Cousin Love

Usually we go about two years in between visits with my sister, Yvonne, and her family because they live in Turkey, but we went less than 9 months in between visits this time because they made a quick trip in late December. They arrived in the US in the middle of July, and we planned to come and visit them a month ago, but that trip was cancelled due to two of their kids have the hand, foot, and mouth disease virus. Given we both homeschool our children, you would think it would have been easy to reschedule a visit, but it was actually very difficult when factoring in orthodontic appointments, piano lessons, soccer practices, etc.

We drove down on Sunday evening after Nadia and Ian's choir rehearsal at church. We arrived at my parent's house around 9:15pm, and we're planning to stay until Wednesday afternoon. Nadia missed her gymnastics class this afternoon, but we got permission for her to make that class up on Friday evening. We had planned to go to the Children's Museum tomorrow, but it's not a big deal to miss that as we plan to go once a month the next few months. I also will be missing the first morning of ladies Bible study tomorrow, but I can pay to watch the video online. We're hoping to get together a few more times over the next four months before they return to Turkey. The kids are having a blast playing together, and tomorrow we're going to explore the science museum in Baltimore together!

Marmalade

I loved reading all of the Paddington Bear books when I was in elementary school, and while I was reading those I remember asking my mom if we could have some marmalade, as I was curious as to what it tasted like. It's Paddington's favorite food in case you haven't read any of the books. After I had the marmalade, I decided it was definitely not one of my favorite types of jelly, but I was glad I had tried some. Yesterday I finished reading the first Paddington Bear book to my kids, and of course they had been asking for marmalade. I bought some on Thursday night, and after his soccer practice Ian and Oliver each had one piece of toast with marmalade on it. Nadia tried some on a biscuit last night. Ian wanted grape jelly on his sandwich at lunch yesterday, but he did ask for marmalade for his biscuit at dinner. It is so delightful to reread books that I loved so much as a child!

The other new food the kids tried this week was ham and bean soup. Nadia loves to eat ham, so you think she'd like the soup. Nope, but she did finish it (although it took her one hour to eat a very small bowl of it). Ian wouldn't even try his so he went to bed hungry and will be having soup for breakfast this morning. We haven't had to go through this routine in a few months. Oliver asked for more soup after he fed himself his first bowl. I took away the tray from the booster seat a few days ago, and this has made all the difference in the world. Now he is primarily using utensils to feed himself instead of his fingers. I guess having his bowl on the kitchen table rather than his tray makes a difference to him. He's gotten much better at feeding himself a bowl of cold cereal with milk. He still could use some improvement with yogurt, but my days of feeding him are over because if I try to feed him a bite he protests and says "MINE" (meaning I want to do it). I've been insisting that he go back to wearing a bib during this time of refining his skills in using utensils, and I'm very pleased with the progress he's making. Of my three kids continues to be my best eater.

4.75 years old

1. Ian has started playing on a soccer team for the first time! He had his first game last week, and he did much better than expected. He almost scored a goal! Hopefully he'll make progress in his skills and stamina over the next seven weeks. He also needs to do a better job of following instructions.

2. He's continued to improve with eating a wider variety of foods. The most recent addition to the "will eat rather easily" list is macaroni and cheese! He also has gotten accustomed to drinking water at lunch every day. He has skim milk at breakfast and dinner. His favorite breakfast was toast, but lately his favorite breakfast has been a bowl of cereal (Trix, Chocolate Cheerios, Golden Grahams, Cocoa Puffs, etc.).

3. He doesn't ride in the stroller any more. He walks with Nadia and I, and Oliver rides in a single jogging stroller.

4. He's definitely getting braver with climbing. I haven't been able to get him to go across the

rope at the playground, but he is climbing much higher. He also finally learned to enjoy jumping on our trampoline this summer! I give the credit for that to our neighbors.

5. He's gotten much better at riding his bike with training wheels this summer. Now to teach him how to ride without training wheels.

6. Ian has been promoted from a booster seat to just a regular chair at our dinner table.

7. Now that I'm spending more time doing homeschooling with Nadia each day (usually about two hours), Ian is spending more time playing with Oliver than he has in the past.

8. Ian has started writing in his first journal. He's also working through the Level One reading curriculum and a handwriting textbook.

