Rashes, Naps, and Cups

When you have young children, it seems you are in a constant state of transition in at least one way or another. For example, Ian is in the process of giving up his nap. Some days (like today) he doesn't nap, other days he takes a short nap (often around 30-40 minutes), and then every once in a blue moon (like yesterday) he takes a two hour long nap. I am trying to teach him to play quietly in his room while his brother naps. This skill hasn't come as easily for him as it did for his big sister. She gave up her nap before she turned four, so I am not surprised Ian is about ready to give his up. Oliver is ready to give up his morning nap and switch to just one afternoon nap a day. I have been trying to hold off on that transition as long as possible because it's so much easier to do my homeschooling from 9-10am while he naps, but I need to bite the bullet and figure out a way to do homeschooling while he's awake as his morning nap is now no longer than 30 minutes and he's having a harder time falling asleep for that nap. I hope his afternoon nap becomes longer once I stop putting him down for a morning nap. I also decided today to transition Oliver to a hard spout sippy cup because he was purposefully spilling cup out of the soft spout ones. I threw all the soft spout ones away. Ian never used a hard spout sippy cup. I couldn't get him to switch. He used a soft one until he switched to an open cup at the age of 28 months old. Oliver is now using the hard ones that were Nadia's years ago. He had a little trouble at first, but he figured it out. I also have started giving him sippy cups of water instead of always juice or milk. Lately he's preferred to drink juice over milk (which never happened with his siblings), but I still have him drink 15 ounces of whole milk a day.

 

Over the past four weeks Oliver has had a rash that comes and goes throughout the day on his face. A couple of weeks ago it was really dark and almost made a complete circle from his chin up to below his nose. I've noticed that it gets worse right after he eats or drinks. When he had the cold and his nose was being wiped all the time was when it was the worst, so I thought it was from the tissues, but his nose isn't running and the rash won't stay away although there are times in the day when it's almost totally gone. Ian got a rash from eating anything with cinnamon, but I haven't been able to figure out what is causing Oliver's rash because he can get it from just eating a slice of American cheese. I do know from what the allergist said in regards to Ian that it is not a sign of a food allergy. I have discovered he can't eat raisins or oatmeal or he has the runs. Ian has the same problem with oatmeal. Ian has never eaten raisin so I have no idea if he'd have a problem with them. Nadia can eat a million raisins without any issues. Oliver loves raisins, but I don't let him have them any more. I wish I could figure out what is causing the rash on his face. I am planning to discuss it with the pediatrician in two weeks at his 18 month check-up. I took these photos this morning while he ate his bagel for breakfast, and if you look closely you can see the rash. It's always on his chin and around his mouth.

Thankful Thursday

1. Last Friday Paul received an invitation for a phone interview with Indiana State University for a three year visiting position. He interviewed there in person last July for a one year position. He had his phone interview on Tuesday afternoon (two days ago). Today he is driving to Indiana for an interview tomorrow for a three year visiting position at Earlham College. We're praying for God to open the door wherever would be best for our whole family. I'm hoping that he might receive an offer for a permanent position elsewhere, but Paul said he'd much rather have a three-year job than another one-year one. We shall see what God has in store!

2. The Leopards did a great job on Saturday! Paul did a nice job coaching them during the game. I am glad Nadia has the opportunity to learn some new skills. I am grateful the assistant coach can lead the practice tomorrow night, and Paul should be back in time to coach the game on Saturday.

3. We all enjoyed seeing The Wizard of Oz on Sunday afternoon.

4. Paul bought Nadia a dresser (I found it on Craigslist) on Friday. Ironically her old dresser was in better cosmetic shape, but the new one is a definite improvement because it has a mirror (she loves that!), is wider but not as tall (she could only reach 3 of the 5 drawers in her old one), and most importantly all the drawers work. The main reason we wanted a new dresser for her was because one of the drawers fell out almost every time you opened it. Also, the handle broke off another one of the drawers. We could have bought a new handle and solved that problem, but we didn't since we couldn't repair the other drawer. The new dresser doesn't hold as much as the old one. Everything fits now, but it's going to be tricky when we reach that time of the year when the weather is fickle and we're doing back and forth between wearing spring/summer clothes and fall/winter clothes. It won't be a problem once the weather turns and I put the winter clothes away. We'll figure something out! The old dresser was too heavy for me to help Paul carry it down the stairs so I made room for it in Oliver's closet, and that's where it will stay for the time being.

5. I have been very thankful that Oliver is a great eater, but I was taken aback when he fed himself a lot of my salad on Monday night. Nadia and Ian haven't eaten any salad yet, but my 17 month old has. He has been eating raw baby carrots for several weeks. Way to go, Oliver!

6. Nadia loves to read! Sometimes when I'm reading to Ian or Oliver she asks if she can read to them instead. This week she's reading Frog and Toad Together to me.

7. CHOP called me on Tuesday to move Oliver's surgery from February 12th to February 7th. Paul can either go with me or stay home with Nadia and Ian on the 7th whereas he has to work on the 12th. Praying that he'll be healthy enough on February 7th to really have the surgery this time around.

8. Ian continues to talk about the fact that he's a Christian now. I found one of his prayers amusing because at lunch one day he was thanking Jesus for dying on the cross and for coming into his heart and the next sentence was and thank you for the Scooby Doo matching game (a Christmas gift).

9. I thought I was going to have to miss Bible study on Tuesday morning because Ian had a high fever, but it turned out the study was cancelled because the school district was on a 2 hour delay due to the frigid temps. I'm glad I didn't miss the study! Hopefully the weather will be warmer and my kids will all be healthy next Tuesday morning.

10. The kids and I had a nice dinner at Friendly's last night. Everyone fed themselves their own meals! Nadia and Oliver tried mandarin oranges for the first time, and they both loved them. YAY!

11. Nadia and Ian slept in past 7am this morning. It's been a LONG time since Ian did that. WOOHOO! Oliver slept past 6am. I feel much more rested this morning than I have lately.

12. Ian is doing a GREAT job learning to write his upper case letters! He can now write L, I, H, E, F, T, O, P, and R. We've been working on "U,", but he hasn't quite gotten that one yet.

Stand Firm?

