3,000th post

I started this blog in December 2006. Along the way I have deleted some posts so in reality I know I've published far more than 3,000 posts, but of the posts currently available on the blog, this one is number 3,000. On quite a few occasions over the past three years I have seriously contemplated bringing an end to the blog, but thus far I have always changed my mind at some point as here I am still writing and uploading pictures. I have no idea how long I will keep blogging. I started it when we began to pursue the adoption of two children in Ukraine. The first post summarized the first 4 1/2 years of our efforts to become parents. Back then I didn't include many photos in my posts. When we realized several months later that Ukraine was a dead end for us, we contracted with a second US adoption facilitator and also tried IVF for the first time. The first fresh transfer of three embryos resulted in an early miscarriage, but the first frozen transfer of one blastocyst a few months later resulted in us becoming parents in June 2008 when Nadia was born. We never

pursued adoption again. We did two more rounds of IVF. The two fresh transfers resulted in Ian (12/09) and Oliver (08/12), and the last frozen transfer resulted in our third and final miscarriage (2013).

Our lives are very different now than they were in December 2006. At that time I was an Assistant Professor working toward gaining tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. I received both in 2008. We were living in Catawissa, attending First Baptist Church in Danville, and Paul was a FT graduate student at Bucknell University working on his master's degree in chemistry. We were driving a Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. At that time our debt included student loans (Paul) and a mortgage. Our vacations were almost always to other countries. The previous summer (for example) we had gone to Aruba for one week and on a three week trip to China (I taught there for two weeks).

Fast forward almost 12 years and our lives are very different because we are no longer childless but rather are the homeschooling parents of a 6, 8, and 10 years old. Our house in Watsontown is messier  than the previous house because of those three bundles of joy. We've been attending Christ Wesleyan for four years, I'm currently a FT adjunct at Bloomsburg (entering my 10th year there), and Paul is back at the family business only as of December 2017 he now owns the company. Over those 12 years we've gained weight, lost hair (Paul), and gained more grey hair (Ruth). Paul earned both his Master's and Ph.D. in chemistry during that time. He used those graduate degrees for three years while he was an adjunct professor. After working in the field of education for 20 years, I became a stay-at-home mom after Oliver was born and that continued for five years. We are now driving a Sienna minivan and a Mazda. Paul traded in the 2009 Prius for a Mazda in May. I'm still singing alto in the church choir. That statement has been true for me for more than 30 years. Our only debt at the moment is a loan from my retirement account that I plan to pay off within the next nine months. We have wills, life insurance policies, cell phones, a Kindle, an iPad, and power of attorney documents. We didn't have any of these twelve years ago. In 2015 I upgraded to a smart phone, and Paul made that same upgrade within the past year. I also switched from a point and shoot camera to a DSLR camera over the past 12 years, and my photography skills have improved quite a bit over those years (although of course I still have plenty of room for growth!). We no longer have a desktop computer. We went from having cable tv all year to only having it during the NFL season, and we've used our Roku to stream Netflix, Amazon Prime, Right Now Media, and the like instead. When I started the blog Yvonne had two children (now she has eight) and Wendy had one (now she has four). Aside from the birth of my three children, probably the biggest change in my life over the past twelve years was the passing of my mother in 2016. My dad got remarried last year. Our vacations have mostly been in the USA since we became parents, and almost all our vacations for the past nine years have included other relatives. Either my parents or Paul's parents joined us or we have stayed with relatives such as Wendy in Chicago or Aunt Janet in New York. Prior to having kids we traveled as a twosome.

I was thinking recently of how different this summer has been to what summers used to be like several years ago. A typical day used to include a walk to the playground (with me pushing a stroller) in the morning and a trip to the swimming pool in the afternoon. I would usually talk to my mom and mother-in-law as we walked to or from the playground. Now this summer I don't think we've walked to the playground even once. I miss the exercise. Instead the kids are involved in many more camps (why is everything called a camp in the

