Soap Carving, Auditory Testing, Sleepover!

Last Friday, Nico pulled out his pocket knife and started carving his soap figure for Cub Scouts. He decided on a horse.

For Saturday movie night, Nico chose Ferdinand as the movie to watch. We couldn't find it available to rent on Amazon Prime, but we did see that it was available at the RedBox at M&W Market. So Nico and I walked over there to rent it. As we were leaving I hear someone yell, "Joanna!" and it's Guy, he had stopped at M&W to get gas after he was done running errands, so we rode home with him.

Ferdinand is a VERY good movie. And the pizza, was VERY good.

Earlier on Saturday Nico and I completed his shelf by adding book ends, a pencil holder, and wrapping the edges with a bumper so that he wouldn't bonk his head at night. Here's how it looks!

On Sunday we celebrated Papa's birthday at Smokey Mountain Pizza. I can't believe I got NO pictures from it! But it was fun, Nico and Lexie played games in the arcade, and it was fun to get together, have some food, eat some cake, and celebrate PA!

Bright and early Monday morning was Nico's Auditory Processing testing. We drove out to Amity Elementary school to meet with the audiologist. She remembers Nico from Madison Elementary, where she had come to test all the kiddos' hearing. 

Nico went into a soundproof room, and the audiologist went into a different one that was connected by a window they could see each other through. I couldn't hear what they were saying to each other, but I did have a pair of headphones next to me that let me hear what Nico was hearing.  He had to go through a gamut of testing.

He had to pick out what someone was saying in one ear, with background noise coming in to the other. He had to identify "High" or "Low" for a series of tones, repeat words that were said in one ear, at the same time as a different word in the other ear. "Which word did you hear in your left ear?"

She said this kind of testing can be hard on kids and that they often take breaks, and indeed we did. Nico needed two breaks. The first one, she came out of her room first and said, "That last one was hard on him so we're going to take a break." He was discouraged that he couldn't get them all right and it was really getting him down. She told us while we were on the break that from what she was seeing that he's actually doing better than most kids his age. That seemed to cheer him up a bit.

The final report was what she had reported earlier - that for all the tests he did, overall he was testing better than kids his age. This means he has NO auditory issues! 

The only somewhat "off" thing is the reflexes in his left ear. Like you can test your knee reflexes by hitting them, they test ear reflexes by sending sound into the ear and measuring the reflex response. She said that the reflexes in his left ear are not quite what they should be. 

Alos, throughout the testing she saw that he favored his right ear and could generally understand things better when heard through his right ear. She said typically kids tend to favor their right ear. The language center is on the left side of the brain, and when someone hears something in their right ear it goes straight to the left side of the brain, so the response is quick. When something comes in through the left ear, it goes straight to the right side of the brain, so in order to get to the language center it has to cross the hemisphere over to the left, which takes a bit longer and is more pronounced in children.

I think they're mostly done with all the testing at school, and we'll talk about the results in a few weeks at another meeting.

On Tuesday, Guy took Nico to Cub Scouts only to find out they weren't meeting that night. Doh!

Wednesday morning I left on a trip and am still there - in Northern California at a conference. I will return home next Monday.

Nico stayed with Guy Wednesday, and today my Mom picked him up from school after Drama Club. Nico wanted to show her his classroom, so he took her in there, and his teacher was still there, so she was able to meet his teacher. Grandma said she was sweet and that she loves Nico.

Bruce and Rory are also staying the night tonight at Papa's and Grandma's. Mom sent me a picture of a snack bar she made for everyone tonight that was a hit! 

And here is Pa reading to Nico before bed. From here it looks like a Richard Scarry book!

Ok that's it for this week!

Jumanji, and a Rash!

Last Friday I met up with Brianna who was in town for a short while, and she gave me a Christmas gift to give to Nico. It was a game - Jumanji! We all played it the following morning, and many more times on Saturday. We were even planning to watch Jumanji for pizza that night but Nico changed his mind - the trailer looked a bit too scary. It was my turn to choose, so I chose Sherlock Gnomes. Guy had to go to band practice at 4:30 on Saturday so he missed the movie (I'm sure he wasn't too sad about that :)) but I did make him a pizza that he ate when he got home.

Saturday was a fun day. We played a lot of Jumanji, and then after lunch Nico and I went on a bike/scooter ride on the greenbelt. It was so sunny! Nico's leg got sore after a while on the scooter so we walked part of the way home. 

Once we got home I told him we were going to the car wash. Here is his reaction to being in the carwash:

He loved it.

