Wacky Weather!

Last night I had 5 students who didn't make it to class. That's unusually high for a graduate class. Three of those students didn't make it because of *snow* on the roads. Can you believe it? We didn't have any snow at the university, but evidently to the east they did. I live to the west of the university so I didn't encounter any on my way home, thankfully. A snow storm in March or even April isn't actually that uncommon, but what is really crazy is that today it's supposed to be in the 60's, tomorrow in the 70's, and Friday through Sunday the high is supposed to be in the low 80's. I don't recall going from snow to the 80's that quickly before! I am grateful though as the weather hasn't been that great the past several days. It's felt like winter again, and I was really enjoying spring weather. I am not really wanting to skip right to summer, but if I have to pick between snow and 81 degrees, I'll definitely pick 81 degrees. Nadia wanted to go outside yesterday, but I didn't take her due to how cold and rainy it was. If the weather forecast is correct, I should be taking her outside quite a bit every day for the next several days as it's supposed to be just plain gorgeous. This should make for one happy little girl as she sure does like to be outside. This afternoon I plan to take her (by car - I'm not making another 3+ mile hike) to a playground we haven't been to before. I think she'll have a blast! I also have been doing research on sandboxes as I'm thinking that would be a great thing to get for our backyard especially as this Saturday we plan to relocate the big pile of dirt that the fence company left behind. Paul's parents are coming up so that Paul and I can get a lot of yardwork done.

Ian had another good night last night. He slept almost 7 hours and then after nursing for an hour slept almost 2 hours. I was in bed for about 8 hours. It's so much nicer to start one's day at 5:55am rather than 4:55am. Yesterday he took two short (30-45 minute) naps in the Nap Nanny. Hopefully we can do better with that today. Gabby definitely likes getting Ian dressed as when I get home he's never wearing the outfit he was wearing when I left for work. I don't change his clothes (or mine) every time he spits up on them. Nadia's nap has been consistently 90 minutes long. Maybe that's all she needs? I sure enjoyed those 3 hour naps she took for a couple of weeks. I am very happy though with how late she's getting up in the morning. I've been taking her up to bed sometime between 7:45-8:00pm each night and she never gets up before 6am any more and many days it's after 7am! Way to go, Nadia!!

Pronouns and Projects

Pronouns are usually something that toddlers struggle to use properly at first. Many children say things like "me do it." Nadia hasn't been using the word "me." We've had to work on her saying "me" instead of "you." I love it when she says "hold you," "hug you," or "help you." Sometimes she does want to help me (ex. when she's sweeping), but other times when she says "help you" she really means "help me" as she's asking for my help. As cute as "hold you" is, I am now asking her to say "hold me." Similarly today when I opened up the pantry door (a sound she can hear a mile away and which always causes her to run in my direction), she saw I was getting out a granola bar for myself and immediately said "I share!" It was so cute! What she really meant was that she wanted me to share with her. :-) Hopefully she will say "I share" in the future in reference to sharing with her brother.

She's very aware of Ian. If I take her outside while he's napping (and bring a monitor outside so I know when he wakes up), she will repeatedly say "Ian?" She notices that he's not with us. Aww... Yesterday when I was nursing him at church I stopped to change his diaper and he was NOT happy. The nursing room is adjacent to the nursery and she recongnized his cry. She started saying "Ian" and started crying for me as she knew I had to be nearby. I'm not the only one who knows his cry. :-)

I have tried to adjust my expectations as to how much I can get done in a day. Just accomplishing a very small project feels like a big accomplishment- like emptying the dishwasher or doing a load of laundry. Today while nursing Ian during Nadia's nap I finished our state, local, and federal taxes. I also put away some laundry that I had folded a couple of days ago but not put away yet. That's likely all I'll get done today aside from caring for two kids until I head to work. At times I get frustrated that I can't get more done, but most of the time I have adjusted my expectations for what I can accomplish in a day.

Last night Ian's first stretch was 6 hours and his second was 90 minutes. The good news is that the first stretch has been getting longer (record was 7 hours the day before), and the bad news is that I can't get him down a third time so my day started at 4:55 this morning. I got about 7 hours of sleep last night which might be plenty for many people, but it isn't enough for me. I keep reminding myself that at least we're going in the right direction! It took several attempts today, but I finally got him to take one (almost one hour) nap in the Nap Nanny. I got to rest for 20 minutes. Nadia's nap was again 90 minutes long today. The good news is that she didn't get up until 7am. Wonders never cease! She has been getting 11 hours most nights which means she wakes up in a happy mood. :-)

SEVEN Hours!

Ian jumped from a 5 hour stretch the last few days to his first 7 hour stretch last night! WOOHOO! He went down a few minutes after 8pm and didn't wake up until a little after 3am!!! I had gone to bed about 30 minutes after he did. I slept soundly for about 5.5 hours and then not as well the next hour due to clogged ducts, but it still felt wonderful to be horizontal for 6.5 hours straight for the first time in 3.5 months!! Normally his second stretch is at least 2 hours long, but last night it was only one hour long. So he still only got 8 hours of sleep between 8pm and 7:30am. Since 3am this morning I've only had one hour of sleep (4:30-5:30am), and it's now 6:15pm. Someone recently told me that someday I'd look back and miss these late night times to snuggle. I don't think so. I never felt that way about Nadia. Will I miss the snuggling - YES. I loved having him sleep in my arms during Sunday School this morning for example. That I will miss. I missed it when I started putting Nadia in the nursery and my arms were empty during church and Sunday School. However I really don't think there's anything aside from sleep that I want to do at hours like 3am. I get up during those hours out of love not out of enjoyment. Maybe I'm the odd ball when it comes to this, but I have always been one, even as a child, to really value my sleep.

Nadia's nap was later today, but that didn't help. It was again about 90 minutes long. Ian did a great job in that he never needed help staying asleep. I usually pop his pacifier in. He slept for an hour before we left for church in his Nap Nanny without a pacifier. His second nap was in his carseat, and his third was in the Nap Nanny. Way to go, Ian!! Isn't he adorable in this outfit? I think he's super cute!! It's such a relief that he's mostly wearing 0-3 month clothing now. He still wears some newborn size onesies.

Ian now weighs 8lb 13.5oz. He's holding steady at gaining 1/2 an ounce a day. Maybe the reason he was bigger in the womb was due to my diabetes. Maybe he's going to be smaller than Nadia? He should hit 9lbs by Friday and should be about 9.5 lbs by his 4 month doctor appt (compared to 7.2 lbs at his 2 month appt).

She Escaped!

Nadia's days of playing in the jacuzzi tub while I take a shower are over. I'm not sure how, but she managed to climb out of it while I was getting my shower this morning. I took the toys out as I would like to give her a few baths in there over the next several weeks to give her experience in deeper water prior to our trip to Florida. I'll probably use it as a playpen again in the future for Ian. First I had Nadia in the jump up and then once she started walking (and didn't enjoy the jump up any more), I put her in the tub.

Last night was very similar to the last few nights where the segments were about 5 hours then 2 hours then 1 hour long. You'd think I'd feel much more rested, but I don't. I guess it's because I'm still not getting my usual 8-9 hours of sleep yet. I'd say I am getting about 7 hours now, and also I guess the cumulative sleep deprivation over the past 3.5 months means that even once I start getting 8-9 hours of sleep it will take a little while until I feel rested and stop having these headaches. I remember being discouraged when this happened with Nadia. I expected to immediately start feeling better, but it took a little while, and Nadia was sleeping more than Ian is at this stage. But he's going in the right direction. I do remember that by the time she hit 6 months old I felt back to normal. Nadia slept in until (drum roll please) 7:30!! I had been up with Ian since 5:30 so it didn't help me, but it was nice for Paul.

