19 Months Old

Over the past month Oliver:

1. Started enjoying watching tv.

2. His afternoon nap got longer. It now is 1.5-2.0 hours long most days. A short nap for him lasts 75 mintues. He has completely adjusted to not having a morning nap. I have adjusted to him running around while I am homeschooling.

3. Fell in love with fruit snacks and fruit roll-ups. He would eat pack and after pack, if I'd let him.

4. Completely stopped crawling.

5. Recovered from his first surgery. I'm hoping that his umbilical hernia will resolve on its own so he won't have to have that surgery when he's five.

6. Showed improvement with being in his car seat (less crying).

7. Continued to sing while I sing to him in the glider in his bedroom before his nap and before bed at night. On February 9th, I took him back in the choir room with me (since he was a bit fragile due to recovering from his surgery that took place two days earlier), and he was singing so loudly while the choir was rehearsing (sometimes even on the right note!) that it was very distracting to the choir members. They were really enjoying him. It was suggested I sign him up for King's Kids (the children's choir). It was very adorable!

8. Didn't get any more teeth. Tooth number twelve has been oh so close to breaking through the gums for a few weeks, but it still hasn't done so. I thought for sure it would have broken through before he turned 19 months, but I was wrong.

9. His rash still hasn't gone away on his face. He's had it for two months now. I mentioned it to the Pediatrician today, and the doctor had no clue what is causing it or what to do to help it go away. It was the only question I had for the doctor, and I was definitely disappointed that he was zero help.

10. Has gotten much better about only throwing balls. He still loves to throw balls of any size or shape, but he's done a better job at not throwing other toys, food, sippy cups, etc.

11. Grew out of his size 4 shoes. I need to buy him some size 5 dress shoes because Ian was wearing sandals when he was in size 5. He also grew out of his size 12 month pants. That was the only thing he had been wearing in size 12 months the last couple of months. He's now only wearing size 18 month clothing. At the doctor's office today he weighed 24lb 3oz, which means he didn't gain any weight over the past month as he weighed that much at CHOP 4 weeks ago. It still puts him at the 24th percentile, which is higher than he was at his 15 month appointment! His head circumference was 48.5cm today (66th percentile compared to 30th percentile 4 months ago), and they said he was 32.5 inches long. At CHOP they measured him standing up. I wish I had written down what they told me then, as I think that's far more accurate than the lying down and making marks on the paper way of measuring. If this is accurate, he's at the 46th percentile (75th percentile using the adjusted chart).

12. Got his last two immunizations until he's five years old (not counting the flu shot). WOOHOO! He had the Hep A and DTaP today. It's so nice to know he doesn't need any shots at his 2 year appointment!

13. Slept until 7am a few times. He almost always wakes up between 6:15-6:30am, which means he's getting 10.25-10.5 hours of sleep at night. One time over the past month he slept 12 hours straight! Ideally, I'd like him to sleep 11 hours at night. Maybe when the clocks "spring forward" that might start happening more often.

Thankful Thursday

1. Paul's parents arrived back home from Florida yesterday afternoon. They left on February 14 and stayed a bit longer than expected due to Paul's mom being hospitalized for a week down there.

2. Paul has a phone interview tomorrow with a community college in Maryland! Seven of the first nineteen applications resulted in at least a phone interview. I've submitted 29 applications for him thus far. Hopefully he'll also hear from some of the more recent applications. We are very ready to be off this emotional roller coaster. I would love to know if we're moving or not so I know whether or not to put the house on the market and start packing. Since I went through that in vain last year, I've decided to hold off until one of us has an actual job offer this time around.

3. We enjoyed the maple sugaring program at Montour Preserve on Saturday (field trip!).

4. Ian learned how to write all his uppercase letters a few days ago, and he also became totally independent with going to the bathroom last weekend! He needs to work on using an appropriate amount of toilet paper, but other than that he's got it all figured out.

