Hugs and Zippers

Several days ago I started teaching Nadia how to zip and unzip her pajamas. I don't think Paul is thrilled that I taught her this skill as she "practices" at moments when she's not supposed to be getting undressed. She hasn't learned how to take the sleeper off so at least she's always somewhat dressed. :-) Her newest "joke" (similar to calling things "PopPop") is to say "ice cream" when I ask her what she wants for breakfast. She laughs at her own jokes just like her Daddy does, LOL. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but she's gotten back to calling milk "milk" (she called it "book" for awhile) as well as calling her slide "slide" (rather than "that"). Some new words include "Jericho" (which she says when she hears "Joshua Fought the Battle..."), "elephant," "jiggle," and "morning." She has started singing a few words when we're listening to a CD. The sweetest thing she's been doing lately is that she reaches her arms up and says "hug you." Awwww..... I definitely pick her up and let her hug me!!!!

As you can see from the picture in yesterday's post, Nadia really loves her new stuffed animals. Larry is her favorite. She likes these new ones (Larry, Laura, and Junior) better than Bob. I bought Bob awhile ago (new) through CBD. I paid less than $11 total for all 3 of these (used) on eBay. Toddlers don't care if it's new or used! I think "doggie" now has some competition as she really, really loves "Larry." I'm glad I didn't wait until her birthday to give them to her. What a delight it is as a parent to see your child really enjoy something you've gotten them. Ahhhh.....

Today my goals include grading papers, getting Ian to take a nap in his Nap Nanny (it's been 6 days since he had a long nap in it), and making sure Nadia gets her afternoon nap. I went to ladies Bible study yesterday morning. I left before it was over and fed her pretzels - both done in an attempt to keep her awake. I succeeded for the first 15 minutes of the drive, but she slept the last 10 minutes. When we got home she woke up when I was putting her in her crib so I fed her lunch and let her play. I put her down about an hour later than she usually goes down. She didn't sleep At All. Ugh. It was close to an hour before she started fussing, but she didn't sleep a wink. I told Beth that when she came over to watch the children. She told Paul when he got home that Nadia slept in her arms for about 30 minutes. That's better than nothing but she usually sleeps at least 90 minutes. Her naps average about 2 hours in length with 3 hours being the maximum. She woke up early again. I think she's just a morning bird. If we move her bedtime later or earlier she still tends to get up early especially if Ian wakes up between 5-6am. The first time she woke up this morning was 4:20 which is just WAY too early. Thankfully she went back to sleep and woke up again about an hour later. She didn't go back to sleep, but I didn't go get her until 6am.

She did really well at the nursery yesterday. It was my third time to attend the study, although it was the 7th lesson. She did well the first and third time, but the second time they moved her down to the infant nursery where she could be held/rocked since she was crying. Yesterday I peeked in on her once (using a window that parents can see in through but the children can't see out of) and I wished I had a camera. The children were sitting around a table as the adults were singing and doing the Bible lesson. She looked so grown up. It was a bittersweet sight.

Ian had a GREAT night last night. He slept from 9pm to 3am - SIX hours straight. WOOHOO! Then after being up a little less than an hour he then slept for about 90 minutes before getting up for the day. So he slept about 7.5 hours in his Nap Nanny. YAY!

This morning I did a quick search online as I was curious if others had written about my articles. I think I need to use a citation index to really investigate this, but my quick search showed that a college student in England mentioned me by name in an essay she wrote for a economics competition (that she won) in 2008. She quoted an article of mine that was published in 2006 (a different article than the one reviewed recently in The Teaching Professor). It's very encouraging to know some people are reading my articles. :-)