It's Time

1. To resume gymanstics! Actually the session started last week. Since she missed that class, she'll be attending a make-up class at some point. Most Wednesdays we're going to go to a library program at 10:00 that's just a few minutes away from her 9:00-9:45 gymnastics class, but the preschool story hour at that library won't resume until next week. The kids will be going to two library story times each week as we'll continue to go to our library's on Fridays once our story hour resumes. Speaking of make-up gymanstics classes, today's class actually didn't happen. I admit I was pretty frustrated when I saw the sign on the door saying the class was cancelled, especially as it has been taking longer than usual to get around that town due to road construction. We had been really rushed trying to get out the door on time this morning (which is a nice problem to have because it means the kids are waking up later - we never used to have trouble being out the door by 8:30am), and all we ended up doing was going shopping. Oh well just a tiny glitch in our day.

2. To put away our swimsuits. I took the kids to the pool yesterday afternoon since the temperature was in the low 80's. The high on Monday had only been in the 70's, and I think it's too cool to swim when the air temp is less than 80 degrees. It turns out that the rain from Irene on Saturday lowered the water temperature by 5 degrees. BRR! Nadia lasted in the pool a lot longer than Ian or I did, but even Nadia didn't last nearly as long as usual. I think that was our last hurrah for the summer as I doubt the water temperature will rise over the next few days even though the air temperature is warm enough (it's back in the 80's). The pool closes after Labor Day. We didn't get to swim at our pool very much in August, but we made good use of the pool in June and July. In the beginning I was willing to swim when the water temperature was this cold, but the novelty of swimming has worn off some, and I got spoiled as most of the summer the water temp was between 80-86 degrees.

Rachel (age 2) and Susie (age 7)

3. To start preschool. Since the kids in our area went back to school on Monday, I decided to gradually switch into "preschool" mode with Nadia. I told her that I'm her teacher, and she did two sheets (four sides) of "schoolwork" yesterday that had to do with grouping objects into sets and also matching and today we worked on matching footprints to the type of animal that would make that footprint. We also did some math flashcards that involved counting. She loved it! I gradually want to add more "preschool" activities into our day. It does amaze me how many people are *shocked* when they hear that I have not enrolled Nadia in a preschool class. I truly am amazed that people think it's strange to keep your 3 year old at home. If they are shocked at keeping a 3 year old at home, what are they going to think when she's 4 or 5? Oh. My Goodness. Neither Paul or I attended preschool. Both of us (and our siblings) stayed home until we went to Kindergarten. Evidently that's not the norm these days. I have no issues with people choosing to send their children to preschool, but I do have issues with people thinking all children MUST attend preschool when they are 3 years old.

Adam (age 4)

4. To start ballet classes. The ballet classes begin on Thursday, but since I signed Nadia up for a Monday afternoon class and next Monday is a holiday, her class won't start until September 12.

5. To start AWANA! Nadia will be a Cubbie this year. I am so excited for her as I loved being in AWANA when I was a child, although I didn't join the program until I was in the 4th grade. She'll be attending AWANA on Wednesday nights (starting in a couple of weeks) from 6:30-8:00pm at a church really close to our house. I'll be dropping her off on my way to choir rehearsal, and Paul and Ian will pick her up at 8:00 as my choir rehearsal goes until 8:30. In case anyone is worried about Nadia not having time for "socialization" due to not attending preschool - she will be with kids for 3 hours on Sunday mornings (Sunday School and Children's Church), 45 minutes for ballet on Mondays, 2 hours on Tuesdays while I am in ladies Bible study, 3 hours on Wednesdays (gymnastics, library, and AWANA), and 1 hour on Fridays (library). Plus sometimes she gets to play with other kids when we're at the playground.

6. To get back in the habit of serving vegetables every night. I gave Nadia a break on vacation (which in all reality was a break for me as I don't like the battles over eating veggies). This meant that it didn't go very well on Monday night or Tuesday night when I insisted she eat some corn. Fun times (NOT!). The dinner table can be a very unpleasant place between her wailing over eating veggies, and Ian wailing over eating anything. Daddy gave Nadia a break this evening from veggies (I was at a choir picnic at church), but my goal is to have her eat veggies almost every night again.

