One Tiny Bean

Last Wednesday I made chicken quesadillas and green beans for dinner. Nadia enjoyed the quesadilla (which pleased me because she rarely eats meat), but she wouldn't touch the green bean. I thought I'd use milk as the incentive. On a typical day she only drinks milk. She loves her milk! Evidently her dislike of green beans is greater than her love of milk. I thought for sure the next day she'd agree to eat one small bite (all I was asking), but she kept saying that she'd drink water. So from Thursday through Sunday she only drank water. I didn't view this as altogether bad because it's the most water she's consumed in her entire life. Today I decided though that she WAS going to eat that little tiny bean. I told her this morning she wasn't going to eat or drink anything (aside from her daily vitamin) until she ate that one miniature bite of a green bean. She chose to skip breakfast and lunch. This meant she couldn't fall asleep during her nap because she was hungry and thirsty. She usually sleeps 2-3 hours. Yesterday she took a record breaking 4 hour nap, but I think that was from losing an hour of sleep the previous night due to DST. Today she didn't sleep At All. At 2:30 she finally agreed to eat the bean so that she could drink some milk. She guzzled a glass of milk and then went back up to bed, but after awhile I gave up on her taking a nap and gave her a yogurt to eat. I do not enjoy these food battles At All. I am glad though that she drank a lot of water the last five days. I've decided that from now on she must drink some water every day. I do want her to have some milk every day, but I also want her to have some water every day.

I kept telling myself I was going to do things differently with Ian so that hopefully things would go more smoothly, but in light of his total aversion to eating, that's not going to happen! Two days ago I got him to eat a whole container of baby food (3.5 ounces) in one feeding. That put a BIG smile on my face. Then yesterday and today he went back to totally refusing to eat. Beth called today and said that his stool sample was normal (no blood in it). Karen the OT will be seeing him tomorrow, he has his 15 month check-up at the Pediatrician's on Wednesday, next week he'll be seeing the allergist, and in about 1 month he'll be seeing the urologist and having his upper GI x-ray. The Hershey feeding team has been very slow in scheduling his appointment. I am waiting to receive a form from them in the mail. After they get it back from me then they'll call me to schedule his appointment.

15 Months Old!

Here are some ways Ian has changed over the past month:



3/12/10



1. A typical day doesn't involve any chucking! Yes, he still has some REALLY bad days now and then where he can't seem to keep anything down, but there are many days where he keeps everything down. YAHOO!

2. He gained and then lost and then gained weight over the course of the last 4 weeks. Thankfully he ended up with a net gain of 12 ounces.

3. Ian really, really wants to play with Nadia All The Time. Unfortunately she's not cooperative.



3/12/11



4. He can cruise REALLY fast; he's practically running! He can also crawl VERY, VERY fast.

5. He usually sleeps through the night albeit he often gets up very early. Last night for the first time in a LONG time he slept 10 hours straight. May that become the norm!

6. He really developed an interest in cars and trucks over the last month and loves to make them move back and forth on the floor or coffee table.

7. His attention span in terms of how long he'll play by himself GREATLY increased over the past month!

8. How much he's being fed by spoon each day greatly increased over the past month. His record was 7 ounces in one day. I did get him to eat one entire container (3.5 ounces) this morning and am hoping to get another one in him today. There are still days though that he turns down everything -even ice cream! Fruits are his favorite, he'll tolerate orange veggies some days, and he always throws up on green veggies. He still can't handle thicker stage two baby food.

9. He transitioned from 2 naps to 1 nap a day. The last few days he didn't even fall asleep in the car so he really seems to have made the switch to one nap a day.

10. He transitioned from a bottle to a sippy cup.

11. His fine motor skills have improved such as by his ability to put a shape in a shape sorter, push buttons on toys, put "coins" in the piggy bank toy, etc.

12. I now put him to bed awake after rocking him while singing to him for a few minutes. For the first 14 months we used milk to put him to sleep (nursing or bottle). Most nights it doesn't take him too long to fall asleep, but there are still nights now and then where he cries for 30 minutes (max).

13. He weaned himself.



12-15 Months Old: A comparison

Ian - 12 months old

1. We found out when Nadia was that age what an outdoor girl she is, but this was in the summer. We don't know what Ian will think yet. He doesn't enjoy being in the snow; that is for sure!

2. By 13 months Nadia loved putting things in little containers. Ian hasn't shown an interest in that yet.

3. They both enjoyed clapping their hands!

4. Nadia handled her nails being trimmed a LOT better than Ian does, but Ian only cries during the painful parts of doctor appointments (shots, bloodwork, etc.) whereas Nadia cried when they took her temperature or measured the circumference of her head.

