Happy Father's Day!

I have tried each year to make Father's Day a special day for Paul, although I couldn't do much last year while on bed rest. A few days ago I made a batch one of his most favorite cookies (white chocolate butterscotch). Yesterday I helped the kids make 5 cards. Ian and Nadia each made two cards (one for Pop Pop and one for Daddy) on which we placed a handprint. On Ian's cards I wrote "5 reasons I love Daddy/ Pop Pop" followed by the 5 reasons he dictated to me. On Nadia's cards she wrote the words "I love Daddy/ Pop Pop" and also signed her name, and I wrote the 5 reasons that she dictated to me. I thought it would be fun to start doing this every year and see over the years how it changes what they identify as the reasons they love their Dad. On the fifth card I had one handprint from each child (including Oliver). At the top it said #1 and then in each of the three handprints I had written one letter to spell out DAD. I bought Paul and his Dad each a personalized t-shirt with a photo of the three kids on it. I invited Paul's family up to celebrate, and Paul picked the menu - steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, garlic bread, and corn on the cob. Millie brought cheesecake for dessert. Two days ago I restarted our DVD subscription with Netflix that we had gone without for several months so that Paul could watch the movie "Lincoln" this weekend and enjoy a few others dvds over the next few weeks.

The first time I gave Paul a Father's Day card was in 2005 during my first (ectopic) pregnancy. I long for the day I get to meet that child in Heaven. Our child would be seven years old. I remember how thrilled we were to find out that we were finally going to become parents as we had started trying in 2002. When I think of the past eleven years, it strikes me that there has been at least one really difficult, painful aspect related to each child. With Nadia it was the many tears that were shed over the 5.5 years we spent trying to conceive her. Although ivf still involved a lot of physical discomfort, shots, and money with Ian and Oliver, those efforts in comparison seemed to be a cinch since in both cases it happened on the first try in contrast to trying for more than five years for Nadia. The most challenging aspects regarding Ian (thus far) have been his difficulties with sleeping (until he was about 2 1/2) and eating (eosinophilic esophagitis, food allergies, and surgeries). The hardest part of parenting Oliver (thus far) was last summer - the ten weeks of bedrest, many weeks in the hospital, fetal transfusions, his four weeks in the NICU, and the additional ten weeks he was on oxygen. 

 

During Nadia's birth and stay in the NICU, I almost always had someone in the hospital with me (either Paul or my mom). In contrast, when I gave birth to Oliver no family was there (although Paul and my mom came right away). I had him on a Tuesday and that Wednesday through Friday were three of the hardest days of my life because I was all alone, recovering from a c-section, pumping every two hours, and hearing doctors and nurses tell me things that scared me to pieces about Oliver's heart, lungs, etc. Thankfully those challenges are now behind us! I realize that 11 years from now there will be different difficulties that will come to mind as I reflect upon each of our children, but as I think about the past 11 years this is what comes to mind. The blessings and joys have FAR outweighed the heartaches and frustrations. The best parts of our lives the past almost five years have definitely been our three children - their smiles, hugs, kisses, laughter, and making so many precious memories doing many different things together. I am in awe. Sometimes I feel like I need to ask someone to pinch me because I might be dreaming. Parenthood seemed out of our reach for many years, and now we have not just one but three beautiful children. Thank you, Lord!!!

Paul has been an amazing father these past five years. I will never forget how he longed to sit in the rocking chair in the NICU and hold her. The look on his face as he held Nadia in his arms has been etched in my memory. Priceless. The kids get SO excited when he comes home. Playing "whale" (a rough house game they invented) with Daddy is one of Ian and Nadia's most favorite things to do (it made it onto both of their lists). I will be forever grateful that he kept pushing to try ivf for the first time and also that he then agreed with my request to do ivf a second and a third time. I always dreamed of having 3-4 kids, and that's exactly what I have at the moment if you count the frozen blastocyst waiting for us at the hospital. Considering how long the road was to having Nadia, I truly thought she might end up being our only child. I am so thankful that the Lord gave her two brothers, and maybe the Lord will answer her request for a sister. Time will tell. I am very thankful for the pictures I got today of Paul and our kiddos. Now next year hopefully we can get ones like this with me in them for Mother's Day. I shouldn't wait a year to try to get one of me with all three kids. I can't believe it took me almost five years to figure out that our front porch is a nice place for taking photos (when it's not freezing cold outside anyhow). Better late than never, ha ha!

