Egg Allergy

This morning we left the house at 7:50. Paul was planning to go to PSU, but he ended up spending the day at home because he discovered a very large crack across his windshield this morning, and the soonest he could get an appointment to repair it was 8:00 tomorrow. I arrived at Paul's parent's house at 8:55am. I changed Ian's diaper and let him play for a few minutes. Ian and I got back in the car at 9:10am to finish the drive to the allergist for his 11:20am appointment. Both children had watched VeggieTales on the way to Paul's parent's home. Ian watched a little more after we got back in the car, but by 9:30 he was asleep. He slept for one hour. After we arrived in Pottstown I got some gas and we had an early lunch. We were at the allergist's office from 11:15-12:55pm. During that time he was seen by the doctor and also had the skin testing done. They tested him for 9 different types of mold, 4 types of animal dander, 8 types of foods, and four random things (two types of dust mites, cockroaches, and feathers). He tested negative for everything except eggs.

I had brought the label from a container of baby food that had recently caused a lot of side effects for Ian (vomiting, sneezing, etc.) and sure enough egg whites were one of the ingredients in that baby food. I also asked him if egg products were in immunizations, and he said yes in the flu shot. That would explain all the rashes Ian had after his flu shot. I have to start reading lables and avoid foods that have eggs, mayonnaise, albumin, pasta, marshmallows, etc (I was given a long list). When I'm cooking I was given a list of things I can use instead of an egg if the recipe calls for an egg (such as 1 tablespoon of apricot puree). I also am to have some Benadryl on hand for him at all times, and I have to fill an Rx for an EpiPen Jr. 2 Pak. I am going to look online before heading to CVS as yesterday I placed an order for his refill of Prevacid and found a place online that sold it for 1/3 the cost of CVS. It was tricky since I couldn't fax them an Rx. It will be easier if I order it online the first time while I still have the Rx on hand.

He also said that he wants a lateral neck x-ray of Ian to checked the size of his adenoids and assess his airway caliber because of his mouth breathing and the fact that Ian's tonsils are enlarged. Finally, he asked that a swallowing study be added to the upper-GI x-ray that is already scheduled for April 19. He said that just means a speech pathologist will also be present during the procedure in addition to the radiologist. Well when I called the radiology department later this afternoon they said they don't combine those two procedures. I went ahead and scheduled his swallowing study for April 26, but I'm going to do some checking tomorrow to see if they can be combined, and if they can't if the Allergist still thinks he should have the swallowing study. He said sometimes the reason children gag is because food is going back up when it should be going down their throat.

Hopefully Ian will outgrow this egg allergy. The doctor said that might happen. He said for at least 2 months we should make sure Ian doesn't eat anything that has any egg products in it, and hopefully we'll see some improvements. He said we should come back in 2 months, but I'm hoping we can just discuss the test results by phone because of the 5 hours of driving involved in going to see him in person. I'm glad Nadia doesn't have an egg allergy because egg salad is one of her favorite foods!

Ian slept the whole way from the doctor's office until we got back to Paul's parent's house (90 minutes). He played at their house for 2 hours while Nadia was napping, and then once she woke up we three headed back home to Paul. The kids watched VeggieTales during that ride. Ian cried the last 15 minutes. We were away from home for almost exactly 10 hours. It was a long day for Ian and I, but it was a fun day for Nadia. I wish Ian could nap as well in his crib as he does in the car. He slept 2.5 hours of the 5 hours he was in the car.

2.75 Years Old

1. She really enjoys being read to, and she's now also enjoying "reading" (reciting) books to us. Some of her favorites right now include: Llama llama misses mama, Fancy Nancy books, Olivia books, Clifford books, How do Dinosaurs eat their food, and Curious George books.

2. She doesn't enjoy having her hands and face washed because her shirt often gets a little wet in the process, and this really bothers her. She's also rather particular about the temperature of the water; she doesn't like it to be too cold or too warm.

3. She's gotten much better about not crying when I brush her teeth or clip her nails. We're still working on not crying when I brush her hair. She's making progress with that as well.

4. She's drinking a lot more water these days. YAHOO! Milk is still her favorite, but water isn't nearly as repulsive as it used to be.