5. They both loved to be tickled, cuddled, and hugged. Nadia at this age would often say "awww" when we'd hug. Ian at this age loves to hold hands. He will hold my hand when he's in my lap, and he'll reach out to hold Paul's hand when we're at the dinner table (when he's in his high chair). So sweet!



Nadia - 12 months old

 6. Nadia slept a lot more than Ian - both at night and during naps. Nadia usually got 11-12 hours at night and 2-3 hours between her two naps. Her total average sleep was 14 hours a day. Ian usually gets 9-10 hours at night (11 upon rare occasion), and 1 hour a day between his 2 naps. He switched to one (30 minute) nap a day at 14 months. He will sleep MUCH longer for his naps if he takes them in my arms.

7. At 15 months Nadia weighed 24 lbs (69th percentile), and Ian weighs 22 lbs (16th percentile).

8. At 15 months Nadia had 11 teeth; Ian has only 2 teeth.

9. Nadia's expressive vocabulary greatly surpassed Ian's at this age. She was even saying words like "hot" and "wet" whereas Ian still is at the babbling stage. He only says two words - mama and dada. Her receptive vocabulary was also much greater than hers although he certainly understands the words: no, stand, sit, splash, monkey, Nadia, Mommy, Daddy, and dance.

Ian - 3/12/11

10. Nadia was running long before she turned 12 months old. Ian is cruising and crawling. He hasn't taken any steps yet, but he does stand without holding on to anything.

11. Nadia fed stuffed animals with a spoon and engaged in other types of imaginary play during this age span. Ian hasn't begun participating in dramatic play yet.

12. The only thing Nadia was interested in watching on tv during this age span were VeggieTales silly songs. Ian will watch just about anything on tv although of course his attention span isn't anywhere near as long as what his sister's is currently.

13. Ian wasn't weaned until he was 14 months old. Nadia weaned herself at 7 months. Nadia moved from a bottle to sippy cup at 12 months old, and Ian made the transition at 14 months. Nadia was eating all table food from 12-15 months. Ian ate a tiny bit of baby food on rare occasion during this time period. He mostly drank milk mixed with baby cereal.



Nadia -9/24/09


14. It has always been harder to change Ian's diaper than it was to change Nadia's diaper because he wiggles, squirms, and tries to roll over. He often cries duing the whole thing. During this age span it became even harder as he constantly tries (and sometimes succeeds) to put his hands in his diaper area. I usually have to wipe his hand when changing his diaper out of fear that he got poop on his hand. It would be really helpful if I had 3-4 hands when I was changing Ian's diaper! Ian still poops far more than Nadia ever did. His diaper rash wasn't as frequent from 12-15 months as it was from 9-12 months, but he's still far more prone to diaper rash than Nadia ever was.

15. Ian learned to climb up the stairs during this age span. Nadia had already been crawling up the stairs long before she turned one year old; she learned how to go down the stairs at 12 months. Ian hasn't learned to go down the stairs yet. Going up the stairs is a big thrill for him right now!

16.Both of them learned to wave "hi" during this age span. Ian almost never initiated waving whereas Nadia loved to wave to people (such as at the grocery store) and was always thrilled when someone would wave back or acknowledge her greeting in some fashion.

17. Nadia had moved to size 5 shoes by the time she was 14 months old. Ian is still a size 4, but he mostly wears Robeez whereas since she was walking she was wearing real shoes.

18. Ian showed more interest in books, cars, and legos than Nadia did at this age. He also plays more vigorously than she did. He can be a one boy wrecking crew! :-)

19. Ian loves to carry around a sock - or another article of clothing will suffice if there aren't any socks around. It cracks me up! Nadia never did this. He almost always is carrying SOMETHING (such as a small toy) in one of his hands, and he is not a happy camper if you need to pry it out of his hands for some reason (such as to put his arm through a sleeve when getting him dressed).

20. During this age span Nadia was afraid of the blow dryer and vacuum. Ian doesn't pay much attention to the hairdryer, but running a vacuum around Ian is like waving as red cape in front of a bull - CHARGE!

21. He pants a lot. Nadia never went through a panting stage. Many times he pants when he's upset. The panting turns into crying.

22. Both of them enjoyed chasing their grandparents' pets (cat and dog).

DST to the Rescue?