Once we got home, we all got in the car and drove about a mile to a nearby open house. After walking through it Guy and I both agreed it was quite a fixer-upper (for $397,000!!!). We're pretty sure for that amount you would just be paying for the location.  Just a side note - we go to open houses sometimes, but we are not actively searching for a house to buy. We would like to move soon, but when we do that we will probably be renting!

We bought an adjustable lamp for Nico's shelf above his bed, it has two adjustable LED lamp arms. Now he has so much light at night!

 On Monday I received a call from the nurse at Nico's school, that he was complaining of a tummy ache. I talked to him on the phone for a bit and he was set on coming home, so I picked him up from school. He.... was fine. I took him with me to run errands and then told him we could stop for a snack and he could choose between a smoothie or Subway. He chose smoothie. But then when we got there, the smoothie place just happened to be right next to Subway. Sooooo... he got both. This is how you reward kids for staying home sick. Hehe?

Nico has been getting these small rashes on his upper body for a few weeks, mostly his arms. We confirmed that they are not bed bugs (we sanitary washed all the bedding in the house anyway), and they are not ant bites. When we visited his doctor on Tuesday she said she thinks they are related to what's going on in his gut. We discovered some helpful information with a recent test so we began a new treatment Tuesday night. I'm hopeful that the rash will clear up. New ones are still appearing. I'm trying not to fret!

Waiting for his appointment at the doctor.

Guy had expressed sadness that he didn't get a smoothie when I got Nico one on Monday, so we stopped on the way home to get Guy this Chocolate Berry Almond Smoothie from Boise Juice Co.

Nico's first adventure in Drama Club was today after school. He seemed to really enjoy it. They played games in class.

And tonight, he is reading more Tom Gates books! They are a favorite right now.

Pinewood Derby!

Last Friday was the Pinewood Derby. Out of 30+ cars, Nico came in 18th. He was very excited. Each car races 4 times and then the scores are tallied up to determine the winners. Since him and Guy had spent so much time working on the car, I think Nico was expecting a bit more winning. His very first of 4 races he came in last place against 3 other cars. The look on his face was sad (checkout video at end of blog), but then in the next race he got 3rd place out of 4 cars and he was SUPER excited! At the end, each person was given an award, Nico got the Lean Green Racing Machine Award. He was very happy about that.

When we first got there, it was imperative to have a little play time first. The other kids were crawling through the chairs and Nico joined right in.

The MC was joking at first about how we'd be there until midnight because Pinewood Derby races take a long time, especially with a whole bunch of kids. But, she explained the rules and the kids generally followed through. We were done in about an hour and a half. When it's time to pay attention, you put two fingers up in the air.

 3rd place in one of the races

 Afterward. Digging the baby interaction in the background.

On Saturday we tackled the huge task of cleaning out under Nico's bed and organizing his toys.

Organization central. We got rid of a trash bag full of stuff.

Afterward.

For pizza that night, Guy chose The Fuller Brush Man to watch, prompted in his desire by a nostalgic text from Grandma Russell about the movie. "Wanna buy a brush?" It's a black and white comedy/murder mystery, and Nico and I both really enjoyed it! I am delighted the way that Nico has been interested in a variety of movies. We were able to watch the movie downstairs, as Jeff and Allicia and the kiddos were out of town for the weekend.

Nico loves the vest that GG got him for Christmas. He wears it almost every day and he says it's his "Lucky Vest" because GG got it for him. He wore it to church on Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon, Nico went over to "the boys' house", and soon came back over with 2 of the boys. Since Jeff and Allicia were out of town, Guy and I retreated to the basement so they could play in the Clubhouse as loud as they wanted. 

On Monday, Nico didn't have school, so he came with me to my parents' house where my mom and I were going to do some work together. After lunch Papa took Nico to the park. They batted for a little bit and then Nico played on the playground. It was windy! Papa said they both stopped for a minute to listen to the wind in the trees.

Nico's been on a kick with taking things apart. He has been searching for things to take apart and then put back together. He took apart his remote control car and the remote, some of his game and some of his cars. When Rylan came over on Wednesday, he helped Nico with one of them. Then they went outside with Guy to try to fix the turn signal on the car, as part of the "taking things apart" campaign.

Wednesday morning we had Nico's yearly IEP meeting for speech (Individualized Education Program). In a few weeks we are having his 3 year review. They re-evaluate his need for speech services every 3 years, so he is going to be going through some testing in the next few weeks to determine needs. I love talking about Nico with other adults that know him. We had to list strengths, Guy and I came up with a list, but then hearing a list of strengths from his teacher was very nice. Nico's strengths:

He is very outgoing, makes friends easily, is not scared to be the center of attention when speaking in front of the class, is funny, gentle, interested in a lot of things, loves organizing things and loves science and understanding how things works. 

