Ups and Downs

This wasn't posed. Ian loves to read books!

1. The number of posts on my blog has gone down by about 300. I've started deleting posts in preparation for getting ready to have some printed in a book form. Some were easy to delete, and others were hard to delete even though I've never gone back and read them. Some of the harder ones to delete were regarding the adoption efforts, but it seemed pointless to pay for posts about trying to adopt from Ukraine and within the US to be printed, when we never actually adopted. I still need to delete more posts as I imagine right now it would cost a fortune to have my blog printed. I do want some posts printed. I am picturing Nadia reading them in say 15 years or something like that.

Nadia is really into her dollhouse lately!

2. Ian's weight has gone up by 1/2 pound in the past two weeks! He hasn't been throwing up as much, and I've been putting LOTS of cereal in his bottles. They are so thick you could eat the contents with a spoon, lol!

3. Ian's sleeping habits have taken a terrible turn for the worse. He's been waking up usually twice during the night (between 9pm-midnight) and has also been getting up before 6am. It takes a long time to get him to stay asleep in the crib. He'll fall asleep rather quickly in my arms or Paul's arms, but as soon as we start to put him in the crib, he wakes up. Last night Paul let him cry for a couple of minutes. Not Good. Ian threw up all over the place. We then had to change his clothes, clean him up, change his sheets, etc. That ordeal took about 90 minutes from when he started crying until when he was back asleep in his crib. Not Fun. I went to bed at 8:30 last night in the hopes I'd get enough sleep last night, but I didn't get anywhere near enough sleep since Ian and Nadia were both up during the night.

4. I found a few things Ian will put in his mouth! He will lick a cheese curl, Dorito chip, or a chocolate mint flavored candy cane. He doesn't like the licorice (any of the 3 flavors I bought) which the feeding team recommended. The OT is supposed to be coming tomorrow afternoon. I am very hopeful that she will be able to give us many helpful tips. I am praying the snow we're supposed to get tomorrow doesn't interfere with her plans to visit us at 2pm. I've also noticed that he's putting a lot more toys into his mouth. I've actually had to tell him "no" regarding something he's put in his mouth for the first time ever I do believe.

5. Nadia has been a lot more aggressive toward Ian lately. I think it's because now that he's "on the move" he's able to annoy her a lot more frequently. She doesn't really want him to ever touch her or many of their toys. She has pushed him, kicked him, etc. Not Good. Hopefully this phase won't last long. At this point I view it as entirely her problem. He's the innocent party at this stage, but in time I'm sure he'll be at fault at times in how he treats her.

6. We have a LOT more craft supplies in our house today than we did yesterday as I took the kids to Michael's today. I noticed afterward that there also was a AC Moore. Does anyone know which store is better in terms of prices? I wasn't going to comparison shop with 2 toddlers in tow. I really have no idea where is the best place to buy craft stuff such as construction paper, pompoms, pipe cleaners, glue, wiggly eyes, tempera paint, etc. If anyone can point me in the right direction (Amazon, Walmart, Target, AC Moore, etc.), I'd appreciate it! I spent a lot of money today, but I bought a lot of the items listed above in large quantities so I shouldn't be buying things like wiggly eyes or pompoms for a LONG time. I felt out of my element as I am by no means an artsy, craftsy person. In fact I signed Nadia up for a art class (Preschool Picassos) that starts the end of February just because art is a weak area for me. This evening we opened one of the large bags of pompoms that I bought and started sorting them into smaller ziploc bags by colors. It was good practice for Nadia on some colors we don't routinely practice (white and pink for example).

31 Months (and 6 days) old

Although I am still aware of what day of the week it is due to the various activities which take place on different days, I am losing track as to what the date is now that I'm a SAHM. I missed noticing when it was January 24th. Thankfully I didn't forget to call my sister on her birthday (21st).


Nadia is definitely the oldest child. She can be rather bossy to Ian. I have been teaching her that only Mommy or Daddy tell Ian "no." There are times when her tattling comes in handy. A few days ago when I was going to the bathroom she ran to me and said, "Ian is ripping Mommy's Bible." I had been doing my Bible study the night before and left my workbook and Bible on the couch. Not Good. I've had the Bible since 1994 and wasn't pleased that Ian had ripped three pages (two from the concordance and one map). I taped the pages back together and hopefully will remember not to leave it in a place where Ian can reach it.

She recently began to pronounce "th". She now says "No thank you, I'm good" rather than "No bank you." I actually felt a little sad that she learned to say it correctly, lol.

As you can see from the video above, she learned her first Bible verse last week! For now I've decided to have her learn the verse that is on the paper she takes home from Sunday School. In the fall she'll be learning verses for AWANA (Cubbies). I didn't teach her the reference. I figured for now we'll just work on the text of the verse. It took her about 3 days to really master it. I hope she says it to Miss Saranda this morning!
 
She's also starting to pray at meal times. For months she's said "amen" after I've prayed, but now she's praying on her own. It's so sweet! She almost always says "thank you for Grandma." She thanks God for Grandma while praying at least twice a day, lol.

UP

I should have included this in my last post as it's certainly been Ian's main form of exercise this week. He absolutely loves going UP the stairs. If he starts crawling really fast in the family room, I know where he's headed. By the time he gets to the foyer, he is literally laughing and squealing with delight. He gets SUCH a kick out of climbing up the stairs! I have to stay right behind him as he has zero concept of how to go down the stairs safely. He thinks headfirst would be a good option. Every time I try to teach him how to go down, he immediately just starts crawling back up. He can only go in one direction at this time - UP!

