Four Years Old!

Ian Alexander turned four years old today! As I reflect on each of our children, it seems that the most challenging experience with Nadia thus far was waiting 5 1/2 years to see a heartbeat on an ultrasound screen, and the most challenging part with Oliver were the last 10 weeks of the pregnancy and the first 10 weeks of his life. The "trying to conceive" part was definitely the easiest with Ian, as it only involved one fresh IVF transfer, and his pregnancy was rather smooth, aside from gestational diabetes and my water breaking 6 weeks before his due date. Unlike his siblings, the most challenging aspects with Ian have been the medical issues after he was born. First there was the retained placenta that put my life in danger. Then he had four surgeries between the ages of 10-21 months of age. He was also diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis during that time span and had a very restricted diet for about 18 months. He had OT once a week for two years and also spent 4 weeks in an intensive feeding program. The good news is that we seem to be over the worst of those issues. The first three years of his life he had many, many doctor appointments, but it's been almost 11 months since his last doctor appointment! Praise the Lord!

1. He loves to run. This boy has TONS of energy. Nadia is usually willing to engage in rather physical play with him, but I imagine in time her opinion will change. Hopefully before that happens Oliver will be big enough to chase and tackle with Ian instead.

2. Ian can do 50-100 piece jigsaw puzzles all by himself! He also has begun to build more complicated structures with legos. He has to work hard to resist the urge to knock it down, as that is still a thrill for this boy!

3. He loves to wear costumes. Even when he's not wearing a costume, he and Nadia take on various roles in their dramatic play every day. I love to watch them play together!

4. He is usually the first one up in the morning, but thankfully he has been waking up closer to 7am these days! He usually sleeps for almost 11 hours at night and takes a nap that is usually about 45-60 minutes long. Every time he crawls in bed he selects one stuffed animal to sleep with. He rotates through a wide variety of them although I would say Tweety is probably his favorite at the moment. He sleeps with a sheet pulled completely over his head. Just recently we broke him of the habit of also pulling the comforter over his head. His clothes and sheets used to be SO sweaty. This is a definite improvement!

5. He is almost 100% independent with dressing, undressing, and going to the bathroom. If he goes #2 I check him before he pulls his clothes back on to make sure he did a good job wiping.

6. He's doing a great job learning his Bible verses for Cubbies. He also has been learning the books of the New Testament because he's overheard Nadia working on them.

7. He learned some new skills in gymnastics, but we are waiting until he's more mature before we sign him up for another class because he definitely wasn't getting our money's worth. He did a better job of following instructions in the t-ball class and swimming lessons.

8. He had been doing better with not crying when I took him to Sunday School, but switching back and forth between two churches the past few months has been hard on him. He cried at our church the last time I took him to Sunday School. We're done going to the other church, and I think he'll do better once we are more consistent. Nadia is in the children's choir in between SS and church, and Oliver is in the nursery. I've been reading books to Ian in the children's library at the church during that time span, but in January I'll be in choir rehearsal then. I'll need to find someone to watch Ian. He sits with Nadia and I in the sanctuary for the first part of the worship service, and then he goes to Children's Church during the offertory.

9. On Thursdays while Nadia is in gymnastics, I've been taking the boys to the library. Ian loves to use their computers. He hasn't figured out how to use a mouse; so I put the headphones on him and select the programs which read stories to him.

10. Over the past year he has made a lot of improvements with feeding himself. Dinner is still the toughest meal. He wants me to feed him or to at least get the food on his fork or spoon for him. This summer he learned how to feed himself a yogurt, and the last few weeks we've been working on him using a spoon to eat his cereal. Previously he had been eating dry cereal with his fingers, but now I've been putting some milk in his bowl of cereal and expecting him to use a spoon. Aside from desserts (he'll eat just about any cake, cookie, brownie, or candy), his favorite foods are pizza, chocolate chip pancakes, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pretzels, yogurt, dry cereal, and crackers. He drinks cold skim milk at every meal. He also likes chocolate milk and will drink most kinds of juice. The main issue we have right now is getting him to finish each meal in one hour or less.

11. Although leans toward being shy (in contrast to his sister who has always been a social butterfly), he does not like to be alone in a room, unless he's sleeping.

