Easter

I went to Nico's school on Friday for their Easter egg hunt. The Easter bunny also came for a visit and Nico got a picture taken with him. Nico had fun and after that was over he got to come home with me instead of riding the bus.

Saturday we went to the Boise Farmer's Market for the very first time this year! We found a new vendor that sells gluten and corn free bread and baked goods. Nico tried their cinnamon bread. We will be going back this Saturday to BUY some! I thought the cinnamon bread would make some good toast for breakfasts. Went to Old Park that afternoon and Nico discovered swinging on his tummy.

Him and a girl named Lily hit it off at the park and they were both swinging on their tummies.

Sunday was church and then Easter at the cabin. We saw family we hadn't seen in a while, an Aunt and  Uncle of mine that had never met Nico before! And cousins I hadn't seen in a while. It was a lot of fun. Easter egg hunt reminded me of the ones we used to have at my Great Grandma French's farm. The adults would hide the eggs and then the kids would be let loose (the younger ones first). So Nico got to search for eggs one minute before the next batch of kids were released. He was allowed to get 22 eggs. Since he couldn't have the candy in them, the other kids were kind enough to trade eggs with him so that he just ended up with toys. Lots of stamps, lots of finger puppets, light up rings, colorful rubber bands. My brother Jonny climbed up the side of the cabin and planted one of the easter eggs in a bird's nest perched on the highest beam on the side of the cabin. When the kids were let loose to find the eggs, one of my cousins climbed up there to retrieve it.

A snap shot from a video of Rocky climbing up the side of the house

Alanna took pictures of the event and I'll post them when I get copies!

Monday we went to see Allicia and kids in the morning. Then in the afternoon we met Grandma Salisbury at the mall for an adventure! I got a pair of pants and shirt and some See's candy (Thanks Mom!) Haven't had See's candy in about 3 years at least! Rocky Road used to be my favorite.

Tuesday I had another essential oils class for pregnancy and babies. Nico and Guy got the tire fixed, went to the library, and then to the bookstore to play with the train. It was a fun night for all. 

Please pray that Guy will be favored when he interviews for the engineering position in the next few weeks. We are ready for him to move to days!

Today Nico was watching a muppet show on Netflix called The Mighty Jungle. Kids tell parts of the story and the muppets act them out. One part had this meerkat holding his baby sister. So Nico started talking about his baby sister and went to get his doll. I tucked her in next to Nico and he gladly stayed there with his arm around her until he was done watching his show.

That's all for this week! Stay tuned for Easter pictures in the coming weeks!

Airplanes and IEP

I went to download the pictures off my camera from this past week and I had ZERO on there. Really? I forgot to take pictures again? Thank goodness my Mom took some over the weekend when Nico stayed with them. Oh but I must show off his new haircut, so I will take a picture tonight of that.

On Friday I put Nico on the bus to school and then drove up to Cascade for an essential oils retreat with a bunch of other women (and a few men) at a nice, large cabin. I do have a picture of this! This was about 1/3 of the people. I made a few friends and had a good time!

Guy woke up early on Friday to get Nico off the bus at 12:30, and then my Mom came to pick him up at 4. They picked up Papa at the airport where he had been flying his plane, and Nico got to sit in the cockpit and play with all the controls. I can just imagine he must have been in heaven!

He stayed that night at the cabin with my parents, and had an incredible walk adventure with Papa the next day. Nico was trying to go in the direction of home, so they walked around and down to the main road, then for their return trip they made a shortcut up the mountain through the ravine next to the cabin. After lunch they both sacked out on the chair in the living room while reading a book.

I came and picked him up that afternoon and brought him back home. Thank you to the Grandparents Salisbury for watching Nico for us overnight!

Sunday was church and then in the evening we took a trip to see our friends Cassi and Cory. Nico got to play with their kids and had a lot of fun playing with toys and running around the back yard. He even played a bit of tetherball.

Monday we went to visit G.G. and had a blast there, too. Nico is intrigued with her TV so he watches a bit while we're there. G.G. brought out some new cars and Nico enjoyed playing with those.