We have been putting the kids to bed between 7:45-8:00pm the past 10 days. The first few days of this week Ian was waking up at 5:15am. I would let him fuss and usually he'd fall back asleep and then wake up again around 6:00 or 6:15. Yesterday morning he didn't wake up until 6:00 so I thought if I let him fuss a bit, he'd go back to sleep. Wrong. All letting him cry a little accomplish was also waking up his sister. We were all headed downstairs by 6:15am. I was very frustrated because keeping the kids up later wasn't helping them sleep in later - it was just reducing the amount of sleep they were getting at night (from an average of 11 hours down to an average of 10 hours).

I had decided to put them to bed earlier last night and just accept a schedule of them getting up around 6am. However, Ian fell asleep sitting up at 6pm. I put him up on my shoulders - he stayed asleep. It was crazy all that I had to do to wake him up. That less than 5 minute nap gave him a second wind, and there was no way he was going to bed early. This was a blessing because this morning he slept until 6:30. After fussing a minute or two he slept another 15 minutes. I got him at 6:45 and nursed him (I've been nursing him every day again!), and he fell back asleep and slept on our bed until 7:45am at which point I went and got Nadia from her room. I am not sure what time she had awakened, but she hadn't been calling out to us or anything. So we'll stick with the 8pm bedtime, and I'm hoping eventually Ian will sleep until 7am. Then I just need to get myself motivated enough to crawl out of the covers at 6am so I can get my daily workout and shower accomplished before the kids wake up, at least until the weather gets nicer.

Aside from the 15 minute nap on Tuesday due to going to ladies Bible study, Nadia has been doing very well with naps. I put her down sometime between 12:30-1:00, and she wakes up some time between 3:15-4:30. The problem is that Ian still only takes two 30 minute naps a day. His first nap is usually from about 9:30-10:00am (even on the days he gets up early), and his second nap is often from 1:30-2:00 (the timing of when this nap starts varies quite a bit). Since Nadia is awake during his first nap, this means that I've been getting 20-30 mintues a day between the hours of 6:15am and 8:00pm of "free" time. That's not much! I've definitely been contemplating buying another laptop as I could be on the computer some while Nadia napped. I can't have Ian in Paul's office during her nap. Letting him cry isn't an option due to his reflux, and the fact that he'd also wake up Nadia. At this point I'm just hoping that whenever he transitions to one nap a day he will sleep for at least one hour. A good day for Ian is one in which he sleeps 12 hours total whereas an average day for Nadia is one in which she gets 14 hours total. Usually younger children need more sleep than older ones! The good news is that he does play independently more these days which means I can do things like fold laundry and empty the dishwasher while Nadia's napping and he's playing.

Although he still has a bad day here and there, Ian's up-chucking has returned to the frequency we've been accustomed to the past 13 months. I am 100% convinced that eating yogurt causes him to throw up FAR more than usual. Only giving him 4 ounces (formula and baby cereal mixed together) per hour also helps. He might want more, but if we give him more, it all just comes right back up. Also, I have to try not to let him cry or laugh. The latter is a big bummer because to me the sound of a baby laughing is the sweetest sound in the whole world. The poor guy upchucks almost every time after he laughs no matter how much time has passed since he last ate. The same goes for crying. Normally there are times when as a mom you just think - baby, you're just going to have to cry because Mommy can't hold you this minute. Well, I was reminded on Wednesday night that I shouldn't think like that. I set him down for a minute so I could change my pants (which he had sabotaged earlier) before heading to choir rehearsal. I was in the middle of pulling up my jeans, and he vomited all over his clothes, our bedspread, and my jeans. I had to put on a third pair of pants, clean him up, and do an unexpected load of laundry. I really need to appease him at all times if at all possible.

Mealtimes are a challenge. Usually once a child is 6 months old you can give them some fingerfoods (like Cheerios), and they're happy in their highchair while you eat your dinner. He still doesn't do fingerfoods, and in fact he has a very negative view of the highchair so it's a rare day when I can even get him to sit and play with toys in it. Last night I was trying to supervise feeding Nadia dinner while holding Ian and eating my own dinner. In most instances I have the attitude that I don't want the kids to grow up too fast, but when it comes to a smoother dinner time, I have to say I am looking forward to that. Nadia was such a good eater at say 10 months old, but now we have many battles at the dinner table. She did scarf down the slice of pizza for lunch today without any trouble, but of course I'm not going to serve her pizza every day. :-)

I took the kids to the library today. Ian didn't sit well today because the librarian brought her dog to story time. Ian went nuts with excitement and crawled right over to the dog. Because the dog was large, he would stop and sit down when he got really close. Yesterday we stayed home all day. I really enjoy outings such as to story time at the library. I think I'll sign Nadia up for two classes this next session as until the weather gets nicer the days seem long when we're cooped up in the house all day, especially since I am also in the process of adjusting to being a stay-at-home mom. Thankfully there are many options, and Nadia loves to do things with other kids! That's one advantage of Ian having such short naps. I don't plan our schedule according to his as he'll nap just as long in the car as he will in his crib.