Unfortunately today wasn't a good nap day for either child. Nadia did better yesterday (130 min) but slept less than 90 minutes today. I'm going to push back the start of her nap time even if she asks for it earlier to see if that helps. Ian only took one nap in his Nap Nanny. I ran errands with Nadia during his one nap. We went to the grocery store, CVS, Post Office, and bank. He woke up 15 minutes before we got back. One big improvement with Ian is that he is lasting a lot longer in the swing, gym, and bouncer. I'd say his favorite at the moment is the bouncer. He'll stay in it a lot longer than Nadia did at this stage.

Since Nadia had a short nap, I took her to the Easter egg hunt sponsored by our town's Lions Club. We were a little late (since I was nursing Ian), and even though we were less than 5 minutes late, we had missed the hunt for the 2 year olds. They were in the middle of the preschool egg hunt. Nadia joined the 5 year old one. She found 3 eggs and put them in her basket. She would have found more but there were a lot of kids there so the eggs were snatched up very quickly! Since the egg hunt was so short I let her play on the playground in the same park for a few minutes before taking her home. I'd have let her play longer, but it was cold out. I hope the spring weather come back soon! Our church is having an Easter egg hunt tomorrow afternoon with plastic eggs with candy inside. I think she'd like that, but I think one Easter egg hunt is enough at 21 months old. Next year maybe I'll have her do more than one. On the way home she had already started peeling the shell off one of the eggs.

Paul's presentation went fine. He won't find out for awhile what grade he earned for the paper/presentation. I'm glad it's over! He's now working on his proposal for Poland which is due in a few days. Duke won last night so they're now in the "Elite Eight" and will play again tomorrow. Go, Duke!!! Paul thought I meant I was lining up a babysitter for us to go out to dinner tonight. He's not sure about taking both kids out to dinner. He might be right. It might be a disaster. I figure we won't know unless we try it once. I cooked dinner. I will line up a babysitter for us to go out to eat once next month for my birthday. His advisor was featured in the latest issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry C, which is quite an honor. They included her vitae, a several page biography on her, etc. One thing they included was a list of her colleagues, and this included her doctoral students. She's had fewer than 20 doctoral students in her research group over the past 27 years. Paul's name was on that list! Hopefully some day in the future his name will appear in this journal as the author of one of the articles. ;-)

Backyard

Beth will be watching the kids this afternoon for about 3 hours. She got mixed up and came over yesterday afternoon. We were outside so I didn't hear her knock, but then she called me on the phone. I invited her to join us in the backyard. It was nice to chat with her for an hour while Michael and Nadia played on the swing and slide and Ian slept in my arms. Michael will be turning 2 years old on my birthday. When they were both swinging Nadia would wave and say "Hi, Michael." She says his name very clearly. Yesterday morning when I went into her room to get her, she greeted me with "Good Morning."

Ian again had a good day yesterday with naps. He took two naps in the Nap Nanny that were each almost one hour long. His third nap was outside in my arms. Last night he slept almost 5 hours and then 2 hours and then 1 hour. His day began at 5:30am. Unfortunately Nadia had another short nap (90 minutes) yesterday, and she woke up in a very, very fussy mood. Going outside definitely helped lift her spirits. This morning she woke up at about 6:40. Ian has already had one (one hour) nap in his Nap Nanny this morning. It's a lot cooler today so instead of going outside we're going to visit storytime at the library. We haven't tried that in awhile. We shall see if Nadia is old enough for it yet or not.

Three Miles

Yesterday was a much better day than Tuesday. I didn't ever cry! I can't say the same for the kids, but of course one expects both of them to shed a few tears most if not every day. I put Ian down for his nap and then took Nadia outside because she hadn't been out the previous two days plus I figured we wouldn't have to listen to Ian cry. I took a monitor with me and was pleasantly surprised that he never cried, and he slept for an hout. Way to go, Ian! Nadia and I enjoyed spending almost an hour outside. I was able to play with her and also get some weeding of flowerbeds done. As I was weeding she would periodically ask for a hug or to be held (she says "hold you"). Every time she asked I gladly took off my gloves and hugged my little sweetheart. Two hours later I put Ian down again and then decided to put Nadia down even though it was a tad bit earlier than usual for her nap. I ate lunch and was about to lie down so I could take a nap when Ian woke up. This nap was only 30 minutes long but still I was happy that he slept a total of 90 minutes in his Nap Nanny during the daytime hours yesterday. Big improvement! Nadia got more sleep than she did on Tuesday, but unfortunately her nap was "only" 1.75 hours long. Maybe today she'll get back to those wonderful 3 hour naps. She did sleep 11 hours last night though (8:15pm to 7:15am) so she woke up in a good mood, which is always a good thing!

After she woke up I made sure Ian was "tanked up" and then put him in the stroller. I thought we'd walk to a playground. I need to ask the neighbor where all the local playgrounds are. I hope there is one closer than the one we went to yesterday. I underestimated how far away it was, how much of it was uphill, and how out of shape I am. When we got back I looked it up, and we went a little over 3 miles (round trip). Very soon into the trip Nadia was asking for milk. I realized I had forgotten to give her some when she got up from her nap like I usually do. I heard her request for milk many times over the next hour. We didn't spend very much time at the playground as Ian was sleeping, but I wasn't sure how long he'd sleep, and I was hoping to get back before he woke up. Well he slept one hour and then cried. I held him for about 10 minutes but then he was crying even when being held so I put him back in the stroller and he cried the last 10 minutes of our trip. It was a gorgeous day, and I got a lot of exercise, but I hope there's another playground closer to home or we might be taking the car in the future. Nadia had a blast going down various slides and also playing inside a little pretend house (she kept calling each window a "door").

Ian napped for 2 1/2 hours total yesterday between the Nap Nanny and the stroller. Last night he slept from 8:50-2:30 and 3:30-5:00. When he woke up around 5:45 (not long after I put him down), Paul went down and gave him one ounce and then Ian slept in Paul's arms until 8:00. This enabled me to get some extra sleep, feed Nadia and myself breakfast, and get a shower. Much appreciated!! I weighed Ian yesterday, and he weighed 8lb 11.5oz. On 3-12 he weighed 8lb 5oz so he is holding steady at gaining 1/2 ounce a day as he gained 6.5 oz in 12 days. In this case he should hit 9lbs in 8 more days. I've been having him wear 0-3 month clothing the last 2 weeks. That is a big boost psychologically for me.

Paul gave his practice presentation yesterday. He couldn't do it on Tuesday since he was late. Tomorrow is the real deal. It will be the first time in a couple of years that he's worn a tie. The last few years the only time he wears a tie is when he's going to a wedding. He's definitely a jeans and t-shirt sort of guy. :-) They booked their airfare to Poland yesterday. Yikes was it expensive! I am glad we aren't paying the bill. He's traveling with two other doctoral students - his officemate and a guy from his advisor's husband's group. They're flying from State College to DC to Germany to Poland. That will be a long trip! It will be the first country Paul has been to that I haven't. We'll miss him!

21 Months Old

1. Nadia goes to bed at 7:30 if she's in a fussy mood or 8:00 if she's not. She's been getting up between 6:00-7:30am.

2. She's taking one afternoon nap a day, which lately has usually been 3 hours long. Sometimes it's only 90 minutes long. She usually goes down sometime between noon and 1pm.