Usually I am not a big fan of "springing forward." Well actually I'm usually not a fan of messing with the clocks at all, but losing an hour was always worse than gaining an extra one in the fall. Last year though I discovered that the spring one CAN be the "good" one when you have an early bird toddler. It was last spring when DST kicked in that Nadia finally started waking up at a more reasonable time, and that has remained true ever since then. Although Nadia has had a few rough nights over the last few weeks (ex. on Tuesday morning she asked to go to the bathroom at 4:30am and this morning she was crying because her pillow fell off her bed at 4:00am), normally she sleeps from about 8pm to about 7am. Ian goes to sleep sometime between 7:30-8:00pm. I usually put him down at 7:30, but sometimes (like 2 nights ago) he cries for 30 minutes before falling asleep, and other times (like last night) he falls asleep within 5 minutes of being put in his crib.

He usually starts fussing and crying sometime between 4:15-5:00am. Last night he cried a bit at 3:00am but thankfully went back to sleep until 5:45. Normally once he starts fussing, he never goes back to sleep. He usually doesn't work himself up to crying until about 5:45. I usually get him sometime between 5:45-6:00. This means he's getting 8-9 hours of sleep a night, which is not enough. After I get him I make him a sippy cup and he falls asleep in my arms in Paul's office (while I'm reading email, Facebook, blogs, etc.) and sleeps until about 7:00am at which point I get Nadia and we three head downstairs. If he woke up at 6:00, I could handle that as it's been working out nicely for me to have some computer time with Ian while Nadia and Paul are sleeping. The problem is that I rarely fall back asleep once I've been awakened anytime after 4:00am. Nadia has the same problem as me I might add. She will play in her bed with her stuffed animals for up to 3 hours without saying a peep, but she won't fall back asleep if she has to pee at 4am. This makes for a VERY fussy child since she is used to getting 11 hours not 8 hours at night. Since I usually go to bed between 9-10pm, this means I'm getting only about 6 hours of sleep on average, which is much less than I prefer. The amazing thing is that I have never rescued Ian from his crib earlier than 5:45am over the past 4 weeks, and yet he still hasn't figured it out. Sleep training doesn't usually take that long!!! So right now I'm hoping against hope that DST will help Ian sleep until 6am. That would mean 10 hours at night, which still is less than what all the books say a 15 month old should get, but at this point I'll be thrilled if he sleeps 10 hours at night. Some days he is sleeping about one more hour in my arms so I guess he is getting 10 total on those days (which wasn't today in part because our ISP was down at 6am).

The nap situation isn't going well either. Monday he slept for 40 minutes in his crib. That was the longest in weeks (maybe months?). Typically he sleeps 20-30 minutes in his crib and then finishes the nap in my arms (sleeping for at least one more hour). Yesterday he screamed for 60 minutes in his crib (never fell asleep). Usually 30 minutes is the maximum that he cries. I only put him down for one nap a day, but sometimes he gets another short nap in the car earlier in the day. Yesterday he didn't sleep in the car on the way home from gymnastics so it surprised me that he refused to nap in his crib At All.

For some unknown reason I've been taking a lot of videos of Nadia lately. Paul should be happy as it's one of those things he reminds me rather frequently that I should be doing more often, but for some reason I usually don't get around to actually doing it. Here's one of her saying her first 4 Bible verses plus the first 5 names of the books of the OT and NT. Since I've posted videos before of everything but the first 5 books of the OT, here's a shorter video just of that. I love how she says Deuteronomy. We're still working on consistently remembering to include Leviticus. That is the one most likely to be skipped. I think she'll have it nailed by Sunday. Here's one more video. This is of her "reading" the book Blue Hat, Green Hat. I figure at the very least her Grandmas will enjoy the videos.

More Doctor Appointments

Yesterday I called a Pediatric Allergist and made an appointment for Ian in light of the bloodwork the GI office did that showed he has allergies. He'll be seeing a doctor plus having the skin test done on March 24th. Their office is about 90 miles away, and they said his appointment will take 60-90 minutes so I'm going to drop Nadia off at my in-law's house en route to the doctor appointment. I'm hoping that maybe his congestion is due to allergies, and if that's the case then hopefully he won't get a runny nose quite so often, and that will help with his feeding and weight issues because his reflux gets out of control when he has a runny nose.  Frankly, we should have Nadia tested at some point also because she also seems to sneeze and have a runny nose All The Time. We go through a crazy amount of boxes of Kleenex in this house! Hers doesn't seem so pressing though because she doesn't have reflux. I have a lot of allergies and was on allergy shots for many years as a child. I'm guessing I passed those on to my munchkins.