5. She has been eating a few tiny bites of veggies every night. She usually cries (ex. tonight she cried over the five kernels of corn I required her to eat prior to eating her egg salad sandwich), but it takes less than five minutes to get her to eat them. Actually she fought me more over the corn than she did over the green beans she had been eating every night earlier this week. She loved corn on the cob last summer. She's just in a really picky stage right now. Last night she fought me over eating 3 tiny morsels of chicken breast, and yet if I were to give her a chicken enchilada, she'd eat it right away. Her default assumption right now (towards everything except desserts) is that she doesn't like it. Lovely.

6. Her appetite has been more consistent lately. Last month she went through this phase where she would hardly eat anything one day (maybe 100 calories the whole day) no matter what I offered her (even her favorites) and then a few days later she'd be eating house and home. I think she might be in a growth spurt now because she's been eating house and home at almost every meal. Yesterday for breakfast she ate THREE entire (adult size) bowls of Raisin Bran. She asked for a 4th bowl, but I said that was enough! Wow! On Monday we had lunch at McD's and she ate her entire cheeseburger (happy meal) and asked for another one. I gave her a banana instead. She usually doesn't eat the whole thing, and she's never asked for a second one before.

7. We've been working on correcting her pronunciation of a few words. For many months she's called a banana a "mana". Now she says "ba mana." Daddy has worked with her on saying spaghetti instead of "psghetti." I'm also trying to get her to call a donut a donut instead of a "chocolate bagel." LOL! The other word I've been working on is yogurt. For many months she's pronounced it "wergert." Now (if I remind her) she'll say "yo yo yogurt."

8. Her prayers are still very repetitive. For several weeks she has been thanking God several times a day for Abbey and Kohen (two four year olds at church).

9. She has started including Ian (of her own initiative) as one of the recipients of her nightly hugs and kisses before bed. Ahhh so sweet..

10. Lately she's been saying "I'm so excited (about xyz)" rather frequently. It's so cute!

11. She LOVES chapstick. She was introduced to it on the cruise in January by Grandma, and then a couple of weeks ago Grandma gave Nadia an assortment of lip glosses and chapsticks. She calls them her lipstick and loves to use them.

12. She likes having somewhere to go. We are in agreement than staying home all day long is not our preference. Today her grandparents took her to Climb-a-Lot Clubhouse for the first time. She loved it!

13. She's come along way over the past two months with learning Bible verses. This week I decided to start having her memorize the reference along with the verse. The last few days she learned Psalm 23:1-2. I want to teach her the whole Psalm.

Splish Splash

Although our weather forecast includes snow (is there a song that says "snow, snow go away come again another year"?), I was thinking about spring and summer today. One of the gifts that Gabby and Alexis brought over yesterday was an egg decorating kit. That is ALL Nadia could think about today. When are we going to make the Easter eggs? (repeat over and over and over) I wasn't planning on doing them a month before Easter, but I decided that was too long to ask a 2 year old to wait after she had already seen the kit. So we colored 9 eggs today, and Nadia put some stickers on them. Tomorrow I'm planning on playing hide and seek with the eggs. This should help her prepare for the library's egg hunt.

I did give the kids a bath this evening, and I often sing part of the "Splish Splash" song. I alter the lyrics so that they include their names as well as whatever day of the week it is. Nadia actually sings along with me, and Ian loves it when we sing. The reason I am thinking about splishing and splashing is because I filled out an application today to join a private pool. I am looking forward to taking the kids swimming a lot this summer!

I had planned to join the community pool, but then I found out that #1 they only allow swim diapers in the kiddie pool which would mean Nadia would also be limited to that pool since they both need to stay with me at all times, #2 there are many day camp kids that go to the pool (which can make it seem a bit overcrowded), and #3 the pool doesn't open until noon (which means going prior to 3pm isn't an option because the kids nap until at least 3pm). This private pool limits the membership to 150 families; this means overcrowding is never a problem. Also, this pool opens at 10am so we could go in the morning or in the late afternoon. On days when the weather is nice, I imagine we'll make a trip to the park (by stroller) and a trip to the pool (by car) over the course of the day. I'm planning on signing Nadia up for swim lessons. This pool membership is more expensive than the community pool, but I am going to have Nadia take a break from gymanstics and such this summer, which will compensate for some of the cost. In the fall I'll have her start back up with gymanstics, and I'm also going to have her try ballet once to see if she likes that or not. We should have a lot of fun this summer!