7. To start counting! Last night after dinner I put 3 crackers in front of Ian. I was washing dishes and stopped in my tracks as I heard him say "one, two, three, four, five." I thought I must be hearing things, but Paul confirmed that Ian had just pointed to the crackers and counted to five. WOW! Two months ago he wasn't saying ANY words, and last night he said five words right in a row! I have a list of 75 words I've heard him say. I bet his speech therapist will be impressed tomorrow!

At the Rainforest Cafe

8. To find our fall clothes. It was actually a bit nippy when we walked to the park yesterday morning. Now that we're done going swimming, I'll probably move our walk to the playground to the afternoon when it's a bit warmer so we don't need to wear jackets quite yet. This is the time of year when the temperature swings are quite large over the course of one day. It was in the 50's when we first left the house for a CVS run yesterday morning, and it was in the 80's when we went to the pool and recycling center in the afternoon.

9. To get back in gear with cleaning. I have not been doing well with following my motivated mom chore lists although I did clip the kids nails today! I always keep up with the dishes, laundry, and cleaning the kitchen floor, but the other stuff needs to be accomplished as well. Thankfully I did vacuum the whole house right before we left on vacation.

Endoscopy #2

Nadia built this tower ALL by herself!

Yesterday morning Ian and I left the house at 6:30 to drive to Hershey for his second endoscopy. We checked in at 8:25 and then waited in the waiting room for awhile. We had been told to arrive at 8:30. We then waited a lot longer in the pre-op area. At one point they gave me a really warm blanket for Ian, and thankfully this put him to sleep in my arms as he had been really fussy because he was so hungry as he hadn't eaten since 6:30pm on Sunday night. My friend, Joyce, also arrived during this time span. I hadn't seen her in over a year. She used to teach at the school where I was principal, and she lives about 20 minutes from Hershey. It was nice to be able to visit with her for a few hours. Ian and I went back to the OR around 10:20. In contrast, at CHOP (Exton) Ian was taken to the OR 45 minutes after we arrived (compared to almost 2 hours this time). In preparation for his first 3 surgeries, he was given Versed to make him a bit "loopy" prior to going back to the OR. They said they don't use Versed for endoscopies because the procedure is so short. I asked why not, and they said because the child will wake up in a very angry mood because the medication is meant to be used for a longer procedure. Well that explained why he was so angry when he woke up from his first endoscopy. He was kicking and fighting me and very vexed. He was very calm after his two urological surgeries, but those were much longer. It was nice to have him wake up calm this time (without Versed), but the downside was that they had me carry him to the OR and sit on the operating table and hold him while he had the gas mask on until he fell asleep. That was tough on me emotionally, partly because it took him a lot longer to fall asleep than they said it would.

And of course she loves to knock them down!

When they brought me back, he was asleep. When he woke up I asked if he could have EleCare, and the nurse let me give him 2 sippy cups of EleCare. He was discharged at 11:55. The post-op time was longer at CHOP. Altogether it was a 2.75 hours experience at CHOP compared to 3.5 hours at Hershey. At CHOP they tried to give him clear liquids first. I was glad they let me give him EleCare right away yesterday as he had gone almost 18 hours without anything. We'll get the biopsy results next week.

Each hospital does things a little differently. Geisinger (where his first surgery was done last October) gave each child a stuffed animal, which was nice. They didn't have hospital gowns small enough for Ian. The other three hospitals have had really small hospital gowns. None of the others have given stuffed animals to the kids. Hershey doesn't use Versed like the other three did. CHOP (Exton) had a tube through his nose for anesthesia. They didn't do that yesterday. Hershey was the only one where the nurses didn't try to give him clear liquids (ex. juice or pedialyte) first. The first three wouldn't let a parent come back until the child woke up. Yesterday I was allowed to come back almost as soon as he left the OR. Yesterday was also the only time I carried him to the OR. At the other three hopsitals a nurse carried him to the OR. One thing I did differently yesterday was to purposefully not bring my camera. I took pictures of Ian at the hospital prior to the other three surgeries. I wouldn't say I've gotten accustomed to going through this with him as I still get very nervous, but the "novelty" (that doesn't seem like the right word to use here) has worn off.

