I have milk.

Ian spoke his first complete sentence today! While we were having dinner at Friendly's this evening, he said, "I have milk." The other thing that impressed me at dinner tonight was that he reached out one hand to Paul and the other to me and said, "pray." We had forgotten to pray at the start of our meal, and our 22 month old reminded us to pray. I prayed first, and after I said "amen," Ian also said "amen." Nadia then wanted to pray, and he said "amen" at the end of her prayer also. Way to go, Ian!!!

He has been saying more two word combinations such as "thank you" and "all done," but "I have milk" was the first three word sentence that he uttered. I brought a yogurt with me and paid for some milk at Friendly's, which they were nice enough to warm up in his sippy cup for him. He didn't cry or fuss At All. It's so nice to be able to feed him in public as that hadn't been the case for a few months.

Today we went to Knoebels. It was the first time any of us had been there in October. Less than half of the rides were open. I am not sure if that is how they normally do things in October or if it was due to the flooding last month (or a combination of the two factors). We had planned on getting the kids hand stamps and spending several hours there, but since almost all of Nadia's favorite rides were closed (Ferris Wheel, kiddie rollercoaster, slide, etc.), we just used tickets as we stayed for only 2 hours. The reason we went today was because my friend, Jo, and her husband and  four-year-old son, Noah, were going to meet us there. They live in Florida, and I haven't seen Jo in more than 5 years. Jo and I met online, and we've been able to get together a few times in person because her mom lives in PA. It was so wonderful to meet Noah for the first time (also an ivf miracle baby) and introduce her to Nadia and Ian in person. It's wonderful to keep in touch via Facebook, blogs, and emails, but I wish we could see each other in person more often!

Ian's favorite words

Ian's vocabulary has exploded. I'd guesstimate he has said over 200 different words. Some he pronounces very clearly. Like I heard him say the word "donkey" for the first time today, and he said it very clearly. I didn't even know he knew what a donkey was! He brought a little one over to me and said the word. Other words I am sure many other people would have no clue what he said. "Play-doh" would be one of those. Have I mentioned he is OBSESSED with Play-doh this week? I would say I have spent more hours playing with Play-Doh this week than the whole rest of my life put together. Other words that he says very frequently would include: Naia (for example he says it when she's napping and what he means is he wants me to give him the video monitor so he can watch her sleep), no (typical toddler!), help, side (meaning outside), pretzel, and milk (when I'm trying to feed him solid foods he reminds me over and over that what he really wants is milk). It always surprises me how many food related words are in his vocabulary given he hasn't eaten many of those foods such as pizza and cookie.

The video clip above is of Nadia doing a little counting and showing that she can identify a penny and a nickel. She has succesfully counted to 20 for me on several occasions. The other skill we have really been working on this week is to get her to identify the numerals 1, 2, and 3. That has not been easy for her. She can memorize things very easily that she hears but getting her to learn things by sight (letters, shapes, numbers, etc.) is much harder for her at this point in her life.

One thing I forgot to include in my thankful post yesterday was that I am thankful the cleaning service resumed yesterday. The two ladies were here for almost two hours yesterday morning, and the house looked spotless for about 1 minute. We sat down to eat lunch right after they left, which meant there were crumbs on the floor before it even dried (they had just finished mopping it). It was work getting the house ready for them to come. They don't move things around so if you leave stuff on the floor or on top of dressers, counters, tables, etc. then those spaces don't get dusted or vacuumed. So I had to work to declutter every space in the house, which is a challenge as while I'm cleaning one area, the kids are destroying another area. I'm still using the motivated mom chore lists for some tasks - cleaning the inside of the refrigerator and microwave, washing the sheets, etc., but for the next few months I don't need to worry about things like cleaning toilets, dusting, or vacuuming. It seems like a nice reward for working outside the home when I'd rather be a SAHM. I can't say cleaning the toilets is my favorite thing to do, but I'll be happy to resume that duty if it means I'm unemployed. I will say that certain things (like my kitchen sink) look far cleaner after they've cleaned the house. It's nice to have things look so sparkling clean, even if it is only for 1 minute, lol.

Thankful Thursday

1. I love my new Lightscoop. If any of you have a DSLR camera and only have the flash that came with your camera, I recommend buying this. It only cost me $30 including s/h, and the difference (with indoor photos) is amazing! Another perk is that I was forced to take pictures in manual mode yesterday in order to use the Lightscoop. I have soooooooooooo much to learn about my camera!