Thankful Thursday

1. Our trip to Sesame Place was fabulous despite the freezing water!

2. My dad left MD on Monday to fly to be with my brother in Brazil. He arrived there safely on Tuesday, and he didn't have any problem going through customs with all the science equipment (microscope, telescopes, binoculars, etc.) for Maurice.

3. My brother had a wonderful first year teaching at Amazon Valley Academy. The seniors surprised him by dedicating the yearbook to him. The dedication was really touching.

4. I've been able to submit a few more applications for Paul this past week. We're up to 79 now. Many months ago my mom said we might have to submit 100 applications. To be honest, I didn't think that was a plausible scenario, but it turns out she was right. The last six applications went to schools in Georgia, Arizona, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.

5. Paul has an interview this afternoon via Skype, and he has a phone interview scheduled during the last week of June with the school where I taught the past 9 years. Maybe that's why no one has asked to see our house? Maybe we're not moving? I was going to do some more packing tomorrow. Hmmm

6. Our grocery store had some amazing specials for three days starting last Thursday. For example, they had boxes of Post cereal (Raisin Bran, Honeycombs, etc.) on sale for 99 cents each without a coupon. Wow!

7. On Monday morning I let Oliver cry from 4:30-5:15am, and he then slept until 7:05am. On Tuesday he woke up at 5:15am, and I let him cry but he never fell back asleep. When he woke up at 5:30am yesterday he hadn't even slept 9 hours so I decided to let him cry even though it hadn't worked on Tuesday. It proved to be the right decision because after crying for about 45 minutes he slept until 7:35, which meant he slept a total of 10.25 hours. Since his naps (put together) rarely exceed 90 minutes total, he really needs to sleep at least 10 hours at night.

There hasn't been any improvement with his naps. Yesterday his morning nap was 20 minutes and his afternoon was 40 minutes long. Sob. This morning he slept until 6:05, which meant he slept a little over 10 hours without any crying involved.

8. Ian and Nadia have had such a great time at VBS! The slip and slide was a blast last night (as seen in the photos here).

9. We visited the pool we joined for the summer for the first time yesterday afternoon! The water in the kiddie pool was nice so Oliver and I stayed in there. Nadia and Ian spent some time in the big pool, but most of the time they also stayed in the warmer water. We should have a lot of fun there this summer!

3.5 Years Old!

Ian's half-birthday is today! He's grown SO much over the past year.

1. At 2.5 years old he was drinking Elecare out of a small plastic shot glass. Now he drinks water, apple juice, or Elecare from any type of glass (with or without a straw).

2. At this time last year we were avoiding milk, soy, peanuts, eggs, cinnamon, and oats. We haven't given him milk to drink yet, but other than that he has a normal diet!

3. He's gotten much braver on playground equipment although he's still nowhere near as brave as most kids his age are.

4. He needs work on remembering to say '"please," but he usually remembers to say "thank you" and "you're welcome." Many times throughout the day he says really sweet things such as "Nadia, you're the best" or "Mommy that's such a pretty shirt." He melts my heart!

5. He can do small jigsaw puzzles all by himself (ex. 24 pieces), and he helps us when we work on 150 or 300 piece puzzles with Nadia.

6. He loves to play hide and seek. He hasn't learned to be quiet when he's hiding so he's easy to find!

7. He's starting to show signs of readiness to learn to dress himself. He puts on his own shoes and sometimes he pulls his underwear and shorts up after he goes to the bathroom.

8. He's very conscious of the temperature of his food and drinks. He won't eat ice cream because it's too cold. He likes his Elecare warm - not hot and not cold.

9. Almost every morning he has a bagel for breakfast. Sometimes he has cold cereal. He almost always has a wowbutter and jelly sandwich on toast for lunch. His most favorite foods for dinner are pancakes or pizza. He throws up at dinner about twice a week on average usually because he tries to swallow something without chewing it enough. It's such a relief that there are a few foods he can now feed himself!