Preschool Picassos

Nadia had her third art class today. Her fourth class will be held this Friday as we missed a class due to snow a couple of weeks ago. Her teacher used to be an elementary teacher until she became a SAHM seven years ago. Her kids and 5 and 7 years old. They did various art and craft projects. I'm not sorry that I signed her up for this session, but I'm also not planning to sign her up for future sessions - in part because Nadia wasn't always fully interested in the particular activity (example: today doing rubbings with a crayon - she just wanted to color with the crayon), in part because it was hard to help her plus keep Ian out of trouble, and also because I felt that the activities they did I could do very easily myself with her at home. I do imagine some day that I'll sign her up for another art class, because art is not my strength, but I expect that won't be for a few years. The most useful thing I got out of the class was that I am going to purchase a set of Do-A-Dot markers. I had never seen those before, and they are very nice! The first lesson focused on rolling, the second on stamping, and the third on textures. The fourth class will involve various types of collages.

Today I was really second guessing my decision to teach 2 online courses in the fall. I feel like my life is already VERY busy. I get up when Ian gets up and then am in charge of the kids for 12+ hours until Paul gets home. Tomorrow he's not coming home so I'll be on my own for 14 hours. This morning Ian got up at 5:50am, and Paul got home at 6:45pm. Some days I get a 30 minute break when they are both napping. That didn't happen today. Some of the things we did today included going to the recycling center, shopping at Walmart, Nadia's art class, taking my car for its annual inspection, and spending an hour at the mall while my car was being inspected. Plus I did some housework including one load of laundry, vacuuming the main floor, sweeping the kitchen and foyer, cleaning the microwave, etc. The kids just went to bed a few minutes ago, and I won't be staying up much longer. It's hard to envision adding more to my plate again. I keep reminding myself that I love my husband, and he wants to be a student so I must earn some money. I can't say I'll be disappointed if the President turns down my request for childrearing leave.

Gabby and Alexis came over and surprised the kids with some Easter gifts this evening. That was so sweet of them!!! Ian adores Gabby, and he took steps toward her several times (upon our initiative). I am quite certain though that he's never taken so many steps before because he did it many times! I've posted many videos of Nadia lately so here are two of Ian - one with the vacuum (I wish you could see the look of glee on his face as he charges toward the vacuum) and a 3 second video of him taking a couple of steps.

49 Hours

Nadia's hunger strike lasted 49 hours. I. Could. Not. Believe. that she would rather go hungry than eat a few peas. During that 49 hours the only thing she consumed was water and two vitamins. Normally it's a struggle to get her to take her vitamin, but she was begging me for more vitamins on Friday and Saturday. The last regular meal she had was lunch on Thursday. Over a span of 55 hours the only thing she ate was a banana. My least favorite vegetable are brussel sprouts. Yuck! I remember up-chucking on those several times as a child. However, as much as I dislike brussel sprouts, I would never let those stand in my way of eating for even 24 hours let alone 49. She can be stubborn! At 6:30 last night I decided to make her sit in her chair at the kitchen table until her bedtime because I really, really didn't want to send her to bed hungry again. Thankfully after some screaming she said she was ready and finally ate her peas. After a few bites, I let her eat some spaghetti. She then ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a packet of fruit snacks. She was HUNGRY! This morning she devoured her Raisin Bran, and she ate a very large lunch at church at noon. I was nervous about whether she'd eat two green beans tonight before eating her dinner, but thankfully she did so after objecting for only a minute or two. Whew... I plan to keep serving her vegetables every night, and I hope and pray there aren't any more hunger strikes. It was horrible. Previously she had never gone anywhere near that long before she'd cave in and agree to eat a bite or two of the vegetables. I guess in the future I'll just have to require her to sit in the chair until she eats them because crying for awhile at the table (which I was trying to avoid) would be better than 2 days of not eating.

Ian on the other hand has been eating like a CHAMP! He ate 15.5 ounces by spoon today!!! At church I didn't even need to give him any toys to play with while he ate his lunch! He needed them at dinner tonight, but I didn't have to hold his face at all today when feeding him. Usually I had to put at least a finger on his cheek to keep him from turning his mouth away from me. Karen is going to be SOOOO pleased! He's been eating fruit and yellow vegetables at every meal. Next I want to work on green vegetables. He still throws up on something hard like a Froot Loop or thicker baby food, but at least he is eating some foods by spoon!