Tuesday was Nico's IEP meeting, which went really well! Next year he will continue going to school 4 days a week, but in the afternoon class this time. We agreed it was a good idea because his peers will also be moving to the afternoon class and we wanted Nico to stay with them. We came up with goals for next year, you can see how detailed they are:

During classroom activities with peers, Nico will stay in his designated seat and participate appropriately (look, listen, and respond as directed) during adult-directed group activities in 8 out of 10 observable opportunities with 3 verbal prompts from adults by April of 2015.

Pretty specific, huh? That's how all the goals read.

There are a few related to social/emotional, and a few related to speech. Here's a speech one:

Nico will speak using correct grammar forms (pronouns, present progressive "is" + "-ing" verbs, plurals, possessives) with 75% accuracy in conversational activities during a 5 minute speech sample, over 3 consecutive sessions by 4/2015.

Nico didn't need any goals related to academic performance or fine motor skills.

We will find out in May if he will have his same teacher (crossing my fingers that he will!)

I also asked who the child was that Nico likes to play computer games with and they told me it was Bailey. Whenever he sits at the computer he always looks around for her to see if she wants to come play with him.

Nico's haircut

Apparently there were 3 blond haired boys that came into school on Tuesday with haircuts, Nico being one of them. It was a hair cuttin' weekend!

Family Visit

The Grandparents Russell came into town on Saturday morning. Nico was so excited to see them that he spent the first hour or so pulling out the stuff from the top drawer of our desk in the living room, because he wanted to show them everything. We took a trip to Camel's Back park that afternoon.

Saturday evening Guy made everyone Pad Thai, which was excellent! Grandparents brought Nico some new books and a new sticker book, too! And a really cool Curious George activity book.

Sunday to church. G.G. joined us on this day, and surprised Nico with a new watch for an early Easter gift. Nico loves it! It is color coded to help in learning how to tell time.  For dessert on Sunday, Guy made strawberry ice cream made with coconut milk. Nico's first time trying ice cream, and he really liked it. He also really liked going on adventures with Grandma Russell outside. Using his magnifying glass to look at moss on rocks, exploring tiny rock caves, and throwing rocks into a "river" (puddle).

Relaxing after dinner.

G.G. and Nico playing.

The wind up...

The grab!

Monday was a short trip to Allicia's house so the Grandparents could meet Allicia and crew. In the afternoon we went to the Fish Park. It was a beautiful day! We walked over to Municipal Park afterward.

We will see them again soon!

Other things this week:

Nico's class picture. He can name all of his teachers, and most of the kids! (sorry for picture quality!)

Fun with Youtube. Pirate Nico!

On Tuesday his school was celebrating " The Week of the Young Child", emphasis on healthy living. They invited parents to participate in a little event in the gym, so I went to Nico's school that morning. There were stations set up, each one with a different theme. Teeth brushing, reading, exercise (yoga), gardening, art, building. Then outside was an obstacle course. I got to go to all of these stations with Nico. It is always great to be there at the school with him because Miss Candace his teacher always tells me little tidbits about what/how Nico is doing at school. I love those little tidbits. She asked if Guy was an engineer, because Nico is very precise, loves to build and work on things and has excellent fine motor skills. She said she is having a hard time coming up with academic goals for him for next year because he is doing so well! Most of the goals for Nico next year will likely be social and speech related. But academically he appears to be doing great. We will find out more about all of this at the IEP meeting next Tuesday.

Back at It

Before I start in on this week, here is a picture from last week that I didn't post.

I took Nico to Fred Meyer so he could spend his last two dollars, and I gave him the wallet that G.G. made for Guy when he was little. We bought 2 Hot Wheels with the money.

Now on to the update!

Nico was looking forward very much to going back to school. He asked about school at least a few times a day as we were nearing the end of spring break. We counted down the days.

Saturday was Nico's cousin Lily's birthday party. And I just remembered that I took pictures with my Mom's iPhone. I just called her to have her send the pictures to me. Thanks Mom!! The party was up at the cabin and it was so much fun! Lily chose first to have an owl sound contest, so everyone made owl sounds. Nico said "Who who whoo" when it was his turn. Then we played hide and seek. Me and Nico were on the same team. We hid behind the bed, in a closet, and under a blanket. Then when it was his turn to count, we counted to thirty together and then went and found his hiding cousins. We ate cupcakes after this! Lily is trialing a gluten free diet, so we had gluten free cupcakes that Nico was able to eat, and he ate TWO of them. And by two I mean that he ate just the tops. The frosting is the most exciting part, you see.