10. He's absolutely loving participating in VBS and the musical at the Alliance church.

11. He takes one nap a day that is on average one hour long. he falls asleep very quickly at night (unlike his sister), but he usually wakes up before her. Thankfully he's been waking up around 7am more often lately. For awhile there he was up by 6:15 every morning. There are still times when he is prone to burst into tears after he wakes up from his nap, but it's becoming more and more infrequent. YAY!

12. He likes to pull his shorts down so that the waistband is well below his belly button. The problem is that then his "crack" shows. I have to remind him to pull up his pants 50 million times a day so that his bottom isn't showing. Oi vey.

She's reading!

As a mom I've discovered it can be hard to identify precisely when a milestone has been achieved. Do you say your child has her "first tooth" when a portion of that tooth has broken through the gum or do you wait until the entire tooth has emerged? We haven't experienced losing a tooth yet (although my nephew Adam lost his first tooth within the past week), but that one is clearly much simpler to pinpoint. I have considered my child to have their first tooth as soon as any part of that tooth could be seen and touched, but with walking I didn't consider either of them to be walking until they were talking quite a few steps at one time. A few months ago I started to work with Nadia on reading, and she did sound some words out, but most of the time it seemed she was trying to either memorize the words or guess by looking at the accompanying illustration. I decided to take a break and try again in the future.

Last week was the first time we got out the BOB books since the break, and I was amazed because the very first time we got them out she read all 12 BOB books with little help even though she had never seen half of them before. It was at that point (last week) that I said to myself - she's reading!!! I am trying to work on her confidence and patience more than anything. She gets frustrated and gives up too quickly. To celebrate her accomplishment, I gave her the Annie CD that I had originally planned to be one of her birthday gifts later this month.  Some other skills she has mastered in the past month include counting by tens to one hundred, being able to accurately identify her right versus left hand and foot, identifying some three dimensional shapes (cone, cube, sphere, and cylinder), and writing her numbers. We only have 6 pages left in the almost 100 page Kindergarten handwriting book. The numbers that are the hardest for her to write are 2, 3, and 5. She has learned how to write all her lowercase letters, but aside from the letter "i" she prefers to write in uppercase all the time.

 

Ian's first VBS

Nadia went to VBS for the first time in June 2011. She turned 3 years old that week. That summer she went to three weeks of VBS. The first was at the church where she goes to AWANA, and that church uses Group's, which seems to be the most popular curriculum. Her second VBS was at a church right next to the first one, and they use Go Fish's VBS curriculum. Our church has used a varity of VBS curricula the past few years, including one from Answers in Genesis. I helped as a teacher in 2011. I had volunteered to help last year, but I couldn't due to the hospitalizations. Nadia only went to one VBS last year. Last night Nadia and Ian went to the VBS where she goes to AWANA. It was Ian's first time at VBS (not counting when he was in the nursery at our church's VBS in 2011). He loved it! They have three preschool classes, and Nadia and Ian were in different classes. Ian was in the same class as Cooper (one of our neighbors). The kids are very excited about going back tonight. 

 

Group's theme this year is "Kingdom Rock," and they had the sanctuary decked out like a castle. Ian especially liked the knights. This VBS lasts from 6:00-8:30pm so the kids will be going to bed an hour later than usual this week. The church that uses the Go Fish curriculm is having their VBS the same week as our church so they'll just be doing two weeks of VBS this summer. For the first time since we've been going to this church, they're also using Group's curriculum. I'm sure it won't hurt the kids to do the Kingdom Rock curriculum twice this summer. I'll be teaching at our VBS next month. I signed them up for this VBS before I knew our church was also doing Kingdom Rock. Nadia is looking forward to doing the slip and slide on Wednesday night.

Yesterday morning was the first Sunday that our church implemented a change regarding Wee Worship. Sunday School goes from 9:00-10:00. In the past the kids (ages 2-5) would go straight to Wee Worship at 10:00 and stay there until the morning worship service was over (usually around 12:00). Lately I had been picking Nadia up from Wee Worship at 10:30 to take her to the worship service. I didn't pick her up at 10:00 because the choir rehearses at that time.

