10 Blessings

1. At some point while we're sleeping tonight, Paul should be arriving home. YAY! We spoke to him a few times this evening during his lengthy layover in Detroit.

2. Some of the questions I had for HR were answered today. Our Blue Shield insurance is retroactive to May 23. The downside is we have to pay over $800 towards the premiums from the past 4 months. It could have been much worse as at first they said I'd be paying at a much higher rate (the part-time rate would have been about 3 times more). The upside is that this means I don't need to stress about any "unexpected" bills for the surgeries that took place in June and August. I actually will probably be able to get back most of that $800 by submitting bills we paid during that time frame for deductibles and prescriptions. The May 23 date won't help for Ian's first endoscopy. If CHOP bills me for that 8K the insurance said they won't pay, I will be fighting that tooth and nail with the insurance and CHOP.

3. HR also told me that I'll be paying the insurance at the full-time rate this semester because my leave is FMLA leave (about $200 a month). WAHOOO! This means it will be cheaper than PSU's insurance would have been, and of course it's MUCH better insurance! PTL! I have full benefits this semester even though I'm only teaching two classes. I am very grateful for FMLA!

4. I'm still communicating with HR about how much of my leave will be paid leave this semester. Thus far they've told me two weeks will be at full pay because I have 37.5 hours of sick family leave that I can definitely use. From the wording in the contract I think I'm also eligible to use personal leave and sick leave. We shall see about that.

5. We had a great visit with my mom this week. It was nice that she was able to experience a lot of our weekly routine. She met Nadia's ballet teacher, gymnastics teacher, and one of the librarians (we go to two libraries each week). She also picked Nadia up from AWANA on Wednesday night while I was at choir rehearsal. In addition to being able to spend time with her, her visit also enabled me to be able to mow the lawn on Wednesday afternoon and have two uninterrupted showers.

6. I also was able to buy myself a pair of jeans yesterday. My mom was impressed with how quick I was. It took me at the most 5 minutes to select which pairs to try on, try them on, and pay for the one I picked. I haven't bought a new pair of jeans in more than 10 years. Part of that time the jeans didn't fit, but you can tell that I don't buy jeans very often. I didn't need to get one because the old ones didn't fit but because they had a hole in them. It was a luxury to be able to try something on in a dressing room. I usually can't do that! I was also happy that although the original price was $44, I paid $17 at JCP.

7. Tomorrow is the BIG yard sale in our town. Thousands of people attend this yard sale. Some of the people having yard sales start the sale on Friday. We took advantage of that today. On Saturday the parking is far too limited to be able to drive from place to place. It's almost impossible to find just one spot anywhere in town. ALL the parking is very well used by the thousands who attend. Today I made use of the DVD in the car and drove from house to house and left the kids in the locked car. It helped that I was buying toys for them. At each house Nadia would ask what I got her. The books, cars, etc. I bought helped entertain them at my next stop. We spent about 2 hours visiting yard sales (some before the library and some afterward). I hope the weather cooperates so I can do a little more tomorrow morning (while Paul watches the kids). I got a LOT of great stuff. Many of the clothes I got for the kids still had the tags on them! I had a list of what I was looking for in particular. I got several of the things on the list - 18 month pants for Ian, size 6 dress shoes for Ian (25 cents), and a toy microphone for Nadia (10 cents). I got other clothing that wasn't on my list for both children - some for now and some to store away for future years. I also got some books and toys for the kids, the largest being a pretend vacuum that both kids enjoyed today. When we got home, Ian played with the cars I had bought him for about 2 hours straight. This boy loves cars!

8. I enjoyed having Ian nap on me today. He fell asleep in my arms at the library at 11:05am. I let him sleep because normally it's a challenge to keep him under control during story time. That nap ended when I put him in the carseat. Around 3pm he came over to me and put his head on my lap and fell asleep standing up! I picked him up and held him for another brief nap. Tomorrow I'll make sure we get back on track with him taking his nap in the crib, but it's nice every once in a while to hold a sleeping toddler.

