tickled by Daddy

Nico asked "Take a picture of me with my ice cream cone!" He said "Cheeeeese" without any prompting.

Normal things happened this week, too. Church, then we saw Papa and Lexie on Sunday when they came to drop off eggs. Then school, and legos. 

I got a video of Nico reading the Pigeon Takes a Bath book all by himself, but didn't have time today to edit it and upload it, so look for it next week. He has most of the book memorized. 

Trampoline and School. Then bed.

I'm pretty sure we didn't do much this past week but let me think for a minute. Oh the picture reminded me, we received our trampoline! We set it up in the main house living room for the first day so the kids could take turns playing on it. It's easy for them to take turns on the trampoline because they tire quickly when jumping. After taking some time on the floor while the other jumps, then they're ready to go back at it. We then moved the trampoline to the Clubhouse where it resides in the kitchen most of the time. Nico uses it as a table to color sometimes but mostly as a trampoline. He sets his iPad up on the stool in front of him and he jumps and jumps and jumps while watching cartoons.

I use it for exercise, too, and have been enjoying it!

That's the only picture from this week, so I may have forgotten what else we did. Well, Nico did go back to school on Tuesday! He was very excited to go back. The bus driver told me yesterday "Give Nico some extra vitamins because there are two sick kids on the bus."

He hasn't been falling asleep on the bus, strangely enough. That was his usual thing before Christmas break. He was out at 6:15 PM tonight. Which means he will likely be up early tomorrow, which means it is way past my bedtime! Goodnight! :)

Ice Skating and Birthday Party

Guy recovered pretty quickly from his illness and was back to work on Saturday night. Saturday during the day Nico and I went to Ice World to go ice skating. Grandma Salisbury had invited all the cousins to come and eat pizza and ice skate. Nico has a lot of fun with his cousins. I got some skates too and took Nico out for his first time on the ice.

Then he joined Bruce and Lexie with an ice skating walker. Pretty soon it was just Bruce and Nico, going around and around and around the rink. I would pass them every so often and see Nico holding onto the front of the walker and letting Bruce push him. Nico would look up at me matter-of-factly and say "Hi Mommy, I'm ice skating", and wave briefly while I passed. Ho-hum, just another day on the ice rink. Here's his ho-hum face that I loved so much.

He couldn't get enough of it. After Bruce moved on, I took Nico out with the walker for a few rounds and he started pushing himself with it. He caught on pretty fast! 

When we got home he couldn't stop asking to go back. And in one more week Nico will start ice skating lessons! He is totally ready for it. It is half an hour every Saturday for eight weeks.

I came down with a cold over the next few days but nothing really bad.

Our car battery went kaput on Wednesday, and it was quite the ordeal! I didn't think it was the battery because I used Jeff and Allicia's car jumper battery and it didn't work. But it turns out that the jumper battery was not charged. So long story very short, when the tow truck that I canceled showed up because they forgot to tell the driver that I canceled it (I canceled it because we figured out it was just the battery), he pulled out an ELECTRIC car jumper and started my car up. Allicia and I were outside trying to hook up a trickle charger to my battery when the tow truck pulled up.

Wednesday was also Evie's birthday! We got her some glow-in-the-dark pajamas because her birthday party (which was today) had a glow-in-the-dark theme. Which brings me to the party tonight. Food, presents, cupcakes (I got Nico a gluten free cookie in exchange for a cupcake. The cookie was huge! I don't think he felt the loss of not having a cupcake:)), then fireworks outside then sparklers! And a LOT of glow sticks in between. She also wore her new pajamas.

 LED Balloons across the living room!

He had been asking to eat this cookie ever since he knew I was storing it in the fridge.

And a few more pics from this week.

He's been spelling words lately with his Bananagrams. Then he had the idea to use his "Words" book so he could spell the words in it.

After I took the previous picture Nico looked at me and said "No, Mommy, take a picture with my iPad."

And here's an ice skating video. Thanks Grandma Salisbury for ice skating lessons and taking pictures and giving all of us a good time.