He's also had a breakthrough in terms of sleeping. Last night was the first time I put him in his crib at night and he didn't cry or fuss At All! I have been putting him down awake for the past month or so (previously I put him down once he was already asleep). The same thing happened tonight that he didn't voice any objections when I put him down. I can't say the same is true when I put him down for his nap, but hopefully eventually that will also happen. I kept him up until 8pm last night in the hopes that maybe he'd sleep until 6am. He has been waking up a little earlier and earlier each day. My plan seemed to backfire as he woke up even earlier this morning (5:15), but he only cried a little and went back to sleep. He woke up again at 6:05, and I promptly went and got him. He can't seem to sleep more than 10 hours at night. I'd be content if he slept from 8pm to 6am. Nadia is in bed from 8pm to 7am.

Tonight I recorded four more videos of Nadia "reading" two books. Here's the beginning of Llama Llama Misses Mama (67 seconds) and here's the very end of that book (37 seconds). She can recite almost the whole book word for word, but it would take forever to upload if I recorded the whole thing. I also did two more videos of Blue Hat, Green Hat. Here's the first half (60 seconds), and here's the second half (1:52). I haven't forgotten about making one of Ian chasing the vacuum. I will definitely do that this week!

The Seventies!

The weather was even prettier today! We went to the library this morning, to the playground after their afternoon naps, and played in the backyard after dinner. It was BEAUTIFUL! Another wonderful thing was that Ian set a new record regarding volume consumed by spoon in a day - 2 ounces of vegetables plus 7 ounces of fruit and 3.5 ounces of custard (all stage 1 or 2 baby food). WOOHOO that's 12.5 ounces total! Karen should be really pleased when she comes on Tuesday! The paperwork from the feeding team arrived in the mail yesterday. I promptly filled it out and took it to the Post Office this morning. To give you an idea of how many pages I had to fill out, it cost me $1.22 to mail it to Hershey.

The day wasn't as splendid as yesterday because Nadia went on a self-imposed hunger strike. She had refused to eat any of the casserole I made last night (because it had peas in it). Last night she had a banana and water for dinner. Today she only drank water. She did eat one bite of it around 6:30pm, but that's all she consumed over the past 24 hours. Because she was hungry, she was a very, very fussy little girl All Day Long. In fact she didn't even enjoy her time at the playground. She sat in the stroller much of the time while Ian was swinging, going down slides, etc. I imagine she'll cave in and eat a few bites tomorrow morning as she'll have to be really hungry. By 7:00am tomorrow she will only have eaten a banana over the course of 43 hours. The ironic thing is that a couple of months ago she really liked peas and actually asked for MORE of them when I served them at dinner. This is the longest she's ever held out in terms of refusing to eat something. The only vegetable she seems to be willing to eat these days is a tomato - and that's only if it is served in the form of salsa or ketchup.

A Splendid Day

We had a really nice day today. Jenn and her 19 month old daughter, Holly, came over for a playdate this morning. The three kids did play the whole time, but they didn't interact with each other that much. Ian tried to play with Holly, but she was just as interested in playing with him as Nadia is. I really enjoyed some adult conversation as aside from conversations on the phone with my mom and mother-in-law, the only adult I generally talk to over the course of a week is Paul (and not very much with him as I often don't stay up very long after Nadia goes to bed). Thanks for coming over, Jenn! After they left we had lunch and played some more and then I put the kids down for a nap. Ian didn't take a long nap, BUT it was the first time since I can't remember when that he didn't cry very long after I put him down. As usual he then continued his nap in my arms. I can't type while he's napping in my arms so I've been using that time to edit my blog (deleting sections of posts and entire posts in preparation for printing it at some point this year).

After Nadia woke up we headed to the playground because it was just plain gorgeous outside. I put matching Steeler windbreakers on the kids (gifts from our neighbor who bought them at a yardsale), but honestly we didn't need coats. It was so lovely outside. I can't wait for winter to be completely over. Have I mentioned that winter is by far my least favorite season of the year? Well it is! We spent an hour at the park. All three of us had a blast. Ian now LOVES to swing. I can't wait until trips to the playground become a regular part of our schedule again. All three of us wore our green for St. Patrick's Day. Here's to hoping it's not raining tomorrow afternoon so we can go back and enjoy another day with temps in the 60s!

Dinner didn't go well. Feeding a toddler is not such a fun experience. In the end I just let her eat a banana because I figured eating fruit wasn't a horrible option although I plan on serving her dinner to her until she eats it tomorrow. The crazy thing is that it's a casserole which has macaroni and cheese in it, and she likes macaroni and cheese. Ian however ate 10.5 ounces of baby food today! WOOOHOO! That's a new record!!! It was all fruit (three different kinds), but still he ate all of it by spoon!