9. Have I mentioned how much I like Kellogg's? Well I do. First they were giving the $10 gift cards if you mailed in 10 UPCs. Since I pay no more than $1.50 for a box of cereal, that means those boxes cost me only 50 cents each. Then they've been doing another promotion where you get a $5 gift card for 4 boxes of cereal, which means I've been paying only 25 cents per box (and that offer didn't even involve a postage stamp as you just entered a code from the box online). I am mentioning it right now because three $5 VISA cards came in the mail today from Kellogg's. I have quite a stockpile of Raisin Bran right now because of these deals. Nadia, Paul, and I all like Raisin Bran. It will be eaten!

10. We received a box in the mail on Wednesday, which was a surprise from Paul's mom. It contained some beautiful clothing for the kids such as the "Big Sis" outfit Nadia wore today. Thanks, Grandma!

Ups and Downs

1. Today was Ian's last day of speech therapy. WOOHOO! His therapist said we couldn't discontinue the services until his next quarterly review, but I called our EI office and found that we could end it now. The speech therapist said that Ian is now at a two-year-old level, and he won't be two for three more months. YAY!

2. Ian's struggles with diaper rash have gotten worse again. He goes from no diaper rash to diaper rash so awful that he's bleeding in a very short amount of time. I am changing his diaper very often, and sometimes I still don't change it soon enough. He is pooping SO SO SO many times a day. Does anyone have a recommendation of a food to feed him that would help "bind him up?" It's not bananas for him.

3. We took the kids to Sears this morning for photos. I felt guilty to leave without paying anything, so I bought one sheet of photos for $10 in addition to the free photos I was given. Nadia had some "okay" pictures, but I learned in June not to "settle." I love this picture of Ian (above). It was tough to get Ian to stand or sit where he was supposed to be. He's a boy on the go! I didn't buy any of the pictures of Nadia by herself.

4. Ian is gaining weight again! I weighed him on Tuesday, and he gained 8 ounces in 7 days. That's a big relief! I emailed Dr. Williams a couple of days ago asking if it was time to set up an appointment to work on teaching Ian to chew, but he hasn't responded yet, which is unusual for him. I'm hoping to have an appointment with him in October to work on that.

5. I got a statement from the PSU health insurance yesterday saying that our balance for one of the bills from Ian's first endoscopy is over $8K. This has me a bit stressed out to put it mildly! I keep trying to remind myself that worrying doesn't help anything. "Cast your cares" I keep repeating to myself. I'm hoping that CHOP won't pass this on to us as evidently they exceeded the "usual and customary." We stayed in network to avoid such bills! I could have gone 30 minutes away rather than 3 hours away if I was going to pay a bill like that. I'm praying that between the insurance or CHOP we won't actually have to pay this bill. What made my anxiety much greater is knowing that there were two other surgeries since then, and one of those surgeries was MUCH more expensive. Seeing this statement caused me to be really nervous about what other bills they might not agree to pay. Up until this point, we had only paid our $75 deductible (per person), and other than that we hadn't been paying anything for doctor appointments or surgeries because we had been staying "in-network." The upside is that we're now back on Blue Shield insurance although I still don't know what the effective date was for that. I emailed HR about that early this morning, and they haven't written me back yet. I'm hoping to hear back from HR tomorrow.

6. We've had a nice visit with my mom this week. Grandma will be returning to MD tomorrow. We'll miss her! The good news is that Daddy is traveling back to the US tomorrow. He's due to arrive home very early on Saturday (as in around 1:30am). He knew he was going to tour a castle on Wednesday, but he didn't know he'd also get to tour a WWI museum. That was one of the highlights of his trip! He wasn't keen on how long dinner took every night because he didn't get back to his room until around midnight every night. Ian, Nadia, and I can't wait to give Daddy a big hug! I am curious to see what he got the kids. It's going to be hard to top the pillow he got Nadia in Poland last year. I'm always intrigued by what Nadia says thanks for in her prayers. Her pillow is mentioned in almost every single prayer. The one that cracks me up the most is that she often thanks God for her curtains. I don't know that I've ever mentioned the word "curtain" in any of my prayers.