3. Nadia's favorite things to watch (in rank order): VeggieTales, Curious George, Sesame Street, and Clifford. Some days I succeed in limiting her tv watching to a maximum of 30 minutes a day. If Ian didn't nurse for so many hours a day it would be easier for me to achieve this goal.

4. Nadia's favorite word to say lately is "Naia" (her name well pronounced except she doesn't say the "d"). This means "let me do it!"

5. Nadia's favorite thing to do is play outside. She loves to dig in the dirt, collect rocks, go down the slide, go for walks in the stroller, and swing. Her attention span for each of these activities is very long.

6. Her favorite things to do inside are do puzzles, color, read books, go down her slide, play with her kitchen, take bubble baths, play with stuffed animals, and listen to her CD's.

7. Her favorite stuffed animals are doggy, Junior, Laura, and Larry (the last three are VeggieTale characters).

8. Her favorite foods are pretzels, fruit gushers, cheese, raisins, yogurt, ice cream, cookies, crackers, bananas, pizza, macaroni & cheese, oatmeal, bagels, fries, applesauce, grapes, and hamburgers.

9. Her favorite CD's are "Silly Songs" and two VeggieTale CD's (which she refers to as "Bob").

10. She has 14 teeth - 8 on the top and 6 on the bottom.

11. She's mostly wearing size 24 month clothing. The exceptions would be size 2T for dresses and 18 month for pants.

12. We're not doing any potty training right now; I'm not even using the recently purchase pull-ups. I am pretty sure I'll have her daytime trained by the time she's 25 months old, but now is not the time.

13. She's getting better at feeding herself with a fork or a spoon although I'd say she's still probably a little behind where she "should" be for her age.

14. She's saying more and more sentences such as "Mommy button dress" (when I was getting her dressed). My favorite thing she says is "hug you." I love how she periodically comes over and expresses that she wants to give me a hug. I always accept!!!!!!!!!!! I also like how she says "help you." One time when I was sweeping she took "her" swiffer and said "Nadia sweep. Help you." That also was very heartwarming!!!!

15. She loves to be tickled and play various sorts of "rough house" such as me giving her an airplane ride with my legs, flipping her, or swinging her around. I love, love, love to hear her laugh!

16. We are working on teaching her to obey. Sometimes when she obeys she immediately says "good girl." Yes, Nadia you are a "good girl" when you obey Mommy. We are also working on teaching her to use her words instead of fussing and crying.

17. Although sometimes she's a little bit shy in public, most of the time she's a very outgoing, friendly little girl. She used to wave hello to everyone she passed in the grocery store, but now she says "hi" to them which works out better as many didn't notice her waves but most hear her say "hi." She gets a lot more responses now, which makes her happy. She also says "bye bye" a lot in such situations. On Sunday she kept saying "play" when I was trying to feed her lunch. She ran around and played with the other kids in the gym even though most of them are MUCH older than her (they were playing basketball and such). She's a very social little girl!

18. She has an amazing memory. For example, she'll turn the pages of her VeggieTales coloring book and accurately name the person who colored a certain page - Gabby, Mommy, Nadia, or Daddy.

19. She has a great sense of humor. I love to hear her laugh. She asks me to tickle her, and she loves to give funny responses to questions. For example sometimes she'll say "Nadia is boy" and then she starts laughing as she knows she's a girl. Of course her favorite way to be funny is to call everything "PopPop." She definitely inherited her Daddy's sense of humor. :-)

20. She's getting more accurate with correctly identifying more colors. She usually will say green when you show her something that's green, and sometimes she's accurate with purple, yellow, and blue.

21. I think she's going to be quite a little ham. She loves to dance for us (she's always coming up with new moves), and now she's started posing and asking for her picture to be taken. She definitely keeps me honest in terms of making sure I take her picture as frequently as I take Ian's. :-)

Pictures will be added to this post later today!

Small World

Yesterday afternoon I ran into Mandy in the third floor restroom (my office is on that floor). Mandy was one of Nadia's NICU nurses in 2008 and Ian's in 2009. I recognized her in December but at first didn't remember anything about her whereas she remembered soo much about myself, Paul, and my mom. This amazed me as during those 17 months in between seeing me she had sooo many other patients! I eventually did remember two things about her - where she went to college (Liberty in VA) and the fact that she lived an hour from the hospital. Whew... then I didn't feel AS bad when she confirmed I was correct. Well in December I learned that she has been working to become a Nurse Practitioner at the university where I teach. On my hall there are 10 offices - 6 of those are for nursing professors and 4 are for elementary education professors. I had mentioned to one of them earlier this semester that I knew Mandy, and Noreen (nursing prof) told me what a great student she was. I am not surprised. Mandy is really, really nice and also seems really, really smart. Last year she and her husband adopted one of the babies she took care of in the NICU. Sadly their daughter died a few days before she was scheduled to be discharged from the NICU. Anyhow it was neat to run into her yesterday. She of course asked me how Nadia and Ian are doing. She is working part-time in the NICU while working on this degree. She told me that she needs that time to be able to "love the babies." Yes, the NICU babies do receive excellent care from Mandy.

Yesterday I got a letter in the mail regarding the complaint I made last Monday to the hospital. I am guessing it's the standard letter than the patient advocacy office sends out whenever a complaint is made. I have to admit in my situation the letter was irritating. It said (more than one time) "we're sorry that we did not meet your expectations." Huh?!? Does anyone have a c-section and NOT expect the entire placenta to be removed? I don't think the problem has anything to do with me having unreasonable expectations. This is only the 2nd time I've made any sort of complaint against a doctor. The first time was when Paul passed out while driving and his PCP wouldn't give any referrals for any testing. When I let the insurance company know this (out of fear for Paul and also anyone else on the road that he might injure/kill if he had another accident due to passing out), they immediately had the PCP give him a referral to a neurologist and cardiologist. So it's not like I am one to quickly file a complaint - 2 in the past 20 years since I graduated from college. She has opened an investigation and said she'll get back to me within 30 days. Hopefully in the end they will acknowledge that the quality of care I received was not satisfactory - and it has nothing to do with my personal expectations.

Ian had a better night last night. He fell asleep with Paul at 7:20, and I wasn't sure what to do at 8:00 when I got home. I finally decided not to wake him up and just go to bed, but then he woke up at 8:10. He didn't nurse very well though. I had a hard time keeping him awake. I finally put him back down at 8:45 and was worried he wouldn't sleep very long. Thankfully I was wrong as he didn't wake up until 1:55. I had a bunch of clogged ducts due to this (I had pumped at 4:40 at school). I got him back down at 3:10, and he slept until 5:00am. Good job, Ian!! I had a very hard time going back to sleep at 3:15. I hate it when that happens. I am so tired, but it's hard to fall asleep quickly every time. I usually have been putting him to bed betwee 8-9pm, but maybe he'd do better with an earlier bedtime? I'm going to try it tonight. If you count that first 50 minutes with Paul then he slept almost 8 hours total which is more than he usually gets at night.

