Curious George!

The PBS station had their annual Kid's Day at the Little League Museum today. Nadia was looking forward to it because she wanted to meet Curious George. The event was free, and both kids enjoyed it. Nadia made a bead necklace, played with Flubber, ate cookies, colored, etc. She picked a dog at the CEF face painting booth. Ian wasn't interested. Nadia picked a wand that had a heart at the end for her balloon creation. Daddy picked a dog for Ian.

Twice during the 90 minutes we were there we attended a story time. The kids waited in line to meet George three times. The last time she told him, "I love you, George!" Once when he came in the room she exclaimed, "Curious George, you came back!" There were two other mascots there - Dugout (Little League) and an evergreen tree that is the mascot of a local bank. Nadia gave all of them hugs.

Wind, Rain, and Ants

Over the past 14 days we've been dealing with quite a few problems at our house. There have been a few days when the basement floor was dry but not very many because we keep getting more rain. Yesterday we were back up to 2 inches of water in our basement. I went to a hardware store on Wednesday, and one of the things I bought was more tubing so Paul could have 4 pumps in the sump hole. Thankfully we don't have anything on the floor down there that can't get wet. We've learned the hard way. Our furnace has been turned off for 2 full weeks. It's been rather warm the last few days (in the 80's) so actually I've missed the air conditioner. The ceiling fan in our bedroom has helped a lot. Today it's much cooler, and I'm missing the heat today. If we turn on the fireplace tonight that will make it better tomorrow. Hopefully our gas bill will be lower than usual. Our electric bill was more than double what it was for this month last year. I guess running all those pumps and dehumidifiers really has used a lot of electricity. It isn't because we've turned on the central air because we haven't used that yet this year!

Wednesday night my choir director dismissed us 30 minutes early because of a tornado warning. Paul and I woke up around 3am to a horrible storm. As I left the house at 8am for Hershey, I noticed Nadia's trampoline was missing. I called Paul, and he went looking for it. Our 12 ft (diameter) trampoline had been lifted up over our fence (taking off a few fence post caps and opening the gate) and went across the street and landed on some trees in a Christmas tree farm. Thankfully it didn't hit any of our neighbor's houses. It took Paul 3 hours to unassemble it and put the pieces in the garage. The next time we assemble it, we'll make sure there's no way it can go up, up, and away. It hit one of our neighbor's recently planted saplings. They were really nice about it. Hopefully the people who own the tree farm will be reasonable about whatever we owe them for the damage done to some of their trees.

We also discovered some ants this week. They seem to be coming in through the dining room. At the store on Wednesday I bought various things to combat the ants including this stuff that looked like fertilizer that Paul put around the edge of the house as the man at the hardware store recommended. So far they haven't gotten into our food. Praying the spray, pellets, bait, etc. does the trick and we don't see any more of these little ants in our house. You can tell I've been stressed out lately because for the past week I've been waking up once each night in a panic about something. Last night I was hollering about ants. Paul reminds me that I'm dreaming, and we go back to sleep. One night I clobbered Paul and screamed that he was on top of Ian. Poor guy! Ian was of course in his own bed, not ours.

Ian had three days in a row (Saturday through Monday) where he got up sometime between 6:00-6:30am. I was so thrilled! Unfortunately the past four days he's awakened sometime between 4:50-5:30am every morning. I let him cry. Some mornings he went back to sleep for a little bit (or at least was quiet for awhile). Other days (like this morning) he just cried until I finally got him. I am even more inclined to do this now that he can't have a sippy cup in my arms right after he gets up. Many mornings he fell back asleep in my arms after his first sippy cup and slept until 7am. Since that won't be happening any more, I really am not inclined to rescue him from his crib earlier than 6am. Let me say that Ian wasn't the only one in tears this morning during his first feeding. I treasured those snuggling times with Ian, and they're now over. Giving him his sippy cup is now a stressful time for both of us. I'm praying it doesn't take him too long to transition to the new "system." Even though I know it's the best thing for the long run, it's really hard right now. Well two feeding battles are done for today. Only four left to go. Toys are pointless. He's too upset to play with anything. He just threw any toy I put on the tray right off the highchair. Singing to him was the only distraction that was at all effective today.

