Grandparents, Christmas

Nico was sick in the night last Thursday and wasn't able to make it to his last day of school on Friday. His teacher had sent an email to everyone earlier in the week asking us to let her know if our child would miss Friday so she could send home all the holiday stuff early. If only I had known ahead of time! ;) Oh well, he will get his stuff when he goes back.

Nico was weak for a while but was cheery enough on Saturday to welcome the Grandparents Russell over for our yearly Christmas celebration days with them. On Sunday, G.G. joined the Grandparents and headed over here to celebrate and exchange gifts. It was fun to show everyone the Clubhouse.

On Tuesday we were able to go visit the Art Museum with the Grandparents. I really enjoyed looking at the art, I was pleasantly surprised. Nico really enjoyed the interactive room they had where he could play with all the toys. He built a castle that was completely symmetrical.

random one from school

They headed home on Tuesday afternoon. It was a really great visit! I got to watch Holiday Inn with Grandma Russell which I hadn't seen in a while and fell in love with it. We also tried out "Hello Dinner!" for the first time, which is a place in Boise that makes gluten free meals. We had them make us meals for Sunday and Monday. Their finger steaks and BBQ sauce were very tasty!

Wednesday morning Nico and I went up to the cabin. We intended to do this because the geothermal water had gone out at the Clubhouse/Main house since Saturday night, and I wanted a shower. But the geothermal was fixed on Tuesday. We still went up to the cabin, though :) We had a nice meal and then left in a hurry because it started snowing. Fast! We got out in time to not have to use our chains. It was a very fun visit.

Thursday was Christmas, and I wish I had on video when Nico opened his stocking. He pulled everything out one after the other and glanced at each thing before dropping it to the table so he could pull out more from the stocking. No facial expressions or anything, no "cool!" or "a car!" or anything! Straight faced the whole time. Presents were different though.

Guy seems to have caught the nausea bug that Nico had. Or something different! He has a 102 fever. I'm praying all this illness ends here, I am tired of it! Poor Guy! I asked him if he was going to go to work, and while feeling sick he said "If I don't have a fever". He was so sad that he was missing work, mostly because he knew he was leaving his boss in a pickle because of it. Well, there are two more nights of work this week, perhaps he can swing one of them :)

Off to rest my sleepy head.

Kites and Trains

On Friday, after school was over but Nico was yet to come home, his teacher emailed us with pictures of what they did that day. Apparently there was SO MUCH WIND that they improvised and made kites out of plastic bags. It was fun to ask Nico about them after he got home and show him pictures of his day at school. Nico looked at the group picture and told me that his kite had gotten tangled with someone else's.

On Saturday we went to Jimmy John's because Nico insisted on spending some of his piggy bank money on a sandwich. Before we left, Allicia told me that downtown they had a miniature train exhibit and it happened to be right next door to Jimmy John's, so we went there first. Nico got to control one of the trains using a remote. He took his stool around with him and stopped every few feet to set it down and stand on it so he could see the trains. Not just the trains, though, but all the towns and villages and other things they had set up. There were miniature people doing things like having bonfires and hanging out on the streets. It was very intricate and well put together. Apparently this happens every Saturday from Thanksgiving 'til Christmas. And the rest of the year they do it every Tuesday night.

On Sunday after church, we got to see Papa and Alexis. Jeff had asked if Papa could sit down and talk with him a bit about contract work because Jeff and Allicia are thinking about going that route with Jeff's job. So while Papa talked to them, we got to hang out with Alexis and Evie in the Clubhouse. They watched Jake and the Neverland Pirates on the iPad and ate cheese. Lexie asked "Is this just one big room?" I told her yes, but that it was just temporary.

The rest of this week has just been playing and such, and preparing for Grandma and Grandpa Russell's visit on Saturday! We are excited! More to come next week on that…

When I asked Nico if he had fallen asleep on the bus today he said No, so I put him down early tonight. This is very unusual! He usually always falls asleep on the bus. But, early night is good. He didn't sleep well last night so I'm hoping he gets a good chunk tonight.