The new system is that the kids (ages 2 and up) are to be picked up from Sunday School at 10:00 and stay with their parents until the offering is taken. I would estimate this would usually end up being sometime between 11:00-11:15. Yesterday they honored those graduating from high school or college prior to the offering. I hadn't planned to start bringing Ian with me until Nadia had fully learned to behave properly in the worship service, which hadn't happened yet.

The upside is that Ian will start to learn how to behave in a worship service earlier than I planned. Because Nadia came into the worship service earlier than she had been lately, she opted not to stay for the whole service, which disappointed me. Starting in September I'm not going to give her a choice. Once our kids are old enough to be in Kindergarten I think they're old enough to stay through the entire service each week. I'm going to find some other room in the church to stay with Nadia and Ian until 10:30 (maybe the room where I'm teaching the 3rd-5th grade Sunday School class) andwait until right before the church service starts to enter the sanctuary. I'm hoping this might help Nadia choose to stay for the whole service as she had been the last couple of months. I'm not sure what I'll do if we are still going to this church in September because the choir is supposed to rehearse starting at 10:00. I have been okay with leaving Nadia by herself in the pew while I go up to the choir loft to sing, but there's no way I'd leave Ian and Nadia by themselves in the pew.

Teaching the kids how to behave in a worship service is really important. The last couple of months I've discovered though that the downside of that is the service isn't nearly as worshipful for me as I'm so focused on her (or their) behavior. I admit that over the past almost 5 years I've really appreciated the chance to be still in church, and that isn't likely to be true in a worship service again until all the kids are much older. Being a parent really changes every aspect of your life! I'm very glad that I started putting Oliver in the nursery a few months ago. I need to teach Ian how to whisper. He really wanted to know if those graduates were going to open their presents, lol. Last Sunday the kids looked so cute in Sunday School because Sarah (their wonderful teacher) made them "coats of many colors" out of paper grocery bags for their lesson on Joseph. Nadia asked me recently when they were going to her house again (probably never now that I am a stay-at-home mom). They love Sarah very much!

This morning Oliver woke up at 4:30am, and I implemented the rule that he has to sleep a minimum of 10 hours. He cried for 45 minutes and then slept almost 2 more hours. It was heavenly to get up at 7:00 as I've been getting up by 5:30 at the latest every day for weeks. This meant he got a total of 10.5 hours of sleep last night. I was grateful that CIO actually resulted in more sleep for him this morning. A few days ago I let him cry for one hour after a 15 minute nap in the hopes he'd fall back asleep, but it didn't work. I had decided not to let him CIO with naps any more, but I will use it at night if it helps him sleep almost two more hours. At the moment his pattern (for naps) seems to be that his morning nap is 15-30 minutes long and his afternoon nap is 1-2 hours long. I need to adjust our schedule accordingly. I used to do schoolwork with Nadia during his morning nap, but that was when his morning nap was at least 90 minutes long. One must roll with the punches! I'm very grateful that his afternoon nap is starting to lengthen. It used to be three hours long, but two hours is much better than 15-30 minutes!

The swimming pool we joined this summer opened on Saturday. It was warm enough yesterday (low 80's and sunny) to go swimming, but after our experience at Sesame Place I was reminded that one has to take into account the water temperature, not just the air temperature. I am guessing the pool water is frigid so we stayed home although I would have enjoyed a dip in the pool after mowing the lawn yesterday afternoon. It's raining today, but hopefully sometime in the not so distant future we'll be able to go swimming at our pool for the first time. We joined this pool last summer, but they graciously gave us our money back since we couldn't make use of it. I have been trying so hard to be patient with being "up in the air" regarding where we'll be living in August, but I admit it's starting to drive me crazy because I feel like I can't make any plans (and I'm the type of person who usually plans way in advance). I haven't signed the kids up for soccer or gymanstics, and I have started to see advertisements for theatre productions that I'd take the kids to if I knew we were staying in the area. I must repeat to myself that God is in control, and we'll just have to wait and see. Paul has been working on his teaching demonstration for his interview on Thursday. I never in a million years dreamed we might move to Kansas, but that may be what the Lord has in store for us!

 

 

Sesame Place!