12. He has enjoyed most of the chapter books I've read to the kids, especially James and the Giant Peach, the Ramona books, and the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. He loves for us to read him picture books. Some of his favorites include Froggy books, Little Critter books, LarryBoy books, and Dave Ramsey's Junior books.

13. Ian is starting to read! He can read many of the stories in All About Reading's Level 1 reader (that Nadia couldn't read until she was 5 years old), and he can also read the first few BOB books! He knows how to sound words out, but he is tempted to just guess the words based on the illustrations.

14. The only letter he can write is "I." I'm hoping that he'll make a lot of improvements with his drawing and writing skills over the next year.

15. He still doesn't exercise enough patience or self-control to play a game that lasts longer than tic-tac-toe. Hopefully over the next year he'll learn how to play games with rules (like Candyland, Uno, Chutes and Ladders, Go Fish, etc.).

16. He still plays with his belly button as his soothing technique. That poor belly button becomes bright red at times!

17. He loves to listen to music, play on the iPad, and watch dvds.

It's so much easier to make this boy's day special now that he eats solid food. He didn't eat his dinner on Tuesday night and still wouldn't eat it at breakfast on Wednesday, but he finally ate his chicken at lunch on Wednesday. I was determined last night that he WOULD eat his pasta because I wanted him to have a special day today that included chocolate gem donuts for breakfast. It took 2 1/4 hours last night, and they were a couple of minutes late for AWANA, but we did it. There are days I wish he had a feeding tube because I get SO weary of the battles to get him to eat, but we had a reprieve today. The kids had donuts and milk for breakfast, and then Ian opened his presents. Last year Paul thought I hadn't gotten enough presents for Ian. He is sensitive to the problem of having one's birthday so close to Christmas. I think I got him more than enough this year! He received a new VeggieTales dvd, two Peter Pan plush toys, two 100 piece LarryBoy puzzles, new sheets for his bed, a lego set, Monsters Inc figurines, and some new blocks. The most beloved gift today was definitely the set of figurines, but he insisted that I change his sheets on his bed before his nap, and he was so excited to sleep with Peter Pan and John during his nap that he actually didn't take a nap today. And as seen by the first second picture in this post, he also played with the new cardboard blocks. I had my eye on those for awhile, and Amazon does a 50% off sale on Melissa and Doug items once a year, and those were on that sale this year (very recently). He also opened a gift my mom had mailed him, and he received a phone call from my parents.

He picked a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch (no surprise there!), and for his "dessert" I gave him 3 Hershey kisses. Since Paul was at home today (he interviewed by Skype from 2:00-3:30), the boys didn't have to go with me when I took her to gymnastics. Paul left a bit later and we met at Perkins for Ian's birthday dinner. Ian's meal was free plus they gave us 8 small cookies for the 5 of us to share. On the way to Perkins Paul stopped at the dollar store so that Ian could pick out his birthday balloons. Ian had chocolate chip pancakes, Nadia had rainbow sprinkle pancakes, and I had pumpkin pancakes. Paul had a turkey sandwich and fries. Oliver had a little bit from each of our plates. He liked the breakfast potatoes the best. When we got home, we watched part of the movie Despicable Me. The kids had never seen the movie  before, and Ian had requested I get it at the library. Ian kept wondering where his birthday cake was. I kept reminding him that he'll get his cake at his birthday party on Saturday. Today he had a few small chocolate donuts, 3 Hershey kisses, chocolate chip pancakes, and three small chocolate chip cookies. Nadia also shared part of her HUGE Twizzler with him. She got it last night at AWANA because she passed nine sections of her book last night! I don't think he lacked for any sweets today! I think he enjoyed his special day. We will continue his birthday celebrations on Saturday with Paul's family. Tomorrow he has his 4 year well doctor appointment, and I am also hoping to do his birthday interview video tomorrow. I am so very thankful that the Lord gave us this precious boy four years ago!

Thankful Tuesday

Thursday is Ian's birthday, so I am writing my weekly gratitude post today.