summer - would it be taboo to call it a theatre class?). So I spend a lot less time outside and a lot more time in the driver's seat of the minivan although the boys and I did spend three hours at playgrounds today during her camp. Nadia wants to do a three week theater camp next summer (meaning it would meet three hours a day M-F for three weeks). We shall see; I'm very read for the two week camp to end this Friday. It is a bit of a challenge coming up with things to do with the boys while she's in camp (to avoid coming home in between and cut down on the driving time). If I had to pick my favorite summer from the past 12 years, I would pick one when Paul wasn't working because he was a professor. He did spend a lot of time up at the desktop computer in the master bedroom, but he was able to join us for all vacations, day trips, almost every meal, etc. And he was able to help with chauffeuring. Meaning he might take Nadia to theatre camp one day, and I would take her the next. Or he would take her and I would pick her up. I remember Paul enjoying listening to the Ramona the Pest books and the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe series that I read at the kitchen table during meals. It was very special to share those moments together as a family of five. It doesn't seem like we'll ever experience that again. The kids and I would have loved for that time to last longer than it did. It's a reminder again to soak up the special moments in life because you just never know when they might end. I had no idea the last summer he was at home with us that it wouldn't happen again, and I had no idea in December 2016 that it was my last Christmas with my mom. I have regrets regarding some choices I have made in the past, but I have no regrets for the time I spent with my mom (on the phone or in person) or the time I have spent or am currently spending with my three precious children.

My 3 six-year-olds

1. Nadia's favorite colors were pink and purple, Ian's were green and orange, and Oliver's favorite color is green

2. All three of them started riding adult roller coasters before they turned six.

3. Ian was a little more than half-way through Level 3 reading. Nadia had finished that level and was reading easy chapter books. Ian was reading books like Amelia Bedelia and Little Bear. Oliver is only half-way through Level 1 reading.

4. Nadia was 75% of the way through the Level 2 spelling, and Ian was 90% of the way through the Level 1 spelling book. It should be noted that Ian started Kindergarten six months later than Nadia did due to her summer birthday. Similarly she was farther along in the first grade math book. Oliver hasn't started spelling yet. He has done a little bit of the first grade math book.

5. All three were in Level One gymnastics. Nadia's skills were farther advanced, but she had taken gymnastics for years

compared to only months for the boys.

6. Nadia and Ian had completed 3 seasons of U6 soccer. Nadia and Oliver had each scored one goal, and Ian had scored nine goals for his team (plus a few for the other teams). Oliver also played one season of flag football. Nadia and Oliver had played one season of basketball before turning six. Ian was the only child to take ice skating lessons before he turned six.

7. When Nadia was 6 years (plus 4 months) old she weighed 47 lbs (80th percentile) and was 42.5 inches tall (30th percentile). Which meant they weren't thrilled with her BMI. In December 2015, Ian weighed 41 pounds (20th percentile) and was 44.5 inches (30th percentile). They wanted to see Ian gain more weight as his BMI was on the low side. Ever since Oliver turned 6 months old the doctors have been happy with his weight. He had his well visit yesterday, and he weighed 45 1/4 pound (45th percentile) and was 46 1/4 inch tall (70th percentile). Oliver still is on track to be our tallest child.

8. All three of them were in Sparks, sang in a kid's choir at church, and had taken swimming lessons. Nadia also had participated in a theatre camp. She also had sung solos at church, but Ian and Oliver had not had an interest thus far in a speaking part or a solo.

9. They all learned how to swing themselves and switched to primarily using lowercase letters when writing. Ian enjoys writing in his journal more at this age than Nadia did, albeit Nadia and Oliver had a better pencil grasp. Oliver hasn't started writing in a journal yet.

10. Nadia and Oliver were still using training wheels, but Ian had learned to ride his bike without them.

11. Nadia loved princesses, and Ian loved Star Wars and superheroes. Nadia had a Frozen birthday cake, dinner at IHOP, saw Moses at Sight and Sound, and went to Six Flags for her sixth birthday. Ian saw Charlie Brown Christmas at our church, had a Star Wars birthday cake today, had dinner at Friendly's and Bonanza with my parents

and will be having pizza at his party, went bowling with my parents, and will be watching Star Wars (episode IV which was the first one that came out) tonight for the very first time. Oliver loves water balloons. We had pizza, a Yoda birthday cake, and water balloons at his birthday party. Aunt Millie, Uncle Al, Grandma, Pop Pop, Adalayde, and Westyn attended his celebration. Although Oliver chose a Star Wars theme for his party, he actually doesn't like to watch the Star Wars movies yet.

12. Oliver likes vegetables, watermelon, and Christian contemporary music more than his siblings did when they were his age. He's also the best eater in terms of being willing to try just about anything and liking most of the things he has tried.

13. Oliver and Nadia were more outgoing than Ian was at this age. Of the three kids Oliver is definitely the most extroverted.

