Thankful Tuesday

Aunt Debbie and Oliver

1. I really appreciate that Paul was willing to have sole responsibility of the kids for 34 hours so that I could attend the CHAP convention on Friday and Saturday. I ran into three women that I knew at the conference. Two of them were there with their husbands (both husbands are medical doctors). The speakers I heard were excellent, but I am doubtful I will return to the convention in the future. Depending on how I feel after attending the Teach Them Diligently conference this week, I might not make it an annual tradition to attend a homeschooling conference a year as I thought I would. My favorite session was one on the Common Core (given by a lawyer from the HSLDA).

2. It was so wonderful to spend several hours with my friend, Joyce. I hadn't seen her in in a little more than two years. We had dinner at Cracker Barrel on Friday night, and then we walked around a mall a little bit. We considered seeing the movie "Mom's Night Out," but we opted just to have more time to chat. Neither of us bought anything at the mall. I spent the night at their house, and the next morning they were planning to go to some yard sales, so I joined them for a bit before I headed back to the Farm Show building for the conference. I accidentally left my coat at their house. I remembered this at 3:45pm on Saturday as I was leaving the convention so I went back to their house to get my coat before driving to Paul's aunt's house for his cousin's graduation party. When I went to get my coat, Joyce gave me a few toys for Nadia (ex. a highchair for dolls) that Kristen didn't want any longer (she's in 5th grade right now). That was very sweet!

We've been friends for almost 18 years. 

3. Joyce said that the best yard sale (she got tons of really nice kids' clothes for a dollar each) was one they hit after I left for the convention, but I did get a few bargains such as a Thomas the Train rain boots for Oliver for 50 cents and a really nice pirate ship for Ian (he has played with it almost nonstop since then). I also got Oliver's 2nd birthday present for $5.00 (a much smaller motorized vehicle that involves pushing a button with one's finger rather than pushing a pedal with one's foot).

Elizabeth (Paul's cousin) and the kids

4. I didn't buy any textbooks at the convention (although I was surrounded by such vendors), but I did buy some missionary biographies and some chapter books for Nadia. The chapter books are birthday gifts for her to receive next month. For example, I got books #7-13 of a series we've been reading for a cheaper price than I paid on Amazon for books #1-6.

5. It was nice to see Paul's extended family on Saturday evening, as we hadn't seen them since December 2012.

6. Paul joined us for Sunday School and church, which was a special treat. The parents had been invited to join the preschool class for a lesson on doing devotions at home. Last week I attended a session on praying at home that was done in Nadia's (K-2) class. I like the Faith at Home emphasis at our church.

7. The time away from home on Friday and Saturday showed me that I am not ready to go back to work yet. I missed Oliver in particular something fierce. I almost was in tears. I didn't miss the kids at dinner though. I have to say I did enjoy having a dinner that didn't involve any objections to what  vegetable was being served or the need to cut things into tiny pieces or remind someone not to throw food on the floor.

8. Sunday afternoon we attended a graduation party for a woman in our church who just completed a B.S. in biology. She was offered a job doing research at Geisinger, but she turned it down because she's headed to Guatemala as a missionary next week. We are excited to see how God will use her. I was very proud of the kids because they were serving fried chicken and slices of baked ham at the party, and Nadia and Ian both picked ham and did a GREAT job eating their meal. Nadia also had a huge bowl of fruit salad. Good job, kids!

9. Paul received his contract on Friday by email from Bucknell. They will be paying him $10,000 more than Bloomsburg paid him. Bucknell won't be contributing an additional amount to a retirement account like Bloomsburg did, but overall I still think Bucknell will be paying him a bit more. He's planning to move into his new office the middle of July (after we get back from Florida) and spend the second half of the summer at Bucknell. Tomorrow he's going to start working for his dad part-time and will continue to do that until July 1. Next week he'll start teaching a six week lab at Bloomsburg on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

10. Over the past few days Paul received two more invitations to interview - one was from a community college in Tennessee and the other was from PSU Altoona. He declined both interviews since he accepted Bucknell's offer, but it has been encouraging to see that thus far he has received invitations to interview from 12 of the 34 places he applied. Hopefully this year of experience at Bucknell will make it easier for him to get a permanent job in 2015.