A few days ago I wrote the psychologist another email and told him that last week Ian only ate dinner twice (waffles one night and pizza another). The other nights he ate his mandatory 1-2 bites, and that was it. Most nights it took 45 minutes or less for him to eat those 1-2 bites. One night it took 90 minutes for him to put one bite of chicken in his mouth. Because he's been hungry he's been waking up at 5:30am every day (compared to 6:30-7:00 normally). The reply I got was to "stand firm," because Dr. Williams believes that eventually Ian will decide it's better to eat what is served than to go hungry. Although I'm supposed to let him have cereal or a bagel for breakfast even if he doesn't eat his dinner the night before, I did make the rule that he can't have Chocolate Cheerios (his current favorite) if he doesn't eat his dinner. What has made this new plan even more frustrating for me is that it is having a negative impact on Nadia's eating habits. It's really hard to enforce our usual rules with her when they've all gone out the door for Ian. She had been doing SO well.

The last two nights we had tacos. The choices included taco salad, hard tacos, soft tacos, or bean burritos. Ian ate one hard taco each night, as long as I held it in front of his mouth (just too messy for him to handle but he bit off the pieces and ate it). This was a big improvement over last week, but Nadia didn't eat any of the above either of the last two nights. Last night I had her sit at the table for two hours and didn't let her watch the VeggieTales dvd with Ian. She ate some baby carrots but wouldn't take even one bite of the taco. Oi vey. I decided that the rules would have to be different for her. This was hard for her to accept, but I told her that Ian had a problem with his throat when he was younger (eosinophilic esophagitis) and because of that eating is a lot harder for him. I sat with her at breakfast this morning and told her we weren't doing anything else today until she ate that taco. Thankfully she ate it. It's Ian's pick this week for our restaurant meal, and he picked Friendly's. Kids meals are $1.99 there on Wednesdays (includes meal, drink, and ice cream sundae) so I'm taking the three kids there tonight before we go to AWANA. I am really looking forward to a meal where everyone eats without any struggles. I want to at least get Nadia back on track. Paul doesn't think the new plan will ever work for Ian, but I figure it's what he does for a living, and what we were doing was very exhausting (although he certainly ate more with the old plan). It's worth a try I figure, and so I guess for now we'll stand firm. Ian is usually the first one to get me up in the morning, but last night Nadia won that prize because a little before 4am she realized she had put her night light in the living room yesterday and just *had* to have it back right then and there. It took me until 5:15 to fall back asleep, and then Ian came in our room at 5:30. I'm glad my day doesn't usually start at 3:55am. Here's to hoping and praying that Oliver stays a really good eater.

My little artists

I will readily admit that doing arts and crafts is not my strength in life. I purposefully sign the kids up for activities that involve arts and crafts. For example, I have signed Nadia and Ian up for a "Dare to Dream" art program for 3-6 years olds in February (two Saturdays) that is based on the work of Ezra Jack Keats, one of their favorite authors. Over the past week the kids have painted ever single day. Nadia has mostly been using watercolors on construction paper. Today she told me her painting was of two seahorses. They also have used pages from paint with water books. Oliver has used pages from the type of book where you just need a wet paintbrush. He loves it, but it's a good thing those pages are non-toxic because he likes to put the paint brush in his mouth. I'm working to break him of that habit! In general he's much better these days as far as putting stuff in his mouth goes. Ian made HUGE progress last week with coloring. His fine motor skills are delayed a bit. He became interested in using the Color Wonder markers

on the Monster's University pages that Nadia got him for Christmas at AWANA, and that did the trick! What a difference! In light of that improvement, I decided to start teaching him to write his letters. Up until today, the only letter he could write was "I," and he wasn't using a proper grip. Today I got him to hold a marker correctly for the first time ever. WOOHOO! His sensory issues are part of the reason why using a correct grasp has been a problem. Today we worked on the letters O, P, and T, and he wrote the word "TOP" all by himself. I was so proud of him! I'm going to start him in the Handwriting without Tears pre-K book tomorrow. We had been slowly working through level one of the reading program, but I'm going to take a break from that and just work with him on handwriting instead for the next few weeks. Nadia just finished the Level 2 reading program. I've decided to take a break before moving to Level 3. As a teacher, I loved doing thematic units with my students. I'm a big advocate of integrating the subjects rather than teaching each subject in isolation, but I haven't done any thematic units with Nadia yet because I first wanted her to learn the basics with math, reading, and writing.

I've decided to do our first unit on the Winter Olympics! We started the unit today by learning a little about Russia and ice hockey. We're going to study a different sport each day. Tomorrow it will be bobsledding! Nadia colored an Olympic flag and did an ABC dot-to-dot of a hockey stick. Typically Ian doesn't join in with Nadia during her school work time, but I am planning to include him for most of our Olympic activities. Last year we only had cable for 4 months (Sept-Dec) since neither of our teams made the playoffs. Even though our teams didn't make the playoffs again, Paul wanted to keep the cable on through the Super Bowl this year. Because the Olympics will take place soon after that, I've decided to keep the cable on through the end of the Olympics. We'll turn it off for six months (March-August). I hope the kids have fun and learn a lot as we cheer for Team USA and learn about Russia, the Olympics, different sports, etc. I'm getting quite a few books from the library on the Olympics, Russia, etc. Reading to the kids is one of my most favorite things to do!

First Basketball Game!

The Leopards had their third practice last night, and they had their first game today! There are five kids on the team. The K-2nd grade teams play three on three on a half-court. Starting in third grade they play five-on-five on a full-court.  They don't officially keep score with the K-2nd game, but the kids on the team told Paul what the score was at half-time. They were keeping track! The Leopards won by a landslide! I doubt Nadia will score any points this season, but hopefully she will improve with her dribbling and passing skills. Defense is her strong point! The referee came over to me at one point in the game to compliment me on Nadia's defensive pose, and a grandmother of another child sitting next to me commented on how well that little girl (Nadia is the only girl on her team) was doing with defense. I was proud! The kids can earn different stars to be ironed on to their t-shirt, and Nadia earned two stars today - the green one for saying her Bible verse perfectly without assistance and a red one for defense.

Oliver lasted for 75 minutes (thanks in part to the goldfish crackers and juice I brought), but after that point he wanted OUT of my arms. Since I didn't want him crawling or walking out on the basketball court in the middle of the game, I took Ian and Oliver to the nursery. Nadia's game was scheduled to start at 11am, but they were running behind and the 10:00 game was only starting the second half of their game at 10:45. So the boys and I sat through half of a full-court girls' game and then through 2/3 of Nadia's game. We missed the last 12 minutes of her game. Then Paul met with his team in their "locker room" after the game so altogether we were there for 1hr 45 minutes. The lesson I learned is that in the future I'll take the boys in a different vehicle so that we don't have to be there quite that long. It was hard for me to take pictures with Oliver in my lap, but I did get a few. Their are also a few different cheerleading squads. The 10 girls that cheered during Nadia's game were really cute! Paul had the job of announcing his players names as they came into the gym. The kids were a little confused as to where to go. They were supposed to run in between the rows of cheerleaders and join the rest of their teammates.

