Samantha: 31 Months, Week 2 {Our Week of Christmas Travels}

This week we were making our rounds of both families to celebrate Christmas.  We went to Chicago to see my family first.  In order to leave as quickly as possible on Monday morning, we got most of the car packed up on Sunday night.  We just had to get up, get ready, get a few last minute things packed, drop Roscoe off at the vet for boarding, and hit the road.  We didn't leave quite as early as we would have hoped for, but you can't expect too much when traveling with a pregnant lady and a two and a half year old.  I sat in the back with Samantha while Ben drove because it was easier to entertain her and keep her happy on the longer drive up to Chicago.  We listened to books on tape, read books together, played with stickers, drew pictures, sang songs, and played with dolls.  She really did a great job in the car with very little whining and complaining.  After a couple hours, once we got to the Lafayette area, we decided to stop at Chick-fil-a for a potty break, play break for Samantha, and a place to grab some lunch to eat in the car.  Samantha enjoyed playing in the play place for about ten minutes or so, getting some energy out before it was time to get back in the car and drive.  Eating in the car at least takes up more time, too, making the time pass a little faster.  Once we got closer to the Chicago area, and it was approaching Samantha's nap time, she was much more difficult to please and wasn't interested in playing with toys much anymore.  So, I took this as an opportunity to put on a DVD for her to watch.  We watched some Veggie Tales as we finished the last part of our drive into Chicago.

We had plans to see our good college friends, Brad and Melissa, and we met them at her parents' house in Wheaton.  We didn't get there until around 1:30 Chicago time, meaning 2:30 Indiana time, well past when Samantha is usually in bed for her nap.  We let her talk with us and play for a little while before at least attempting to get her to sleep in her pack and play that we set up in an upstairs bedroom.  She was up there talking for quite awhile since she was in a new place, but she did eventually fall asleep and got about an hour of a nap in, which was good.  It would be enough sleep to get her through the rest of the evening with my family.  We had a great time visiting with Brad and Melissa, even though it was only a couple hours.  We like to see them whenever we can, especially when our paths happen to cross at Christmastime.

We left their house around 3:30, once their family members began arriving for their extended family Christmas celebration.  We then made our way to my Grandma's apartment where we would be staying for the next few nights.  Ben and Grandpa Don go all of our stuff upstairs.  (Man, it's amazing how much junk we have to bring with us, especially when we go somewhere without any toys.  We wanted to make sure we were prepared to keep Samantha entertained over the next few days.)  After getting ourselves situated and showing Samantha around the apartment, particularly pointing out what decorations she was and was not allowed to touch, we spent some time just relaxing and playing before dinner.

We met my parents and brother at around 6:00 at a local Giordano's for dinner, along with Grandpa Don and Grandma Donna.  Samantha did a wonderful job sitting in her chair, eating well, and being patient.  It's always hard for her when we change time zones and when we visit Chicago, because it is already an hour later to us, and my family tends to eat and visit later at night due to work conflicts, making it a hard schedule adjustment for Samantha who is usually eating dinner between 5:30 and 6:00 and in bed by 8:00.  Especially with only sleeping for an hour today, she was getting pretty tired by the end of dinner.  Everyone came back to Grandma's apartment after dinner, and we let Samantha stay up for a little while, but didn't want to push her too much.  We had no idea how well she would sleep in the same room with us here, nor how early she would end up getting up in the morning.

Samantha is a pretty good sleeper, even in new places with many noises coming from people talking in the next room, so luckily she had no trouble falling asleep or staying asleep with us in the same room as her.  I slept in a twin bed, and Ben slept on an air mattress on the floor.  The arrangement worked out well, and Samantha actually slept in later than we thought she would, probably because of a short nap and staying up late the night before.

Christmas Eve morning, Grandpa Don and Grandma Donna took Ben, Samantha, and me out to breakfast at a local pancake restaurant where they have good food and a Christmas tree with a train around it.  We did this with them last year and thought that it was a fun tradition, one that Samantha would like.  After breakfast we took Samantha to a local mall to walk around and play for a little while since we would be cooped up in my Grandma's apartment the next day and a half.  Samantha also shared chocolate chip pancakes with me for breakfast, so it was good for her to burn off some of that sugar energy.  There was a small play area that you can see in the background of this picture with a small slide and other things you could climb on and through.  Plus, there was this area of small kiddie rides.  Samantha loves to go on these in malls, but it's kind of funny because we never put money into them, so they never move or make noise, and she is just fine with that.  She just likes to sit in them and pretend.  She particularly liked the ice cream truck where she gave out lots of pretend ice cream to Mommy and Daddy.