Yesterday was a very special and exhausting day. Oliver decided to start the day at 4:50am. I was not thrilled. I've decided nine hours is not enough sleep for him, particularly since his naps are drastically shorter these days. He's getting about 11 hours of total sleep a day, and I know infants are supposed to get about that much just at night (not including naps). Starting tomorrow, he is going to have to sleep at the minimum 10 hours at night, and I plan to gradually increase that to 11 hours.

By 7:00am all five of us were in the van and headed to Sesame Place, which is a little less than 3 hours away from us (very close to Philadelphia). It was a cloudy day, but aside from a little sprinkling once, it wasn't a rainy day. The recorded high was 77 degrees, which would have been perfect for a dry amusement park, but was a bit cooler than desired for one that has a lot of wet rides. Also, since it is early in the season the water temperature was downright frigid. If Paul and I had been at Dorney Park yesterday, we would have only ridden the dry rides, but because we love our children very much, we went on the water slides with them at Sesame Place yesterday.

We walked through the gates 15 minutes after the park opened, and we left 5 minutes before the park closed at 8pm. We did quite a bit during the 10 hours we spent at the park. Nadia started and ended the day with the roller coaster. Ian opted not to ride it in the morning. He chose to get his picture taken with Murray instead. However the roller coaster was the last ride he rode on our way out of the park. Because both children needed to ride with an adult, and one of us needed to stay behind with Oliver, Paul had to take each child separately. At the Magic Kingdom handheld infants can ride most of the rides, and at Knoebels there are many rides Nadia and Ian can ride without an adult. It definitely would have been better if Oliver hadn't come along or if we had a third adult with us. He was a trouper though! He spent an awful lot of time in the stroller, and he was very good. He enjoyed the parades and shows. He fussed and cried during portions of the drive to Sesame Place, but he slept almost the whole way home. Unlike our awful experience driving home from the airport a few weeks ago, all three were asleep for the last 90 minutes of our trip home yesterday.

We started the day with dry rides and then after watching a show featuring Angelina Ballerina at 12:45, we headed to the water rides. After the 3pm parade, we had an early dinner. I had packed some snacks, which had served as our light lunch. Ian was literally falling asleep sitting at the table eating his pizza. I had to keep waking him up. Others around us were amused at the sight. I thought he might take a nap after that, but he didn't have a nap yesterday, which is almost unheard of for Ian. After our meal I went on some water rides with the kids, and then thankfully Paul took over and did the rest of the water rides with them. There were four different shows playing at various times throughout the day. We went to two of them. The second show we attended was at 6pm, and it featured Abby Cadabby, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie, etc. We watched the second half of the 7pm parade as well.The parades weren't as professional as Disney's, but the kids were just as enthralled. The lines weren't too long. Sometimes the wait was 5 minutes or less, but the longest wait we experienced was about 20 minutes. Unlike Disney, it is very easy to get lots of pictures with the characters. We waited at the most 5 minutes for each photo opportunity. The only ones we didn't get that the kids were hoping for was Cookie Monster (Ian) and Zoe (Nadia), but they did get their pictures taken with Bert, Ernie, Elmo, Big Bird, Abby Cadabby, Oscar the Grouch, Super Grover, and Murray.

All in all we had a fabulous day. The cold water didn't faze the kids. They kept asking to go again, and again, and again down the water slides. They adored the wave pool (water depth of one foot). None of us had been there before, but if we don't move too far away, I expect we'll be coming back again in the future. It's a great park for kids ages 2-7. They have just about everything you could think of - water slides, dry rides, playground equipment, sand areas, shows, swimming pool, splash pads, parades, Sesame Street characters, etc. The park has a lot of things in it, but it's MUCH smaller than Magic Kingdom, which makes for less walking (Yay!). Including our tickets, food, and parking we spent a little less than $150. The Magic Kingdom cost three times as much, and we did an awful lot more at Sesame Place in one day than we did at the Magic Kingdom. I would have to say though that Knoebels is probably still our favorite (at least that is the opinion of Paul and I). Part of the reason we like it so much is because it's much closer (less than an hour away) and also because it's soooo much cheaper (we've never even spent $50 as the parking is free and we only buy handstamps for Nadia and Ian). Because it's closer and much cheaper, we don't feel the need to stay there ALL day, which is easier on Mommy and Daddy. Hopefully we'll head back to Sesame Place when Oliver is older so that he can enjoy the park as much as Nadia and Ian did yesterday. I took over 100 pictures yesterday. I'm just including a few in this post. I'll share more later this week!

