Still in the PICU

I was hoping we would be moving up two floors to the pediatric ward, but we are still in the PICU. The good news would be that Nadia and Ian are feeling much better although Ian hasn't completely got over his cough, which is also RSV I presume. Paul took the kids to the library's day before New Years Eve party last night. One craft involved writing a New year's resolution. Nadia wrote to learn to ride a bike (without training wheels), and Ian wrote to do more chores. His dad came up to watch the kids so Paul could visit us and bring me clean clothes and bananas as it costs 75 cents to get one here. Other good news would include that I am back to normal. What a relief! Yesterday afternoon I had some pretzels, and last night I had a little chicken noodle soup for dinner. I didn't throw up but I still felt queasy. During the night my appetite returned, and it is such a relief to be able to sit by Oliver's bed without feeling like I am going to throw up or actually throwing up. I had blueberry pancakes for breakfast, and they tasted heavenly. After the rounds this morning, they removed Oliver's chest tube! The doctors go on rounds twice a day, and the doctors yesterday wouldn't let me hold Oliver, but the doctor today (same one who worked on Oliver on Monday night) said " why not?". Both Paul and I got to hold him, which brought comfort to all three of us. It was very hard to go 39 hours without holding him, especially when he was asking for me. They weren't planning on switching him off the bipap today, but because he did well on the low flow cannula at 3 liters when they let me hold him, they decided to put him on the high flow cannula, which meant no more mask on his face! He's currently at 3.6 liters.

The cot in here is simply awful. I am certain no one would like it, but it is particularly hard for someone like me who has back issues wuth mattresses. I was planning on asking a friend who lives close yo the hospital if I could keep at her house last night, but I am glad I didn't because Oliver was asking for me quite a bit starting at 2am. I can't leave him here alone. He asked once to go potty today, but he isn't allowed to use the toilet, and he didn't know what to make of a plastic urinal. I am hoping it won't be hard to get him back in underwear after this ordeal is over.

Holding him is more challenging than other times. Once he pulled out the NG tube that was in his stomach, but thankfully they didn't have to reinsert it because it was only needed when he was in the bipap to get air out of his belly. From that we learned his arm restraints must stay on all the time. Later he was in my arms when Pop Pop stopped in to drop off the Bible study dvd's that Paul forgot, and Oliver was very upset and tried to launch himself out of my arms, and his cannula came out, but it scared me more than anything. I am sure I will hold him again tomorrow, but for today I have had enough excitement.

His emotions are more obvious with this hospitalization. It bothers him to be in the bed. He cried when I was talking on the phone with Nadia and Ian. It is hard for me to watch him suffer emotionally and physically. With other hospitalizations it wasn't that way. I see the sadness in his eyes. It is rather heartbreaking for me, but I can handle it better today now that I am over the flu. Although I am not the kind to go to a party on New Year's Eve, I don't recommend spending the evening in the ICU. It will not go down as my favorite way to ring in the New Year. I figured out after the fact that there was a free luncheon today in our unit for the holiday. Oops! I could have saved the money that I spent in the cafeteria. I learned today that it is cheaper to go down there and get breakfast, but it's cheaper to order room service than go down to the cafeteria for lunch or dinner. So I will order off the menu by phone for those meals until our discharge. Oliver really wants to eat today. His nutrition is going right to his intestine so his belly is empty, which makes him feel hungry. Poor guy! If they think he will not need to go back on the bipap, they will move the feeding tube a little so the formula will go in his belly.

Paul's birthday is on Saturday, and I am praying for a Friday afternoon discharge so that we could all be home for his birthday. Paul's dad helped me out by having the kids make Daddy's birthday cards today since I am not there to do that with them as usual. Tomorrow a couple from church are going to watch them for 4 hours so Paul can get some work done for Bucknell. I have taken pictures with the iPad, but trying to insert them into a blogger does not work well on the iPad. I usually blog on the laptop, but I opted to leave that at home. We are supposed to wear a gown, mask, and gloves whenever we are in his room. I take the mask and gloves off when sleeping, and I take the gloves off when typing or eating. I did get a shower this morning up on the third floor, but I had been wearing the same clothes for three days. No one will probably notice that I am wearing something different because they basically just see my yellow gown.it bothers Oliver that I am wearing gloves when I am holding his hand, but I am trying to follow the rules.

The senior pastor's brother visited us yesterday, and the church had three Mylar balloons delivered to Oliver yesterday, which was very sweet. They said a pastor would come every day, but no one came today, probably because if the holiday.

2014 in Review

As I think back on 2014, here are 14 of the most memorable parts of our year:

1. Paul taught at Bloomsburg from January through June and then started teaching at Bucknell in August.

2. Ian accepted Christ as his personal Savior on January 20.

3. Oliver learned to walk, talk, sing, do 12 piece jigsaw puzzles, and was daytime potty trained. He's starting to work on 24 piece puzzles.

4. Oliver's urological surgery went well. His repair only took one surgery!!!

5. Oliver was hospitalized for RSV and RAD in April. The nebulizer is now our friend. He had his first PICU stay due to RSV and a collapsed lung in December.

6. Nadia started riding BIG roller coasters with an adult and sometimes by herself! She also learned how to tie her shoes.

