Updates

The sleep (Ian) and potty training (Nadia) updates would be that yesterday Ian's naps were all 30  minutes long, but today one of his naps was one hour long albeit only 5 minutes of it overlapped with Nadia's nap because she woke up early because she had an accident in bed. Last night Ian woke up at 11:30, which was too soon so I let him cry. He only cried for about 10 minutes and then he didn't wake up again until 2:30. Since he was able to go 6 hours, I've decided to start stretching the length of the first segment. My rule the past four nights has been that he had to go at least 4 hours. Last night Paul put him down at 7pm, but then he woke up a little before 8pm when I got home from class. I nursed him and put him back down a little before 8:30pm. Paul gave him a bottle at 4:40 and then he slept from 5:30-7:15. So last night was a good night for Ian as he slept about 10 hours total (two more than usual)! The potty training update would be that over the past 7 days Nadia only had one accident (not counting the time spent in her crib) - that happened Thursday night when Paul was watching her. I was really pleased that she told Gabby she needed to pee and then used the potty this evening while Paul and I were on a date. The bad news would be that she hasn't pooped on the potty for quite a few days even though the first 9 days she was potty training she pooped on the potty every day. That is frustrating! Also, she only pees on the potty once a day. I'm hoping she'll start peeing on the potty more frequently. Wednesday and today she had #1 accidents in the crib during her nap, and on Thursday she had a #2 accident during her nap. So there is a lot of room for improvement with staying dry during her naps. We'll keep working on that. I'm not going to attempt working on staying dry overnight until she is using the potty a lot more regularly during the day.

Hairdos

I think little girls look so cute in pigtails. Yesterday was the first time I put Nadia's hair in pigtails because Paul doesn't like pigtails and also because Nadia takes out whatever I put in her hair. Today I tried barrettes, and she didn't leave those in very long either. I enjoy styling her hair, but unfortunately she hates having her hair combed, brushed, or styled in any way. I hope in the future she enjoys it more. She'd probably prefer if she didn't have any hair as she hates having it shampooed, brushed, etc. I'm trying to decide how I want to do it for her 2 year old pictures. Last night someone told me at the choir picnic that they asked her how old she was and she responded "one years old." I was amazed as she always tells me "three," LOL!

Would you believe Ian peed just as I was putting on a clean diaper again today? It hadn't happened in months, and now it's happened two days in a row. I guess I need to be more efficient! Nadia never used the potty yesterday, but aside from during her nap, she didn't have any accidents. She's never peed in the car or when we've been out and about aside from the one time at the playground. So for the first time I took her on an errand with only underwear on (usually I've been putting a pull-up on over the underwear). We went to the grocery store, and she stayed dry. I figured since she hadn't had any accidents in public or the car in 2 weeks it was a safe move. She did pee in the potty before her nap; so I am hoping she'll wake up dry today. It seems we're down to one diaper a day for Nadia - just at night! I plan to keep as little in her crib as possible during naps until she regularly stays dry during her naps. I predict doing a little more laundry than usual for awhile, but hopefully it won't take too long for her to be trained not to pee or poop during her nap. In light of the short nap yesterday, she slept in this morning. Ian had been up for two hours by the time she got up. It worked out rather nicely as she woke up right after I put him down for his first (30 minute) nap.

How Ironic!

Even though I got more sleep on Monday night than usual (in part because I let him cry once), I was still really tired yesterday, and I was fearful of experiencing deja vu in class last night. So I decided to take a nap - something I hadn't done in weeks, and I really wanted it to be longer than 30 minutes, which is how long Ian's naps have been almost all the time for the last couple of months. I called Gabby after I put him down, and asked if she could come over in 20 minutes and take care of Ian for about 30 minutes while Nadia and I napped. It seemed like a good plan, but somehow Ian figured out that there was a babysitter waiting downstairs. I slept for one hour, and so did he. I didn't need to pay a babysitter to take a nap after all, LOL! On Sunday he did have one nap that was one hour long (the nap he took before we went to church), but all of his naps on Monday were 30 minutes long. I thought the one hour nap on Sunday was a fluke. It turns out though that his naps are getting longer. YAHOO! He took another one hour nap yesterday afternoon (albeit that one was in Beth's arms), and today his first three naps were each 40-60 minutes long.