During Ian's 2 hour appointment Paul's parents took Nadia to Hershey's Chocolate World (free tour) and McDonald's. They had driven down separately and met us at the doctor's office. After Ian's appointment, we all went to the Zoo at Hershey Park. They only have North American animals there so it's not a very large zoo. The weather was perfect (about 77 degrees). The kids enjoyed seeing the animals. It's so cute to watch Ian get so excited. He was sitting in the stroller and would start squealing and kicking his legs and waving his arms in excitement when he'd spot an animal. His favorite was the ocelot who came right up to the glass. Ian was trying to touch it. Nadia was scared of the black bear. The first two pictures were taken at the black bear's habitat (there were fish in the water in his habitat). The kids slept almost the whole way home. That made the return trip go rather smoothly, and I managed to stay awake although I admit that again I was rather tired and could have fall asleep rather easily. When we got home we walked to the park and then had dinner. Dinner took 90 minutes for Nadia. She ate one periogi rather quickly, but it took forever for her to eat a few bites of grilled chicken and green beans.

Ian's Psychologist

It still strikes me as weird that my 16 month old son is seeing a psychologist. He's the head of the feeding team at Hershey. He met with us for almost 2 hours, and amazingly when he filled out the sheet he only billed for 60 minutes. I thought that was impressive. He said the majority of the children he sees have reflux. Of course some of the children he sees have never swallowed anything at all, they have been only fed by tube. The plan we are to implement is to feed him 6 times a day. These are the only times he can have any milk during the day. If he wants something to drink at another time, he can only have water. I am to let him have a little milk (maybe 1 ounce) and then am to give him bites of food by spoon. After he's eaten a few bites, his reward is to get a little bit of milk. He's allowed up to 4 ounces of milk during the entire feeding. I am to set a timer and if he refuses to eat, he still has to sit there (even if he's screaming or throwing up) for 10 minutes. The feeding session doesn't end until the timer goes off. I am to alternate bites between three different foods: pudding or yogurt, fruit, and vegetables. He is supposed to eat all 3 types of food at every feeding. I am to try to offer as wide a variety as possible in terms of kinds of yogurt, pudding, vegetables, and fruit.

He said that gradually we will later work on his texture issues. For now he said I can do things like mix a little bit of "regular" applesauce (i.e. the stuff you buy for adults in a jar) with baby food. Eventually he wants me to buy a "magic bullet" and use that to puree what I serve the rest of us for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This means I'll need to start cooking with Ian's egg allergy in mind. Whole wheat pasta here we come. A woman at church told me that Dr. Williams sometimes comes up our way. Why didn't anyone tell me this earlier? I asked him about it, and we'll be able to see him up here (25 minutes north of our house versus 105 minutes south of our house) on May 17. The only glitches with that date are #1 we may not have the pathology results back yet from the endoscopy being conducted on May 11th and #2 I had planned to travel to MD with Paul on May 16th as he's attending a conference in Baltimore that week. Maybe he can ride down with someone else and come back with us if we head to my parents the day after he heads down. Karen, Ian's OT, was with us today, and she'll be coming to his next appointment as well. She'll be back to our house next week (she didn't come last week due to Ian's upper GI or this week due to today's appointment).

Textless Tuesday

Getting Back on Track

Last week I didn't pay attention to my Motivated Moms to do list. The only things I did that were on last week's list were clip the kids' nails, do the laundry and dishes, and mop the kitchen floor (many more times than she indicated). I didn't do any dusting, vacuuming, cleaning of the refrigerator, etc. Cleaning up from the flooded basement was my main focus. Today I mopped the garage floor because it had become a muddy mess because many dripping wet things from the basement had been stored for a time in the garage. Tonight for the first time in over a week both of our cars are parked in the garage. This week I plan to complete the tasks she lists for this week as well as some of the ones from last week's list. My mom commented last week that it wasn't apparent I'd been using a new cleaning system. This was true. The house had been looking better than usual prior to the flood, but last week the house looked worse than usual.

