24-27 Months Times 3

Nadia at 24 months old (6/30/10)

1. At 27 months old Nadia pronounced thank you "bank you." Ian and Oliver pronounced it correctly. Oliver said it the most often, and he usually also said the person's name (ex. "thank you, Daddy").

Ian at 24 months old (1/6/12)

2. Nadia was far more social at this age. She would gladly interact with strangers at the playground. Ian and Oliver never made any attempt to play with other kids at the playground.

3. Nadia had switched to saying "me" instead of "you" in instances like "carry you." Ian still said "you." He said things like "Mommy will help you" when he wanted some help. Oliver never used "you" incorrectly. He uses his name more often than a pronoun.

4. Nadia's afternoon nap was 3 hours long. Ian's was 30 minutes long. Oliver's nap had been 60-80 minutes on average, but very recently he's been sleeping 2-3 hours! Yay!

5. Ian had one favorite food (coconut milk yogurt). Nadia and Oliver had many, many favorite foods. Oliver wins the prize of the three for being the best eater at this age.

6. Ian and Nadia talked a lot about emotions during these months, but Ian definitely said the word "scared" far, far more than Nadia. Oliver does occasionally say "I scared."

7. Nadia and Oliver were drinking cold milk from a glass during these months. Ian was drinking warm "milk" in a sippy cup. Nadia was the only one who could drink from a straw at this age.

8. Nadia and Oliver were more into coloring at this age than Ian. Ian showed the most imagination at this age with coloring and Play-doh. Ian and Oliver were far more interested in vehicles than Nadia has ever been.

9. Ian knew far more shapes and letters than Nadia or Oliver did at this age. Nadia and Ian could count to thirteen. Oliver can only count to three. Nadia could correctly identify more colors than her brothers could.

10. Ian and Oliver were daytime potty trained during this time span, although Oliver is having FAR more accidents than they were. Ian and Nadia were using regular toilets. Oliver is still only peeing in the froggy potty. Nadia was wearing underwear 24 hours a day. Oliver and Ian still wore a diaper when they were sleeping (one diaper a day).

Nadia at 27 months old (9/28/10)

11. Ian said "I love you" a lot more than Nadia did, and Oliver hasn't said it yet. Nadia and Oliver asked for hugs. Ian never asked for hugs, but he climbed up and snuggled many times a day! They all loved giving and receiving hugs and receiving kisses!

12. Nadia and Oliver loved swings. Nadia and Oliver were also braver in terms of coming down slides and the stairs by themselves whereas Ian wanted me to hold his hand in both instances.

13. Ian made a LOT more messes. He was like a cyclone going through the house! Oliver made more messes than Nadia but far fewer than Ian did.

14.  Nadia comforted herself by sucking her thumb. Ian plays with his belly button. Oliver doesn't have a soothing habit.

15. Although all three children enjoyed singing at this age, Ian broke into song far more often than Nadia or Oliver ever did.

Ian at 27 months (3/21/12)

16. Ian weighed 28 pounds when he turned 27 months old, and Oliver weighs 27.5 pounds. I don't know exactly what Nadia weighed, but I'm sure she weighed more than her brothers.

17. Ian switched from being a Mommy's boy to a Daddy's boy during this time span. Oliver is still a Mommy's boy.

18. Ian's favorite show was "Word World," Nadia's was "Olivia," and Ian's favorites show at the moment are "Thomas the Train" and "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse."

19. Nadia had the largest vocabulary. She could whisper, which couldn't be said of her brothers. Nadia and Ian could sing the words to FAR more songs than Oliver. Oliver's vocabulary contained words his siblings didn't because of the fact he's the youngest -  like minion, monster, princess, Woody, and Sully. Both boys used the word "stuck" a lot.

20. Nadia used to say she was "four" when asked her age (she used to say she was "three" when she was one). Oliver gives the correct answer (two), and he also makes an attempt at saying the name of our town when asked where he lives (which his siblings didn't do at this age).

Happy 70th Birthday, Grandma!

