Nico has made friends with the neighbor boys! There's a duplex a few doors down. One side of the duplex has brothers Sam and Adam, 2nd grade, and 4 years old. The other side of the duplex has Aiden, 2nd grade. They ride scooters back and forth on the sidewalk and they play hide and seek. He is able to "go out to play" and I just tell him not to cross the street and to stay close to the house. I go out and check on him every so often, or I see them riding back and forth on their scooters from our window.
Nico practicing henna
Wednesday morning was Nico's IEP meeting and re-evaluation. Every 3 years they re-evaluate the need for services. It's been 3 years already for Nico! They changed his classification from having a Language impairment to having a Speech impairment. This is big improvement. They also think he is much improved socially, so he will no longer need the resource teacher to check up on him every week. So basically, all Nico needs now is speech therapy. Big steps forward! Guy was able to be at the meeting too. The principal has a brother named Guy, so they bonded.
On Thursday Nico had a doctor's appointment with his new doctor. The waiting list for this doctor for new patients was supposedly out to May & June, but we got a late March appointment, and then a cancellation happened and we got to slip in to see her yesterday. They are running food allergy tests and a few others. We will find out the results when we go back in late March. These allergy tests are different than the ones that his previous doctor ran, they will check for sensitivities instead of just allergies. Nico did GREAT getting his blood drawn, the nurse said that she has done a lot of blood draws but that Nico is definitely one of the best child patients she has ever had. Nico watched the whole process and didn't even flinch with the needle poke. I took him to get a smoothie afterward. Strawberry, banana, orange. He wanted to sit in the cafe for a while drinking his smoothie, so we did.
On Saturday, Nico had a birthday party to go to. His friend Isaac from school turned 6 years old. I asked Nico what he wanted to get for Isaac and he said a transformer, so we searched on Amazon for one and Nico picked it out. He also wanted to get him some silly putty from the dollar store, so that we did. Isaac's family lives across from Municipal Park, very close to us. It was the first "drop off" birthday party that Nico has been do, where you drop the kids off and then come back 2 hours later to pick them up. Cool! I dropped him off, gave the mom a large packaged gluten free cookie to substitute for cake, told her which drinks he could have, and then went home. Guy and I got our bikes ready and we rode to pick him up two hours later. I had the trailer bike hooked up to my bike. It was a nice day that day. Nico was playing with his friends still when we got there. Happy Nico = Happy Mommy. I told him we had the trailer bike with us for him to ride home with us and he instantly wanted to leave, he said "Bye! I have to go now!"
On Monday we went to the Discovery Center again, spent the whole time building walls and trying to keep everyone getting along.
Nico wanted to try to ride his actual bike to school, so we got it ready but he couldn't get on by himself and I had flashbacks to last Fall as he teetered and tipped along. The bike is just too big for him. I told him we couldn't ride it that day, but that we would go shopping for a different bike for him that would fit him. The next day I figured we'd give it a shot so we went to the Youth Ranch and found the perfect fit, for only $7.99. The tires were a bit messed up and after a botched attempt to patch the intertube, Jeff patched it up for us and it was good to go. Nico can get on and off this bike all by himself, and when he stops the bike he doesn't fall right over onto the ground. Perfect! He rode the bike to school yesterday and we locked it up in the bike rack. Fun.
Practicing at the park
This past week I also made my first loaf of gluten free sourdough bread. It will become a staple, because Guy loved it. LOVED it. I also made 2 sweet treat recipes recently that he loves. My cooking is adding up points!
The dough for the first rise (12 hour rise)
In the pan for the 2nd rise (8-ish hours)
The finished loaf
Sourdough bread is basically fermenting the flour, a lot like sauerkraut is fermenting the cabbage, so vitamins and minerals are quadrupled in many cases and the proteins in the flour are broken down so are easier to digest. Even I can eat it! Nico isn't too fond of it, but I am thinking of getting a milder-tasting sourdough starter so it doesn't have that ZING to it.
That's it for this week. Short and sweet and sour.
This weekend was The Great Backyard Bird Count, where you count and record how many birds you see in a time frame of at least 15 minutes. You could count birds on any of the days from Feb 12th-15th. Grandma Russell told us about this and we wanted to participate. She sent Nico some information and some bird sticker books (which he completed the morning he opened the package!) It was a great way to practice saying words - he wanted to say all the names and compare them between sticker books.