7. We switched churches in September. The church had three balloons sent to Oliver yesterday, and one pastor will visit us every day we are here. Oliver is in Puggles, Nadia and Ian are in the Soul Patrol choir, Nadia is in Sparks, and Ian is in Cubbies. I am in the choir. I also joined a different ladies Bible study and have made some new friends.

8. Nadia played on her first basketball team, Ian played on his first soccer team, and Paul had his first coaching debuts with both sports. Nadia and Ian took their first horseback riding lessons.

9. I've continued to make progress with my photography skills!

10. Nadia and Ian sang in a children's choir at church for the first time, and Nadia sang a vocal solo as the special music at church in August.

11. We spent a week in the Poconos with my parents and a week in Orlando with Paul's parents. We visited Magic Kingdom and Sesame Place for the second time and Hollywood Studios for the first time. Nadia rode with Paul's parents to Florida; this was by far her longest road trip.

12. Spent a week with the Benners which included trips to the Baltimore Aquarium, Six Flags, National Zoo in DC, Lake Tobias Wildlife Park, and Smithsonian's Air and Space and Natural History museums.

13. Spent several days with the Towfighis which included two trips to Hersheypark in November and a day at the science museum in Baltimore in September.

14. Ian learned to buckle his seat belt, write all his uppercase letters, and really improved in his reading skills. Nadia made HUGE strides with her reading skills and is currently at the middle of the fourth grade reading level.

I also thought it was high time that I reflected on the goals I wrote for the year to see how I did. Those that were accomplished included:

• Finding a time to have the kids work on their Bible memory every day (lunch)
• Finding a time for me to have my quiet time every day (usually during Oliver's nap)
• I did try my hand at making pies this year as well as a cheesecake
• I've been doing better at having the kids help more around the house although I still end up cleaning the toys more often that I should. I need to stop doing that as they can (and should) do it! Nadia started to learn how to vacuum and how to wrap presents, for example.
• I did make a soup, stew, or chili once a week most of the time and in the process tried many new recipes.
• I did work on fleshing out how we celebrate holidays more this year, but there is still room for growth with this!
• They made progress with liking more and more foods over the course of the year.
• Nadia now eats vegetables without raisins, and she has been doing a MUCH better job with making her bed and keeping her room neat.
• Ian did learn to write his uppercase letters, buckle his own seat belt, and play games with rules.
• Oliver is daytime potty trained, walking, talking more, and better at responding to the word "no."

Those that were not accomplished included:

• Having Nadia practice the piano 5 days a week
• Trying a crepe recipe or finding THE pizza dough recipe
• Involving the kids with my communication with the three kids we sponsor
• Giving Nadia and Ian money except for giving them the same amount of dollars as how old they are on their birthdays and giving $5 for the first lost tooth and $1 for each tooth after that.
• Nadia didn't break her thumb sucking habit
• Ian rarely finishes dinner in an hour or less, unless we're eating pizza or chocolate chip pancakes. He also didn't learn to swing himself, and he still is fussing and crying quite a bit every day.
• Oliver still tends to use his fingers more than his utensils when eating.
• I didn't do a weekly craft with the kids, and I haven't been using Pinterest.

Collapsed Lung!

I have felt the last three days that Oliver needed to be on oxygen, and yesterday afternoon I decided to call the Pediatrician and give an update. He told me to take Oliver to the ER, and immediately I knew it was the right call because his O2 levels were way too low. An X-ray showed he had a collapsed lung, and a nasal swab showed he has RSV again. They can't treat a collapsed lung at this hospital so we went by ambulance to Geisinger. My baby is 2 years old and this was his second transfer by ambulance between hospitals, and his second time being hospitalized for RSV this year.

He was so out of it ( not that he was on any medications yet) that he didn't cry for a blood draw and only winced when they put in his IV. He cried when I left the room to go to the bathroom. We were there about 3.5 hours before we left by ambulance. I had lost all track of time and forgot I had not eaten since 11am. On the ambulance ride at 8pm I thought I was nauseous from low blood sugar, so when we arrived at the hospital and they wouldn't let me go with him to his room, I went to the cafeteria and bought a grilled cheese sandwich and cookies. Big mistake! I continued to feel very nauseous and finally started throwing up at 11:30 and did so several times throughout the night. The youth pastor at church showed up right before the doctor went to put a chest tube in through his side for his right lung. That procedure took about an hour.

After being separated from him for 90 minutes, I was allowed into his room in the PICU. It was heart breaking to see so many wires and tubes connected to him again he was crying and I couldn't hold him. The doctor said it was a 50% chance he would need to be on a ventilator instead of a bipap, and he said the left lung looked like it might collapse and that he might have pneumonia. Thankfully none of those possibilities were true! He had a rough night until they put him on morphine and a Tylenol suppository in addition to the Versed. He was crying for Mommy and saying "hold me, and it was heart breaking especially as going vertical caused me to have to run to the toilet and vomit.
This morning they started giving good news. He went from 60% oxygen gradually to 30%, and the X-ray showed that his lung was reinflated. Thya said it collapsed from coughing too hard with the RSV.