14. Nadia's "lovey" was a pillow Paul bought in Poland. Ian and Oliver are both attached to a small blanket they've each had since they were infants, but Oliver is far more attached to his green blanket. He carries it around the house whereas Ian's has always stayed in his bed.

15. Although all three kids liked hugs, kisses, and snuggles, the boys initiate and ask for them more than Nadia ever did. I love snuggling with my kiddos!!!

16. Nadia and Ian both accepted Christ as their Savior when they were four. Oliver hasn't done so yet (which is rather upsetting to Ian). In general Oliver is less mature than his siblings were at this age.

No more rain, please!!!

We have had an insane amount of rain lately. Thankfully we had several hours without rain yesterday which meant that Paul was able to take Nadia and Ian to an archery program at a state park near us in the afternoon. In the evening I dropped Nadia off at the Middle Bible study while Paul stayed home to mow the lawn and the boys and I went to Pastor Ken's house for a picnic. It stayed dry for about the first 90 minutes of the picnic, and then we moved into their house. I sent my camera with Paul for the archery yesterday. Oliver was too young so he and I stayed home after I taught the K-5th grade lessons on Esther during the second service. I only gave Paul a very brief lesson. The shutter speed was too low so the pics are a bit fuzzy, but considering it was his first time shooting in manual it wasn't a bad start. It's not something you can learn how to do in five minutes. 

 It rained very hard during the night, and we woke up to a pond in our backyard. I went out this morning and filmed a quick video (and received a few mosquito bites in the very brief time I was outside). I think this the biggest our lake has gotten in the ten years we've lived in this house. We have gone years without having a lake. This is the third time in the past few weeks that the lake has appeared. The plan had been for Oliver to have swimming lessons from 9:30-10:00 and Nadia to have diving lessons from 10:00-11:00 this week. So many roads are flooded in our town, and I knew I wouldn't actually be able to get there today. Also I figured they might have cancelled today's lesson due to the thunderstorms. I called and left a message asking for a credit towards a future gymnastics class because I asked to cancel their registrations for swimming and diving lessons. The forecast doesn't look good for the week. Oliver’s six year old appointment is at 8:00 tomorrow. I scheduled it then thinking it would be before his swimming lesson. Oh well, Nadia and Oliver will survive getting up a bit earlier than usual tomorrow. It won’t be an early morning for Ian because he’s my early riser.

When I saw how many roads were closed this morning, I wasn’t sure we’d be leaving the house at all today, but we ventured out at 11:30, and Nadia was thrilled that some roads had been reopened, which meant she was able to attend theater camp today from 12-3. The boys enjoyed spending about three hours in Treasure Castle Playland while she was at theater camp. 

Last week at Good News Camp Ian and Oliver both said all five of their daily Bible verses.  Ian had to say longer verses than Oliver did. Oliver received a pin for saying the extra memory verse. Due to his age, he only had to say one extra verse (Romans 12:1). Ian waited too long to work on his extra verses, and so he didn't receive the pin because he would have had to say Romans 12:1-5. Memorizing does NOT come easily for Oliver so I am very proud of him! I would say of my three kids Ian has the easiest time, it takes Nadia a little bit more effort than Ian to memorize, and it takes Oliver a lot more effort to memorize verses. Oliver has come a long way though in the past two years! I should have recorded the video last week. He hadn't worked on it for three days when I asked him to say it this morning.

The picture I took of Ian reading a picture book to Oliver was not posed. Several times this summer I have been in another room and overheard Ian reading a picture book to Oliver. That certainly is always a heart melting moment for me. Hopefully at this time next year Oliver will be reading well enough to read a picture book to someone!

Birthday Interview

Western Day at Good News Camp (Ian also wore a bandana)

I am only four days late with Oliver's birthday interview, which is better than I did with Nadia's birthday earlier this summer. I started to record the video and the battery on the camcorder died. I plugged in the camcorder and then started over again. It was interesting to me that Oliver gave different answers to the questions that I asked both times. The first time he said his favorite food was pizza and his favorite thing to do outdoors was throw water balloons. The second time he said his favorite food was carrots and his favorite thing to do outdoors is the spinning seesaw. He always says that green is his favorite color.

