La Famiglia Itri: August 2012

Sunday, August 26, 2012

18 months

Lila turned 18 months old this month! Here are some things about her:

people called her a giant at church after being gone all summer. mastered the word "no." loves chocolate. tries to say chocolate, but it comes out as a jumble of different ways to splice "shhh" and "ch" together. very girlie. likes putting on clothes. her favorite shoes are her church shoes with rhinestones. likes dolls. gives lots of kisses. uses sign language to ask for "help" and "more" all the time. knows two comes after one. starting to recognize pictures of Jesus. usually wants to feed herself unless she's too tired or can't feed herself fast enough. Verbal vocabulary includes (but is not limited to): no, mom, dad, ball, Jesus, cheese, temple, chocolate, more, two, pizza, night-night, poo poo, pee pee, pasta, banana. Sign language vocabulary includes (but is not limited to): more, help, please, eat, milk, outside, upstairs, apple, play, grandma, home, bath, swimming, fish, ocean, shoes, socks, banana. Knows her hair, nose, eyes, and toes. Recognized that woof, quack and roar are animal sounds, but doesn't really associate them with the right animals. Likes most kid foods including mac and cheese (we call it "cheesey pasta"), PB&J, chicken nuggets, pizza and pasta with red sauce. Has also been known to love eating eggrolls, pot stickers, non-spicy indian curry, blueberries, and other weird food I can't think of right now. Still loves being outside, and especially loves swinging at the park. Tends to like women more than men. Cries when mommy takes her away from either of her grandma's. Cries when mommy goes to work at night. Has a pretty good schedule of going to bed at 9 and taking a nap at noon. Loves blankets but isn't particular (soft, knitted, towel, dad's old shirt, her pajamas). Says "poo poo!" when we smell her bum. Loves to wipe things down with baby wipes or towels. Loves to sing. Usually so quiet in the car we think she is sleeping, but rarely is. Responds well to time-outs. Tests her boundaries- that's how she gets time-outs. Grabs from other kids. Doesn't like to share. Still loves her giant moose. Walks into nursery and doesn't look back- even the first day. Hair is long enough for pigtails. Starting to pay a little attention when I read to her. Likes playing with other kids and sometimes gets lonely when she's home with only us adults. Good at coloring and so far has always found a piece of paper to color on, although she does still end up with pen/marker on herself. Loves to have mommy carry her around the house and tell her who the people are in all the pictures. Of all her cousins, she can repeat the name of Reese back very clearly while the rest are more jibberish. Says cheese when we take out the camera. Uses our cell phones, calculators, and the (small, flat) video camera to carry on conversations with herself. Isn't entertained by TV. Starting to prefer regular cups over sippy cups, but always makes a mess. Loves pushing her stroller around. Met uncle Kyle for the first time. Gets jealous of the computer if mommy or daddy is working on it while she is with them. Likes to help mommy. Loves taking baths except for the cleaning off part, and especially the shampoo and rinse part. Her favorite toy is chapstick and first puts it on her lips a few times, then sticks her finger in and tries to eat it. Has taken 4 airplane rides and driven across the country. Is mostly a smiley, happy, cooperative, helpful, wonderful little girl, and grows every day.

On her actual 18 month day:

Some other recent pictures:

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Back to School

Guess who's going back to school? That's right! Megan! I have officially enrolled and paid tuition for fall semester. I am only starting with two classes (Pathophysiology and Stats) which will allow me to apply for pretty much any RN-BSN program I want. In case anyone was wondering (and because I have already explained it a billion times), I thought I would share why I have decided to do this.

Usually the conversation starts with someone asking me what new kind of job or pay raise I will get for going back to school. And I tell them-- none! No pay raise, and I wouldn't be looking for a different job because all the jobs that require a BSN (bachelors of science in nursing) are management type and typically full-time, which I hope and plan to only be full time until Todd gets a job as an RN. So by the time I finish I wouldn't even be working enough to take a BSN only type nursing job.

The main reason for me right now is just the satisfaction. I always imagined myself graduating from college, and an associate degree just isn't doing it for me. It kind of hit home how much I wanted that bachelor's degree when in January a girl that started work the same week as me was promoted to our unit educator- a job I couldn't have even applied for because of my lowly simple RN status. I thought to myself "Hey, I am just as smart and have exactly the same amount as experience as her. The only difference is that B on her name tag!" Not saying I would have even applied for the job with my life right now, it was just an eye opener for me.

There are also some future benefits to having the degree- better job marketability when we move eventually (I hope to always have a job where I work- but nurses are awesome in the fact you can get jobs where you only work about once a month, something I think I could totally accommodate in my life.) And when I'm all growed up maybe I'll want to go to graduate school. That would be much easier to do if I was already done with my undergrad.

Lastly there is a small chance that one day I would need the degree to do some of the things I already do now-namely being the charge nurse on the floor. Although I doubt that that would happen for a long time or ever actually affect my career. But if I just have my BSN I would never have to think or worry about it.

So there you have it. I will be applying to some RN-BSN programs that start either January or next fall, wish me luck!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Too much to blog about

We have done so many things this summer it is completely insane. So many things to blog about I will never get around to it all because it takes me forever to put up all the pictures and I always want to put them all up. So here is an attempt to at least give you a sneak peak of some of what we have done.

Jensen Turns 1!

Cheesecake Factory with Alex and Christina

They had come out for her (Christina's) bridal shower. I was the only friend she knew that was there, and this is the best picture I could get of her because of how far away she was. Alex's mom made the seating arrangements-opposite sides of the room.