Then there was a piñata! It was one where you pull the strings from it and one of them opens the piñata. Unfortunately NONE of the strings opened the piñata, so Papa came to the rescue and opened it for us. It was filled with small toys, stamps, some cars, and a bit of candy. Any candy that Nico got we traded with his cousins for more toys. Nico was so happy to have his own little gift basket full of squishy owls and bendy bunnies and owl stamps and cars. After he filled up his bag with the goodies, he turned to walk down the stairs, looked back at me and said "Go-a home, Mommy!" heehee! That made us all laugh.

Sunday we went to church. I just happened to have my camera with me without even planning for it (when does that ever happen?) and got a very cute picture of Nico with Papa. Papa takes Nico to the Sunday School room and always picks him up, too.

Nico went back to school on Tuesday. He came home with the 3rd quarter progress report. They send home a progress report every quarter to update us on how he's doing as far as reaching his IEP goals is concerned. As time passes I'm becoming more familiar with this whole IEP deal (Individualized Education Program). We are having our IEP meeting for the 2014 school year in a few weeks. At that time we will write out the goals for next year. He has come so incredibly far since starting preschool last fall, but I know we still have a ways to go before he is prepared for kindergarten.

But, progress report, he has met two of his five goals already! Woohoo!!

One of my favorite notes on the report says:

"Nico's attention span is increasing which is making it possible for him to engage in more cooperative play with his peers. He has really enjoyed the building, computer and dollhouse centers this quarter. He still needs adult help to take turns and share toys. He has played really nice with a particular peer on the computer taking turns using the mouse and laughing and singing together."

I love to hear stuff like that! Seeing him interact and laugh with other kids just makes me so happy. 

Regarding speech:

"Nico has made such good progress on saying the final consonants of words. We have worked on saying the last sound in two syllable words and in two word phrases. He continues to need reminders to not add a vowel after the final "t" or "k" sounds. He is also doing well with saying the "t" in the middle of words (ex: water - he used to say wa-er). It's great to hear him correctly pronounce his name!"

On Tuesday Nico and Guy hung out at home while I went out with my friend Jennifer to a dōTERRA event called Healthy From the Inside Out. It was so much fun, great information, then we went to Solid Bar & Grill afterward. It was great to see her and get caught up.

Today we went to Camel's Back Park. It had been rainy for a few days, so being in the sun was so nice!

Family adventure on Monday.

Nico: Pick-a take-a Mommy

Me: You want me to take a picture of you?

Nico: Um Yes

Me: Okay, here we go. 1, 2, 3!

Nico: See, Mommy!

Me: You want to see the picture?

Nico: Yes.

Grandpa and Grandma Russell are coming for a visit on Saturday!! Nico grabbed a picture of Grandpa off the fridge and said "Grandma and Grandpa come to Nico's house!" Nico has been waiting for this day since the day they left to go back home at Christmas.

Spring Break

Late night tonight! Spring break is keeping us busy.

 We saw G.G. on Monday. She gave Nico an old blue car that belonged to her brother. Nico loves it. He also has been asking to go back to "G.G. house" all week. 

 On Tuesday, Allicia and Jeff came over with their kid crew and Guy made everyone pad thai for dinner. It was amaaaazing. It was the first time I had had a full meal of Guy's pad thai. I am so glad there were leftovers for me. We sent home some leftovers with Jeff and Allicia, too. Guy made 3 batches of it! Jeff and Allicia also brought over a flourless cake for dessert, which I hear was excellent. 

Wednesday we made it up to the cabin where we are staying for two nights. Soon after getting here, Nico and Papa went outside and spent some time chopping things. Nico is really enjoying himself, there are a lot of perks to hanging out with grandparents! I let the rules get a little stretchy in these situations. Watching the iPad while he eats and passing on the broccoli for dinner is A-OK. That's what spring break is for, right?

 Then tonight we had an essential oils class at the cabin. Papa and Nico hung out while we were all upstairs. It was a lot of fun. Maybe short and sweet today, also because I left our camera at home and there are no other pictures to share but this one my Mom took of me and Nico this morning.

I'll post the rest of the pictures from this past week in next week's blog. I'm sure we did other fun things, because I remember taking pictures. Just not sure what the pictures are of.

