Catching up

Just making a quick post to catch up to the weekly Tuesday post date.
Last time I posted, I had written that I had hypothyroidism, but it turns out it's actually hyperthyroidism, which makes more sense based on all of the symptoms that I've been showing. Hunger, fatigue, thirst, weight loss, sensitivity to heat are all things that I've been feeling. Which is an improvement to a week ago, when I was not feeling hungry and exhausted, along with queasy.

Last Friday, I woke up just feeling different. I actually didn't feel like I was sick. Hyperthyroidism sounds much better than hypothyroidism...at least the baby is less at risk. And this explains why I have never been able to gain a whole lot of weight during previous pregnancies.

Hannah has been a bit crazy lately. Wanting to do everything Nathan does and also exhibiting bully-like behaviors. She pushes others out of the way and just takes toys away from Nathan. I'll have to talk to the teachers to see if she's doing this at school too. Her language has just exploded recently as she is able to express with words almost everything she is thinking.

Nathan has not changed much, but is having a tough time with us telling him, "No." His most recent thing to do is to tell us, "If you don't let me do this..., then I won't let you eat dessert." He even asks me sometimes, "Mommy, what is something you really like to do?" And then he'll follow with that threat. Soon, I'm sure he will learn that his "threats" aren't really legitimate, but I'm sure it's his way of trying to gain some sort of control. Which makes me think I need to re-evaluate the amount of freedom that he feel he has. After traveling overseas, we put up all these boundaries for him to follow, and perhaps we need to see if these boundaries have been unnecessarily carried over to home.

Most of the time, the two play very well. They really love each other and it shows through in the little things. Like this morning, Nathan was scared to go upstairs to put underwear on. Hannah agreed to go upstairs with him so he wouldn't be alone. And then today at library story time, Nathan led Hannah to the front and had her sit in his lap. I was actually a bit surprised to see this, but it definitely put a little warm fuzzy in my heart.

That's about it. I'm pretty tired so I'm headed to bed.

Back Into the Swing of Things

Dear Nathan and Hannah,
I'm making this post now, because I'm actually now just feeling well enough to spend the energy to make an updated post. In fact, today has been the best that I've felt in about 2 months! Hope this upward swing of well-being continues.

The flight back from Taiwan went well. With the help of a little melatonin to help you guys get back to sleep at 3 in the morning, you guys pretty much adjusted to the 13 hour jet lag in at most, 2 days! I, however, did not reap the benefits as much and was pretty much bed-ridden for 3 days.

During that time, you guys played with Daddy, grandparents and even got to build a few snowmen outside before the snow melted completely. Oh, and you guys also attended a wedding. Nathan, you thought the wedding was "kinda boring and you have to stand and sit a bunch of times." Hannah enjoyed looking at all the dresses and became very interested in grandma's wedding dress wearing doll.

We also got to go to a live theater to watch an adaptation of Madagascar. Nathan has been inspired to put on a show, so one of these days, we'll figure out something to reenact.

 We also attended a maple syrup festival. Here we learned about the maple syrup making process. Both modern and ancient ways.

 You guys received spiles as souvenirs. Nathan was set on finding a maple tree so you could stick a spile into it to tap the sap.

 And of course, you guys got to sample some maple syrup. Yum!

 When we got back home, we took advantage of the amazing weather to plant some veggie and basil plants in our garden. Out of all of the seeds that we planted, the only thing that sprouted was the chinese kale and the mess up front is from the sprouted potatoes that I stuck in the soil before we left. It's actually pretty crazy how much it has grown.

 After digging around, I noticed a few potatoes sticking out from the surface of the soil. So we dug around and found about 5 potatoes. That night we cooked curry chicken and added the potatoes into it. I always add potatoes into curry chicken and this was the first time that you guys actually tried and ate the potatoes. All because they were from our garden.

 Oh and this picture is just so cute. I simply said, hey guys, let me take a picture of you on your skates and on your own, you both gave each other side hugs and flashed the cutest smiles!

Well, I just got a call back from the birthing center and my tests showed hyperthyroidism. I'm going to have to make an appointment with the endocrinologist to have further testing done, but at least we have some answers! 

Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy

Announcement from Taiwan!

Just in case the writing was a bit difficult to read, here's our lantern before it was lit. 

Yes! There will be a new Havlir in the family this September! We are still debating on whether or not to find out if #3 will be a "he" or a "she" but so far all we know is that there is only 1 baby in the womb. Because of our trip, I haven't even gotten a chance for my first prenatal visit, so we have some time. This pregnancy has been a rough one though... more to come later, but for now a few pictures from our trip to Shifen, an old mining town in northern Taiwan. 

This town exists solely for tourism these days. This street is lined with food vendors, souvenir shops and lantern merchants.  

 For 150NT, you can purchase a lantern, write your wishes on it (or draw pictures) and send it off into the sky.

 There is also a suspension bridge that you can cross if you want to go see the scenic waterfalls. But we arrived too late and it was getting dark.

We took a quick walk on the "shakey bridge" anyways. 

We only got to spend a very rushed hour in this little area. So we will definitely visit again next time we go to Taiwan.