Family, School, Friends, Jan Brett

The Grandparents Salisbury invited us up to the cabin on Monday, it was nice to see them after missing Thanksgiving! We also celebrated Chrtistmas! Nico got a Fireman costume and legos which he loves. We also had wonderful food, all gluten free, and very very tasty. Nico ate a ton of sausage and meatballs. Thank you Pa and Ma!

Guy and Nico put legos together while we were there and then more when we got home, then the next day Nico decided to put the legos together himself. He followed the directions and put together an excavator all by himself. He brought it up to me with it hidden behind his back and then he said "Surprise!" and showed it to me. I was so proud of him!!

Lately Nico has been fond of Color-by-Numbers. I print free ones from a website. He has done about 4 of them so far and is on his fifth one.

Next up: A slew of pictures from school. I think these are from his field trip to BSU where they did Special Olympics. Nico said they got to let their balloons go in the air after they were all done. Cool!

His whole class. Miss Erica (teacher), Miss Joanne (Assistant), and Miss Karen (Speech Language Pathologist). Nico can name some of the kids.

The next picture is Nico and his class dancing along to the DINO STOMP. Nico had us search for this on YouTube. I wasn't sure what he was saying at first but he insisted it was called "Dino Stomp" so that is what I searched for. He saw the video and pointed to it. voila! And then later that week I get this picture and see all his class dancing to it.

We decorated Christmas last night with Jeff and Allicia and kids. We used our own ornaments and decorated the silver tree. They are not putting up their HUGE tree this year, too big, nowhere to put it, and it takes a lot of time. I totally understand! So we did the silver tree.

Nico keeps coming home with surprises from school, a slinky yesterday and today some cool star sunglasses. He says he got the sunglasses out of the treasure box. And the slinky he says he got because he made it "all the way to the top."

Today we went to the library to see Jan Brett! She is a children's author that Mom Russell introduced to me/us many years ago. We got there at 9:30 (it started at 10) and were lucky enough to find a parking spot in the library parking lot. Yay! See the video below for our adventure. We sat very close to the front and Jan's husband needed help carrying the box that the LIVE bunny was in, so he asked me. So yes, I had a conversation with Jan Brett's husband as we walked the big box back to the TOUR BUS which I got into. We talked about Boise and bunnies and hedgehogs. Apparently Jan's husband really likes bunnies and the particular one they brought with them he calls "Spoo" and it hangs out with him in a cage in his office while he works. They used to have hedgehogs, four of them, but he said they are too wild and are hard to take care of, so they stopped. But they do keep chickens. He was also very worried about the amount of people stuffed into the library room, he told the bus driver that they were breaking a lot of fire codes. hehe. It was super crowded in there. The video shot of the crowd was taken about 15 minutes before it started, and by the time it did start, there were many more people.

I bought a copy of her new book Animal's Santa, and they had signed name plates to put in the book if we didn't want to stand in line to have her sign one for us. We did have to leave early to get back in time for lunch and school, so we didn't stand in line for an autograph, but Allicia took our book and stood in line for us and had it signed. They were apparently 3rd in line and were out of there pretty darn quick!

Now the video! Plus another video about our first day of December with Nico enjoying his two advent calendars.

Winter Garden Aglow, The End of Vacation

Well we got through Nico's illness just fine and Guy and I both stayed well. Yay! On the Friday after Thanksgiving we ventured to the Botanical Garden for Winter Garden Aglow. We usually don't get to do this until December, but since Guy had the night off we were able to do it early, which meant that it was in the 40s and no heavy snow gear was needed. It wasn't too busy when we first got there, but after being there for an hour it was packed and hard to get around. We had never stayed that long before, because it is usually too cold to last very long. Nico spent a lot of time watching the trains, which he loved.

On our way!

The photographer said: "See you next year!"

On Saturday the Festival of Trees was going on downtown. This is a big event where people create and then donate decorated trees that people can buy. All proceeds go to a local Children's Hospital. Guy and Nico went in the afternoon so I could get some sleep done. There's a lot more to do there than just look at trees, though that is the biggest attraction. There was apparently one decorated with CARS that Nico really liked! There were interactive model trains set up there that Nico enjoyed. He got to control one of the trains and honk the horn and speed it up with dials.