Square and Star

There are some shapes pictured on one of the pieces of playground equipment at the park we walk to whenever the weather permits. On Sunday Ian pointed to the square and said "square." I was thrilled! Today he again identified the square and also pointed to the star and said "star." Way to go, Ian! Grandma was also happy because he said her name a few times today (sounds like Gramma). Grandma noticed a big change in his expressive vocabulary over the past month, as the last time she had seen him was our trip in Florida a few weeks ago. He's also making progress with eating, but that progress feels much slower to me, especially when I spoke with a woman at ladies Bible study today. Her grandaughter is 5 days younger than Ian, and last spring from what she said it seemed that Ian and Zoe were at about the same place in their feeding struggles.  Zoe has been having OT in the home every week plus going to see a feeding team once a week, and she's definitely surpassed Ian because she can now feed herself a banana. This obviously implies that she's learned to chew. She has reflux, which did some damage to her esophagus, but she doesn't have any food allergies. My mom was pleased to see the progress he's made with eating over the last month in that I'm no longer holding his face or hand, and sometimes he'll eat without crying.

As far as naps go, we had a really rough time on Sunday as he cried for 50 minutes before he fell asleep. It had been a long time since he had cried longer than 20 minutes. The problem was that then the timer went off after he had only been asleep for 10 minutes, and it woke him up. Needless to say, I'm not interested in using that timer any more. Yesterday he amazed me by crying for only 5 minutes and then sleeping for 35 minutes. Go figure. I just never know what to expect when I put him down for his nap. Today he didn't nap in his crib because he took a really early nap in someone's arms in the church nursery (when I peeked in the nursery at 10am he was already asleep!), and then he took a brief nap in the stroller around 4pm en route to the playground. I woke him up once we arrived at the park, and he wasn't very pleased with me for interrupting his siesta. I love this boy dearly, but it is a challenge to get him to eat solid food or take a decent nap in his crib!

My "grandson" is allergic to cinnamon

When we reintroduced eggs, at first I thought he was still allergic to them because he developed a rash on his face (like he did in December when he got the flu shot, which also has egg in it). I then figured out that it wasn't the pineapple cake that was giving him a rash, but the oatmeal I had given him. To test this theory, I didn't give him any cinnamon for a few days. His rash didn't reappear until I reintroduced cinnamon yesterday. I gave him apple and cinnamon oatmeal. The rash went away so I decided to try one more time (just to be sure), and the rash came back immediately. He already couldn't have any of the "fruit and cream" types of oatmeal (ex. strawberry, peach, etc.) because they have milk in them. Cinnamon roll and apples and cinnamon have now also been eliminated. It seems he's down to the "maple and brown sugar" variety. That oatmeal plus bananas are definitely his favorite thing to eat. I really feel like we can't make any more progress until he learns to chew. I can't really put bigger chunks of food on the spoon since he's just swallowing everything.

Coconut milk yogurt is really thin (runny), which makes it a challenge to feed it without spilling some. I made the mistake today of mixing in some baby cereal to thicken it up (and also boost the caloric density). I think part of the reason Ian likes yogurt so much is because it's so "low" in the texture department. I spoiled that by adding cereal. Oops. I won't do that again. I'll let him eat his yogurt as is in the future because it's nice to have a non-confrontational meal every once in a while. He doesn't gag on the spaghetti noodles (cut in very tiny pieces), but he screams his head off when I feed that concoction to him. I made a bean and tomato dish for dinner tonight as my friend, Cheri, came up to visit for a couple of hours. Raisins did the trick again for Nadia. I hope raisins keep working until Nadia outgrows the "picky eating" phase. What a blessing to have discovered such a simple tool in getting her to eat just about anything! If only there was something I could put on the spoon that would get Ian to eat so easily!

This morning as I was holding Ian after picking him up from the nursery, a 6th grade girl asked me, "Is he your grandson?" Oh My Word did that hurt. I immediately flashed back to when I was in middle school and people would assume that I was my brother's mother and that my mom was the grandmother. As I middle schooler I got a kick out of someone thinking I was that "grown up." Now I know what it felt like for my mom to have that comment directed toward her. It was probably harder for her because (thus far anyhow) no adult has said that to me. I kept reminding myself that when I was a first year teacher (and only 20 years old) my sixth graders called me an "old fogey." Kids that age aren't good judges of age, right? Please tell me they're not because it didn't feel good to have someone think Ian was my grandson. The other "hardest" question I've been asked about Ian thus far was when someone last month asked me if he had Down Syndrome. Ouch. What makes that comment harder to take is that so many people (including the girl today who thought he was my grandson) say he "has my face." I definitely agree that Nadia favors Paul, and Ian favors me. I'm far more selective in which pictures I post of Ian than I am of Nadia as there are definitely some pictures in which he looks like he's "special." Of course I think both of them are ADORABLE!