Nadia and Ian are feeling much better today, and Paul's parents stopped at Walmart on the way here for her biopsy to buy me some underwear. I packed clean underwear for Oliver, and he's just been in diapers due to the sedation, but I forgot to pack some for myself. Someone from the church I was a member of from 2004-2008 picked up my keys so they can drive my car from the other hospital to this one since I was on the ambulance with Oliver. I slept a little on a very uncomfortable cot last night. Hopefully I will get more sleep tonight. I just took some Tylenol for my fever and headache. Now to see if I can keep some crackers and ginger ale down. They put a feeding tube in Oliver a little while ago because he has not really eaten since Friday and has already lost more than one pound.

When I called the Pediatrician yesterday he thought Oliver would just need IV fluids. Not even close. I am glad I took him, and I wish I had taken him sooner. For as long as we live in this area, I will take him straight to this hospital rather than the one closer to our house. Live and learn. I sure was not expecting to spend a few days at the hospital this week! I am glad he is getting the care he needs, and in the future we will pack up and head back to PA if any of the cousins are sick or just not come at all is we know any of them are sick. I would rather not ever go through this again if possible. He is one very sick little boy.

Third one down

I thought that Nadia, Paul, and I had dodged the respiratory and tummy bugs, but alas Nadia woke up at 1:00 this morning throwing up. She made it to the toilet in time at 1am, but she threw up on the carpet some in transit to the bathroom at 5am. Oliver woke up with the commotion of the second bout. I gave him a much needed breathing treatment (he was breathing very rapidly and his whole body was trembling). I had given him one around 11pm last night during the football game. He still wasn't doing well after the treatment, so we took him downstairs for a dose of steroids mixed in pudding. He will consume it if distracted with the iPad. I hadn't gone to bed until 11:30pm, and then we had been up with Nadia at 1am so I was hoping my day wasn't starting at 5am. I decided to put Oliver back down in his bed at 5:45, and it worked. He slept until 7:00. Ian came and joined us in our bed at 6:00, but at least we were able to stay horizontal until 7:00.

When Ian had the stomach bug on Saturday he only threw up over a 12 hour period. Nadia hasn't eaten anything, and I am not encouraging her to do so. She did drink a little bit of diluted apple juice. Ian's cough is worse. The poor guy is coughing almost nonstop even though we're giving him Dimetapp every four hours and also he has been sucking on cough drops (first time in his life he's used those). I usually really try to limit the kids usage of the iPad and television, but I have to say with three sick kids at the same time I am definitely allowing them to be used more than usual. Nadia has mostly been staying in her bed. It's definitely easier to take care of a sick 6 year old than a sick 2 year old. Ian has a 101 degree fever, and he just threw up all over the carpet (which he hadn't done for 45 hours). These Christmas gifts are just plain awful.

This morning Paul went to CVS and bought a pulse oximeter. He bought the most expensive one they had (and used a 25% off coupon), but it didn't work for Oliver. His fingers are just too thin for an accurate reading, and his big toe isn't long enough for any reading. With Ian it works with his thumb, and with Nadia it works with any finger. I searched high and low to see if any store (Walmart, Target, Rite Aid, CVS, etc.) had any pediatric pulse oximeters in stock, but it wasn't possible to drive somewhere within 30 minutes of our house and buy one. So I asked our neighbor (who has Amazon Prime) if she would order one on Amazon using a gift card I gave her. It should arrive on Wednesday. I figure with Oliver having asthma this is something we will be using over the years to come, and it will give peace or mind and possible save us some $20 copays to the Pediatrician.

Originally I had signed Nadia and Ian up for a Frozen party at 2pm at the library today (pin the nose on Olaf, painting with shimmering snow, make a reindeer snack etc.), and then the plans had changed to spending the day at Paul's parents' house to celebrate Christmas with them and also Paul's Gram, but three sick kids means we're just staying home today. Tomorrow morning I had planned to take the kids to a state park for a program about the Winter Solstice, but I am certain we won't be doing that either. Tomorrow night I had planned to take them to The Night Before New Year's Eve Party at the library. We shall see if they're well enough for that adventure at 6:30 tomorrow night (which includes snacks, crafts, a pinata, etc.). We haven't yet rescheduled our Christmas gift exchange with Paul's family. We're waiting to see when our kids are healthy. Hopefully we can do that later this week. Paul's mom is having a bone marrow biopsy tomorrow. Please pray that test will go well for her, that our kids will get healthy asap, that Oliver, Paul, and I will not get the tummy bug and that Nadia, Paul, and I will avoid the respiratory bug!

Longest nap ever

Wearing a headband she made yesterday with a kit Grandma gave her

Oliver's nap today was definitely his longest nap, and if my memory is correct, it's the longest nap that any of my children have ever taken. He fell asleep sitting on the couch at 12:30 so I took him upstairs, switched him from underwear to a diaper, and tucked him in bed. Nap time is usually 1pm, and I was going to give him a nebulizer treatment at 12:30, but he fell asleep before I started it. I actually took a nap during part of his nap. We were up with Oliver and Ian at 2:30am, and then Oliver got up again at 5:20. When Ian woke up for a drink at 2:30, Paul looked on the video monitor to check on Oliver, and we discovered he was lying on his bed on buck naked. I went into his room and discovered he had put his sleeper pjs and his diaper (he had pulled it down like underwear - the tape was still fastened on both sides) and put them on top of his dresser. He did all this in the dark! He was burning up so we gave him some Tylenol and put his diaper back on with a pair of 2 piece pjs (no more footed sleepers for him for awhile as he's more prone to taking those off). He went back to sleep.