Here's to hoping that today Nadia will take a 3 hour afternoon nap, and Ian will take at least one decent nap (longer than 20 minutes) in the Nap Nanny. Paul put together Nadia's PlasmaCar last night while the rest of us were sleeping. I hope she loves it! If Ian doesn't start taking naps, I will likely have to let him cry. If so I hope the weather is nicer so I can take Nadia out (with the monitor) so she doesn't have to listen to him crying. A couple of you mentioned Babywise. I did read the book when Nadia was 2 months old. Ironically I thought she was difficult in terms of sleeping, and I still wouldn't say she was easy with sleeping (until 6 months old) but she was easier than Ian. I thought for sure the second child would be easier. Wrong! I tried letting her CIO at that stage, but it didn't seem to work for her. I tried it again when she was a bit older (I'm thinking 4 months but I'd have to check) and then it worked in terms of teaching her to self-soothe. I have tried with Ian from the start to follow the Babywise principle of establishing the pattern of eat, play, sleep during the day and eat then sleep at night. I try to keep the room dark and not make eye contact or talk to him etc when nursing him at night to try to make the transition as smooth as possible back to bed. During the day I try to keep him up as sometimes he does fall back asleep right away while nursing. I try to get him back down after he's been up (including nursing time) for 2 hours. I usually nurse him a little as a means of getting him sleepy. I can easily get him to fall asleep on the boppy (using my body as a pacifier), but many times he wakes up after being in the Nap Nanny 5 minutes even if I have him swaddled (or in his snowsuit) like I do at night. In the past the pacifier would help, but it hasn't helped lately. He's turned into following a pattern of eat, play, eat, play, eat, play, etc. with VERY little sleep aside from what he gets between 9pm and 6am. I also used to read a Babywise blog every day. I stopped following it about a year ago, but it's a great blog if you are trying to go by that book series. I looked at it last night for the first time in many months, and it looks like she's expanded and improved it in several ways such as giveaways and such. The book I have on sleeping is by a pediatrician in Chicago (Weissbluth). He does say to let a baby cry up to one hour when you are trying to get him/her to take a nap and that you can let them cry even longer than that at night. I really wasn't wanting to do CIO this young with Ian especially since he came 6 weeks early and has struggled to gain weight, but I might be doing so if he doesn't start taking at least one nap a day somewhere besides my arms. For my sake and more importantly Nadia's sake, I can't keep holding him 16 hours a day. As strange as it may sound, he does lie very happily on the changing pad on the kitchen table while I am feeding Nadia. I am sitting right there within reach of him, and he can't roll over yet so it's safe for now, but once he starts rolling that won't be safe. At least this means he doesn't scream while Nadia eats her meals.

Please go to sleep!!!

This morning I put Nadia in her crib for a timeout because she was being super fussy and throwing tantrums over the tiniest things. She didn't cry when I put her in her crib and when I checked the monitor a couple of minutes later, I discovered she had fallen asleep. It was about 9:30am. I was trying to get Ian to take a nap. He wouldn't do so, but Nadia, who is supposed to stay up until at least 11:30am, had fallen asleep. I went upstairs and turned on her light and was organizing her clothes. That didn't wake her up. I let her sleep about 25 minutes and then woke her up as I didn't want it to interfere with her afternoon nap. Well I either need to find a new location for timeouts to take place OR I need to go get her immediately if she falls asleep because she didn't take an afternoon nap. AGHHHHH! I was going to put her down later than usual (I was thinking 1pm instead of noon), but at 11:45 she said to me "nap, nap." I asked her if she wanted a nap, and she said, "yes." When I put her in her crib she said "night, night." You'd think if your child asks for a nap that she'll go to sleep, right? WRONG! She only fussed a little. Most of the time she played happily or rested, but she never fell asleep. I gave up after 90 minutes. So instead of sleeping 3 hours today she slept 30 minutes. I guess I shouldn't have awakened her this morning. A longer morning nap would have been better than a 30 minute one if that was going to be her only nap today. I hope tomorrow we can get her back in gear with a nice long afternoon nap. I'll make sure to keep her up all morning that is for sure. Right now I have a very fussy toddler.

I'm also very frustrated with Ian's napping. I have been trying very hard to get him to take naps in the Nap Nanny. I go through the same routine I do at night, but even with me running and popping in his pacifier when he starts to fuss, he's only lasting about 5-20 minutes. I finally just laid him in his gym and let him scream while I went to get dressed. I can't go to work in my pjs, and I can't dressed while holding him. Yesterday when I was trying so hard to get him to take a nap I said to Paul (at 9:30am), "I've been holding him for 3.5 hours straight and need him to take a nap." Paul said "you've been holding him for 3 months straight." I laughed and laughed and laughed. It was one of those you laugh or you cry moments, and the way Paul said it just made me laugh hysterically. Nadia was a "high maintenance" newborn. I thought she was almost colicky. I thought for sure child #2 would be an easier baby. That's how it seemed to work for most people I know. Well that hasn't been the case. The good news is that Nadia became a much easier baby as time passed. I keep telling myself it won't stay this hard forever. The only place Ian wants to sleep is on the boppy with his mouth attached to me. It's very hard for me to play with Nadia, go to the bathroom, eat, do housework, etc. in that position. I really don't want to do the "cry it out" thing with an 8lb 3 month old (who should only be 2 months old if he hadn't come early), but I really need him to start taking at least one decent nap a day in the Nap Nanny. I thought Nadia's naps were short when for many months they were only 45 minutes long. I'd be thrilled if Ian took a 45 minute nap in his crib!!!

Paul was late for his presentation. Thankfully I was wrong and he was only presenting it to his group. His group is tiny so his audience was just two people (a doctoral student one year ahead of him plus his advisor). He used to manage to get things done on time albeit at the last minute. Lately he seems to be a little late with everything. I'm sure he won't be late on Friday since that's a public event. Hopefully his advisor wasn't upset that he was about 40 minutes late today (my guess based on what time he left this morning). Paul had picked the time for the practice presentation, but he just wasn't done on time. He's coming home early today to watch the kids when I leave for work. The plasma car arrived today. Maybe he'll assemble it and let Nadia try it out. I hope she loves it!

Taking Things Apart

As is true of most children, Nadia loves to take things apart. I am struggling with how to handle this when it comes to food. On the one hand it's a good thing to let a child explore and have various sensory experiences, but on the other hand I don't want her to think it's okay to play with her food. Most kids take apart an Oreo cookie and lick the icing before eating the rest of the cookie. The problem is that now she also does that same thing with crackers that have either cheese or peanut butter in the middle, and she doesn't just lick the middle layer but rather uses one of her fingers to get the cheese or peanut butter from the cracker to her mouth. She makes quite a mess and sometimes doesn't eat the crackers after she's consumed the "filling." Sometimes she also takes apart a bagel to just eat the raisins or takes apart a chocolate chip cookie just to eat the chocolate chips. Because she's been making quite a mess, I've been trying to get her to stop taking apart her food.

Yesterday I thought we'd have fun with Easter eggs. I recently purchased a package of 24 VeggieTale egg huggers for $1.99. I thought that would be better than dye at her age, and of course she loves VeggieTale stuff. I boiled 6 eggs and then put the wrappers on. You dip them in boiling water, and it seals the wrapper onto the egg. After the eggs had cooled, I gave Nadia a bag and "hid" 6 eggs (in rather plain sight) and applauded and cheered when she "found" one and put it in her bag. She seemed to be having fun, but she started banging the eggs together and they cracked and then she started picking away the shell at the ends of the eggs where the shell was exposed. The first time she did this I told her we don't pick apart the eggs because she was making a mess on the family room carpet. However the next egg she found she proceeded to do the same. So I ate those two eggs for lunch and put away the other four. I guess she's too young for Easter eggs. I'll save the other 18 egg huggers for next year. The next time I make egg salad I will let her peel the eggs though if that's something she enjoys doing. :-)

I had trouble squeezing my left foot into a shoe yesterday. I think it's less swollen today so hopefully a shoe won't be so painful when I leave for work this afternoon. Unfortunately Nadia stepped on my bloody/bruised toes yesterday. She frequently steps on them when I'm sitting on the couch and she's walking in between the couch and coffee table, but it really hurt yesterday!