 

Paul's parents planned to come to the game this morning, but then the weather forecast didn't look good. We didn't end up getting a single flake of snow much less the inches they called for! Oh well, there will be other games for them to attend. :) The kids play man-on-man defense, and to make it easier they wear a colored band. Nadia was wearing a green band so she needed to match up with the boy wearing a green band on the opposing team (#11 today). Paul was very pleased with how the team did. He said they far exceeded his expectations! Go, Leopards!

 

Thankful Thursday

1. Paul was invited to interview for a 3 year physical chemistry position at Earlham College in Indiana on January 31!

2. I got to talk to my sister, Yvonne, on Tuesday. I am thankful that technology makes it possible to communicate even though there's a big ocean in between us. I am thankful she's out of her cast and able to walk around a bit more than when we saw her in Maryland.

3. We're thankful for Paul's job at Bloomsburg University this year that has enabled me to be a stay-at-home mom. I am thankful that he isn't teaching any night classes this semester! He teaches Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays this semester. It's nice to be able to rejoin my church's choir now that I can attend rehearsals on Wednesday nights again. I need to start going to bed earlier, as Paul was up at 5:45am this morning.

4. I am thankful our church has the Upward Basketball program and that Paul is willing to serve as one of Nadia's coaches. She's by far the weakest member of her team, but hopefully she'll improve some over the course of the season.

5. Ian made a profession of faith in Christ on Monday! Unlike Nadia's spiritual birthday (that I can never remember the date), it will be easy to remember Ian's because it's one day before Yvonne's birthday. He has asked to pray this most important prayer before, but I had to pray and ask God to wipe his heart clean. I asked him some questions, and this time he was able to answer them all correctly (able to identify some sins he had committed, etc.). He prayed and asked God to wipe his heart clean and also asked him to come live in his body. He was SOOOOO excited after he prayed. He was running around the house to find Nadia and Paul and telling them very excitedly that he is a Christian now. He told me that he didn't want to go to Hell because that's where Goliath is and he never wants to meet Goliath. He said he wants to go to Heaven some day and be with Nadia and Mommy. I certainly want my kids to all be in Heaven with me some day! Tuesday morning it was the first thing he talked about. That morning he told Nadia he wasn't going to Hell, and he was glad he wasn't ever going to meet Pharaoh or Goliath. I guess they are the biggest "bad guys" in his mind. He said he did want to meet David in Heaven. I pray that his faith will grow and grow in the years to come! He already was asking me when Oliver is going to become a Christian. I said he's way too young, but I appreciate that Ian cares about his brother's eternal destiny just like Nadia has been concerned about Ian's for more than a year. Nadia was very happy to find out that Ian is also a Christian now.

told him he wasn't old enough because #1 he didn't seem to understand everything and #2 sometimes it seemed to be just because Nadia was encouraging him to do so. This time it was 100% of his initiative, and there was no talking him out of it. He insisted that he

6. The ladies Bible study resumed on Tuesday. We're studying the book of Hebrews for the next two months. If I had known how bad the roads would be (with snow) on the way home, I wouldn't have gone. I am a big chicken with driving in snow/ice/sleet, but thankfully we made it home safely. In the fall I was the only one there who had little children, but another mom with young kids is signed up for this study so my kids won't be alone in the nursery. She has three girls very close in age to the ages of my kids, but her five-year-old is not homeschooled so just her two younger girls were in the nursery. I haven't done a Bible study by Lisa Harper before, but I really liked the first video lesson so I am very excited about doing this study. The only downside is that Oliver's naps will now be goofed up twice a week instead of just on Sundays.

7. I am thankful that Oliver is normally such a happy baby. He has been very fussy over the past 8 days due to not feeling well (he's doing MUCH better now) and teething. Last week he got one of his central incisors on the top, and this week he got one of his lateral incisors on the bottom. At the moment he has 3 teeth on the top jaw (two are molars) and 5 teeth on the bottom (2 are molars). I'm assuming that his other central incisor on the top and other lateral incisor on the bottom should be coming in soon. Teething is not fun for babies or mommas!

8. It's been VERY cold out lately. I am very thankful for a nice warm house! Weather like this really makes me want to move south, but we shall see where God opens the door.

9. Breakfast and lunch are going very smoothly for Ian. Dinner is not going well at all, but two out of three meals is still progress.

10. Oliver is almost over his cold; Ian, Nadia, and I are doing well. Paul is rather sick this week. Hopefully next Thursday I can report that all five of us are healthy!

11. I've started using the Checkout 51 app. It's pretty neat! You take pictures of receipts showing that your purchased certain things, and once you accumulate $20, they send you a check. Last week I earned 50 cents for showing I bought eggs, and today I got 50 cents for showing I bought orange juice. In just 8 days of using the app I've "earned" $3.00 for buying things I would have bought anyhow. You can use a coupon for the same item, which could make it easier to get things for free!

Memory Lane

Age 7 (1979)

Over the last two weeks I've gone through two boxes of scrapbooks, yearbooks, photographs, and other various memorabilia collected from the last 41 years of my life. The scrapbooks my mom made back in the 70's and 80's were falling apart. The pages were disintegrating, and as we now know (but no one knew back then), these pages are not very kind to the contents stored within them. I removed what I could (most of the pages were the kind that were sticky and some of the papers couldn't  be removed) and filed everything that wasn't a photograph (or was bigger than a 4x6 inch photo) into the files in the same hanging file box that I am using to store mementoes from each of the kids. I only have a few pictures from birth to age nine. Mostly I found many pages of schoolwork (quizzes, tests, report cards, etc.), brochures from places we visited on family vacations, and oodles of certificates and ribbons - primarily from the school I attended from 4th-8th grade. Most of the papers from school used purple ink from the now obsolete "ditto machine"  (mimeograph). My kids definitely will not have the massive collection of certificates and ribbons that I do, if we stick with our plan to home school them. They have already gotten some from things like AWANA.

Paul and I went on a date to Longwood Gardens.

Nadia and Ian enjoyed seeing my childhood pictures, and Nadia read two of my small Kindergarten readers. I also found a few audio tapes - some were ones I had taken from my Grandmother's house after she died. Nadia really enjoyed hearing my sisters and I talking, singing, playing the piano, etc. from a tape made in 1980. I was rather thorough with my scrapbooking until 2003. There is a tiny bit from 2004, and then I totally took a hiatus until 2008 when Nadia was born. I did a total of eight scrapbooks and photo albums (four for each of them) for the first two years of Nadia and Ian's lives, but during that time I switched to photo books, and sometime in 2011 I totally quit making scrapbooks or photo albums, which means I don't have any for Oliver. I have totally switched to photo books. If I could go back in time, I would have just done photo books whenever they started making those (and I had a digital camera). Those take up FAR less space for one thing.