On Monday the Advent Calendars started. We got a computer based one from Grandma Russell and that has been a fun thing for Guy and Nico to do every day. Each day has a new animation to watch, and you can decorate Christmas trees and play puzzles and chinese checkers. Here's the tree that Nico decorated. He "decorated" it by pointing to ornaments, then Guy would click them and move them over to the tree and Nico would guide him to where he wanted them placed. He definitely did not want more than one of the same ornament on the tree. 

He went back to school on Tuesday. And things have been the same as ever ever since. I've been keeping track of funny things Nico says, here's a few:

Nico says: I don't want to live in Evie's house, I want to live in a tall building
Me: How come?
Nico: So I can play with my toys.

At Dawson Taylor's with Daddy, looking across the street at Thomas Hammer coffee building Nico says: A taaaall building, like tehhhhn stories.

A few mornings ago, after he prayed over his pancake: Praying makes Daddy's tummy hurt, Praying makes Mommy's tummy hurt, Jesus loves me makes me happy!

This is translated as him saying that he doesn't want Mommy or Daddy to pray, but only Nico gets to pray. Sometimes I accidentally start praying for the meal and Nico says "No no stop, let me do it." Then he prays and it sounds like "Dear Jesus, thank you for aday ah body Amen." (see previous blog post with the video)

Speaking of videos! I will sign off and leave you with a few. These are oldies that I just put together for you all this week. Apparently the whole moving thing put me behind in my snippets. Here's the last of the Krall Street snippets, and then a short one of Evie and Nico at the park.

Guy Vacation, and Thanksgiving!

Guy's last day of work for 10 days was last Friday night. He took the whole week of Thanksgiving off and we have been praying for the snow to disappear so that we could make it up to the cabin for Thanksgiving. (Guy himself said he was praying for the snow to melt!) And by golly it did! It rained all night Friday and when he came home Saturday morning all the snow was gone. We were in the clear!

On Sunday night, after Nico and Evie and Avery went to bed, all four of us (Guy, Jeff, Allicia, Me), all played the board game called Pandemic. We hadn't had a game night in a while and it was fun to hang out with them and talk and laugh. Pandemic is a cooperative game, so we don't compete with each other but work together. I love it!

That night, Evie ended up with the stomach flu. I noticed they were washing her blanket at 3 AM in the morning and suspected something, and then confirmed it Monday morning. So we quarantined Nico and ourselves for Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday because then there was the fever and etc etc. Quarantined means that we held off on letting Nico play with Evie, and we all kind of stuck together in the clubhouse. Having Guy home was fun, he has switched to half-ish days for his time off, so stays up until 1 or 2 AM and then sleeps in until 11 AM. We've been enjoying his company even though what we did most of the time was just sit and watch cartoons and play games. We ventured out to go grocery shopping and go for walks.

I made stuffing for Thanksgiving on Wednesday, I was in charge of bringing it to the cabin because we are gluten free and we love Grandma Gohl's stuffing recipe and I make it every year. We use gluten free bread (we found the best local brand!! We go through 4-5 loaves a week!) I also bought a pre-baked gluten free pumpkin pie to bring as well.

But then Thursday morning showed up, and Nico was sick. He felt clammy and was extremely limp and tired after he got sick, so I propped him on the couch, hooked him up to the Zyto scanner, and cancelled the cabin Thanksgiving. Sad day for Nico, and for us all. I applied oils to Nico and within a few minutes he was pupping around playing with toys and asking for food. So I rethought our original diagnosis. There are times that Nico has thrown up randomly in the morning and is fine after that, so we thought it might just be a strange coincidence. After all, against my better judgement I DID make him scrambled eggs the night before, right before bed :)

He ate two bananas and some cheese over the next 4 hours and was fine and asking for more. I started up my computer to play the LIVE MST3K Turkey Day Marathon and then woke Guy up at 11 AM. We were all thankful that, even though we couldn't make it to the cabin, that we would instead get to eat ALL OF THE STUFFING OURSELVES. I baked up half of it in our oven and we sat down to eat. Guy and I sat at our table with MST3K playing and Nico sat on the floor with Donald Duck playing.

Here is what our Thanksgiving looked like in pictures:

I must admit, it was really great. It didn't seem like we were lacking at all. It seemed like Nico was experiencing a sore tummy all day. He only ate one bite of stuffing. He did get sick one more time so we went back to thinking that it actually is a bug. Essential oils made him feel better several times today and I am so grateful we have them.