 

 

10 Months Old

My baby has hit double digits, in terms of months. Although his head smell isn't as strong as Ian's, when Oliver is snuggled on my chest I sometimes close my eyes and take a whiff and think back to his first weeks. I remember when his head was small enough that it completely fit under my chin. That's no longer true! When I did kangaroo care with him, there were times that a doctor or nurse would do a double take as they tried to find him before they realized he was under my shirt. At less than four pounds he was small enough that unless you looked carefully to spot the wires and tubes coming out of the bottom of my shirt, you couldn't tell I was cuddling my son. Although he's small for a 10 month old, he would make a big enough bump under my shirt to be quickly spotted.

1. You do not like to wear a bib, have your nose wiped, or sit in a carseat (unless you're asleep or Nadia is feeding you a bottle). I don't remember either sibling having an aversion to a bib when they were infants.

2. Your hair has turned blonde. Since yours didn't turn as quickly as your siblings, I thought your hair was going to stay brown. Nope. I have three blonde children although Ian's is by far the lightest.

3. You still love to grab, especially hair and earrings. You removed one of Mandy's earrings (the NP) at your 9 month appointment.

4. You've gotten better with feeding yourself pieces of dry cereal. Picking them up and getting them to your mouth is now easy for you. The part you haven't totally mastered is letting go. It doesn't always make it into your mouth because you are still holding on to it.

5. I've seen you get in a crawling position once thus far (last weekend). You continue to scoot around on your belly, but you always go backwards or in a circle. You haven't moved forward yet. You cry when you back yourself into a wall, door, or piece of furniture. Hopefully you'll start crawling within the next two months.

6. Everything goes in your mouth - toys, clothing, and food. We have to be careful not to leave any paper, flashcards, or books within your reach because otherwise I'm fishing bits of paper out of your mouth. You have two teeth on the bottom. Thankfully you don't bite me when I nurse you first thing in the morning. Although you completely doused one shirt this morning, the amount of times you upchuck has definitely decreased.

7. You are pretty good about riding in the stroller to the playground. You enjoy being in a  baby swing at home or at the playground. Sometimes you cry in the stroller on the way home. You are happy in the shopping cart or stroller for part of a trip to the grocery store, but thus far you haven't stayed happy for an entire shopping trip. I usually end up holding you when we're in the check-out lane.

8. You are still wearing some size 3-6 month clothing, but mostly you are wearing 9 month and even a little 12 month size clothing. You weigh a little less than 17 pounds and are wearing size 3 diapers.

9. Your laughter and smiles bring so much joy to your siblings and parents. Ian can get you laughing very easily. I pray that you two will be close friends in the years to come.

10. We're getting you back to sleeping close to 10 hours at night (last night it was 7:45pm to 5:25am). Our trip to Florida a few weeks ago completely messed you up as far as the length of your naps. I got my hopes up yesterday because both of your naps were 90 minutes long, but this morning your morning nap was a whopping 15 minutes long. Sigh. Hopefully soon you'll get back to taking nice naps like you did for 6+ months before our trip.

Thankful Thursday

1. Paul has interviews and a teaching demonstration lined up for next Thursday afternoon with a community college in Kansas. I am grateful that Paul decided on Sunday that I could start applying to schools farther away. I did one more for Kentucky on Tuesday and another for West Virginia yesterday, which put the total at 74 thus far. Although we really don't want to move to Kansas, it's encouraging to have another interview. It seems as if they are going to make a decision as to whether or not to hire Paul without ever meeting him in person as he is scheduled to talk with the President, VP, Dean, search committee, etc. all by Skype.

2. The weather has been so nice this week. I vastly prefer the 70's to the 90's!!!

3. I have a wonderful husband and three precious children whom I love with all my being.

4. Oliver has had a cold for a week, and yesterday I started to see some signs of improvement. The NP said on Tuesday that his lungs were clear despite his cough. Oliver will be so glad when his nose completely stops running as he does NOT like having it wiped! I am also grateful that the rest of us are healthy.