11. Today we went on a field trip with about 40 other children to learn about horses at a farm! There was a farrier and veterinarian present as well as many other helpers who discussed how horses are groomed, measured, what they eat, etc. I signed Nadia and Ian up for 5 private 30 minute horse back riding lessons at the same farm starting in two weeks.

12. We had so much fun with the butterflies the past 3 1/2 weeks! The fifth butterfly spent a lot of time on Nadia's finger yesterday morning. She named the butterfly Lucy and kept showing Lucy all around the house. That butterfly also spent enough time on Ian's hand that I was able to get a picture. Oliver just wanted to grab the butterfly, but we protected the butterfly from Oliver. Nadia set the last butterfly free. I took a picture of four of the empty cocoons and then cleaned out the butterfly garden so we can use it again another year.

13. When Paul asked me what I wanted for my birthday last month, I said if I knew we weren't moving I'd like a wreath for the front door that I could use in the spring and summer. Our front door has a built in hook for hanging wreaths, and typically I only hang a fall wreath and then a Christmas wreath. Since I didn't know if we were moving or not, I asked Paul for birthday cards made by the kids and for him to vacuum out the van. He promised to vacuum the van, but he hasn't had time for that yet. He didn't have the kids make cards for me for my birthday, but he did have them make cards for Mother's Day while I was at the convention. Also, the kids made cards in Sunday School. Ian's card from church is a painted hand print one that I will definitely save!!! In Nadia's card from church she was instructed to write one reason why she loves me and also write one thing she was promising to do for me. She wrote that she'll clean the potties for me. I wouldn't have suggested that chore for her yet, but since it was her idea I let her help me clean one toilet this afternoon. How sweet! Paul went to Walmart to look for a wreath on Friday, but they didn't have any. On Saturday as I was driving to the graduation party I stopped at two lawn and garden stores, and one of them had many beautiful wreaths. It was a tough decision, but I love the one I got. The front door looks so much nicer!!! Although there is something nice about someone else buying you a gift, it's also nice to know that you will like it because you picked it out. :)

14. Yesterday I went to Walmart to pick up a few things, and I noticed that their Mother's Day flower bouquets had been marked down to $7 (more than half off). I picked a pretty one that included stargazer lilies (one of my two favorite flowers). They really do perk up the kitchen table! I should buy them more often. We had hoped to go out to dinner on Thursday night as my "Mother's Day" date, but the babysitter backed out on us the day before our date. We had backed out on her last month for what was to have been my birthday dinner date due to Oliver being in the hospital. We haven't been out on a date since February. Hopefully we'll have more success in June!

15. The trees have leaves and some have blossoms. Spring is such a beautiful time of year! I usually just take pictures of my three kids, but I did snap this photo (above) of some apple blossoms on one of our apple trees on Monday afternoon.

16. Every Mother's Day, I am filled with gratitude for the three blessings the Lord has graciously given me. Every May I am keenly aware of how hard this day is for those women whose arms are empty. I am ever so grateful to be a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of Nadia, Ian, and Oliver.

Five Butterflies!

This photo was taken a day before the turned into chrysalides

On April 19 we received a package in the mail that contained 5 caterpillars. Last week they turned into chrysalides. Four of them were attached to a paper disc inside the lid of the cup, and one was dangling in the middle. I was concerned that one wouldn't survive the transfer to the butterfly garden, but in fact that butterfly was the very first one to hatch on Thursday morning. I was starting to get nervous that I'd miss out on seeing the butterflies hatch because of attending the CHAP convention, but I was able to see three butterflies on Thursday. The first one hatched while we were shopping at the grocery store. The third one I happened to look in on them just as it started to hatch, and I called Nadia and the two of us got to see the whole thing, which was really special. They are painted lady butterflies, and they are gorgeous.  Butterfly #4 hatched on Friday morning around 6am while I was eating breakfast. Nadia watched the last one hatch on Saturday.