Last night Ian slept for four hours the first stretch, three hours the second, and one hour the third. He got his usual 8 hours of sleep. There wasn't any crying involved as I had decided his first stretch had to be at least 4 hours long and his second had to be at least 3 hours. Did he know that too, LOL? He was up from 12:15-1:45am.  Thankfully the second feeding was much shorter. I still felt very tired again today and was hoping to have another nap since I felt sooo much  better yesterday after that one hour nap. Ian cooperated, but unfortunately potty training interefered with my nap.

Nadia didn't have any accidents Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. You'd think I'd be thrilled, but during that time span she only used the potty twice. She just has amazing bladder control and has decided to only pee and poop when she's in her crib. Although I appreciated not cleaning up any messes, it seemed like a regression to me as the first nine days or so she pooped in the potty every day. Now she hasn't done so for several days. I know she CAN do it. She's choosing to go when she's in her crib instead. She even told me several times "Nadia pee pee in bed." It's very purposeful. I hadn't planned to work on naptime training yet, but it seems that if I want her to start using the potty during the day then I need to have her sleep without a pull-up or diaper. I decided last night that I would just start with her nap. I took all of the stuffed animals except for doggie out of the crib and also removed her sheet and blankets. I figured this way the only laundry I'd have to do would be her mattress cover and her underwear and clothes. Well one hour into her nap (and only 15 minutes after I had put Ian down) she was crying because she had an accident. I gave her a quick 30 second shower to clean her up and also as negative reinforcement since she doesn't like showers. She ate two popsicles this afternoon. I am really hoping she uses the bathroom before we head to church for the choir picnic. The picnic was supposed to be held outside at my choir director's house, but unfortunately it's cold and rainy today. It's supposed to be back up to 80 degrees tomorrow, but today isn't picnic weather At All. I'm hoping that tomrorow she'll choose to use the bathroom in the morning so that she can stay dry during her nap. I am thrilled that Ian's naps are getting longer!!!

I could have titled this post "Bodily Fluids Part 2" as this morning Nadia threw up (my least favorite thing to clean up) and then while Nadia was napping Ian peed all over the place while I was in the middle of changing his diaper. Ironically, I had just thought while changing his diaper this morning that this hadn't happened for a few months. I decided to give him a bath, and just as I was about to put him in the water, he peed again! This time he got the rug in the bathroom. So between Nadia's nap time accident and vomiting this morning and Ian's two incidents, I definitely needed to do a load of laundry today! I LOVE being a mom, but I'd really like to know where this image of mom's staying home eating bon bons came from. It's truly not a relaxing or glamorous experience to care for little ones all day long! I wouldn't trade it for the world. In fact even though I am still in the sleep deprived stage with Ian and the potty training stage with Nadia (neither are fun), I have to admit I am really struggling to accept the fact we're not going to do IVF again. I really want another baby.

ABD Celebration!

Paul had the oral part of his comprehensive exam yesterday from 1:00-2:30pm. In the words of his advisor he "passed with flying colors." YAY! The stress level in our house has gone WAY down. YAHOOO! This is a huge relief. Paul is now ABD (all but the dissertation), which means he can give more time and energy to his research. To celebrate we went to a local carnival last night. Nadia had fun playing on the playground and riding three amusement park rides. Nadia and I rode the carousel and shared a strawberry shake. She also enjoyed seeing lots of dogs participating in the pet parade. We gave Paul 2 gifts I had bought for him at CVS (50% off) on Saturday - NY Giant coasters and a NY Giant welcome mat for his office. I loved it when Paul told me that if he hadn't passed he would be comforted by that fact that the most important title in his life is Dad. Having kids is far more important than having a PhD.

Other updates would include that Nadia didn't have any accidents the last three days. Yesterday she peed in the potty once. Mostly she just holds it and uses her pull-up during her nap and her diaper at night. Ian has been getting progressively worse at night. Sunday night he woke up every hour the first few hours. I had decided that I would start letting him CIO if less than 4 hours had passed. He started out well as his first stretch was 5 hours long, but then after being up for 75 minutes he only slept one hour. I let him cry. I am not sure how long he cried as I fell back asleep. Thankfully his crying didn't wake Nadia. Because he went down later than usual (8:50pm), the 2:00-3:15 feeding proved to be his only one as the next time I got him it was 6:15am. If he goes down earlier I will feed him twice in the night, but that's the most I'm going to do. I'm  not feeding him 4-5 times a night any more. He's almost 6 months old. I'm looking forward to the day he starts sleeping 11-12 hours straight. The last update would be that as of yesterday morning he weighed 15lb 2oz, which puts him at the 15th percentile for weight -and that's not even using his adjusted age! I realized how big he is when I saw a 3 day old baby girl (a neighbor) on Sunday night. Even though Dee gave birth 11 days past her due date, Adelaide weighed 7 lbs at birth. Seeing that little newborn made Ian seem huge and made me want another baby.