Pulling My Arm

I know I probably sound like a broken record (is that expression outdated?), but I enjoy the children's expressive language development. At the dinner table yesterday evening Nadia asked me to "pull her arms down." She was really asking me to roll up her sleeves so she woudln't get food on them. That little faux pas cracked me up! She also was really into the word "reason" yesterday. She used the word All Day Long. For example (while coloring), "I picked blue for no reason." Sometimes it's so hard not to laugh!

Ian has been improving by leaps and bounds. The number of words that he pronounces completely correctly has really been improving. Here are some of the words he says that I think anyone could understand: play, door, car, shoe, apple, no, ball, wall, read, eye, bye, whale, wheel, toy, Nadia, uh oh, wow, rain, water, mail, cookie, Ian, and morning. He used to call Nadia "Na," but now he calls her Naia. He says three syllables, but the "d" is missing. That is exactly how Nadia said her own name when she was this age! I think the next area he needs to develop in is to start saying two words together more often. It's still very rare for him to say more than one word at a time.

Paul began his trip to Italy yesterday. He drove to State College, flew from there to Detroit, and after two more flights and a bus trip, he should have arrived at his hotel in Trento, Italy. I tried calling him at 2:30pm today, which was 8:30pm in Italy, but he hadn't arrived at the hotel yet. His journey took more than 24 hours as he had left our house around 2pm yesterday. In honor of his trip, I checked out two books for Nadia that take place in Italy at the library yesterday (Madeline and the Cats of Rome and Olivia Goes to Venice). Paul's parents came up to our house this afternoon. We went up to the mall to visit a Petco (Ian said "wow" many times while looking at the fish tanks) and Hooplas and to have dinner at Friendly's. Paul's mom had brought up some coconut milk yogurt, and this meant I was able to feed Ian solid food in a public place for the first time in a long time because he can eat that without crying. If the yogurt wasn't so expensive ($2 each), I'd feed him a few of those every single day.

Ian has been waking up a bit earlier lately (such as 6:30am), but he just fusses/whimpers for a couple of minutes, and if I don't go get him, he's quiet for another 30 minutes. I've been sticking to the "rule" of not getting him prior to 7:00am. Nadia has been back to taking a nap every day. Whew. On Thursday Ian's nap was only 10 minutes long. Ugh. Yesterday he cried for 20 mintues and then slept for 30 minutes. Today he cried for 20 minutes and then slept for 25 minutes. Yesterday I got him right after he woke up. Today I let him cry for 15 minutes as Karen had said he needs to learn soothing skills and should stay in his crib for at least one hour. I have a hard time letting him cry at the end because he doesn't seem to be learning anything from that experience. I have no trouble letting him cry prior to his nap.

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A couple of weeks ago I received emails from both Sears and Picture Me studios saying I had won a free $50 photo shoot. Normally you can buy a really package for under $10, but the glitch is that if you go with that deal all the prints have to be of the same pose. This deal didn't have any such restrictions. It caught my eye that I could get free prints of multiple poses. I hadn't planned on going to a studio this month. I was planning to go once this fall for a family photo and then in December for Ian's 2 year pictures as well as Nadia's Christmas ones. However, I'm not going to turn down free pictures. They also were running a lot of other really good deals such as 10 pages of prints (you pick the sizes) plus a CD for $50 (with the CD I could make our Christmas cards with that photo). So we had decided to try to get the annual family photo at Walmart today and the kids' costume photos at Sears next Thursday. I picked next Thursday morning as my mom will be here, and it's much easier to manage the kids at a photo session with two adults present.