5. Ian and Nadia are enjoying the musical and are doing a great job learning their Bible verses. Oliver and I attended a picnic at my choir director's house last night while they were at the rehearsal.

9 Month Appointment

I was a bit late in scheduling Oliver's 9 month appointment as he'll turn 10 months old in 3 days. I actually contemplated skipping this well baby visit since there aren't any immunizations involved. I did want to skip the hemaglobin test. I can understand checking that level on a baby who is exclusively breastfed, but it truly seems pointless otherwise because baby cereal and formula are both fortified with iron. I don't know why I have such a hard time saying "no, thank you" to a medical professional. I inteded to refuse that test, and I did voice my objection, but the nurse went ahead and pricked his little finger anyhow. He was a really good baby throughout most of the exam. He didn't fuss or cry at all for the nurse. He did cry when the CRNP was doing part of her exam. With his diaper on he weighed 16lb 11oz, which puts him at 1.7 percentile (or 9.5 adjusted). He gained exactly 3 pounds since his 6 month appointment. They said he is 27.25 inches long, which is at the 10th percentile (36.8 adjusted) and represents a gain of 2 inches since February. His head circumference was 44.5cm, which is the 19th percentile (41 adjusted) and 3 cm more than his last measurement. Comparing his weight to his length he's at the 14.7 percentile.

 

This was the first time we were at the pediatrician's office that a CRNP (rather than a MD) saw one of my kids. I was happy that Mandy was the one who came in to see Oliver because she was one of my favorite NICU nurses in June 2008 and December 2009. She was studying to become a NP at the university where I used to teach while she was a NICU nurse. I had asked about her when Oliver was in the NICU, and I was told she was now a CRNP. Oliver got up to the 4th percentile for his weight a couple of months ago, so he's been headed in a backward direction lately. I think the lack of sleep is probably the reason as obviously he's burning more calories since he's losing hours of sleep each day. Yesterday his two naps put together didn't even total 90 minutes, and he slept only 8.5 hours last night. That's a loss of more than four hours of sleep from what he used to get each day before we went on vacation. Not good.

I was concerned about my ability to get the three kids dressed and fed and out the door by 8:00am to make our 8:20 appointment, but we actually left a few minutes earlier than necessary! The reason it was easy to be on time was because Ian and Oliver got up so early. Both boys have gotten in a habit of getting up well before 6am. This morning is was 5:10 for Oliver and 5:30 for Ian. It would be a bigger priority for me to get Ian to sleep later if Oliver wasn't getting up before him, but since I'm already up with Oliver it doesn't bother me that Ian is up rather early. Nadia is the only one who sleeps until 7am (or later). Yesterday Ian fell back asleep in our bed (with Paul) until 7:15, which to me says that 5:30 is too early for him also. Since there weren't any immunizations involved, the appointment lasted a little less than an hour. It's usually longer than an hour, which is a long time with three kids age 4 and under. As I was checking out, Nadia and Ian were each given a lollipop. It felt rather ironic that Oliver was the one who was pricked and prodded and his siblings got candy, but he was oblivious to the injustice.

Weekend in Review

After lunch on Friday we headed out to drive to my friend Cheri's house. She lives about 45 minutes from us, but the trip took a bit longer than that because we stopped at two consignment shops along the way. I was unable at finding the item I wanted the most (summer pjs for Oliver as he doesn't have any), but I did get Oliver some summer clothes, a princess paper doll set for Nadia, and a bicycle helmet and lego set for Ian. I spent about $10 total. I was one of four friends that Cheri invited to swim in her pool.

We ended up with nine children (not counting the two unborn babies). Nadia was the oldest (although there were three other children there who were just a little bit younger than her), and Oliver was the youngest. Everyone had a good time. The water in the pool was COLD, but it was really hot outside. Oliver was a trouper. He took a nice nap outside on a blanket under a tree. After eating some dinner from McDonald's we headed to a Dinosaur Petting Zoo show that started at 5:30pm. Paul met us there. They had life size puppets of various dinosaurs, the largest they had was of a t-rex. The kids were able to pet a couple of the baby dinousaurs. The show was nice, but it would have been even more enjoyable if it wasn't SO hot and crowded.