Wendy did Rachel and Nadia's hair in matching braids in Maryland.

If I could go back in time, I would have given him a nebulizer treatment at 2:30 because when he started knocking on his door at 5:20, his breathing was horrible. He had a VERY loud wheeze (the loudest I've ever heard any of our kids have) and was breathing VERY, VERY fast. We figured he needed to go to the ER, but I thought we should give him a nebulizer treatment before we left. Then he fell asleep during the treatment so we didn't want to disturb him, and when he woke up in our bed, his wheeze and respiration rate were much better. Paul went to CVS and paid $2 to have them add grape flavoring to the medication, and he also bought grape juice and chocolate pudding to try to mask the bitter taste of the medication. The chocolate pudding alone wasn't enough, but by letting him play on the iPad while sitting on my lap, Paul was able to get the medication down him with chocolate pudding. YAY! The steroids definitely give him more energy. As for his appetite though, that little bit of chocolate pudding was about all I was able to get down him for breakfast, and the only thing I got him to eat at lunch was a couple of marshmallows, and I offered him just about every food we had in the house (including chips, candy, etc.) to no avail. This child has hardly eaten anything the past two days, but at least he's drinking again today.

I can't remember the last time I had a nice nap. It's been months, but I went down shortly after Oliver's. Had I known he was going to take such a LONG nap, I would have stayed in bed a bit longer myself, but I got up at 2:30 assuming that Oliver was already up. I slept for 1hr and 45 minutes, which was greatly appreciated given how much sleep I lost the previous 6 nights. Last night I went to bed at 8:30, but tonight I'm probably going to stay up until 11:30 due to the last regular season Steelers game. Oliver slept for almost 4.5 hours!!! Ian napped a little in Paul's arms while Paul watched his 1pm game. Ian's stomach bug is gone, but his cough is worse. Nadia, Paul, and I are still healthy.

Although we would rather have been in Maryland yesterday and this morning and at Aunt Debbie's party this afternoon, one perk of the extra time at home is that the kids have been able to enjoy their Christmas presents. Nadia has been listening to some Adventure in Odyssey cd's, they've been assembling new Lego sets, and Ian has been working on a new 150 piece puzzle.

Nadia and Paul have been doing different projects with the Snap Circuits, Jr. kit. I highly recommend it! It's a great introduction to how electricity works. Nadia made one headband so far, and she also did some Star Wars drawings with the book Ian received (her R2D2 was particularly good). I've read the kids some of their new books as well as some library books. During dinner we listened to a new John Williams' cd that I gave Ian. I took the first picture in the post with my new lens.

Since I have some group shots below let me share the current ages of my parents' grandchildren: 3 months old (Micah), 21/22 months old (Julianna and Grace), 2 years old (Oliver), 3 years old (Joel), 5 years old (Rachel and Ian), 6 years old (Nathan and Nadia), 7 years old (Joshua and Adam), 9 years old (Andrew), 10 years old (Susie), and 12 years old (Jenna).

19 of us were at these tables at each meal

These four girls had their own table for each meal

Paul was impressed with Jenna's chess skills. She just turned 12 years old, and Paul doesn't think he was as good as she is now when he was 12 years old. Maybe some day she will beat Paul in a game? It was a lot of fun to see the cousins playing each other in chess. Hopefully Nadia will do better next December when she plays her cousins!

One sick kiddo

Our youngest niece (Grace will be two in March)

Spending time with cousins is very special, particularly as we often go two years without seeing the ones from Turkey, and we usually see the ones from Chicago only one or two times a year. The only downside to such visits is that typically we arrive healthy and all or at least some of us leave sick. Last year we were really sick. It had been many years since I had that high of a fever. Oliver's illness after our visit to Maryland last year resulted in an extra trip to Philadelphia as his surgery had to be postponed. This time around Nadia and I came through unscathed aside from being tired from sleep deprivation. Paul has a GI bug, and Ian has a mild respiratory plus GI bug (he has thrown up several times over the course of the day). Oliver definitely was hit the hardest. Yesterday after his nap I could tell he was coming down with something, Before bed he was given Tylenol for his fever and a breathing treatment. Paul rocked him at midnight for 45 minutes, and when I went to get him when he woke up at 3:00 I knew we had a sick puppy because his fever was much higher and his respiration rate was very high (at least 60 breaths a minute). His entire abdomen was moving with every breath.

It took awhile for Paul and I to get dressed, pack up our bags, and load the van as one of us was holding Oliver at all times. I found a flashlight, which was helpful in locating items around the house while not waking up anyone. I had woken Joe up at 3:30 to find out where the Tylenol was located, and I woke up my mom at 4:45 to tell her we were about to leave. We weren't able to say goodbye to anyone else. Yesterday both Ian and Oliver had been telling me they wanted to go home. When I said not for two more days, Oliver once asked if he could go to Grandma and Pop Pop's house (Paul's parents). On the other hand, Nadia shed many tears this morning over the fact we were leaving. She really wanted to stay and play with her cousins some more! I tried to encourage her with the reminder that Aunt Wendy's kids were also leaving that morning, but that wasn't any consolation to her. I wasn't happy to see her crying, but it did warm my heart to see how much she loves spending time with her extended family!