Spring has Sprung!

The Mini Joys came to Nico's school on Friday. Miniature horses! Nico didn't say much about them after school but did agree that he got to see them that day. Grandma Salisbury was here on Friday and got to help get Nico from the bus. Nico was very excited! Grandma got us some sushi (Nico got some skewered chicken) and we ate lunch together.

This past week both Nico and I caught a cold, sore throat and such. We fought it off and have been successful at keeping it under the radar. We did have to miss out on Lexie's birthday party on Saturday because of it, and we skipped church on Sunday. But I did teach Nico how to play Slap-Jack and we played on his drum quite a bit, went through a lot of songs. He knows how to ask for which Tom T. Hall song for me to sing by calling out the song number. "Singa numba one, mommy!" He must practice drumming at school because he beats on the drum pretty well while we sing the ABCs.

Nico had a dentist appointment on Monday. He let them get further than ever before and actually let them polish two of his teeth. A few weeks ago in school they were talking about dentists and I wonder if that had something to do with how comfortable he seemed. He was even quite interested in touching and handling the tools that the dental assistant used. She always asks him if he wants to hold it and touch it and play with it before she uses it on him. He squirted much water onto the carpet and even let her squirt water into his mouth and suck it up with the sucker at the same time! His teeth look fine and she told me to start flossing between his back molars since they're touching.

Tuesday was another essential oils class. Allicia and Avery came to this one, it was a lot of fun. Guy and Nico went out again and had a blast. Guy called right before the class started to tell me that Nico sprained his ankle going down the twisty slide at Old Park. I was telling this to Allicia and she agreed that that particular slide is like a blender, and I think that's what we'll call it from now on. After they went to the park they went to the Co-op and then to the bookstore again to play with the train. I'm so glad they're getting some time together like this, Nico loves it!!

They came home that night and Nico was limping. He is still limping a bit, and we are going to the chiropractor on Monday to make sure everything is straightened out.

This week I forgot to take pictures until today. So all the pictures are from today, but you will see all the different kinds of fun we have in one day. So many exciting little things happen all the time.

Strider ride. Got up the hill and Nico wanted to turn around and go back home so he could "fix" his Strider bike. We got the pump out and the Leatherman, and he pumped up the tires and used the pliers to "turn" the knobs on the wheels. After he was done we went back out to finish our ride.

Spilled water required a change of pants. I come into the living room after telling him to go pick out some new pants, and he is crouching over a glittery shamrock he had decorated at school, with my hat on. He stood up and showed me his hands that were covered in green glitter.

A tasty food that we rediscovered today: olives. I put one on his finger and showed him how to bite it off. He asked for 10 olives in a bowl and he put one on each finger.

Showing Daddy his olives.

Today was also class picture day at his school. We endeavored to let him pick out his own shirt. We said: "Today is picture day at school, what shirt would you like to wear?" He just happened to be playing with dinosaurs, so he instantly chose to wear his yellow dinosaur shirt. Ok! And he woke up this morning with his entire head as a fluff ball of hair. I had never seen it that ratty before. I combed through it with lots of water and it calmed down a bit.

And tonight Nico had hot chocolate for the first time. I made it with coconut milk, cocoa powder, maple syrup, and water. It was very good!

Well, until we meet again!

Daddy Dinner Date, and Snippets

Saturday Nico and I went to the tire shop to get our tire looked at, it had been leaking air. While they were looking at it, we went for a walk around the block (we were downtown). Stopped into a bike shop and Nico counted all the bikes. One of the clerks said to him "Be sure to tell us how many there are!"

It turns out our tire had a nail in it, but they fixed it (for $15! cheap!) and said it was good as new. Well, ALMOST good as new.

Saw Allicia and Co. on Monday, briefly.

On Tuesday evening I taught another essential oils class. I sent the boys out an hour before it started. They had a GREAT time! Guy took Nico to Red Robin and they ate dinner there. Nico had a hamburger patty with a tomato on it, some broccoli and a few fries. Then they went to Pick-a Park and then off to the bookstore to play with the train-set there. All of those things are Nico's favorite things to do, so he had a lot of fun.

Of course, Strider rides and walks and park visits happened quite a few times this past week. Today we went to TWO parks! One right after the other.