Uniforms

Aside from a few undergraduate and graduate classes that I took at a community college and Bowie State University, I attended private schools from Kindergarten through my master's degree, and I earned my doctorate at a public university. From Kindergarten through fifth grade I attended schools where the students had to follow a dress code (girls couldn't wear pants and skirts had to come down to the knee for example). When I went into sixth grade, the school where I had gone since fourth grade implemented a school uniform. I did NOT like it one iota. I thought it was ugly, and I hated having so little variation in what I wore and in what I saw my schoolmates wearing. Boring! Now trust me when I say that at no point in my life have I ever come anywhere close to being a "fashionista." I don't think I've ever been bad enough to warrant a nomination for the show "What not to wear," but I've never been a trend setter or one that wanted to wear the latest fashion (although I do remember really wanting a Benetton t-shirt when I was in high school). I wore uniforms for a grand total of four years, and this was one of the factors in choosing where I went to school for tenth and eleventh grades (I was hoping to avoid wearing uniforms).

The schools where I taught from 1992-1996 had uniforms. I found I wasn't keen on them as a teacher either. I thought it was boring to look out across the classroom and see a sea of navy blue. Also, I am not a visual person, and so I didn't always notice the infractions that I was supposed to notice as a teacher. I remember once an administrator saying something to be about the fact that some of my girls were not wearing the right socks, and I was supposed to say something to them. Really? Socks?!? I couldn't exactly understand why there were rules about what socks they could and couldn't wear, but of course I did my duty and said something to the girls and hoped somehow I would notice in the future although noticing something like socks definitely didn't come naturally to me. The school where I was a principal for seven years did not have uniforms when I came. Some parents wanted me to implement a uniform policy, but it never happened.

Here in our home school, my requirement is that the kids change out of their pajamas either before or after they eat breakfast, and they usually eat breakfast pretty soon after they get up, although a couple of days ago Nadia wanted to finish listening to Ramona the Brave on cd in her room before she came down for breakfast. Given how my kids like to dress up in costumes, it might seem like our school uniform is a costume. Oliver doesn't initiate wearing costumes yet, but sometimes his siblings help him put on a costume at their initiative. As you can see from the photos in this post, they had him wearing a monkey costume earlier this week. To make it more fun, if Nadia is wearing a costume then I don't call her by name while she's doing her schoolwork, but rather I call her "Snow White" or whomever she is dressed up to be at the moment. I'm thrilled given how many costume changes he goes through in one day that Ian became independent with putting costumes on earlier this year.

Two Nadias

Paul and I had several criteria we considered when choosing the names of our children. Some people give all their children a name that starts with the same letter (one of my sisters has give all her kids "J" names), and some try to use family names. We didn't do either for our three kids, although if we had another daughter she would have been Deborah Marie (named after Paul's aunt and my mom). We wanted a name that would be easy to spell and pronounce, a name we both liked (that was the hardest criteria as we had very different tastes!), and one that wasn't too popular. We used the social security website where the rank the popularity of each name to help us with that criteria. I also cared about the meaning of the names, although this was definitely the least important factor for us (Paul didn't care about that at all). The meaning I liked the best was Nadia Renee as Nadia means "hope" and Renee means "reborn" and my hope of becoming a mom was certainly reborn during her pregnancy. I was a bit concerned after Ian was born because he was one of three Ian's in the NICU. Over the past six years we've only come across one other child named Oliver (a colleague of mine at work had named one of his three kids Oliver prior to us naming our son Oliver) and one other child named Nadia. I haven't kept track of how many Ian's we've come in contact with, but it hasn't happened too many times that another Ian has been in Ian's class. There was an Ian in Nadia's swimming class once, for example.

Four years ago we were at the playground and I called out to Nadia, and another mom turned to me and questioned how I knew her daughter's name. I said I don't know your daughter's name. It was then we discovered there were two Nadias on the playground. It hadn't happened again until Nadia started the Level 2 gymnastics class on Mondays from 4:00-5:30. There is another Nadia in her class! This really tickled her funny bone that the teachers had to call her Nadia Kennedy to distinguish between the two. Nadia kept telling me, "and she spells her name the same way too, mommy!" I find it a bit ironic that the setting for having two Nadias in one class is at a gymnastics class in light of the famous Nadia Comaneci. For all I know, this girl in her class could be the same one from the playground a few years ago. The other girl would be almost seven years old now.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Paul's mom came home from the hospital last week! She went back today for a check-up. She needed some fluids as she was dehydrated. The plan is to push the next chemo treatment back one week so that she can have her IVIG treatment one week before the chemo (she had it 4 days after the chemo this last time), and they're also going to give her antibiotics a week before the chemo. Please pray she won't get pneumonia again this time!