Five chrysalides in the butterfly garden

This afternoon we set four of the butterflies free. The first two flew off without being held at all. The third one stayed on Nadia's hand for quite awhile, and Ian tried many times to get it to go on his hand to no avail. The fourth butterfly did go on his hand a couple of times, but he kept flying off so quickly that I never was able to get a picture. Nadia convinced me to keep the fifth butterfly in the habitat for one more day. We'll release that one tomorrow. This is the best way to do science education in my opinion. It's one thing to read about metamorphosis in books (and we've certainly done that), but it's another thing to watch it first hand! Next up will be ladybugs! We'll have to do butterflies again in a few years when Oliver is older because he was completely oblivious this time around.

Moms' Night out

This morning I am headed to the Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania's annual convention at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg along with more than 7,000 other parents. I am spending the night at my friend Joyce's house. We worked together from 1996-2000. She was the 2nd grade teacher where I was the principal until she got married and moved to Harrisburg in 2000. I have many fond memories with her from those years - trips to Long Island, buying our wedding dresses together, etc. The last time I saw her was April 2012 when Ian was doing the 4 week feeding program at Hershey. We used to celebrate our birthdays together because she is exactly two days older than me. We are planning to have dinner at Cracker Barrel tonight, and then we are either going to go shopping (haven't done that with a friend since 2008) or see a movie (I haven't entered a theater since 2004). I am very excited, but I know I'll miss my kids! It will be the first time I've spent a night away from Oliver since he came home from the NICU in September 2012, and it will be the first time I've spent a night away from Nadia or Ian when I wasn't in a hospital. It will be the first time Paul has had exclusive responsibility for all three kids for an extended period of time. To be honest, I am not sure if he ever took care of all three of them when they were all awake before (when I wasn't also at home). He'll be on his own for 33 hours. I gave him a list of what to do for homeschooling today.

I'll be at the convention again tomorrow, and then I'm headed to Paul's cousin's graduation party at his aunt's house at 4pm tomorrow. Elizabeth recently graduated from law school. I'll be meeting Paul and the kids there. I'm attending another homeschooling convention next week in DC along with another 6,000 parents. I doubt I'll make it a habit to attend two conventions a year, but I thought I'd give them both a whirl this year. I'm looking forward to hearing some women in person whom I have known through their blogs for years such as Crystal Paine (Money Saving Mom), Jolanthe Erb (Homeschool Creations/ Motherhood on a Dime), and Heidi St. John (Busy Mom). I'm also looking forward to shopping for textbooks and such at both conventions.

Ronald McDonald reading a "Fly Guy" book!

Thankful Thursday

1. Last Thursday I was able to use two $10 off coupons at JCPenney to get some excellent bargains from the clearance racks. Ian was with me, and he was thrilled with the new Spiderman sandals I got him at Payless. The boy is obsessed with superheroes!

2. Last Thursday was Paul's last day of classes for the spring semester. I know he is very glad his mass lecture is DONE. He had 130 students in that class! Yesterday morning he gave his final exam, and today he gave it to those who couldn't make it yesterday. He has grading to do, but he doesn't need to go back on campus until May 20.

3. I had a fabulous time spending 2 hours with my friend, Carol, whom I hadn't seen in 6 years on Saturday afternoon. As an added bonus, we were at a Mexican restaurant! YUM! A big THANK YOU to Paul for being willing to take the boys to the urologist by himself so I could enjoy a meal with a friend, something which has only happened a handful of times over the past 6 years.

