29 Months Old!

Can you believe in one month Nadia will be 2 1/2 years old? At least she's not already 4 years old like she says she is if you ask her how old she is. Actually she's getting better and sometimes does answer that question correctly, but it just so happens that four has been her favorite number the past 5 months. If you ask her how many pretzels she wants, she'll also say four.  As I found out on Sunday that yet another size 2T dress is now too short on her, I guess my girl is growing up and moving into size 3T.

Although Nadia often has to be reminded to say "please" when she's requesting something, she does a great job at remembering to say "bank you." In fact of her own initiative she usually is very specific in saying "thank you for xyz". It's rather comical at times how she ends that phrase. For example as we were leaving the grocery store a few days ago she said to the cashier "thank you for paying." Cracked me up! Technically I was the one who did the paying, but still I thought it was sweet (and cute). She says many other polite greetings to people (on her own initiative) such as "have a nice weekend." She makes me laugh so many times a day. For example this evening when I was telling her (by name) who we would be eating with tomorrow (Paul's family), she said "Oh my goodness that's a lot of people."

Some of her current favorite books include: We're going on a bear hunt, any Clifford book, The velveteen rabbit, The mitten, Have you got my purr?, Are you my mother?, The little engine that could, and The story of Thomas Jefferson. I knew she had a few books memorized. It turns out she has a LOT of books memorized. I can stop at any point, and she'll say the next few words. I haven't counted, but I'd say this is true for at least 30 books. She has a very strong auditory memory! Similarly, she can usually tell me what song is next on a CD before the next song starts. In January I'm going to start having her memorize a Bible verse each week.

Today I'm thankful that...

1. Nadia can go such long periods without going to the bathroom. I never went through the phase of needing to know where all toilets are (in stores), and she's never asked us to stop when we've been on a road trip. I'm very grateful she's potty trained!

2. I'm done planning for our vacation. Today I finalized our plans for the day we're at Cozumel and booked our hotel for New Orleans. I used the "name your price" feature on Priceline and got a really good deal!

3. Paul came home early today (4pm), and he'll be home the next four days. YAHOO! I'm also thankful that today he finished assembling a shelving unit for me in the basement. I bought three with some of my Amazon credit.

4. music is such a blessing in my life. I love singing in my church choir, listening to the radio, and singing with Nadia. Yesterday I bawled my eyes out while listening to this video. The "Hallelujah Chorus" often brings me to tears, and I was really touched to see it sung by so many in a public place. I am sure not everyone who was singing actually believed the words they were saying, but nonetheless it was such a great reminder of the freedoms we enjoy in this country and a wonderful way to bring glory to the Lord.

Go to the Doctor

For the past month Nadia has often told me that she needs to go to the doctor. I honestly have no idea where she got this from because I think it's been over a year since she had a sick visit to the doctor. Thankfully both children have almost exclusively (with the exception of Ian's urological birth defect) gone to the doctor for well visits. It started almost exactly a month ago when we were in Maryland. She definitely was sick then - the thermometer confirmed it. Since then she often will make some random complaint (such as my bellybutton hurts) and then say either "I need medicine" or "I need to go to the doctor." I guess I should be glad that she has no aversion to going to the doctor's office even though most of the times that she's gone she's received one or more injections.

Today after she had finished her lunch she told me she needed to go to the doctor because something was stuck in her teeth. That was a new one. I told her she could drink some milk, and we could go brush her teeth and that should solve the problem. I was in the middle of emptying the dishwasher so I didn't rush over to get her out of her highchair as I didn't think there was an urgent problem. I was wrong. She had eaten a ham and cheese Hot Pocket for lunch as well as some fruit snacks. Evidently one of the fruit snacks must have been stuck in her mouth somewhere in such a way that it got her gag reflex going. She's usually very good about running to the bathroom and throwing up in the potty, but she was trapped in her high chair. I won't give you all the gory details, but suffice it to say I had a gargantuan mess to clean up and needed to do a load of laundry. The next time she tells me something is stuck in her teeth, I will be running to her aid. I also am not inclined to give her any fruit snacks to eat in the near future.

Today I'm thankful that....

1. most nights both children now sleep 10-11 hours straight. Neither one slept through the night last night, but thankfully the norm is for Ian to sleep from about 7pm to 6am and Nadia to sleep from about 8pm to 6am.

2. the kids are starting to play together more. They have a lot to learn in terms of sharing and such, but I love it when they enjoy each other's company. For whatever reason Nadia has been calling him "little boy" today instead of Ian. She actually woke up before him this morning (it's usually the other way around), and so she went with me to get him from his crib and said "Hi, little boy" which cracked me up!

