Thankful Thursday

1. I am very thankful that Ian, Nadia, and I are still healthy. We have been earnestly praying for Oliver and Paul to get over their colds that they've now had for EIGHT weeks because the kids REALLY want to see Grandma and PopPop as soon as possible, but we can't get together until we're all healthy. Hopefully that will happen by Thanksgiving, if not before then.

2. Paul, Nadia, and Ian had a nice time making two cars at Lowe's last Saturday. Nadia was better at using the hammer than Ian, but she is 17 months older than him. Oliver and I did some Christmas shopping at the mall for an hour while they did their project. They each received eye goggles, an apron, a patch for their apron to signify the completion of that particular project, and a certificate. Paul said he liked the one at Home Depot a little better, in part because it wasn't as crowded, but he's planning to take the kids to the workshops at both stores next month.

3. The kids enjoyed being in the nursery on Tuesday mornings during my ladies Bible study even though they were the only children there. They were very well taken care of as many times there were three adults in there! The study on Gideon concluded two days ago and we enjoyed a tasty potluck luncheon. The apple cake I made was a hit!

4. The last two Sunday evenings Nadia joined me at the small group Bible study on Heaven at our pastor's house. I love that she likes to come along!

5. Yesterday we had fun shopping at Dollar Tree to fill three shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. Nadia immediately grasped the concept that we weren't shopping for our family, but it took Ian quite a bit longer to realize that I wasn't buying toys for him, although I did buy him three jigsaw puzzles (can't beat the price of $1/each) as most days I have him do one jigsaw puzzle while Nadia is doing her schoolwork. He can do 48-60 piece puzzles all by himself, and he can do 100 piece puzzles with a little bit of help. After shopping I took the kids to McDonald's for dinner and some time to play in the play land since it's been too cold to go to the playground this week. Oliver is rather brave when it comes to climbing in the play land! All three kids shared a box of McNuggets. I'm so glad there is something Ian can eat there.

6. One of the senior faculty members in Paul's chemistry department agreed to observe him one more time and write him a letter of recommendation for his job applications. I think a reference that speaks to his teaching skills will really strengthen his application packet. He's going to ask one more to see if two of the references could be from his current employer. I have six applications that I need to complete in addition to the eleven I already submitted. The one most recently added to the list is in North Carolina.

7. I still love my camera and really enjoy taking pictures of my three beautiful blessings. I look forward to continuing to hone my photography skills in the months and years ahead!

8. It does my heart good to see Nadia and Ian enjoying playing together. I look forward to the day when Oliver can join in the fun!

9. I'm very grateful for the public library. We check out books and dvds every Thursday while Nadia is in gymnastics.
10. Both of our football teams won on Sunday. Paul's game wasn't aired in our area, but given how badly both our teams have done this year, we were grateful for the wins! We'll be trading places this Sunday, as his game will be aired and mine won't be. Hopefully our teams can win a few more games before the end of the season.

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

Seven shots!

Yesterday morning I took Nadia and Oliver to the pediatrician for her 5 year and his 15 month check-ups. At her three year check-up, she weighed 34lbs (80th percentile) and was 36 inches tall (26th percentile). On October 12, 2012, she was 40lbs (75th percentile) and 40 inches tall (39th percentile), and yesterday she was 47 lbs (80th percentile) and 42.5 inches tall (30th percentile). As usual, the doctor said something to be about her BMI being too high. She passed her vision and hearing screenings. They said she is 20/25 for vision, which is normal for a five-year-old. The most traumatic part of her appointment was that she got four shots. She hadn't had any shots for a few years so she had no memory of any of the previous shots. She just said "ouch" with the first shot, but then she started crying with shot #2 and didn't stop until shot #4 was done. The good news is that she won't need any more shots until she's eleven years old. Whew. She would have "only" had three shots (DTap-IPV, MMR, and Varivax), but I went ahead and gave her permission to have the flu shot while we were at it.