Just as each hospital does things a little differently, I am always amazed at the differences between time share resorts. Some differences can be chalked up to the cost of labor. In foreign countries (such as in the Caribbean), the labor is cheaper and I'm sure that's a big part of the reason that we always have received daily maid service in those resorts. Thus far my experience in the US had been that we'd have service (clean towels, changing sheets, etc.) twice a week. This was the first time in 11 years that we didn't have anyone enter our unit during the week we were there. On the other hand, this resort was more generous than most in what they left us with at the start of the week - dishwasher detergent, paper towels, enough laundry detergent to do three loads of laundry, etc. I don't usually do laundry while we're on vacation, but I figured since they supplied the detergent and the machines in our unit, I might as well do a load of laundry and not have as much to do when we returned. I ended up doing two loads in light of Nadia throwing up.

The resort had pedal boats, miniature golf, tennis, playground, surrey bikes, etc. in addition to the swimming pools and water slides. The rest of my family went miniature golfing the day we went to Sea World. Had we known that our Aunt Tina wasn't going to make it down to see us on Wednesday as planned (due to illness), we would have gone to Sea World on Wednesday as that's when Wendy's family went to the Magic Kingdom although by going on different days they were able to save money by borrowing our stroller instead of renting one. Drayton and Susie played some tennis on Friday. I took my kids to the playground on Wednesday, but it was a very brief visit because they were getting filthy due to the sand being wet. I still say I like mulch or recycled tires much better for a playground surface than sand. We didn't have closed toed shoes with us, so we couldn't use the surrey bikes. The pedal boats weren't in use the week we were there due to the water level being too high. So the only feature of the resort that we really took advantage of was the "water park." If you go here, you can click on a link on the right to see a slideshow showing pictures of all the waterslides and such. I was impressed that Nadia did the biggest one (that she called the "black one") many times.

Lessons learned on this trip

Photo that Wendy took in Florida. You can't tell that Nadia had pink eye at the time. Thanks so much, Wendy!!!

1. When you reserve a crib, ask if there is any charge. Over the past 3 years that we've been traveling with a little one, this is the first hotel or resort that charged for a pack and play. I think $30/week is a bit steep considering how much it costs to buy one. We could have brought one. We skipped the highchair as it costs $20/week to use one of those.

2. We brought my mom's Magic Bullet (for Ian) only to discover they had blenders in the units. We could have left that at home.

3. Don't attempt to make pour hot water into a sippy cup in a moving vehicle. I have a few blisters to show why that's not a wise thing to do. McD's gave us steaming, HOT water (we asked for warm), and none of the said water made it into the sippy cup. OUCH! My hands, legs, and feet were not happy with me (particularly the toes on my right foot and the fingers on my right hand). I was trying to make EleCare for Ian. I need to get that boy adjusted to drinking it cold or at least lukewarm.

Susie (age 7)

4. The flight time from Baltimore to Orlando (about 2 hours) is less than what it takes to get one's baggage, get the rental car, drive to the resort (which truly wasn't that far from the airport), and check-in at the resort. Whew. We left my parent's house at 6am, arrived in Orlando before 10am, and walked into my parent's unit (ours wasn't ready yet) around 1pm.

5. Don't let young children go down the waterslide without an inner tube. We had a very frightening moment with Adam and Rachel. My heart was racing that is for sure!

6. Nadia doesn't like Life cereal. We went grocery shopping on Saturday evening, and I picked up Life cereal for our unit. It's one of my favorites, but I never buy it because I can't get a good deal on it. Nadia likes most cereals, so I thought she'd like it. Nope. I should have stuck with one I know she likes (such as Raisin Bran, Frosted Flakes, Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Mini-Wheats, etc.). I did learn later in the week that she likes Corn Bran though! That's another one of my favorites that I go years without eating.

7. I should have had Paul teach me how to install a car seat. Yes, I've been a mom for over 3 years and never done that before. I assumed my mom or dad knew how to do it. Ian rode from the aiport to the resort in a carseat that wasn't really attached to the seat of the car. Drayton came to the rescue on Sunday morning before we rode to church. I'll have Paul teach me in the near future so this won't happen again!

Susie enjoying one of the 5 water slides at our resort.

8. Nadia loves water slides, and Ian can't stand them. Neither child had ever been on one before. They both enjoys slides at the playground. We only had Ian go down one slide, and he wanted no part of it. Nadia gladly went on all the slides, and one was very high up! The best part of this was she was submerged under water at the end of the big one, and usually she doesn't like her head to go under water. I'm hoping this experience will help with her future swimming skills.