3. I reduced the size of my friends list on Facebook. I'm glad I didn't need to give it up altogether, and I'm grateful that now it's not consuming as much of my time each day.

4. I have a cell phone, which enables me to talk to my mom and mother-in-law on an almost daily basis.

5. we're going on our first cruise in January! I'm really looking forward to the trip, especially since a highlight of our vacations the past 9+ years has been having lots of time with Paul, and that didn't happen in Florida in May because Paul was studying most of the time for his comprehensive exams. This trip should be a true vacation for all 6 of us. YAHOO!

6. I can communicate with people via the Internet. In a typical week there are three people (not including Nadia and Ian) whom I talk with - Paul, his mom, and my mom (the next on that list would be my dad and Paul's dad). Because I don't have friends to chat with or much of a social life aside from a monthly date with my hubby, the comments I get on my blog and through Facebook mean a lot to me.

Ironic

Here are four things that have struck me as ironic lately...

As I had mentioned earlier, I went through the basement on Thursday and filled several bags and boxes of items to donate at a thrift store yesterday - mostly the kids' clothing. Yesterday morning I had a panic attack about giving away those clothes. My plan had been to go through the clothes in the basement one more time to see if there was more we'd take to donate, but instead I brought all the bags and boxes in from the garage and went back through everything and ended up taking some of the clothes back down to the basement. The reason I find this ironic is that I am by nature absolutely not a packrat. Paul has for more than 10 years called me "the chucker" (although that's been Ian's nickname over the past 11 months) because I am far more inclined to throw away, give away, or sell stuff than he is. I will sell some stuff (eBay, Craigslist, and probably a yard sale next summer), but I'm afraid my inclination is going to be to keep far too much of it. Holding all that newborn clothing was hard for me. I am not going to sort through the clothes again for awhile as it intensified my desire to do ivf again.

Ian normally doesn't nap well. For example yesterday his first nap was 20 minutes long and his second nap was 25 minutes long. For about 2 years Nadia's naps have totalled 2-3 hours a day (this was true both when she had 2 naps a day and also since she's been on a 1 nap a day schedule). Even though Nadia was the better napper, I didn't have so much trouble with her sleeping too much at church. The last two Sundays I kept Ian up until we left for church, and both days he fell asleep on the way to church and then slept on me during Sunday School. Both Sundays when I took him to the nursery for the church service I told the nursery workers that he had JUST woken up from a nap and to please keep him awake during church (which lasts about 90 minutes). I feel like I must be speaking in some foreign language when I talk to nursery volunteers because they always let him sleep. When I came to pick him up at 11:45 he was asleep in someone's arms. I asked how he did and was told, he did great - he ate and slept the whole time. Sigh. This means my little boy will need to stay awake from 11:45am-7:15pm (his usual bedtime although last night he was up until 8pm). If I thought he'd be quiet during church, I'd keep him with me, but he'd babble too much. It's just ironic to me that my boy who usually doesn't nap very much naps too much at church - mostly because he likes to sleep in someone's arms.

I've mentioned that Paul has never had a child with him in the bathroom while he was doing anything - showering, brushing his teeth, etc. I rarely do anything in the bathroom by myself. This morning after I got both kids dressed for church, Paul watched Ian while I got a shower. Nadia was playing in our bedroom. She likes to do things like try on my shoes. While I was brushing my teeth, Paul came in and said, "Do you want to change Ian's diaper?" I didn't respond, but I did go change Ian's messy diaper - not because I wanted to but because it doesn't bother me to do so like it does Paul. What I wanted to do was finish brushing my teeth and blowdrying my hair because stopping what I was doing to change Ian's diaper was part of the reason I was 5 minutes late for Sunday School this morning. I guess there is a double standard when it comes to childcare responsibilities while one is trying to accomplish personal hygeine tasks.

Yesterday Paul assembled a bookshelf for me. When I was single the first piece of good furniture I bought (aka not something made of particle board) was a nice tall bookshelf. That held my books while I was single and the first few years we were married. In 2005 we bought Paul four large bookcases. His books had been stored in boxes prior to that. These new bookcases plus my bookshelf housed both of our books plus some games. When we moved in 2008 I filled the bookshelf that had been mine with children's books, and Paul filled the four bookcases with his books and notebooks. My books have been stored in a closet, on top of toilets, etc. I haven't had a bookshelf the past 2 years. As I started bringing books from my office home, I asked Paul if I could use one shelf on one of his four bookcases for my books. I admit I was a bit miffed when Paul said no because I thought I wasn't asking very much, but he suggested I buy another bookcase. I am glad he suggested that because it does feel nice to have a bookshelf just for my books. I bought a very small one for our bedroom. The reason I find this ironic is I ordered it on Amazon and used some of my credit from sending them books. It just cracked me up a bit that I used money from selling books to buy a shelf to store books.