5. Nadia is making great progress with reading. I took three videos of her yesterday (see below). One is of her reciting the Lord's Prayer (she's supposed to learn it for Sunday School), another is of her reciting three of her verses for Sparks, and one is of her reading part of a Junie B. Jones book on my Kindle. This hit the nail on the head in that it's long enough to feel like a good accomplishment to her but at her independent reading level. She needed very little help reading the first few chapters yesterday afternoon. I'm not really keen on the series though due to the excessive use of words like "dumb," "stupid," "hate," etc. I'll keep looking.

6. We enjoy checking out books from the library every week. For example, we've been enjoying So you want to be President, Matchbox Diary, and Who says women can't be doctors? The story of Elizabeth Blackwell this week (just three of the many I checked out on Monday).

7. Oliver and I really enjoyed the chicken corn soup I made on Tuesday. Unfortunately, Nadia and Ian didn't like it. Tough luck. I'll be making it again some day. Yummy! I also am enjoying the pecan pie I made last night.

8. My mouth feels SO much better than it did last week. One small part of my palate is still tender, and I still have putty covering three of my teeth, but other than that my mouth feels normal. Hopefully I'll get a good report on Monday that the gum grafts were a success.

9. Nadia and Ian are looking forward to attending a Dr. Seuss's birthday party at the library this evening! If you go by the number of books we own by a particular author, our favorite authors would seem to be Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, Sandra Boynton, Patricia Polacco, Jane Yolen, Laura Numeroff, Doreen Cronin, Jan & Stan Berenstain, Jonathan London, Margaret & H.A. Rey, Ezra Jack Keats, Leo Lionni, Mercer Mayer, Kevin Henkes, Peggy Parish, and Robert Munsch.

10. Nadia finished her Sparks book for the second time last night! She was given an extra credit book to work on for the next few weeks. She was the first Kindergartner to finish her book this year. Way to go, Nadia!

Her first chapter book!

Nadia has been flying through Amelia Bedelia, Frog and Toad, Little Bear, and other easy reader and picture books. I decided she was ready to start reading chapter books. Once I made that decision, she wanted one ASAP. She didn't want to wait until I went to the library on Monday. So on Saturday I looked to see if I could get any for the Kindle for free. I got one through the library's website. She was very enamored with using my Kindle to read. She started reading the book Saturday night, and by Monday afternoon she had read all 120 pages of Ivy and Bean. This book was just a tad beyond her independent reading level. I had to be sitting near by so that she could ask me for help when she got stuck on a word. She wants the challenge of a longer book. I checked out a Henry and Mudge book for her on Monday, but she was disappointed because it was much shorter. I need to keep searching to find some longer books that are at her current independent reading level. She did begin reading silently for the first time with the chapter book, and she loved the novelty of using the Kindle. I should find some more books for her to read on the Kindle also.

Thanks so much for the suggestion of using band aids on his belly button, Sheila! I had never thought of that. Ian's belly button has been an innie for a long time (Oliver's is still an outie), but he plays with it incessantly, and many times it's bright red. Hopefully this will help! This photo was taken yesterday morning, and I put new ones on this morning.

Yesterday I started working on job applications for myself. At first I thought I would only start applying for jobs that would start in August 2015, but I've decided to submit a few for jobs that start in August 2014 and see what happens. It took more work to do my first couple because I had to scan my transcripts and draft a cover letter, etc. From now on it shouldn't be any harder than it is to submit more for Paul. I'll just keep submitting them for both of us and see what happens. Paul has a phone interview on Friday with a community college in Maryland. This means that of the first nineteen applications I submitted for him, seven of the schools contacted him for at least a phone interview. The applications I submitted for myself were to schools in Georgia and North Carolina.

Goal check-in #1

Two months have passed so it's time to stop and reflect on how I'm doing with the goals for the year.

I have been making a stew, soup, or chili once a week. The kids are not big fans of this new plan, but hopefully over time they'll grow to like some of these recipes. I made split pea and ham soup for the first time in January and white bean and ham soup for the first time in February. Paul really liked the second one.

In January I read the book Everyday Confetti, but I'm still working on fleshing out my list of celebrations throughout the year. I felt like I did a better job making Valentine's Day special for the kids this year.

Nadia has been doing a better job of keeping her room neater in general, although there is still room for growth with that goal!