Nico came home from school on Wednesday and without me even asking him what he did in school that day, he started telling me. Rory, Connor, Bailey, Miss Marybeth, T, Timothy the Tiger, t t t t (with hand motions), fix a house, hammer a nail (swings his arm up and down like he's hitting a nail). That seemed to be a pretty fun day for him! They are talking about construction workers and builders this week. His homework is a Bob the Builder activity page.

No pictures this week, so I figured I better put together another snippet video. Thankfully I have a few snippets :) And some pretty good ones, I think. Nico imitates a Clifford episode while watching it, calls Evie and Papa on his play phone, and vacuums his room. There might be another one in there I don't remember.

Papa, Spending Money, and Strider Games

On Friday morning, Nico woke up asking to go to Papa's house. I told him I would see if we could go visit them on Saturday. When he climbed onto the bus that morning, he told the bus driver "a Papa!" The attendant turned to me and asked, "Papa?" And I told her that we might be going to see Papa and that Nico was really excited about it.

So on Saturday morning we took a trip up to the cabin to see Gma and Papa. We had a great time! Nico kept asking to fly an airplane when he found out that Papa was going to be flying an airplane that day. We told him that in 3 years he can go up in the plane with Papa. He kept saying "fly in a airplane a 3 years!"

On Sunday Nico pulled out his piggy bank and wanted to go buy legos with the money. So we told him that on Tuesday we could take him to Fred Meyer to buy some legos. We counted up all his money and he had $36! Guy took him on Tuesday night, and they came home with a toy motorcycle and a "car wash" toy with a car that changes colors when you put it in cold water. Nico had changed his mind! He didn't seem interested in legos when confronted with all the other toy possibilities.

Nico playing with his color-changing car while Guy assembles the "car wash".

On Monday we went to visit Allicia, Evie, and Avery. We always have fun over there!

And warm weather means more Strider rides! I got quite a jog in with this last one. He had just been playing with his new toy motorcycle, so while riding the Strider he all of a sudden said "motorcycle!" and zoomed off fast. He sustained the speed for quite some time.

We've been practicing "STOP!" while on the Strider. I say "STOP!" and he stops immediately. It's a game, so it's fun :) We practice that a lot. Then I also have been showing him where to stop when he gets up to a crosswalk ahead of me and I'm not there yet. Still working on that one. He is precise like me, so he puts his front wheel right on the VERY EDGE where the sidewalk stops and the road starts. I'm trying to teach him to stop a little further back.

He climbed up onto the chair while wearing Guy's shoes.

A common occurrence after lunch: iPad and cashew butter/molasses ("cah-oo appa buttah")

Dinosaurs, G.G., Washing Hands, and Snippets Video

Nico brought home a dinosaur egg on Friday with instructions to put it in a warm place overnight. Saturday morning we opened it up and there was a toy dinosaur! The overnight stay in the cupboard was just part of the adventure. I thought it may have been necessary to its survival, if it was a growing dinosaur that you soaked in water before putting in the egg or something of that nature, but it was just a normal dinosaur toy. But it did get a nice rest in the cupboard, and then in the morning we pulled out the large green egg and opened it up. THEN we ate green eggs for breakfast! And Guy read "Green Eggs and Ham" to us. (See video below for the highlights!)

On Monday we went to see Grandma G.G. Nico wanted to bring his car garage that G.G. sewed for him, so we brought that with us. Have I ever shown you what the inside of this garage looks like?

Monday afternoon we met Allicia, Evie and Avery at Old Park. We also ran into another friend of ours while we were there. The day was beautiful and sunny and a perfect afternoon for park time.

This week in school they are learning about hygiene, taking care of their teeth and washing their hands.  Before dinner today Nico was almost to the table when he said "Uh oh! Wash a hands!" and ran to the bathroom. 

Nico has started watching a new cartoon on Netflix - Clifford!

He found Daddy's glasses

 Playing games with Daddy.

Reading "I Broke My Trunk"

This entry is a little shorter today because I spent some time putting together a snippet video. Nico is in a memorizing mode, he recites cartoons while watching them, recites books while we read them, sings songs while they play, you'll get to see a bit of that in the video.

Until next week!