At a cousin's wedding in 2003 (shortly before Wendy got married)

As I see the transition from scrapbooks and photo albums to photo books, it makes me wonder what will be the next "new" thing that will make photo books out dated. I imagine it will probably be something that's totally digital. I have a hard time imagine myself ever transitioning from photo books to something totally digital, but time will tell. The scrapbooks that weren't falling apart (1992-2003) I left in tact even though they are so bulky. The photos from the scrapbooks I dismantled and the ones that were just in envelopes (ex. China vacation 2006) because I had never gotten around to putting them in a scrapbook or envelope are now in a photo organizer. I did take several of my favorite photos (as far back as from the 50's) and put them in frames around the house. They'll be seen and enjoyed a lot more that way than if they stay in the scrapbook, photo organizer, or hanging file. I scanned a few of the ones that I eventually want to get in frames around the house to share in this post.

Dinner at the Victorian Manor to celebrate our engagement (2000)

One other random thought I had while going through the photos is that I wish I had a better wedding photographer. I am not sure if it's just that photography has improved so much over the past 13 years, or if it's because I didn't spend enough on the photographer, but wow they look pitiful compared to what I see wedding photographers produce these days. Probably it's a combination of both factors. I felt like I spent a lot on the photographer because it was about 25% of my whole wedding budget (more than 4.5 times more than what I spent on my wedding dress), but probably I could have spent more and gotten better pictures. I also wish he had a digital camera, but he didn't. Thankfully we did get a few wedding pictures that I really like. My favorite was one that a guest took! Speaking of the cost of things, I saw proof of inflation when I noticed that our Disney tickets cost $95 for FOUR days at any of the parks in 1990. It costs about that much to go ONE day now!

Lately I have been trying to decide whether to continue wearing contact lenses or not. Last week I only wore glasses for most of the week, and I decided I prefer wearing contacts even though I have more trouble reading (the computer screen, magazines, etc.) with contacts. My glasses don't have photo gray lenses (like Paul's do), and I really missed not being able to wear sunglasses with my glasses on. I also didn't like how they fogged up when I opened the oven door, drained the boiling water from a pot, stepped outside when it was really cold, etc. Looking through the scrapbooks, I also realized once again how much eye glasses really "date" a picture - sometimes even more than clothing and hair styles. In addition to the fact that I find some of my past hairstyles to be repulsive now, there are many pictures I don't like because of my weight at that time. Looking at the scrapbooks definitely has heightened my motivation to lose a few more pounds this year and keep the weight off! Right now I weigh about 15 pounds more than I did when I met Paul 17 years ago, and I was very happy with my weight when I met him. The highlight of my mammogram a couple of weeks ago was when the woman who was doing it referred to me as thin. I can't remember the last time someone used that word to describe me. It put a smile on my face!

Indiana

The lyrics from "The Music Man" have gone through my head today (about Gary, Indiana) as we found out today that Paul's most recent phone interview resulted in an invitation to interview on- campus at Earlham College in Indiana on January 31. The good news is that if he is offered the job, he would be teaching physical chemistry at a small four-year school, which is in his opinion the ideal job. The bad news is that it's just a temporary job, but the reason we applied for it is because it's a three-year position, which means we'd get a two year break from submitting applications and interviews, and it would mean that when he resumed the search for a permanent job, he'd have four years of full-time teaching experience under his belt. We were hoping that our next move would be to a place we'd live for decades, but maybe we need to make one more move before that happens. Time will tell. At the very least, Paul will be getting a little more experience with interviewing. Another professor has agreed to cover his lab on the 30th so that he can fly out that afternoon. Paul interviewed at another university in Indiana this past July.

Although Indiana wouldn't be our first choice of where to live, it's not at the bottom of our list either. We'd be about 8 hours from Paul's parents. My parents had been considering moving to be closer to us (once they knew where we were moving), but I doubt they'll move closer if it's just a temporary job. Richmond, Indiana would put us 3-3.5 hours away from my aunt and uncle and six of my cousins (and their spouses and children), about one hour from another cousin, and about four hours from my sister, Wendy. We'd certainly be able to see those relatives more often than we have the past 10+ years. Since a permanent job would be our first choice, I am praying that if another school will offer Paul a permanent job in the next few months, that Earlham won't offer him this job, but if this is the best option for August 2014, then I am praying they will offer him the job. I went to college in Ohio for two years, and I student taught in Dayton, which is less than an hour from this college. It's a small world after all! If they do offer him a job, it would mean far fewer interviews and applications this time around compared to last year, as I've only submitted 20 applications thus far, and it took 88 applications last year. We haven't heard anything back from Florida, so we assume he wasn't picked to interview on-campus there. He definitely wasn't picked to interview on-campus in New Jersey, and we weren't interested in the community college in Ohio where he had a final interview last month after we found out the salary he'd be paid. We don't know yet what the salary would be for this college, but the cost of living is lower there, which is nice.

Spontaneous Prayers

The last few weeks Ian has asked me to stop and pray with him at random points in the day. By random I mean not one of the times we typically pray as a family (at each meal plus before bed). Once in Maryland when he was sick with the fever and cough he asked me to pray with him that the Lord would help him feel better. I felt badly that he was feeling so yucky, but I was thrilled that he wanted to pray about it. Music to this momma's ears! He has continued to ask me to pray with him about other things. Once last week in the middle of a meal he said he wanted to pray and ask God to help him do a good job eating his food. Amen to that as well! Yesterday afternoon he said he wanted to pray and thank God for his brain and the blood in his body, which are two things we should be thankful for and yet usually take for granted. I pray that each of my kids will continue to grow in their prayer life as they grow older. God does want us to pray without ceasing! Nadia can't wait for Ian to become a Christian. The last few days when he has prayed at meal times one of the things he has thanked God for is "dying on the cross for my sins." Maybe he'll pray that most important prayer sometime this year. Although I appreciate her concerns for his salvation, I want it to be 100% of his initiative.

I have been praying throughout the day for a woman (Jenn) at my church. She gave birth last night (two months early) to a little girl (Quinn Elizabeth) who weighed 2lb 4oz and had Trisomy 18. Quinn lived for 3 1/2 hours. I can only imagine how hard this must be for Jenn, her husband, and their other four children. In September Jenn lost her brother. He died in the line of duty in Afghanistan. Quinn is now with her Uncle in Heaven. I'm praying that I'll have the right words to say as one of Jenn's daughters is in the Sunday School class that I teach.