Paul's mom turned 70 yesterday! We haven't seen her much the past three months due to her "quarantine" to try to avoid another trip to the ICU while her immune system is weak due to chemo. We're hoping that the chemo treatment two weeks from now will be her last. Since they haven't seen Grandma very much lately, they were REALLY excited about celebrating her birthday with her. On Thursday morning en route to our Terrific Turkey program at the state park, we stopped at two stores so the kids could buy her birthday gifts with their own money. They bought her flowers (they wanted to get her roses, but I explained they didn't have enough money for those), candy, and a balloon. Yesterday morning they each made her a birthday card.

Paul got home from work at 2:45 (he came home earlier than usual in light of her party), and we left as soon as he got home. The kids had time to play before eating some yummy pizza with their grandparents, Uncle Al, and their cousin, Shawn. After playing some more, Aunt Millie arrived with one of her delicious cakes. The pictures below are of Oliver helping Grandma unwrap a gift and the kids helping Grandma blow out the candles on her cake. We all love her SO much, and we are thankful that her health has been better the past two months. Hopefully starting next month we'll be able to go back to seeing them more regularly!

2.25 Years Old!

I had planned on switching from monthly to quarterly updates on Oliver, but I ended up writing one last month. Old habits die hard! I forgot to mention in that post that Oliver learned how to say his name before he turned 26 months old. He says it all the time. For example if he wants a toy that Ian is playing with he'll say "Oliver's turn." If I am about to feed him something he'll say "Oliver do it." The way he pronounces the words "do it" cracks me up. It sounds like "doot". His pronunciation of the word "please" is also amusing. For a long time he said "peas" as most children do at this age, but now in his attempt to say the "l" in the word, I think that most people wouldn't be able to understand that he's saying "please" as it sounds something like "piaz". For awhile he's done an outstanding job with saying "thank you." He always says the person's name (ex. "thank you, Mommy"), and he says thank you ALL day long. If I give him a compliment or a kiss or a hug, I get a "thank you, Mommy." Lately he has gotten much better at saying please without a reminder.

Almost all the time I understand what he's saying, and I think most of the time others would be able to understand him. When he asks for a drink, he also specifies which cup he wants. For example he'll say "Bob milk" meaning please use the Veggie Tale cup. He's finally started to use the word "water." Prior to this every drink was "milk." He has an excellent memory of which things belong to which member of the family. As I am taking clothes out of the dryer he gives a running commentary ("Nadia's shirt, Ian's pants, Daddy's socks, etc.), and 99% of the time he's correct! He calls underwear "wear," and when it comes to his underwear he always uses an adjective to describe it (ex. "Mickey wear" meaning the underwear that has Mickey Mouse on it). Occasionally I find myself saying words in the way he says them because I hear it that way so often (ex, "Nana" for Nadia). He also uses the sound to identify some nouns (says "choo choo" instead of train, says "quack quack" instead of duck, and says "roar" for several nouns including dinosaur and lion).

He's getting better with his colors, but sometimes he still identifies them incorrectly. The color words he says the most often are blue, red, green, and purple. He makes an attempt to count, but it usually goes something like "one, two, three, six, nine"). He attempts to identify some letters of the alphabet, and sometimes he is correct although maybe it's just coincidence. For awhile he has prayed at the dinner table by repeating after me, but now he will pray a short prayer all on his own. He refers to praying by the word "amen." If he wants there to be a second prayer before a meal he will say "amen again." "Again" and "heavy" are two of his MOST favorite words. He's getting better at doing 12 piece jigsaw puzzles, and that's one instance where he'll say again (after he's completed the puzzle). His favorite adjective to use to describe himself is "funny" (rather than smart, cute, handsome, etc.).

Thankful Thursday

1. A new homeschooling bill was signed into law by the Governor on Friday. Prior to this Pennsylvania was ranked as the second worst of the 50 states in terms of home schooling laws (NY being the worst). The BEST states for home schooling include: Michigan, Alaska, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Texas, Idaho, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Oklahoma. In that sense it would be nice if Paul got a job in one of those states. I am glad that PA made some progress with improving this law.