I got these nieces matching purple dresses for Christmas!

One advantage of leaving at 5am on a Saturday is that we hit NO traffic. We could have made it home in record time if it wasn't for the fact that I was so tired (having been up since 3am) that I took a wrong turn at one point and didn't discover it until we had gone 15 miles in the wrong direction. I was going the route I used to take the first 12 years I lived in PA, but that is not the route we've used the past 6 years. OOPS! Also, we made a couple of stops for gas, breakfast at McDonald's, and a potty break at a gas station for Ian and Oliver. I got an English muffin with grape jelly for both Ian and Oliver, but Oliver didn't eat a single bite and Ian only ate about 1/4 of his English muffin. Paul, Nadia, and I ate our breakfast, but we all decided that we REALLY prefer Dunkin Donuts. I have no desire to have breakfast at McD's again for a long time if at all possible. Due to these stops and my wrong turn, we didn't arrive at the Pediatrician's office until 9:15 (we could have gotten there at 8:15 otherwise). They took us right back. Oliver's O2 level was at 92%, which in the past has been deemed low enough to be admitted to two different hospitals and not high enough to be discharged from four different hospitals, but the Pediatrician was okay with it today???

Our youngest nephew (3 months) with my mom's almost 20 year old cat

He heard wheezing so he had me give Oliver a nebulizer treatment in the office, and he listened to his lungs again after the treatment. He said the treatment improved the situation by about 20-30%. He gave me a prescription for an oral steroid to take two times a day for seven days and gave a prescription for a twice as strong dosage of one of the two nebulizer medications. He told us to give that one twice a day and the other one every 3-4 hours. On the sheet he listed the diagnosis as acute asthma. His fever wasn't very high at the doctor's office, but it went back up again later today (to 101 degrees). He has had a few sips of milk today, and that's all he's consumed other than a couple of small pieces of candy. He doesn't like the taste of the steroid. He threw up after I gave him a bit of it, so the next time I stuck a piece of chewy candy in his mouth while I gave him the rest of the dosage, and that did the trick. It stayed down! Unfortunately that trick didn't work this evening, We tried mixing some in yogurt and some in milk, but he refused to eat any yogurt or drink any milk. He was very lethargic this morning, but he has had some spurts of energy since then which has been encouraging. He has insisted on being held most of the day by Paul or I. At dinner time he had no desire to eat  but instead asked to take a nap, and I put him in his bed and he slept for 45 minutes. I tried to get Ian to eat a couple of crackers and a banana for dinner (Paul, Nadia, and I had lasagna), but that was a mistake as he threw up a lot after that.

We had planned to leave tomorrow around 1pm. My dad is preaching at their church tomorrow morning, and Micah is being dedicated tomorrow. I've never attended a baby dedication for any of my nieces or nephews. Then we planned to stop at Paul's aunt's house on the way home as the Christmas party for that side of the family is supposed to take place at 3pm tomorrow. I don't think any of us will leave the house tomorrow unless we need to take Oliver to the ER. I'm praying that Oliver will bounce back quickly, and that if he needs oxygen it will be obvious to Paul and I. Hopefully he will eat and drink more tomorrow and also consume the steroid from now on.

When I put Oliver to bed twice a day I always tell him I love you (among other little sayings like "sweet dreams"). Last night for the first time EVER he responded with "I love you" after I said to to him. Oh that was just SO priceless! He did it again today at his dinner time nap and also at bed time. It totally melts my heart! On a comical note, when he saw the new comforter on his twin mattress he said "Santa brought it!" We do not talk about Santa bringing gifts in our house so I have no idea where he got this idea, but it definitely cracked me up. All three kids really like the comforter, and I have to admit it is a much higher quality than any of the comforters on the other three beds in our house. That makes me feel better about how much I spent on it. It matches the other things in his room perfectly. I declare that to be a winner! We're not using the bed skirt yet since the mattress and box spring aren't on a bed frame yet, and I didn't get around to ironing the valences for the window, but the comforter and pillow sham are now in use. My baby is growing up! I don't plan on putting him in a pack and play again in the future. Ours has been moved to the basement for guests along with the three twin air mattresses we received as gifts on Thursday.

My brother (Maurice), my oldest niece (Jenna), and my mom

Merry Christmas!

On Christmas Eve Oliver woke up and climbed in bed with Paul and I, and he started singing the "Happy Birthday" song. He did much better than I had ever heard him do before, and he sang the song to Ian. Now we just need him to sing it to Jesus since it's His birthday we are celebrating! On Tuesday night we went Christmas caroling at several of my parents' neighbors houses, which is a tradition we've maintained for the 33 years my parents have lived in this house. On Wednesday night we went to the Christmas Eve candlelight service at my parents' church. I am happy to say none of the children set anything on fire. Fifteen of us went ice skating on Wednesday afternoon. I was pleased at how much better Nadia and Ian did compared to the last time I took them! The weather has been warmer than usual (highs in the low 50's), so we took the kids to a playground yesterday afternoon. The kids have also been playing many games together - Don't Break the Ice, Trouble, Sorry, chess, Monopoly, etc. Chess has been the most popular board game this week! Paul has been teaching her how to play (giving her puzzles to solve and such), but this was the first time she actually played a game. Adam beat her, but she was SO excited when she captured his queen!