P.S. The pic in this post is one my sister took of her six beautiful children.

New feeding plan

We had reached a fairly happy place with feeding Ian until a few months ago when Paul decided that Ian should be feeding himself by the time he turned four years old. At first I started alternating bites (I'd feed him a bite and then he'd feed himself a bite), and then Paul didn't want me to feed him any bites so the compromise then was that I'd get the food on the utensil, and Ian had to put in his mouth. Then Paul wanted him to also stab the food with his fork or scoop it with his spoon. Each time we took one of these steps, the time it took him to eat a meal greatly increased, and there also became more meals that Ian wouldn't eat anything, whereas if I fed him I could get him to eat almost anything. He did make some progress during this time, particularly with feeding himself yogurt at lunch and cereal at breakfast. He made the biggest progress with eating cereal in Maryland over Christmas. Dinner has been the main problem. It typically was taking 2-3 hours unless we had pancakes, pizza, or fish sticks. I was burned out from the constant reminders to take a bite and such. On January 8 I sent an email to Dr. Williams, the psychologist who is the head of the Hershey feeding team, and he wrote me back the next day.

I was thinking he might recommend using his "plate A, plate B" strategy that I saw him use with kids in the clinic who were able to eat but were very picky eaters. That method entails serving the child two plates of food at every meal. You put big bites of foods the child likes on the one plate and tiny (pea sized) bites of a food the child doesn't like on the other plate (he refers to these as novel foods). The kids have to alternate taking bites from each plate. That's not what he suggested. He said that if I am serving a "novel" food, that I can get the food on the utensil for Ian, but he needs to feed himself. Meal times may not exceed 45 minutes. The exception would be that if there is a food he has not taken any bites of yet, then he must have one tiny bite of it before he can get down. He said we are not to give ANY verbal reminders - just prepare the utensil, and if he takes a bite of a novel food, then we give him one incentive (ex. one M&M). The first night went great. We still gave verbal reminders, but with me stabbing the food onto the fork, he ate it within 45 minutes. Over the past several days dinner has gotten longer and longer again (90 minutes on Wednesday night for example).

Last night Paul and I decided to fully implement Dr. Williams' suggestions. This meant that yesterday he ate nothing for 45 minutes and then ate two bites (one of the casserole and one of vegetables) and then got down. I emailed him this morning to ask for clarification as to whether Ian was supposed to eat his dinner this morning or have cereal. In the past, we always made Nadia and Ian eat dinner at breakfast if they didn't eat it at dinner the night before. He said as long as he had the two bites, that was enough, and he could have cereal for breakfast. Shortening meal times will be easy for me to do. Giving him incentives is also not a problem, although Oliver also wants them. The hardest things for me to change are #1 not reminding him to take a bite (although I am very happy to stop doing this, it's quite a strong habit right now) and #2 not requiring him to eventually eat the food (aside from two tiny bites). I will say that tonight he came close to finishing in 45 minutes, and he actually burst into tears when I took away his food, which was a shock as it was the same food he didn't eat any of last night. He told me he wanted to finish. I reminded him that he had to finish in 45 minutes. He was crying because he really wanted a cookie for dessert, and I won't let him have dessert unless he finishes his food. Previously he wouldn't be allowed to watch tv, use the iPad, etc. unless he had eaten. In light of these new guidelines, those consequences are no longer going to be used. I am wondering how this is going to work in the long run, as Ian usually has no problems with skipping a meal. I can see him only eating dinner a couple of times a week, but this is what Dr. Williams does for a living, and what we were doing was not working. It's worth giving it a try. I imagine at some point he'll want Ian to get the food on the utensil himself, even with "novel" foods. Getting Ian to eat is generally the most stressful part of my week. I am hoping that this new strategy will make dinner time more enjoyable at our house. Even with a 103 degree fever today, Oliver is still our best eater. He loved the split pea and ham soup I made yesterday! I hope his fever goes away ASAP! The pediatrician's office said to bring him in Monday if his fever hasn't gone away by then.

Thankful Thursday

1. Last Friday I had my first mammogram. Paul and I had physicals the end of December, and I was told then that I really should get one as you're supposed to start having them every year once you turn 40, and I'll be 42 in 3 months, and I had never had one. On Monday I received a phone call saying the results were normal. YAY! I highly doubt I will have one every single year. I am good about going to the dentist twice a year and to the eye doctor once every two years, but I am not as faithful as is recommended for things like physicals, pap smears, etc. I'm sure I'll have another mammogram at some point, but I don't think I'll make it an annual experience.

 2. Paul had another phone interview on Friday. It was his fourth interview for a job for 2014. We continue to pray that the Lord will provide him with another job since this one will end in early August.

3. Paul's team (Leopards) had their first basketball practice last Friday. Another dad volunteered to help Paul out, and this man has coached before (at the high school level). Paul feels like the other dad should be the head coach instead of him, but he's very thankful for his assistance! The other dad doesn't want to lead the devotional/Bible memory time of the practices; Paul will be in charge of that part.

4. Except for Oliver, all of us are much healthier than we have been the past two weeks. Hopefully we'll all be totally healthy by next Thursday. Oliver's fever broke late this morning. Hopefully it will stay away. I really want him to be healthy enough to have the surgery on February 12!

5. Paul and I went on a date on Tuesday night! We hadn't been on a date for three months, so it was greatly appreciated. The pastor's youngest daughter (who is a senior in HS) watched our kids for three hours so we could go shopping and have dinner at Cracker Barrel. In December we discovered that Paul's black dress shoes were literally disintegrating. On Tuesday we planned to buy Paul two new pairs of shoes (one pair of sneakers and one pair of dress shoes) but we only had time to get the dress shoes as it took longer than expected to order a new pair of glasses for him at Sears. We had other things on our list that we didn't have time for. I guess we need to start planning on four hour dates rather than three hour dates. Our dates are rather utilitarian in nature rather than very romantic, but they are still appreciated. I would like to try out a new indoor miniature golf (glow in the dark) course sometime this year.

6. On Sunday I sang with the choir. This meant that Nadia and Ian were sitting in the pew by themselves while I sang the anthem. I was definitely distracted while singing because I was worried a bit about what might be happening in the pew. Ian was the one who worried me. The kids did great! Nadia had her arm around her brother's shoulder, and they were very well behaved. Whew.