Oliver gained 1.5 pounds over the past three months. He stayed at the 5th percentile for weight on a standard chart or 15th percentile on an adjusted chart. Oliver's head circumference grew 1/2 a centimeter over the past 3 months which puts him at 46.5 cm (30th percentile or 45th percentile on an adjusted chart). The pediatrician questioned the validity of yesterday's length measurement because supposedly he grew 2.5 inches over the past 3 months. He was at the 13th percentile for length at 12 months and would be at the 47th percentile now if that measurement was correct (77th percentile adjusted). Hopefully they won't say he shrank when they measure him at his 18 month appointment. That happened to Nadia once! They measured him at the urologist a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't write that measurement down. He received three shots today - MMR, Hib, and flu. Because it's the first time he's ever had the flu shot, he has to have the second dose next month. I scheduled that in conjunction with Ian's four year check-up.

The only thing the doctor was concerned about with Oliver was the fact that he's not walking yet. He wanted to give me a referral for physical therapy for his motor development delay, but I said I think he'll take off soon. He said I need to get the referral next month if he's not walking by then. He does so well with climbing, crawling, stacking blocks, cruising, etc. I'm not worried. Ironically I was concerned at Ian's 15 month appointment that he wasn't walking yet, but that pediatrician (same group) said not to worry. This time the pediatrician was concerned, and I wasn't. Go figure. Oliver successfully used a fork to stab some food and then brought the food up to his mouth with said fork yesterday. I think he'll do fine with walking in the near future.

And not to leave Ian out of this post, here is a video I took of him a couple of days ago "reading" a library book we checked out recently that he loves.

12-15 months old times three

Ian - 12 months old

1. By 13 months Nadia loved putting things in little containers. Ian and Oliver didn't show an interest in that.

2. They all enjoyed clapping their hands!

3. Nadia and Oliver handled their nails being trimmed a LOT better than Ian did. Ian and Oliver only cried during the painful parts of doctor appointments (shots, bloodwork, etc.) whereas Nadia cried when they took her temperature or measured the circumference of her head. Oliver was the only one to initiate a hug with a doctor!

4. They all loved to be tickled, cuddled, and hugged. Nadia at this age would often say "awww" when we'd hug. Ian at this age loved to hold hands. Ian would hold my hand when he was in my lap, and he'd reach out to hold Paul's hand at the dinner table (when he was in his high chair).



Nadia - 12 months old

6. Nadia slept a lot more than Ian - both at night and during naps. Nadia usually got 11-12 hours at night and 2-3 hours between her two naps. Her total average sleep was 14 hours a day. Ian usually got 9-10 hours at night (11 upon rare occasion), and 1 hour a day between his 2 naps. He switched to one (30 minute) nap a day at 14 months. He slept MUCH longer for his naps if he took them in my arms. Oliver sleeps more than Ian but not as much as Nadia. Oliver usually sleeps about 10.5-11 hours at night and 90 minutes between his two naps.

7. At 15 months Nadia weighed 24 lbs (69th percentile), Ian weighed 22 lbs (16th percentile), and Oliver weighs 20.5 lbs (5th percentile).

8. At 15 months Nadia had 11 teeth, Ian had only 2 teeth, and Oliver has 4 teeth.



Oliver - 12 months old

9. Nadia's expressive vocabulary greatly surpassed Ian's and Oliver's at this age. She was even saying words like "hot" and "wet" whereas Ian only said two words - mama and dada and Oliver only says three words (his third is "hi").

10. Nadia was running long before she turned 12 months old. Ian and Oliver were cruising and crawling when they turned 15 months old. Neither Ian or Oliver had taken any steps yet, but they both were able to stand without holding on to anything.

11. Nadia fed stuffed animals with a spoon and engaged in other types of imaginary play during this age span. Ian hasn't begun participating in dramatic play yet. Oliver's skills with rolling and throwing a ball were much more advanced than his siblings.

12. The only thing Nadia or Oliver were interested in watching on tv during this age span were songs. Ian would watch just about anything on tv.



Ian - 15 months old

13. Ian wasn't weaned until he was 14 months old. Nadia and Oliver weaned themselves before they turned a year old. Nadia moved from a bottle to sippy cup at 12 months old, Ian made the transition at 14 months, and Oliver made it at 11 months. Nadia and Oliver were eating all table food, and both of them would eat just about anything. Ian ate a tiny bit of baby food on rare occasion during this time period. He mostly drank milk mixed with baby cereal. Oliver switch from warm to cold milk at 14 months old whereas Nadia didn't until 18 months old and Ian was well over two years old before he had any cold milk.