Not Done Yet

I thought Ian had been weaned during our cruise. Last week toward the end of the week I kept having this burning sensation in the morning, and silly me didn't connect it to nursing until Saturday morning when I was in so much pain I couldn't wait for Ian to wake up as it finally hit me that I needed to nurse him to feel better. What a glorious 30 minutes that was. I just love nursing. Of course at times it's been very stressful for me, but now it's just bliss. He wasn't interested the past two days, but he did nurse again this morning. I wasn't surprised because I was burning again today. I'm not sure how long it will last, but I'll enjoy it for however long it does even if it's just two times a week. It's one of the reasons I long for one more child. I really would like to nurse another baby (as his/her primary source of nutrition rather than supplementing like it's been for Ian). However considering I assumed I'd never nurse at all (even though I planned to try to nurse an adopted baby), I am very grateful I've been able to nurse for 20 months total thus far.

This morning I was able to make it to ladies Bible study. I hadn't been in almost a year. It was wonderful although I prefer Beth Moore studies to Kay Arthur ones. It was good to see ladies I hadn't seen in a long time such as from my handbell choir. Nadia cried when I first dropped her off. She never cries at our church, but of course this was unfamiliar to her. She didn't cry long and was playing happily when I picked her up. Ian didn't cry when I dropped him off, and because he was sleeping when I came down, I picked Nadia up first. Big Mistake. I won't do that again because she was very interested in the toys in the infant nursery and didn't want to leave. In the future I'll pick Ian up first no matter what so we can avoid a meltdown prior to our departure. The second lesson I learned was to bring a snack. Lately Nadia hasn't been as prone to fall asleep in the car on the way home from church on Sundays, so I had gotten out of the habit. Well she was asleep prior to noon even though she hasn't been falling asleep until 1-1:30 lately. She had a very short nap in the car, but that was enough to ruin her afternoon nap. That was very frustrating because the last few days she's been sleeping until 4 or 4:30pm (napping 2.5-3.5 hours). Next week I'll bring a snack or stop at the McD's drive thru on the way home so that she will stay awake during our 25 minute drive home.

Superbowl Bound!!!

Nadia has been sleeping in until 7am most mornings (and a couple of times as late as 8am), but naturally since I didn't go to bed until almost 11pm (I was too wired to go to bed right after the game was over last night), she woke up at 5:30 today. Sigh. The good news is that I am getting closer to my goal of having their bedtimes be 7:45 (Ian) and 8:00 (Nadia) and their wakeup times be no earlier than 6:45am.

This morning a nurse came on behalf of State Farm Insurance (the company we took out life insurance policies with recently) to take our blood pressure (3 times each), weight, height, and blood and urine samples. Paul was able to stay home today because his advisor is out of town so we took the opportunity to use a gift certificate to have lunch as a family at Bonanza. I predict that will be our favorite sit down restaurant for the next couple of years because #1 it's less than 10 minutes from our house, #2 you don't have to wait for your food to be served since it's a buffet, and #3 they don't charge for those under the age of four.



Ian and his chimp (aka "Ian's monkey")

Ian's New Favorites

Ian loves his new stuffed animal. He holds on to it for about 12 hours a day. It's definitely his new favorite toy. Nadia has tried to take it a few times, but we remind her that she has MANY stuffed animals, and this is Ian's only one. It reminds me of the parable Nathan told David when confronting him (or in VeggieTales verbiage - it reminds me of King George and the rubber ducky, lol). Speaking of Nadia's favorite stuffed animal (Larry), I forgot to tell a humorous anecdote from our vacation. When we were going through security at BWI, they pulled the toy bag off the conveyer belt for further examination. I told them it was just full of books and toys for the kids to use on the airplane. The woman removed Larry the cucumber from the bag. Evidently he looked suspicious to the TSA workers. They took him over to this machine and put a wand all over him. It was hard not to burst out laughing. I wanted to take a picture, but I was guessing that isn't allowed. The TSA workers in New Orleans didn't give him any special treatment on the way back home.

On Friday we went to the library for preschool story time. I found out that next month they're starting a Tot time (for ages 4 months - 2 years old) on Tuesday mornings, but that's when I have ladies Bible study. It's not a big deal because Ian does amazingly well at the preschool story time. I know I'm a bit biased, but as I looked around the room, I came to the conclusion that although most of the children there were between the ages of 2-5, Ian was the best behaved. He sat in my lap and fixed his eyes on the librarian and paid attention for a full 30 minutes. He even clapped at times! Some other moms were pointing to him and saying "look at that baby." I can only hope that his attention span will remain so wonderful. Of course he was too young to participate in the craft time that followed story time, but I do let Nadia participate in that part now. I checked out 3 books for myself, some books and a Clifford hand puppet for the kids, and a DVD for Paul. Ian absolutely loves one of the books I checked out. It's now his favorite book. I have never seen a book with "scanimation" before. It's really neat! I can see why the kids like the book Waddle so much!

No new routine yet

Don't be fooled, I was just playing with the bread (didn't eat any).

I figured that this week we would gradually ease into the new routine. I knew that a lot of laundry and unpacking would take up my time on Monday, so I wasn't going to attempt to clean the bathrooms that day. Well the snow and ice we've been getting the last couple of weeks has further delayed getting into our new routine. Nadia's gymanstics teacher called last week (while we were on the cruise) to say that class was cancelled due to the weather. That worked out well as they'll schedule a make-up class; this means she won't miss any classes due to our vacation. YAY! Well this week my ladies Bible study (that I did miss the first session of last week) was cancelled on Tuesday due to snow and ice (our session will be extended to make-up that lesson). Nadia's gymanstics class was cancelled again this Wednedsay morning. I was able to make it to choir rehearsal that night. It was the first time since last May that I was able to attend the whole rehearsal!