I also got some cleaning done today, and believe it or not that's part of the reason I thought today was such a great day. One of the tasks on the planner today was to clean the tops of the kitchen cabinets. Oh. My. Word. I am wondering if anyone had EVER dusted up there before. It was really, really disgusting. However, I like cleaning tasks where it feels like I really accomplished something, and that definitely happened today. Another task on the planner today was to clean out the cars. That was an easy task for my car, but that would be a major project if I truly cleaned out Paul's car. I did take out some garbage from his car this morning. A little cleaning is better than none, right? Looking through the sheets I am starting to figure out the frequency for various tasks - the refrigerator gets totally cleaned out once a month although that's broken into many smaller tasks (ex. just clean out the drawers one day), the downstairs gets vacuumed once a week, the upstairs gets vacuumed every two weeks, etc. I am not sure how often she says to sweep out the garage, but I added that to today's list because I figured if I cleaned that it would decrease how much dirt we track into the kitchen. I didn't finish dusting Paul's office yesterday, but as I looked at next week's list I saw "dust the office" is on the list for next week. I guess when it says "dust children's bedrooms" I only need to dust Ian and Nadia's bedrooms. Live and learn!

I haven't been very good about taking pictures lately. I'll make up for that by posting a few extra ones in this post. Enjoy!

IVF Statistics

The 2009 data for the fertility clinic I went to from July 2004-June 2009 (I went to one in Allentown from September 2003- June 2004) is now available online. In 2007, I did my first cycle of ivf. They did 14 cycles with women ages 35-37 (I was 35 then), and 6 of those resulted in a pregnancy (two sets of twins and four singletons). I was one of four women ages 35-37 whose transfer didn't result in a pregnancy. During that year they also did six frozen embryo transfers for women in that same age bracket. The other five women didn't give birth. Nadia was the only baby born from a FET that year (to a mom between the ages of 35-37). They did 19 FETs that year (all ages combined), and 4 of those resulted in a baby being born. When I first read those statistics two years ago, it blew me away.

Yesterday was the first time that I saw the 2009 data. I had checked a few times this year, but the last time I checked the most recent data was still from 2008. In 2009 I did another fresh cycle with them. They did 13 cycles with women ages 35-37 (I was 37), and 6 of those cycles resulted in a pregnancy (three sets of twins and three singletons). Six of the cycles were cancelled so really their stats are rather impressive in that 6/7 who made it to retrieval did end up with a baby in their arms, and half of them ended up with twins. I was one of the three women who had one baby (Ian). We didn't have any embryos left to freeze this time, but I still noted that they did 13 FETs that year (all ages lumped together), and 3 of those resulted in a baby being born. This again reminds me of what a miracle Nadia is (and Ian also but the FET statistics are much worse than the fresh transfer ones).

It's not good for me to spend too much time looking over the statistics because it makes me want to do ivf again. I remember after my FET saying I never wanted to do ivf again. I think that was because I had done so many fertility treatments and aside from one miscarriage, they never resulted in a pregnancy - even my first ivf transfer. I think the reason why I feel so totally different about it now is because I've had 3 embryo transfers - and two of those resulted in giving birth. I realize it might not work if we did it again, but it's hard to let go of my desire to try once more. I am extremely grateful to the Lord for these two miracles He's blessed me with, and I'm very thankful for the wisdom He gave those who created and developed the procedures involved in ivf.

15 Month Appointment

This morning my day started at 5:45am.  I guess the DST effect was temporary for Ian. I gave the kids baths and did a little housework before we left for Ian's 9:35 doctor appointment and Nadia's 10:45 gymnastics class. One of the tasks on today's list was to clean the utility room - ours is just a closet in the kitchen so it didn't take very long to clean and organize in there. I also was to dust three of the bedrooms. Dusting the master bedroom was on last week's list. Dusting the kids' rooms didn't take too long, but Paul's office was another story. That room hadn't been dusted in forever.