Ian fell asleep at dinner while holding his sippy cup and a cheese curl!

Ian's OT has been pushing for him to go to the feeding team in Hershey. She thinks it's much better than the one we took him to in January. I had hesitated in the past because #1 I didn't find the first feeding team appointment to be very helpful, #2 our current insurance doesn't work with the Hershey hospital, #3 I really don't want to start making regular trips to Hershey as it's not very close by, and #4 I thought having an OT come once a week to our house for an hour would be enough. Yesterday she offered to see if another family who is participating in the Hershey program would let us come and watch the program in action at their house with one of their twins (who has a feeding tube because the reflux is so bad). I feel like I comprehend what you're supposed to do; so I don't think watching another child follow the program will help me.

Basically you are to set a timer and gradually increase the time of each feeding session. She suggested 7 minutes for Ian. You are to do at least 5 feeding sessions a day. The purpose of these is not primarily to meet their nutritional needs but rather teach them how to eat food by spoon. You never force a bite in. You hold the spoon near the child's mouth and ask him to take a bite. Once he takes a bite, you give a reward for 3-5 seconds (some toy or a DVD that is reserved only for feeding sessions). Then you just keep repeating that process until the timer goes off. The problem is (and she saw this first hand with Ian yesterday), he won't take the first bite unless he's distracted (which isn't what they want) or forced. So yesterday while she asked him to take a bite and showed him the See 'n Say (which was to be his reward), he screamed for more than 10 minutes until she gave up. She said in the initial 90 minute feeding team appointment at Hershey she's only had one child who never took that first bite.

I've called them 3 times over the past 2 days, and thus far we've just played phone tag. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to schedule an appointment. They did call me back once today and left a message saying they charge $75 per 15 minutes. That sounds like a lot, but the local hospital charged over $700 for a 45 minute appointment, so Hershey's fees are a lot lower. They said a typical first appointment lasts 90 minutes, which would be $450. We'd owe 20% plus whatever the difference might be between their charges and what our insurance deems "usual and customary." I'm hoping it won't be much more than $90, but at this point I'd pay just about anything to help Ian learn to eat. He did eat a little peaches and apples for me by spoon today, but that was by distracting him which is unacceptable according to this program. Right now it's the only way I can get him to eat. Paul questioned the cost, but in my mind getting him to eat is extremely important so I'll pay whatever we have to pay to get the help he needs. I'm hoping (in light of the cost plus how long the drive will be) that we don't have to go many times. Karen said sometimes it only takes one visit. She'll be going with us so that she can then provide support in implementing the program. I'm very discouraged considering I started trying to get him to eat solid foods almost 10 months ago. Hopefully we'll start seeing some progress in the near future.

P.S. I was just reading the health insurance booklet again, and they specifically say that Hershey Medical is in the network. AGH!! I guess we could have gone there for his GI appt after all and had his upper GI x-ray done there. Why did they give me the wrong information when I called the number on the back of the insurance card???? Well the good news is that I think this means it won't cost us a penny to see the feeding team. Whew....

I took some videos of Nadia singing a few songs this morning including: "The BIBLE," " Zacchaeus was a wee little man," and the "Alphabet song."

A Weekend in Maryland

My sister, Wendy, and two of her kids flew from Chicago to Baltimore on Wednesday morning. We had planned to drive down Friday night, but on Wednesday Paul learned that his advisor was headed to Florida. We decided to drive down Thursday night because Paul could get just as much work done on my mom's laptop than he could on his desktop computer. We left around 6:45pm and arrived at my parents around 10:20pm. Ian slept almost the whole way. I changed his diaper and put his pjs on and then he screamed for 30 minutes in my mom's pack and play before he fell asleep. Nadia watched dvd's in the car for the first 90 minutes of our trip and then slept the next two hours. We didn't take her down to bed until Ian had stopped crying and unfortunately it took her until almost midnight to fall asleep. Ian had a horrible night, but I didn't get him until 6:00am. On Friday night he did much better - he slept from 8pm to 5:45am.

During our previous trips Nadia has only engaged in parallel play with her cousins. During this weekend they were truly playing together. Adam wasn't that interested in playing with Nadia, but she and Rachel played together quite a bit. It was so sweet to watch! Rachel won't turn 2 for two more months, but she is very, very advanced verbally. Ian really enjoyed the cars and trucks that used to be Maurice's when he was little. We don't have any cars that size (ours are smaller or much bigger). I will be buying Ian some new vehicles in the near future as he had a blast with these! All four kids enjoyed our trip to a playground on Saturday morning.