 2. As we walked into the grocery store on Thursday afternoon, another customer entering the store pointed to my kids and asked me if they were all mine. After I said "yes," he asked if it was okay if he gave each of them a $2 bill. Sure! The kids had never seen a $2 bill before (well Oliver is oblivious to any kind of money), and it was neat timing because last week we were studying Thomas Jefferson (who is pictured on the front). Nadia immediately recognized that the picture on the back was of the Declaration being signed. What a kind thing for this man to give my kids $6! Part way through the store we ran into him again, and he asked if they had already spent it or not. LOL!

3. The kids had fun trick or treating on Friday night. Although the weather was much cooler than it had been the previous weekend, it was still pleasant enough for the kids to go without jackets on. We lasted much longer than we did last year. Most people gave the kids small pieces of candy or bags of fruit snacks. Some of the more unique gifts were glow in the dark bracelets, a package of two Pop Tarts for every child (they each ate theirs for breakfast on Saturday morning), and at one house they were giving out FULL size candy bars (ex. Snickers). The kids enjoyed seeing all the other costumes.

4. I've completed twelve applications for Paul, and there are two more on my list to be done. All of them are for tenure track jobs at four year colleges, and twelve of them are for either physical or computational chemistry (his areas of specialty); this never happened the past two years! Only one of them is just for teaching general chemistry. Applications 11-14 have gone or are going to KY, GA, WV, and IN.

5. We had a great time with six cousins on Saturday at Six Flags! On one ride that Oliver and Julianna (age 20 months) were riding together, she looked a little scared to me so I was making a point to wave and say "Hi, Julie!" every time she came around to try to calm her fears. Oliver felt a little left out, and after they passed he'd yell "Hi, Oliver!" to remind me that I shouldn't just be talking to his cousin. Thanks to Oliver wearing his bee costume, his hair was not accessible. She pulled on his wings (which he didn't like but it certainly didn't hurt him one iota), but she never pulled his hair! We also got to catch our first glimpse of Micah as Yvonne and Micah came to Chocolate World at the end (he was asleep in his car seat but we saw a little bit of his face).

6. The kids keep learning new skills. Nadia has recently learned how to whistle (something I have never been able to do!) and climb all the way across the monkey bars.

7. On Sunday morning we had guest speakers - Christopher Yuan and his parents. He's currently a professor at Moody Bible Institute. He and his parents had a very powerful story to tell of how they each came to the Lord and the changes He was brought about in their lives. They had many other sessions on Saturday and Sunday night that I wasn't able to attend, but I've ordered a CD of all the sessions that I missed.

8. On Sunday I was handed the names and contact information for NINE people who babysit from our church. WOOHOO! I've never had anywhere near that many names to draw upon, and up until I was handed that sheet I had zero. It's been three months since we've been on a date, but we are planning to go on the 15th, and I have a babysitter lined up for that date!

9. This morning we are attending a "Terrific Turkeys" program at a state park, and my friend Nikki (whom I met at ladies Bible study) is also planning to come with her two boys.

10. On Saturday morning we stopped at a mall on our way to Hershey. I used two coupons to get some great bargains at Bon Ton and JcPenney (at JCP I was buying things at 90% off the original price), and Paul also got himself a jacket! It's the first coat he's bought that wasn't a hoodie over the past 17 years that I've known him. He (finally) decided he needed something more professional to wear to the university. Yay!

11. The weather was GORGEOUS on Tuesday. It doesn't usually get to 70 degrees in November in PA, and my petunias aren't still usually blooming!

12. We live in a free country where we experience peaceful elections. PTL!

13. Potty training has had it's ups and downs - like the fact he had his first two accidents at church the past two Wednesday nights even though he peed at home right before we left for church. The positives would be that aside from one incident of diarrhea, he hasn't had any #2 accidents in more than 2 weeks. Also he had two more days in the past week that were accident free, which brings his total to nine accident free days.

14. Yesterday morning Ian didn't wake up until 6:15. WOOHOO! This was the first indication of his body making the one hour switch. Proof the kids haven't fully made the switch is that ALL three of them were asleep in the van on the way home from AWANA last night even though we only have a 15 minute drive home, and they had never fallen asleep in the van on another Wednesday night this fall. Oliver also has been taking longer than usual naps, which is wonderful.