Last night was a better night for Ian. His first stretch was 5.5 hours long (8:45-2:15) and the next two stretches were each about one hour long (3:05-4:05 and 5:05-6:20). Nadia woke up at 6:05 and played in her crib until Paul got her around 6:30am. This means she only got 10 hours of sleep last night. She does best when she gets 11 hours. Yesterday Beth had to wake Nadia up at 1:45 (after she had been asleep 2 hours) because she needed to take her eldest daughter to the doctor because she was injured by a hockey puck at school. She had her hands full as she watches another 20 month old boy until 3pm. She had 3 kids ages 3-20 months with her as she took her middle schooler to the doctor! I hope that Nadia will sleep her usual 3 hours today. In the past I noticed that if I woke her up early from a nap that many times the next day she'd have a shorter nap. I hope that doesn't happen this time not that I fault Beth for waking Nadia up. She needed to get her daughter to the doctor.

The new camera arrived yesterday. I am irritated at myself for being suckered into buying an extra battery. I said "no" several times. Why did I give in? I wish I had a recording of the conversation because I am almost 100% certain he lied about the quality of the battery that came with the camera. I definitely didn't need another battery, and the battery wasn't cheap, and it's a special one that likely won't work with other cameras. On the other hand I'm glad I got the memory card as it does seem like a high quality one that will work on other cameras. I am not sure if it was a good price though. I know the camera was a good price. Oh well next time I will hopefully not let myself be pressured by a salesman like that. I am excited to try out the camera today. Hopefully I'll get fewer blurry photos of Ian. I have taken soooooooooooooo many pictures of him where he's flashing the most beautiful smile but the photo is very blurry.

I wondered why Paul was up most of the night last night working on his oral presentation. That seemed early for him since his presentation is on Friday. Then I learned this morning that he's giving a practice presentation to two research groups (his group plus his advisor's husband's group) this afternoon. I hope his presentations go well today and Friday.

Mommy Guilt

When I've taught about conducting parent-teacher conferences I've always mentioned to my students to keep in mind that most parents will automatically feel responsible when they hear of any problem their child is having in school. Most of the time teachers are not trying to imply that it's their fault, but that is the natural response of a parent. When I told this to my students it wasn't from my own personal experience but just from what I had read. Although it will be a long time until I experience a parent-teacher conference as a parent, I have already had a few moments where I have realized that I was judging myself to be a failure or a success based upon something Nadia did or didn't do. Of course there are times when the problem is my fault such as the fact that Nadia doesn't eat vegetables very often. I am not saying parents are perfect. We all have room for improvement! However parents often feel responsible for things they have no control over regarding their children, such as if the child has a learning disability.

I think that this tendency toward feeling guilty escalates when one has had a lot of difficulty becoming a parent. You've wanted this for soooo long that you feel you need to enjoy every aspect of it. Many times I heard women who had been trying to conceive for so long saying how much they were going to appreciate and treasure being pregnant and being a mother - more so than those who are able to get pregnant easily. I am sure there is a grain of truth in there that probably if it takes you say 5+ years to conceive that you won't take being pregnant for granted, but I don't think it means you will enjoy every little aspect of being pregnant or being a mother. I was very careful when I was pregnant as far as whom I told about the aches and pains of pregnancy (heartburn, morning sickness, etc.) because I didn't want to sound like I was complaining in front of someone who might be struggling to become pregnant. I remember how annoying that was when I was in that position. I didn't want to hear any complaints from a pregnant woman. When I was pregnant with Nadia I realized that I had created an overly rosy picture of what it would feel like to be pregnant. Paul was actually someone who commented on several occasions about how this is what I wanted so badly. I remember telling him many times during those months that I was on a high emotionally but that I wasn't loving it physically. Aside from feeling the baby kick (and even that sometimes was painful such as when she kicked me in the ribs), being pregnant was not a fun experience physically. I definitely feel better physically when I am not pregnant in terms of no more heartburn, stress incontinence, morning sickness, joint ligament pain, etc. The end goal of having a baby made it 1000% worth going through all that, but to me that didn't mean I needed to find all aspects of being pregnant enjoyable. I think the same is true of being a parent. I absolutely love being a Mommy. There are so many wonderful moments - seeing your baby smile, hearing your toddler laugh, watching them learn new skills, hugs, kisses, etc. There are also moments that are unpleasant such as holding your child down while she receives an immunization. My theory is that those of us who had a hard journey towards becoming parents are more likely to feel guilty when we are going through those less than desirable moments. If you've gone through so much (hundreds of shots and tens of thousands of dollars as two examples), you feel like you're supposed to enjoy every aspect of being a mommy. I know I've experienced this guilt lately when I've felt totally overwhelmed due to sleep deprivation. I've also experienced it with both children in terms of nursing (feeling guilty over every ounce of formula they've consumed). It's so easy to feel like you're failing as a mom. Probably all parents experience this at one time or another, but my theory is that those of us who had to wait many years to become moms are even more inclined toward feeling guilty, even when that guilt is not deserved. Hopefully I will be able to recognize when this is happening and stop being so hard on myself. Being up half the night is just not any fun, but it doesn't mean I'm not extremely grateful for my two children.

Last night Ian slept from 7:50-11:30pm and 12:15-3:30am. I put him down (asleep) at 4:25am, but he didn't last long. In light of the success of the previous night, I asked Paul to give him a bottle. Paul came back up at 5:05 and said Ian had fallen asleep after 1 ounce. I was hoping I'd get one more hour of sleep, but it turned out to be less than 30 minutes. If you count the time Paul was with him I guess I got closer to an hour of extra time in bed, but I am still not sure it was worth the guilt over the formula for just a few minutes of extra sleep (whereas yesterday I definitely viewed 2 ounces as worth it when it gave me almost 2 more hours of sleep). I guess tonight I'll stay down longer after I put him down for the 3rd stretch and see if me putting the pacifier back in and such will get him to sleep for at least an hour. He has been doing a 3rd stretch for awhile now albeit it's usually only one hour long. For some reason he's resisted it the last few days,  but 3 or 4am is just too early for me to start my day! It's also too early for him. In fact the good news was that although he was sleeping in my arms rather than his Nap Nanny, after I nursed him a little bit he slept until 7:35!!! Nadia gets more sleep than Ian does per day, and it's supposed to be the other way around. Nadia has been averaging about 14 hours of sleep a day (11 at night plus a 3 hour nap). Ian usually gets about 6-8 hours at night and about 2-3 hours during the day. I don't ever recall Ian sleeping past 6:30am so this was a very different morning for him. Many times his morning nap starts around 8:15 since he gets up so early. I'll wait until he's been up 2 hours this morning so his morning nap (if he takes one) will be much later than usual. Nadia got up at 6:30 so today is the 9th consecutive day that she's slept until at least 6am. YAY for DST!

