Thankful Thursday

1. I have achieved my goal of nursing Ian for at least 12 months (albeit just one feeding a day the last 4 months). It's such a precious way to start my day. Thank you, Ian!

2. Ian got up at 6:15 yesterday and 6:25 today. WOOHOO! Last night was the first night since the day before Thanksgiving that he slept the whole night through. Every night he's had at least one crying episode - at all different times of the night. Last night he slept 11 hours straight. Thank you, Lord!!! I went to bed at 10pm last night since I didn't get home from choir rehearsal until 9:05pm. It was really nice to be able to stay in bed until 7am (including the time I was nursing him in bed). Since this is a thankfulness post, I won't talk about the length of his naps the past 3 days.

3. Today I ordered fifty 4x6 prints for free (including free shipping). Awesome! Some day I will get caught up on their scrapbooks. I haven't worked on them At All for the past year. I'm thinking I'll have more time for that when I'm also not working a FT job in addition to caring for two little ones.

4. Including today I only have 4 trips left to make to BU. Yesterday I turned in five keys at work - the ones I haven't used in years. I have gradually been bringing things home. Tonight I plan on bringing home my small refrigerator (which I haven't used this semester anyhow). Next week I have a few more binders to bring home as well as my picture frames and framed doctoral degree. The end is in sight. Once I submit my semester grades, life should calm down some until the online course starts on July 6.

5. I love singing in the choir. I feel unprepared for the Christmas cantata. I am grateful there's a 2 hour dress rehearsal next Saturday morning as I won't be able to attend the rehearsal next Wednesday due to my final exam schedule. I'm really looking forward to being able to participate in the entire rehearsal each week after we get back from our cruise.

6. Ian is making a lot of progress with walking. He can walk across the room while pushing his dump truck, and he cruises all over the place.

7. Nadia recognizes the letter "D"! I assumed the letter "N" would be the first one she'd learn since many children learn the letters of their name first. Now whenever she sees a capital letter "D" (even if it's in the middle of a word if all the letters are capital letters) she says "that says Daddy." I often say "D" is for Daddy. It's so exciting to watch her learn new things!!! She loves to show this skill to us. She'll say "let me show you" and then turns a page to find a "D" and says "that says Daddy." This conversation has been repeated many times the last two days. She wants to show us over and over and over and over again! :-) Maybe "M" for Mommy will be next? We shall see!

8. I've really appreciated the cleaning service. I didn't enjoy calling them on Monday to let them know that this week would be the last. It's been so nice to have them come twice a month. If I could go back in time, I would have started using a cleaning service back in February when I went back to work with 2 little ones at home. I might have them come again in July when I'm teaching the online course. I'm going to miss them! I gave the ladies each a gift card to a restaurant as a Christmas gift today.

9. Paul has been able to stay home most of this week and work from home because his advisor is out of town. She'll be around next week, but then after next week Paul will get to work from home for a few weeks while she's in Florida. YAY! It saves on our gas bill for one thing (especially with gas being up over $3 a gallon again).

10. It's been nice to have our neighbors watching the kids again. It's so simple (no driving involved), and I know they're not just sitting and watching tv the whole time. I also gave them a restaurant gift card yesterday as their Christmas gift.