Ian has been doing a much better job with playing games with rules (Uno, Bingo, and Candyland for example) and over the past two months he learned how to write all his uppercase letters! Prior to January he only knew one (I). He's come a long way in the past two months! Today he learned the last four: K, S, Z, and Y. He definitely needs more practice, but he has written every letter at least a few times independently. The little chalkboard that Handwriting without Tears makes was a big help for him. Nadia never used it.

Oliver is getting better at using a spoon and fork. We are trying to transition him away from eating everything with his fingers. He definitely is a walker now. No more crawling for Mr. Oliver!

I made my first lemon meringue pie last month! I want to make one pie or cheesecake each month. Pecan pie and peanut butter pie are two on the list!

Nadia has been wearing her thumb guards for three weeks. I don't think that's going to be enough so today I ordered some stuff on Amazon that makes your thumb taste terrible. I hope that does the trick! Today Ian announced that he wants to start working on stopping playing with his belly button. We shall see how that goes!

Ian has made progress with feeding himself dinner. There are still days when he takes FOREVER, but generally he finishes in the right amount of time. In particular he has a much better attitude about pasta these days.

Nadia helped me write letters to the kids we sponsor through Compassion International once last month (very first time she did that).

Ian is finally totally independent with going to the bathroom, except we need to work on using an appropriate amount of toilet paper to wipe. One time today he used almost an ENTIRE roll of toilet paper. Needless to say I needed to do quite a bit of plunging.

The rest of the goals not mentioned above are ones that I didn't make any progress on yet. In particular I'd like to work on these four during the next two months:

1. Make crepes for the first time ever on one of our breakfast for dinner nights.
2. Make at least one homemade pizza
3. Be more faithful at working on Bible verses with the kids every day (we do it every week but not every day)
4. Start doing at least one craft a week with the kids

Maple Sugar Time

From Monday afternoon when I returned home from the periodontist until yesterday afternoon I didn't leave the house. Normally we go to Bible study on Tuesday morning, and I usually go to choir rehearsal on Wednesday evening, but I had skipped both of those because of my swollen face. By Friday I was having a bit of cabin fever, so when Paul got home around 4pm I took Oliver with me to a store in town to buy a few things. Today I fully got back in the swing of things. This morning I noticed a posting from one of the consignment shops that most of their clothes and shoes would be 70% off today. I decided to take the kids and head up there to get some clothes for next year. When we got back, it was time for lunch before Nadia and Paul headed to her fifth basketball game. The boys and I stayed home. Nadia did more dribbling today. Although score wasn't kept, the Leopards would have lost the game today if it had been kept. Nadia was whacked at some point in the game. Even when she went to bed she still had a red mark on her cheekbone. There are three games left in the season.

When Oliver woke up from his nap at 2:30pm, we all headed to the Montour Preserve to learn about maple sugaring. First we listened to a talk in a building, and then after we walked about 10 minutes we saw a few demonstrations and tasted some maple syrup and some maple cream. Nadia enjoyed using a hammer on a spile to tap a tree. At one station the kids each received a wooden spile. It was very well done, and if we stay in the area, I would definitely take the kids here again. In light of this program, I figured I should do our breakfast for dinner meal this evening. All three kids had French toast with syrup for dinner tonight.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Saturday morning (when my parents were sleeping on a sofabed in our living room), all three kids slept until 7:00am. This almost never happens, but I was very thankful they did since my parents don't usually get up as early as we do in this house. Ian has been doing a better job lately of sleeping until 7:00. I think this is partially due to the fact that it's becoming rare for him to take an afternoon nap. Oliver usually gets up at 6:30.

2. Oliver's afternoon nap has been getting longer. Two hours is the new norm. Yay!

3. My first gum grafting surgery is done. Whew. I am dreading round #2 and am grateful we decided we couldn't afford to do all 16 teeth this year. Not Fun. I am also thankful that the insurance is paying about 2/3 of the cost. Today I could eat soft foods (oatmeal, yogurt, etc.). Progress.