2. We had a FABULOUS time at the beach on Wednesday and Thursday. I'm grateful for perfect weather, safety in travel, and the time we had to enjoy God's creation together!

3. We attended a home school picnic at a park on Friday afternoon. There were more than 75 home schooling kids and parents there and lots of yummy food! Nadia had fun decorating her cupcake with several different frostings and sprinkles. She was about to take a bite, and I had to remind her to take off the wrapper first (which she did after I took the picture). I love how her eyes shine in this picture. I am making progress slowly but surely in my photography skills! What a fun hobby!

4. Nadia and Ian had their first soccer games on Saturday, and I was thrilled with how well Ian did!

5. My parents celebrated their 45th anniversary a few days ago. I am thankful that Paul's parents and my parents have honored their wedding vows for 40+ years!

6. We have all been healthy for almost two months (some of us had the flu in early July).

7. The high temps dropped about 10 degrees on Sunday and are supposed to stay that way this whole week. I greatly prefer the 70's over the 80's when we can't go swimming. In particular it makes mowing the lawn, soccer games, and walks to the playground far more comfortable. Last week the boys didn't want to stay too long at the playground during Nadia's gymnastics class, but yesterday it was not a problem.

8. Paul originally was told he'd have to teach 3 labs in the spring, but it turns out he only has to teach 2 (like this semester) since his lecture class is a large one (although a lot smaller than what he had at Bloomsburg). He'll be teaching MWF in the spring, and his 12+ hour day will be Wednesdays (it's Mondays this semester). He doesn't see the kids at all on those days. This means he can pick Nadia up from gymnastics at 5:30 on Mondays starting in January, which will be a big help. The long day on Wednesday next semester won't be a problem because the kids have AWANA and I have choir on Wednesday nights.

9. I have been dreading resuming the job search for Paul, but I finally forced myself to check the job posting websites. I found one tenure track job that interested Paul - teaching physical chemistry at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. The application is due October 15. I am also pleased that Paul is interested, as that tells me the semester is going well so far.

10. I'm so thankful I have a daughter whom I can enjoy "girly" things with. On Sunday morning before church I painted 20 fingernails and 20 toenails.

11. A couple of weeks ago we took our very large coffee table out of the family room. The kids and I have LOVED the extra space. It was the first piece of furniture Paul and I bought after we were married. The top could be pulled up high so it was easy to eat or drink off of it when seated on the couch. We got 13 years of use out of it, and now I just need to buy a collapsible tv tray for Paul to use at night instead.

Terrible Twos

I love my two-year-old to pieces, but parenting a two-year-old can be rather exhausting. Many things are easier when the child is one or three than when he is two. Two year olds do not like to sit still. Nadia and Ian did a fabulous job in church this morning. I often take this for granted, but several people came up and commented to me at the end of the service about how well behaved they were. If we were still going to our "old" church, Oliver would be expected to sit through part of the worship service. I would have ended up leaving the service as he's just not ready to sit through a service at 25 months old (as of today). Going out to eat and flying on an airplane are much easier with a 12 month old or a three year old because once the child has learned to run around, they just don't like to sit still for very long at all!

We never had much of a problem with Nadia when it came to throwing, but that was definitely something we had to work on with Ian. Oliver throws even more than Ian did. He has more of a temper than either of

his siblings, and that is one way he shows his anger. Neither of his siblings were prone to purposefully dumping glasses of milk or water. This has been an ongoing issue with Oliver. I cannot wait until he learns to stop doing that!!! Ian loved to pull all the books off the bookshelf and dump all the toy bins. Oliver doesn't do that nearly as much. I learned from my mistakes with Ian and have been consistent with making Oliver clean up messes when he starts just dumping things. We also never had problems with the other two opening doors like we do with Oliver. It is a major battle to keep this boy out of the pantry! His mischievousness has definitely made home schooling more challenging this year. Ian sometimes helps out by playing with Oliver while Nadia does her work.