Adam (age 4) enjoying the kiddie pool at our resort

9. Baby monitors don't work across a few units. My parents and sister's family's units were connecting. They could open a door in between their units and go back and forth without going in the hallway. I was four doors down from Wendy's unit, and that was too far for the baby monitor I brought to work. This meant that I was alone every evening from 7:45pm onward (after putting my kids to bed). I had been hoping to do things like play Boggle or other games with the other adults after the kids went to bed, but that wasn't possible given I had no way of monitoring the children without staying in the unit with them. I should add that my mom offered to come over on Thursday night, but since I had gotten VERY little sleep on Wednesday night due to Nadia's illness, I opted to go to bed early that night. Thankfully we were able to play a little Boggle during their naps on Friday. I love playing games, and sometimes go years without playing one (I'm not counting ones like Candyland, lol).

10. Ian CAN sleep on a vacation! WOOHOO! This was a HUGE answer to prayer! During our first vacation with Ian (May 2010) his sleep didn't regress, but he wasn't sleeping through the night at that point. We brought the Nap Nanny to Florida that time. In January 2011 (cruise) he took many steps backward and only slept in our bed or in my arms. That meant I got very, very little sleep that whole week. It was so awful that I was thinking I'd wait a few years before I'd attempt another vacation with Ian. I have to admit I was a bit stressed out about what would happen with his sleeping habits this time around. Karen (OT) kept reminding me how well he did in May in Maryland. I was hoping one of the bathrooms would be large enough for the pack and play, and my prayers were answered! The unit the kids and I stayed in had a kitchen, living room, two bathrooms, and two bedrooms. I slept in the master bedroom, and we used the master bathroom as our bathroom as the other bathroom became Ian's bedroom. I put him in there because it was the darkest room in the unit. The first two nights he did really well. He woke up between 7:00-7:15 the first two mornings. The third morning he woke up at 5:30, and I got him at 6:15. The fourth morning we woke up at 5:55, and I let him cry for a few minutes and then he slept until about 7:05. I was very grateful I made the decision to let him cry a little.

Downtown Disney Splash Pad

11. Ian can nap in a crib!! Wednesday was the first day I put him down in the pack and play for a nap. The other days he either was sleeping in a stroller, car seat, or someone's arms. He slept 55 minutes on Wednesday. During that time he woke up a couple of times a fussed for a few seconds, but that was it. I was very impressed. I was even more impressed on Thursday when he slept (drum roll please!) for NINETY minutes straight in the pack and play! I couldn't believe it! On Friday he cried for 15 minutes (Thursday he didn't cry At All) and then slept for 45 minutes. I am praying this continues back at home in his own bed. Karen (OT) will be amazed!!! It's been many months since he took a 90 minute nap in his crib, and it's only happened a handful of times his whole life. It will be so much easier to clean the house and cook and such if Ian takes a decent nap in his crib at the same time that Nadia is napping!!

12. It's wise to bring band-aids and children's Tylenol on vacation. I usually do remember to bring these, but I forgot this time. A part of my skin was rubbed off on my foot while we were at Sea World (because my foot got wet with my sandal on while helping Ian in the splash pad), and it was really painful to wear the sandal without a band-aid (and it was the only pair of shoes I had with me in Florida). Thankfully it's easy to go buy some when you're on vacation in the USA. Wendy had some Tylenol that Nadia could use when she developed a fever (and was throwing up) on Wednesday night. On Thursday I realized that she had a double eye infection. Poor girl.

13. Nadia is capable of sleeping in until 9am. Due to getting very little sleep on Wednesday night, she slept for over 12 hours on Thursday night. She didn't wake up until 9:00am on Friday! She'd never even slept until 8am during the previous 38 months, so that was a new record for Nadia to sleep that late.

14. If Paul is in charge of mowing the lawn, it doesn't get mowed as often. Unless we're having a drought (in which case I might go a few weeks without mowing), I usually mow every 5 days. When we left for vacation it had been 5 days since I had mowed, and had I not gone on vacation, I would have mowed that day. Well Paul waited 8 more days to mow the grass, and in fact some of it hadn't been mowed for over 2 weeks by the time I got around to it today. I couldn't mow yesterday due to Irene. Boy was it tall!

15. I am not the only one who feels the need to totally unpack (and put away the suitcases) as soon as I get home. I learned that my dad is the same way. In fact he stayed up past 1am to do this on Saturday morning. I have to say I'm not quite that much of a die hard although I did our unpacking as soon as we got home on Saturday afternoon. I didn't know until this trip that I took after my dad in this regard.