14. It was harder to change Ian and Oliver's diapers than it was to change Nadia's because they wiggled, squirmed, tried to roll over, and often cried. Ian pooped far more often than Nadia or Oliver did. Ian was far more prone to diaper rash than Nadia or Oliver.

15.All three kids could climb up the stairs at this age. Nadia and Oliver could also go down correctly. Ian was much older before he learned how to go down the stairs.



Nadia - 15 months old

16.All three of them learned to wave "hi" during this age span. Ian almost never initiated waving whereas Nadia loved to wave to people (such as at the grocery store) and was always thrilled when someone would wave back or acknowledge her greeting in some fashion. Oliver occasionally will initiate a wave with a stranger at the playground or library.
17. Nadia had moved to size 5 shoes by the time she was 14 months old. Ian was still a size 4, but he mostly wore Robeez whereas Oliver and Nadia were wearing regular shoes. Oliver is still wearing a size 4, and he won't be outgrowing that size any time soon.

18. Ian loved to carry around a sock - or another article of clothing would suffice if there weren't any socks around. Nadia  and Oliver never did this. He almost always was carrying SOMETHING (such as a small toy) in one of his hands, and he was not a happy camper if you needed to pry it out of his hands for some reason (such as to put his arm through a sleeve when getting him dressed).

19. During this age span Nadia was afraid of the blow dryer and vacuum. Ian doesn't pay much attention to the hairdryer, but running a vacuum around Ian is like waving as red cape in front of a bull - CHARGE! Oliver has never been afraid of a blow dryer, vacuum, or lawn mower.

20. Ian handled being in his carseat much better than Nadia or Oliver did at this age. Oliver and Ian were much better in the stroller than Nadia was.

15 Months Old!

I am so thankful for sweet Oliver. Seeing him grow and mature is more bittersweet for me now that I know he's my last baby. He's such a delightful little guy!

1. Although all of my kids love to cuddle (PTL!), more people have made comments to me about Oliver in this regard than my other two. For example, at his first urologist appointment when the urologist was done examining him, he put his arms toward Dr. Canning to indicate he wanted him to hold him. Dr. Canning was very pleasantly surprised when Oliver put his head on his shoulder and gave him a little hug. Dr. Canning said this was a really nice way to end his day and threatened to take Oliver home with him, ha ha! He said it is very unusual for a patient to give him a hug. My other two kiddos have never done such a thing with any medical personnel. What a sweetheart!

2. When Nadia and Ian were toddlers, they were terrified of the lawn mower. I tried letting them play inside the fence while I was mowing outside the fence, and it was a total failure. Last Friday I mowed most of the lawn while Oliver cruised back and forth along the inside of the fence. He kept waving to me, and if I blew him kisses, he would give me the biggest smile.

3. I thought he would be walking by now, but he's not. He can stand without holding on to anything for more than a minute. He can even get into a standing position without using anything to pull himself up. He can walk if you hold one or both of his hands. I am guessing in the next several weeks he'll start walking all over the place. He can crawl very quickly and also cruises whenever he can. He also can climb up and down the staircase correctly.

4. He has four teeth - two on the bottom in the middle and two molars on the top. He wasn't too cranky when the bottom two came in, but I was very aware that he was teething when the two molars came in on top!

5. He is now drinking cold whole milk in his sippy cup. He will also drink just about any type of juice in a sippy cup, and I've begun teaching him to drink water from an open cup.

6. Aside from cream of wheat and yogurt which I feed him, he feeds himself pretty much everything else that he eats. He will eat just about anything thankfully! Nadia has been know to give Oliver a piece of fruit or vegetable that she's not wanting to eat. He's our little garbage disposal!

7. He's getting a little bit better about not putting things in his mouth (toys, paper, mulch, Kleenex, etc.) although he still has a long way to go in that regard.