On Monday Ian got up at 6:40. However I hadn't gotten to bed until 12:10am. On Tuesday Nadia slept until 8:00am, but Ian got up at 6am. Tuesday night was a rough one for Nadia because she went to bed hungry because she wouldn't eat any green beans. She was up at 2:30 and then finally got back to sleep but then was crying from 5am on. I let her get up at 6am when Ian got up. This morning Ian woke up at 5:50, and so Paul suggested we let him cry a little. I am grateful we did that because he went back to sleep and didn't wake up again until 6:50. Much better. Nadia slept in until 8am. Hopefully the kids will both sleep until 7am on a regular basis.

I have been doing better with serving vegetables and cooking a family dinner this week. Tuesday night we had a huge battle over Nadia eating three tiny pieces of green beans, but she ate them for breakfast on Wednesday before eating her cereal, and she didn't give me any fight about eating them at dinner that night. In fact - drum roll please - she asked for MORE than what I had originally served her. WOOHOOO! I was also pleased because on Wednesday night she ate the dish I made (biscuits with cheese, chicken, and salsa inside). It's often hard to get her to eat chicken breast, but she ate this happily. We've eaten dinner together as a family 3 nights so far this week. Paul didn't get home until 6:50 last night, which is when I leave for choir rehearsal and is too late for the kids to eat dinner.

I have pushed back our lunch time and Nadia's nap time. The cruise actually helped with that since we were in the central time zone. That actually also helped I think with the bedtime and in Nadia's case the getting up time as we were putting them down between 7-7:30pm CST. Nadia has been going down for her nap sometime between 12:30-1:00pm, and she's been taking 2-3 hour naps every day this week. She's never fallen out of her bed. That transition went much more smoothly than I expected. The only time she got out of her bed without permission was at 2:30am on Wednesday morning. Otherwise she waits for me to come get her after her nap and in the morning.

I have done some cleaning this week, but I'm waiting until next week to really get into gear with that part of the new routine. I also am going to do my first lesson planning this Sunday for the activities I want to do with the kids next week. I have gotten back to reading. I started on January 3rd while I was at the dentist getting my crown. I finished the book on vacation.

Today I took the kids to Toys R Us to use a $4 coupon toward a stuffed animal for Ian. I wanted to find one he loved so that Nadia could relcaim her Christmas gift (Sweetpea Beauty). Ian chose a chimpanzee. I think we found a winner as he cried when I had to pry it out of his hand to take of his coat, and he carried it the entire evening while playing with other things. To make the trip to the mall seem more worthwhile, I let the kids play on the rides (I don't use any coins), and I used a 50% off coupon for Dairy Queen to share a Blizzard with my girl.

After dinner, we made our first gingerbread house using a kit I purchased on clearance at the grocery store earlier this week. Next year I think we'll try the kind where you use a milk carton as your frame. We had issues with the walls caving in on this one, lol. This gingerbread house isn't going to win ANY awards (it's missing doors and windows for one thing, lol), but she had a lot of fun, and we made a special memory. Keep in mind it was constructed by two novice parents and a 2 1/2 year old who wanted to eat all the candy. :-)

Vacation Recap (Part 2)

Bats seen during our river cruise in Belize

January 12th - After an early breakfast we took a boat (aka "tender") from our cruise ship to the port in Belize City. From there we boarded a bus which took us to a small boat for our river cruise through the jungle en route to the Mayan site, Lamanai. This trip was my favorite part of our vacation. I enjoyed seeing various animals in the jungle (birds, bats, iguanas, monkeys, a crocodile, etc.) while we were in the boat as well as while we were touring the Mayan ruins. I've never seen so many monkeys in the wild before! The lunch they served us was also very tasty - and a nice change of pace from the cruise ship fare. I would love to return to Belize some day and spend a week on Ambergris Caye to enjoy the beaches, snorkeling, and also do some sightseeing such as to Tikal (in Guatemala).

I forgot to mention in my summary of January 11th that we took the kids to the pool after we got back from our tour before we went to dinner. On both January 11th and 12th we took them in the baby pool, and then I spent a couple of minutes in a hot tub while Nadia sat on the side and just had her toes in the warm water. If we had been on this cruise without kids, I definitely would have spent more time in the jacuzzi. These were the only two days the kids got in any water. I gave them baths on Sunday morning at the hotel in New Orleans, but we only had a shower on the cruise so they didn't get another bath until Monday morning at home (Jan 17th).

Lamanai - a Mayan site in Belize

January 13th - After breakfast we walked to the port on Roatan (island off the coast of Honduras) and got on a van which took us to Gumablimba park where we saw hummingbirds, parrots, and monkeys and walked on a very shaky bridge. We were supposed to then go to a beach and also do some snorkeling from a catamaran, but due to the windy conditions they didn't take us to a beach but rather drove us back to a catamaran that was very close to our cruise ship and took us an extremely short trip to do a little snorkeling.

Photo taken underwater while we were snorkeling

I have never been so cold when snorkeling before. We did see a nice variety of fish, but the colors weren't as vibrant due to the lack of sunlight. When we got back on the catamaran I was freezing due to sitting on a boat in a wet bathing suit in 72 degree weather with strong winds. I couldn't wait to get back to the cruise ship and put on dry clothes. There were several hours left at that port, and there was a beach right near where the cruise ship was docked, but due to the weather we just headed back on the ship. The good news was that it was the first time in several days that Nadia was able to take her nap in a bed. This also meant her nap was much longer. The bad news was that Paul's dad called Paul's brother to find out how things were going at the plant (Paul's dad owns a company), and in that brief conversation he learned that their dog, Fergie, had died two days earlier at the age of 17. This was very sad news, particularly for Paul's mom.