Nico is reading the next Tom Gates book, and is enjoying Press Start books, he checked out three of those from the library today.

That's is for this week, enjoy the video!

GG, Pinewood Derby Car, Evelyn

Last Friday, Nico had been invited to go to Urban Air with his friends across the street. I texted their mom and she said that Rylan actually had wrestling practice that day so they weren't going to be going. But they did go on Saturday! Nico was gone when we made pizza but came home in enough time to eat some and finish watching the end of "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", chosen by Guy. It was quite a funny movie, I enjoyed it. When Nico came home we told him we could switch to a different movie but he wanted to watch that one. He liked it.

That night while he was lying in bed he said, "I don't really feel like myself right now. I don't feel like myself whenever I go out in the evening." He was sad for a while.

The next day was Guy's and mine Anniversary! 13 years married on the 13th of January. Guy scraped my windows that morning 😍

Sunday was also the first day back at it with Bible Study. We are doing a study called Overcomer, about the armor of God. It looks good, it's a DVD study with a study guide and optional book.

Tuesday we visited GG in Nampa. We gave her a gift from the Grandparents Russell that had been lost under the tree and we didn't find until after GG had left.

Nico spent some time putting together a puzzle with Aunt Pat. Melody came over for a visit while we were there, too (Aunt Pat's daughter).

GG sent us home with a handful of oranges.

That evening, Guy and Nico went to Cub Scouts to drop off Nico's pinewood derby car. Guy and Nico have been spending a lot of time working on it, getting the weight just right and painting it lime green (Nico's favorite color!)

It wasn't an official Cub Scouts meeting, they just dropped the car off, Nico played tag for a little bit, and they came home. No uniform required. The race is tomorrow evening!

Tonight Evelyn came over for dinner. We aren't doing every Thursday with her like we used to, we've slowed down to about once a month. Before dinner, Nico was insistent that he wanted to read his book and wanted Evelyn to read a book too but he didn't want her sitting next to him. She chose to read on the bed like this. (And hey check out our new cabinet!)

Nico had checked out a new book from the library today - Tom Gates: Everything's Amazing (sort of) and he was very anxious to read it. He was not in a playful mood. They ended up playing a bit after dinner.

Chicken nuggets. Yummmm

And now some random pictures!

Nico said, "take a picture!" so I did.

Nico has had a lot of math homework lately, doing multiplication and division, and he was getting super frustrated until I told him he could use his numberbots to help him. He said "OH YEAH!" and he has been excited about it since. We bought him some multiplication and division wrap-ups to help him learn his times tables, and he has been enjoying that too.

I've also really been enjoying our new Instapot pressure cooker. It turned these frozen turkey legs into something tender and yummy.

Allicia and I attacked this huge pile of sock mismatches on Tuesday morning. We found a few socks that belong to us in the pile, too!

 Snow on Wednesday morning. Leaving for school early for Chess club.

Stopped in their tracks trying to solve a chess problem.

Part of Nico's homework yesterday was to log on to a typing website and spend 10 minutes learning to type. He spent about 45 minutes! (He's wearing around his neck a new medal he got in Chess!)

That's it for this week!

Pocket Knife, and New Friends

Nico saw that I was starting the blog and he wanted to tell everyone a story about something that happened today:

Mr. Bunn, my music teacher was looking around the room to see if anybody could get switched. (What does it mean to get switched?) Like switch places with someone else. (Why would someone get switched?) Some people like to chat while we're in music class. They talk too much and so they get switched so they don't talk to that person. Mr. Bunn told us to stand up so he can look around and see if anyone could get switched. And while he was looking around, I picked up my hand, and started picking my nose.

Then he demonstrated.

Last Friday I picked Nico up from the Grandparents Salisbury house, it was the last day of Grandma Camp and the Grandparents had dinner for all the kids and parents that night before we took our kids home. They ordered Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets, and Grandma made a pasta dish for a side. She made special gluten free chicken nuggets for Nico.

Nico showed me the race track they had set up that day, with a glow in the dark track.

After dinner, we headed home.

Once home, Nico opened a package from Grandpa Russell - a pocket knife for Cub Scouts! He opened up each of the things on the knife, and when he came to the bottle opener he said "I can open Izze Pops with this!"

We were able to test that out on Saturday night. Izze Pops come with a screw-top lid, so after much trying and no success, we decided to just twist the top off.

Nico chose Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul for the movie that night. We all enjoyed that one. 