I'm doing another peer observation at 2:00 today so I had asked Beth to come over at 1:15. She usually comes over at 2:50. I need to call her and ask her to make that 1:00 as I accidently left my parking tag in Paul's mom's car on Friday. She had a PET scan on Thursday and is meeting with the doctor this morning for the results of that. I've been praying she'll get a good report and not need any additional treatments. It's been a year since her last scan. Anyhow they are going to leave the hanging tag with the receptionist in the fertility clinic, and I'm going to stop in on my way to work to pick up the parking tag and also give the clinic a picture of Ian & Nadia for their bulletin board. I've given them pics of Nadia in the past but haven't given any of Ian yet. After today I just have one more observation to do this semester. I'm scheduled to do one in April; it was the one that got snowed out in February. Most faculty who work full-time don't do as many as I've been doing while working part-time, but then again most departments don't have such an imbalance between tenured and non-tenured faculty members. Not counting our department chair, I am one of two tenured faculty in our department this year, and our department has a total of about 20 faculty members. Each non-tenured faculty member is supposed to have two peer observations a semester. One went up for tenure this year so there should be three of us next year, unless the other one retires before then. He just went through his 20 year review.

How much longer?

The first several weeks of Ian's life I handled the sleep deprivation rather well. That hasn't been the case lately, particularly from about 5-11am. During that time frame I typically have a really, really bad headache and also can just barely keep my eyes open. I kept thinking that I've been through this before and should have known what to expect, but I recently searched on the blog to read what Nadia was doing at this stage, and this is what I wrote 2 days before she turned 3 months old. "She's getting one stretch of 6.5 to 8.5 hours (7 is about the norm) and then nursing 30 minutes and then sleeping another 1.5 to 3 hours." I also noted that she was going to bed between 8-9 pm, which I found interesting as that's also been Ian's bedtime lately. That's the only thing they have in common though regarding sleeping at night at this stage. Ian has never slept 6.5 hours straight much less 8.5 hours straight. His longest stretch thus far has been 6 hours, and that has happened less than 5 times total, with the most recent being on March 3rd. At this stage with Nadia I was already back to getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night. With Ian I still have many nights where my total sleep (broken into 3-4 segments) is less than 6 hours. He's a bit unpredictable, but if I had to say an "average" I'd say his stretches are about three then two then one hour long, and he nurses for 45-60 minutes in between each segment. I was nursing Nadia about 30 minutes over a span of 8-10 hours whereas over a span of 9-10 hours (for example 9pm to 6am) I am typically nursing Ian for 2-3 hours. I really hope he starts sleeping more in the VERY near future.

Last night he slept from 8:00-11:30, 12:30-3:00, and 4:25-6:30. I had put him down (asleep) at 4:00, but he woke up at 4:15. I had Paul go down and at first just try putting the pacifier in, and when that didn't work Paul gave him 2 oz of formula which was fine with me as after nursing him one hour I just wanted to sleep. When I get him back down the last segment is never more than 90 minutes. He definitely slept longer and later because he got a bottle. Aside from the fact I was very tired, the reason I sent Paul down was because when I came down at 3:00 I missed a couple of steps and injured my left foot. There was a fair amount of bleeding (I left a trail on the floor as I didn't realize I was bleeding), and two toes are very swollen and somewhat bruised. Last night was a better night than usual because of the extra almost 2 hours he slept after the bottle. If it hadn't been for the bottle, I bet I wouldn't have gotten any sleep past 3:00am. Many believe that weight plays a role in how soon a baby will sleep well at night. Nadia weighed about 4 lbs more than Ian did at 3 months old (even though their birth weights were almost identical). Needless to say I am again contemplating supplementing with formula more if it will fatten him up and that will mean more sleep for me.

I was thinking about postpartum depression. I always figured it was due to the hormonal changes. However lately I was thinking that sleep deprivation and also the frustration over how long it can take to fit into one's clothes again could also be contributing factors. I looked up PPD this morning and one site listed the symptoms as, "sadness, fatigue, insomnia, appetite changes, reduced libido, crying episodes, anxiety, and irritability." Well that description could fit just about any woman who has recently given birth! While reading about PPD, I discovered there also are conditions called PPE (postpartum exhaustion) and PPF (postpartum fatigue). One website gave a description of the differences between tiredness, fatigue (next level), and exhaustion (most severe). I would say I fit the description of PPF. I am definitely not to what they described as the "exhaustion" stage although I have used that word to describe how I've felt.

This morning we went to Sunday School, church, and the fellowship tea after the service. We were late. Oops. Nadia had a blast playing with Abby (whom she now calls Gabby, which is the name of one of the neighbor girls who babysit her). During the luncheon she was driving in a Little Tikes car. She was NOT happy when I told her it was time to go home. When she got home she started asking for her nap and she slept almost 3 hours. She woke up around 7am and was playing happily in her crib when I went in to get her at 7:10. What a delight to have her sleeping at least 11 hours at night and waking up in a good mood! I held Ian during Sunday School and the first 45 minutes of the worship service (he was sleeping). I passed him off to someone before the choir was going to sing, but then it turned out they had a lengthy prayer time and near the end of that he started crying. By the time I walked to the nursing room the choir had started singing. I just needed him to make it about 5 more minutes! Oh well. I tried! I had rehearsed at 10am with the choir with him in my arms. He had gone 2.5 hours without nursing which is long for him, and I had started to leak. Thankfully I was wearing a black top so I don't think the spot was very visible. I need to remember to wear pads to church on Sunday. I do wear them to school. I was calculating in my mind and although I haven't kept a log, my estimate is that I am nursing him about 9 hours a day (not counting days I go to school). That seems a bit more than usual for a 3 month old, doesn't it????

P.S. I was reminded today of something else I should have added to yesterday's list. Daddy comes up with outfits for Nadia that Mommy considers to be well um shall we say "interesting"? LOL!!!

Mom vs. Dad

(I know this post is somewhat similar to one I did on January 22, 2009)

1. Mommy changes FAR more diapers than Daddy does each week. The only time Paul changes Ian's diaper is when he's the only one home. He averages changing Ian's diaper once a week. The strange thing is that when Nadia was this age he changed far more than one diaper a week. He still doesn't mind changing Nadia's wet diapers.

2. Daddy uses FAR more wipes when changing diapers. I would estimate he uses at least 3 times as many as I do for one dirty diaper.

3. When Daddy is watching the children he devotes 100% of his energy toward them whereas Mommy also does things like eat, do the laundry, dishes, or grade papers while one of them or both of them are awake.

4. Daddy is far more bothered by messes than Mommy is - whether this means getting dirty while playing outside or while feeding herself in her highchair.

5. Daddy is far more paranoid of possible injuries from Nadia doing things like climbing. I just read an article that said the opposite is what is typically true.

6. Daddy has never trimmed either child's fingernails. I will give him credit that he trimmed Nadia's toenails one time. I have to admit I don't enjoy the task either, especially Ian's right now as his are SO tiny. I am so afraid of hurting him.

7. Daddy has never given either child a bath although he has taken Nadia out of the tub a few times after I've already shampooed her hair and such (when Ian was crying and needed my attention). I think giving her a bath is a fun activity whereas the thought of doing so frightens him.

8. I only try to teach words to Nadia that I think she has the potential to comprehend. Paul sometimes tries to get her to repeat words that she won't understand the meaning of until high school or beyond. To be honest, a few words he's tried to get her to say, I don't even know the meaning of, LOL.

9. If Ian is crying, Paul assumes almost 100% of the time that it means he's hungry. Although that is the case many times, other times I think it's because his diaper needs to be changed, he needs to burp, or he's tired.

10. For the first 8 years of our marriage, I got more sleep than Paul did. Since Ian was born, Paul has been getting more sleep than me (more at night and more naps during the day) - with the exception of the last two nights when he was working on his paper.