Unfortunately both Paul and my mom fell on their backs and hit the back of their heads on the floor on Saturday. My mom slipped on Ian's vomit (she came in to help clean and didn't realize that he had vomited in more than one place). She landed on her back. Her head hit the handle of a cabinet drawer before hitting the floor. OUCH! On top of that she had lots of his "up-chuck" in her hair and the back of her top. Yuck!

After dinner while my sister and mom were en route to the Bach Sinfonia concert (my sister is concertmaster), Paul and my dad went bowling while I gave Rachel, Nadia, and Ian a 45 minute bath (while Maurice played with Adam). While bowling Paul slipped and was at one point horizontal in the air and then landed on the floor of the bowling lane on his back. Both Paul and my mom had headaches that night. Not Fun.

We left my parent's house at 6:20pm and expected to arrive at home around 9:45. It had been raining all day, so we didn't think to check the weather. Big Mistake! The next time we travel to MD in the winter, we will check the weather in PA even if we're experiencing nice weather in MD. If we had left at 1:30pm (during Nadia's nap), the trip would have been much shorter and less stressful. The last 2 hours of the trip we were averaging about 25 MPH (speed limit 55). We passed many, many, many accidents. On the radio this morning they described the weather last night as "blizzard like conditions." I drove the first 3.5 hours of the trip, and Paul drove the last hour. We arrived home a little before 11pm. We were grateful that we got home safely. Ian watched the DVD for the first 50 minutes and then slept almost the whole rest of the way home. He woke up once or twice and cried for a few minutes, but otherwise he slept. I didn't realize he had a poopy diaper so the poor guy got a bad case of diaper rash from our trip home last night.

Nadia watched dvds the first 2+ hours of the trip, and then we tried to get her to go to sleep. That took forever! She didn't fall asleep until sometime past 9:30pm, and she's usually in bed by 8pm. She also got up earlier than usual this morning - I think because we were letting Ian cry (as we do every morning) until 6am. She was a very cranky girl today as she got less than 8 hours of sleep last night, and she usually gets 11 hours. Her art class was cancelled this morning due to the snow. She got to play in the snow with Daddy though!

Ian gained back 4 ounces while we were in MD. His weight has been up and down so much the past 3+ months. He didn't throw up at all yesterday or today, for which I am very grateful. Squirting juice in his mouth is working perfectly as the means for getting him to keep down the tablet of Prevacid. He has accepted every kind of juice I've given him (cranberry, grape, etc.). My mom did a fabulous job of getting him to eat. Saturday was a new record - he ate TWO full containers (7 ounces total) of baby food in one day. Unfortunately I only got 1 ounce of baby food in him today, and that was with a lot of crying. I tried a different sippy cup with him today, and he accepted it without any problems. That was encouraging.

Avoided Dehydration

As I've mentioned before, when Ian gets a runny nose he throws up ALL day long. The vomiting started on Tuesday night and was out of control on Wednesday and Thursday. It was so bad on Thursday that I left messages with his OT (Karen), GI NP (Beth), and Pediatrician. He had already lost more than 1/2 a pound, and on Thursday he went almost 5 hours without wetting his diaper. The Pediatrician suggested spraying his nose with saline and then aspirating his nose 5 minutes before feeding him. They also suggested giving him 1 tsp of Pedialyte every 5 minutes until he resumed wetting his diaper. He still threw up some from the Pedialyte, but he did keep down more of that than he had of what I normally give him. Beth didn't agree with aspirating his nose because she said if that causes him to cry (which it does) that would create more mucus.

I discussed with Karen and Beth how to give him is Prevacid because that was also causing him to vomit, which meant it wasn't actually going down his throat. Karen suggested giving it to him when he first woke up (before he had anything in his belly). Beth suggested immediately squirting some juice in his mouth after the Prevacid to wash it down in the hopes that then he wouldn't gag. We tried that this morning, and it worked! We used Pedialtye this morning, but once that bottle is opened you're supposed to toss it after 48 hours so tomorrow we'll use juice instead. He does like the Grape flavored Pedialyte, which surprised me because Nadia won't drink Pedialyte.

