Thankful Thursday

1. Last Friday we received two boxes in the mail from one of my aunts who lives in Florida. She had intended to send the gifts to us at Christmas, but because of her beloved dog passing away, she sent it last week. It turned out to be a lovely Valentine's treat!

2. On Monday Paul had an appointment to take care of two recalls for the Prius and also get the (long overdue) oil change. I can't take his car to the dealer any more since the three kids don't fit in the backseat of that vehicle. He didn't want to sit at the dealership for 2+ hours so we followed behind him in the van and had dinner at Friendly's (used our last restaurant gift card). The meal went rather smoothly, which is not something to take for granted with 3 children age 4 and under at a sit down restaurant. Ian ate his first ever grilled cheese sandwich (he and Nadia split a kid's meal so actually he ate half a sandwich), and he LOVED it.  Yahoo for finding another food that Ian likes! I need to add that into the menu rotation at home.

3. After we placed our order (but before the food arrived), I dashed over to JCPenney and used a $10 off coupon (that are very rare these days) to buy Nadia and Ian each a pair of Carter's pjs for next winter. Thanks to the coupon I paid a total of $4.00 for my purchases.

4. After we ate dinner, I made a quick trip into Sears and bought a few things on the clearance racks. I am sure at some point I'll be comfortable taking the three kids to the mall myself, but I haven't gotten there yet. I took advantage of having Paul along. We then made a trip to Aldi's and then dropped Paul off at the dealership because the car was ready.

5. We only have one week left of gymnastics. Whew. Ian has made a lot of progress, but I don't really feel he's ready for the preschool class, and I think Nadia is ready for something more challenging. Staying home on Wednesday mornings also will mean a better nap for Oliver. Starting in March we'll try our local library on Friday mornings again.

6. On Tuesday night I served cheddar chicken, rice, and carrots for dinner. I was in shock when Nadia asked me for MORE carrots. Be still my soul. It was the first time Ian ate any rice, and he did pretty well with it. It takes him forever to chew chicken though. Paul had macaroni and cheese instead of rice as he's not a fan of rice, but as I said earlier, I am trying to be more conscious of exposing the kids to a wider variety of foods (not just what Daddy likes to eat). I will say he ate LOTS of rice when we were in China in 2006. He pretty much lived on rice for those 3 weeks!

7. Oliver has only been sleeping for 8-9 hours at night, which means he's been getting up at 4 or 5am. He slept for 10 hours the last two nights. I much prefer to get up at 6am rather than 4am!

8. I am thankful that no one has ever said anything to me when Ian has had a meltdown in public (ex. at the library the past two Wednesdays when he didn't want to leave). I'm also thankful for the encouragement of strangers when they are well behaved. A woman told Paul at Aldi's how much she was enjoying listening to Ian sing. He was singing "If you're happy and you know it" while in the shopping cart. Another woman told me at Sears how sweet she thought it was when Nadia gushed with gratitude over the princess clothing I was buying her.