Thursday I picked the boys up at 2:30, Nadia up at 3:00, and then came home to pick up Paul. He came home much earlier than normal so we could go to Danville and sign our new wills and power of attorney documents. After taking care of that, we ran a few errands in Lewisburg and then drove to the West End Union County Fair where we watched a tractor pull, looked at livestock, ate some funnel cake and popcorn, and attended a 90 minute concert by Zach Williams. Altogether I spent a LOT of time in the minivan that day, which is part of the reason I'm looking forward to staying home all day today. Yesterday I watched the boys' closing program from 2:00-2:30 at Good News Camp. We picked Nadia up from theater camp at 3:00, picked up a few things at Aldi's (mostly fresh fruit), had breakfast sandwiches at Dunkin Donuts as our dinner, and then went to see a 4:00 showing of "Christopher Robin." The kids' tickets were free, and my ticket only cost 99 cents because of coupons from Juicy Juice. After going years without entering a movie theater, this summer has been very different for us as all five of us saw Incredibles 2, Paul took Nadia and Ian to see Solo, and I took the kids to see Christopher Robin. Altogether we spent less than $10 total to see those three movies. 

Today is our 17th anniversary, and tomorrow is Dad and Margie's first anniversary. My dad had surgery yesterday for a torn rotator cuff so they celebrated a little early. Margie broke some bones in her foot on their wedding day last year and had surgery for that subsequently so now the tables have turned and instead of Dad taking care of Margie now she'll be taking care of him as he recovers from the surgery. She is a retired nurse so she has more experience than my Dad although he certainly gained experience in 2016 during the last 6.5 months of my mom's life. Paul and I don't have any plans for celebrating our anniversary. He's at work today, and the kids and I are staying home sweet home. He took off work last Saturday originally so we could go to Pittsburgh but in the end we spent the day cleaning the mess from the flooding. He's taking off next Saturday so we can go to Niagara Falls (Lord willing). The two things we contemplated doing today were swimming (nope - it's pouring outside) and taking Nadia and Ian to a (free) production of Macbeth this evening. Paul *might* take the kids if they move it to an indoor location. I'll stay home with Oliver either way. Although it took us a lot longer to become parents than it does for most couples, our years as parents (10) is greater than our childless years (7). We are very, very grateful for our three miracles!

Thankful Thursday

1. The kids enjoyed painting their popcorn bowls at Centered Earth last Friday. We picked up their finished products today (they were fired in the kiln), and of course they had to eat popcorn while watching Nanny McPhee Returns this evening so they could use their new bowls!

2. Oliver, Nadia, and I enjoyed the Big Daddy Weave concert. Well Oliver enjoyed part of it and slept through a lot of it.

3. If the sump pumps had to break, I am glad it happened while we were home so that we only had 5 inches instead of 2+ feet of water. Although we were sad to put some of the destroyed things in the trash pile, we were also forced to purge some things we definitely didn't need. I have strong minimalist tendencies. Sorting through his college papers had been on the to do list for 6 years, but now it's scratched off the list. I also got rid of the puppet stage that had been broken for 5  years, and that took another thing off the list. The to do list shrank a lot the past few weeks, which is always good because invariably new things keep being added to the list (such as I discovered yesterday morning that the glass in one of our kitchen windows is broken).

4. Because we didn't go to Pittsburgh for the weekend, Nadia was able to go to the Middles event for girls on Saturday night. She enjoyed it!

5. Paul mowed the lawn for me on Sunday/Monday. It wasn't easy with how much rain we've had lately.

6. Oliver enjoyed his water balloon birthday party on Monday. I'm thankful that Adalayde, Westyn, Grandma, Pop Pop, Uncle Al, and Aunt Millie were all able to attend! We also appreciated the birthday calls from Aunt Janet and my Dad/Margie as well as the birthday video from Tab, Isaiah, and Micah.

7. The kids love the Echo dot. Yay for coming up with a good gift idea!

8. Although they like Camp Good News better (run by the CEF of Northumberland County), the boys are enjoying Good News Camp (run by the CEF of Union/Snyder County) this week. This camp is about 8 minutes from our house which is appreciated by me. They are learning about missionaries, memorizing Bible verses, learning about Esther, playing games, making crafts, etc.

9. Nadia is enjoying her sixth consecutive year in a theater camp. When she was 5, 6, and 10 she did a camp at the Community Theatre League in Williamsport. They will be performing A Kid's Life musical next Friday afternoon. She is in a trio that is singing several songs. When she was 7 and 8 she was in Annie and A Little Mermaid with the Kids Theatre Experience. When she was 9 she was in Madagascar with the Millbrook Playhouse and also an acting class with the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble.