Our first bird counting took place last Friday, the 12th, at 6 PM, we went out on the front porch to count. We couldn't identify any species (except geese) because most of the birds we saw were far away and flying in the air. We counted 97 in 15 minutes! Nico kept track using tic marks on a sticky note.
In the last 30 seconds or so, we counted 33 geese flying in a flock. That was pretty cool.
We went to the cabin on Saturday. Lily, Lexie, and Kai were there visiting (Nico's cousins) and so Nico got to play with them (and with Grandma Salisbury!) He also wanted to count birds, so we went outside for about 12 minutes before Nico gave up - we didn't see any birds! We heard a bird squawking in the distance but never saw it. But, it was fun counting, there was snow and our weight often pushed us through the top layer of crusty snow all of a sudden, so we would "fall" into the snow a lot.
We had a great time hanging out at the cabin! Guy didn't come with us, he was trying to meet up with his friend Josh who is visiting from Korea. It didn't work out on Saturday for him to see Josh, he saw him later in the week though. Thanks for the yummy chicken and rice and hot cocoa Grandparents Salisbury!
For the rest of the weekend and even into the week, Nico asked to go count birds outside. A few minutes here, a few minutes there, he has several post-it notes with tic marks on them for all the times he went outside to count.
So after the cabin on Saturday, our church was having a Parents' Night Out, where you drop your kids off at the church and they watch them for 4 hours while you go out on a date. So, we dropped Nico off! And Guy and I, we had NO idea what to do, we really should have planned ahead a bit. We went to Whole Foods and then picked up the mail, went through a car wash, and then walked around downtown for a little while. We went into a bookstore and Guy found a graphic novel of the book The Graveyard Book (I think Gma Russell has read this?) He really wanted it but we didn't buy it (more about that later...)
Then we sat in the Co-op parking lot and talked while Guy sipped on his cold-brew coffee. We picked Nico up a little after 8 PM and there were no other kids there! He had been the only kid there, with 5 adults/older kid helpers there hanging out with him, they were watching movies. Nico had piled up the large bin of stuffed animals into the middle of the floor and was lying in it while watching a movie.
Sunday night, Guy wasn't feeling well and had a fever, so I picked him up some Pho and his desired graphic novels as a surprise from downtown, and then Nico and I went to Bible Study that night without him. Guy was delighted about the comic books (ahem... graphic novels), I had the store wrap them up as a gift. Guy was all better Monday morning, good thing because he was meeting Josh for breakfast. He was also able to see Josh & some other of the NNU crew in Nampa on Tuesday night, they met to play games. Allicia watched Nico that night and put him to bed since I had tap class. Allicia actually put all 4 kids to bed herself!
Tuesday morning we went to see G.G. in Nampa. Nico likes to bring games with him sometimes, so he brought Doodle Dice (G.G. won!), and then also a book called Hug Time.
Here Nico is, explaining something about the book.
On Wednesday we went to the library to pick up some comic books. The "comic books" I bought for Daddy on Sunday, Nico wanted some of his own, so Library. In the comic book we bought Nico for Christmas, Stinky, there are other comics listed in the back, so we looked some of them up on the website and wrote down their call numbers, then went and found them on the shelf. Guy and Nico have been reading through The Graveyard Book graphic novels at night, too. I think comics are going to be a big push for him learning how to read.
On Thursday we went to the Discovery Center. We didn't go on Monday this time because Monday was President's Day and Jeff had the day off, so their family spent the day together and we postponed our playdate. Nico played with two other kids there, working together to build a HUGE wall of cardboard boxes that they then crashed into.
Nico building an arc with one of the volunteers
This is my favorite face, after pulling one of the blocks from the arc and watching it topple.
I think that's about it......................
Now a video! Some of the things I mentioned in this post are in it. Huzzah!
Looks like the update I did last night was saved as a "draft" and was never posted. Never fear! Everything is A-OK here, I had a late night teaching a henna class and didn't have time to update. Last night's update was just to tell you that the blog would be updated mid-morning on this very day (Friday!)
So, jumping right in!