4. It was so nice to have my parents up for a brief visit last weekend!!! We're hoping that some day we live closer together so we don't have to go two months in between visits.

5. Paul's parents have been in Florida on vacation. Paul's mom came down with a fever on Saturday, and thankfully Paul's dad quickly got her to the hospital. The MRSA is acting up again in her lungs, but it seems to have been caught in the early stages. Hopefully she'll be discharged in the near future so they can drive back home to PA. They are spending more time in Florida than they had planned.

6. Paul was very encouraged that the basketball team did better on Saturday.

7. Ian is making great progress with learning to write uppercase letters. He's learned most of them!

8. We finished reading The Magician's Nephew. I plan on reading the whole series to them this year.

Gum Grafting #1

More than ten years ago I saw a periodontist at the recommendation of a dentist due to gum recession. For decades I've been told to brush VERY gently. That periodontist said that if I wasn't having any pain or sensitivity to hot/cold that I could wait on doing the gum grafting. The dentist I've had the past five years has been on my case about seeing a periodontist again, and I finally did last month. This one did not think I should wait any longer even though I am still not having any pain or sensitivity to hot or cold foods or drinks. It costs thousands of dollars. We have paid that kind of money for ivf, but otherwise we're not using to spending anywhere near that much on any medical or dental bills. Thankfully the dental plan will pay about 2/3 of the cost, but it's still not cheap. We've decided to do 1/3 of the teeth he said need done this year and wait on the rest. I had my first appointment today. It was not a pleasant experience, but I am in a lot more pain now that the numbness is wearing off. They did three teeth today, which will cost us $479 after the insurance pays their part. I return in two weeks for the post-operative check-up. I hope this truly was necessary and will prove to have been the right decision to make because at this moment I am sorry I did it, as I am in a lot of pain.

A visit and a date

My parents had planned to come up for a 22 hour visit on Valentine's Day, but because of snow last weekend, they came up this Friday afternoon instead. Nadia and Ian could hardly wait for them to get here! When they arrived we had dinner, and then Nadia and Paul left for basketball practice. My mom brought them a bag of conversation heart candy, and all three kids thoroughly enjoyed this treat. Nadia enjoyed reading the words on her hearts. Yesterday morning my parents took her to a make-up gymnastics class. She usually goes on Monday nights, but one of her classes was cancelled due to snow. We met them at church for her 11:00 basketball game. The Leopards had played well their first game and then played poorly the next two weeks. Paul was very relieved that they played much better yesterday. Although they don't keep score with the K/1st grade games, their team would have won if they had kept score. Nadia attempted to make a basket twice (not anywhere close). In general she actually played better the first game, but she did do more dribbling yesterday. She's by far the weakest player on their team, but she's having fun and learning some new skills.

After the game we came home and had lunch and Nadia and Ian had some more time with my parents while Oliver napped before they left at 3pm. As you can see from the photo, Ian took his nap during the end of the basketball game. Around 4pm Kathy arrived at our house. She babysat our kids once in October, and the kids enjoyed spending time with her again last night. Usually our dates are 3 hours long, but this time I asked for 4 hours so we would have time to play miniature golf. We've really been in a rut the past four years - all of our dates have involved shopping and a meal. We did go to TGIFridays (our "usual" in part because I can get gift cards to that restaurant through our credit card points) and did buy Paul a new pair of sneakers, but we also did 34 holes of miniature golf at a glow in the dark miniature golf place in the mall. It had been years since we've gone golfing. Paul did much better than I did. This summer we need to take the kids miniature golfing outdoors sometime!

Thankful Thursday

1. Oliver has adjusted to not having a morning nap. At first he would get rather fussy and yawn a bit in the morning, but now he does fine with staying up until about 1pm. He actually had a little morning nap today in the van, but it was the first time that happened in a couple of weeks. We are still working on lengthening the afternoon nap. I have found that he is rather fussy during the afternoon and early evening if he only sleeps for 80 minutes. I am trying to get him to sleep for at least two hours. Yesterday he woke up after only 60 minutes so I let him cry a little, and then he slept for another 90 minutes. YAY! We are also working on getting him to sleep a bit longer at night as some mornings he wakes up at 6am (which means he only slept 10 hours at night, which is not enough particularly on the days he only takes an 80 minute nap).