Monkey seen at Lamanai

The highlight for me this day was having a dinner date with Paul. Paul's parents had eaten a late lunch so they didn't mind that we went to dinner first. Paul and I skipped lunch so we were wanting to eat dinner at 5:30. We had dinner at one of the sit down restaurants (where we had eaten lunch four days earlier). The quality of food is much higher here compared to the buffet. The biggest differences were noticed in the desserts. What they called mousse at the buffet restaurant really didn't take like mousse. The chocolate mousse at the sit down restaurant was divine. On this particular night I had beef stroganoff and a delicious strawberry souffle. I think it was the first time I ever ate a souffle. Plus of course it was just nice to have one hour with my hubby. When the four of us would go to breakfast Nadia and I would eat while Paul entertained Ian, and then I'd take Ian and Nadia so Paul could eat. It was never a relaxing experience especially as there are sometimes battles at the dinner table, and I didn't want either child to make a scene in public even though the buffet restaurant was a noisy place. When we stay at a resort with a kitchen, we don't have to eat out at every meal. I have to say with young children that is preferred. When we got back Paul's parents went and also had dinner at the sit down restaurant. The photo that I really like was taken this night. I have scanned it, but something got lost in the translation. Trust me, the original looks much better that I have put in a frame in the kitchen.

January 14th - We were planning to take a taxi to Chankanaab Park and spend the day on the beach there - do some snorkeling, let the kids play on the playground, watch the sea lion show, etc. I even had printed out a $2 off coupon and brought it with me, lol! When we saw the forecast the night before we knew we weren't going to be going to the beach. Paul suggested we at least walk around a bit (Cozumel) but after we swiped our cards to walk off the ship, we discovered it had just started raining (downpour). It only rained for a little bit, but it was a windy, cool (aka 72 degree) day. We stayed on the ship all day.

Wobbly bridge at Gumbalimba Park

The kid's program didn't become complimentary until 5pm that day, so we dropped Nadia off at 5pm and left Ian with Paul's parents and headed on our second dinner date. However just as the waiter set my chicken dinner down in front of me, a worker from the children's center came to our table and told us Nadia had an accident (#2). It turns out that a child needs to be able to competely go to the bathroom on their own, and Nadia hasn't reached that stage yet. She needs help pulling her clothes up and down and getting up on the potty. So I had to go up to the kid's area, take her back to our room and clean her up and change her clothes, and leave her with Paul's parents before I could go back to my (now cold) chicken jambalaya. Needless to say that wasn't the most special meal although I did enjoy the lemon pie for dessert as well as the cold strawberry soup I had for my appetizer. I have never had a cold soup before, and I was kicking myself that I hadn't been eating some of this all week long because they had a different one in the buffet restaurant each day.

We then took the kids to the show for a few minutes before taking them to bed because the children's workers said that this show was usually the kids' favorite. They only lasted a few minutes. Of the 7 nights there were 2 shows that interested Paul & I (a Broadway one on Monday night and an acrobat one on Tuesday night); Paul's parents offered to listen with the baby monitor in their room while the kids slept in our room, but both nights by then time 7:15 rolled around all I wanted to do was go to bed. On January 15th I took Nadia to a portion of the matinee Magic Show, but otherwise we didn't participate in any of the entertainment. I would really have liked to visit the chocoholic buffet they had this night, but it was at 10:30pm, and I value my sleep more than chocolate.

January 15th - This was a day at sea en route back to New Orleans. I took Ian to the Under 2 Zoo (a room where parents could play with their kids). Some of the toys they had were ones we have at home, but many were new to the kids. We took Nadia up for an early lunch and then after we put her down for a nap we left Ian with Paul's parents (who had a much later breakfast than us so they weren't hungry yet), and we had a luncheon date at a different sit down restaurant. I had a yummy corn chowder soup for my appetizer, fish and chips for my entree, and chocolate mousse for dessert. Paul had ceasar salad, a steak, and blueberry cheesecake. The service was much slower at this restaurant, but the food was again very tasty! At 3:00 we put Nadia in the children's program so that we'd only have one child to watch while watching the Steelers game on ESPN Caribbean (in the US it was carried on CBS). We watched part of it at a restaurant, but it was hard to entertain Ian there so we headed back to Paul's parents' room for the rest of the game. It was a nail biter, but the Steelers won, which means if they beat the Jets on Sunday night - they're headed to the Superbowl! Go Steelers! I grabbed a bit of food from the buffet during half-time, but otherwise didn't really eat dinner that night since we had a large lunch.

January 16th - After our final breakfast buffet, we cleared out of our room and began the disembarkation process. After taking a taxi to the airport, we had over 6 hours to kill at the airport before our flight home. I had thought we'd spend time in New Orleans doing some sight seeing since I'm the only one who has ever been there before, but walking wasn't appealing to everyone. Paul and I walked the kids around the airport for an hour before we had lunch. We learned you can't check your baggage in more than 4 hours in advance. We watched some football while eating lunch. After lunch we checked our baggage in. Paul's dad pushed Nadia in the stroller while she napped. We took advantage of free internet in the airport via Paul's mom's laptop computer. That helped to kill some time. Despite being there soooo long, we didn't time things right in terms of going to get some dinner to take on the plane at 4pm. We actually missed the time when families are supposed to board for Southwest airlines (which doesn't use assigned seating). I was panicked that we'd all be separated, but thankfully some people moved so that Paul, Nadia, and I were all sitting together (with Paul holding Ian). The flight back went very smoothly.