Since this week is when we will celebrate Thanksgiving, I have decided to end every post this week with a brief list of some things I am grateful for.

1. We had dinner at Jenn, Dave, Holly, and Henry's house last night. Henry is 5, and Holly is 1. We had a really nice time visiting with them.

2. I'm really thankful that Paul took the day off of school last Tuesday to go with me to Ian's appointmemt.

3. Ian didn't wake up until 6:30 today. It's an extremely rare treat for me to be in bed past 6am.

4. It was a treat to have Ian take a nap on me during Sunday School. There's nothing quite like that.

Sorting and Schedules

Organizing the basement has been on my to do list for a few months. Thursday I sorted through the kids' clothing for the first time. It was a major project as thus far I hadn't sold or donated any of their clothing (about 3.5 years worth of clothing if you combine their ages). Although we're taking quite a bit to the thrift store today (en route to getting Paul's picture taken to renew his driver's license and having dinner with friends), there are still many boxes of their clothing in our basement. It's hard for me to part with their clothing. I kept reminding myself that I have lots of pictures of them in these outfits. I found it easiest to part with their pajamas and play clothing although I did keep some play clothing, particularly those made of denim. I probably could have continued storing what I set aside to donate and sold it at a yard sale instead. I've never had a yard sale before, but I should probably have one next summer. I also could have taken them to a consignment shop, but I opted to just donate them. It seemed like too much hassle, and I know this thrift store is a worthwhile charity. I'll have to do another sort, as I have saved far too much, but it was emotionally hard for me to part with any of their clothing so I view this is a baby step in the right direction (away from babies ironically). I do plan to sell some items on eBay, and I also plan on keeping some things either for Nadia to use for dressing her dolls OR for our future grandchildren to wear some day. I'd like to pass on some baby clothing to Nadia and/or Ian if they become parents some day 20+ years from now. I have to say while I was sorting through their clothing I was wishing I only wanted two children. I can't change my desire for another baby, but I can keep reminding myself to be very grateful for the two I do have. I may not have four like I dreamed of having for more than 2 decades, but two is far better than none. Speaking of having more babies, I found out this week that my sister, Yvonne, is pregnant with her fifth. In a few months my parents will have ten grandchildren under the age of nine! I'm not sure when we'll all get together again (they live in Turkey), but when we do I pity the poor photographer who tries to get 10 children to smile at the same time for a family photo, lol. There were 8 children in our last family photo, as I was pregnant with Ian at the time.

This week I've also been working on our spring schedule as well as planning our excursions for our cruise. In terms of our spring schedule I've decided that on Tuesday mornings we'll go to ladies Bible study at my former church. I figure Ian can nap on the way there. Wednesday mornings I'll take the kids to Lewisburg's preschool library time at 10:00 and gymnastics at 10:45, and Friday mornings I'll take the kids to our town's preshool library time. Lewisburg's program is technically for ages 3-5, but their toddler program is on Tuesdays when we'll be in Danville. If it doesn't work out, we'll just do gymanstics on Wednesdays. I explored many options such as Mommy & Me dance class before deciding to do another session of gymnastics. There are going to be many more options for Nadia once she turns three. I definitely am going to have her do a session of Baby Ballet once she turns 3. I figure while she's young I'll have her try a variety of things and then when she's older she can stick with the one she enjoys the most. Others I plan on having her try at some point are swimming lessons and Little Grapplers (a martial arts program for ages 3-5). I'm also planning on having her join an AWANA club next fall to do the Cubbies program. Our church has that, but there's another church about a mile from our house that has it also so I'll probably have her go there on Wednesday nights instead of doing it on Tuesday nights at our church. My girl is a social butterfly so I want to give her lots of opportunities to be with other kids, especially since I am planning on homeschooling her.