Paul didn't finish his paper until this morning. I hope it's not going to be a problem that he submitted it a day late. His officemate didn't think it would be a problem. The same two professors were on her seminar committee last year. I was really, really tired this morning. Ian slept from 8:15-11:30pm, 12:15-2:00am, and 2:50-4:00am. I couldn't get him back down after 4:00am. Nadia slept until 7:30. Can you believe it? She's had an excellent week in terms of her wake up time. I love DST! She napped for 3 hours today which she wouldn't normally do after sleeping almost 12 hours the previous night, but she only napped for one hour yesterday (in the car) so I think she was making up for the sleep she lost yesterday. Ian was awake from 4:00-8:30am. After putting him down, I proofread Paul's 17 page paper and then took Nadia with me to the grocery store.

When we got back from the store, I nursed Ian and then took Ian and Nadia for a walk. Ian didn't last long so I carried him. I'm getting pretty good at holding him with my left arm and pushing the stroller with my right hand. I didn't realize until we got home that Ian had lost a sock somewhere along the way. Amazingly, I found his sock on the road when I took Nadia for a second walk about 4 hours later. I hope I take some pics of the kids today as they both look cute in new spring outfits. Nadia is wearing a Carter's lime green onesie & polka dotted jumper that I got for $2.99 awhile ago. Ian is wearing a new outfit that Grandma gave him yesterday. Grandma makes sure Ian & Nadia are well dressed. I am loving this weather!!! Today is a great day - the first day of spring and my mom's birthday!

Children's Museum

Nadia and Ian both experienced a first today - their first trip to a museum. Well Nadia went with us to a few museums in Antigua last May, but this was her first time going to one geared for children. It's free for those under the age of 2 and is located in the same town as the university where I teach. I had asked Paul's parents if they could meet us as I had scheduled a peer observation for 1pm and had a faculty meeting at 2pm. We met at a McD's inside a Walmart. Since I forgot to bring my pump (remembered while we were on our way there), I nursed Ian in the McD's to lessen the time I'd go without nursing or pumping a little. After eating and doing a little shopping, Paul's parents drove the kids in my car to the Children's Museum and I took their car first to a furniture store to pick up the ottoman that we had ordered for our glider (that's in Ian's room) and then to the university. I left a little before the faculty meeting was over and picked up the kids at the museum. They had been there about 3 hours. Paul's dad went around the museum with Nadia, and Paul's mom took care of Ian. It seemed like Nadia really enjoyed herself. If we lived closer I would definitely get an annual membership and go on a regular basis. When I arrived Nadia was petting a salamander.

When I called Paul around 7am he said his goal was to submit his paper by 3pm and then head home as he was very tired as he got very little sleep last night. When I called him at 5pm he hadn't finished the paper or left his office yet. Have I mentioned he's a procrastinator? I'm really, really tired. I'm hoping Ian lets me get a decent amount of sleep tonight. Neither of them got much sleep today. They both slept in the car (about 1 hour total), and Ian also slept about 20 minutes in his Grandma's arms. That's far less sleep than either of them usually get during the day. Nadia was really fragile when we came home. The neighbor girls came over and volunteered to push Nadia on the swing, but she kept crying for Mommy. I was nursing Ian. I am a pretty good multitasker, but I can't do those two things simultaneously. I was wishing I could hit a fast forward button until it was time to put them to bed. I would have enjoyed visiting the museum with Nadia, but I'm glad she got to do this with her grandparents. I am very excited about taking her to Reptiland and Knoebel's Amusement Park in the near future.

In and Out

Yesterday Nadia and I were outside for four hours, and Ian was out with us for about three of those. Helping him get to sleep is even more of an athletic event when Nadia is on the swing outside and Ian is in his crib - a lot more running was involved! I was exhausted by the end of the day. Hopefully that means I burned off those cookies I ate. He took his first and last naps of the day in his crib and the ones in between were in my arms or the stroller. I very briefly let him cry for another nap while we were outside, but I decided he's too young and too little. I went up to get him after less than 5 minutes and wow was it very, very hard to calm him back down. I definitely won't be trying that again any time soon. CIO seems very hard to do with a second child. If I did it at night, I am certain it would wake Nadia up. I was hoping for another 5+ hour stretch last night, but it didn't happen. The first was 3.75 hours long, the second was 2 hours long, the third was 1 hour long, and the fourth was in my arms for about 40 minutes as I didn't want my day to begin at 4:30am. Nadia got up at 6:15. I had put her to bed a little earlier last night due to her shorter nap yesterday and also the fact that I doubt aside from sleeping in the car she'll get any nap today.

Singing and Spring

Blue skies and temps in the 60's and low 70's, what more could one ask for? We took our walk a little later this morning so except for Ian we weren't as bundled up. In fact at the end I took my coat and Nadia's coat off as I was sweating. Ian fell asleep in the stroller which meant there was no way they'd be taking simultaneous afternoon naps, but it did mean we could take a much longer walk this morning. It was a very wonderful way to get some exercise and also talk with Nadia about all the things we were seeing. She helped me count houses that we were passing, and it was the first time she counted to four (three had been the highest until today).

Nadia isn't the only one using the Bumbo. The first few days it was a problem because she kept getting stuck and needed my help to get out (and invariably I would be nursing Ian when this happened). Thankfully she has learned how to get out of it herself. We didn't have one when she was little so this has been her first experience with one. As for the double stroller, I can see one disadvantage of the front/back kind (rather than side by side) is that Nadia kicks the back of Ian's seat all the time. Somehow he managed to stay asleep. I would like to make taking a walk part of our daily routine as much as possible although I don't know if we'll have time tomorrow. I was really, really tired this morning and ended up eating a bunch of cookies to wake myself up before the 9:30 online training session. So I definitely needed to get some extra exercise today. It really would be helpful if I was a coffee drinker on days like today when I can barely keep my eyes open. I did doze off a bit while Ian was taking his first nap. I put him down earlier and that proved to be a good move as he took a 90 minute nap without any help from me. During the training session I was nursing Ian and Nadia was watching Curious George. She can now say "George" although she still refers to him as "monkey" unless you ask her what the monkey's name is. She loves the Curious George socks I got her at Target last week.

I was wrong when I said Nadia couldn't climb the steps to her slide. I still think they need to be modified as they weren't made with a 20 month old in mind. I only let her climb them when I standing right there to help if needed. Two decisions that I am very happy I made are to install a fence and restrict doggy to her crib. She has stopped asking for doggy once she's downstairs. She still wants to take him down with her, but she's satisfied when we let her take a different animal of her choosing down. Doggy is staying much cleaner, we aren't having a battle over not holding him when she's eating, and now she has something to look forward to at naptime and bedtime. She didn't want to come inside for her nap, and it helped a lot to remind her that doggy was waiting for her. The fence is also a huge blessing. I only wish they had been neater in their installation. First they left behind this HUGE pile of dirt (from all the holes they dug for the posts) which has of course killed the grass that was under it, and they left pieces of concrete and big chunks of mud in many places around the yard. We're going to have to clean that up before we mow the lawn for the first time, and I want the pile of dirt relocated as well.

Last night I went to choir rehearsal for the first time since Ian was born. I have really missed it. I love singing, and I love the music this choir direct selects. I only stayed for one hour so that I could be home in time to nurse Ian and put him and myself to bed by 9pm. Well he was already in sleepy mode by the time I got home so he didn't nurse very much. I guess I could have stayed for the whole rehearsal (another 30 minutes). This coupled with the fact that Ian finally had his first long stretch in two weeks meant I was leaking all over the place and had clogged ducts by the time he woke up. He slept 5.5 hours! Unfortunately from there on out he kept waking up after sleeping only 45-60 minutes. It was very annoying!!! Nadia woke up around 6:30am. Paul had kept her up until I came home (8:15) so that I could put her to bed so she was up later than usual yesterday. She probably got 10 hours of sleep, but considering she took a 3.5 hour nap yesterday I wasn't surprised she needed less than 11 hours last night. Today her nap was about 90 minutes long.