2. I am thrilled that Ian (so far) is tolerating milk and that he's gaining weight.

3. Nadia loves AWANA. This thrills my heart. Last night was Crazy Hair Night. I put her hair in 6 ponytails.

4. I took the kids to their first children's theatre production today. We saw Max & Ruby's Bunny Party today. The show lasted 75 minutes, but 15 minutes of that was an intermission. Nadia loved it although I had to help keep the seat down or it would fold up on her, lol! Ian liked parts of it, but he also wanted to RUN- so there were some fussy moments. Probably I should have found a babysitter for him and have only taken Nadia, but he did enjoy some parts of it. I look forward to taking the kids to many more theatre productions in the future, including on Broadway some day! They're doing Goodnight Moon and the Runaway Bunny next week, but the performance is only on Wednesday night, which won't work for us. It was a special time for the three of us!

22 Months Old

My son will be 2 years old in exactly 2 months. I can't believe it. The time has flown right by. Since he's the youngest, he's still my baby, but he definitely doesn't seem like a baby any more. He's definitely a toddler. He loves to repeat the word "boy" after I call him my little boy.

1. Ian's favorite pair of shoes are his blue Winnie the Pooh sneakers. It wasn't until Nadia was almost 3 years old that she ever made it known which shoes she preferred to wear. Ian has a meltdown sometimes over what shoes I put on his feet. Since all of his shoes were purchased at yard sales (25 cents to $1.00 a pair), I have three pairs of sneakers he could wear right now. If it were totally up to me, I'd have him wear the sneakers that matched his outfit the best in terms of color as one pair is brown, another is black, and another is blue. I've decided this is a case of "pick your battles," and he usually is wearing the blue pair even if they don't match the colors he's wearing that day.

2. His current favorite article of clothing is a pair of footed pjs that has various jungle animals on it. The feet have monkeys and so he considers them to be his monkey pjs. If I'd let him, he'd wear those 24 hours a day. I only let him wear them for at most 12 hours a day. It does amaze me how he has such strong opinions as to what he wears. I would have thought a girl would be more likely to be that way, but it's my boy who really, really cares about what he wears, and he's not even two years old yet, lol!

3. His vocabulary continues to grow every day. This past Sunday when I picked him up from the nursery they said he had said "triangle". The biggest word I've heard him pronounce is "helicopter" (4 syllables!). He says some words perfectly clearly like "Bible" (in reference to my Bible or Nadia's), "one" (when counting), "boy," etc. Another word he uses quite often is "picture." He often asks me to take his picture! And then he says "ee" for cheese, lol.

4. His two favorite songs right now are Old McDonald and the VeggieTale theme song. He is often heard singing "EIEIO" or "up and down aisle." He also will sing parts of Row, Row, Row your boat, BINGO, and the BIBLE.

5. He loves to hold hands at dinner with Paul and I while we pray. Sometimes he's the one who reminds us that we need to pray, and if Nadia's prayer is a bit too long, sometimes he lets her know her prayer should be over by saying "amen" before she's done praying. I look forward to the day when he starts praying.

6. The first instance we've seen of Ian's sense of humor was when he purposefully called a knee an elbow, with a big smile on his face. He now knows it's called a knee, but he sometimes still says "elbow" just to get me going. What a hoot!

7. He can can correctly identify a few colors (as in he will say what color it is if I point to something that is blue, red, or green).

8. He's still very much a Momma's boy. As soon as we exit the car in the church parking lot, he starts crying. He knows where we are, and he doesn't want to be there. Thankfully he doesn't cry for very long after I drop him off. He cries anytime I am the one to leave his sight, even if I'm just running to get something from upstairs. He'll stand at the gate and cry until I come back down. He cries when I leave him at home with Paul.

9. He's very affectionate. A nursery worker from the Tuesday morning ladies Bible study sent me a message on Facebook a couple of weeks ago saying how she loved taking care of him and how he wrapped his arm around her neck while she was holding him. He's a cuddler! I love how while we're eating he still reaches his hand out to hold hands with Paul if Paul is around while we're eating.

10. He loves to be outside. After I get him from his nap (while Nadia is still sleeping), he often goes over to the gate and says "mail." He wants me to take him to go get the mail as he hopes I'll let him play in the driveway/front yard. He prefers that part of our property to the part that's fenced in. When he's in the backyard, he frequently goes over to the gate and cries. In between crying he says, "door."