8. Almost all of his clothes are size 12 month, but he's wearing a little bit of size 18 month clothing now.

9. Multiples times a day he empties my Tupperware cabinet onto the kitchen floor and empties the sock drawers in his room, Ian's room, and Nadia's room. If you see socks all over the place, you know Oliver was there recently! Sometimes it's hard to watch them grow up, but this is one of those phases I am anxious for them to finish.

10. According to our scale, Oliver currently weighs 20.5 pounds (5th percentile). His 15 month check-up is scheduled for tomorrow morning.

11. His expressive vocabulary is unchanged; he still only says "hi," "mama", and "dada."

12. He's gotten better about me leaving him in the nursery. Yay!

13. He's enjoying being read to more. Previously he was more inclined to eat or rip books than let someone read to him.

14. Of our three kids, his ball throwing and rolling skills are by far the best at this age.

15. The change in the clocks has messed him up, but we're working on getting him back to sleeping about 11 hours each night (8pm to 7am). Yesterday he woke up according to the new time, but this morning he woke up way too early again. As for his naps, my rule is that he must stay in his crib at least 30 minutes for his morning nap and at least 60 minutes for his afternoon nap.

Giving Thanks

Since Oliver turns 15 months old tomorrow, I'm going to do my weekly thankful post today instead.

1. Nadia and Paul had a good time at Home Depot on Saturday morning. Nadia got to use a hammer and do some painting. This Saturday he's taking both Nadia and Ian to Lowe's and dropping Oliver and I off at the mall so I can do some Christmas shopping while they do their car project with Daddy. It's nice that these hardware stores offer these free programs!

2. While getting new tires put on Paul's car (yikes are tires expensive!!!) on Saturday afternoon, Nadia and I were shopping. I think it's the first time in almost four years that she and I went shopping together. I got myself a new watch and two sweaters at Macy's. Nadia picked one of the sweaters out. Then at JCP I got some clothes for Ian to wear in the future from the clearance rack. The original prices totaled $132, but I paid only $15.79 total for the 10 items (88% discount).

3. Paul's mom seems to be doing better. Hopefully that will remain true even when she goes off of her medication in a few days. Tomorrow she's having a small surgery to have some skin cancer removed from her shoulder. We're praying that #1 she'll soon be healthy enough to have the two treatments for her lymphoma and #2 everyone will be healthy enough that she can come up and spend some time at our house on Thanksgiving.

4. Nadia and Oliver seem to have adjusted to the time change! Nadia was the first to adjust (yesterday) and Oliver was the second (today). Ian is still waking up an hour early. We shall see how long it takes him. In the past it has sometime taken him quite a few weeks to make the shift. Last night the kids were still very cranky once we got to 6:30pm. Nadia actually asked to go to bed at 6:30! I kept them up until 8pm, which was a challenge. Oliver almost fell asleep lying on the kitchen floor at one point.

5. In general I think girl's clothing for infants/toddlers is far cuter than boy's, but I do love to see my boys dressed up in suits or sweaters. Ian must have picked up on my preference because sometimes when I ask him to pick a shirt to wear on a week day morning, he opens his sweater drawer and tells me that he wants to look handsome. Aw, he sure knows how to melt my heart. I am grateful he's gotten over his aversion to sweater vests that he had last year. And Nadia still loves to wear dresses. I am not complaining about that either although there are times I insist that she wears pants (such as to Home Depot when paint is involved). I imagine she'll outgrow her love of dresses some day, but I'm going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts.

6. Ian can now do up to a 100 piece jigsaw puzzles by himself. Yesterday he did a 99 piece puzzle because Oliver ate the 100th piece. He didn't swallow it, but he chewed on it until it was so mushy I had to just throw it away.

7. There had been a lull for a little bit in terms of me being able to add more schools to the list for Paul's job search for 2014, but over the past few days I was able to add 5 more to the list (#12-16). Those five schools are in PA (2), MI, WV, and IN. Hopefully in the near future he'll be invited to participate in a phone interview at one of these 16 schools.

8. Nadia is now starting to try to read various things throughout the day of her own initiative. It's so exciting! I took a short video of Ian reading 3 words this morning.