From Monday through Thursday I couldn't get Ian to eat more than 1-2 bites a day of solid food. Considering how well he did on Saturday and Sunday, I was very frustrated, actually to the point of tears. I have been trying to feed Ian by spoon for almost 10 months, and some days it feels like we haven't made any progress in that time. The truth is that we have made some progress in that for the first few months ALL baby food made him gag and now there are quite a few that he can tolerate if we succeed in actually getting the spoon in his mouth. Also, he is now putting some foods in his mouth (albeit to lick them), which is a big change, and he recently made the switch from bottles to sippy cups. The good news is that with my mom's help we've been able to feed him 2 containers of baby food over the past 2 days. I have to say though that sometimes it still feels like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. I know in my head that some day he'll be eating, but it feels like it's never going to happen. We have to work so hard to distract him to get him to eat a little bit of baby food.

Friday he didn't throw up as much as he had the previous two days, which was a big relief. This morning didn't start out well. Hopefully the rest of the day will go better - for Ian's sake, my mom's carpet's sake, etc. I am grateful that even though we're away from our home, we still have access to a washing machine. I'm hoping that his weight doesn't drop any farther as it takes so long to get the weight back on him. If he does, he'll probably weigh the same at his 15 month doctor appt that he did on his 12 month appt.

In talking with Beth we got the results of Ian's bloodwork. She said she was really surprised. She thought based on what we had been feeding him plus how many times a day he poops plus how pale his skin is that he would be anemic, etc. His hemoglobin was excellent as was his albumin, Vitamin D, etc. She was expecting him to show up as being malnourished, but she said she was wrong. The only level that was "off" was the one that indicates that he has some allergies (to what we don't know). I'm going to mention this to his Pediatrician in a couple of weeks and see if we can get him tested by an allergist, and I'm hoping that doesn't mean we have to make another trip to Philadelphia. We are planning to go on April 19 for him to see the urologist and then have the upper GI x-ray (which they said takes from 2-6 hours to complete so I'm going to leave Nadia at home with Paul's parents that day).

Green Eggs and Ham

In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, I made green eggs and ham for lunch. I even served Nadia green milk. The food coloring was definitely a hit with Nadia. Nadia will be wearing her full costume this evening at the party at the library. She's excited!

Ian's nose started running again yesterday. I hope that clears up ASAP because he hadn't thrrown up at all Saturday-Monday, and now he's throwing up a lot again. Gymnastics wasn't very fun for Ian or I today because he threw up BIG time in the car on the way there. I thought he was done so I stopped at a gas station to clean him up, and I took off his coat in the process. It turns out he wasn't done. At the gym I took off his clothes and washed them. The poor guy had to wear wet, smelly clothes during her lesson. It wasn't fun holding him that whole time given how awful he smelled. I guess I should keep a spare outfit in the car when he has a runny nose.

Last night Paul and I watched "Waiting for Superman."  Last semester some of my students missed a night of class because they were watching that movie for another class.  I am curious now which professor gave them that assignment. I'm not a huge fan of documentaries, but I will say I was crying at the end as the kids were waiting for the lotteries to be held to see if they got into the various charter schools. I believe that at the K-12 level tenure should be abolished. I never had tenure until 2008, and I never worried about losing my job. My heart breaks for those parents who don't have any option but to send their kids to a failing school.

Ringing Noses

Two funny quotes from Miss Nadia today:
#1 As we left the Post Office this morning on the way to Bible study I said "Spring is coming!" to which Nadia said, "Where? Where?" LOL!

#2 As we were headed to dinner Nadia said "my nose is ringing." I wasn't sure what she meant until she added, "and I need a tissue." Ah, her nose was running. LOL!

45 Goals Check-Up #1

On February 24, 2010 I posted a list of forty-five goals I hoped to accomplish by April 21, 2017.

So far I accomplished seven of the goals: #1 cruise, #16 tried two recipes for pulled pork so far, #18 wills, #33 nursing, #36 hybrid, #43 applesauce, and #45 teaching Sunday School.

I also made progress toward nine of the goals: #3 I've gotten back to what I weighed in 2007, #4 made cookies (many times) with Nadia, #5 made a gingerbread house with Nadia, #10 took the kids to the Philadelphia Zoo, #31 I've begun the process of editing the blog, #32 I'm caught up with the kids' albums, #38 we went to the beach last May, #40 we've been on eight dates thus far, and #41 I've tried thirty-two new recipes thus far. We only went on a couple of dates in 2009. I'd love to go on one a month. We're headed in the right direction! Most years I would say I've tried fewer than 5 new recipes in a year so this was a BIG change to have tried 32 in the past year. Of course some we wish I hadn't made, but some I've made more than once already because we loved them.

The next three I'd like to accomplish would be #28 roast beef, #29 Paul's favorite cookies, and #13 a routine for cleaning the house.