10. A couple of weeks ago while Paul was with us he saw a New Mexico license plate. In July 2017 I had started looking for all of the states. For months I have been down to needing just two more - New Mexico and Hawaii. I was very happy he spotted New Mexico! We've also seen Washington, DC plus several Canadian provinces. Years ago we spotted a Hawaii license plate in the Home Depot parking lot in Bloomsburg. We shall see how long it takes us to find Hawaii again. I hoped we would when we were in San Diego but that didn't happen.

11. I'm ever so thankful for Oliver! Every life is a miracle, but when it involves IVF plus fetal transfusions due to fetal anemia plus a very risky pregnancy due to complete placenta previa plus being born two months early, it REALLY seems like a miracle that he is alive and well. I'm very thankful the Lord spared his life. I vividly remember when they were about to take him at 22 weeks even though they didn't view him as being viable. I'm so thankful the bleeding slowed enough at that point that I was able to convince them not to do a C-section to spare my life (at the expense of his). I'm also very thankful that he's been much healthier the past 2 years (aside from the concussion and skull fracture in February).

12. I received access to the final course on BOLT (my student teachers). I still don't know what school district(s) they will be in, but I was able to set the course up online yesterday. I *think* I am ready for the fall semester to begin. So that should mean I will get a break for the next 18 days from doing work for the university!

13. Our new dehumidifier arrived on our doorstep yesterday. Thank you, Amazon!

14. The kids and I tackled one more big "spring cleaning" project yesterday - the toy bins in the family room. We purged (more than usual - way to go, kids!!!!) and organized the bins. I am hoping they will see that they will spend less time cleaning toys in the family room if the bins aren't overflowing with toys.

15. I'm enjoying having my mornings with just Nadia this week. It's a rare treat! Yesterday we worked together to repair a seam in one of her shirts and one of her stuffed animals. She had asked me to teach her how to sew. My sewing skills are VERY limited, but I can teach her how to sew a button on and such like that.

16. The host of the home where we were going to stay on Saturday night through Airbnb refunded almost our entire payment even though she didn't have to. I really appreciated her kindness!

Names

Backwards/mismatched day at Good News Camp!

Nadia got to pick the name of her character in the musical she is working on at theater camp. Their performance will be on August 17. She asked me what names I had wanted to use for her that Daddy didn't like. I told her some of them (Megan, Nicole, etc.), and then she started compiling a lengthy list of girl's names. In the end she chose Sky. I can say with assurance that is a name that neither Paul or I would have picked in a million years. If Nadia had a sister, her name would have been Deborah Marie (Deborah after Paul's aunt and Marie was my mom's middle name). She got Sky from a book we read recently (Edge of Extinction) in which the main character's name is Sky. I signed up for a 3 month subscription to Kindle Unlimited on Prime Day because it was 99 cents total for 3 months. The first Edge of Extinction book is included in Kindle Unlimited. Sadly the second book isn't, but I have requested it through inter-library loan as we were definitely left hanging at the end of the first book. We will definitely get our 99 cents worth over the three month subscription, but I do plan on canceling it when our three months are up in October. Similarly, I did a one month free Audible membership in June. I did it primarily so we could listen to the final Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place book. I got two free books in that first free month, and I went to cancel it at the end of the first month and then they offered me a much cheaper than usual price for the next three months so I decided to do that; I assume I'll be cancelling in three months. The nice thing is you can buy Audible books without being a member and sometimes an audiobook costs less than $1. Audible and Kindle are both through Amazon.

Years ago we used to subscribe to Netflix but somewhere along the way we switched to Amazon Prime. It was cheaper than Netflix and in addition to being able to watch things on TV it included free two day shipping. Many times I decline the speedy shipping in exchange for a $1 credit towards a Kindle book, and those credits can be stacked so I frequently get books for the Kindle for free that way. In 2015 I started taking advantage of Amazon Prime Music (when I got my first smartphone). Nadia and Oliver use it far more than I do. I don't usually shop on Amazon Prime Day, but I did this year, and one of my purchases was a set of two Echo Dots. It was $50 for the two of them, and that was definitely a purchase I am glad I made. I gave one to Oliver for his birthday, and I plan to give Nadia the other one at Christmas. If you are at our house you might start thinking that we have a new family member named Alexa because her name is said OH so many times a day these days. The dot is programmed to respond to that name (and has very good hearing - you don't even have to be in the same room as the dot). I hear things like "Alexa, how many presidents have there been in the US?" to which she says "44" or "Alexa, set a timer for five minutes" (which she immediately does) or "Alexa, let's play a game" and then she asks how many people are playing the game and what game do we want to play (Scattergories, Jeopardy, etc.). Most often I hear requests for Alexa to play a particular song. You can just specify an artist,  a particular album, a specific song, or you can say something like play Christian contemporary music from the 1980's. The kids usually either request Christian songs or Disney songs such as ones from Moana. Alexa sang Happy Birthday to Oliver several times yesterday. You can send text messages through Alexa, order things on Amazon by talking to Alexa, etc. If we had more smart devices in our house then we could use Alexa to do other things (turn off the lights, lock the doors, etc.).