9. Nadia and Ian really enjoy AWANA. Tonight they sang two songs for the adults attending the missions conference. Ian was singing with gusto!

Surgery Scheduled

I scheduled Oliver's first hypospadias surgery today. It will be taking place 9 weeks from today on January 6 in Philadelphia. Our neighbor who is a nurse has agreed to give Oliver his two testosterone shots. He'll have his first shot three weeks from today.

Oliver woke up at 4am this morning. We let him cry himself back to sleep. I have no idea why he woke up that early. Then he woke up at 5:45. That made sense because he used to wake up at 6:45, which is what time it would have been prior to the time change. We let him cry himself back to sleep. Nadia and Ian climbed in to bed with us at 6am, which again would have been their normal wake up time of 7am. We put them to bed according to the new time, but they woke up according to the old time, which means they lost at least one hour of sleep (Oliver lost a lot more than that). We shall see how many days it takes their bodies to switch to the time change.

25 Hour Day

Have I mentioned I am not a fan of changing the clocks twice a year? I wasn't a fan before I had kids because I didn't like my internal clock being messed with, but these last six years I really haven't been a fan of "falling back" an hour because young children do not sleep in an hour on that day. Paul used to dislike "springing forward" and used to love "falling back." It honestly was like a holiday to him to get that extra hour, ha ha! Oliver woke up at 5:15am (old time which was 4:15 the new time). I didn't go get him until what was 5:20 according to the new time. We definitely did not get an extra hour of sleep, and today was harder than usual day for the kiddos because of that extra hour. Oliver had a hard time staying up until 8pm. He was famished when we got home from church at 12:15pm because that was like 1:15 his body time, which was a very late lunch! Hopefully they will sleep until at least 6:30 tomorrow morning. Oliver and Ian had been doing a better job lately of sleeping until at least 6:45.

I liked these pjs so much a few years ago that when Old Navy had them on sale, I bought two pairs. Ian wore the first pair a few years ago (size 18-24 months) and has been wearing the size 4T pair this fall. Oliver has outgrown most of his 12 month size pjs, and I had forgotten about this duplicate until I went through the 18 month box. Ian absolutely loved that they were wearing matching pjs yesterday night. He kept saying "we look like twins!". I think I'll have to try to get them more matching outfits in the future. It is a really cute pj as the shirt says "I'm programmed for hugs" and has little robots all over the bottoms.

Last two months

The last two months of 2013 will be a bit less hectic for us because both co-ops are done, soccer is done, ladies Bible study is almost done (just one more session), and basketball doesn't start until January. One thing we are adding into our schedule is for the kids to attend the free workshops at Lowes and Home Depot. Paul took Nadia to Home Depot today to build a ship. I told her that she needs to hide it when she brings it home, as it will be either a Christmas present for Oliver or a birthday or Christmas present for Ian. Next week Paul is scheduled to take both Ian and Nadia to Lowe's to make pull back cars. I thought we'd try both programs out and then decide which to do again in the future. Both stores offer this free program once a month. These two months will work well for attending these programs, as we won't have soccer or basketball games on Saturday mornings. We're going to trade places when Paul and Nadia get home. Paul will stay home with the boys while I take Nadia to the mall. I am going to get new tires for Paul's car and while they are installing those tires do a little shopping, such as a new watch for myself as mine died a couple of weeks ago.

At the end of August I set goals for the last four months of the year. I thought now that we only have two months left, I should do a check-up. Looking at the goals, it seems we've accomplished half of them thus far. We still need to work on teaching Ian to wipe and to write his name. I haven't started teaching the kids Spanish yet. I really need to get motivated to help Nadia stop sucking her thumb in bed now that she has two wiggly teeth. I don't want her sucking her thumb with permanent teeth! I haven't weighed myself lately, but I doubt I've lost any more weight. I am having a hard time getting motivated because my clothes fit me (#13). We took the training wheels off of Nadia's bicycle (#12), but she cannot ride it without Paul or I helping her. I still need to work on my cleaning routine (#14).