4. Ian got a great report at the urologist on Saturday!

5. I went to Milton's community yard sales on Friday and Saturday morning. I didn't spend as much time there as I usually do due to #1 Oliver letting me know he had ENOUGH on Friday and #2 needing to leave to drive to the urologist appointment on Saturday, but I did get a few great bargains such as a pair of white sandals (Nadia's size) for 25 cents that were in great shape, a Melissa & Doug 100 piece pirate floor puzzle for $1, a scooter for Ian, a single jogging stroller for me to use with Oliver when I downsize from the double stroller, etc. I found out on Monday that Nadia needs a new bike. She has outgrown her two wheel bike. I wish I had known that before the yard sales, as I could have gotten her a new bike there. I'll keep my eyes out now!

6. Paul's parents watched Nadia on Saturday (spared her 6 hours in the van) and took her to her soccer game. As an added bonus, they put together the trampoline and brought up the kids' cars! The kids have been having a lot of fun with their cars (Christmas gifts) and trampoline this week!

7. We're still ever so grateful that Paul has a job for next year! It is such a relief to have a reprieve for 3-4 months in terms of submitting applications and even longer than that in terms of interviews. It also means we don't have to move this summer (YAY!), and I get to stay home with the kids another year (thank you, Lord!). Now I am able to shift gears and start making more plans for the summer and next year in terms of camps, homeschooling co-ops, etc. now that I know we'll be living in this house for at least one more year. This week I sent in our registration to join the swimming pool again this summer!

8. I love the flowers at this time of year! I need to take some pics of the tulips, hyacinth, etc. in our yard, but I did snap one of these tulips at someone else's house on our way back from the playground on Monday. The trees are also sporting beautiful blossoms, which means the leaves should be appearing soon! It was a bit chilly on Sunday, but generally the weather has been very nice lately, which has meant more time outside - playing, mowing the lawn, walking to the playground, weeding flower beds, etc.

9. I was so pleased on Tuesday night when I saw that Nadia can now do a cartwheel! She's definitely making progress in gymnastics.

10. A few days ago we received two free tickets for Six Flags. I thought we'd just be getting one free ticket (for Nadia), but they also sent me a free one as her teacher! Six Flags tickets are not cheap so this was very exciting! I hope they do this reading program again next year, and next year Ian will be eligible so we could get three free tickets! Weather permitting, I'm planning to take Nadia and Ian to the one in MD on Nadia's birthday along with Uncle Maurice, Susie, and Rachel.

11. Last Wednesday I found out the search at Bloomsburg had been cancelled (the position I had applied for). Since we assumed Bucknell was a closed door, we decided last Thursday morning to put our house on the market. That decision changed later in the day after Paul received a call from Bucknell, but those few hours of thinking we were definitely selling the house were a blessing because they spurred me to do some purging and cleaning. Paul took a van load of stuff to the thrift store on Saturday, which is always a good thing in my opinion. Although I'd still love to have another baby, I was thankful that it wasn't as painful to part with the clothes Oliver has outgrown this time. Hopefully it will continue to get easier and easier for me.

1.75 years old!

In three short months Oliver will be two years old. I love watching him learn and grow, but I am grieving the end of my days as a mom with a baby. Here are some ways our sweet little guy has changed over the past month:

1. His rash has not shown up At All (it was very prevalent in January and February). Yay!

2. He weighs 25lbs 4oz, which puts him at the 27th percentile, and he currently weighs exactly one pound more than Ian did when he turned 21 months old.

3. He keeps adding new words, and although he occasionally says a sentence, most of the time he only says one word at a time. The words he says almost every day are mama, dada, hi, juice, bye bye, these, no, and ba ball (basketball). It was cute at the Grand Prix, he kept shouting "Go, Go, Go" during the car races.

4. He has become MUCH friendlier. He waves and says "hi" to anyone and everyone.

5. After his RSV hospitalization he was waking up at 5:45 most mornings, but we have gotten him back on track and now he usually wakes up between 6:45-7:00. One morning he slept until 8am, which meant he had slept for 12 hours straight!! His nap has been 60-80 minutes long most days. Sometimes he wakes up earlier than that, but he goes back to sleep very quickly.