11. He loves to read books on someone's lap. His favorites include Spot books, books about vehicles, and Miss Mary Mack. I'm enjoying reading in his room before nap and before bedtime. If I could go back in time, I'd have started that habit earlier.

12. He weighs pver 25 lbs!! FINALLY! He's gotten close to this weight several times over the past 4 months and then dropped back down to 23 lbs. Yesterday was the first time the scale read 25! I was so happy to see this as it meant he gained more than a pound in ONE week. WOOHOO! I've cut him back to 4 sippy cups a day of whole milk in light of this trend. This means he also jumped up 10 percentiles on the weight chart in one week! If this keeps up, maybe his size 12 month pants won't keep falling down to his ankles. :-)

13. He can wreak havoc much faster than I can clean it up. He makes much bigger messes than Nadia has ever made. He also is much messier at the dinner table because he thinks when he's finished licking something (such as a pretzel), he should throw it on the floor. I am really trying to break him of this habit!

14. He's starting to learn how to help clean up. When he puts something away, he says "YAY!"

15. He loves to play with play-doh. Unfortunately sometimes he still tries to lick it. Yuck.

16. Mealtimes are going much better now that he can again have things like yogurt and pudding. He still cries at some meals. I'm hoping the crying has diminished enough that Dr. Williams will start teaching Ian how to chew at our next appointment.

17. Ian is still ever so fascinated with my purse and my cell phone. I never had to work to keep those out of Nadia's hands.

18. He loves playing with cars and trucks. The matchbox cars I got him at a few yard sales are worth their weight in gold. His four favorite places to play with his vehicles include on the coffee table, the entertainment center, the arm of our blue sofa, and on part of the frame of our sliding glass door. There are days when I'd estimate over the course of a day he plays with his little cars for upwards of three hours total. I'd love to know what he's thinking as he drives those little cars back and forth.

19. He also loves the ball popper, and unfortunately he loves to stick other things in it. He has gotten far more use out of the ball popper than Nadia ever did (it was a baby gift I received when she was born).

20. He enjoys using zippers. He does part of the zipping of his pjs at night when I'm getting him dressed for bed.
21. He got 3 more teeth in the past month. He now has 11 teeth - 6 on the top and 5 on the bottom.

22. He's still sleeping on average 11 hours at night. Occasionally he'll sleep 11.5 hours. His nap still isn't going well. Two days ago he slept a whopping 10 minutes of the 60 minutes he spent in his crib, and then he slept in the car on the way to Nadia's ballet class. Yesterday he slept for 40 minutes, which was MUCH better. You just never know how long he's going to sleep, but most of the time it's less than 30 minutes.

Pennies and Nickels

We were home all morning, which was nice. I definitely am not interested in returning to MOPS any time soon. Lately I've been working on teaching Nadia the days of the week. Today we worked on pennies and nickels. We counted them, sorted them, talked about the Presidents pictured on them, etc. Ian had fun playing the Play-Doh while Nadia and I worked with the coins.

This afternoon Nadia brought her "doggy" to ballet. Her teacher had been sending us messages on Facebook reminding us to have the children bring a teddy bear to class this week. She said they would be dancing with their teddy bear during part of the class, and dancing for their bears (the stuffed animals would be the audience) for part of the class. Nadia chose to bring her doggy. She's never been super attached to any teddy bear. Another girl brought a stuffed hippo, so she wasn't the only one who didn't exactly bring a teddy bear. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall and watched the class, although Ian and I enjoyed being outside in the 80 degree temps at the playground during her class.

Today I tried a very simple recipe. Basically you just add some peanut butter to the mix when making Rice Krispie treats. Oh they are soooo yummy! Unless Paul thinks differently, I doubt I'll ever make "regular" Rice Krispie treats again as these are 1,000 times better!

I snapped this picture because Ian was (of his own initiative) waving and saying "hello" to people! Yay, Ian!!!



Gaining Weight!

I decided to start weighing Ian twice a week until I am certain his weight is going in the right direction. From last Saturday until Tuesday he had lost more weight. With a shirt, socks, and dry diaper on, he weighed exactly 24 lbs on Tuesday morning. Normally I weigh him only with socks and a dry diaper. Today he weighed 24.75 pounds without a shirt on! He gained 3/4 of a pound in 4 days. Whole milk has 150 calories per cup, whereas vanilla almond milk has 90 (unflavored almond milk only has 60). I'd guesstimate that he's been consuming about 1,500 calories a day the past few days. Being able to feed him milk products is such a big help as he likes pudding, yogurt, etc. Now the key will be if he can keep this weight on. He weighed this much a couple of weeks ago but went down before going back up again.

