Thankful Thursday

1. Oliver took a longer afternoon nap today! He slept (without any crying) for 1hr 40 min. Yesterday his morning nap was 15 minutes long and his afternoon nap was 50 minutes long, and this morning he didn't take a morning nap at home although he did sleep for a few minutes in the stroller on the way home from the park around 11:45am. I've decided to stop letting him cry after he wakes up, even if his nap is only 15 minutes long because it isn't doing an ounce of good. Yesterday I let him cry for 1hr 45min after his 15 minute nap, and he never went back to sleep. I might try it again in a couple of weeks, but for now I'm just going to get him as soon as he wakes up no matter how short the nap is. He's been waking up at 5:30 in the morning again, which means that he's only getting 9-10 hours of sleep as sometimes he doesn't go down until 8:30pm. I'm hoping that the longer nap today will help him sleep in until at least 6:00 tomorrow morning.

2. Paul and I went on a date on Sunday! It was our first child free date in 14 months, and it was only our second date in that time span (we went on one with Oliver in December). I had tried to do things to celebrate Paul's new job. Last week I bought him a bucket of chicken at KFC (something he loves that we rarely buy), and I asked him to pick the restaurant we ate at on Sunday night. He picked Applebee's, and we got the $20 special that included two entrees and an appetizer. Paul loves mozzarella sticks!

I absolutely love being a mom, but I do miss the leisurely more romantic dates that we used to take before we had kids. On this date we bought lots of food at Aldi's and some things for the house at Lowe's. Years ago our dates included things like strolling through a bookstore or ballroom dancing.  Some day we'll have time for more romantic dates, but it was still a treat to eat dinner without any kids. To be honest it's having a break from getting Ian to eat that is the main treat. I bought myself a new top, and I got the kids three new books at Ollie's.

3. It's so wonderful knowing where we'll be living next month. The past few days I made dentist appointments for four of us for September and an oil change appointment for Paul's car. We're planning to buy a new mattress for our bed next month, and I'm hoping Paul will hang the letters of Oliver's name on the wall in his bedroom this weekend. The first two houses we owned we did a lot of painting and replacing of flooring. We thought we'd live in those houses for a long time, but we actually lived in the first one for only 3.5 years and the second for only 4 years (plus 2 months). We didn't think we'd live in this house very long so we didn't replace any flooring and have only painted three rooms (3 of our 4 bedrooms). The ironic thing is that we will be living here at least 6 years. I'm really not keen on the linoleum in the kitchen. You can tell it's 15+ years old. I don't think we should replace it if we're possibly going to sell it next summer so I bought a steam mop a few days ago.

4. The kids are enjoying playing with the kids who live in the house next door to us. They have three kids (ages 19 months, 5 years, and 7 years old). Today I also let them walk to another neighbor's house who lives a little farther away. They also have several children.

5. I should say it more often, but I am very, very grateful for my loving husband and three precious children. There are times I contemplate teaching part-time at the university, but I do love spending my days with my kids and being able to homeschool Nadia. I am thrilled with the progress she is making in math and reading. I'm also still very thankful for my camera. I know I will treasure these pictures of my kiddos for years to come. I even remembered to take videos of two of my kiddos over the past few days!