New Experiences

I know some of these are very trivial, but here are a few "firsts" that have happened recently:

1. Ian wore a size 6-9 month outfit for the first time yesterday, and it fit! It's the outfit he's wearing in the photo below of him in the swing. Today he wore size 3-6 month pants for the first time (photo at left). They were too long, but fit otherwise. He is like his mom and sister - long torso and short legs.

2. Nadia wore a dress to church this morning, but this afternoon before she went to play in the sandbox I put shorts on her. It was the first time since we started potty training 12 days ago that she wore shorts. She's been wearing dresses every single day. She wore (see photo below with her holding Larry) an outfit I bought at a yard sale on Friday. She didn't really NEED any more short outfits for this summer, but I thought it was so pretty and for $1 each, I "splurged." These are from Gymboree - a store I have never bought one thing at. I find even their clearance prices to be more than I am willing to spend, but I am happy to buy Gymboree clothes for $1 at a yard sale (not that I really care what brand they are). As for the potty training, she didn't have any accidents today at home or at church BUT she also never went on the potty. She peed in her pull-up during her nap, and I'm very certain her diaper will be very wet in the morning. I have no idea how she can hold it so long. Friday and Saturday she peed once on the potty each day. She's not having a lot of accidents, but also not a lot of successes. You wouldn't believe it, but she's been drinking MORE water the last few days. Go figure.

3. Ian has now been fed baby cereal (oatmeal) three times, and I doubt any has actually gone down his throat. I've also fed him unsweetend applesauce twice, and very little of that went down his throat. He makes awful faces and gags. I probably will wait a bit before trying again since he wasn't even receptive to fruit. I think he's teething (bottom two front teeth) so I gave him Tylenol tonight to see if that will help him sleep better as he got up FOUR times last night (UGHHHH!). He does like the taste of Tylenol!

4. Ian has over the last several days had his first experience in what was Nadia's walker (of course his feet are no where near the floor so it's more like an exersaucer for him), and today I tried him the jump-up for the first time. He's not quite ready for that although he did enjoy it for a few minutes.

5. He is usually happy to sit in the highchair while I feed Nadia. I miss having Nadia in that highchair though. Even with the bib that catches a lot of food more gets on her clothing since there is a gap between the bib and the kitchen table now that I have her sitting in the chair that hooks on to the kitchen table. She is getting better at feeding herself, but it's still a messy affair especially when she's feeding herself something like applesauce or yogurt.

6. Nadia wore (child size) high heels for the first time this weekend. What fun! See the pic in yesterday's post of her by the window wearing one of them.

7.. Nadia wore a size 3T dress for the first time, but I don't actually think it's size 3T even though that's what the label says. (Jen - you gave us this as you didn't want to wait SO long for Holly to grow into it, but I think it might fit Holly now so I'd be happy to give it back to you!) I think it's actually at most size 18 months as it came no where near her knee and size 2T dresses fit her just fine. She's wearing size 5T for the first time, but these were from the yard sale that Beth shopped at. They are used pjs, and I noticed that the only difference between 2T and 5T is that the tops are longer in size 5T. Go figure.

Shopping Adventures

The first four months I almost always only went shopping when Paul was home. I'd leave Ian at home, take Nadia with me, and stay out for at most an hour since Ian was nursing very frequently. The last two months I have been taking both children with me and carrying Ian in the Snugli while Nadia is in the cart. Here are some lessons I've learned recently:

1. Target and Walmart do have some carts that accomodate up to 3 children. This will be very useful once Ian becomes too uncomfortable to wear in the front position of the Snugli. I'm probably going to have to drive farther to a bigger grocery store as the one I go to doesn't have anything to hold even 2 children. If it's nap time I have him facing me and he falls asleep, and if not, I have him facing outward and as long as the trip isn't too long, he is content.

2. Although it's possible to take them both to the mall (wearing Ian in the Snugli and putting Nadia in one of Sears' shopping carts), it's probably best to pay a babysitter and go by myself. I had planned to get a haircut, get free ice cream, and do some shopping during Nadia's nap today. Since Paul went to PSU, I altered my plans and left the house at 9:30 this morning with both children. I was planning only to do some shopping. It went well for about one hour. We left the mall a little before 11am. I thought that was a safe time to leave since the earliest I put Nadia down for her nap is 11:30, and usually she doesn't go down before noon. I was wrong. She fell asleep. When we got home I woke her up (because I didn't think that would end up being her nap) and fed her lunch. I put her down a little after 12:00pm, and she played happily in her crib for 90 minutes. She didn't sleep At All, which is not good! Her average nap is 2 hours with the length usually ranging from 1.5-3.0 hours long. She stayed dry during our trip and peed on the potty when we got back - YAY, but then she pooped in her crib during her "nap time." It was the first time that happened since we started potty training (in March or this time around).