We tried the nap experiment today. I acted as if I was leaving (actually just went outside to do some yardwork). A little while later Paul put the kids down for their nap. Including today, Ian has hardly cried at all the last 3 days when we've put him down for his nap. That's nice, but it means he's in his crib for not even 30 minutes since he only naps for about 25 minutes. Although he's taken long naps when either my mom or Paul's parents have put him down for a nap, he still took a short nap when Paul put him down. Paul's parents will be babysitting on the 21st. We shall see what happens that day.

No more oatmeal

I hadn't give Ian any oatmeal for more than a week, and he's been pooping a lot less this week now that milk has been reintroduced into his diet. It's so much easier to keep the diaper rash at bay when he only poops one or two times a day. This morning I decided to give him some banana and cream oatmeal along with some yogurt for breakfast. Big Mistake. Let's just say that I am now 100% convinced that it is not good to feed Ian any oatmeal. Oh. My. Word. Cinnamon and oatmeal are now on the "make sure to avoid" list for Ian.

I had a meeting on campus today. It was 70 degrees out. I would rather have been outside with my kids. I can't complain though becacuse it was only the third day I was on campus for meetings this year. The weather is supposed to be very, very pretty this weekend. I'll be taking the kids to the playground! I did bring my Steeler trashcan back into my office today. I'll probably bring a few more things back in so it's not quite so stark.

Tomorrow I want to plan out my menus for the next few weeks after I select some new recipes to try. I've been doing well at baking at least once a week. The cookies I made last week were evidently TOO popular in our house because the batch only lasted three days! I went about 20 years without baking any cookies, and now this year I've been baking cookies or brownies or something like that almost every week! We're going to do an experiment tomorrow with Ian's nap because Karen (OT) thinks the reason he took a really long nap last Friday was because he knew I wasn't here (Paul's parents were babysitting). To test that theory, I'm going to leave for the grocery store maybe 10 minutes before nap time so that Ian will see me leave, and Paul will put him down for his nap. We shall see if he'll sleep longer if I'm not at home. Yesterday and today he only cried for a couple of minutes when I put him down, but then he only slept about 20-25 minutes. I'll try the experiment again on Sunday if he doesn't nap in the nursery. I am curious how long he'll sleep tomorrow.

Dollie & Me

My little drummer boy

Gabby was originally scheduled to come over this afternoon to watch the kids for an hour while I did schoolwork. On Monday I learned about a promotion committee meeting that will take place tomorrow afternoon. Since I need her to come over and watch the kids so I can attend that meeting, I asked if she'd come on Friday instead of Thursday. In light of how very pretty it was out today, I am glad that we made that switch. I would much rather be at the playground with the kids than at home grading, especially as I was needing to get some exercise to burn off some of the calories I consumed at lunch at Friendly's. I am a big fan of their "nuts over caramel" ice cream, and Nadia loves their oreo sundae that is one of the options with the kid's meal. We were at the mall to pick up some pictures from Sears. While we were in Sears I went over to check the clearance racks for size 4-6x girls to see if there were any Dollie and Me outfits on sale. I've purchased several winter dress sets there over the past couple of years, but I hadn't yet purchased any summer outfits. Dollie has been wearing winter clothes all year long. Today I bought 3 different summer outfits (in 3 different sizes from 4-6x) for Nadia and her dolls. Both of her dolls are now sporting their new summer wear. I am such a sucker for Dollie and Me clothing anytime the price drops under $10 (today the sets were $7.99 each).

Last week I noticed all the kids in AWANA seemed to be wearing hats. Last night many were wearing their pjs. I finally asked if I had missed a memo or something. They gave me a flyer which listed all the special events for October through December. Next Wednesday is wacky hair day. That will be fun! Thankfully I think Nadia was oblivious to the fact that she wasn't participating the past two weeks. I have been helping her complete her workbook pages and learn her verse each week. That's what's most important, right?



Glorious!