As for planning our vacation, usually I put a LOT of time into researching and planning for our vacations. I actually enjoy the planning almost as much as actually going. This time around I am finding it impossible to be as thorough in my research as I was with our previous trips. I should mention that I didn't need to do much planning for our trip to Florida this year since we were visiting my Aunt Janet. A few days ago I booked our excursion for Roatan, Hondurus. I picked a tour that included snorkeling (from a catamaran) as well as a trip to Gumbalimba Park, which has monkeys, parrots, etc. I thought Paul and I would enjoy the snorkeling, and the kids would enjoy seeing the animals. Last night I selected a tour to Chacchoben (Mayan ruins) for our Costa Maya stop. The Roatan tour I booked through the cruise, but the Chacchoben tour I booked through another site that had high reviews and was much cheaper. This weekend I'm planning on booking our Belize tour through Norwegian and finding a cheaper snorkeling tour for Cozumel. Our luggage tags came in the mail this week from Norwegian!

Dr. Canning

Ian's appointment with Dr. Canning has been set for January 4. Dr. Canning is a professor and only sees patients 3 days a month. We were going to see him in King of Prussia, but he only goes there one Saturday a month, and the Saturday he'll be there in January is during our cruise. Instead of waiting until February, I opted to go to the main hospital (in Philadelphia) so we could keep on schedule. Since the visit will again be very short, I'm thinking we'll do something fun like visit the Please Touch Museum or Philadelphia Zoo to make our 6+ hour road trip (RT) seem more worthwile.

 Ian woke up about 5:55am the last two days. Way to go, Ian! Yesterday he also did better with his naps as his morning nap was 1 hour long and his afternoon nap was 50 minutes long. Today didn't go as well in the nap department as his morning nap was 40 minutes and his afternoon nap was 20 minutes long. He was really fussy this afternoon due to the really short nap.

Urologist #2

I thank each of you who prayed for us today. #1 Ian's reports were faxed to his new doctor on time, and #2 the kids did pretty well during our long road trip. The only time Nadia cried was when I turned off the DVD around 12:15 and insisted she take a nap. She had a VeggieTale marathon, lol. Ian did very well on the way down. He played happily, slept, played happily, and slept some more. He played for awhile on the way back, slept, and then cried for the last part of the trip. We left at 10:30 and got home at 6:30. We were at the doctor's office for about 30 minutes. If we hadn't made any stops, the trip would have taken 2hr 45 min. We stopped for gas and for lunch at Wendy's on the way down. On the way back we had dinner at Denny's as I didn't want to eat fast food twice in one day. I kept Ian up until 8:15pm to try to compensate for the fact that he had 4 naps today. Hopefully he'll sleep until at least 5:45am.

The best news was from the urologist who said that #1 Ian's first surgery was done well, #2 Ian is healing well and most of the skin that was left hanging off will be usable in the next surgery (if there's not enough they will use skin from his mouth for the reconstruction of his urethra), and #3 Ian's urethra is not as bad as the first doctor said it was. He said the size of Ian's urethra is completely normal (which is quite different from what the first doctor said) and that even if there was a problem with the native urethra, it can be fixed (which the first surgeon said was impossible). What a relief!!! He said that he would expect to use a size 6 catheter on a baby Ian's age (whereas the first surgeon said that size is only used for newborn babies). The surgeon we saw today said that robotics is his specialty. He took pictures of Ian to show his colleague whose specialty is reconstruction. He said that patients from all around the world come to see his colleague for reconstructions -especially if their first surgery wasn't done properly. He said Ian's first surgery was done properly but that still it would be best if this other surgeon did his next surgery. He thinks it should take place in February and that there is only a 5% chance that a third surgery will be needed. Today we went to Exton. He said the next appointment would be in King of Prussia in a month or two and that the surgery would be done in Philadelphia in three months. I'm not looking forward to making the trip two more times, but it's worth it so that Ian can see one of the very best pediatric urologists.

Time

Nadia's understanding of various concepts related to time has dramatically increased lately. She's very focused on what the schedule is for the day. I think she's going to take after her Mommy in that regard as schedules and calendars and to do lists are not Paul's style. She's always asking me who is coming over, etc. Although the kids are now being watched in our house again, she still asks "who's going to come get me?" Today she kept saying that Beth was going to come over after her nap, and then "Daddy will come get me," which means Daddy is the one coming home first. He'll get home at 5pm whereas I won't get home until about 8:30pm tonight. She always wants to know what's happening next.