3. It's definitely better to only take Ian with me if I am shopping somewhere where there aren't any carts involved such as at a greenhouse or a yard sale.

Count Your Blessings

Last night my spirits were very low. First of all, the exhaustion has really been getting to me lately. I've been averaging 6-7 hours of sleep lately, which is better than the 4 hours I averaged a night the first few months, but still isn't enough for me. I function best when I get 9 hours. My preferred schedule would be to go to bed at 9pm and get up at 6am. Wednesday night (as an example - this is fairly typical) I slept from 9:30-11:15, 11:45-2:45am, and 3:30-5:00am. I should say I was in bed during those time spans as unfortunately it takes me awhile to get back to sleep after nursing Ian. I rarely fall back to sleep super quickly. This morning I put him down after the second feeding at 4:45am and he woke up at 5:30 for the day so that means my third stretch this morning was less than 30 minutes as it took me more than 15 minutes to fall back asleep. The exhaustion causes me in the morning to have a headache, feel rather weepy, sick to my stomach, etc. Usually I feel better within a few hours, but yesterday even while teaching my class I had to work to stay awake. You know you are tired when you could fall asleep standing up while teaching! Usually teaching invigorates me. Not last night. I just wanted to fall asleep ever so badly.

On top of the exhaustion I found out yesterday that my friend forgot about our plans to go to a concert tonight (so I'm not going as I don't like going alone), and Paul told me that he is going to stay in his office (at PSU) on Saturday and Sunday (even spend the night there) to prepare for his orals, which are on Monday. I had told him earlier of my plans to go to the mall on Saturday during the kids' naps so I could get a haircut (haven't  had one in 5 months), pick up the pictures from Sears, and get a free ice cream from Friendly's (if you live near a Friendly's you can get free ice cream between 12-5pm tomorrow). I was really bummed that I wouldn't be able to do these things plus Paul wouldn't be coming to church on Sunday for the annual "Choir Sunday." Choir Sunday at this church is the last Sunday the choir sings before taking the summer off, and we sing four anthems whereas normally we just sing one each week. I think you get the idea. I will end this littany or the post will need to be retitled "counting my woes", LOL. Well when you are feeling down one of the best things to do is count your blessings. So here goes!

1. Nadia peed on the potty this morning! She hadn't done that since Sunday morning, so this was big news! She told me in enough time that I was able to get her on before she started peeing. She also stayed dry during her nap yesterday and when we went shopping at the grocery store and Amish greenhouse today! She pooped on the potty this afternoon, and then had a #1 accident at the park this evening.

2. Ian now weighs 14lbs 12oz! He's been gaining 1 ounce a day lately. His growth spurt is over, but he's still gaining at an appropriate pace. He's up to the 11th percentile for weight!

3. He gives zero resistance to nursing. In fact he gives me big smiles and sometimes even squeals with delight. What a relief!!! In most ways I'll be thrilled if he takes after his big sister, but in this regard I am very glad his preference is different than hers.

4. I was able to shop at a great yard sale today with only Ian in the Snugli since it was at a neighbor's house and Nadia was napping. I spent $24.50, and most of the items were $1. She has a 4 year old daughter and 13 month old son. I didn't buy many things for Ian, but I bet I will buy more for him at her yard sale next year. Most everything I bought was size 2T or 3T for Nadia. I also got her 3 pairs of shoes - a pair of size 6.5 black patent shoes and two pairs of cute size 8 sandals for next summer.

5. I got a few things done the past few days that were long overdue - a little dusting, a little vacuuming, and buying & planting a few flowers. I would have bought more if the kids weren't with me. It was very hard to shop for flowers with 2 under 2 and no shopping cart. I should have brought a stroller!

6. Ian and Nadia bring joy to my heart every single day!!

7. My mom is coming up for a short visit. She'll arrive late afternoon tomorrow and leave right after church Sunday morning.

Let there be shade!