When we arrived at BWI, my mom greeted us with our winter coats. Boy was it cold out! After we loaded up the cars (including installing the car seats) and got some gas, we headed home. Nadia screamed for a long time and then slept for the last 2 hours and 20 minutes of the trip. Ian, who had slept during the whole flight, slept the whole way home. I usually do the driving to and from Maryland, but Paul drove this time because I was exhausted. We got home around midnight. Well all fell asleep very soon after we got home. I was extremely grateful to be home. I had wished many times during our trip that I had booked a much shorter cruise. At some point I am sure we will enjoy going on vacations as a family of four, but I think we need to wait at least until summer 2012 to attempt this feat again. I never want to go on another cruise, and I only want to stay at a resort where we have at least a 2 bedroom suite for the 4 of us. Live and learn!

13 Months (and 1 week) Old!

On a river cruise in Belize on the day Ian turned 13 months old

Ian turned 13 months old while we were on vacation, and since I didn't want to pay 75 cents a minute to be on the Internet while on the cruise, I didn't write a post on January 12th. Here's a brief update regarding how he's changed over the last month (plus a week):

1. He's crawling REALLY fast these days. When he was tested yesterday by Early Intervention (EI), they were amazed that he only started crawling a month ago.
2. He lost one pound, unfortunately. Thankfully in the past 10 days or so his weight has plateaued.
3. He is very observant when it comes to animals, and he is thrilled to see them whether it's clapping at the lions at the Philadelphia zoo, chasing Paul's mom's dog (Fergie) on Christmas Day, or putting his hand in the monkey's mouth on Roatan.
4. Yesterday he started crawling up the stairs for the first time ever. He's been crawling up and down the one step into our sunken family room for a few weeks, but yesterday was the first time he attempted going up the stairs. He was half-way up the flight before I realized where he was. The gates are going back up today since we have a boy who knows how to crawl up stairs (but not how to get down them safely yet although I did work with him a bit on that today).
5. He has recently started standing for a few seconds without holding on to anything. I think in the next month he'll be walking!
6. He loves to wave "hi" to people and will sometimes initiate it, even with strangers.
7. He had made progress with eating solid foods. By January 7th he was up to an average of 4 ounces of baby food a day by spoon. He was even opening his mouth voluntarily for the first time since I started trying to feed him solid foods in May. Unfortunately we are seemingly back to square one as it's been 12 days since he's eaten more than 1-2 bites by spoon in a day. Since he scored at 55% in the adaptive area (which includes eating skills), he qualifies for 1 hour of occupational therapy (in our home) each week. I am so grateful for this free service, which will be starting in the next 2 weeks. He hasn't responded well to the suggestions the feeding team gave me (licorice, the Nuk brush, etc.). I'm hopeful that we'll start seeing progress after the OT starts helping us out.
8. He started on reflux medication. It does seem to help. I also have been only making 4 ounces at a time, and that has helped a lot. He doesn't cry when it's over (even though he wants more) if I allow him to suck on an empty bottle. This has also decreased the amount of chucking. Lastly, I have a theory that he's allergic to yogurt. I have noticed on the days that he eats yogurt his vomiting is really out of control. I hope I'm right. It's discouraging to eliminate the one table food he could eat from his diet, but if it helps cut down on the number of times he throws up every day, I'll be thrilled!
9. In all other categories he scored between 80-85 percent when tested yesterday. They provide services if a child is at 75% or lower. 80% was his most common score in the categories they tested him such as social skills, expresssive vocabulary, cognitive skills, receptive vocabulary, gross motor, fine motor, etc.
10. He's grown VERY attached to Nadia's favorite Christmas gift - Sweetpea. I need to try to find him a stuffed animal that has a tail that hopefully he'll like just as much so that he won't keep carrying Nadia's Sweetpea around by her braid. He's learned to crawl, cruise, etc. while holding on tight to her!
11. He definitely understands the concept of "no" now, but of course he doesn't always obey.
12. He's sleeping an average of 11 hours straight at night. His naps are still averaging 30 minutes each. He usually sleeps when in a moving vehicle (car, bus, boat, airplane, taxi, etc.).
13. He doesn't like to have his diaper changed, his fingernails clipped, or to get dressed.

Vacation Recap (Part 1)

Ian playing on the cruise ship in the "Under 2 Zoo."

Jan 7th - we drove to Maryland and went to bed shortly after we arrived. Ian had slept the whole trip, and Nadia had slept for the last hour (after watching DVD's for the first couple of hours). Ian didn't sleep well at all so this was our first rough night.

Jan 8th - we spent the morning with my parents and brother. Paul's parents arrived around 1pm. Around 2pm we left for the airport. Our flight was delayed so we arrived in New Orleans about one hour later than expected. Paul's parents brought their computer. It didn't occur to me to bring dvd's. Nadia would have sat and watched them on their computer the whole flight if I had brought them. The next time she flies - that's what we'll do! Duh! Overall the kids did pretty well. There was an extra seat so Paul, Ian, and I had three seats even though Ian didn't have a ticket. We took a taxi to the hotel and went to bed as soon as we got settled in. The hotel was really nice, especially considering how little I paid for it using Priceline's "name your price" feature. We were very grateful we didn't bring any carseats along as we had enough trouble lugging around our 5 suitcases (for the 6 of us), carry on bags, and double stroller. This was a horrible night between Nadia's coughing spells (lasting about 2 hours), and Ian refused to sleep in the pack n play.