Christmas Eve afternoon, Samantha took a nice, couple hour nap while Daddy met his college roommate for coffee and Mommy got a chance to work on her blog.  We were so glad that she was sleeping and napping so well here so far.  A rested child is a much more pleasant child in the evenings, especially because that's when all my family comes over to spend time with us.

I made Swiss Chicken Casserole for dinner on Christmas Eve, but we did not eat until around 6:30 because my mom worked that day.  After eating and getting all the dishes cleaned up, we decided that it was time to open presents, even though it was already 8:30 their time.  Everyone had decided it would be easier to open presents on Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas Day, and that way Samantha would have more time to play with her new toys on Christmas Day.  It was difficult with it being so late and so far past Samantha's normal bedtime, but I figured every once in awhile it's okay, and she was pretty excited about opening her presents.

Samantha got a new bedding set for when we convert her crib into a big girl bed, from Chicago Grandpa and Grandma.  They also got her a Llama Llama stuffed animal, which Daddy hid outside the apartment door, and then we told Samantha that someone was at the door to visit so she should go see who it is.  She went to the door, opened it with Daddy's help, and saw Llama Llama sitting outside.  It was so funny because she looked up and down the hallway, almost like she was looking for who accidentally left their stuffed animal outside the door.  I think she was expecting a real person, but she was pretty excited that Llama Llama had come to visit.

Great Grandma Donna and Great Grandpa Don got Samantha a new doll, who Samantha named Cessa, along with a doll swing/high chair/car seat combination.  Samantha was REALLY excited about these toys and couldn't wait for us to take them out of the box and assemble the swing so that she could put her doll in it.

Uncle Matt got her some new ponies, and Uncle Matt and Aunt Christy got her magnetic alphabet letters.  Daddy and Mommy got some new gifts as well, like books, gift cards, a cover for my Kindle, and some clothes for Baby Aedan.  And even though it was already WAY past Samantha's bedtime, we let her stay up and enjoy playing with her new toys some more.

 As you can tell, she was a pretty big fan of her new "children."  In this picture she is holding her new doll, Cessa, an old favorite, Dolly, and her new Llama Llama animal.  She wanted to bring them all to bed with her, but we told her she could play with them again the next day.

I think it was probably after 10:00 that she got to bed that Christmas Eve night, but we are so proud of our little girl.  She is so flexible and easygoing, even when we drag her around, change her schedule, surround her with people, and make her stay up very late for a girl her age.  It's hard to believe that this is our third Christmas together, but our last Christmas as a family of three.  I love our little family, I love this extended time we have to spend together, and I love our sweet little girl.  :)

Christmas morning was rather uneventful, which was fine by me.  Samantha slept in until about 8:30, which we thought was good for how late she was up the night before.  However, she still was rather sleepy, and we just spent the morning taking showers, eating breakfast, relaxing and watching a Super Why Christmas episode on the computer, playing with her new toys, and getting her down for an early nap.  My family has a tradition of making a big Christmas dinner of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, all the fixings.  Ben and I offered to make the meal again this year so that Grandma Donna wouldn't have to bear the responsibility.  We were trying to get her to relax and sit down as much as possible, letting us take over the work of preparing the meal.  Ben and I have made this meal several times over the last few years, and with the invention of digital meat thermometers, it makes it pretty easy to know when the turkey is done.  We got the turkey in and had most of the afternoon to get other odds and ends done with the meal in between relaxing and waiting for my family to arrive.  Samantha took a really nice, long nap, which we were grateful for.  My family began arriving between 3:30 and 4:00, and we had dinner around 5:00.  Samantha has always been a little hesitant of casserole/creamy dishes, so she hardly touched any of her Christmas dinner.  I think she was just too overwhelmed with all the people and all the commotion, and it was just too hard for her to eat.  We weren't too worried about it though, she would let us know if she was hungry.  Thankfully, my dad noticed that she was finished eating and wanted to get down from the table, so he offered to take her into the bedroom and read books with her.  Here is an adorable picture of Grandpa reading to his granddaughter.