7. Paul's mom had a doctor appointment at the hospital yesterday (which is half-way between their house and ours) so they made an impromptu visit and took Nadia and Ian to McDonald's for three hours. I got a lot of housework done with only having one child at home, especially since Oliver napped for 90 minutes of the time they were gone.

8. Paul took Nadia and Ian to a program about snowy owls at a state park this morning. It has been so nice to have him home the past 6 weeks. We're going to miss him when the spring semester begins on Tuesday.

9. Oliver's vocabulary has really been exploding over the past week! Yesterday he said the word Grandma several times (very clearly!). He was very distressed that Grandma couldn't hold him (we didn't want her to get sick). Once today he told me "want it."

10. Paul's mom has been able to stay out of the hospital for since Thanksgiving Day. We are very thankful that she's been doing much better lately.

11. Wendy took the fabulous picture of my three kiddos (top of the post) in December in Maryland. I know from experience that it's not easy to get a pic with all three of them smiling and looking in the right direction at the same time!

12. Nadia has really been enjoying the Liberty Kid's DVDs. Paul (a huge history buff) is loving the fact that she's wanting to learn about the American Revolution. I paid $5.99 on Amazon for the set of 4 DVD's which includes 40 episodes of the show that was aired in the late 90's. We've just started the second DVD. What a bargain! I am sure we will watch them again in the future when the kids are older. They are really well done (Walter Cronkite does the voice of Benjamin Franklin, Michael Douglas as Patrick Henry, Dustin Hoffman as Benedict Arnold, etc.).

13. The kids have also really been enjoying the first two Imagination Station books (Adventures in Odyssey) and again Paul loves it because the first one took place in Greenland (Vikings) and the second one takes place in Rome. I gave books 1-3 to Nadia as one of her Christmas gifts. It won't be too long until she'll be able to read those chapter books herself, as they are at the 2nd grade reading level, and I think she'll be at that reading level within a few months.

14. A couple of FB friends had recommended the Slugs and Bugs cd's. I finally bought two of them. They are really well done!! I greatly prefer them over VeggieTale cd's. I particularly like the "Sing the Bible" one because the lyrics are all straight from Scripture, which is a great way to memorize more of God's Word. We already own Steve Green's "Hide 'em in your heart" cd's and some of Max Lucado's Hermie & Friends Scripture memory cd's.

15. We are very thankful for all the wonderful gifts we received at Christmas! Ian would wear his new "Big Brother" shirt every single day if I let him. He has been wearing it at least twice a week as it is. Yesterday I mailed out six thank you letters that Nadia wrote. Next time I am going to require her to write at least three sentences for each one. I also scanned and emailed two additional ones (to Brazil and Turkey). Next year I hope Ian is able to write some very simple thank you notes!

16. A couple of weeks ago I bought two gingerbread kits at CVS when they were 75% off. We did them this evening as our "family fun" night activity for the week. The kids had fun!

Sick again

Oliver was rather fussy this morning. I felt his gums and discovered he's teething. His front two teeth (top jaw) are finally coming in. I thought this was the reason he was fussy, but it turns out he also had a high fever. He didn't eat much breakfast, and then he threw up his entire lunch shortly before his afternoon nap. His naps totaled 3.5 hours today, which is longer than usual. I hope he is feeling better tomorrow, and I hope the rest of us don't get sick again. I've had a slight fever again today as well. My throat still isn't back to normal, but I did go to choir rehearsal this evening. I couldn't sing everything, but it was great to be in the choir again after a seven month break. I do love singing in my church's choir!

On the way to choir I signed Nadia up for the spring soccer season. Paul agreed to serve as an assistant coach. We figured if he volunteered to do this we could guarantee her team wouldn't be practicing on Wednesdays at 6pm (during AWANA) since he'll have some say as to when the practices are held. He never played on a soccer team, but after watching Nadia do two seasons of soccer last year, he feels like he could be an assistant coach. Ian will be old enough to join a team in the fall!

First two sentences!

Oliver's four favorite words are "mama," "dada", "yes," and "eh" (the sound he makes when he points to whatever he wants). I have found it interesting that he says "yes" or "yeah" rather often and thus far hasn't said the word "no." I'm sure it won't be long until that word makes it into his expressive vocabulary. The last few months the only time he had put two words together was to say things like "hi mama" or "bye bye dada." Today out of the blue he said two complete sentences! Usually when he wakes up in the morning I go and get him from the crib and then bring him into our bed and snuggle with him for a few minutes before we go down and have breakfast. This morning I went and got him and then immediately passed him to Paul because I needed to use the bathroom. Paul was disoriented because he started hearing "I want my mama," and he thought it had to be Ian because Oliver hasn't been talking in complete sentences, but then he realized it was in fact Oliver. I came back into the room and heard the third time he screamed "I want my mama." I couldn't believe it, and Paul and Nadia told me he had said it three times in a row. Paul was proud but also had his feelings hurt a little that Oliver was so distressed at my brief absence. I was at the periodontist when it was time to put the kids down for naps/quiet time at 1pm. When Paul was tucking Ian in and said "I love you" to Ian, Oliver also said "I love you." Whether he was directing them to Ian or Paul, they are words that melt a parent's heart!

The urology office called me today to reschedule his surgery for February 12. Paul won't be able to go with me as that is a Wednesday, and he teaches on Wednesdays. They said we'll have to arrive much earlier that day because he's only operating in the morning that day (half-day) compared to he was scheduled for a full day in the OR last week. Oliver's 18 month check-up had been scheduled for the 14th, but I called today and moved it to the 10th. First, I didn't want him to get shots and such two days after having major surgery, and second, I wanted a pediatrician to listen to his lungs and declare him healthy to avoid another wasted trip to Philadelphia and back. Hopefully the next time we go out there he really will have his surgery.

Thankful Thursday

1. I'm grateful that my sister Wendy and her family made it safely back to Chicago last weekend. I am also glad that my brother, Maurice, made it safely back to Brazil. They almost diverted his flight because he was so sick on the flight, and he was greeted with a police escort off the plane once they landed in Brazil. Poor guy!!

2. My parents and Yvonne seem to have escaped the bug. Andrew, Paul, and Nadia had very mild cases of it. Oliver's fever came back this evening. Poor baby! Ian and Nadia are still coughing. Over the course of the day today, my voice drastically improved! I think it might be back to normal tomorrow. I didn't go to choir rehearsal last night because I couldn't sing. I felt so lost when I was rocking Oliver for his naps and bedtime, as I always sing to him. The things we take for granted! I was able to sing to him this evening! My singing voice isn't normal yet, but at least I can sing again! I'm hoping next Thursday I can report that we're all healthy again.