She also asks many times a day "what time is it?" meaning what should we be doing right now. This morning she insisted it was time to go to the park, and had the weather been as nice as it was lately, I would have taken them there. I opted instead to take them to the basement for the first time. I brought in the little slide from the patio and also brought down her scooter and tricycle. I want to organize the basement more so there is more room for her to ride around during the winter months. The hard part of that organization will be deciding what to do with all the baby stuff. Ugh. I wish I didn't need to deal with that stuff yet, but I think honestly it would be hard no matter when I did it, and it probably would be hard even if we did have another baby. I am guessing that for many women that whenever they stop having kids there is a bit of grieving involved.

Two of Nadia's favorite time related words are "later" and "morrow" (tomorrow). If I suggest something and she doesn't want to do it right then, she'll say "I'll do it later" or "I'll do it morrow." I was chuckling as I was thinking about this yesterday in Sunday School as our lesson for the day was on procrastination (by Dr. David Jeremiah). Procrastination can be learned at a very young age!

Time won't possibly go fast enough for the four of us tomorrow. Neither child does that well with long road trips. Usually one or both of them throw up. I am planning on bringing extra outfits for both of them as tomorrow they will both be in the car more hours in one day than ever before. The doctor we are taking Ian to see tomorrow is almost 3 hours away from our home (one way). Tomorrow I don't care how many DVD's Nadia watches in the car if it will keep her from throwing up. I figure there's no good scenario for Ian. Either he'll sleep in the car, which will make the ride more pleasant but then he likely won't sleep well tomorrow night, or he'll be miserable in the car and it won't interfere with his sleeping at night. He only slept 9-10 hours on Friday night and Saturday night, but last night he was 15 minutes shy of 11 hours (7pm to 5:45am). Nadia still hasn't fully adjusted since the time change. Her naps have (most days) been a lot shorter than usual, and she's also getting up a bit earlier than before in the mornings. I would love to see us do away with DST.

Today I stopped at the hospital where his first surgery was done because his records hadn't been sent yet. The medical record office said that the urology office goofed this up. I am praying that they will fax them to the doctor in Exton before our 2pm appointment. I also hope that we don't have to go out there again until the day of Ian's next surgery. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day! I am grateful though that the 2nd best Pediatric Urologists are only 3 hours away from us. #1 is in Boston, and #3 is in Indianapolis. I am glad we only need to go to Philadelphia.

11 Months Old!

My baby boy is almost one year old. I am feeling rather emotional about that. I think it's harder this time around because before Nadia turned 11 months old I knew I was pregnant again. One of my students gave birth recently to her third child, and when I saw the picture of her 3 week old son last night the ache for another baby was very strong. Here are 11 facts about my sweet little 11 month old:

1. He now weighs 20.75 lbs, which puts him at the 29th percentile. I assumed he was over 21 lbs by now, but he only gained 1/3 lb over the past month.

2. He's gone from being scared of animal sounds two months ago to finding them to be very funny.

3. Boisterous is a very good word to describe him. No matter what he's doing, he does it with great vim and vigor!

4. He still won't eat truly solid food or even baby cereal, but he's doing a LOT better with stage one or two fruits and veggies. His favorites are apricots, peaches, squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes. The apples and strawberries I've been feeding him the last couple of days cause him to make a really funny face. You'd think they were sour, lol!

5. He LOVES to stand. He can now pull himself up from a sitting to a standing position while holding onto the walk and ride lion. He's also cruising along the windowsill and the music table.

6. He often goes down on his belly when I sit him on the floor. He can travel quite a distance scooting on his belly, particularly on the wood floor, although he doesn't go forward that much (mostly backwards or in circles). I really want him to crawl before he walks. We shall see if that happens.

7. He still nurses once a day. This week we've started mixing a little 2% milk into his bottles. I did the same with Nadia in the weeks leading up to her birthday so it was a gradual transition from formula to 2% milk. His bottles are quite the concoction right now since we still add baby cereal (rice or oatmeal) to his bottles as well. Over the next month I want to work on transitioning from a bottle to a sippy cup. Hopefully it will be easier for him than it was for Nadia.

8. He loves mirrors, balls, and wheels. These three give him great delight along with random things like an empty Kleenex box, lol.

9. He doesn't always object, but sometimes he does cry when Nadia takes away what he's holding. Previously he made no objections although I always said something to her when I saw her do this. Sharing doesn't come naturally!

10. He's doing much better sleeping at night. Wednesday night he slept from 7:45pm-6:30am, and last night he slept from 7:00pm-6:00am. Eleven hours is a BIG improvement. When it comes to naps though he's extremely inconsistent. Over the past 10 days he had two long naps; last Friday's afternoon nap and this Wednesday's morning were each 80 minutes long. All the other days both of his naps were each between 15-35 minutes long. Yesterday his morning nap was just 15 minutes and his afternoon was 35 so he slept for less than one hour between the hours of 6:30am and 7:00pm. Today he actually didn't take a morning nap, and his afternoon nap was only 20 minutes long. I think he's allergic to naps.

