Thankful Tuesday

1. The kids and I enjoyed the Christmas service at church on Friday night.

2. Paul was home on Saturday! The kids had a great time playing with him, and I was able to do a lot of baking, dishes, and painted the dining room. I love the green walls. When we moved into this house, every room had some shade of white walls with the exception of Nadia's pink bedroom. Paul painted the master bedroom blue and Ian's bedroom green. Two people from church painted Oliver's walls yellow in 2012. This summer I painted Nadia's walls purple, the half bathroom blue, and the kids' bathroom bright green. I repainted the living room, kitchen, hallways, and master bathroom this summer, but they are all still some shade of white or off-white. If I had to do it over again, I wish I had painted our master bathroom a more interesting color. The dining room looks so much better with green walls. I am looking forward to painting the living room in a couple of weeks. I am not going to use any shade of white.

3. The kids sang in both services on Sunday morning. I enjoyed singing "O Holy Night" with my choir.

4. I love the dress Nadia wore on Sunday. Gorgeous!

5. I love my new camera!

6. This is the first year I've put gifts under the tree since 2008.  I waited until the morning we were opening them because I was afraid the kids would open the gifts weeks before they were supposed to do so. I am happy to know they have enough self control to leave the gifts alone. The downside is that I used to move the tree around the room when taking pictures of the kids (mostly so the window would be behind me to get better lighting). With all the gifts under the tree I haven't been moving it at all, but thanks to #5, I have been able to take pictures even though the lighting isn't ideal.

7. We sang many Christmas carols (acapella) in Sunday

School class in between listening to the teacher read the Christmas story from the Bible. I loved it.

8. When I checked our library account a few days ago, it showed that a book was still checked out that I thought I had returned. I searched the van and house high and low and couldn't find it. Today I decided to stop at the library and see if it was on their shelf, and indeed it was. Whew. We typically have 40-60 items checked out at a time, and thus far we haven't lost any, and only one time did I have to pay an overdue fine.

9. Nadia made 5 baskets in her practice this evening! There are seven kids on her team (3 girls and 4 boys). She already knew both of the other girls as one goes to our church and the other was on her soccer team.

9. I am very thankful that the only time I take Nadia and Ian to the doctor is for their annual check-up each December. They had their appointments this afternoon. At Nadia's three year check-up, she weighed 34lbs (80th percentile) and was 36 inches tall (26th percentile). On October 12, 2012, she was 40lbs (75th percentile) and 40 inches tall (39th percentile), on November 8, 2014 she was 47 lbs (80th percentile) and 42.5 inches tall (30th percentile). Those three years they said something to me each time about Nadia's BMI, but in 2015 she didn't say anything because Nadia weighed 50 lbs (55th percentile) and her height at 46 inches was at the 45th percentile. Last year Nadia weighed in at 58 lbs (70th percentile) and was 1/4 inch shy of 4 ft tall (30th percentile). The doctor said she was just shy of being labeled overweight in terms of her BMI. Today she weighed 68 pounds (75th percentile) and her height was 51 inches (45th percentile). Although I think her BMI was actually very similar to what it was last year (today it was 82%), since it was technically in the correct range the pediatrician who saw her today

said it was good. 

Ian weighed 32 pounds in December 2012, 35 pounds in 2013, 39 pounds in 2014 (45th percentile), 41 pounds in 2015 (20th percentile), and 48 pounds today (25th percentile). He was 36 inches tall in 2012, 39 inches in 2013, 41 inches in 2014 (12th percentile), 44.5 inches in 2015 (30th percentile), and 46.5 inches today (25th percentile). Last year she wanted to see Ian gain more weight as his BMI was on the low side. Today the doctor didn't say anything like that because Ian's BMI is 50% since his height and weight are the same percentile. I still think Oliver might end up being the tallest of the three kids when they are full grown, and Ian might end up being the shortest. Time will tell! I decided to skip flu shots this year so it meant none of the kids had a shot today.  Last year Ian failed his vision screening. This year the nurse said he is 20/30 with his glasses on, and she said Nadia was 20/20.