Nadia in her big girl bed!

Jan 9th - we enjoyed the hotel's free breakfast buffet and hung out at the hotel until noon. We then took a taxi to the cruise terminal (very short ride). The double stroller came in handy as we were put on an express path to embarkation (treated as if we were handicapped). The double stroller did NOT come in handy on the cruise ship itself. We rarely used it because if anything was in the hallway (suitcase, cart of any kind, etc.) then the stroller wouldn't fit. After completing the embarkation process we had lunch at one of their sit down restaurants. This was the only time the 6 of us ate in one of those together as it was a challenge to do so with Nadia and Ian. The buffet restaurant worked much better although even that was a challenge since Ian refused to eat anything by soon the entire week. Someone had to hold him or walk him while we ate. We had dinner at the buffet restaurant that night and went to bed right after having dinner. It was another very rough night for both children.

Our waiter took this picture; this isn't the one we bought.

Jan 10th - we ate all 3 meals at the buffet restaurant. Nadia spent a little bit of time in the children's program (about 20 minutes). Thankfully Nadia slept well this night, and actually Ian did sleep most of the night in the pack n play although he got up very early.

Jan 11th - we had breakfast at the buffet (we never ate breakfast in any of the sit down restaurants). I love hot food for breakfast so this was often my favorite meal - french toast, hash browns, eggs, fresh pineapple, egg cooked to order, etc. YUM! Nadia had either Frosted Flakes or Froot Loops every morning. They only had really large spoons (some people referred to them as serving spoons - I'd say a fairer term would be soup spoons). Eventually I found a teaspoon and took it back to the cabin and brought it back to every meal as a soup spoon doesn't work for a 2 year old! We left the ship about 9:30am and walked around the port of Costa Maya a little bit before taking a bus to our tour guide. I had booked this Mayan ruins tour independently based on the recommendations of many posting on cruisecritic.com. The tour guide was excellent, but it was hard for us to concentrate in light of carrying two little ones. This would have been a great tour to take if it was just Paul and I, but until the kids are a lot older I think we need to skip such sites.



Hummingbird on Roatan




Iguana seen on a river cruise in Belize



Lessons from our Cruise

1. It is unwise to go on a cruise with two under the age of three unless you are certain they will both sleep through the night. Nadia had trouble the first couple of nights (she'd be awake from say 2-4:00am having coughing fits), but then she slept until 6-6:30am (which would be 7-7:30 EST) every morning after that. Ian only slept in the pack n' play one of the eight nights we were in a hotel or on the cruise ship. The other seven nights he was in bed with us. He also would not sleep through the night. I was often walking him around the ship at 4am. I fed him when he awoke throughout the night since letting him cry would mean all four of us would be awake. If I fed him or walked him then at least Paul and Nadia could sleep. I am willing to average 4 hours of sleep a night with a newborn, but I don't view going on vacation as a worthy reason to endure sleep deprivation. I asked Paul at one point what he thought of the cruise, and he said "it's been brutal." And he got more sleep than I did. The night shift cleaning crew (who work until 8am) knew me well.

2. I am the most prone to seasickness in our family. The first night the sea was rather turbulent. Paul got me a pill from the doctor on board on Monday morning, and that helped quite a bit. Thankfully my stomach was fine the rest of the trip.

3. Last night (our first night at home) I felt like my bed was rocking during the night. My brain apparently thinks we're still at sea. It caught me by surprise. I am curious how long this will last.

4. Similarly, I am walking around our house this morning like I am walking on a boat. Cracks me up that my brain is convinced we're still at sea. LOL!

5. It's possible to go to the Caribbean and never step foot on a beach. I can't believe that happened. We planned to spend time on the beach on the islands of Roatan and Cozumel. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate either day. The previous days when we were touring Mayan sites it was 86 degrees. Cloudy and 72 degrees would have been perfect for our activitities those days. We actually never exited the ship the day we were docked at Cozumel. We had planned to spend the day at a Chankanaab National Park (beach, sea lion show, snorkeling, etc.).

6. The transition to a big girl bed was much easier than I thought for Miss Nadia! I had reserved two cribs for our hotel stay and cruise. When we checked in at the hotel they said there were two cribs already in our room. They must have been delivered to the wrong room as there weren't any cribs in our room. Paul went back to the front desk, and they only had one more. We gave that to Ian although in hindsight we could have given it to Nadia as Ian slept with us. Nadia used a sofa bed. It was her first time sleeping anywhere other than a crib or pack n play, and she did great! On the cruise ship she also slept on a sofa bed as there was only one pack n play in the room. Again in hindsight we should have put her in the pack n play so that either Paul or I could sleep on the sofa bed (since Ian was in bed with us). Today we set up her bed at home, and she took her nap in it without any problems. This transition is going very smoothly although it's a bit tough on me emotionally to admit she's growing up so fast!

7. At this point, Ian's interest in animals is much greater than Nadia's. We learned this during our trip to the zoo earlier this month, and it was confirmed in Belize and Roatan.

