Forty-Five

Paul turned 45 years old today! He had just turned 27 when we met. In just 9 more years I will have known him for half of his life. I was almost 25 when we met, so in 7 years he will have known me for half of my life. When I met him 18 years ago he hadn't gone to college, but he started working on his bachelor's degree a year after we met and now with his Ph.D. he's half-way through his second year as a college professor! I'm praying that before he turns 46 he'll be starting in what hopefully will be a more permanent job. The kids and I are very thankful for him, and we all love him very, very much! Over the past year he had his first experiences with coaching- first he coached Nadia's basketball team and then he helped coach two soccer teams this fall (Ian's coed U6 team and Nadia's all girls U8 team). He has started teaching Nadia how to play chess, and he enjoys doing puzzles with the kids and building things with Legos with Nadia and Ian.

Last year I bought him Captain Crunch cereal for breakfast, which is one of his favorites, and I very rarely buy that kind. Ian had requested donuts for his birthday last month, and I thought afterwards that donuts for breakfast on each person's birthday might be a nice tradition for our family as we all love donuts and we don't buy them very often. I planned to pick up some donuts yesterday so we could all enjoy them for breakfast this morning, but Paul got the donuts yesterday since we were still in the hospital. Nadia and Oliver helped me make his favorite cookies last night (white chocolate macadamia nut). Ian wasn't able to have a donut because he hadn't eaten his dinner from last night. The plan had been for Paul to take the boys to McDonald's for lunch today for his special birthday lunch while I took Nadia to a Frozen tea party (a fundraiser for the local library, which isn't the library we usually go to), but Ian still hadn't finished his dinner so Paul made himself an omelette for lunch. This evening Paul and Nadia had dinner at the Watson Inn, which is a fancy restaurant in our town that gives you a free meal (up to $20) on your birthday; so this was a very inexpensive Daddy daughter date because he just had to pay for his soda, her kid's meal, and the tip. Usually Paul and I go out on a date for his birthday, but we thought after church tomorrow we were going to be headed to the Poconos for a two day getaway without the kids. In light of Oliver's hospitalization, we have postponed it until next weekend. If it happens, it will be the LONGEST date we have had in 6 1/2 years! Our getaway was my birthday present to him this year. At breakfast he opened his gifts from my parents and my sisters.

I was going to start taking down the Christmas decorations on Monday, but the kids asked me to leave them up a few more days. Ian still objected when I started to take most of the stuff down yesterday (I leave out the snowman stuff), but I told him that we needed to decorate for Daddy's birthday. Although I enjoy Christmas decorations, I am also glad to pack them up. I don't usually wait until January 2 to do so. Oliver's PICU stay gave Nadia and Ian an extra few days to enjoy the tree.

Daddy blew out the candle twice so they both could help!

I went to bed early last night, but that won't be happening tonight because the Steelers' game starts at 8:15. Unfortunately our star RB was injured on Sunday, Hopefully we can win with without him. It was SO nice to sleep through the night last night on a comfortable bed, Ian came in at 6:00, but Paul sent him back to bed. Oliver woke up at 6:45. He had one (#1) accident this morning, and he pooped in his diaper right after I put him down for his nap, but he woke up dry this morning and peed on the potty several times and pooped on the potty once today. He has regressed some, but we don;t have to start at square one again. Thank goodness! He has smiled a lot, but he's also angrier and more fragile than usual. Hopefully he'll return to his usual temperament in the near future. I wore a gown, latex gloves, and a mask most of the time for 3 1/2 days. My hands are very glad that is no longer the case!