Just like his siblings, Oliver thinks it's hysterical to answer gender questions incorrectly. I'll ask a question such as "Is Daddy a girl or a boy?," and he'll say "Daddy girl" and then laugh his head off. For Nadia and Ian this was the first indication of their sense of humor. Oliver is

definitely "all boy" because the first "jokes" he told were about poop. I kid you not. It's impossible to explain to a 24 month old that poop jokes are not appropriate. Ian never used to talk about such things in a funny manner, but once Oliver started, then Ian followed suit, but Ian is old enough to be taught what is appropriate and so we've been working with Ian on that.

One nice thing about being two is that the child is able to communicate a lot more. I cannot always grant his wish, but at least most of the time I know what he wants, which certainly isn't the case with an infant. His siblings are adjusting to the concept that Oliver now has a say in more things. They used to pick all the books I would read. Now when I am going to sit down and read picture books I ask them each to pick 1-2 books. His favorite books are Little Critter books, Three Little Pigs, The Little Engine that Could, and Bear books. Most days we let the kids watch 20-30 minutes of TV a day, and we used to alternate between Nadia and Ian as to who got to pick what they watched. Recently I started including Oliver in the rotation. He prefers to watch Veggie Tales, Thomas the Train, Mickey Mouse, or Sesame Street whereas Nadia and Ian pick things like Spiderman and his Amazing Friends or Liberty Kids.

Ian's first soccer game!

Nadia started playing soccer in the spring of 2013 when she was 4 years 9 months old. She could have played in the fall of 2012, but life was a bit hectic for us then with Oliver being on oxygen and adjusting to life with three ages four and under. This fall is the first season that Ian is eligible for soccer due to having a December birthday, and he'll turn 4.75 years old in six days. There were three firsts today - Ian's first soccer game (U6), Nadia's first U8 game (all girls and they play 5 on 5 compared to 3 on 3 in U6), and Paul's first time coaching a soccer game. There aren't any goalies or refs for U6 or U8 games. The U8 field is bigger than the U6 field but still is a bit smaller than the fields used for U10 and up. Nadia is still wearing her same uniform that she's had for 18 months, and it's finally starting to fit her nicely. Ian is wearing the smallest possible uniform (youth extra small), and it's WAY too big on him. I had to pull the string all the way and tie it as tight as possible or the shorts kept falling off of him.


The two kids only have their games in the same town ONE time this season, and there are eight games in a season. The other seven weeks we'll be driving in between their two games. Three of those times the games are back to back, which means that Paul can't make both games in their entirety. Today Nadia's game was at 11:30 in Milton, and Nadia's home game was at 12:30, and there is about a 15 minute drive between the two locations. Since the head coach of Nadia's U8 game couldn't make today's game, Paul needed to stay for that entire game. He was very late for Ian's game; the third quarter was in progress when Nadia and Paul showed up. The U6 team splits in half (there are 9 kids on his team) so that they get more playing time so two coaches are needed as they are playing on two different fields. There are 8 kids on Nadia's team, but two of the girls couldn't make it to today's game. It was a very warm day (in the high 80's). Thankfully we're supposed to start having cooler temperatures tomorrow (70's).

Ian hasn't been doing that well at his soccer practices, which surprised us because this boy has LOVED to run for a few years. He wasn't assigned to play the first quarter today, but he played the other three quarters. He got off to an amazing start. It helped that their best player was sitting out that quarter. He had a breakaway and almost scored a goal! I was screaming my head off!! I was only able to see half of Nadia's game. I'm envisioning how crazy our Saturdays will be if at some point all three are playing soccer on three different teams. At least at that point I won't have to work to keep Oliver off the field. There is a playground where the Milton games are held (where Nadia's game was today). I think that has become my favorite field!

Point Pleasant Beach

 A little after 10am on Wednesday we started driving to New Jersey. We arrived at the motel at 1:45, checked in and changed into our swimming suits, and walked to the boardwalk. The beach was across the street from the motel, but the boardwalk was about 1/2 mile from the motel. We had some ice cream and then spent two hours on the beach. The kids had never seen a boardwalk before. It was so much fun listening to all their comments and questions about the sand, sea gulls, etc. We had pizza on the boardwalk for dinner and after we walked up and down the entire boardwalk and ate some salt water taffy (another first for the kids), we walked back to the motel. Ian's only experience with staying in a hotel has been at a resort. He kept asking me where the living room was. The kids are used to staying in a 2-3 bedroom unit with a kitchen, living room, 2 bathrooms, etc. Since we were just spending one night, it didn't make sense to go the time share route so we spent the night in a room that had two double beds. The website said they had cribs available, but that was not true.

