G.G., Easter Party, Jesus

On Friday we went to see G.G. in Nampa. She showed me these adorable stuffed dogs that she made, I just can't believe how cute these things are!! She sent me home with the purple one for baby Ivy, who loves it!! 

Nico had fun playing with the blocks, building some of the things displayed on the side of the bin. He also had fun "hiding" Scamper's dog treat under the table for him to find. Scamper had to be coaxed over to where it was lying on the floor because he didn't see it.

Then G.G. showed me the firetruck quilt. Wow!! I am so impressed by this. I love that cute little dog in the corner.

Guy had last weekend off and he took Nico out on Saturday. Nico and Guy have started going to McDonalds when they go out, so that Nico can play on the toys. Guy just buys some french fries for himself. Nico calls it "Old McDonalds". "Can we go to Old McDonalds?"

On Tuesday Guy and I put together our new 3x4 cube storage that is replacing our dresser. It takes up much less space than our dresser did so it feels like we added a whole new room to our house. That is what I'm talking about! We are trying to organize this space a bit better and we're on our way.

Wednesday was Nico's Easter Party at his new preschool (that is how we differentiate between the two preschools - old preschool and new preschool). I teared up while they were singing their song about Jesus. I'm such a sap. I just like that he's learning about Jesus taking our sins away. He often tells me out of the blue: "You can trust God", quoting one of his favorite songs. He repeats it "you can trust God, you can trust God, you can trust God." Then he'll say "Jesus lives in my heart." He'll tilt his head, look at the floor, and tap his heart with his right hand. Tonight I encouraged him to pray before bed after I prayed and his usual thing is "no you do it". But I asked him to come up with one thing to thank God for. "I don't know", so I asked him what is one thing that he loves. And he said "Mommy" So he repeated after me "Thank you for Mommy"...

Me: Is there anything else you want to thank Jesus for?

Nico: Daddy?

Me: Yep

Nico: Thank you for Daddy. Evie?

Me: Yeah

Nico: Thank you for Evie. And Allicia. And Lexie. Amen

Nico eating his Easter Party Snack and looking at a picture of himself on Teacher Melissa's phone

All of Nico's friends at his new preschool

The latest in nighttime reading traditions is letting Nico read the words "it" and "was". These are the first two words in the book "Curious George Cleans Up", so that's how he chose them. But he reads these words in every book, not just that one. When I come to one of those words, I stop and point to it, and then he reads it. I think he is excited about being able to read. 

Putting together a lego with Daddy. A beautiful day to have both doors open to get a breeze! Can you perceive the extra light coming in from the open back door?

Until next time! (I'll have news next week of Nico's first Kindergarten transition meeting)

New Baby, Spring Break Quarantine, Sleepover

Spring Break started after school on Friday, and that evening Nico wanted to jump right into all the fun word work that his SLP sent home with him. By Saturday we were halfway through it.

Saturday was a big day for this house! Allicia went into labor Saturday afternoon, they were pretty sure it was partly because she was dehydrated because she was sick the night before. She went into labor and then a few hours later, meet Ivy Marie! It was quick!

The rest of their family caught the bug that Allicia had, so we had a quarantine. That means that we don't let Nico play with Evie while Evie is sick, and we don't hang out and play with their toys while they are sick. We stay in the clubhouse together or go out. And we use a lot of hand sanitizer spray. Nico and I have gone out several times this week to parks. Quarry View is so close, we have been walking there or riding there. 

Allicia's mom came into town on Sunday and took care of them as they recovered from illness and also with a new baby. What an intense weekend for them!!

Nico and I also went to the zoo this week, maybe on Monday? I don't remember exactly. There is good news on the zoo front: No More Dinosaurs! We were able to easily go see the giraffes TWICE because there were no dinosaurs stopping us.

Me: "There's no more dinosaurs, they're gone!"

Nico: "No more dinosaurs? Where did the go?"

Me: "They took them away, probably to another zoo."

Nico: "Another zoo? Okay! What other zoo?"

Me: "I don't know which one." 

Nico: "Oh okay, let me think, hmmm. "

Then on Tuesday, Grandma Salisbury picked Nico up and Nico spent the night up at the cabin! He waited for Grandma by the front door and when she arrived he was so excited. He ran out to her, dragging his suitcase-on-wheels behind him. He had found his suitcase the night before and packed it himself with a new change of clothes. 

He had soooo much fun up there, chopping wood with Papa, playing with legos, jumping on the trampoline. Guy and I came up Wednesday for dinner to bring Nico back home. Grandma Salisbury once again made some incredible food for all of us. And sent us home with leftovers. Their salads are always the best because of all the sprouts they grow. It's basically a sprout salad. I love it! And their new homemade dressing is pretty incredible too. 

Then today we picked up a bunch of books from the library that were waiting for us. One was a video, a cartoon medley of three Mo Willems books. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog was the first one. Cartoon! Mo Willems is the voice of the pigeon, and his daughter is the voice of the duckling. It's pretty great.

This evening we were able to get a bike trailer for Nico. Nico was very excited about this. We took it for a test spin and I think we have some kinks to work out, but I'm looking forward to using it this spring and summer and next Fall. Greenbelt, picnics, etc, riding him to school, then picking him up in the afternoon and taking him straight to the park for a picnic date. Oh, he got assigned to MORNINGS in Kindergarten, we got the call last Friday. Yay!! That is just what we wanted. 8:40 AM -11:30 AM. We also scheduled our transition appointments with White Pine and with Adams, those take place in early April.

Guy has been mentioning lately that he is intrigued by the idea of celebrating the first day of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. As a way to mark the passing of time and give us something to look forward to. It could maybe even be the first week of each season. A few ideas we had: Put a season-themed puzzle together, watch the corresponding Curious George season movie (they have one for spring, fall, and winter), or doing picnics for summer, or any number of appropriate activities based on season. If anyone has any ideas, we are gathering them at the moment! I was super excited that Guy was super excited about this. We will make it happen! 

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!