My second reader!

I have sporadically worked with Ian on his reading skills. Lately he has been pestering me to work with him. Normally I am not a fan of being nagged by a child, but in this case, I really can't complain since he's been begging to do more school work. I've been doing more math, handwriting, and reading with him lately - all at his request! He has been able to sound out words for several months, including four letter words like "frog" or "shed" or "chip," but many times he just starts guessing wildly based on the pictures. He hasn't totally broken that habit, but just in the last week or so he's shown a LOT of improvement with sounding words out. I feel he's very close to a big break through and will really take off with his reading in the near future. Once he does, then I'm going to start adding spelling into his daily school work. I usually use the All About Reading readers with him (he's almost ready to move to the second book of Level One), but on Monday I pulled out the first set of BOB books and had him practice his reading skills with those. I recorded him reading three of the books. Since each video is almost five minutes long, I am only embedding one of them in the post, but here are the links of the other two for his Grandmas. I am pleased with his progress considering he's four years old and wouldn't be eligible to attend Kindergarten until next August, if we were sending him to a school.

Nadia worked with mixing paints today to make light and dark primary and secondary colors. Purple is very hard to make!

Tinkertoys

We've owned two classic Tinkertoy sets for about three years, and the kids have played with them a little from time to time, but very recently they (especially Ian) have really been playing with them a lot, and he has come up with some very creative creations. I love to see them using their imaginations and developing their creativity!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today (high of 70). Who would think that on November 4 we could walk to our polling place and the playground without jackets on! We haven't even had a frost yet. The flowers I planted in May are still  blooming! 

Lost her third tooth!

Nadia lost her third tooth at church yesterday morning! Because of three special services being held yesterday evening, the kids' choir rehearsal was moved to 10:45am. One of the women who works with the children put her tooth in a plastic bag so it could go under Nadia's pillow last night. She's had four wiggly teeth for a few weeks, and the dentist had encouraged her to wiggle that particular tooth because the permanent tooth had already broke through the gums. I had to make sure to take a picture yesterday, as I don't think there will be a gap there for long! Her other lower lateral incisor is also wiggly along with her two top central incisors. Getting permanent teeth is not the only evidence that she's growing up. In the last few weeks she's learned how to whistle (something I've never been able to do) and to go all the way across the monkey bars!

Oliver wins the prize for being the first child in our family to make the change with his body clock. He woke up at 7:00 this morning! The breathing treatment really helped him last night. His cough was sounding very bad, but he didn't cough much at all the rest of the night. Ian has always had a hard time switching his body clock. He started waking up at 3am, and we kept sending him back to his bedroom. Around 5:45am I finally let him crawl in bed with me, and he fell back asleep until 7:00. Nadia got up once in the night and also got up too early and was sent back to bed. This is very unusual for her. She still has a low grade fever, plus I think the excitement over the "tooth fairy" were the reasons she didn't sleep well. She's usually the last one to get up so I am not worried about her switching to the new time. Although I missed most of a really great football game last night, and I would have enjoyed talking with my dad on the phone while we watched the game (he's the reason I'm a Steeler fan), I know I made the right decision because I have very little energy today, and that was with going to bed at 7:50 last night. I had a feeling it would be a night full of interruptions and an early start, and it was. I probably am going to do the same tonight even though the Giants are playing tonight. I really want to have enough energy tomorrow to take the kids to the playground as it's supposed to be a pretty day (high of 65). Oliver hasn't had a fever today, but he's been really cranky so I know he's still not feeling well. This again makes me grateful I didn't stay up to watch the game because when I'm tired I don't generally have as much patience. Hopefully we'll all be healthy by Friday so we can celebrate Grandma's 70th birthday with the rest of the family!

The next time we're there we need to get a picture of all of the cousins. Nathan and Andrew were with Joe when we took it.

Hershey Park Happy!