11. He loves to be held. I think both children are the kind who love to snuggle, hug, kiss, etc. This plus the fact that he's now aware of strangers is I think what led him to be kicked out of daycare. I still struggle with that somewhat. It did however lead to the decision for me to stay home next semester, which hopefully will be a good thing for all four of us.

Airfare Purchased!

This morning I was able to cross one more thing off my to do list as I bought 5 airline tickets from Baltimore to New Orleans. It will be the first time Nadia gets her own seat on an airplane. Ian, the sixth passenger in our group, is still able to fly free. We are flying Southwest as their fare was the cheapest even before you factor in the fact that they don't charge for luggage. Each item that's completed toward that trip (last month it was getting Ian's passport in the mail) makes the trip seem more real. We're excited about going on our very first cruise! I still need to book our one night hotel stay in New Orleans and also plan our excursions for the 4 places we are visiting. None of us have ever been on a cruise before, and I'm the only one who has ever been to New Orleans. One question I have would be whether or not to bring car seats for Ian and Nadia? If we take a taxi from the airport to our hotel, do we need car seats for that? I would rather not bring them if we don't have to.

The temperatures aren't supposed to get quite as high today as they were yesterday, but it's still a very pretty day for November. I have work this afternoon so we had to go this morning. We had a great time at the park! Ian still loves the see saw. Tomorrow I have faculty meeting in the afternoon and Saturday I'm speaking at a conference in the afternoon. Thankfully the conference is being held only about 30 minutes from our house. I guess if we want to go to the park we'll have to go in the mornings again the next two days. I wish we were experiencing the temps that those in the midwest have been having lately in the 70's. Wow that's really nice for November! Yesterday was the first day since September 29 that the neighbors watched the kids. Hopefully this arrangement will work until December 10. Paul can watch the kids the 3 nights I go on campus to give final exams the week of December 13.

Last night there were definitely some empty seats. I felt badly that a few of my students missed out due to not having a ticket as there was definitely room for them. He lectured for an hour and then opened it up for questions. I was impressed with the questions a couple of my students asked him. I was shocked at how many of those in attendance left as soon as the lecture was over (didn't stay for the Q&A). I have to say I felt better about the fact that the students seem to want to leave class ASAP. If they want to dash out when Dr. Gardner is speaking, it's no wonder they are wanting to dash out as soon as they think Dr. Kennedy's class is over. I can say with assurance from my experience teaching in Beijing that if Dr. Gardner were speaking in Asia that no one would have left until the event was totally over (about 40 minutes after the time when many left).

EOB's

I learned recently that I actually have no idea what the total bill was for our time in the NICU in 2008 and 2009. It turns out the letter the hospital first sends out doesn't necessarily include all the charges. I figured this out because the letter we got from that hospital last month stated that Ian's surgery cost $22,901.48. The insurance we had from August 2004-June 2010 didn't send out information regarding how much they paid for anything except if they were declining a charge (IUIs, embryo transfers, egg retrievals, etc.). Blue Shield sends an explanation of benefits (EOB) regarding every payment they make on our behalf. So this time I added up the totals and the total cost of Ian's surgery was $41,031.48. The hospital accepted Blue Shield's payment of $13,305.47. It's so confusing how they charge one amount but accept a much lower amount. If we did Ian's next surgery at this hospital, we'd have to pay 20%. Would it be 20% of $41K or $13K? That's a big difference! Thankfully PSU's insurance will pay 100% of the surgery if we have it done at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. I am anxious to hear what they'll say at Ian's appointment next Tuesday.

In terms of when the kids woke up this morning (a little before 6am), it seems they have made the DST adjustment. Nadia asked for lunch at 10am so I'd say they haven't totally shifted. Ian took a long nap on Friday, but since then all his naps have been between 20-35 minutes long.

Two weeks ago Ian had a good week in terms of eating stage one baby food. Last week eating didn't go very well - maybe because I mixed some rice cereal in his squash one day. Yesterday he amazed me by consuming almost an entire stage 2 container of apricots in one sitting. Yay, Ian! Today he ate half of a container of stage 2 strawberries and apples at lunch. As long as he has toys to play with, it's going much better than in the past. I used to have to hold his head in place.  It's not such a battle right now.