4 1/2 years old!

Today is monumental in our family for two reasons. First of all, it was on this day twenty years ago that Paul and I met in a ballroom dancing class at Boscov's department store. So much has changed in the past twenty years. If you had told me then that I'd have three children, that wouldn't have surprised me as I wanted 3-4 children at that point. I would never have guessed that I wouldn't become a mom until I was 36 and that all three kids would come through IVF. I wouldn't have predicted that we would own three different houses within the first seven years of our marriage, but it wouldn't have surprised me that we would still be living in Pennsylvania, as after knowing Paul only a little while I figured he'd probably never be willing to leave the state. I had no idea at that point what type of job he'd have, but I definitely wouldn't have thought he'd be back at the family business because that was one of the very first things he told me on 2/7/97 - that he was just working there temporarily and definitely didn't want to work there long term or ever own the company. I would never have guessed that in 2017 he would turn down a job offer that paid more money and would allow him to spend far more time with his kids.

The fact that I am a stay-at-home mom now wouldn't have surprised me as that was always my goal, but I would not have predicted that I would be homeschooling my children. I always assumed I'd send my kids to a Christian school, but I am thrilled that Paul had the idea to homeschool them. The fact that I would earn my doctorate in 2002 wouldn't have surprised me, but I would not have expected that I would have kept working as a professor during my first four years of motherhood or that Paul would have been a full-time graduate student for seven years of our marriage. Considering how much we enjoyed ballroom dancing together twenty years ago, I would have expected we'd still be dancing together on a regular basis. That summer I assumed we'd get married in 1998 so I would have assumed we'd be married longer than we have been, as we got married in 2001. I always had a strong dislike of debt so the fact we don't have any car payments or school loan payments wouldn't have surprised me, but I would have expected our mortgage would have already been paid off. In January 2001 I got a 15 year mortgage and that would have been paid off by now. As it stands we won't be debt free until 2027. I would never have guessed that my mom would die in 2016 and my dad would get remarried in 2017. Twenty years from now we'll have an empty nest. I don't like to think about that right now. Realizing how quickly the past twenty years flew by makes me again very determined to savor these moments with my children because they will be gone before I know it.

Secondly, today is Oliver's half-birthday. He is six months away from turning five years old. My baby will be in Kindergarten, Sparks, playing Upward basketball, be in the homeschool gym class, and taking his first ice skating lessons at this time next year. He has been in the habit for several months of always putting the adjective "only" in front of his age. We hear him say MANY times a day. "I'm only four." I wonder if in August he's going to say he's "only five?" As I look at the posts I wrote about Nadia and Ian when they turned 4 1/2, I realize how I have spent far less time teaching him to read and write than I did his siblings when they were this age. Nadia knew what sounds the letters made, and Ian was reading short vowel words. Ian could write all his lowercase letters. Nadia was writing all but two letters (R and S). Although Oliver knows all of his letters, he can only write a few of them and hasn't learned what sounds any of them make yet. They were also playing a wider variety of board games than Oliver has learned to play thus far (such as Uno and Sorry), and they could both do a 100 piece puzzle independently. Oliver does up to around 60 pieces independently. He will do a 100 piece puzzle with some assistance. Over the past six months Oliver completely gave up the use of a bib. He also used a stroller for the last time a few months ago. I need to sell the two strollers we still own. He learned how to buckle his seat belt. We don't own any car seats any more - just four booster seats (two for each vehicle for Ian and Oliver).

Because he and Nadia have summer birthdays, they had both played on a soccer team before they turned 4 1/2, whereas Ian had to wait until he was closer to five years old. Nadia and Ian had accepted Christ as their personal Savior before turning 4 1/2. Oliver hasn't shown any awareness thus far of his need for a Savior. As I think back on the three kids I see some similarities between all three children, but I actually see more similarities between Nadia and Ian than I do between Ian and Oliver. For example, Nadia and Ian both loved dressing up in costumes and playing with stuffed animals when they were 4 1/2. In one regard Oliver is more similar to his sister - they were both more outgoing socially than Ian was at this age. I feel badly that I haven't spent as much time teaching Oliver thus far, but he has plenty of time to play, and that's wonderful. I plan to start doing more with him even this month, but when I really plan to help him get "caught up" is from May through August while the other two are in summer mode with their school work. Since I will be spending less time with them on school work, I will use that time to spend more time with Oliver. In the fall I'll need to make the adjustment to teaching three students instead of two since he'll be in Kindergarten at that point.

I am very thankful that Oliver has gone multiple months without an accident in his bed. I would like him to become totally independent with going to the bathroom (which his siblings had already achieve at this point) which means doing a better job at wiping and also learning how to button and unbutton his pants.

Over the past six months I have noticed a big improvement in how Oliver's body handles a respiratory bug. It has been many months since I've given him a nebulizer treatment, which is not something I could have said in the past. I even took him off the Singulair, and he's done fine. I am very hopeful that he won't need to be hospitalized this year because he needs to be on oxygen. In a couple of weeks it will be one year since he was last admitted to a hospital. This year is the earliest he *could* have the surgery to repair his umbilical hernia, but we're planning to pass on that unless he asks for it to be done at some point.

Oliver is still a great eater. The food group that has been the most challenging for him is fruit. He loves all vegetables he's every tried except for lima beans. He will eat a clementine or an apple at lunch. He's gotten much more independent with feeding himself. Yay! I knew it would happen. It bothered Paul far more than it bothered me. Three of his most favorite foods are carrots, bacon, and potatoes. He adores potatoes in just about any form - baked potatoes, potato soup, oven roasted potatoes, etc.

He does so much better with sitting and watching his siblings play soccer or basketball than he did when he was three years old.

I am not sure if he gravitates toward the girls or the girls gravitate toward him, but it is quite common to see him holding a girl's hand such as someone he just met at the play land at church. The two friends he talks about the most are Westyn and Karis. Westyn's family lives across from our house, and Westyn is 3 weeks younger than Oliver. Karis's family lives beside us, and Karis is 4 moths older than Oliver.

We are ever so thankful that Oliver Elliot is a part of our family and look forward to watching him grow in the coming months and years!