The only times I have been to Hershey Park in the past 20+ years have been for their Christmas Candylane, and during those events none of their many roller coasters are in operation. A one day ticket in the summer is rather expensive, and unlike Knoebels, parents have to buy a ticket even if they just end up putting little children on and off kiddie rides all day long. So we've never taken the kids there in the summer. This year when I was looking into the Candylane dates, I discovered they sold a combination ticket for their Hersheypark at Dark and Christmas Candylane. The combo ticket was more reasonably priced than their summer tickets so we decided to give it a whirl because for the "at Dark" dates they were running all dry rides. We were a bit concerned about the weather. We knew it would be cold (unlike last weekend), but for awhile they were forecasting a lot of rain for tomorrow. Thankfully the forecast improved yesterday morning. Our prayers were answered, and it didn't rain a single drop while we were there.

 Nadia was measured as a Peanut Butter Cup. Hershey is definitely stricter with height requirements. She couldn't even ride the bumper cars with an adult whereas even Ian is tall enough to ride them at other parks (with an adult). I thought Ian would be measured as a Hershey Kiss, but the official measurement was on the generous side, and they said he was also a Peanut Butter Cup. Who knows at Christmas they may say he's a Hershey Kiss. I was hoping that Oliver would be a Kiss, but he was measured as a Miniature, which meant there were rides (like the Tea Cups) that he couldn't ride that he has ridden at other parks. Of the 12 roller coasters they have, Ian was tall enough to ride two (with an adult), and Nadia was tall enough to ride four with an adult. The fact that the kids each needed an adult for many rides (not just roller coasters) was problematic when we started out with 2 adults (Paul and I) and 3 kids, but that became even more of a problem with Joe and his dad showed up with six more kids (three who were smaller than Nadia).

 We arrived at noon, right when the park opened, and at that time we were just walking on the rides (including the roller coasters) because there were so few people there. Several rides they rode multiple times in those first 2 1/2 hours. We met up with my brother-in-law Joe and the kids at 2:30. They were SO excited to see their cousins. We hadn't been at an amusement park with these cousins since I was pregnant with Ian in August 2009. Nadia's favorite rides were the two bigger roller coasters she was able to ride with Paul. One of them had a loop. It was her first time going upside down on a roller coaster! Ian's favorite rides were the Reese's PB Cup Extreme Challenge (a video game type ride like the Toy Story ones at Disney World) and the Hershey's Chocolate World ride (which is free - it's not inside the amusement park). He and Oliver also loved the ladybug ride. The probably rode that ride about ten times yesterday. Paul and I were very tired when we got home. We were one from the house for 12 hours (3 1/2 of that was driving time). The boys fell asleep almost as soon as we got in the van. Nadia fell asleep after she ate a very late dinner from McDonald's. Oliver didn't have any accidents while we were at Hershey Park, but he did pee in his clothes while he was sleeping in the van on the way home. I haven't been bringing diapers anywhere for the past almost 7 weeks, but I should have thought to bring one for the ride home in light of the fact he's used to wearing one in his crib at night.

We got home about 9:30pm and put the kids right to bed. Yesterday was the first day in Oliver's life that he stayed awake for 12 straight hours without a nap. Paul's dad is usually the one who makes sure Oliver gets a nap at amusement parks. They boys were up at their usual time, which given the clocks had changed meant they woke up at what was now 5:30 and 5:45am (Ian woke up first). I was definitely exhausted today as I went to bed a little later than usual (11:00 the old time), and I had been awake since 4:00 because my body often wakes up at 5:00 since Paul gets up at that time on MWF. Oliver and Nadia had fevers today (around 100 degrees). I went to bed when the kids did even though the Steelers were playing the night game because I was so tired and figured they will probably get up too early again tomorrow. People at church kept talking about that "extra hour" of sleep, but that sure hasn't happened for us the past seven years we've been parents. Oliver started to have a bad cough in the night so I got up at 10:30 to give him a nebulizer treatment, and then I proceeded to stay up for an hour watching the football game (which went very well!). All in all we had a great day yesterday. It should be easier at Christmas time at the park since the roller coasters won't be operating and even Jenna (who is turning 12 in 3 weeks) counts as an "adult" in riding rides with younger kids (like Nadia). My parents might also join us to help with the adult to young child ratio. We are looking forward to another day at Hershey Park with the cousins at the end of the month!