Last Saturday was the sensory friendly movie, The Good Dinosaur. I was looking forward to seeing it but it wasn't as great as I had hoped. On the way home from the movie Nico told me "I didn't really like that movie" and I told him that I didn't really enjoy it either. I asked him why he didn't like it and he said "because of all the bad stuff in it". Yep, it wasn't the super feel-good animated movies we're used to.
Sunday was the Super Bowl, and no Bible Study that night. Monday was the Discovery Center! Got a video this week with some Discovery Center stuff in it, you can take a look at that at the bottom of the entry.
On Tuesday I volunteered in Nico's class. I really enjoy watching them do the calendar. Nico has become really good at recognizing days. If I already mentioned this, I apologize! When he tells us about things he has done in school he sometimes stops himself and says "No wait, that wasn't today, that was on the 2nd" or whatever day it was. hehe. He told the class on Tuesday that on Monday he went to the Discovery Center with Evelyn. So the kid in charge on that day (Michael) gets to drag and drop stars onto any special date on the smart board at the front of the class. So he dragged and dropped stars onto Monday because of Nico's special Discovery Center date. Wednesday morning on the way to school we encountered Evelyn in the front yard and after we said goodbye to her he said "My friend Evelyn is very nice and very pretty."
OH are you guys ready for some cute school work?
They did an experiment with soda and found out that it eats the enamel of your teeth. I explained to Nico that this doesn't refer to the soda he drinks, in case he was scared, since his soda is just carbonated water. Unless it's the carbonation that hurts the teeth? I sure hope not!
"Tell me about this picture, Nico."
Nico: "This is me and Bruce, we're eating cake"
Nico would like to travel to California. Why? Because they have many cool things there, like horses for example. And he does want to be a cop when he grows up! Just like his Uncle Jonny!
His favorite thing about himself is his heart. I asked him why and he said "Because it's sooooo biiiiiiig, because I love you sooooooo much!"
This is Nico and me on the left, and Allicia and Evelyn on the right. With a door between us. He was sorry he forgot to put arms on me and him.
On Wednesday Nico had his Valentine's Program at school, all the parents came, and they performed songs in the gym. See the video below!!
Thursday was his Valentine's Party at school. Games. Fun. The girl on the right sitting next to Nico is Cairah (pronounced like Kara) is his speech buddy. They are pulled out of class together to get speech therapy with Mrs. Williams every Monday. On Tuesday while I was helping in class, I spent some one-on-one time with Cairah helping her with her math journal, and she snuck the word "poop" into our conversation about how many hearts there were on the page. She giggled uncontrollably. I couldn't help thinking that Nico may have influenced her. Acelyn is on the left, she was in Nico's preschool with him.
To compensate for Nico not being able to eat cookies at the party, I gave him a stick of raspberry chocolate when we got home. It was a large stick.
Nico was invited to a birthday party for one of his school friends next Saturday. Wahoo!
Ok so now some explanations for what you will see in the Snippets video. You and Me Time one morning consisted of us taking turns singing songs and recording each other doing it on the camera. You'll see some of that. Also, Nico helps me make Guy's lunch every morning. He sits up on the stool at the counter and fills up a jar with yogurt and granola. Lately he has taken to singing while doing this. He sings all the songs he knows and sometimes we take turns. Singing while we work! We make Guy's lunch while Guy takes a shower in the morning.
Ok I think that's it. I'm hoping I didn't forget anything!
Last Friday, Nico's fever came back in the afternoon (102.3) and he felt really sick that night, but fever was mostly gone by Saturday. Saturday he ate bits and pieces of food but never committed to anything. Sunday morning, right as rain! Glad he is feeling better now, I'm not sure what was going on!
Sunday after church, Guy helped Rhema's family pack up their Uhaul so they could move. It was a big crowd so it was done quickly. They fed everyone lasagna.
Sunday afternoon we were able to give Papa his birthday present that Nico made for him. We knew we wouldn't see Papa on his actual birthday (tomorrow! Happy Birthday Papa!!!), so we gave it to him early. Scroll down to watch the video of Nico making it (well, painting it:))
Sunday night Bible Study went well. And Nico was back at school on Monday. He was excited to be going back. We skipped the Discovery Center this week and instead hung out with Evelyn and family at home. Before this, we went to Ace Hardware to buy a large wood board that I could practice tapping on. We brought the board downstairs and when the kids heard that it was a dance floor, they all hopped onto it and started dancing. Then I pulled out my tap shoes and the Nico took a turn tapping. (Video below!) The board worked really well for me when I practiced Monday, but on Wednesday it had bowed beyond repair. Whoops! We'll have to find another option.