When he isn't feeling well it's still hard to get a straight answer of whether or not he feels sick, but I get it, I don't like to admit when I feel sick too. Denying it makes me feel better :)

So, because there aren't many pictures this week, I uploaded a video for everyone. Just a short clip of Nico praying. He has taken over all prayers before eating. When I pray I say this: "Dear Jesus, thank you for this food and I pray it nourishes our bodies, in Jesus' name, Amen." So he asks to pray for the meal every time and copies me in my prayer but shortens it a little bit.

Snow, Fire, Special Olympics

Guy's trip to Arlington went well. Grandma Gohl's funeral was on Saturday. He was able to see lots of family, he stayed with his parents, and was able to play with his brother Tom. It was a quick trip and we picked him up Sunday from the airport. I'm glad he was able to go.

The snow fort that was started on Friday got finished. Three bins high with a roof. I don't have a picture, but I should probably take one. Nico and Evie went outside to play on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings. By Saturday Nico wasn't as interested in the snow and only stayed out a little while.

Sunday evening, Jeff and Allicia lit a fire in their fire place and Nico and I joined them (Guy needed sleep so he was napping). Nico and Evie brought blankets up near the fire, and pillows, to lie down and watch the flames. Jeff was next to them too, answering all of Nico's questions about the fire and the ashes.

There are also a few more pictures from Nico's school.

Nico says: "Making a house"

Nico says: "Making an H"

Nico told me he doesn't want to go to school tomorrow and I asked him why and he said because they had a fire drill today. I asked him if he didn't want them to have another fire drill and his answer was that it was a practice fire drill and that it wasn't real. I asked him if the sound was loud. He imitated it and told me it was a small sound, not loud. I couldn't get a definite answer from him as to whether he didn't want another fire drill or if it scared him or something, he just kept repeating that it was a practice fire drill and that he didn't want to go to school tomorrow. Hmm! 

Did I mention that Nico participated in the Special Olympics? I don't remember! Last last week they took his class by bus to the BSU stadium to participate in the special olympics. I'm hoping for some pictures soon to share. I'm not sure exactly what he participated in, perhaps the pictures will reveal it to me. I wasn't able to discern any of it by asking Nico. 

Guy gets all of next week off, Thanksgiving week! Friday night is his last day of work for about 10 days. And it looks like he won't be moving to days anytime soon. Bummer. But he finished his program and he implemented it and people are using it! 

Until next week…

Organizing, Snow, and Grandma Gohl

Jeff & Allicia went out of town last week and they told us we could organize their library while they were gone (we asked if there was anything we could do). So, we did! We organized their library, and then also cleaned the rest of their house for them. The cleaning part was a surprise to them and they were delighted when they came home on Sunday.

On Saturday I made sushi for the first time. Nothing with raw fish, just veggies rolled up in nori and rice. It was very good! I think we'll make that a regular dish.

On Sunday, Guy and I and Nico took a trip to Best Buy to look around. We had a coupon, and Guy was trying to find something to spend his birthday money on. No luck! Then we went to Red Robin to spend his gift card. I love their sweet potato fries!

Starting on Monday morning, Allicia and I started going through at least one box of stuff in their basement to try to organize it a little better. We are trying to go through her whole house, getting rid of stuff and organizing it. She is due with her 3rd child in March, and I'm sure things will go more smoothly after the baby is born if her house is in order. We also created a chore chart. There's only one thing on it so far, but we are working up to more. Starting small is important.

Monday we also found out that Guy's Grandma Dee Gohl had passed away. We will miss her. Guy is going to the funeral which is on Saturday. I will drive him to the airport tonight. One thing clearly stands out in my head when I think of Grandma Gohl. I think of eating meals with her, and her always saying "Beautiful!" to describe the food. Then the girls (Mom Russell, me, Grandma), would sit around the table after everyone was done, and we'd continue to eat.. and eat.. and Grandma was always so pleased with me the more food I ate. And I loved obliging her! She will be missed.