Earlier in the day we had assembled our cabinet that had been waiting in the garage for us until after Christmas. We needed to wait until after we put Christmas away before we could put it together, because it was to sit right where we had our Christmas tree. Nico had a lot of opportunities to practice using his pocket knife while putting the cabinet together. He keeps it in its case and carefully opens it every time it's needed. 

Guy and Nico also got a lot of work done on Nico's Pinewood Derby car on Saturday morning. They added weights and sanded it. They just need to paint it and then it will be ready to go! The race is next Tuesday, the 15th.

Nico has been hanging out with some new neighbor boys that moved in on the corner. They have 6 kids? 4 boys, 2 girls. I think. The boy he is closest to is in 5th grade. The first time he hung out with them was when it had snowed a while ago, one of the boys invited him over to his yard to build a snow fort. Then a few weeks ago Nico asked if he could go knock on their door and see if they wanted to play. So Guy went over with him, introduced himself to the mom, and Nico hung out there playing board games (Risk) with 3 of the boys. Both Guy and I went over there to pick him up, and then I was able to meet the mom, too. They are a super nice family, "down to earth".  He's been over there several times since. Yesterday, after he was done with his homework, he went and knocked on their door. I told him to be home at 5:30. He came home about 5:20 with the 5th grade boy (Rylan) and Nico asked me if he could stay for dinner. I said... Yes! 

He was very polite.

After dinner, Nico pulled out his microscope for them to look at. They hooked up a webcam and took pictures through the microscope.

They invited Nico to go to Urban Air after school tomorrow. I said... Yes! Everyone at school received a free Urban Air pass from the library. 

And Nico is working on reading 600 minutes to receive a free Roaring Springs Water Park pass. He is at 450-ish minutes so far. On Monday he read 3 hours! He is reading and rereading all his Dogman books. I'd say they are definitely his favorites. Guy reads them to Nico at night and he uses a different voice for each character. It's fun to listen to. 

Now a video with some snippets!

Birthday Parties, and Grandma Camp!

Last Friday was a busy day for us. Nico's friend from church, Reese, had a birthday party at Circustrix in Nampa. Lots of trampolines and foam pits to play in. Check out the video for a slow-motion jump! Nico did lots of flips.

After Circustrix we went to Reese's house for cake and presents. Reese's mom had made a gluten free pie for Nico's sake! She let us bring the rest of it home so Guy could have some too.

Friday evening was my brother Jonny's birthday party. His wife Alanna put it on and she did a wonderful job. It was Star Wars themed and I got a kick out of all the Star Wars names for the food, like "7 Leia Dip". Hah! They also had Star Wars episodes 4, 5, and 6 playing in various places around the house.

There were friends there that I hadn't seen in a while, and it was great catching up. Nico played with the kids that were there, including Lexie. He had a good time too and I barely saw him. The kids spent some time in the garage fighting with light sabers made from huge floppy foam cylinders, kind of like pool noodles but much thicker.

Saturday we had another birthday, Evelyn's! She had her party at her Aunt Julie's house. They live about a 2 minute drive from our house, in the same East End neighborhood. And they have a geothermal pool in their backyard! Check out the steam on the pool!

Whenever anyone would leave the pool and come back inside, you could see the steam rolling off of their skin.

After pool time was over, all the kiddos gathered inside and made their way to the huge windows in the living room that look into the back yard. Every year, as you might remember, we do fireworks on Evelyn's birthday. This year was no exception.

Then we had pizza, and opened presents and ate cake.

On Sunday, we made pizza! It was my turn to choose the movie, and I picked Big Hero 6. It was well-liked by all of us.

Monday we made sure to match our shirts. We wore the shirts that Grandma and Papa got us for Christmas. Nico and I headed over to my parents' house and Guy joined us later that evening for dinner. We ate good food and answered questions around the table. Nico was asked: "If you could choose any pet to get tomorrow, what would you get and what would you name it?" He said he would get a cat and name if Fluff McGuff. We also had interesting conversations about ants and tornadoes.

Tuesday, I left the boys at home and had a shopping day with my Mom at the mall. Yay! I got a text from Guy while we were there, telling me that Nico was very sad that Grandma Camp would be starting tomorrow instead of that day, and Nico wanted to know if he could stay over at Grandma's house a night early. Grandma said YES, so after we were done at the mall, Grandma Salisbury came and picked Nico up from our house and took him back with her.

Grandma Camp officially started the next day, Wednesday, when all the other kids arrived. And he's been having fun from what I hear! They went roller skating again, and though he didn't seem to like it last time they went, Lexie spent some time helping him skate and he has started to enjoy it. I also know they went to a new jump place called Altitude.

Various Grandma Camp pictures:

Now you can check out the video! Mostly from Circustrix, but also a shot of him skating.