16. Ian learned that Uncle Drayton's shoes are too big. Drayton is 6' 4" tall. Ian loves walking around in everyone's shoes, but he discovered he could only wear one of Drayton's, as they were too heavy for him! :-)

17. Nadia learned that if you have pink eye, your eyelids might be sealed shut in the morning. This was naturally quite frightening for her. She was screaming, "I can't see. I can't see!" Poor girl! I called the pediatrician on Sunday, and he said as long as her eyes were improving (they have been), we didn't need to bring her in today.

18. If your flight shows as being delayed, you should still arrive at the airport at the originally scheduled time. We got to the gate just in the nick of time because the flight switched from being delayed to being "on time." We were grateful that Hurricane Irene didn't delay our flight because as it was it was almost midnight by the time we got the kids in bed at my mom's house.

Favorite Florida Moments

Since Nadia turned 38 months old today, I'm posting eight of her highlights of our trip thus far:

These are all made from Legos (at Downtown Disney).

1. Playing with her cousins. The first thing Nadia said when I opened her door one morning was "I want to go play with Susie and Rachel!" Ian had fun with his cousins also. He and Adam were both laughing hysterically while they played together on several occasions. Precious memories! Nadia and Adam were in the same Sunday School class, which was also special! You can tell she's the first born in our family as she said once "Rachel (age 2) is being a bad girl." When asked why she responded, "she's not obeying me." LOL!

2. Flying on the airplane. Nadia has been on an airplane several times (flown to Chicago, Antigua, New Orleans, and twice to Florida). The flight down (on the 20th) was definitely the first time she got really excited as we were taking off. I actually had to ask her to calm down because she was squealing so loudly! It was fun to see her get so excited about flying in an airplane. Ian's highlight at the airport was seeing lots of buses while we waited for the bus to take us to our rental car at the Orlando airport. His joy would have been greater had I let him run freely.

3. Going down waterslides. Nadia had her first experiencec with waterslides on this trip. One of the pools at our resort had five water slides. On Saturday she did two of them, on Sunday afternoon she tried two more, and on Monday morning she tried the biggest one. She and Susie were the only ones who did all the slides. Adam (age 4) and Rachel (age 2) did four of the five slides. Susie was only wearing swimmies on her arms. Rachel and Adam used inner tubes, and Nadia was wearing the inner tube that was attached to her. I wish I had a picture showing Nadia's glee that first afternoon (20th) as she went down the slides. She could not have been any more thrilled. It was another precious moment to see her total and complete delight.

4. Talking on the phone. Normally when Nadia talks on my cellphone (to one of her grandmas), I am holding the phone (using the speaker phone setting). During this trip I have let her hold the phone for the first time in her life while she's been talking with Daddy each evening. What a thrill for her! She kept asking him if he had any questions for her. This would cause him to laugh, and then she would laugh because he was laughing. Those two crack each other up very easily. So sweet.

5. Going to Sea World. Nadia's most favorite parts were the splash pad, rides (we rode 4 of the rides in Shamu's Happy Harbor), and the Pet's Ahoy show. She asked me a few times if we were going to come back "lots of times." I said we would come back again in a few years with Daddy.

6. Playing at Chick-Fil-A. We were about to head back to the swimming pool after she woke up from her nap when it started raining. We tried to wait it out, and then decided to let the kids play at Chick-Fil-A instead. Nadia found the mirror that makes your head large, etc. to be very, very funny.

7. Grandma brushing her hair. Nadia usually cries when I brush her hair, no matter how gentle I am. She has been thrilled that Grandma can brush her hair instead of Mommy the past few days.

8. Splash pads. She enjoyed doing one in May 2010 in another part of Florida, but she doesn't remember that. On this trip she really enjoyed the one at Downtown Disney on Monday night and at Sea World on Tuesday.