1. The kids had fun making tic-tac-toe boards at Home Depot on Saturday. Paul said Ian's fine motor skills are really not advanced enough for these workshops. He has a lot of trouble hammering, for example. Paul will probably just take Nadia until Ian is a bit older. They are registered to make a train at Lowe's this Saturday, but Paul now has a basketball coach meeting. If Cheri can babysit Oliver, I'll take Nadia and Ian to Lowe's.

2. Paul is scheduled to interview and present a teaching demonstration for a community college in Ohio on Thursday afternoon! He had a phone interview with a school in FL on Friday. He won't find out for a month whether or not they picked him to interview in person.

3. Last night I took the kids to our local library (not the one we usually go to) for their Christmas party. The librarian read the kids two books, and the kids did three crafts. Ian's favorite craft was putting read and white beads on a pipe cleaner to make a "candy cane." The highlight for both of them were the cookies and chocolate milk at the end.

4. For several days I had been trying to buy a 5 lb box of clementines at the grocery story because they were on sale for $3.99. The first two times they were out of them, but today I was able to get a box. I should have gotten two boxes because Nadia ate three of them at lunch. Way to go, Nadia! Oliver and I shared one, and of course Ian didn't want to try one. Maybe next year he'll give one a try.

5. We tried a new cookie recipe today, and Oliver, Nadia, and I think they are very yummy! Ian didn't eat his dinner so he wasn't allowed to have one, but I am certain he'll love them also.

6. It's snowed a few times over the past four days. We haven't gotten a large quantity by any means, but it's been enough that Nadia and Ian have had fun playing outside in the snow a little each day.

7. Today is my dad's 70th birthday. I am very thankful for him!

8. Ian came into our bedroom at 4am this morning. The good news is that this is the exception. Most of the time the earliest any of the kids get up is 6:50am. YAHOO!

9. I am so thankful that Oliver gained 2 pounds over the past month!

10. I showed Ian several cards today with words I had never shown him before, and he sounded them out and read several of them (no pictures involved). WOOHOO! I am very proud of him!

11. Oliver keeps saying new words. One of his newest ones is "book." He really does enjoy books!

TWO Readers!

I have spent VERY little time working with Ian on learning his letters, the sounds they make, or teaching him to sound words out. He's learned most of what he knows through overhearing me teaching Nadia as well as using the iPad. Yesterday I got out the first reader from Level 1 of All About Reading, and he needed little help reading the first two stories. Today I decided to take a video, and while I was doing so, he proceeded to also read the third story, which he had never read before. I accidently started the second video a bit late. It doesn't include him reading the first sentence. The third video is of him reading a story for the very first time. He can sound words out, but he is tempted to look at the pictures and just guess the words. He does the same thing with the BOB books. Once he gets farther into this reader he really won't be able to get away with just using the pictures. Since I was recording Ian reading today, I also decided to take a video of Nadia. The first story is REALLY long so I just recorded her reading the first few pages. She just started the second volume of Level 2. Hopefully they will be ready to sell Level 4 before we finish Level 3, as she is flying through these books!

Ring the Bells!

This morning the handbell choir played 6 songs in the 9:00 service and 2 songs in the 10:30 service. Donna, who is in the bell choir, and Carol, our director, also played two piano/organ duets in the 9:00 service. Two weeks ago we almost gave up on playing "God Rest you Merry, Gentleman" because we didn't think we could learn it in time, but I am happy to say it turned out splendidly. Nadia drove out with me for the 8:10 rehearsal so she heard our 6 songs while we practiced them. She was in Sunday School during the 9:00 service. Ian and Oliver came with Paul a little before 9:00. Oliver was in the nursery, but Ian was in the service with Paul. I always miss my mom on occasions like this. I find myself instinctively looking out in the congregation to see her smiling face, but my parents are actually in Chicago today with my sister and her family. Last night I attended a lovely Christmas dinner at a restaurant, which was made possible through our director and her husband. I played in this choir from September 2004 - December 2008 and then returned this September. I feel such a bond with them. I will certainly miss seeing them each Monday night, but I am grateful I can return to singing alto in my church's choir in January.