Nico really digs dancing. For almost 45 minutes today we took turns dancing to a few of his favorite songs on Youtube. One of them is the Marching Song from his VBS experience last summer. It has the perfect rhythm to tap to...
Hmm.. not much else to report this week. Guy loves his job, his boss has given him free reign and Guy is blowing everyone's socks off. They took Dr. Who off of Netflix. Banana cookies = 1/3 cup oats, 1 small banana, a tad vanilla, mix together and bake at 350 for 14 minutes. Nico loves them.
On Saturday the boys went up to the cabin for a visit! I was helping a friend out that day so I stayed behind. Bruce and Rory and Lexie were also at the cabin and Nico was able to play with them. He spent a lot of time hanging out with Bruce, they played in the snow on the porch. They also went sledding down the driveway. I forgot to pack Nico's boots in the bag, so he wore his shoes most of the time. Poor wet feet! But he didn't really care.
I love that last pic of Nico sliding down the ice with Bruce racing next to him. Nico sometimes refers to Bruce as his brother. I am so happy they got to spend so much time together. It makes my heart happy!
Grandma also had a little surprise for him - a brand new dot-to-dot book! Before they had left that morning, Nico had chosen 10 color-by-numbers to print out to take with him, saying that Grandma and others might want to do some with him. So he had some to hand out and it looks like Rory is doing one of those while Nico works on his dot-to-dot book. He was very excited to show the book to me when he came home. "Guess what IIIII got.... A DOT-TO-DOT BOOK! A RED ONE!" Grandma had sent him a blue one a few weeks earlier.
Thanks for having the boys over Ma & Pa! They had a blast!
The next morning before church he got down on the floor to work on his dot-to-dot book with his special pencil.
For a few days he was watching the movie HOME over and over and over again on his iPad. It is a great movie, I don't blame him.
Sunday night was the start of the Bible Study that Guy is leading, it was a low key night, we just did introductions and talked a little about the book we'll be reading. It went really well and are happy to be a part of it. Nico came with us and they had some fun things for the kids to do in the other room. Legos for Nico.
On Monday we went to the Discovery Center again, Nico spent the whole time (we stay for 1 hour) at the engineering station building a race truck. Evelyn joined him and she built a race car. After his was built, he tried it out on the tilted race track.
We had a few ho-hum days there, then yesterday (Thursday) I woke up with Nico snuggling me and he felt a little hot. Then he coughed sporadically that morning. I thought he might be getting sick, but I kept writing off the heat I was feeling from his forehead. After Guy left for work I figured what the heck I'll check his temperature, and he was 100.7. Bunker down time! Unfortunately he had lost his iPad privileges for the day, so we couldn't zone out on the iPad. We spent most of the morning doing color-by-numbers. We snuggled on the couch at about 11 and he zonked out for a nap. He woke up feeling groggy and icky and complained of a tummy ache. Essential oils really perked him up but then he was down again a few hours later. His tummy was really bothering him. He never got sick, but we spent the evening reading books to him on the couch because he just didn't want to move. His temp stayed at about 102.5 for a while and his fever finally broke in the middle of the night sometime. Strangely, he hasn't coughed at all since yesterday morning. I figure the illness was probably just a stomach thing? He's been nibbling on food this morning like he's recovering from a stomach bug though he never threw up.
So that's the story of yesterday, and last night why I just couldn't squeeze in a blog update!
Saturday was a fun family day, we went to the Dollar Store and Fred Meyer.
On Sunday we went to church, and the Pastor asked Guy if he would like to lead the small group Bible study that would be meeting at his house on Sunday nights. Guy asked him what made Pastor think of him and Pastor said he was praying about it and his name came to mind. Awesome! I had just heard from someone the previous week that they had really enjoyed when Guy led the Bible Study for a few weeks last year. So, Guy agreed to lead! The book we'll be reading is called Broken Escalators: Funny and Frightful Lessons About Moth Eating and Moving to the Next Level. Bible study starts up this Sunday!
Monday morning we went to The Discovery Center again. Nico made a rock from clay and pressure. We also built an arch several times and then made it crash. We were able to stay a little longer this time because Nico had no school Monday.