3. The kids rarely get to play with any cousins. I wish we didn't have to go at least a year in between visits, but it was very special to watch them playing together from December 26- January 3. When it was just the Benners and Kennedys, Nadia mostly played with Adam or Rachel. Ian mostly played by himself. Those days they didn't have any screen time (tv or tablets). When the Towfighis arrived, Nadia wanted to imitate Jenna (age 11). The girls shared a bedroom, and they would both come down to breakfast after they got dressed and made their beds. Nadia wanted to sit beside Jenna at the kitchen table, and she wanted to eat whatever cereal Jenna had picked. It was like having a big sister for a few days. My heart broke a little, as I was reminded that she'll never have a sister. Nadia mostly played with Andrew and Joshua. Although Nadia never was handed a tablet to play during that 9 day span (I let Ian play it once because he was sick), both kids were definitely watching their cousins play one of their four tablets at many points in time. I think there were at least six tablets in the house at one time, which amused me because the last time we were together (4 years ago) there weren't any! Technology is changing at a rapid pace. Ian did play with his cousins some, but he was very ready to go home at the end whereas Nadia kept begging us to stay longer. Nadia was so surprised when I told her yesterday that the Towfighis were still at Grandma's house (they fly back tomorrow). She couldn't understand why we were up here if they were still there. I explained that Uncle Joe's family was spending time with them this week.

4. The last several days were really bad with getting Ian to eat. I sent an email to Dr. Williams (feeding psychologist) who wrote me back today. Dinner went SO much better tonight. He ate tuna noodle casserole and carrots in 45 minutes! He was actually able to have some dessert for the first time this week (a brownie). I am very thankful to have a new plan of action.

5. Paul and I had eye doctor appointments today. We go once every two years. The eye doctor was amazed at how good Paul's vision is considering he has kerakatonus. My prescription hadn't changed in the last two years except that the astigmatism in my left eye got worse. I told the eye doctor that I can read with the contacts I received 6 years ago or with my eyeglasses, but that I have trouble reading with the contacts I received 4 years ago. It turns out I have reached "the age" when reading has started to be a problem for my aging eyes. Lovely. She gave me a bunch of choices such as bifocal contact lenses, reading glasses, etc. The option I'm experimenting with now is to lower the prescription on my right eye (make it a little blurrier for seeing far away but that is supposed to make me be able to read with them on). I'm going to return in two weeks to see if these are "the ones" or not. Paul is older than me, and his vision in general is worse than mine, but it looks like I'll be the one needing reading glasses first. You know you're middle aged when...... She said it usually levels out by the age of 55.

6. There have been a BUNCH of great free books on Amazon lately for the Kindle (ex. many by Beth Moore). I have decided to take a break from playing Words with Friends and spend more time reading. I also received two books on home schooling from Yvonne that I want to read! I read the first five chapters of To Live is Christ (about the Apostle Paul) so far today.

7. Since my throat has been too sore/hoarse for me to read, Paul has been reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to the kids. They finished the last one today. Paul is excited that they're starting a book about Vikings tomorrow!

8. On Tuesday Nadia and I did a thorough job of cleaning her room. Many things left the room to be donated for others (such as costumes she has outgrown). Her room still looks great as of today. I hope she keeps it this way!

9. Nadia is REALLY taking off with reading these days. Tonight she was the one to read our Bible story at bed time. We used the first grade Bible reader from My Father's World curriculum.

10. Aside from watching Toy Story once this week, the kids have only been watching educational dvds - Liberty Kids (about early American history around the time of the Revolution) or Buck Denver's DVD about the book of Acts (a Christmas gift the kids received).

11. I'm very thankful for our nice warm house. It's been VERY cold lately. We decided we aren't going to apply for that job in Michigan. BRRR! I've submitted twenty applications thus far.

12. Last night while Nadia and Ian were at AWANA Paul and I went through a box of computer stuff (manuals, CD's, etc.) We threw away most of it as they were from the late 90's. Purging stuff we don't need always puts a smile on my face, and previously when I had tried to get Paul to part with these cd's he had been unwilling to do so. Progress! I am hoping we can get through a few more piles of stuff before the spring semester starts.

17 Months Old!

Over the past few weeks Oliver has been increasing how many steps he will take at a time. He started with 2-3 steps, then increased to 5 steps, and more recently started taking more than 5 steps at a time. He'd revert to crawling if he fell down when walking. I declared him to be officially walking when he started getting back up and walking after he fell down. He still crawls some. He hasn't totally switched to walking yet, but the tide is turning in that direction! I am glad I didn't accept the referral for physical therapy two months ago. I took these videos at my parents' house on Paul's birthday.

Over the past month he also got one more molar, which means he currently has six teeth. We're also starting to really work with him on responding to the word "no." In particular we're working on NOT opening the trash can in the kitchen. He learned how to open it and likes to remove the contents. Lovely. He lost about half a pound over the past month. I imagine he lost the weight over the past week between being sick and not being allowed to eat in preparation for the surgery that didn't take place yesterday.

He keeps adding a new word here and there to his vocabulary. Two of the newest ones are "cat" (it surprised us that he said cat rather than kitty in reference to my mom's geriatric cat) and "that" (not pronounced 100% correctly but it's obvious he is trying to say the word "that"). Hands down the word he says the most often is "mama." I heard it an awful lot yesterday in the car on the way to the hospital and back. He probably was thinking "mama, why won't you feed me?" and "mama, why are you making me sit in this car seat for 7 hours?".

Already had one sock off and was working on taking the second off!

He has now reached the stage of enjoying putting objects into containers. This means he has begun to help some with cleaning! Of course he does FAR more destroying than picking things up. His favorite toys from Christmas would include the sock monkey car that Great Gram gave Ian (which happens to be by far my least favorite toy that they received as the song it plays is loud and annoying), the color fish toy that Aunt Wendy gave him, and the race track that my parents gave Ian. I wish I had a video of him watching the cars race. He could not be more excited!

Now we need to get the boy healthy so he can have his surgery rescheduled as I'd really like to potty train him in August, if possible, but he can't be potty trained until the repair surgery or surgeries are completed.

They measured his height and weight at CHOP yesterday while he was standing up (far more accurate height measurement than how they do it at the Peds), but I didn't see the results. Bummer.

Ian's funny facial expression is due to the fact that I snapped this photo in the middle of him giving Oliver a kiss!