This morning I was a woman on a mission. I gave the kids baths, picked out coordinating outfits for everyone, ironed some clothes (and I go many months without ironing), got the kids and I dressed (which included painting Nadia's nails and putting makeup on my face for the first time in many months), and got everyone in the car by 9:40am. We walked into the studio right on time at 10:00am. The photographer wasn't there yet, but I didn't think much of it because the studio opens at 10:00. After a little time passed I asked the greeter (who sits right by the studio), and he said he had seen the manager (Jen) earlier that morning. I thought that was strange that she was in Walmart but not in studio since we had an appointment, but I felt encouraged that she should be here any minute. After more time passed I left a message for the district manager and asked at Customer Service. At 10:30 I decided to do a little shopping while Paul waited in the studio. At 10:45 we gave up. We had planned to go to Perkins after our photo shoot as a special meal together as Paul is leaving for Italy tomorrow, and we won't see him for 8 days. As we were driving from Perkins back home, the manager called us to apologize that the photographer who was supposed to be there today hadn't shown up.

She said the manager was on her way now to the studio, and that we could come back at 1pm or 3pm, if we wanted. That wouldn't work for us. She also offered us $25 off our next visit. I wish I had scheduled our family photo for Sears today and the costume shoot at Walmart for next week. How was I to know no one would show up today. We've had better luck at the Walmart studio later, and the family photo is more important to me, which is why I picked Walmart for the family photo. The last picture I have of the four of us together was taken by my sister last October. Too bad we don't live closer to each other so my sister could take our family photo! Chicago is a bit far to travel for a photo shoot. :-)  The ironic thing is that Jen (manager) called yesterday to confirm our session today, and I got an email from the studio this morning as another reminder. I guess they need to be more diligent in reminding their employees when to go to work! It was rather frustrating, but in the grand scheme of things just a tiny inconvenience. One of the items I purchased today was the nightlight that Wyatt has enjoyed, Regina. They had one in stock. Ian has had fun playing with it, but it didn't help with naptime (at least not today anyhow). He screamed for 25 minutes and then slept for 10 minutes. At first I was going to let him cry because 10 minutes is WAY too short for a nap, but I looked and saw that Nadia was sleeping, and since she has had a rough week with naps, I didn't want him to wake her up. So I got him. I was glad she was sleeping and was disappointed that Ian only slept 10 minutes because he had slept at least 30 minutes the last three days.

AWANA!

I didn't participate in AWANA until I was in fourth grade. I helped out with Sparks when I was in high school and college (Sparks is for K-2nd). Some AWANA programs start as young as 2 years old, but the ones around our area start with Cubbies, which is for three and four-year-olds. The church I belong to has AWANA, but I decided to send Nadia to an AWANA program that's really close to our home on Wednesday nights. It's at the church where she went for her first week of VBS. Tonight was her first night, and she loved it! She kept saying over and over (on the way home and as I got her ready for bed), "I had SO much fun." Madeline, a neighbor girl who is 4 years old, was in her group, which was nice. She came home with an AWANA bag and her Cubbie book. The verses are short enough that I'm sure she can memorize one verse a week for Sunday School and one verse a week for Cubbies. I'm really glad that she's excited about being a part of AWANA this year.

I called another local allergist office today to see if I could get Ian an appointment sooner there. Would you believe their first available appointment was two full months from now? I'll stick with the October 20th appointment at the hospital. I am grateful that when we had the initial diagnosis in May of EE that we didn't have to wait one or two months to see an Allergist!

Ian's nap has been slightly longer than usual the past 3 days. It's been 30-40 minutes each day. Because of that I'm not using the timer because I'm not letting him cry after he wakes up. I did order a nightlight like the one that has helped another little boy who is close in age to Ian. I figure it's worth a try!

Nadia has had trouble napping this week. I'm hoping this is just a temporary thing, but if it isn't, then I guess we've moved to the "quiet time" phase. When she didn't fall asleep on Sunday, I didn't think much of it because that had been happening lately about once a month. However when it happened again on Monday, it got my attention, particularly when she then fell asleep in the car en route to ballet at 3:30pm. She took her usual nap on Tuesday, but today was the third day this week that she never fell asleep. I have stuck with my rule that she has to stay in bed for 2 hours, and she hasn't given me any grief about it. It's quite hysterical to watch and listen on the video monitor. On Monday afternoon I overheard her giving Larry (the cucumber) a time out. LOL! I wonder what Larry did to deserve a time out?