Tuesday morning we went to visit G.G. At the last minute Nico asked if Evelyn could come with us and I said SURE! So we all piled into the truck (we are using Papa's truck for a little while!) and off we drove to Nampa. On the way there Evelyn told Nico about how she only has two friends at school and how the other ones forgot they liked her so they stopped talking to her, and Nico was very empathetic and said "Awwww.. that's too bad. You only have two friends." This was a good thing to see coming from him. He also said "Will you only have two friends forever?"
G.G. is always well set up with things to entertain little ones, so Evelyn went right to work doing what she loves best - art! She colored two coloring pages and G.G. provided envelopes for her to put them in so she could give one to her mom and one to her dad.
G.G. showed me her new Kindle and we loaded a game on it for Nico to play.
We also loaded Netflix onto her kindle, just because :) G.G. let both Nico and Evelyn feed Scamper a snack, and we watched the tail end of a cartoon before we left. Thanks for the fun, G.G.!
A new Ladies Bible Study has started up and Pastor Debbie is not only teaching on Tuesday mornings but also Wednesday evenings! This means I am going! We are going through a study by Priscilla Shirer called The Armor of God, which focuses on the armor of God and prayer. Our first session was last night and we watched The War Room movie. It has Priscilla Shirer in it and is also about prayer. It was a good way to get the session started.
Then today we had a toddler friend from church over, Nora. We played with her all day today. She is almost 3 years old and fit in perfectly with the crowd. Evelyn and Avery also hung out in the clubhouse for a while and they all took turns playing Endless Alphabet on the iPad, and then other games later.
She ate lunch with us and then helped me walk Nico to school. Nora and her family are moving away at the end of January, and we will miss them. Nora has two older siblings and her parents have been coming to our Bible Study on Sunday nights. Nora's mom, Rhema (her name means Spoken Word), needed some time to pack so we took Nora for the day.
Nico has been learning about 2D and 3D shapes in school.
Nico is naturally a very snuggly boy. We do lots of cheek kisses in our house and lots and lots of hugs. He is mirroring me when he says: "Awww I love you so much." and gives me a hug. He likes to say "Awwww" a lot, again mirroring me when we hug. There was one time when I dropped him off at school that one of the girls in his class came right up to him and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He thought nothing of it and hugged her again and gave HER a kiss on the cheek. It made me wonder if Nico one day gave her a kiss on the cheek (he does this sometimes to people, we do it a lot at our house so I wonder if he may think that's how you greet people sometimes??!) and then she could have felt comfortable giving one to him straight away after seeing him. I didn't think anything of it at the time but then I wondered... do they allow that kind of thing in a kindergarten? Should I have told them not to do that anymore? Well, they haven't done it again after that day.
On Tuesday Nico came home from school with a rice krispsy treat on a stick and dipped in frosting. We left that one for daddy and then made our own rice krispy treats with stuff that Nico could eat. It was a fun experiment, a few things will change next time, since I had to make the marshmallow from scratch and the treats were more like marshmallows filled with crispy rice instead of the traditional rice krispy treats. Oh well. Adding raspberry frosting to them made them more palatable for Nico. He doesn't appear to like marshmallows all that much!
On Friday we had a game night here and invited some other couples over to play board games. Jeff & Allicia also participated, so we were able to use their living room. We had Cassi and Cory over and a couple from our church, Matthew and Elizabeth. Their kids played downstairs in the basement. Nico and Evelyn, Avery, Ivy were all asleep. We played a really fun game called Takenoko.
At one point Nico poked his head out of the clubhouse and furrowed his brow: "YOU GUYS!" and then closed the door. Guy followed him and tucked him back in and Nico told him that we were being too loud.
While we were helping to clean the house before the guests arrived, Nico crawled onto the couch while Guy vacuumed, and Avery came over and watched him play on the iPad. The slide was on the couch so Guy could vacuum.
On Saturday, Guy took Nico out for a few hours so one of my friends could come over so I could show her how to mix henna paste. Guy took Nico to Camel's Back Park and they followed one of the trails there, around and around and then afterward they played on the playground. Outside for 2+ hours, Nico was pretty exhausted that night.