2. We sang the hymn "Wonderful Grace of Jesus" at church on Sunday. It's one of my most favorite hymns, and it had been a long time since I had been in a church when it was sung.

3. Paul surprised us by showing up at church on Sunday just as the worship service was about to begin. The kids were very happy to sit on his lap!

4. Paul's summer teaching schedule was finalized, which means now we can start planning our summer vacation! He'll be teaching a general chemistry lab from June 30-August 6.

5. Paul had a phone interview with the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown on Tuesday afternoon. We are praying that will result in an invitation to interview on campus. There was a lull where I went several weeks without submitting any applications for Paul, but over the past week I submitted six applications for him to colleges in FL, TN, GA, PA, NC, and St. Thomas. I have two more on my list that are due in March/April (to schools in Florida and Jamaica). I've submitted twenty-six so far for jobs for August 2014, and six of the first nineteen did interview Paul.

6. On Sunday afternoon I went to Sears to get the tires rotated on Paul's car, but the wait was 3-4 hours so I will have to return later to accomplish that task. I did use a coupon at JCP though which enabled me to buy a dress and a long sleeve t-shirt for Nadia in the future for a grand total of 96 cents (saved over $40)!

7. I got the tires rotated on the van today, and while they were doing that the kids and I had lunch at Friendly's (Ian's pick for the month). It was yummy! In the future I need to remember to only go on Wednesdays, as it's $8 cheaper to go on that day.

New Adventures

I gave Nadia the first three Imagination Station books for Christmas, and we read those in January. The kids loved them, and it also taught them a little history (ancient Rome, Mongols, etc.). They are basically a Christian version of the Magic Tree House books. We read our first Magic Tree House book during our Olympic unit. I prefer the Imagination Station ones, but the one downside is I have to purchase them, as I can't get them at the library, and generally I don't buy chapter books for the kids. I got Nadia books #4-6 for Valentine's Day. We haven't started reading them yet because we've been reading The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis. I had been contemplating buying Nadia some cd's of Adventures in Odyssey for her next birthday, but then it hit me that we could start listening to it on the radio (for free). For now we're going to listen to it from 6:00-6:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If the kids want to expand that to other nights, we can listen to it more often in the future, but for now we're going to listen twice a week. Nadia really enjoyed the program last night.

My new adventure yesterday was with baking a lemon meringue pie. I hadn't made a pie in more than 10 years, and it had been more than 20 years since I made a pie crust from scratch. I don't believe I had ever made a lemon meringue pie before. I wasn't feeling very confident, but my first attempt was a success! It's so easy to get stuck in a rut with cooking, and one of my goals this year had been to start making pies. Next month I want to make my first pecan pie.

Over the past 13 months I have gradually been adding subjects to Nadia's homeschooling routine. Yesterday we added another subject - science! I was waiting until her reading skills had progressed to the point that she could read a first grade science textbook. As part of today's lesson on our hands, Paul, Nadia, and I put a thumb on an ink pad so Nadia could study the thumbprints with a hand lens. We haven't officially added social studies into our curriculum yet, but that will be coming soon. Over the past two months she watched 40 episodes of the Liberty Kids dvd's (about the American Revolution), and we were reading books about George Washington in celebration of President's Day, so she has been learning some history even though it hasn't been a part of our formal curriculum yet. Also, during our 3 week Olympic unit she practiced finding several different countries on our globe every day (Australia, Russia, Mexico, Canada, France, etc.). Ian's favorite winter Olympic sports are the luge, skeleton, and bobsled. Nadia's favorite is the figure skating (pairs and ice dancing in particular). Paul has been most interested in the hockey.

I haven't taken any pictures the last few days, but I did take two videos today - one of Ian reading some words and one of Nadia reading a few pages of a Little Bear book. That book is only Level 1 (according to the I Can Read label). She has read Level 2 and Level 3 I Can Read books. The hardest one she's read to date was Daniel's Duck.