Much ado about nothing

Three youngest cousins; Grace was the only one feeling well

Oliver and I were gone for 10 hours today, but not much was accomplished since the anesthesiologist didn't like the sound of his lungs. They had me give him a nebulizer treatment to see if that would do the trick, but the verdict was the surgery needs to be rescheduled due to wheezing. The good news was that the surgeon was pleased with the effects of the testosterone shots. He thinks that they not only enlarged but also straightened his penis. He says that even if the volume goes down some in light of delaying the surgery, we do not

Grace and Julianna are only 6 weeks apart in age. Grace is the youngest.

need to give him any more shots. I will be praying all the more fervently that it will only take one surgery (Ian's took two and Dr. Canning presumes Oliver's will probably take two) because if Paul is working in another state in August (such as FL) then we won't be returning to CHOP for the second stage surgery. At least six months have to pass between surgeries. And even if we are still in or near PA, we have no idea what health insurance we'll have after June.

Here are some random observations and lessons learned today:

Paul and Oliver napping on Saturday

 1. If I leave the house before Paul gets up, the bed will not be made. If I find an unmade bed at 5pm, I find myself compelled to make it even though it's getting closer to the time we'll be going to bed.

2. It is very hard to wipe your baby's nose while driving a car.

3. Although MapQuest says it takes 2hr and 45 minutes from our house to CHOP, you should allow for at least 3hr and 45 minutes because the traffic on 76 in Philadelphia often moves at a pace around 5mph. We were 25 minutes late today even though I allowed 3hr 10 min.

Oliver loves to climb into the dishwasher or dryer.

4. Don't pay your parking at the machine located near the elevators. I was charged $9.50 even though I had my slip validated. If I hadn't used the machine (I thought it was mandatory to use them), I would only have paid $3 for parking.

5. If you get off the turnpike and get back on, your total toll bill will be higher even though you are on the toll road the same amount of miles. On the way down we never got off and it cost $7.80, but on the way back I stopped for a VERY, VERY late lunch and the two separate toll charges added up to $8.45 for our return trip.

My laundry buddy!

6. If your child is scheduled to have surgery in the near future, do NOT let them be around sick children. I am embarrassed to admit the thought NEVER crossed my mind while I saw my nieces and nephews (and brother-in-law) dropping like flies. I only connected the dots after Oliver got sick. The trip today cost us $71.66 and was unpleasant for both of us. Oliver hates being in a car seat and he was in one for seven hours today. He also was not very happy at the hospital because he was HUNGRY. I am not a fan of being in the car that long either. I'm pooped.  I am definitely not up for mother of the year this year that is for sure!

7. Oliver hates having a nebulizer treatment. Ian and Nadia have never had one. I hope it's a long time before Oliver ever has another one as it was sheer torture for both of us.

8. If a child is scheduled for surgery and develops a cough, I will just call and tell them the surgery needs to be postponed. That was my gut instinct last week. Had I gone with that, we wouldn't have gone through all we did today.

9. I should have brought a stroller. I had no problems until I went to get lunch with Oliver. I thought I'd be alone when I got my lunch. I walked into the cafeteria, picked up a jug of milk, and couldn't envision how I was going to carry a tray with food and drinks while holding a 23 pound child who would be grabbing at whatever I was holding. I only bought the milk.

10. I don't function well if my lunch is delayed a few hours. I had planned to grab lunch while he was in the operating room. No food or drink is allowed in the surgery reception area or the pre-op area, which is where we were until 1pm. As soon as they said his surgery was cancelled, I put on our jackets and headed toward the cafeteria to buy my hungry baby and I some food and drink. I had an English muffin and banana at 6:30am but nothing to drink because I didn't want to have to go to the bathroom on the way there. Oliver hadn't had anything since his 7am apple juice. As mentioned above, I only bought milk for Oliver's sippy cup. I headed out to the parking garage and overpaid for my parking ticket and then proceeded to drive around level B of the parking garage a few times until the neurons in my brain finally grasped the concept that we would be there ALL day if we kept this up. I was just not functioning well. Thankfully I did manage to find a way out of that garage, but I didn't know how to find a place to eat, and Oliver fell asleep and I didn't want to wake him up so I wanted a drive-thru. Eventually I just took a random exit off of the turnpike. I accidently drove past a Dunkin Donuts (with a drive-thru) which I would have preferred had I actually seen it, but I ended up going inside a gas station that had a Subway inside. I got Oliver a pack of peanut butter crackers and myself a meatball sub.

11. I am sick of fast food right now. We had more than usual in MD (Chic-Fil-A, pizza twice, McDonald's) and then on Saturday I made fish sticks and fries at home because I was feeling so lousy, and we had more of those yesterday. After more fast food today, I need a long break from any pizza, burgers, fries, nuggets, fish sticks, etc.

12. The next time Oliver and I make the trek to Philadelphia, I must bring WAY more toys for him to play with in the car.

13. Getting worried about something in the future is really pointless. All those nerves I had about his surgery today were over nothing.

14. You can be in a hospital for 2.5 hours before they decide a surgery can't  be completed. We spent 95 minutes in the waiting room and one hour in a pre-op room. He was weighed and measured shortly after we arrived, and then nothing else happened for almost 90 minutes. This was a challenging time because he made it very clear to me that he wanted his sippy cup ASAP. Then he was changed into a hospital gown, blood pressure taken, etc. The next thing would have been to give him the Versed, but that is when the plans were changed to the nebulizer treatment and then the surgery was cancelled.

15. I am really, really ready to get back into a routine. Our last "normal" day was December 23. I need to get back in gear with my routines (Motivated Mom chores and such) and home schooling. I haven't been reading to the kids from our chapter book (in part because my throat is too sore), and I miss it! We are in the middle of a Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book, and then we already have four books sitting on the counter waiting to be read (The Magician's Nephew, Voyage with the Vikings, Attack at the Arena, and Peril in the Palace) that Nadia received for Christmas.

16. It is a very bad idea to leave the house without any cough drops when you have a bad cold. Ouch!

17. Daddies are great at playing with kids but not so great at accomplishing other tasks at the same time. I had repeatedly asked for ONE thing to be accomplished today in my absence - Nadia's room to be cleaned by Nadia and Daddy. It didn't happen. Well she and I will have to tackle it tomorrow or a bunch of her stuff is going to end up in the basement.

18. Paul asked me to pick up McD's for dinner for Nadia, Ian, and himself on the way home. I wasn't hungry due to my really late lunch at Subway. I learned that McD bags aren't very strong as it broke and the contents spilled all over the floor of the garage. Yes, that pretty much was how my day went today.

19. I brought the iPad with me as I planned to use it during the hours Oliver and I were separated during his surgery and the beginning part of his post-op recovery. I found out when I got home that this did not go over well with Paul, Nadia, or Ian. I will bring a book or my Kindle next time!