Here's a picture of all of us the last time we saw her which was about 1 1/2 years ago:

We had our first snow fall yesterday! Nico and Evie spent a lot of time playing in the snow yesterday morning. When we woke up THIS morning.. more snow! And school was canceled, so they spent time  this morning out in the snow, too. Nico ate snow for the first time, and they built a fort with help from Allicia.

That's it for this week! We'll see you all again next THURSDAY night. I won't forget!

The Lost Update

The first time ever that I forgot to update on a Thursday! My excuse is that Nico fell asleep on the bus home yesterday, and didn't go to bed until 9:30, and that was only after I let him crawl into our bed and I fell asleep with him. Update will come tonight…

and p.s., no school today because of snow!

Halloween and Parent Teacher Conferences

This year was the first year Nico went Trick-or-Treating. I wanted to take Nico down Warm Springs to experience the crowds and the costumes and the kids and the excitement, I knew he would enjoy it. The candy wasn't something he'd be able to eat but we planned to trade the candy for treats he could eat. Jeff and Allicia were going to be taking their kids to Harrison Blvd in North Boise which is apparently a VERY hoppin' place to go in Boise on Halloween, but they decided last minute to stay in their own neighborhood, so we ran into them on our way out. We joined forces and stormed Warm Springs. I am so glad Nico got to trick-or-treat with Evie!! I took him up to his first few houses to teach him when to say trick-or-treat and to only take one piece of candy and then to say "thank you".

We turned off of Warm Springs and back into their neighborhood and ended up back home two hours later. This was much more time and excitement than I was expecting but it was a great thing. I don't remember the last time I had so much fun. Watching Nico experience something new like that and seeing him enjoying it and enjoying it with his best friend, no less, was awesome.

Check out the Halloween video at the end of this update!

We had Nico's Parent-Teacher Conference on Monday. Guy wasn't able to make it (what, he needs to sleep?) I really like his teacher! She says that she pulls the kids aside individually to work on their IEP goals. For Nico she is working on recognizing emotions, happy, sad, angry, frustrated, and using a mirror to make them himself. As far as I know none of his previous teachers ever did one-on-one time with each of the kids. She doesn't do all of them every day, but one or two a day.

The speech therapist wasn't able to make it to the meeting, unfortunately, but Miss Erica (his teacher) answered all my speech therapy questions really well. I asked if she thought Nico would be ready for kindergarten next year in regards to his speech and she said yes. He will continue speech therapy in kindergarten. He will also get a resource teacher coming into his kindergarten class every day for about 15-20 minutes to make sure he is doing okay and helping him if he needs it. If there's a particular part of the day that is hard for him, they'll come in at that time. That makes me feel so much better. Miss Erica said that sometimes it's hard for kids transitioning from such class (8 kids, 3 teachers) to a large class (22 kids, 1 teacher), so having the resource teacher there for part of the day will help.

I asked her about elementary schools, too. Because our living situation is somewhat up in the air when it comes to next Fall, I feel like we have the ability to choose which kindergarten to send him to and then when we do end up moving from here we can move close to the school. He is currently going to White Pine Elementary for preschool, and Miss Erica said that the Speech Therapist for kindergarten at White Pine is excellent, and so are the teachers. Then there's Adams Elementary which is a stone's throw from here, and a bunch of other ones. I am even considering public charter schools, though they do a lottery to determine who gets to go to those. A lot to think about.

Pictures from school:

Halloween Party!

Volcanoes

Snack time. With his teacher Miss Erica

On Sunday we went up to the cabin for a memorial dinner for my Grandma Salisbury (Nico's Great Grandma Salisbury) who passed away a few years ago. My Dad and Aunt Ellen made us Grandma's famous enchiladas and jello, and then we got to hear some stories from their childhood. They had so many adventures. One in particular that cracked me up was the story about how my dad and his brothers went hiking and found a bunch of salamanders, at least 100 of them, ("we probably should have left some there" Papa says) and they brought them back to their house in a bucket and put them in their pond. The salamanders started popping up in the neighbors' yards and squished on the roads. They got calls from the neighbors about them (how did the neighbors know it was them? hehe!) Salamanders were everywhere for a while.

Papa and Aunt Ellen telling stories

My brothers Jeremy and David

The boys chatting in the living room

Evie and Avery and Nico playing in the Clubhouse.

 Video time!