Spring and fall are my favorite seasons. If I had to pick one, I'd pick spring, but I really love fall also. I love it when the temps are in the high 60's and 70's. In the spring I love the budding trees and flowers, and in the fall I love watching the leaves turn colors. My opinion of summer has gone up a lot now that we have a home with central air conditioning and a membership at a swimming pool. Now that I have kids, my opinion of winter has gone down even farther. Earlier this week it felt like we went straight from summer to winter. Today it felt like fall. Bliss. We have had so much rain lately. Today was the first day of what is supposed to be a string of several days without rain. The temperatures also are supposed to be beautiful. Nadia had gymnastics at 9am. After that we left for Ashburn Animals as Early Intervention was having a "family fun day" there. The kids enjoyed seeing alpacas, llamas, cebu, horses, sheep, goats, ducks, cats, dogs, rabbits, pigs, turkeys, etc. They petted most of the animals, although I was the only one who petted the skunk.

After our time at the farm, we came home for lunch and naps. Ian took a longer nap than usual (40 minutes), which was greatly appreciated as I was mowing the lawn (had the video monitor with me to check on him every few minutes). I didn't get the whole lawn mowed during his nap, but I got more done than I thought I'd be able to do while he slept. After Nadia woke up, I took the kids to the playground. I finished mowing the lawn after dinner (when Paul was home) before taking Nadia to AWANA and going to choir. Let me say it was a balm to my soul to spend so much time outside today and to see the blue sky and sun shining.

I took my shower this morning before the kids woke up. I really need to get in the habit of doing that. It's better to get up a little earlier and have a peaceful shower. The kids got baths after lunch because the farm was a muddy place in light of all the rain we've had lately. We had a busy day today, but it was a really nice day. Tomorrow we don't have anything on our agenda. I'm certain we'll spend lots of time outside. I think I've mentioned before that Ian always wants to hold Paul's hand at the dinner table. I can't recall exactly when he started reaching his hand out to Paul at the dinner table, but I'd guess he's been doing it for about a year. I love this picture. It will be a beautiful reminder in the future of this sweet moment we experienced at the dinner table on many occasions. Ian also loves holding hands with Paul and I while we pray. He gets more of a kick out of it than Nadia ever has. Sometimes he reaches out his hands and says "pray" when we sit down to eat. It's so sweet! I look forward to the day when he's talking enough that he can start praying.

So far so good!

Ian has now eaten two yogurts - one yesterday and one today. Karen suggested mixing some whole milk in with the almond milk and to gradually shift the proportion until it's only whole milk. I started that process this evening. He's doing okay so far! I am really hoping he's no longer allergic to milk. The bad news is that he's continuing to lose weight. Today he weighed 12 ounces less than he did four weeks ago. I always weigh him on Tuesdays before lunch so that I'm comparing apples with apples. Whole milk has more calories than almond milk so that will help. I also bought some honey to add to his purees, and I bought some Carnation instant breakfast. I couldn't use that in the past as it contains milk, but tonight I added one packet to his sippy cup at dinner. I'm planning to give him one of those a day. The pediatrician said he weighed 25 lbs at his 18 month appt. I didn't agree with that measurement, but it's going to look bad if he's not weighing at least 25 lbs at his 2 year appointment.

Yesterday we got a bill from CHOP for $3,908. They had sent a bill in the amount of $10K to the insurance company. The insurance only paid $2K of it, saying it exceeded the usual and customary charges for a day surgery. These charges were not for the physician or anesthesiologist. Those bills were already paid by the insurance. CHOP indicated $4K was an "adjustment." I told Paul that was the good news. The bill could have been for $8K. The bad news was receiving a $4K bill when we weren't supposed to pay any more than a $75 deductible if we stayed "in network." If we wanted to pay $4K for an 8 minute surgery, we'd have gone to the local hospital that is "out of the network." That's the reason I drove 5-6 hours RT for every appointment - to avoid these types of bills. Our Blue Shield insurance is retroactive to May 23, but this procedure was on May 11. Paul called the insurance company about it yesterday, and they're going to review the charges again. Hopefully they'll pay it. I'm praying to that end.

Since I don't like clutter, I tend to throw away almost every paper/craft that Nadia brings home from Sunday School, children's church, AWANA, library storytime, etc. I have saved a few things, but mostly I don't know what to do with all this stuff, so it ends up in the trash. Well yesterday I had what I think is a bright idea. I'm going to start scanning more of these things and including them in my blog posts as "pictures." This way I can still look back at them in the years to come (as can Nadia since I have been having the blog printed periodically), but they aren't going to take up lots of space. Hopefully I can get in a habit of scanning something at least once a week, as it will be interesting to see the progression in time of her coloring skills and such. I wish I had this idea sooner! Better late than never.