Would you believe my university has been closed all week? That means that over a span of two weeks, the university was only open 1.5 days. The school district where we go for ivf is just going back tomorrow for the first time as their middle school was destroyed by flooding so they had to come up with a plan as to where to put their 6th-8th grade students, and the school district where my university is located is also not resuming until Monday. We've been told if we want to drink water next week while we're on campus, we'd better bring some with us. I've continued to have office hours online and such this week since I don't teach on campus. I have to reschedule a bunch of meetings and appointments though that were to take place this Friday. So far this schedule of teaching two online classes is going very smoothly for me. I wish I could teach online classes again next semester. I'm grateful I could have this schedule for at least one semester. It's working out very well. I enjoy being able to put the kids to bed; something I can't do very often when I'm teaching night classes.

MOPS and Ballet

Last week I received an email from a woman who is the head of MOPS group that I visited once (February 2010). I had joined a different MOPS group in September 2009, but last year I decided not to join any MOPS groups because crafts seemed to me a main feature of the program, and I'm not much into crafts. Also, the MOPS group I used to attend meets one Wednesday a month, and Nadia has gymnastics on Wednesday mornings. This MOPS program takes just as long to get to (25 minutes), but is closer in terms of mileage. This MOPS group has meetings twice a month on Monday mornings. We don't have any Monday morning commitments, so at the last minute I decided to give MOPS a try one more time as I don't think this group does as many crafts. When I first walked into the group, I have to admit I felt out of place because the women appeared to be in their 20's. Thankfully a few others came in who seemed closer to my age. I am sure I was the oldest one there, but at least there were some there who I think are maybe only 6 years younger than me. Normally I wouldn't care about age, but I think it's because most of the time when I have contact with someone who is in their early 20's, it's because I'm their professor and because we're about to try for one more baby, and I don't like feeling like I'm "too old." I'm hoping that maybe I can make one friend in this group. By friend I mean someone I have contact with outside of MOPS - calling each other on the phone or getting together now and then. One mom understood about Ian's esophagitis because her three year old was recently diagnosed with a different esophagus problem (a motility issue). Her daughter also had an upper gi x-ray, endoscopy, etc. Ian screamed when I first dropped him off (as usual), but they said he didn't cry for very long. Nadia had a great time in the Moppets program. She asked when we're going back. :-)

Yesterday was Nadia's first day of ballet. I signed her up for a "Baby Ballet" class that meets from 4:00-4:45 on Mondays. There are 5 girls in her class, one of whom (Allie) is also in her gymanstics class. She loves it! Ian also enjoyed wearing her ballet slippers around the house yesterday, lol. Christine (dance teacher) asks that parents of three-year-olds stay in the waiting room during the class in case your child needs to go to the bathroom during the class. I had Nadia go to the bathroom right before we left, and she doesn't go very many times a day. I gave Allie's mom my cell phone number and told her I'd be walking with Ian outside. Aside from when he got mad because I wouldn't let him run out into the road and get run over, we had a nice time walking in a park that is very close to the dance studio. If we are still in this area next year, I'll probably enroll her in the "Itty Bitty Ballet/Tap" class for four year olds.

I also scheduled two doctor appointments yesterday. Unfortunately the earliest I could get Ian in to see the local pediatric allergist was October 20th. Hopefully the current allergist will keep giving us advice over the phone until that point. We also scheduled our first ivf appointment for October 27. I'm excited. How many people get excited about an appointment that involves bloodwork, a mock transfer, paperwork, etc? Of course I'm not really excited about that stuff but rather the fact that it represents the first steps toward possibly one last miracle baby. Regina, if I do become pregnant, I agree with you 10000% percent that I'll be praying for a full-term baby. I would really, really, really like to avoid even a brief NICU stay if we have a third baby, especially after knowing what a long road you've been on with your twins for the last almost 2 years.