My parents got me an umbrella and stand for our patio for my birthday. The stand arrived on Tuesday, and the umbrella arrived today. I am looking forward to being able to sit in the shade when it's really hot like it has been lately. It's felt like July or August not May or early June! It also will be perfect for keeping Ian in the shade. It's one of those things I hadn't thought we needed, but now I am very grateful we have.

We spent some time outside this morning and unfortunately that is when Nadia had her first #2 accident since we started potty training 9 days ago. Yuck! My hat is off to those of you who use cloth diapers. I had toyed with them for both Ian and Nadia so as to decrease the amount of diapers we are sending to the landfills, but the cost of G-diapers was unappealing, and the thought of cleaning poopy diapers if we went a cheaper route in terms of cloth diapers was also unappealing. I had said to myself a couple of months ago that if by some miracle we have a third child, I would use cloth diapers for that child (even though really if you're going to use them you should use them with all your children to make it cost effective), but after cleaning just one poopy pair of underwear, I am not sure I would be up for doing that daily for 2 years. Well the good news (in terms of the landfills anyhow) is that it's extremely unlikely that we'll have a third child.

She had one #1 accident this morning, and I was super frustrated because she was standing right next to the potty when it happened. I got her on the potty for the last little bit, but most of it was on the floor and on top of the puzzle she had been doing right before she stood up and peed. I gave her a shower after the #2 accident. She hates showers so I thought that might be a good incentive to not do that again. Obviously she's capable of pooping on the potty as she did so the last 8 days in a row. I know I've said it before, but I do not like potty training!!! I added pictures to yesterday's post to show that Nadia seems to be ambidextrous (at least for now). You can see from the photos that she uses either hand when feeding herself with a fork or spoon.

Bodily Fluids

Parenting involves dealing with a lot of bodily fluids, especially when your children are young. In the first few months of motherhood, one is likely to be peed on, pooped on, and spit up on. Nadia didn't spit up much At All, but Ian has more than made up for that. He has been doing better with that for the most part, but we are still getting A Lot of use out of the cloth diapers I was given for Nadia that we use as burp cloths. Usually he doesn't spit up during the night, but last night was a huge exception. During the 1:00 AM feeding, he spit up so much that I had to change his pjs (his right sleeve was totally soaked and in fact dripping it was so wet), my pjs (including my underwear!), and I threw the boppy cover in the washing machine this morning as even 6 hours later it was still wet. Oi vey! I was sad when it happened because it was my milk ("liquid gold" as the lactation folks call it) that he spewed up all over the place. I wish he had kept more of it down. Once potty training is over for Nadia, I want to have the family room carpet shampooed because between Ian's spit ups and Nadia's accidents, it's had a lot of bodily fluids on it the past few months.

One becomes increasingly aware of bodily fluids during potty training time. The update with that would be that things are about the same. She continues to use the potty for #2, but she's not doing well with #1. The last time she peed in a potty was Sunday morning before we went to church. She had one accident Sunday evening and two each day on Monday and Tuesday. She didn't have any accidents this morningm BUT she also didn't use the potty at all. She has amazing bladder control. She was up for over 6 hours before I put her down for her nap and she didn't pee or poop during that time frame. She drank milk, ate a banana (high water content), etc. I would never be able to go that long without going! I tried to get her to go before we went shopping this morning, but I finally gave up and put a pull-up on over her underwear, but she managed to keep both dry during the about 90 minutes we were gone. During the past week the most diapers/pull-ups she's used in a day has been 2. Some days she's only used one. One time she kept her diaper dry all night. The other 6 days that didn't happen at night. She's kept her pull-up dry during her nap a few times. The past few days she has had two #1 accidents a day, pooped in the potty, and peed during her nap and at night. She didn't have an accident from 3-6pm while Beth was babysitting her. It was nice that she saved her accident for Daddy when he got home, lol. I think part of the problem is that she's not drinking enough, but honestly even back in March when I pumped her with tons of fluids (including many popsicles), she still was able to hold it for many hours. I welcome any advice regarding getting her to drink water (I have limited her milk consumption to meal times only in the hopes that at the other times of the day she'll drink water) and how to get her to pee on the potty. She had zero accidents on Saturday so I know she CAN pee on the potty. This afternoon she pooped on the potty and peed in her swimming pool. She yelled "pee hurry," and I did hurry, but she was mostly done by the time I got her on the potty. I was nursing Ian at the time. Potty training is just not fun, but she's made enough progress that we're not turning back. At least I haven't had to clean any accidents today.