My Aunt Diane and Uncle Bob came over for dinner as well, staying afterwards to visit and have dessert.  It's always nice to see them and to catch up.  They even brought a present for Samantha, a little bag with three different Sofia the First puzzles, which was sweet of them to do.  Plus, they brought a bag of baby boy clothes for Aedan from my cousin.  We tried to get Samantha to bed closer to her bedtime on Christmas because she was so worn out from the last several days, and we had a big day planned for the day after Christmas.

Part of my parents' Christmas present was an outing with Ben, Samantha, and me to Chicago.  We decided to take the train downtown and go to the Children's Museum on Navy Pier for the day.  Samantha had never been on a real train before, so we figured that experience in and of itself would make her day.  She was so excited about what we were doing and was so excited that Grandpa and Grandma were going to go with her too.  However, when we walked out to get in the car to drive to the train station, Samantha was confused and didn't want to get in the car.  She thought she was going to be getting right on a train, not realizing that we would have to drive to the train station first.  We found free parking with no problem in downtown Park Ridge and only had to wait about ten minutes until the train arrived.  Here is Samantha standing on the platform as the train is approaching.  It was difficult for us to get a good picture of her looking at us because she was just too excited about watching the train coming down the tracks.

We sat on the top deck of the train, and Samantha loved looking out the big windows.  She was also very interested in our tickets and was anxious to see the conductor come by to punch our tickets (like in The Polar Express).

The train ride lasted a little more than half an hour, which was perfect for Samantha's attention span.  Once we got off the train, we planned to take a bus to Navy Pier, but it ended up being cheaper, faster, and easier to just take a taxi.  Samantha was pretty thrilled about riding in a taxi as well, but maybe it was just because she was sitting on Daddy's lap rather than strapped into her car seat.

Samantha LOVES children's museums.  She would probably go to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis every week if we let her, so she was pretty thrilled to be able to try out a new museum.  At first, we were a little unsure if it would offer enough things to keep her engaged for the day (and to give us our money's worth), but that was an unnecessary worry.  I had never been to the Chicago Children's Museum before, but it was wonderful, and Samantha had a fantastic time.

The first area we visited was their Christmas area where you could go ice skating, decorate a snowman, play with snowballs, and ride around in a sled.

Samantha particularly enjoyed filling the cooler with snowballs.  She was very intent on picking up every stray snowball and putting it back where it belonged so that they wouldn't melt.

The next area we spent quite a bit of time in was an area for building.  I think this area was meant mainly for older children, but Samantha found her own way to play here, too.  She found a toolbox and began filling it with nuts and bolts, one at a time.  We don't understand why she finds filling containers with items so fascinating, but she was enjoying herself, and that's all that mattered.  This day was all about her having a good time, playing and being herself, after several days of having to curb her enthusiasm and ways of playing at my grandma's house.  This day was her reward for being such a good listener, being so respectful, and being such a wonderfully behaved little girl.  She makes us so proud, every day.  We can't believe what a fantastic little girl we have.

Here was the view from outside the windows of the museum on Navy Pier, kind of a cool picture of the Chicago skyline and the snow covering the ground.

After having our fill of filling the toolbox, we decided to break for lunch before going on to the next section of the museum.  We ate in the food court on Navy Pier, and then Daddy took Samantha into the live snow globe.

If you asked Samantha what her favorite part of the Children's Museum was, she would probably say it was the water area.  She actually kept the raincoat on, which was surprising, and had a good old time playing in the water, connecting pipes, playing with boats, and filling up and dumping out buckets.  I was continually impressed with this museum, and with the staff there, for they not only observed the children and manned their area, they interacted with the kids, talked with them, played with them, and taught them new things.  That is way above anything that we ever experience at the Indianapolis Children's Museum.

However, Samantha's favorite part of the water area was painting with water.  We got everyone in on this, and Samantha loved it.  It was great because the designs showed up really well on the tile but then dried off quickly, allowing you to draw or write something else.