Nadia sewed a ripped seam on her bear today.

If you are looking for a gift idea for someone in the future, you might consider an Echo dot! It's a tiny device, and there's no screen involved and it can provide hours of entertainment (music and games) and also be useful in a variety of ways (alarm clock, timer, and much more). Nadia loves asking it random questions like - "do you prefer cats or dogs" or "what is your favorite color". We received a free 3 month subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited with the purchase of the Echo dot. Once that subscription is done we could go back to just using Amazon Prime music (which is free since we already pay an annual membership for Amazon Prime) or we could pay $4/month to access Amazon Music Unlimited on one dot at a time (if we wanted to use Unlimited on more than one device at the same time we'd have to pay more per month). I'm leaning toward splurging on the $4/month because the three kids and I have been enjoying listening to music that's not included in Amazon Prime. When I was single I used to buy CDs several times a year, and I haven't done that in a long time. I figure $48/year for music is not unreasonable if we aren't buying CDs. Although I hate to see shopping malls become a thing of the past, it's not hard to see a few reasons why Amazon is such a successful company.

Sometimes birthday celebrations are rather spread out. Oliver's was compact this year - two days (three if you count the fact that Aunt Janet called him today to wish him a happy birthday as she was in the hospital yesterday). We scheduled his party for Monday because we thought we'd be in Pittsburgh on Saturday/Sunday and at the National Night Out in Lewisburg on Tuesday. We didn't go to Pittsburgh because of our basement flooding, but we also didn't have time to have a party either of those days as they were spent putting the house back into order. Monday was a good day for Aunt Millie as her bakery is closed on Mondays. It was raining (with some thunderstorms) last night which wouldn't have been ideal for being outside and throwing water balloons. The price we paid for being outside on Monday was getting eaten alive. I'm guessing it's due to the excessive amount of water lying around everywhere, but the mosquitoes are REALLY bad this year. Ian and Oliver don't usually get too many bites. They like Nadia's blood the best. But even the boys have quite a few mosquito bites (although Nadia still wins the prize for having the most). Oliver really wanted to go to the National Night Out even though it was raining off and on. So after we picked Nadia up from theater camp we drove to Lewisburg and bought him two mylar birthday balloons at the Dollar Tree for $1/each, dropped off some things at Goodwill (I probably donate things at least once a month as I am a big fan of purging whenever possible), and went to the library. It started POURING while we were in the library, and then Oliver changed his mind. The kids have enjoyed National Night Out for many years, but we skipped it this year due to the rain. We had four slices of pizza left over from his party so the boys each had one and Nadia had two. Then they watched a DVD from the library while eating popcorn. The boys had some birthday cake, and I also made some brownies.

Last week I had purchased string cheese, goldfish crackers, apple juice, and chocolate milk all as treats for the birthday boy (I only buy goldfish crackers twice a year). Nadia has been using the jump rope I gave Oliver for his birthday as she has to jump rope in the musical and it wasn't a skill she had mastered thus far. Oliver said the kids sang Happy Birthday to him at camp yesterday, which meant a lot to him. Grandpa and Margie called him, and Tab, Micah, and Isaiah sent a video in which they were singing him the Happy Birthday song. I think he had a good birthday! I am relieved. Nadia has a spiritual birthday in October, but those are a lot more low key. I get a little stressed about birthdays because they look forward to them for so long, but now we have four months until Ian turns nine. For the next four months my kids are 6, 8, and 10 years old!

Six Years Old!