Naturally the kids were very excited to open their presents yesterday. Many of the kids received a watch or clock of some type. Ian LOVES his new Lego Batman alarm clock (from Grandma), two new Lego sets (from Wendy and Grandma), and Star Wars figurines (from Maurice). He also got a "I'm the middle brother" t-shirt, which I think is adorable and should make for some cute photos. It's easy to find big sister and little brother shirts, but it's much harder to find middle brother or middle child ones. My parents gave Paul three air mattresses, pillows, and sets of twin sheets so we will be set the next time the Towifighis spend the night at our house. My most favorite gift was a new lens for my camera (an 85mm prime lens). YAY!!

Proof that Ian is doing better with eating, he has done well this week with the dinner menus which have included tuna noodle casserole, spaghetti and meatballs, hamburgers or hotdogs, and a ham dinner on Christmas Day. I'm sure tonight will be a breeze because we're supposed to have pizza.

Sleeping has been a little more problematic in light of the fact that Oliver can now climb out of a pack and play. This morning I found him sitting naked on the kitchen floor at 5:45am as he climbed out of the pack and play and took off his diaper and pajamas. Nadia (my best sleeper) has been impacted the least although she has been waking up earlier than usual since the five of us were sleeping in the living room. On Wednesday night she was the only one able to fall asleep shortly after I put her to bed, the boys were up for another 2+ hours due to lights and sounds in the kitchen keeping them awake. Ian was having some trouble sleeping because the lights from the kitchen were waking him up, but we moved Ian's air mattress closer to our bed last night, which helped him a lot. We also moved Oliver to the family room last night, which meant that Ian was able to sleep in longer this morning. Even though Oliver didn't fall asleep until after 10pm on Wednesday (he usually is asleep at 8pm), he woke up at 4:22 on Christmas morning. My kids are used to sleeping in a quiet, dark bedroom with the door closed so it's an adjustment to sleep in a room without a door that isn't dark, but we're doing the best we can considering 23 people are sleeping under one roof!  Last night my dad, Paul, Joe, Drayton, and Maurice went to see the movie Hobbit at the theatre. Many memories are being made!

6 1/2 Years Old!

Today is Nadia's half birthday! She gets to celebrate it with eleven of her cousins! My sweet girl is continuing to grow up a little more each day right before my eyes. I am SO glad that she is here with me during the day and not at school. What a blessing to have more time with her during these fleeting years before she flaps her wings and leaves the nest. I have noticed that she is becoming more independent. For example, she recently started making her own oatmeal for breakfast. This is not an easy task because it takes great ingenuity on her part for her to reach a bowl in our cabinet. She also is becoming more and more of a help to me. For example, she sometimes takes the initiative to buckle Oliver into his carseat for me. What a sweetheart! She is getting better at using a vacuum, but she still has room to grow before I'd say she's mastered that skill.

She wears size 6 pants, size 7 skirts (presuming the skirts have adjustable waistbands that I can tighten to the max otherwise the skirt won't stay up), size 6 tops (she does wear some size 7 ones but generally the sleeves are a little too long in size 7), size 12.5 shoes, and mostly size 7 when it comes to dresses.

 In terms of schoolwork, right now she is more than half way through the fourth grade reading textbook. It took that long to finally hit a section that was a little bit difficult for her so our pace has slowed down a lot recently in that subject. She's on lesson three of her third grade spelling book, is almost done with the second grade handwriting book, and is in the third chapter of her second grade math book. In the last several weeks she really has gotten back into listening to books on CD in her bedroom that I check out from the library. She's listened to quite a few including the Magician's Nephew, several Flat Stanley books, Charlie and the Glass Elevator, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, etc. She finished her second Sparks book and is in the process of going back through the book a second time. Recently she learned all the books of the Old Testament for Sparks. She also learned how to tie her own shoes this fall! Four months ago she was promoted to Level 2 at gymnastics and U8 for soccer. Over the past couple of months she lost three more teeth. Yvonne pulled #5 yesterday! Altogether she has lost four teeth on the bottom (all four permanent teeth have already come in) and one tooth on the top (that permanent tooth hasn't come down yet).

Here are some of a few of her current favorite things:

Breakfast - Raisin Bran Crunch cereal, Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, or apple and cinnamon oatmeal

Lunch - ham and cheese hot pocket, egg salad sandwich, and tuna noodle casserole

Fruits and veggies - baby carrots with ranch dressing, grapes, corn on the cob, and cuties

TV show - Sofia the First

Movie - Frozen (she said the t-shirt pictured at left here was her favorite gift that she got from us on Sunday)

Dinner - pizza, scrambled eggs, chocolate chip pancakes, spaghetti, tuna noodle casserole, pulled pork, hot dogs, hamburgers, pierogies, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, french fries, fish sticks, stuffed shells, lasagna, cornbread, biscuits with apple butter

Snacks/Desserts - I can't really think of a dessert that this child doesn't like. She definitely has a sweet tooth! Some of her favorites though would include brownies, chocolate chip cookies, pretzels, cookies and cream ice cream, chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, chocolate pudding, chips, popcorn, and candy.

Books - She really loves the Imagination Station books. She can read them independently, and she also likes it when I read them aloud. 

Toys - Anna and Elsa dolls, Legos, Etch a sketch, etc.