The increase in attention to bodily fluids isn't limited to those of your kids. Although the heartburn went away following the removal of the placenta in January (YAY!), I still have some "stress incontinence" when I sneeze. Not all the time like when I was pregnant with Ian, but it's still annoying, and my guess is that at this point it's going to be a lifelong condition. Bummer. In general I haven't had trouble with leaking and blocked ducts and such lately, but last night was an exception and was likely the reason Ian spewed up all over the place. Last week I didn't take the pump to work like I did every day I went to school during the spring semester. However he was awake when I got home or woke up after I got home and so I nursed him before I went to bed. That didn't happen yesterday. The previous two nights had woke up within an hour of being put down, so I didn't pump when I got home because I thought he'd be waking up soon. He didn't. Instead about 10.5 hours passed in between times when I had nursed him. Not Good. I didn't get much sleep and was grateful when he woke up as I was in pain and leaking all over the place. Had I known he would sleep until 1am, I would have pumped at 8pm. If he's in bed when I get home from class tomorrow, I will definitely pump. I don't like to pump, but I don't like being in pain and leaking so much either.

Another thing that moms tend to focus on is sleeping habits. When Nadia was 6 months old she was getting about 15 hours of sleep a day - 12 at night and four 45 minute naps during the day. Right now Ian is averaging 9 hours at night and four 30  minute naps during the day, which is 4 hours less of sleep a day compared to what Nadia got at this stage. Ian did have one really long nap today. I can't remember the last time he had a nap that exceeded one hour long. He fell asleep in Walmart around 10am (nap #2 since he started his day at 5:15 this morning) and stayed asleep when I transferred him to the carseat at 10:45 and continued to sleep in our garage (with the car door beside him open as well as the door into the house open so I could hear him) until 11:40. He slept for 100 minutes straight! Wow! I think that's his longest nap EVER. Now had that happened for nap #3 (during Nadia's nap) I could have gotten a lot done! I am grateful though that nap #3 was 45 minutes long. Naps 1 and 3 were the typical 30 minutes, but the other two give me hope of longer naps becoming the norm in the future.

Again!

There are certain words and phrases that Nadia says the most frequently. One of her favorites right now is "have it,"which she says when she wants something and of course this includes any toy that I give Ian to play with -immediately it becomes the toy she most wants to play with. She also has started using the word "too" a lot. For example if I am eating corn she'll say "Nadia eat corn too." At the table the words I hear the most are "Nadia do it" (and she is getting better at using a fork or spoon and drinking from a glass) and "more." Another expression she says quite a bit lately is "I'm coming." She still hasn't started using the word "with" so some of her sentences are funny such as "color Mommy" which means she wants me to color with her. A word she has gotten a lot of use out of the past few months is "again." Anyone who swings her (or any other sort of rough house) will be sure to hear the word. She always says it at bedtime after I pray. I don't think it's a stalling technique. I think she finds it humorous that I have my eyes closed.The time when it is music to my ears is when she says it after I finish reading a book. No, it isn't because I like reading the same book over and over again -because I don't. It's because I love that she's loving books again. There was a time period where her attention span for books was very minimal. Thankfully that isn't the case right now. Her favorite books the last few days have been the Curious George books that we own. I am glad we have more than one because I'll read a book two or three times in a row and then when she says "again" I can just switch to a different Curious George book, and she's fine with that. We need to get more Dinosaur booksby Yolen and Teague because we only have one. I think Paul and I both are close to having that one memorized, LOL. She refers to that book as "Dinosaur get well soon" which I think is pretty good for 23 months old!

I've been working on teaching her to say her last name. She is doing pretty well. If I ask her what her brother's name is sometimes she says "Ian Kennedy." I'm not making any progress with getting her to say "two" when I ask her how old she is. She says "three" and laughs. She definitely has a sense of humor!

Ian's third nap (which is the one that overlaps with Nadia's only nap) was 40 minutes long today. WOOHOO! The first two were the typical 30 minutes. I can't tell you how much I appreciated those few extra minutes. Nadia's nap was 15 minutes shy of 3 hours long. Much better than yesterday's, which was less than 1 hour long. I was thinking today that one of my other priorities has been not letting the place get too cluttered. I can't stand clutter. I do spend time almost every day keeping that under control. Sometimes I start creating a pile in Paul's office so that it's out of my sight, but today I worked on that pile some.

Paul turned in the written portion of his comprehensive exam to his dissertation committee yesterday. He practiced the oral portion with his advisor today. Next Monday at 1pm he has his oral exam and then hopefully he'll be ABD (all but the dissertation). PTL! This has been a huge stress (and time commitment) for him so I can't wait until June 7th is behind us!!!