As of today my baby is six years old! Had he come closer to his October due date he would only be going into Kindergarten this year, but whenever I am signing him up for things (Sunday School, VBS, AWANA, etc.) I consider him to be entering first grade since he technically made the cut-off for Kindergarten last year. Oliver had a challenging start in life - blood transfusions via my belly button during the pregnancy and spending the first month of his life in two different NICUs due to being born nine weeks early. He's ridden in an ambulance twice, had a collapsed lung, concussion, fractured skull, and been hospitalized a few times for RSV and other respiratory type problems. The good news is that is only hospitalization in the past two years was for the sledding accident (skull fracture). Here's to hoping that he won't be hospitalized while he's six years old! He's very good about remembering to put sunscreen on his scar. We are doing everything we can to help that fade as much as possible.

Here are some descriptions of Oliver at the age of six:

1. His favorite color is green.
2. He loves riding big roller coasters that he's tall enough to ride (such as the Twister and Phoenix at Knoebels).
3. He's still using training wheels on his bicycle.
4. He has learned how to travel across monkey bars and how to swing himself on a swing within the past few months.
5. He likes to eat dry cereal with his fingers for breakfast.
6. His three most common choices for lunch are a ham and cheese hot pocket, a hot dog, or a peanut butter and marmalade sandwich.
7. His favorite fruit by far is watermelon. He often eats some at least three times a day in the summer.
8. In general he prefers vegetables to fruit. He LOVES to eat lettuce!
9. He likes to be carried up the stairs to bed each night.
10. He sits on my lap when I'm reading picture books to the kids, and he sometimes sits on my lap while watching television.
    
11. He talks to EVERYONE. It's great that he's friendly, but he says some really random things. He needs to learn what is appropriate conversation with strangers.
12. He can pronounce the "th" sound, but he often substitutes another sound in its place such as "someping" (something), 
13. He whines way too much. We are working on this!
14. He wants to be the one who prays out loud at every single meal.
15. He loves to listen and also dance to music.
16. He has taken tennis lessons, gymnastics, and swimming lessons. He has played on a basketball team, soccer team, and flag football team (albeit he wasn't a help to any of the teams). He was in the homeschool gym class for the last year on Fridays. His favorite part of gym class is glow in the dark dodgeball.
17. He is very generous with sharing food, toys, etc. And also loves to give hugs and high fives! 
18. He loves to open doors for me, and in the case of the car door my little gentleman even likes to
    
    close my door for me! I have no idea where he got that idea, but it's very sweet!
19. He eats just about everything. His table manners are deplorable, and sometimes he takes a very long time to eat his food, but he is willing to try just about anything. Yesterday he tried honeydew for the first time, and he liked it! Yahoo because prior to that I was the only person in the family who liked honeydew. He even ate a tomato last week on his BLT (he usually tries to avoid eating tomatoes on his salads and such). 
20. He plays with kids in the neighborhood more than his siblings. He's our social butterfly!
21. I usually don't have to limit his time on the iPad or how many chips or crackers that he eats. He will be "done" before the 20 minute timer has gone off and desires less than a serving of food (his siblings usually want more than a serving). 

Because tonight is National Night Out, we had his birthday party last night. We had invited Paul's brother, sister-in-law, and his parents. As we got started putting water in the water balloons, we also invited two kids from across the street. They ended up joining us even though it was a very last minute invitation. Grandma and Pop Pop brought hundreds of water balloons. He had promised Oliver 1,000 balloons, and he delivered on that promise. I'm not certain we filled 1,000 balloons (we still have many left over), but they did throw quite a few balloons at each other! Oliver has been talking about these water balloons for months. A lady at Camp Susque asked us on July 28 if Oliver had thrown those water balloons yet because he had told her about the water balloons on June 20, June 23, and July 21. I think the water balloon extravaganza lived up to his expectations! Pop Pop doesn't even like getting wet, but he arrived at our house wearing a bathing suit in preparation for the water balloons. The eleven of us had pizza, watermelon, honeydew, grapes, chips, and pretzels for dinner and a Yoda birthday cake compliments of Aunt Millie and Uncle Al for dessert. The kids played inside and outside. Oliver received many nice presents. We gave him a Yoda water bottle, Star Wars sleeping bag, storage bag for stuffed animals that becomes a bean bag, jump rope, and an Echo dot. Nadia was having a blast with Oliver's Echo dot. I got two of them on Prime Day. She will be getting one at Christmas. This morning we had donuts for breakfast, which is a birthday tradition in our house. Happy 6th birthday, Oliver! We love you very much!