We're doing well with eating vegetables (#2) and having Nadia use lowercase letters (#3). Nadia is coming along well with her behavior during the worship service (#4). I have submitted 11 applications for Paul for next year thus far (#7). Hopefully soon he'll start getting invitations for phone interviews. I've been doing a much better job of taking videos of the kids lately (#8). Nadia is coming along with adding, subtracting, and counting coins. She's almost completed three chapters of the first grade math textbook. I haven't been working with her on counting by 2's or 5's. Nadia is on step #17 of the Level 1 spelling curriculum and step #9 of the Level 2 reading curriculum. She hasn't been too faithful at practicing the piano lately. I am very pleased that the kids are watching far less television, and I am being careful to limit how much time they spend on the iPad each day (#11).

One that was on my list in January that wasn't on my list two months ago was regarding my photography skills. I am happy to say that I have not taken a single picture in automatic mode since Labor Day. I was so unhappy with the pictures I took that day at Lake Tobias, that it motivated me to use the manual mode ALL the time. I'm getting better and better at knowing what ISO to use, etc. I did sign the kids up for a Christmas mini session (15 minutes) with the photographer who took our pictures in August because I have had the hardest time getting a nice picture of all three kids together. I want a close-up to use for various things such as a new necklace for myself. The necklace I have now contains a photo Wendy took in August 2011. Another goal from that list was to work on the months of the year with Nadia and Ian, and we have begun to do that. They both can sing a song that goes through the months. They also can sing another song that contains the ten digits of my cell phone number thanks to an iPad app. As a side note, I have decided to make my list of goals for 2014 MUCH shorter. The list this year was too unwieldy!

Ian is learning to read!

I have spent almost zero time working with Ian on learning to recognize the letters of the alphabet or identifying the sounds that each letter makes. I think he learned most of his letters when I was teaching them to Nadia (when she was 3 years old and he was 2 years old), and I think the time he's spent on the iPad has helped him learn most of the sounds that he didn't know before we got the iPad. If you know the sounds each letter makes, it's not very hard to start decoding simple words. I showed him how to do it, and then Ian read four words for me by sounding them out - nap, map, jam, and mat. I took him upstairs, and Paul was very pleasantly surprised when Ian read four words to him. I've decided to start the Level 1 reading program with Ian, but I'll take it at a very slow pace with him and just do a few minutes here and there.

I had no intention of starting Ian at the age of three, but umpteen times a day he is always saying what letter a word starts with. And he's almost always right. The only time he is wrong is when it's a word that is a bit confusing (ex. a word that starts with the "j" sound but actually starts with the letter "g"). I know that play is what is most important for kids this age. That's one of the advantages of home schooling. The longest that Nadia does school work each day is two hours, and she never has any homework to do, which leaves quite a few hours for playing every day. Of course some homeschoolers would say I am making kindergarten way too academic for her. There are so many different philosophies. There are several moms in the Thursday co-cop who definitely take a very slow start approach to home schooling. Some wait until their children are eight years old to start teaching them how to read, etc. I definitely felt like the odd man out in that group because almost everyone has huge gardens, many don't get their children immunized, etc.

Nadia went through Level 1 very quickly, and she kept at the same pace through the start of Level 2, but I can see now we need to slow down quite a bit now that we've reached lesson nine. She didn't have any trouble with compound words or two syllable words that contained two closed syllables, but now that we've gotten to two syllable words that have one open and one syllable (meaning one long and one short vowel), she's having a harder time. This is one of the advantages of home schooling. I can go at the child's pace since the instruction is 100% individualized.

Technically I should be starting Ian later than Nadia because he wouldn't be old enough for Kindergarten until he was 5 years 8 months old. Since Nadia and Oliver are summer babies, they are old enough for Kindergarten shortly after turning five years old. And in many ways Ian is far less mature than Nadia was at this age - as shown by his struggles in gymnastics class. But he does seem to learn certain things more easily than Nadia did, or maybe it's just because he's not the eldest child and he has benefitted by overhearing me teaching Nadia. We shall see what happens with Oliver. That boy LOVES to play with the letter magnets on the refrigerator (Leap Frog). He has spent more time playing with them than the other two kids have put together.