Clothes - Her favorite pajamas would definitely be a penguin nightgown. She still loves getting dressed up for church on Sundays, but during the week she has actually switched to wearing pants for the first time. In the past she would hardly ever wear jeans to the point that I stopped buying them for her. I actually went and bought her a pair of jeans recently, and she definitely likes wearing them for the first time in her life. As you can see above, she LOVES her new slippers we gave her for Christmas. She was wearing them ALL the time until we left for Maryland. She even wanted to wear them in bed, ha ha!

Thankful Tuesday

1. On Friday I talked to a woman on the phone who also attends the church where we're going now, and she is home schooling her four children (I think she said they are between 4-9 years old). They live at the most 15 minutes from our house, and she is also using My Father's World curriculum! I invited them over to our house on January 12. It turns out she has worked in Oliver's classroom on Sunday mornings. We have actually seen each other in the past without knowing each other's names or knowing that we were both home schooling moms, but we met in person in Oliver's classroom on Sunday. I am hoping maybe Sandy and I will become friends. My new friend, Nikki, was the one who gave me Sandy's name and phone number.

2. From 4:30-6:30 on Friday and from 9:00-11:20 on Saturday the kids had dress rehearsals for their program which they put on twice on Sunday. I am grateful they have the opportunity to do things like this, and I'm also glad it will be awhile before we have any more dress rehearsals as it was not easy to entertain Oliver there for that length of time.

3. Friday evening Nadia, Ian, and I attended a Guatemala Christmas Party at our previous church as Kathy (one of our former babysitters) was sharing about her mission work in Guatemala. It was great to hear how the Lord is using her there!

4. A couple of weeks ago our church encouraged each family to take 3-6 envelopes that they had prepared with a Christmas card (message in both English and Spanish) that included a $10 gift card to a grocery store or Walmart. I took three of them, and it was fun to pass them out to strangers and wish them a very Merry Christmas. The envelope also contained an invitation to attend our church if the recipient didn't already have a church home. Altogether people in our church passed out 2,400 gift cards.

5. We made a very brief stop at our fire company's "Breakfast with Santa" on Saturday morning. We came at the tail end due to the kids' choir rehearsal. The kids ALL loved the huge stocking of candy and snacks they each got (each one included several full size candy bars along with other goodies).

6. Paul's parents came up on Sunday to see the kids' program. I am so grateful they live close enough to be able to do things like that! We were also able to celebrate Paul's dad's birthday that afternoon. His birthday was on the 20th. I made him pork chops, and Paul's mom brought up some of her baked macaroni and cheese.

7. We drove to Maryland yesterday, and we arrived safely and had a smooth trip thanks in part to Oliver sleeping for 1.75 hours of the trip. It was great to spend some time with my parents, Maurice, and the Towfighis.

8. The Benners planned to arrive yesterday, but due to icy roads they spent the night about 2 1/2 hours away from our parents' house. We are glad they arrived safely here today! My parents have their 4 children, 3 son in laws, and 14 grandchildren under one roof!

9. I got a haircut on Saturday! I don't recommend going to the mall on the last Saturday before Christmas, but it was worth it to get a haircut. I also did a little shopping. My favorite bargain was that I got Ian two 4 piece suits in size 5T for $4.99 each at JcPenney. I had been searching high and low at consignment shops and on clearance racks for that size suit for him and had come up empty handed until Saturday,

10. Gas prices have continued to fall! The last time I got gas I paid $2.55 a gallon. It really makes a difference with the van which has a larger tank and gets less than 1/2 of the gas mileage of our Prius.

Playing her new Scrabble game with Grandma on Sunday

Playing Hungry Hungry Hippo with cousins on Monday

Watching the "Crippled Lamb" on dvd on Monday night with cousins

Ian's 5th Birthday interview

This morning I finally (10 days later) got around to doing Ian's 5th birthday interview. To compare, here is his interview from last year and here is Nadia's 5th birthday interview. Some of his answers stayed the same, and some have changed. I love my five year old very much!

VERY unwelcome decorations

This morning when I was thinking about what I'd post today, I assumed I'd be writing about the kids' Christmas program at church this morning, Pop Pop's 73rd birthday celebration, or the kids opening their Christmas presents. I will do so, but the title of this post is in reference to a certain little boy whose initials are O.E.K. This boy made a bigger mess today than the other two kids EVER made over the past 6 1/2 years. There was one time when Nadia was a very small baby (she was less than 3 months old) when I was changing her diaper and she started pooping and the stuff was FLYING all over the room (landed on me, the wall, closet door, etc.); it was mind boggling that a tiny little body could produce that quantity. Paul was home, and I remember screaming my head off for him to come up and help me. Well today was reminiscent of that, only much worse.