18 to 21 months: A comparison

Nadia at 18 months (12-24-2009)

1. At 21 months Nadia had 14 teeth. Ian has 8 teeth.

2. At 21 months Nadia was wearing 24 month or 2T clothing with the excption of pants (18 months). Ian is currently wearing size 18 month clothing, and there are actually some 18 month shorts that he can't wear because his waist is too small (they just fall right off of him). As for pants, he still wears size 12 months. He can wear some 24 month size shirts although the 18 month ones still fit him perfectly.

3. Nadia was perfecting her skills with using a fork and spoon to feed herself. We're still working on getting Ian to eat pureed food that I feed him by spoon. A fork has never entered his mouth. Of course Nadia never had to deal with eosinophilic esophagitis or reflux.

4. Nadia was very friendly at this age with waving and saying "hi" and "bye bye" to strangers at the grocery store and such. Ian doesn't interact with strangers At All.

5. Nadia was perfectly content to walk around the house barefoot. Ian wants to have his shoes on all the time. He also is more interested in dressing up than she was at this age. He loves wearing hats for example.

Ian at 18 months (6-12-11)

6. At this age we were impressed with Nadia's memory and also her sense of humor. Ian's language isn't developed enough yet for us to be aware of his sense of humor.

7. Nadia could identify several colors at 21 months old. I am not aware that Ian knows any of his colors yet, but he can count to five!

8. Ian took off during this time period in terms of his vocabulary. His expressive vocabulary was about 100 words at 21 months. Nadia's was over 200 words at 20 months. Nadia was already speaking in sentences at this stage. Ian has said a couple of two word combinations (like "shoe on"), but usually he just says one word at a time.

Nadia at 21 months (3-24-10)

9. Both kids went to bed between 7:45-8:00pm at this age. Although Nadia occasionally slept until 7:30am, it was pretty rare for her. She usually got up between 6:00-6:30. By 21 months old Ian was sleeping until at least 7:00am and sometimes as late as 8:00am.

10. Both kids went down for their (one) nap sometime between 12pm and 1pm when they were this age. Nadia's nap was 90 minutes to 3 hours long. Ian's is typically 15-25 minutes long.

11. Nadia could do simple puzzles at this age and engaged in imaginary play. Ian hasn't gotten into either of those yet. He spends more time looking at books and playing independently than Nadia did at this age. He also shows far more interest in vehicles than she ever did.

12. Ian is a boy on the GO. He just wants to run, run, run (far more than Nadia did at this age). He also throws, hits, and kicks a lot more than she ever did. We're working on that!

13. During this time span Ian had speech therapy and occupational therapy once a week, saw a psychologist, allergist, GI doctor, and urologist, and was under general anesthesia 3 times in the last 4 months. Nadia has never been seen by any of those medical professionals or ever been under anesthesia.

14. Nadia sucked her thumb for comfort whereas Ian soothes himself by touching his belly button. In the church nursery he has gotten other kids interested in belly buttons also, lol.

15. Nadia was in the "me do it" stage during this time span. She'd say her name as her way of saying she wanted to do it on her own. Ian hasn't shown any interest in doing things independently yet.

16. Both kids threw lots of tantrums during this age span, loved hugs, and brought us incredible joy!

21 Months Old

1. We are in the tantrum phase of toddlerhood. He always voices his displeasure when he does not get his way!

2. His vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds the past 3 months. I'd estimate he has said at least 100 different words as my list has over 80, and I'm sure I've missed a few along the way. His pronunciation is also getting better and better as the days go by. When Karen (OT) came a few days ago, she said that Christine (speech) had told her that Ian was now talking up a storm. That was music to my ears!

3. He loves to point and say the name of body parts, such as eye and belly button. Elbow is one of his favorite ones to say. Thus far I haven't been able to convince him that knees aren't elbows. I'll keep working on that! :-)

4. He's taking one nap a day in his crib (15-25 minutes long) and sometimes takes a second nap in the stroller or car seat. We're trying to get him to at least have one hour of "quiet time," but thus far it's more like scream your head off time. Today he suprirsed me by taking a LONG nap (40 minutes). It's the first time since we were in Florida that this happened. Oh how I would love it if this became the norm! Yesterday he took a 30 minute nap in the nursery in someone's arms, but I don't let him sleep in my arms at home any more.