Lexie, Parks, Signs, Stooges

Friday was Valentine's Day and Nico came home with a bunch of Valentines from his friends. It was very fun to open them all. Friday morning I had asked Nico if he wanted to give the bus drivers a Valentine and he said Yes. So we put two of them together. One for Dan, the morning bus driver, and one for Miss Donna, the morning bus attendant. Nico signed his name on both of them! He carried both out to the bus, gave them to Miss Donna as she helped him up the steps, and then stopped when he got to the top so he could take one and give it to Dan. He wanted to communicate something, I could tell, he kind of mumbled and stood there for a bit. They were both so happy and said thank you and Dan shook his hand. Dan and Miss Donna are so friendly and I am so happy Nico has them in the morning! Nico often stops when he gets to the top of the steps so that he can shake Dan's hand.

Then Friday night, we hung out with Lexie while Jonny and Alanna went on a date. Nico had a blast watching Curious George with her late into the night.

Lexie even introduced him to a different cartoon on Netflix about pirates! There is always fun and excitement whenever Lexie is around. 

We had some SUN and warmth this past week! We took full advantage of it and went to the Goose Park two days in a row. I woke up with sore arms after the first day, from pushing Nico on the swing! 

There were also several walks around the block this week. One of note was on Tuesday night. Nico emptied his lego bucket, the one with wheels, put a screwdriver in the bucket, and kept asking to go outside, and kept saying what sounded like "sun". Did he want to go outside into the sun? Guy took him for a walk, and Nico pulled the lego bucket behind him. When they got home Guy told me what the purpose of the walk was. Nico wanted to take his wagon around the neighborhood, not because of the SUN, but to collect SIGNS. An instance of Curious George mimicking! There is an episode of Curious George where he takes his wagon around the town and uses his screwdriver to take down a bunch of signs and put them in his wagon to take them home. Then he goes back out and returns them all. Nico got a good dose of pretend play, they pretended to unscrew signs and put them in his bucket, then pretended to screw them back on.

Other things that Nico wants to do because of Curious George: plant a garden, build a car wash, fly a kite, build a sand castle. I've started making a list of things to do this summer, I mentioned two of them already in a previous entry, but the list is growing, and here it is:

1. Fly a kite

2. Shoot off a rocket

3. Go swimming

4. Go to an apple orchard and pick apples

5. Plant a garden

6. Paddle Boats

7. Feed the ducks

8. Discovery Center

9. Apple Pie

10. Build a sand castle (if possible!)

And a few long term goals (ideas gathered from reading books)

1. Build a car from a kit

2. Fly a plane. Or at least, fly IN a plane.

There is also a ritual that has recently started. It doesn't happen every morning, but perhaps 50% of the time. After breakfast, Nico will get up onto our bed with Guy and watch an episode of Three Stooges before Guy goes to bed. Nico laughs and laughs and laughs and reenacts. We've had to talk to him a few times about not hitting, and Guy is being careful in what episodes they watch (he is, after all, in a mimicking mood these days), but it has been a lot of fun for both of them.

Guy's elimination diet has revealed a sensitivity to lemons and to peanuts! Lemons gave him a migraine and made his trigger finger swell. Peanuts gave him a migraine. We are slowly reintroducing foods, tomorrow we trial grapefruit. And an unexpected outcome: Guy has lost a lot of weight in just the 4 weeks we've been doing this.

This week in school Nico is learning about Dinosaurs. For homework, we had to ask Nico how to cook a dinosaur, with some leading questions, and then write down what he said. Nico agreed that the dinosaur had to have a bath first, and that he had to be boiled. I asked him if he needed to be cooked with vegetables and Nico said broccoli. When I asked him again later how to cook a dinosaur, he pointed to the oven and said "Rrraaaaarrrr!!" I wrote all that down on the paper and sent it back to school with him today.

This morning I taught another essential oils class for pregnancy/birth/babies. It was so much fun! I love teaching that class. I have one more planned for March.

Guy got up to go to the bathroom and when he came back, Nico had grabbed his computer. Multitasking with the iPad!

Watching Curious George on the BIG BIG computer while playing with cars.

 He fell asleep at 6 PM tonight while I was reading him a book about cars. Zonk.