I thought I'd be taking a break from sharing about Nadia's excretory functions, but I have to comment that she's definitely more aware of them. At least once a day she says "poop" and holds herself. On Monday she ran over to where the potty had been and gave me a very confused look. Yesterday she said it while I was giving her a bath. She stood up and said "poop" and I panicked at the thought she might do that in the bathtub. Thankfully she actually had to pee. She stood there with a look of panic on her face as she peed in the tub. Not that I want her peeing in the tub (the bath quickly came to an end), but I was thrilled that she was aware that she needed to pee before she actually started peeing (albeit she said the wrong word). This morning she ran over and said "poop" and held herself, but I was in the middle of the online training and nursing Ian so I told her to go in her diaper, and she did. I am thinking that since she seems to be making more progress in being aware of what's going on that I should buy her some pull-ups and unpack the potty chair. I don't want to go back to all-out potty training, but if she takes the initiative then we could take a laid back approach for the next 2 months. I am thinking that I will likely try again in May rather than waiting until July since she keeps talking about it every day.

The last few weeks I have changed my mind back and forth regarding my fall schedule. I had planned on teaching 2 classes (50%), but my chair had scheduled me for 3 (75%). What was making the decision harder to make was the fact that the third class is scheduled for Wednesday nights. Last fall I taught Mon, Tues, and Thursday nights which enabled me to sing in the choir on Wednesday nights. I'm scheduled for Mon, Wed, and Thursday in the fall. Right now I'm just teaching on Monday and Tuesday nights. Last night I came up with a solution. It hit me during choir rehearsal that just like I left early last night, I could come late in the fall. If I went straight from class to choir I could be there for the second half of the 90 minute rehearsal. By that time Ian will be going to bed by 7pm so he'll be asleep when I come home from class. So for the first time I feel settled in my decision. I will teach 75% in the fall. I'm hoping to stay with this schedule (3 nights a week) for the next two years. We're hoping Paul will graduate in May 2012. Yesterday my chair told me that I am actually able to finish the individualized instruction I had been doing this semester. I am glad about that as those are easy for me to do from home.

A 2 Year Old's Wish List

I was working on Nadia's birthday wish list today. Her birthday is 3 months away, but mine is next month. There are generally very few things I can think of to request for myself so I was going to share both lists so that if anyone in the family wanted they could buy something actually for Nadia (or Ian) as my birthday gift. So far my birthday wish list contains swim diapers for Nadia for our trip to Florida in May, swim trunks for Ian, 2 convertible car seats (as Nadia will still be using the size she's in now when Ian outgrows the infant size one), and a 9x13 casserole dish as mine has cracks in it. Ian will probably also need some summer clothes as unless he has a huge growth spurt he's not going to fit the summer clothes I already own when we're in Florida. Listed below are the items that I currently have on Nadia's wish list -suggestions for family members or things that Paul & I might get her. I am posting it here as I am very open to suggestions of what she will probably enjoy from ages 24-30 months (she's the lucky one in that Christmas is 6 months after her birthday whereas for Ian the two events are only 13 days apart). Please let me know if you have an idea of something Nadia might like! While creating this list I ended up ordering a Plasma Car for her. I've seen pics and read about them many times on Cindy's Ethiopian triplet blog. I hope Nadia will enjoy it. I am certain I will give it to her immediately. I have stored a few items in a closet for her birthday, but generally I am terrible at waiting to give her a gift. :-)

1. Tumbling mat
2. Hugg-a-planet (earth)
3. Tricycle
4. Art smock
5. Play-doh
6. Finger paint
7. Finger paint paper
8. Mr. Potato Head
9. Toy camera

This week three books came in the mail that I bought upon the recommendation of Joy. I got used copies of The Toddler's Busy Book, The Preschooler's Busy Book, and the Arts & Crafts Busy Book. Arts and crafts are NOT my thing. I knew I'd need help coming up with ideas of fun things to do with Nadia in that area.  Each book contains 365 ideas. My goal is to introduce a new activity of some sort to Nadia during Ian's morning naps on the days we're at home together. Yesterday I got a basket and put a little blanket in it and put one of her dolls in it and then we played together by feeding the baby a bottle and putting the baby in "bed". She enjoyed that. Today I got out her 1 inch blocks that she hadn't played with in awhile, and we worked on building towers. I don't ever recall seeing her build a tower with blocks before so I was impressed with how tall of a tower she could build! I think these books will help me when I start to run out of ideas on my own.

I stayed home yesterday morning so that Ian could have a morning nap in his crib and Nadia could have a long afternoon nap. Well Ian did take a decent morning nap due to my running upstairs many times to pop his pacifier back in his mouth. I felt like I was training for a track and field event as I would go over the gate (hurdle) and up the stairs as fast as possible and then come back down very quickly as well to get back to Nadia as soon as possible. I've been wanting more exericse. I guess this is my new aerobic workout, lol. Both of them struggled with their afternoon naps which meant mine was very short as well. Ian did pretty well last night. He slept about 7.5 hours between 9pm and 6am. His first stretch was about 4 hours long, second was about 2.5 hours long, and his third about 1 hour long. That would have meant a pretty good night's sleep for me except Nadia was up from 11:00pm-12:40am (and then soon after she got to sleep is when Ian awakened for the first time so I was awake from about 11pm to 1:45am). Paul went and rocked her and gave her milk, but after he put her back in her crib she kept crying out "mommy," "daddy," or "milk" for more than an hour. Finally I went in and hugged her and told her it was nighty night time and that she needed to lie down and be quiet or I was going to take her doggy out of the crib. Well that did the trick! We didn't hear another peep from her. I will use that tactic more quickly the next time this happens. I hope her waking in the night doesn't become the norm as she generally sleeps through the night. She did set a new record this morning in that she didn't wake up until (drum roll please) 7:40am. Can you believe it? I can't! This helped make up for some of the sleep she lost in the middle of the night, and she made up the rest of it during her long afternoon nap. She also set a record today of taking the longest nap she's ever taken before! We are definitely going to stick with an 8pm bedtime if it means she'll get up later in the morning and have a nice long afternoon nap. I am a huge fan of DST for the first time in my life!

Ian rode in a stroller for the first time this morning (see above). It's supposed to get up to 67 degrees today. YAY! It wasn't that warm this morning which is why I had the kids bundled up. It was my first time using the double stroller that my sister passed down to us. Thanks, Yvonne! Ian didn't last too long. I ended up carrying him on the way back and shortening our trip. I am hoping in time he'll last longer. Nadia definitely wasn't ready for our trip to be over especially since I gave her a few rocks to hold. That girl LOVES rocks.

Nadia's sentences sometimes really amaze Paul and I. One that stopped us in our tracks was "I'll get it." There are humorous moments too such as when Paul said she could take a sip (of her milk) and she obviously thought he said sit because she promptly sat down on the kitchen floor. When we're reading a counting book to her, she no longer wants to hear us count. She says "Nadia" (meaning she wants to do it) and then she points to each object (ex. butterfly) and says a number word. She usually only gets up to "three," but I'm sure she'll be going higher in the near future. We think she's a smart little girl, not that we're biased or anything, LOL.