5. He totally has the sleeping through the night thing down pat! WOOHOO! He almost always sleeps at least 11 hours, and sometimes he sleeps as long as 12 hours straight. Way to go, Ian!!!

6. As long as he can see me, he plays very well by himself. He'll even play in the living room or dining room by himself if he knows I'm in the family room.

7. He still LOVES vehicles of all sorts.

8. He loves to lick finger foods. Unfortunately he goes through them MUCH faster than before, which makes me feel like we're wasting an awful lot of food since none of it goes down his throat. The finger foods I give him the most frequently are pretzels, saltine crackers, and Wheat Thins (because they don't contain milk or soy).

9. He will drink any version of warm milk. During the last month we transitioned from EleCare to vanilla flavored almond milk. He doesn't seem to care as long as it's warm and served in the right sippy cup.

10. He has eight teeth - all canines.

11. He weighs 24.25 lbs which puts him at the 16th percentile, which represents a slight drop. I knew he was going to probably lose a little weight with the new rule of only getting a bite of food if he isn't crying. I'll keep monitoring his weight closely to make sure he doesn't lose TOO much weight. He hasn't seen a nutritionist in a few months, Regina.

12. He can count to five!

13. He makes the cutest sounds for a car (vroom, vroom), train (choo choo), and fire engine (woowoo). I have got to get these recorded on video!

14. He loves to run. This makes things like eating at a sit down restaurant a big challenge. Basically one parent eats and sits with Nadia while the other chases Ian, and then we trade places. It also makes gymanstics and library time a challenge. I admit as much as I don't want to rush their growth, I am looking forward to the day when Ian can sit still for longer periods of time.

15. He loves to play the drums. Anything can be a drum for Ian. This boy loves to drum, drum, drum.

16. Ian is a Mommy's boy. It's gotten a bit ridiculous in that he cries even when I hand him off to Paul for a few minutes. Daddy's feelings have been hurt. :-(

17. Ian enjoys the joint compressions, and he has no objections to me moving a toothbrush around anywhere in his mouth. He's still not crazy about the scalp massages or having his hair cut. He's getting better about having his face washed, and it's no longer a big deal at all to clip his fingernails.

18. Eggs have been reintroduced into Ian's diet for the first time in almost 7 months. He also went off Prevacid and Pulmicort in the last month. He's not throwing up At All. YAHOO! When Ian was first diagnosed with EE, I admit I did very little research other than to make sure that the protocol his Allergist was recommending wasn't as "foreign" as the CHOP GI doctors made it seem. Once I saw that yes other doctors used this treatment, I stopped reading about EE. Just in the last week I have been reading more online about EE because I was looking for more guidance regarding reintroducing foods. Now that he's handling the pineapple cake (with 3 eggs in it), does this mean I can serve him a scrambled egg? In trying to answer that question, I read a lot more about EE. Let me tell you I've been stunned. EE is a disease. I am not sure why I didn't realize that the past 3 months, but it's true. When you get a clear scope (like he did on August 29th), the disease is considered to be in remission. Reading blogs of other moms who have dealt with EE for years has been a bit scary to put it mildly. Some children are doing fine for years and then bang it all starts up again. It seems quite common for these children to have undergone more than 30 endoscopies within a few years. Somehow the words "disease" and "remission" have made EE seem a lot more serious of a condition than I realized. I hope that Ian's remission lasts for many, many years (or decades!). At least if it doesn't it won't be as shocking to me now that I have a little better picture of what EE can be like.

19. The other 3 members of our family walk around the house barefoot. Not Ian! He is obsessed with shoes, and he gets frustrated when I won't let him wear two pairs of his sandals at the same time, lol!

20. He gets frightened easily if he doesn't feel like he's standing on a familiar surface. For example he wants NO part of the trampoline. He even feels frightened if I put him in a standing position at the top of the slide (on the wood). Those are just two examples. It happens in many different situations. He's not exactly a daredevil. Nadia was definitely braver at his age. He's a bit of a scardey cat at times.

21. He loves to play Ring around the Rosy. He thinks it's hysterical!!