This morning I put pork chops in the oven before we left for church because that is one of Paul's dad's favorite things to eat, and yesterday was his birthday. The kids and I arrived at church at 8:25. The adult choir (that I sing in) sang a medley of several Christmas carols at the start of each service, and then the kids' choir put on a Christmas program that included five songs and four scenes of acting in between the songs. Oliver was up in his classroom from 8:45-12:15. I usually go to Sunday School during one of the two services, but this morning I attended the worship service twice in a row because I wanted to see the kids' program both times. Paul and his parents joined me for the second service at 10:45. Ian did a great job. He continues to make SO much progress. He was smiling and singing most of the time and doing the motions some of the time. He didn't play with the candle at all (as I asked him not to because he was distracted by that in the dress rehearsal yesterday), but he did play with his belly button a little in the second service (UGH!). Nadia was singing and doing the motions all the time, but the girl forgot to smile most of the time. Frankly she looked bored. I said this to her and she was surprised. I need to show her the video. During the first service she came in a little early for the duet. The second service she came in at the right time, but she didn't start on the right pitch. It was a challenging entrance because the accompaniment wasn't playing the part. I had heard her sing it 100% correctly in rehearsals, but that didn't happen today. I was proud of both of them. although I hope next time she'll smile more! The only downside was that I didn't get to dress Nadia and Ian up in fancy Christmas clothing today, and they were wearing those same t-shirts for the gift opening. Oh well!

We came home and had lunch. Paul's mom had brought her yummy baked macaroni and cheese. The kids had never had pork chops before. Oliver and Nadia did a great job. Ian took a lot longer, but the motivation of opening presents plus some help from Grandma did the trick. We sang happy birthday to Pop Pop, and he blew out three candles on a pie Grandma had brought. I had also bought a pumpkin pie so we  had plenty of desserts to choose from! Normally I would have put Oliver to bed after lunch because usually he goes down at 1pm, but I decided to put him down a bit later. I let him open his presents (while Ian was still eating) and play with them a bit, and then I put him down at 2pm. Yesterday he kept escaping from the bedroom during his nap. Last night he stayed in bed from 8pm to 6:20am, but I thought he might escape this afternoon. When he didn't come out, I assumed he was sleeping. BIG mistake. I should have turned the monitor on to check on him!!! Ian had finished eating so Nadia and Ian started opening their presents. At 3pm (after he had been up there one hour) I heard Oliver banging on his door. I thought to myself that this was a little bit shorter nap than usual, but one hour is a reasonable time.

I opened the door and started screaming because there was poop EVERYwhere. I put him to bed in a diaper because he doesn't always stay dry although ironically he woke up dry this morning. He managed to pull off his diaper without even undoing the "tape". Paul came up and started to tackle the room while I took Oliver to the bathtub to clean him up. Then I stripped the bedding off of Oliver's bed (which had only been on there for 24 hours) to wash it all. There was poop on the wall, on the door, on his blankets, sheets, one of his stuffed animals, in the clothing hamper where his clean clothes were, on the dresser, etc. The worst  by far was all that was smushed into the white berber carpet. Paul used various cleaning supplies and spent a lot of time on the carpet, but it is still stained. Ian was the one who spewed the most stuff on our carpets, but Oliver wins the prize for producing the most stains. First, the carpet in our bedroom got stained by blood when I was 22 weeks pregnant with him and bleeding all over the place (the stains are still there), and now the carpet in his bedroom was stained by brown poop. Great. I am SO thankful Paul helped clean up that fiasco. I wasn't planning on doing two loads of laundry today, but that is what happened.  I have seen others post on Facebook that their child took off a poopy diaper during a nap and "decorated" the crib with poop, but until today it had never happened to me.

In the first 6.5 years of being a mom none of my kids had ever decorated anything with poop (aside from Nadia's projectile pooping incident which really she had no control over which can't be said for Mr. Oliver). I am REALLY hoping and praying this never happens again. I think part of the problem was that usually we eat lunch early and he poops before nap time. Aside from the lesson learned of using the baby monitor, I also was reminded to allow enough time in between the end of lunch and when he goes down for a nap to make sure this does NOT happen again. It's actually been very rare over the past 2 years that Oliver has pooped in his diaper when he's been in his crib. Usually he only poops when he's awake and out of his crib. I falsely assumed he had slept some and then this happened, but he fell asleep in my arms on the couch at 6:30pm (which NEVER happens) so I then came to the conclusion this boy didn't have a nap today. He was a very cranky boy after I woke him up because he just wanted to go to bed for the night, but 6:30pm is too early of a bed time. I don't want to start my day at 4:00 tomorrow morning!

Paul's football game was on at 4pm. His wasn't aired on tv in our area, but he watched it on his computer up in our bedroom. My game was on at 1pm, and it was aired but between our 1pm meal and the kids opening their presents after that, I only saw the last quarter of the game. The only thing I watch on tv is my Steeler game. I used to say I watch 3 hours of tv a week during football season (and none during the rest of the year), but it has become harder and harder to watch my game. Once the kids are older I'll be able to go back to watching my 16 games a year or more if they go in the playoffs - which is going to happen this year. YAHOO! I didn't see much of last week's game or this week's game due to family celebrations (Ian's birthday last week and Christmas presents today), and I'll be missing next week's game because we'll be driving to Harrisburg during the game (although I'll probably be able to watch the last hour of the game at his aunt's house). I love the Steelers, but I love my family FAR more than football.

Oliver went to sleep easily this evening. At least the transition to sleeping in a twin sized bed has gone smoothly for sleeping at night although the same can't be said for his naps yet. We'll be driving to Maryland tomorrow so he can nap in our van. Hopefully we can get him to nap in a pack  n play or an air mattress at my parents' house the rest of the week! Life as a parent is NEVER dull and often includes dealing with some sort of body fluids, that is for sure.