The weather was really pretty today. The kids enjoyed playing at the playground and also in our backyard. I mowed the lawn after Paul got home.

Ian's endoscopy has been scheduled for May 11. I've asked a colleague in my department who lives 30 minutes from Exton if Ian and I can stay at her house the night before. Paul's parents will take care of Nadia. I can't believe that before Ian turns 2 years old he will have been under anesthesia three times. I can't wait for all of this to be behind us. Dr. Williams said he'd leave the decision as to whether or not to postpone Thursday's appointment up to me. He would prefer to have all the testing done, but he understood why I wouldn't want to wait since some of his feeding issues are texture (not GI) related. Karen (Ian's OT) felt we shouldn't delay the appointment. I agreed. We're still planning to go to Hershey on Thursday. Some days he'll eat yogurt, pudding, and some baby food (orange veggies and fruits). Other days (like today) he won't eat anything by spoon. There was one time last week when he actually cried because he wanted more food (after he'd eaten one container of baby food). I couldn't believe it! That was a very happy moment for me as it was the first time he ever indicated he wanted MORE solid food.

Happy Easter!

There were quite a few Easter egg hunts within a few miles of our house over the past 8 days. I selected three of them, and Nadia actually went to two of them (because the weather wasn't very nice yesterday morning). Last year she went to our town's Easter egg hunt; that was her very first one. She had no clue what she was doing at that one. This year she went to one at our church (last Saturday); she seemed to pretty much have the hang of what she was supposed to do. The weather wasn't great that morning either. Two days ago they had an egg hunt during the preschool storytime at the library. She definitely knew what to do! She also loved the fact that when she opened the plastic Easter eggs later she found candy and stickers inside them. I thought Ian might pick up some eggs also, but he just wanted me to hold him. Next year I'm sure he'll enjoy an egg hunt!

I wanted to be sure Nadia understood that Easter wasn't just about candy and eggs and bunnies; so I was talking with her about Jesus' death and resurrection. I can say with certainty that she doesn't understand it yet because she kept asking me if we were going to be on a cross today. I'm sure next year the story will make a lot more sense to her. She was very excited about wearing her Easter dress that her Grandma had bought her as well as the hat that I got her at Target. Usually she doesn't get dressed until after she eats breakfast, but this morning she asked me to dress her as soon as she got up.

I had purchased a new suit for Ian on eBay a few weeks ago because  I didn't have any suits for him in size 18 months. I have them in 12 month, 2T, 3T, etc. The 12 month shirts just do not fit him any more. The suit I bought included a shirt, tie, vest, and pants. He only wore the shirt and tie because the 18 month pants are too big. I figure he'll wear these pants and vest in the fall. I had him wear one of his size 12 month pants with the new shirt and tie. We took a few photos before we left for church, but Nadia wasn't being cooperative. I had planned to take more after she got up from her nap (as after church she eats a quick lunch and then goes right down for her nap), but Ian's geyser erupted all over his entire outfit before she woke up from her nap. You think I'd learn! Actually, I delayed getting him dressed until a few minues before we left for church out of fear that he'd chuck prior to church.

Today was a really nice day. The church service was wonderful. Our choir sang 3 songs on Thursday night and 3 other songs this morning. He is RISEN!