 

 

 

16 Months Old!

1. Oliver still isn't walking. He will take two or three steps sometimes when we really encourage him to do so, but most of the time he just gets down to crawl when we ask him to walk. He will stand for several minutes at a time without holding on to anything. Hopefully before he turns 17 months old he'll take off with walking. My arms would appreciate it. I'm having a lot of problems with numbness from my elbow to my fingertips on both arms. I know it's from carrying Oliver. The upside of his delay in walking is that he's extending the time in which he still seems like a baby, and considering he's my last baby, that's fine with me!

2. He sleeps for 11 hours at night (8pm - 7am). YAY!!!!

3. Although his favorite way to communicate is through grunting and pointing, he is saying more words. For example, last night during family devotions he pointed to Nadia's doll and said "baby." This morning when I walked into the living room where he was playing, he said "hi."

4. This boy LOVES to climb. He is far more of a climber than his siblings were at this age. This boy loves chairs. It's a wonder I haven't had a heart attack yet. The good news is that he can easily climb up and down the staircase safely.

5. He loves to read books. His favorites are the three inch square board books.

6. One of his favorite toys is a Little Tikes play phone.

7. He loves to make big messes - such as dumping out the bin of Tinkertoys, emptying my Tupperware cabinet in the kitchen, and emptying his sock drawer in his bedroom.

8. He really enjoys the Christmas decorations. Every time we go up or down the stairs he waves to the Christmas tree in the living room and a little snow man that I put in the window of the front porch that is directly across from our stairs. He also enjoys taking ornaments off the tree. None of the breakable ones are within his reach.

9. When he first gets up in the morning, he wants his sippy of whole milk, but he has to be up for at least an hour before he's ready to eat. He had an English muffin for breakfast this morning. He drinks 3 sippy cups a day of milk and 2-3 sippy cups a day of juice (cranberry, apple, grape, etc.). He's working on learning to drink water from an open cup. He loves it, but he still gets a lot on his shirt.

10. In general he's gotten much better about riding in the van. He still cries a lot anytime we are in the van after about 5pm.

11. He LOVES to wave. If you ask him, he will clap (or if he hears the song "If you're happy and you know it"), give you a high five, or do the touchdown signal with his arms.

12. His four most favorite foods are goldfish crackers, pretzels, pizza, and M&M cookies. He will eat just about anything. The two foods he has refused thus far are bananas and stuffing. He often has a PB&J sandwich at lunch.

13. He takes two naps a day (9am and 1pm). My rule is that he has to stay in bed for at least an hour for each one. If he wakes up before that he usually fusses for a couple of minutes and then goes back to sleep. On a good day his naps are 75-90 minutes long. A really long nap would last 1 hr 45 minutes or even 2 hours. He never sleeps longer than that. On a bad day his total nap time (between both naps) is 1hr 45 minutes, and on a good day they total 3 hours. On a typical day he sleeps about 2hr 15 minutes between the two naps. I am extremely grateful for the longer naps. The house is much cleaner these days! He never cries when I put him down in his crib. One of my favorite parts of my day is the time I spend singing and rocking him before I put him down in his crib (three times a day).

14. He has zero concept of obedience. We are starting to work on this because there are some habits we need to break such as throwing food and his sippy cup on the floor. He also is obsessed with my laptop computer (far more than either of his siblings ever were) and needs to learn to stay away from my computer!

15. He loves music and still is our little dancer (his dancing is just bopping his head around).

16. Oliver has  been on a HUGE growth spurt! He gained almost TWO pounds over the past month! He had been stuck at the 5th percentile for weight for several months, but as of today he weighed 22lb 5oz, which puts him at the 14th percentile! WOOHOO! This boy likes to eat! I had been hoping he'd reach the 10th percentile by the time he turned 12 months old, but he actually hit it during his 15th month. Way to grow, Oliver! He still only has five teeth, three of which are molars.

Wrapping it up

A few days before Thanksgiving Paul and I started the task of wrapping presents. Yesterday we had our second wrapping session; the two of us spent a full two hours on that task last night. We just use tape and wrapping paper (no bows, ribbons, etc.), but we did take the time to take some things out of boxes to make it easier when Nadia and Ian open their presents. I spent another hour this evening wrapping what was delivered today. I've done most of the shopping online. I've finished shopping for fourteen of the people on our list, and I have at least some things for a few others.