Priceless

What did our day at SeaWorld cost me? Well the tickets only cost $10 due to using $100 worth of credit card points to obtain our two tickets (Ian was free). The parking was $14, the water was $5.75 (2 bottles), and it cost $7 to feed the dolphins. So that brought the total to $36.75. I would have paid far more than that to experience this special day. If the weather wasn't so hot (96 degrees according to the car when we left) or my kids weren't so young, we would have stayed longer, but we had done almost everything that the kids were big enough to do in the 6 hours we were at the park (9am-3pm). Ian had taken one brief (about 25 minute) nap in the park. He fell asleep in the stroller when we were walking from the otter/sea lion show to the Shamu show, and then he slept through the first part of the Shamu show. I was very glad when he woke up, as I didn't want him to miss that whole show. Nadia fell asleep in the stroller en route to the pet show, but I woke her up as I didn't want her to miss any of that show. They both fell asleep in the car soon after we got on the road, and I stayed in the car for an additional 20 minutes in the parking lot of our resort until Ian woke up, and his crying then woke Nadia up. Ian woke up at 5:30 this morning. I'm hoping that all the running around Sea World today plus Nadia's shorter than usual nap will mean that they'll sleep in until at least 7:00am tomorrow. My body is no longer accustomed to a 5:30am "Ian" alarm clock!

The day was so special to me that I actually cried tears of joy during the dolphin show. The kids were both enjoying the show, and this was one of those moments I had yearned for during our years of waiting to become parents. Maybe I would have been just as emotional during such events (Knoebels has been another tear jerker at times for me with the kids) if we had been able to easily conceive back in 2002 when we first started trying, or maybe these moments are even more special to me because I had to wait longer to experience them. It was a wonderful, wonderful day. I'm already looking forward to taking them back again some day when #1 Paul can also be with us, #2 when they're older and can ride more of the rides and enjoy most things more fully, and #3 when it's not so hot out. I told Paul that the next time we come to Florida for Disney/Sea World, I really, really don't want it to be in the summer (January or May should work out a lot better). Has anyone else ever gotten so emotional in a dolphin show? I never used to be one to get choked up so easily.

It's been over 20 years since I was at a Sea World. Growing up we went to the various Sea Worlds (TX, CA, FL) several times. I have been to other aquariums and seen other dolphin shows more recently (such as at the one in Baltimore). From my recollection (as accurate as that may be), I thought this was the best dolphin show I had ever seen. It included aerial stunts, bungee jumping, and diving on the part of the trainers as well as a variety of animals including: dolphins, parrots, doves, vultures, cranes, macaws, and whales.

I remember loving the show with the sea lions and otters when I was a child. I wasn't as impressed as an adult. The kids were definitely not into that show in part because we went around what usually is nap time. Ian fell asleep as soon as I put him in the stroller at the end of the show. I think the other problem was that the humor of the mime and such was beyond their level. They definitely preferred the other three shows. As usual, Ian was more attentive than Nadia. He's definitely my animal lover! I don't recall the pet show from my previous visits.

The Shamu show was good, but I didn't think it was quite as powerful since they don't allow trainers in the water during the shows any more in light of the death of the one trainer last year in California. Time will tell if seeing a whale has cured Nadia's phobia of them! At least she must realize now that one wouldn't fit in her bathtub. :-) We had a wonderful time, and I'm already looking forward to the next time we will (Lord willing) visit Sea World again as a family.

Music Together

This morning the kids and I participated in a Music Together class at a library. It was a sample class. The woman who teaches the class is a music therapist, and she started teaching these classes in our area a year ago. She's starting two new classes in our town this fall. We had attended one of her classes before at the Early Intervention picnic, but that was a bit chaotic as the class was held at a playground (and the kids were very distracted). The class involves the kids using various rhythm patterns (through spoken words as well as clapping and such), various tonal patterns (particularly one/five), playing different instruments (resonating bells, sticks, etc.), and singing various songs. The class usually lasts 45 minutes. It went for one hour today. The youngest child there was 12 weeks old, and the oldest were I'd guess about 4 years old. Ian didn't participate too much. He wandered around the room a lot. However he loved the parts that involved instruments. He wasn't keen on the resonanting bells, but he loved banging the two rythm sticks together and also playing with several different instruments when she got out a large tub of all different types of instruments (drums, cymbals, etc.). He was drumming his hand on two drums right along with the teacher when I thought - get out your camera, Ruth! Sadly he was done with that before I got the camera out. The class is interesting, but I feel I can give them a good experience with music myself. My main objection is the cost. For both kids it would be $26 a class! In comparison, ballet costs $30 a month (also for a 45 minute class)! If I'm going to pay that much for a music experience, I'm expecting a private lesson not a group class. It was fun though to experience the sample class today.