Yesterday Nadia helped me make a pineapple upside down cake. I generally prefer cookies, brownies, and such to cake, but I do love pineapple cake! I also made some yeast bread (rolls) and a fruit salad last night. Today I made ham, sweet potatoes, scalloped potatoes, and green beans with almonds. The meal turned out quite well! Paul's parents, nephew, grandmother, brother, and sister-in-law joined us for dinner. After we ate, Paul, Shawn, Al, and PopPop assembled a trampoline in our backyard (one of Nadia's Christmas presents). They love it! Thankfully the weather is supposed to be warmer this week. I predict we'll be spending a lot of time on the trampoline!

The kids received presents today from Aunt Millie, Great Gram, and Grandma. They got a lot of things such as stuffed animals, clothes, fruit snacks, etc. These kids are loved! ;-)

34 Months Old!

1. Nadia will now say "in June" if you ask her when her birthday is, and she'll say "24th" if you ask her for the date. I am sure I could have taught her this a long time ago, but I just didn't think of it until a few weeks ago. She's very interested in birthdays. For a few weeks we were singing the happy birthday song many times a day. She always asks me whose birthday is next, and then we sing happy birthday to that person and we keep singing the song over and over - inserting a different name of a relative each time.

2. She's had a regression the past couple of months in terms of feeding herself. It's not that she can't do it, she just prefers for me to feed her. There are still some meals when she feeds herself, but she's been asking for help far more often than she had been.

3. She LOVES Raisin Bran. I think she'd eat it at more than one meal a day if I'd let her!

4. The last couple of months she had been in this chipmunk phase where she kept food in her cheek. Sometimes it was because it was something she doesn't like (which makes no sense to me as she's tasting it a lot longer), and other times it was with something she loves (like a fruit snack). She hasn't been doing this lately. I'm glad!

5. She still says her nose is ringing (instead of running). It cracks me up!

6. She calls her placemat a "map." I think part of the confusion stems from the fact that it's a Dora the Explorer placemat, and they sing a song about the map on that show. I might have to put the placemat away for awhile because Ian can reach up and pull it down, and he likes her "map." Thus far we have averted any big messes, but it seems like an accident waiting to happen right now.

7. Nadia's biggest fear in life is of whales. I looked it up online, and it's called "cetaphobia." I think the stories of Jonah plus Pistachio (a VeggieTales DVD which is a play on Pinocchio) are the culprits. If a book has a whale pictured anywhere in it, she doesn't want to read ANY of the book. I always have to reassure her that there aren't any whales in our bathtub before I give her a bath. She fears being swallowed by a whale. I never would have predicted that whales would be her biggest phobia, lol.

8. I call her "the bag lady" because she LOVES her purses. She fills them to the gills with random objects. Now that Ian has become far more mobile, she has taken to putting several of them on the top of the couch so they are out of his reach.

9. She's become far more independent with going to the bathroom over the last month. She now pulls down her clothes and gets on and off the toilet by herself. The only thing I'm still helping with is wiping.

10. For many months I've asked her if she wants to name a doll or stuffed animal. She always just says the doll is named "baby" or "dollie," and the dog is just "doggy." Last Sunday was the first time she named a stuffed animal. Grandma bought her a kitty at Reptiland, and she promptly named her cat "Patches," which is the name of my mom's cat. :-)

Medical Updates

Forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but here are the results of Ian's appointments on Tuesday.

1. He's ready for his next urological surgery. The surgeon said we could do it in May. It hasn't been scheduled yet, but the surgeon is booked for the next 3 months. I was hoping he'd have it in June since I'm going back to work in July. This time the catheter will be in for 2-3 weeks so we might not schedule his surgery until September because I wouldn't want to travel to Florida with a catheter. We're going to Florida with my parents and sister (and her hubby and 3 kids) near the end of August.

2. The allergist called and said that Ian's adnoids are normal size. He thought they might be large because Ian's tonsils are large.