This evening we had dinner at Subway; it was my turn to pick. Their 6 inch meatball and cold cut subs are $2 this month. Nadia ate 3 inches of a meatball sub, and Ian and Oliver split a 6 inch cold cut sub. Oliver finished his half about an hour before Ian did. It was Paul's turn to pick what we did for family fun night. We taught Nadia how to play Go Fish. She enjoyed it! Paul won the first game, and Nadia won the second. We also watched part of a Tweety vhs tape from the library. Ian was thrilled as he loves his Tweety bird stuffed animal, and he had never seen Tweety on tv before.

Thankful Thursday

1. We were able to spend time with Paul's parents, brother, and sister-in-law on Sunday!

2. Today was the last day of classes and labs for Paul! Next week he just has to administer one exam on Wednesday night. We should see a lot more of him over the next several weeks.

3. Paul has another phone interview tomorrow morning. Nadia has been praying about this one because she wants to move to Florida.

4. The weather has been very mild the past two days (50's). In light of that, I cancelled our reservations to tour Papa John's this morning. The kids would have been able to make their own pizza (for free), but I was thinking it might be hard to supervise that activity with Nadia and Ian while holding Oliver. When I found out the weather was going to be nice, I decided we'd walk to the park instead, as we haven't done that in a while, and I could surely use the exercise after all the apple pie and pumpkin pie I've eaten the past few days!

5. All of us seem to be healthy at the moment. YAY!

6. Nadia finished her Level 1 spelling book this week! We're starting Level 2 tomorrow.

7. My dad is doing much better.

8. We enjoyed the Christmas crafts at the library on Monday afternoon and Christmas caroling with the AWANA clubbers last night.

New Testament

Over the past two weeks Nadia has been working on learning the books of the New Testament for Sparks. She was disappointed that she wasn't able to recite them to her leader tonight because all the clubbers went caroling at a nursing home this evening. Oliver and I went along as well. We sang seven Christmas carols, a man shared a devotional, and then the kids served juice and many different kinds of cookies to the residents. At the very end the children gave a gift bag to each of the residents who attended the party. This gives Nadia another week to practice reciting the books before she says them to her leader.

I read a tip that when you can't take pictures outside (too cold right now), take them in your foyer with the front door open. Yes, the lighting is SO much better there! I love learning new tips to improve my photography skills! One of Nadia's teeth is now VERY wiggly. I am looking forward to taking pics of her cute little smile with a tooth missing! :)

(almost) Textless Tuesday

Gluing jewels on a candlestick holder at the library yesterday.

Nadia's turned out very nicely!

 

Ian put stickers on his candlestick holder.

Finally!

For many weeks we prayed that we'd be healthy enough to celebrate Grandma's birthday with her. She turned 69 on November 7. None of us saw her during the month of November. We then were praying that we would all be able to get together on Thanksgiving Day. It didn't happen on that actual date as she was still in the hospital that morning, but yesterday Paul's parents, brother, and sister-in-law came over to our house for a turkey dinner. We were finally able to give Grandma her birthday gifts and cards. Oliver is usually a Daddy's boy, but the only person he wanted yesterday was Grandma. He kept handing the book with the song "The Wheels on the bus" to her. Grandma sang that song umpteen times yesterday. We're hoping she can stay out of the hospital for as long as possible so we don't have to go so long in between visits! They are planning to come up in 12 days for Ian's birthday party, and we're planning to go to their house on Christmas morning. Millie brought many delicious desserts. The kids ate their chocolate covered pretzels yesterday, and Nadia had some apple pie. Today they had some of her cookies. Oliver and I shared a slice of pumpkin pie this evening.

Although I'm not a big turkey fan, I love stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, etc. Nadia loves jellied cranberry and will eat turkey without any fuss. It was a struggle to get her to eat anything else aside from the deviled eggs that Grandma brought. Ian loves the stuffing and will eat some turkey with positive reinforcement (ex. offering him one goldfish cracker after every two bites of turkey). Neither child ate any mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes. Oliver usually will eat anything (except for bananas), but he also refused to eat any stuffing. Aside from the yummy desserts, my kids are not fans of Thanksgiving dinner. Hopefully in time that will change.