6. Nebulizer treatments have become a part of his daily routine because the doctors think he has RAD (asthma). Hopefully these will help us avoid another hospitalization for RSV.

7. His desire to play outside has greatly increased. He loves being outdoors!

8. He likes to pick out what pjs to wear at night and what shirt to wear during the day. His favorite shirt is the LarryBoy one I got him for Christmas.

18-21 Months Times 3

Nadia at 18 months (12-24-2009)

1. At 21 months Nadia had 14 teeth, Oliver has 12 teeth, and Ian had 8 teeth. Oliver has been far more enamored with brushing his teeth than his siblings ever have.

2. At 21 months Nadia and Oliver were wearing 24 month or 2T clothing with the exception of pants (18 months). Ian was wearing 18 month clothing, and there were some 18 month shorts that he couldn't wear because his waist was too small (they just fell right off of him). As for pants, he still wore size 12 months.

3. Nadia and Oliver were perfecting their skills with using a fork and spoon. We were still working on getting Ian to eat pureed food that I fed him by spoon. A fork had never entered his mouth. Of course Nadia and Oliver never had to deal with eosinophilic esophagitis or reflux.

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

Ian at 18 months (6-12-11)

5. Nadia and Oliver were perfectly content to walk around the house barefoot. Ian wanted to have his shoes on all the time. He also was more interested in dressing up than his siblings at this age. Ian loved wearing hats. Oliver likes to pick what he wears to bed and during the day. He points to what he wants in his drawer and says "these!".

6. At this age we were impressed with Nadia's memory and also her sense of humor. The boy's language skills weren't developed enough yet for us to be aware of either of these.

Oliver 2/6/14 (one day shy of 18 months)

7. Nadia could identify several colors at 21 months old. It wasn't obvious at this age that Ian knew any of his colors, but he could count to five! Oliver can't count, but he said the word "green" when pointing to something that was green.

8. Ian took off during this time period in terms of his vocabulary. His expressive vocabulary was about 100 words at 21 months. Nadia's was over 200 words at 20 months. Nadia was already speaking in sentences at this stage. Ian had said a couple of two word combinations (like "shoe on"), but usually he just said one word at a time. Oliver has said a few sentences (3-4 words long), but his vocabulary is smaller than both of his siblings at this age. His favorite words include: Mama, Dada, no, juice, more, cracker, tv, these, and teeth.

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

Nadia at 21 months (3-24-10)

11. All three kids went down for their (one) nap sometime between 12pm and 1pm when they were this age. Nadia's nap was 90 minutes to 3 hours long. Ian's was typically 15-25 minutes long. Oliver's is usually 60-80 minutes long.

11. Nadia and Oliver could do simple puzzles at this age. Nadia also engaged in imaginary play. Ian hadn't gotten into either of those at this age. The boys spent far more time looking at books and playing independently than Nadia did at this age. Ian showed far more interest in vehicles than his siblings. Oliver loves to play with Mr. Potato Head more than his siblings ever have.

9/12/11 - Ian at 21 months

12. Ian was a boy on the GO. He loved to run, run, run (far more than Nadia or Oliver at this age). The boys threw, hit, and kicked a lot more than Nadia ever did. We're working on that with Oliver right now.

13. During this time span Ian had speech therapy and occupational therapy once a week, saw a psychologist, allergist, GI doctor, and urologist, and was under general anesthesia 3 times in the last 4 months. Nadia has never been seen by any of those medical professionals or ever been under anesthesia. During this time span Oliver had one surgery (that involved a one night admission) and also a four day hospitalization for RSV and RAD.

14. Nadia sucked her thumb for comfort whereas Ian soothed himself by touching his belly button. Oliver thus far doesn't have a soothing habit. Thank goodness.

15. Nadia and Oliver were far more independent than Ian.

16. Nadia and Oliver were both good eaters from 6 months to 18 months, but it was around that age that Nadia began to be much pickier. Oliver thankfully will still eat just about anything. He has the most voracious appetite of the three kids. Many times during the day he will bring me a small plastic container, which is one of his ways of asking for food.