3. The GI had a cardiologist look at Ian's upper GI because of the vascular ring (indentation of the esophagus). The cariologist said if the indentation had been on the other side, it would have been a problem, but it's on the side which means it's not a problem. The GI said that the next step is to schedule Ian to have an endoscopy. That's done under general anesthesia. If that also comes out negative, she won't do any further testing but will just prescribe Reglan. She also said that we are to up his Prevacid dosage to 1.5 pills a day (currently 1 pill a day) for 2 weeks, and if that doesn't make a difference we are to go to 2 pills a day, which is the maximum dosage for his weight. She also said the swallow study will not be helpful so I cancelled that appointment (which means I won't be going to Philly on the 26th, YAY!). I'm not sure what to do about Ian's appointment in Hershey on the 28th. Dr. Williams wanted all the GI testing to be completed first, but I really don't want to wait any longer to address his feeding issues as some are related to textures not a GI problem. I can tell the difference between gagging (because he doesn't like the taste or texture) versus reflux.

One Exhausted Mommy

Here's a recipe for creating one very, very, very tired Mommy. Mix together the following ingredients:

1. Three nights in a row of very little sleep due to a flooded basement, ruptured eardrum, and nerves regarding medical tests for her 16 month old son.

2. The expenditure of more physical energy than usual (due to the flooded basement).

3. Getting up at 4:10am and getting in the car at 4:45am.

4. Driving for 6 hours in one day - part of this in a lot of traffic in a major city (Philadelphia).

5. Holding a very,very hungry baby for 5 hours during which time he only consumes some barium. At times  he was screaming until his entire face was beet red while he was kicking his legs, arching his back, etc.

6. Holding a baby down on the x-ray table 8 different times over a span of 5 hours, which equals a lot more crying.

The good news is that we are home safe and sound. This is due in part to rumble strips on the turnpike. I have learned two lessons recently regarding lengthy doctor appointments that are a great distance from our home. I learned a couple of months ago that it's not wise to go by oneself with two toddlers. Paul's parents took care of Nadia today. That was a big help. Today I learned that I cannot handle an 11 hour medical adventure that includes 6 hours of driving by myself. I am very grateful we weren't in an accident on the way home. Next time I will stay at a friend's house who lives closer to Philly the night before the appointment. I must split the drive over two days OR someone has to go with me if we're doing the round trip in one day. It's 7:12 pm, and I'm going to bed before the kids do. Nighty night!

Giving Thanks

1. Nadia is doing much better with eating her vegetables and whatever main dish I'm serving for dinner. Paul suggested that she could earn two stickers (instead of one) if she eats the food without any fussing. That was a great suggestion, and last night she earned two stickers for eating peas and ravioli without any fussing. She's earned four stickers thus far toward the seven needed for a trip to the playland at McD's.

2. Ian ate about 13 ounces by spoon yesterday, which for him was great. He ate 1 container of vanilla pudding, 1 container of strawberry yogurt, and 1 container of baby food. I tried giving him a little applesauce for the first time yesterday (not baby food), but it made him gag.

3. Ian woke up at 6:15am yesterday morning! I slept like a log from 9:30pm to 6:00am. I was stunned when I woke up and saw that the first number was 6. Lately he's been waking up around 5:30. An extra 30 minutes of sleep (extra 45 minutes in bed) was greatly appreciated. Paul said Nadia was crying at 2am, but thankfully I slept right through it. He woke up at 6am this morning! I don't feel as rested as I did yesterday morning because I went to bed later (10:15) and didn't sleep as soundly, but that's not his fault!

4. It's turned into SOP for me to bake cookies or brownies at least once a week. Nadia and I have fun making them, and three of us (minus Ian) enjoy eating them. Yesterday I tried another recipe for chocolate chip cookies. YUMMY!

5. Nadia was really well behaved during the storytime at the library yesterday. She's come a long way over the past year in her ability to sit and pay attention while the librarian reads stories. Ian doesn't sit for the entire 30 minutes, but he plays quietly once he's had enough of listening to stories.