Ian weighed in at 22.5 lbs (22nd percentile compared to 23rd at 12 months) and measured 30 inches long (18th percentile compared to 33rd at 12 months) with a head circumference of 47cm (45th percentile compared to 81st at 12 months). The doctor was pleased. He questioned having the skin test done. He said we could have a blood test done at their office and that a skin test isn't accurate at his age. I meant to talk about Ian's struggles to nap (the OT thinks he has restless leg syndrome), but I forgot. It's hard to remember everything when you're watching 2 toddlers in an exam room. The doctor showed Nadia some VeggieTale silly songs on his phone, which she loved! Ian got 2 shots, and Nadia got a sticker. That didn't seem very fair, but he's not into lollipops yet. He did eat a whole container of fruit for me at lunch today. Yesterday evening he threw up on a Puff, but he noshed on a cheese curl and graham cracker today (albeit very little went down his throat). They weren't concerned that he's not walking, and they didn't even ask me about his vocabulary (which seems delayed to me).

Yesterday morning on our small group's prayer list, I asked for courage to follow through with resigning. I felt the Lord was leading me that way, but I was having a hard time following through. After a discussion with Paul last night, I decided to ask Charles if I could teach 2 online courses. He wrote back this morning and said yes!! This seems like the perfect compromise. I won't be spending as much time on the road and when I do my work will be more flexible than if I was teaching on campus. I can still eat dinner with my kids, and it will be easier to find a babysitter because it could be a teenager (whereas before I was leaving at 2:50 - before the school bus dropped them off). It won't be hard to find someone (like Paul's parents) to come one Friday afternoon a month for faculty meeting.

I do know from experience that I'll want a little bit of babysitting help (while I'm at home) so that I can keep up with the grading. Another perk is the class size for online courses is MUCH less than face-to-face ones. A lot of the work for teaching online is put into setting it up. I've taught this course before (although not in several years), but I've never taught it online before. I saw that they are searching for an adjunct to teach this same online course this summer, so I asked my chair if I could also teach it this summer. If I'm going to invest the time in setting up a new online course, I'd like to teach it more than once. I didn't get his response yet to that request or exactly what my schedule will be this fall, but I did submit my request today to the Dean and Provost for a 50% reduction of my workload for the fall (childrearing leave) in light of Ian's medical issues. Hopefully I've made the right decision. I definitely want to be a SAHM at some point, but for financial reasons I'm going to work part-time at least one more semester. I am grateful that I'll be working from home most of the time. I'm going to have to give up some of the hobbies that I've had time for again lately (such as reading), but I'm planning to continue singing in the choir and attending ladies Bible study on Tuesday mornings. I am going to buy a laptop or netbook in the near future because I really need a computer with a built-in webcam for teaching an online course. Also, the amount of time I need to spend on the computer is going to increase (starting in the near future as I'd rather work a little bit at a time rather than trying to get it all together in a short amount of time). I'm going to have to go back to being on the computer some when I'm with the kids, and that's not possible if I'm using Paul's desktop.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Ian has gotten up between 6:30-6:45 the last three mornings!! YAHOO! I have loved DST the past 2 years - well the spring forward part anyhow. Falling back has never gone smoothly for them thus far. Nadia has adjusted smoothly to the time change, and she's still waking up around 7:00am.

2. Nadia is feeling better! On Saturday morning she said, "My fever hurts." I honestly didn't know she knew what a fever was, but she was correct. Her temperature was about 101 degrees. That is one plus for an older child. You have to play the guessing game a lot with younger children when they aren't as able to communicate what ails them. She still had a fever on Sunday, but thankfully she never developed any symptoms and seems back to normal.

3. On Friday I checked out "Chickens to the Rescue" from the library (along with some other books). I got the book with Nadia in mind, but Paul laughs his head off every time he reads it. He loves it! LOL!

4. Ian ate today! He ate 3.5 ounces of baby food (apples/blueberries) for me at lunch and then also fed himself 2 cheese curls. It was the first time he ever ATE a cheesecurl. In the past he only licked them. YAHOO! I gave him some Gerber puffs at dinner. He threw up. I'm going to try graham crackers next.

5. I am really, really excited about the weather forecast. It's supposed to be in the SIXTIES on Thursday and Friday. Playground, here we come!!!!

6. I'm really grateful that Jo told me about the Motivated Moms Planner. I am not following it 100% (I don't see the need to change the handtowels in all 3 bathrooms every other day for example), but in general I love it. She breaks big tasks (like cleaning out your refrigerator) into several small assignments. Our house is going to be cleaner than it was even when we were paying someone to come clean it every other week!

7. I'm thankful our kids get to see their grandparents way more often than I saw mine when I was a child. Paul's parents were up on Saturday, which was something Nadia was really looking forward to. They also brought the kids a few small toys which they've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this week. I'm grateful!