10,000 Pictures

I noticed today when I was uploading pictures to my laptop that I hit and went past the 10,000 picture mark today on my current camera (which I got a little less than 3 years ago). Can you tell I like taking pictures of my kids? In honor of hitting that milestone, I will post some of today's pictures. Enjoy!

I trump a cookie

Lately Oliver has been crying when I leave him in the nursery. If Ian cries (at the age of 4) when separating me for Sunday School, I feel annoyed as he stopped doing this awhile ago, and he seems a bit old to be going through this. His sister is quite the opposite. She gladly runs away from me toward other children. I don't think these separation issues will ever be as hard for Oliver as they were for Ian. That sweet boy has had many struggles separating me from birth. Just getting him to sleep somewhere other than my arms at any point in the day took months. Ian has certainly come a LONG way. This year our church started a tradition of having yummy food out on a table before Sunday School. I picked a sugar cookie for Oliver and gave him half of it while I was hanging up everyone's coats. Then I wrapped the other half in a napkin to give to the nursery worker and thought that the yummy cookie would distract him from the fact I was leaving the nursery to go to Sunday School. Emotionally it is hard for me to leave Oliver when he is crying for me, but sometimes it must be done. I quickly found out I was wrong about the cookie. Even though that boy LOVES cookies, he handed the cookie back to the nursery worker and ran toward me crying. Even though I hate to see him cry like that, I admit a little part of me was touched that he picked me over a cookie. I can pretty much guarantee his older sister would have always picked the cookie. If she is at any event (AWANA, VBS, etc.) the first thing I always hear about is the snack they had.

4 car garage

For the first 5 1/2 years we lived in this house, there were only two vehicles in our garage, unless you count the Little Tikes Coupe (foot powered) that has also been in there for a couple of years. Paul's parents gave Nadia and Ian each a battery powered car at Christmas. Ever since then I have had in the back of my mind that we needed to organize the garage so there would be room for those vehicles, and I have been thinking more of it lately now that the weather has gotten warmer. Yesterday I finally buckled down and tackled the project. I moved some things to the basement and reorganized other things within the garage to make a space for two cars. I thought that once the trampoline was put back up, there would be room (the trampoline parts were in a large box in the garage).

Paul's parents came up this morning to take care of Nadia (and take her to her 12:30 soccer game) while Paul and I took Ian and Oliver to King of Prussia. They brought the cars in their truck. They also planned to take one of my curio cabinets (that has been in the garage for 20 months) to Paul's sister-in-law in the truck, but it was raining this evening so we'll keep the cabinet in our garage until there is a sunny day when it can be transported. When we arrived back home at 4:30pm (the appointment was at 1pm, which shows you what a long day we had), we were shocked to see that Paul's dad had almost finished setting up the trampoline! What a very pleasant surprise that was! Nadia had been asking to have it set up, but we had been waiting to find out if we were moving or not. Paul finished assembling the trampoline. The kids had a blast jumping on it and also driving their cars around the yard this evening. Oliver loved being a passenger in Nadia's car. Pop Pop thinks Oliver will be driving a car by the end of the summer. As of today, our garage is a four car garage.

There were several parts of our drive in which both Ian and Oliver were crying. We are very glad we are not driving to Florida. The iPad and dvd player help some, but those boys just don't like to spend that many hours in a vehicle. Hopefully Nadia will do okay when she drives to Florida with Paul's parents. I actually wasn't in the van for the entire trip. Paul dropped me off at a restaurant about 35 minutes north of the doctor's office. This gave me two hours to spend talking to my friend, Carol, whom I hadn't seen in six years. The last time I saw her was at a baby shower when I was pregnant with Nadia. I'm usually the one who takes the kids to all their doctor appointments, but Paul took the boys to the urologist today, which I greatly appreciated. He picked me up on the way back home. Carol suggested a Mexican restaurant, so that was another added bonus as it had been more than a year since I had been in a Mexican restaurant. Yum!