Monday morning we went to the Discovery Center again! We skipped the first two rooms straight away, since we had spent our whole time there last week. We went to a new room with things we had never seen before.
Nico told me his tooth was hurting on Monday. It was hard for him to eat. I took him in to see the dentist Tuesday morning. I was afraid it was Nico's cavities getting worse, but it turned out it was just 3 of his molars coming in! Ouch. But so glad it wasn't worsening cavities.
On Tuesday I volunteered in Nico's class. I'm sure the teacher had forgotten I was coming in, because she had nothing for me to copy/cut/produce so she put me at one of the centers to help the kids write numbers from 71-80. They were celebrating their 80th day of school that day! It's interesting to see how Nico interacts with his classmates and his teacher. His teacher is very strict but I think the kindergarten class needs it.
Nico often asks me when he will get to go to 1st grade, and I tell him it will be about 8 more months. He told Evelyn very succinctly today what was going to happen. Evelyn told him that he was going to a different school than her next year and Nico responded, "Not a different school, just a different classroom with a different teacher. I'm going to be in 1st grade tomorrow. I mean, in 8 months." I was proud of the way he expressed his thoughts!
Guy and Nico have been doing this cute thing when they snuggle in bed before bedtime. Guy takes Beady Bear and does "boop snoots" which just means that they bump noses. So Guy says "boop snoots" and then taps Beady's nose on Nico's nose. He does this a bunch and then Nico will take Beady and turn him around and tap Beady's bottom onto his nose and say "poop snoots". Guy just told me this and I laughed! I have to admit that I have been quite the encourager with saying that word, for some reason right now we all just find that word hilarious and Nico and I add it into most of our silly games, especially games where we have to come up with silly words or phrases.. For example, reading books at night, he will cover one of the words in the book with his finger and I have to guess what the word says. I often already know what the word is, but I make something silly up anyway. I'm sure this is just a phase...
Guy and Nico have also played the "laughing game"where they take turns trying to make each other laugh. If you make the other person laugh, you win.
Wednesday was mine and Guy's 10 year anniversary! Here's a throw-back for you: NNU graduation, about 10 1/2 years ago.
Guy has wavy hair!
This morning Evelyn had 2 cavities filled at the dentist. We played with Avery in the main house while they were gone. Ivy was asleep and actually slept the whole time they were gone. When they got home, they all climbed onto the couch and watched some Chitty Chitty Bang Bang until lunch time. They also got to play a little more tonight.
On New Year's Day, Nico and I headed up to the cabin for the day. Guy was meant to come, too, but his cold had worsened and he needed sleep, so he stayed home to rest.
There was SNOW at the cabin and Nico enjoyed playing in it. The porch was covered with the stuff so he went outside on the porch to poke around. He ate some snow and stomped around and had fun.
Later that day he also went outside with Papa to go sledding! Nico went down first with Papa in back but then decided he wanted to be in the back, so they switched spots for the next round. I even went down the hill a few times with Nico. It has been a long time since I have done that. You can catch a video of this at the end of the post.
We had a nice lunch and dinner, we put together some of a puzzle, I even had a bit of a nap! It was so fun to spend the whole day with them!
Saturday was the sensory friendly movie. They played Peanuts. Afterward we went to Toy World to spend the $20 that Nico received from his Great Grandma French for Christmas. He bought a new lego and a couple smaller things.
On Monday we all went to the Discovery Center with Allicia and kids. We spent an hour there and only got through the first two rooms. We paid $10 to be added to Allicia's membership so now we can go whenever we want. There are so many cool and interesting things there. This time there was a suspended tunnel/bridge made entirely of packing tape that the children could walk through. I don't have a picture of that, unfortunately.
Discovery Center was in the morning and then Nico went back to school that afternoon.
The rest of the week has been ho hum. I think. Nico has been enjoying connect-the-dots. I download the really hard ones with 600+ dots on them. We have about 5 ones that are half done, as Nico likes variety and has been getting discouraged whenever he messes up.
We hooked up the Wii and introduced Nico to Wii Games like golf and bowling. We are limiting his time on the Wii currently because he has been very demanding about wanting to play games.
He was up at 4:30 this morning and is struggling to fall asleep tonight and it's almost 8 PM. Not sure why he's had such an awake day today!
Now it's time for the videos! Up first is Evelyn's Birthday video. Then, sledding!