Valentines and a Muddy Park

Nico had his very first snow day on Friday! We were still struggling with illness at the time, so weren't able to take advantage of it by going outside much, though we did take a trip to the Co-op. We needed to buy some walnuts because we just got a nutcracker and we needed to try it out. We cracked some walnuts and talked about squirrels.

On Saturday we had a special dinner. I had asked on Facebook if anyone had the Cars movie that we could borrow, and someone told me she had two copies and that we could have one. Yay! So on Saturday we picked up the movie, and then for dinner I made buffalo burgers (hamburgers made from ground buffalo) and we watched Cars while eating. For dessert we had freshly made cashew butter with molasses (Nico's current favorite treat). I know, molasses, right? It actually tastes pretty darn good, though :)

Saturday is also when Nico's fever started coming back and I started getting sick again too. We hadn't quite gotten over the last cold before this new one hit us. Guy caught it just yesterday, so he's going through it right now. We stayed home from church on Sunday because Nico still had his fever. But we had fun building parking lots with memory game cards.

Monday it was so sunny! Almost 50 degrees outside. We still had the sniffles, but we ventured out to go to the Co-op, and once that fresh air hit me I KNEW we had to stay outside much longer than the few minutes we were planning. So we went to the Fish Park after the Co-op. Snowy and muddy there still, but fun. We also crossed the big stretch of grass to get over to Municipal Park for a brief stint on the playground. The grass was covered in goose poop and mud holes, and we did NOT make it out unscathed. Nico had a bath when we got home and the shoes stayed outside.

This week in school he is learning about Valentine's Day and the post office. They are having a Valentine's party tomorrow, decorating cookies and handing out Valentines. We got Nico some Cars valentines that we put together on Wednesday. The school provided us with a list of names that we cut out (Nico is so good at cutting straight lines, wow!!) and then glued on.

Nico asked me to take a picture of him with this white clippy thing on his nose. He brought me the camera and said "take-a picka Mommy". 

He's been experimenting with saying "Mom" instead of "Mommy", and still says "Guy" sometimes because he knows we think it's funny. He enjoys telling us what he learns in school, and has started singing along to the songs in the car. My favorite one is the Tom T Hall song where he says "and I love you too".  Hearing Nico say that out loud along with the song is just so sweet. He also quotes long sections of Curious George cartoons, in action and in sound effects and in speech. He has a lot of them memorized. One of his favorite things to do is eat his bowl of cashew butter and molasses while lying on the floor watching Curious George and lining up his cars along the edge of the iPad.

Teddy Bear

Nico and I are still holding onto our illnesses. We've got stuffy noses and coughs over here.

We've had the opportunity to snuggle on the couch and take naps in the afternoon, though, which has been so nice!

On Monday we went to see Allicia, Evie and Avery in the morning. They were just starting to get colds over there, and I'm hoping it doesn't last very long for them! They had a teepee set up that Evie and Nico played in.

On Monday night we drove to Nampa to a going-away party for our friend Josh. He left to go back to Korea yesterday, to resume working as an English teacher. We will miss him!

This week for school, Nico had to bring in a teddy bear. He had 3 to choose from, and he chose Bud, his black bear. They took a picture of him with his bear and sent it home so that we could write a note about the bear on the page, and send it back. The teacher said to try to write down in the child's own words what they have to say about the bear. When I asked Nico about his bear and showed him the picture of him and his bear, the only thing he relayed to me was "Picture of Nico!".  When I asked him to tell me more about his bear, all he said was his traditional "a dah". Tomorrow we return the picture with the note, and also the bear, so that he can show his whole class his bear and what he had to say about it. I added some stuff in my own words. The picture will go into his "About Me" book.

Also this past week we've been working on words that the speech therapist sent him home with to work on. After filling out the sheet, we return it and then he gets a prize. So this morning after breakfast, we finished up the last day of word practice and marked it on his sheet. He did such a great job, that I figured I would record him saying all his words. So, here's the video!

If you notice at the end, he wanted me to take a picture of him. He has just recently started asking for pictures to be taken of him. And this time I got some good ones, but only because he POSED FOR EVERY ONE OF THEM! Each and every one of these pictures was planned by him. I kept pushing the capture button, but he knew when the picture would be taken because it counts down for us.

And then I snuck a hug in there.

And I'll leave you with one more picture - Nico covering his micro machines in play-dough. He spent almost an hour doing this after dinner last night.