After that we ran a couple of errands and then drove to Maryland. The kids did well thanks to the dvd player. Ian slept first, and shortly after he woke up (around 1pm), Nadia fell asleep. She slept until 1:45. We arrived at my mom's house around 3:15pm. Ian fussed a little now and then, but neither child cried at any point. That counts as a big success in my book! Well it's time to head to bed as our flight leaves Baltimore at 7:50 tomorrow morning!

Mommy!

I don't want to forget the first time I heard Ian say the word Mommy. It happened this morning while I was brushing my hair in the bathroom. He walked right up to me and said "Mommy." I praised him up and down. The typical pattern for Ian is that when he says a new word he doesn't repeat it again for several days, and then when he says it again he starts using it frequently. So I might have to wait a week to hear it again, but I did manage to get him to say "Mom" a few hours later. I'll take it, Ian! There's something about hearing the word "Mommy" from a little one - such a sweet sounding word although when they're older and screaming it in the night I can't say it melts my heart then, lol. I love hearing his vocabulary expand every day! He's tried a couple of two word combinations such as "Mi(ckey) Mou(se)" and "(th)ank (y)ou."

As you can see from this photo (at left), I finally figured out a way Ian could safely be spun at the playground. He's too little to stand on it safely. He LOVED it! He was laughing his heart out. Nadia enjoyed spinning him.

Here are some things Nadia has said recently that I also want to record so I won't forget. One would be how she says "I'm sorry" all the time while playing a game. For example, if we're playing memory and she picks two cards that don't match, she says "I'm sorry." I keep trying to explain that it's just a game, and she doesn't need to apologize. Another would be an example of some of the seemingly random questions she asks. Today she asked "Does God have a belly?" I said "no" at first because I was thinking of God (the Father), but then she said, "so that's why he could die on a cross, becuase He didn't have a belly." I then said, "Jesus did have a belly when He was on the cross." I am not sure why she thought someone couldn't die on a cross if he had a belly. Life is never dull with a three-year-old around!

At first I was encouraged with Ian's nap today because he slept for 35 minutes (after crying for 5), but then he didn't have a second stretch like he has been doing for more than a week. I let him cry 35 minutes and then got him. This meant his nap was MUCH shorter than yesterday because if I let him cry, he doesn't fall back asleep in my arms. Yesterday he slept a total of 95 minutes (divided into 3 segments). Today he only slept 35 minutes. I still don't regret ditching the melatonin though. It's much better to have him in good spirits after his nap is over.

Nadia said we were having a picnic at the playground.

Getting Excited!

The UPS man delivered our Sea World tickets today! We're driving to Maryland in 2 days, and we're flying to Florida in 3 days. YAHOO! On Monday I was paying our credit card online and noticed we have quite a few points. I usually use them to get gift cards for restaurants, and we use those when we go out to eat. We get 5% rebate on gas and such like that. I always pay our credit cards off in full every month, and we use the credit cards for just about everything so we accumulate a fair amount of points. On Monday I decided to explore the options a bit, and I was SO glad I did because I stumbled across Sea World tickets! Normally 5,000 points would get me a $50 gift card to a store or restaurant, but the Sea World tickets were only 5,000 points, and to buy a ticket costs $72 (online or $79 at the gate). So for 10,000 points I got tickets for myself and Nadia. Ian is free since they don't charge admission for those under the age of 3. Had I discovered this last week, I could have gotten them totally free, but I opted for the rush handling fee of $10 since we're leaving on Friday.

They arrived in less than 48 hours, which was a relief as I was still nervous. Normally 10,000 points is only worth $100, but in this case it's worth $144! When I feel badly about paying the $10 for rushed shipping (regular shipping is free), I just remind myself that we're only paying $10 (plus parking) for the 3 of us to go to Sea World. Not bad, eh? Nadia keeps talking about how we're going to see a whale in Florida. Here's to hoping that after this trip we don't have to talk about Jonah and the whale every single solitary day! At least she should realize (after seeing one in person) that there is no way a whale would fit in her bathtub. I think they'll both enjoy the park. We're going to go there the day that my sister and her family go to Magic Kingdom. Paul doesn't want to miss experiencing their first trip to Disney. If any of you have been to the Orlando area and have suggestions for us, I'm all ears! We're planning on spending a lot of time at our resort which has a playground, water park, miniature golf, etc. I'd like to take the kids to a beach for a few hours as I can't fathom going to Florida and never going to the beach, especially since we never made it to the beach in January on our cruise.