Saturday morning we headed out for Nadia's last soccer game of the season. I was grateful it was at 9am because it was already warm then. She was disappointed she never scored a goal this season, but I was just glad her team scored two goals that day because they were again the significant underdog. She says she wants to do gymnastics and soccer in the fall (no more ballet/tap). After we got home I mowed the lawn. Normally I enjoy mowing the lawn. It's not very enjoyable when the temps are in the 90's.

Paul's parents came up in the afternoon, and they brought pizza for our dinner. Ian was especially grateful because he had been in withdrawal after overdosing on pizza in Florida. I painted Nadia's fingernails and curled her hair (which didn't last because I didn't have any hairspray) in preparation for her second dance recital. Last year she did a ballet routine. This year her class spent 30 minutes a week on ballet and 15 minutes a week on tap. Her recital piece this year was a tap routine to "Hey Mickey." I missed last year's recital as I was in the hospital, but I made it this year!

Yesterday was the annual Choir Sunday at our church, which meant that we sang five anthems. I missed seeing my mom out in the congregation, but Nadia was out there waving at me from time to time. Since she has started coming to the worship service I haven't been joining the choir in the loft right at the start of the service. I've just been going up during a prayer right before we sing to minimize the time that Nadia is sitting in the pew by herself. Yesterday I asked another couple if Nadia could sit with them as I needed to stay in the loft for the entire service.

Nadia did very well. I contemplated having her go to Wee Worship yesterday because I wanted to sit with her the first time she took communion, but she really wanted to come to the service, and who am I to squash that desire. It was a special day. The pastor puts one larger piece of bread in the plate in addition to lots of little pieces of bread that someone else puts in there ahead of time. Nadia took the big piece, ha ha! Tab then took a smaller piece for Nadia instead. I am so grateful that Nadia accepted Christ as her personal Savior last fall. She keeps trying to convert Ian, but I keep telling her Ian is too young. I am thrilled though that she's concerned about his eternal destiny! It was funny a few days ago listening to the two of them talking about going to Heaven. Ian was asking Nadia how they were going to get there. He told her, "I can't fly. I don't have any wings." Then he wiggled his hands and said, "See I have hands not wings." How precious. I pray she'll be taking communion regularly for the rest of her life and remembering the price her Savior paid to save her soul.

Yesterday Paul finally gave me permission to extend the geographical boundaries of our job search. Hopefully it's not too late. I went back through the ads that had been posted the last few weeks and submitted eight applications yesterday. I finished two more this morning, and I'm currently half way done with two more. At which point we will have submitted seventy-two applications. Whew. Over the past five days I have submitted fifteen applications to schools in the following states: NY (1), VA (1), KY (1), OK (3), WY (1), PA (1), TX (2), MO (1), KS (1), IN (1), and FL (1). Although I am not keen on 90 degree heat, I would much rather move to FL most of the other states in that list. The only places he's still not wanting to apply are the west coast (ex. CA or WA) or big cities (ex. Chicago or New York). No one has expressed an interest in seeing our house yet. I am surprised as this is the opposite of what happened the last two times we sold a house, but since Paul doesn't have a job offer, I'm not inclined to lower the price yet. We set it at the price the realtor suggested.

Oliver's update would be that he still has a cold. His fever hasn't returned, but he still has a cough and a very runny nose. His morning naps are still not good at all. This morning it was a whopping 20 minutes long, but he has had some longer afternoon naps - the longest thus far has been 2 hours (which is still shorter than before we went on vacation but obviously is MUCH better than 20 minutes). He doesn't always sleep through the night, but if he wakes up he fusses/cries for less than 10 minutes before he goes back to sleep. He usually wakes up sometime between 5:15-5:30am whether he goes to bed as early as 7:45pm or as late as 9:00pm. The latest he slept over the last two weeks was 6:00am, which he only did once. There have been a few days though when he has slept a total of 10 hours (my goal at the moment), but there have been others he's slept as little as 8 hours. He's still not back to normal, and we've been back home for longer than we were away. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say!