Although I've owned a pack 'n play for 6 years, we've never taken it to any hotels because they've always had one available. In hind sight, I should have brought ours "just in case" because it would have been very easy to transport it in our van. I took off the bedspreads from both beds and used those to make Oliver's "bed" on the floor in between the two double beds. It took the kids awhile to fall asleep, but Oliver did fine on his "bed." The only had trouble falling asleep because they're not used to sharing a bed or a room. Oliver was out by 8:30, and all three were asleep by 9:00. Paul and I went to bed early since we were all sharing the same room.

As usual, Oliver was the first one up. At home if he wakes up at 5:45, I don't go get him, but I was trying to let Nadia and Ian sleep a little longer so I tried to keep him quiet in bed with Paul and I. It worked for a little while. Paul got us breakfast from Dunkin Donuts, and then we checked out of the motel and walked back to the beach. We spent over 3 hours on the beach. All three kids loved playing in the sand and playing in the ocean. We collected some nice large shells and also a large upper jaw of a fish with all the fish intact. Now we are trying to figure out how to get rid of the fish smell on it. We've soaked it in bleach, but it still smells VERY fishy. Any suggestions? As usual, Nadia was the social butterfly talking to the adults and children near us on the beach, showing them our shells, etc. The weather was perfect both days - clear blue skies and temps in the high 80's. After a late lunch on the boardwalk, we walked back to the motel and swam in the pool for about 30 minutes before we drove back home. Originally we planned to get back in time for their soccer practices, but Paul suggested we just skip them. We stopped by the field on the way home to pick up a bag of balls, as Paul will be coaching tomorrow. Paul and I had been to three beaches in New Jersey (Wildwood, Atlantic City, and Ocean City) prior to this trip, but it had been more than 10 years since we had been to a beach in the US that wasn't in Florida. The boardwalk isn't as long as some beaches we've been to, but it did

have an aquarium, amusement park, batting cages, two miniature golf courses, restaurants, shops, and many games. It was very hard for us to explain to the kids that spending money on a game wouldn't result in them winning the prizes that looked so appealing to them. Normally you have to pay to be on a beach in NJ (this beach costs $8.50 per adult for one day), but they stop charging after Labor Day. I'm very glad we squeezed in this little getaway. All five of us had a great time, and the kids are already looking forward to our next trip to a beach. I am so thankful for these three miracles God has given to us and for the special memories we can create together! Now that we're done swimming for the year, I'm hoping the temperatures will start dropping a bit. Highs in the 70's would sound heavenly to me! The weather was perfect though for our beach excursion! We need to buy better sand toys before our next trip, but we were finally able to use our beach umbrella that we've owned for many years and never used! I took LOTS of pictures. More to follow in future posts!

The BEACH!

Last year we went to two beaches in Florida, but this year we didn't venture out of Orlando. Although I have been spoiled by frequent trips to the Caribbean during our marriage and find American beaches to be very inferior in comparison, I had made it a goal a few years ago that our kids would get at least one day at the beach each year. Considering it's September, I knew we were running out of time. When I saw the weather forecast for this week (HOT!), I was hoping we could work it out for a quick getaway to a beach in New Jersey. Paul doesn't teach on Thursdays, and yesterday he got permission to miss tomorrow's faculty meeting. After he gets home from teaching his 8am class this morning (and Nadia finishes her school work), we are going to pile into the van and drive to the ocean! I made reservations for one room for tonight at a motel 2 blocks from the beach. The beach has a boardwalk, which is something my kids have not yet experienced. Normally you have to pay to use a beach in NJ, but it's free after Labor Day. We'll be coming back tomorrow. I thought when we were swimming on Monday
that it was our last time swimming this year, but I was wrong! When we get back from this getaway, then it will be time to put away our bathing suits until next year. I think the kids will have fun playing in the sand! Hopefully Oliver won't eat the sand like Nadia did in Antigua in May 2009.