I usually want the kids to grow up as slowly as possible, but it will be nice to be able to enjoy the park as a foursome once Ian is at least 36 inches tall. There are only a couple of rides that Ian can ride that Nadia enjoys. She does very few "kiddie" rides, but aside from the Ferris Wheel, Carousel, and teacups, Ian is too small for the bigger rides. Nadia's current favorite ride is the Skloosh. It's been rather cool and rainy lately, but thankfully it was warm enough yesterday for them to enjoy that ride. She also did the flume with Daddy. We were split up most of the time - I was with Ian at some points while Paul was with Nadia (and couldn't take pictures of Nadia and Daddy riding rides together and she's FAR more photogenic at the amusement park as he rarely smiles on the rides even though he does enjoy them). Nadia went on a few rides yesterday for the first time ever, including the Whip. She has loved almost every ride she's ever been on. She's a girl after my own heart! My stomach wasn't too pleased with me that I chose to go on the teacups right after eating dinner. I'll keep that in mind next time, lol!

Ian isn't happy about sliding down the stairs on his belly, but his nap went about the same as it did the past week even though he didn't have melatonin today. This meant he wasn't a crabapple this afternoon! He cried for 10 minutes, then slept for 20 minutes, then cried for 15 minutes, slept for 35 more minutes in his crib, and then he slept for another 40 minutes in my arms. The kids went to bed 30 minutes later than usual last night, and amazingly they got up 30 minutes later than usual this morning (7:30). Way to go, kids! I introduced Nadia to a new food this evening - french toast. She loved it!

In Shock

Shawn took this picture

Today I asked Karen, Ian's OT, when might be a reasonable time to expect that Ian would be "normal" as far as eating - feeding himself finger foods, etc. When we first started the OT in January, I had it in my mind that he'd be eating by age two. I admit it was hard to think it would take a year, but I've recently realized that goal will never happen as it's taken 15 months to get him to the stage most babies are around 6 months old (although I can't say he's totally there yet as most 6 month olds can eat a Gerber puff or a Cheerio).

Riding the REAL whip for the first time (not the Kiddie Whip)

I was completely and TOTALLY unprepared for her response - five years old. She said it *might* happen sooner than that, but three more years is a resonable expectation. Oh. My. Word. I really thought the "worst case scenario" was that he'd need OT until he was three. I can't believe we might have more than 3 years left of OT. I think what made it hard to accept was I immediately was picturing 3 more years at the stage we are now, of Ian screaming while I force bites down his throat 4-6 times a day, but of course it's going to be a gradual improvement, and he's not going to be at this stage for 3 more years. I wanted to ask her so that I'd have a reasonable expectation in mind and not be frustrated that it's taking so long, but I truly had no idea she might say 5 years old. I am wishing I hadn't asked. Hopefully Ian will not take 3 more years to learn to eat.

He has quickly adapted to having his teeth brushed. I no longer have to restrain his arms while I do it. Karen gave me suggestions today of things to do to make it easier in the future for me to cut his hair. She observed him trying both methods of going downstairs (bumping down on his bottom and walking while holding my hands), and she doesn't feel he can do either safely. The new plan is to insist that he goes down on his belly. We are to NEVER carry him down the stairs. She figures if we are consistent and require him to come down on his belly (us pulling him down) that eventually he'll figure it out and learn to come down on his belly himself. That's the new plan. I told her that Ian's been taking longer naps, but he's been in a HORRIBLE mood for several hours after he wakes up. She agreed that the melatonin isn't a good idea for Ian. Yesterday was his last day of having that before his nap. Today he only slept about 20 minutes (in his stroller) and he was in a much better mood than he was the last week with longer naps that were with melatonin. Tomorrow I'm going to try putting him in his crib without melatonin. I'm hoping that he'll keep his usual pattern (sleep 20 minutes, cry 15, and then sleep for another 30-60 minutes) without the aid of melatonin. No matter how long he has slept, I am going to go get him after his second stretch (or after his first one if his first is longer than 60 minutes). We shall see how that goes tomorrow.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow. We had a WONDERFUL time at Knoebels today. We were celebrating Brandi's 17th birthday. The weather was perfect. The eight of us had a terrific time. I took over 100 pictures. Don't worry. I won't post them all, lol! Time to head to bed.