8. At times, Ian is more friendly than Nadia. She sometimes acts shy, which at times actually seems rude; it's surprising given she's been such a social butterfly in the past. Ian has started initiating waving hi to strangers which is so cute!

9. I was able to go 8 days without being on the internet or phone. I received about 300 emails during that time. It would have been more than that but #1 the spring semester doesn't start until tomorrow and #2 I had recently unsubscribed from a whole bunch of devotionals I used to receive by email every day. Paul checked his email once. It cracked me up that he checked his (at the cost of about $8), and I didn't.

10. When we were going on vacations in the past, Paul and I would try to maximize our time away. Since Southwest only has 2 nonstop flights to BWI from New Orleans on Sundays, I picked the 4:40pm flight since 8:25 was too early given the soonest we could disembark from the plane was 8:00am. I thought we'd leave our luggage at the dock and do some sightseeing since of the six of us I'm the only one who has ever been to New Orleans before,

11. Ian is a cuddler. If I would move in the bed, he would move closer to me. He had to be touching me. If I gave up and slept on the floor (because I couldn't sleep with him kicking me all night long), he'd then migrate across to Paul's side of the bed.

12. I need to think of bcp's strictly as a means of delaying AF - not preventing pregnancy. I toyed with taking them while we were away to make sure AF didn't show up while we were on the cruise. I never know exactly when it will start these days. The last two cycles were 42 days long. AF showed up on Tuesday morning, which meant the last cycle was 36 days long. I was kicking myself for not having taken the bcps. I had filled the Rx for them a few months ago but never taken any. I still find it hard to take something that's intended to prevent pregnancy, even though I have no hope of conceiving without ivf. The next time we have a beach vacation, I hope I can get over that hangup as bcps could come in handy in making sure AF doesn't show on vacation.

13. Because we didn't have a refrigerator on the cruise, we started making only 4 ounces of formula at a time. This is a practice I plan to continue because if he sucks air at the end of 4 ounces he doesn't cry whereas when we remove the bottle when there's still milk in it, he usually screams (which then causes him to chuck). I wish I had thought of this months ago! Better late than never. He did pretty well with chucking on the trip. I thought it was the medication doing it's job, but today he's been throwing up ALL day long so I guess it's not a miracle cure after all. Maybe he's just allergic to our house, lol? Of course he did chuck ever day on the cruise, but it was to a much lesser degree. Today it has been nonstop. I am sure more has come up today than has gone down.

 14. Nadia loves to go to the bathroom on the airplane. She would have spent half of our flight on the toilet if I had let her, lol. Thankfully she has just started to want her privacy. I say thankfully because it would have been a tight squeeze for me to stand in there with her since airplane bathrooms are so small!

15. Sharing a room and nursing don't mix. Ian was weaned a couple of days before he turned 13 months old. I had been nursing him in bed, but since he was getting up so much earlier than Nadia, and since he can't nurse in the dark, I had to give it up. It was hard for me to do so, but I needed to let Nadia sleep. When I feel sad that our days of nursing are over, I am trying to remind myself to be grateful for the 20 months I did nurse the kids (7 months for Nadia and 13 for Ian).

16. I am willing to pay $13 for a nice picture of Paul and I. They were taking pictures throughout the cruise. If they had got a good one of the 6 of us, I would have bought that one also. They got a cute one of Nadia, but I didn't buy it because I have lots of cute pictures of her. Since I'm usually the one taking pictures, it's very rare to get one just of Paul & I. We liked it so we paid $13 for a 6x8 photo taken while we had dinner on Thursday night. I'll scan it and post it in the future so you can seen.  Thank goodness Sears doesn't charge so much for one photo!

17. Although NCL says you can't wear shorts to dinner, they don't enforce that rule. We don't ever plan to go on another cruise, but if we did I wouldn't pack so many clothes. We only wore our dinner clothes for about an hour each day so we didn't need a different skirt/dress for every night (although I packed enough to do that). We usually went to bed right after eating dinner.

18. The cruise would have been a lot more relaxing for Paul & I without the kids, but even so we decided cruises really aren't our thing. We had planned to go on one in 2005, but the adoption agency advised us against that in case we had a last minute match with a birthmother. We prefer to stay at a resort where we have easy access to the pools, beach, etc. I felt like I had a bit of cabin fever spending so much time in a floating hotel. Live and learn! I know many people love cruises, but Paul and I are not ever planning to go on another one. Thankfully we are in 100% agreement on this!

19. Although Nadia has her moments of not being well behaved for us, she continues to be well behaved in other settings (such as at church). We put her in the child care center a few times. It was complimentary when we were at sea (not when we were at a port). On the last day of the cruise she spent the most time there (9-11am and 3-5pm). One of the childcare workers told us she was one of the very best behaved children in their program (for ages 2-12). They said she always did whatever they asked her to do. We were very proud of her! Now if she'd always be that well behaved for Mommy and Daddy, lol!

Well it's 8:15pm, and I'm exhausted. I'm heading to bed. We arrived home at midnight last night. Thankfully Ian slept until 6:40. I hadn't slept 6 hours straight in over a week so even though I went to bed at 12:10am, it felt like I had slept a really long time when he woke me up at 6:40am. I'm hoping and praying that I get 8 hours of sleep tonight as between the sleep deprivation for the previous 9 nights plus a really busy day today (did 3 large loads of laundry, unpacked, went to the grocery store, put away a load of dishes, etc.), I'm totally pooped! I'll share more pictures and details about our trip later this week. :-)