Ian hadn't seen the urologist in almost 3 years. The last time he saw him was during the second surgery. The doctor was very pleased and said that Ian doesn't need any more follow-up appointments. The doctor was generally pleased with Oliver. There was one small area of concern, which he said we can't really assess until after he's potty trained. Hopefully there isn't any problem, as I'd love to be done with urological surgeries.

VERY Thankful Thursday

1. We had a fabulous time at Knoebels last Saturday. The weather was great, all three kids had a blast, the prices of the tickets were very reasonable, and memories were made!

2. We have scheduled two vacations - one in the Poconos (near the Delaware River) in May and one in Orlando in July! YAY!

3. I was scheduled to have a phone interview with Penn State Abington on May 14, but I cancelled it because Paul was offered the job at Bucknell today! I am SOOOOO thankful that we don't have to move, and I get to stay home with the kids for another year. Maybe Paul's opinion regarding teaching will change over the course of the year, but he's also planning to expand his research in a biological direction to make it easier to get a job in industry in the future should he decide he doesn't want to pursue another job in higher education. I'm calling the Realtor and telling her we are not putting our house on the market for at least another year! We get a break from interviews and applications. YAHOO! This month is getting off to a much better start than April did!

4. Oliver has been waking up too early ever since his stay in the hospital (usually around 5:45am). On Tuesday he woke up at 6:05, which was a slight improvement, but I didn't go get him right away and he went back to sleep (which didn't happen the other times I had tried this) and slept until EIGHT o'clock!! He slept for 12 hours! I thought this would translate to a short nap that afternoon, but he still took a one hour nap. Let me say he was in a MUCH better mood on Tuesday than he was on Monday.
Sleep does a body good! He woke up at 6:45am yesterday and today (woohoo!). Since I've been waking up early every morning, I went to bed at 8:15pm on Monday night, which is not something I want to do on a regular basis.

5. I wasn't planning to sign Nadia up for the next session of gymnastics because it ends
sometime in June. I was planning on starting her back up in the fall for a variety of reasons (the cost of the lessons, how hot the gym gets in June, the fact we'll start swimming most days in June, etc.). She kept begging and begging and begging me to sign her up for the next session. One of her motivations was wanting to be in the gymnastics showcase on June 7. The last two years she was in a ballet/tap recital in June. I found a class on Tuesday nights, which I thought would work out better since
she has soccer practice on Monday nights and the musical rehearsals will start soon on Wednesday nights (same church where they go to AWANA). Plus the Tuesday night class starts at 6:30, which means Paul can help out. Oliver doesn't do very well at the library these days. He is LOUD. I discovered on Tuesday night that a lot of other parents don't sign their kids up for this session because the class was 1/3 of the size it was the last several months. I think she's going to get more one-on-one attention and
make even more progress! I am glad she begged me to keep taking the class. She is making progress with her backward tuck rolls, kickovers, handstands, headstands, cartwheels, push-ups, and also using all the different equipment (beams, bars, trampoline, etc.).

6. Yesterday I took the kids to the local library for preschool story time for the first time in a long time. I planned to take them two weeks ago for the egg hunt, but that didn't happen due to Oliver being in the
hospital. Yesterday we received a free book about animals that have stripes. I think we'll give the summer program a whirl starting in June. The librarian was impressed with Nadia's reading ability! She's reading at the third grade reading level now. It's so much fun to see her reading anything and everything. Ian is also making progress with reading. Paul's mom gave them new t-shirts on Saturday, and Ian pointed to the inside of his shirt and said to me "what does marvel com mean?" He doesn't understand the world of "dot com" yet. :) I was impressed he read that though!

7. Every day the kids make me smile. Ian noticed another book about Hudson Taylor that I got at a yard sale a few weeks ago. He said, "Mommy! Hudson Taylor didn't really die. There's another book!" I tried and failed at explaining that both books cover the same time period. It's not a sequel. Ha ha!

8. We are all healthy!! PTL!