6. The first four volumes of my blog were delivered by UPS yesterday. I was pleased with the quality of the color copies of the photos included in the posts. The quality of the pictures on some of the covers wasn't as impressive. Some of those photos came out rather dark or a bit on the grainy side. Also, they call these "hard covers," but I would definitely call them soft covers. I am sure the quality of the covers would have been a lot better if I had printed them through Blog2Print, but these books were 75% cheaper. As an added bonus, they sent me two copies of each volume even though I had only ordered (and paid) for one copy of each. That made these even more of a bargain as I actually received 8 volumes for what 1 would have cost through Blog2Print. I'm planning to give one set of the 4 books to Nadia when she's older. My plan is to print the blog about every 9 months so I'll never be printing so much at one time again. I'm guessing I'll go this same route the next time - buy a pdf file of the next section of the blog through Blog2Print and then get it printed somewhere else. If money was no object, I'd just have them printed through Blog2Print.

Second Cousin?

Last night while we were eating dinner Nadia announced, "My second cousin isn't going to help me." What??? We had NO idea where that came from. Neither of us recall using the term "second cousin" around her. I just looked it up, and my cousin's child is Nadia's second cousin. Nadia hasn't ever met any of my cousins, much less their children (my first cousins on my dad's side don't have any kids, but the ones on my mom's side do). Paul and I cracked up when she said it, so she's repeated that statement several times today since we laughed over it last night. You just never know what a 2 year old is going to say!

Ian not only is far more of a "tornado tot" than Nadia ever has been, but he also seems to be more accident prone. Yesterday afternoon he was standing in the bathroom with Nadia and I (we were preparing to go to the playground), and he slipped and hit his chin on the bathtub. He cut his chin pretty badly and the pain caused him to cry, which caused him to throw up. He didn't want Paul to put pressure on the wound. It was the first time we had used a bandaid with either child. They've gotten them from nurses after injections. Ian attcks life with great vim and vigor. I'm guessing we'll make more trips to the ER with him than we will with Nadia. I'm trying to remember never to have any plates, bowls, placemats, or glasses within a few inches of the edge of the kitchen table because Ian will pull them down. What a mess! He's too young to understand that's not acceptable. He also thinks it's a good idea to dump ALL the toy bins within a few seconds. Again, Nadia never did this. He's a one boy wreacking crew!

Thankful Thursday

1. The weather was gorgeous on Monday. It was cold and rainy the last two days, but it's supposed to be pretty today. I'm looking forward to taking the kids to the playground and also mowing the lawn for the first time in 2011 today.

2. Paul's advisor flew to Florida on Tuesday night. This means Paul will be working from home over the next few days, which will save us about $64 (in gasoline). It also meant that Paul got to see Nadia's gymnastics class for the first time yesterday.

3. Ian's prescription was finally processed. It took 2 weeks to get the doctor's office to send them an Rx, but it finally went through. I paid $59 for a 3 month supply compared to over $100 for a 1 month supply at CVS.

4. The GI NP doesn't think he'll actually need the swallow study done on 4/26. We'll make the final decision after she sees the results of his upper GI on 4/19, but I'm hopeful that I'll only be making one trip to Philly and one trip to Hershey (4/28) for medical appointments this month.

5. We got a letter in the mail earlier this week from our insurance company that scared me at first because it was talking about not covering pre-existing conditions. Thankfully when I called the insurance company that night I found out that our policy doesn't have that restriction. Whew. I'd hate to think they wouldn't pay for Ian's next urological surgery!

6. I was able to attend my new small group Bible study on Tuesday night. I didn't go last week due to feeling horrible.  I don't know if I'll make it next Tuesday due to Ian's appointments in Philadelphia that day. I'm glad I was able to go this week. The church has been broken into 10 small groups (meeting in different locations on different days), and we're all doing the same Bible study by Rick Warren for 6 weeks.

7. I was able to play my flute with the choir this past Sunday at church. I enjoy playing the flute.

8. I've made a lot of progress lately with the two online courses I'll be teaching this summer as well as two independent instructions I'll be supervising.