The museum had so many other fun areas for kids to play in, interact with, and use their creativity.  I feel like I could go on and on about how wonderful this museum was and how kids were truly learning and interacting through play, which I am all about.

She got to play with pretend food in an area with a treehouse, a tent for camping, and a fish pond.

She got to pretend to drive a bus, go grocery shopping, and climb up in a resting area in the community play area.

And, she got to use her climbing skills to maneuver through these rope stairs and down this ramp made of ropes, kind of like a rope slide.  We were pretty proud of her doing this all by herself.  She didn't seem to have any problems climbing up and then back down all by herself.

After a full day of playing, we decided it was time to leave so we could catch the 3:30 train back to Park Ridge.  Samantha had a very full, very fun day at the Children's Museum, and was sad to be leaving, but was very glad about being able to ride in a taxi and on a train again.  Here is our final farewell picture from the museum, before we went potty and left.  What a happy little girl!

Samantha was pretty tired from her long day of play, but she was still in a pretty good mood in the train on the way back to Grandma Donna's house.  Ben and I had decided that we would leave Thursday night for Upland instead of Friday morning to maximize the amount of time Samantha and Alaina would be together to play.  So, once we got back to Grandma Donna's house, we packed up all our stuff, said thank you and good bye, and headed to Aunt Christy and Uncle Matt's house for dinner and to see their new apartment and four cats.  Samantha wasn't too excited about being back in the car.  We tried to give her toys to play with, but she was wanting to just sit in her car seat with no toys.  Then, a few minutes later we look back and discover that she has fallen asleep.  She was so tired from the long week and the long day in Chicago, that she couldn't keep her eyes open.  She slept for about twenty to twenty-five minutes, not too long, but a little cat nap that seemed to give her the extra energy she needed to get through the rest of the night.

Aunt Christy and Uncle Matt's apartment was pretty fun for Samantha, especially with all the cats everywhere.  She enjoyed playing with them, trying to get them to chase toys, and reprimanding them when they would do something wrong like jumping on the table or counter.  She would say, "That's not safe!"  Yes, her oldest child personality is already coming out.  She likes to be a rule follower, which isn't an entirely bad thing.

After dinner and more time to play and hang out with my family, it reached eight o'clock, Chicago time, and we decided it was time for us to head out.  We got Samantha all ready for bed, said good bye to everyone, and hit the road.  Daddy agreed to drive because he is much better at driving at night, and we got to Upland a little after 1:00 a.m.  It was a late night, but we were glad to be getting to Upland sooner instead of spending the whole morning driving on Friday.

Our time in Upland was very nice and relaxing.  Samantha was excited to play with her Uncle Timmy, Alaina, Grandpa, and Grandma on Friday.  Aunt Jeni came after work on Friday night, and Uncle Andrew came after work on Saturday morning.  There was lots of playing, dancing, laughing, and cuddling all around.

We did our Toll family Christmas present opening on Saturday afternoon, once the girls were up from their naps.  Both girls were really excited and got some great presents.  Samantha got a doctor's kit, a diaper changing kit for her dolly, a Baby Alive doll that walks, a puppy dog, and and art easel with all the accessories, just to name a few.  Ben and I got quite a few wonderful things as well, which I won't name here, but we always feel so blessed at Christmas time, especially from Grandpa and Grandma.  They are always very generous in their giving, and we appreciate it so much.  We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas, but most of all, just spending time together as a family, playing, talking, and watching the girls play together.

We were planning on going back home on Monday, but we decided to all take a trip to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis for the day.  Our membership has really come in handy.  (Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Toll for that wonderful gift!)  Alaina and Samantha had a good time playing together at the museum, but it was SO crowded.  There were more people there than I had ever seen before, so it was a little difficult to find space to play and move around.  The people didn't seem to bother the girls as they enjoyed themselves on the Yule Slide and the carousel in particular.

It had been a super busy, jam packed week of traveling, visiting friends and family, and it was really great to build those wonderful family memories, but Ben, Samantha, and I were definitely ready to get back to Bloomington, to our own house, our own space, and our normal routine.  Samantha was really excited about picking up Roscoe from the vet, saying, "I'm glad my puppy is back!"  That night we just ordered Mother Bear's for dinner since we had no food in our refrigerator, and it was nice sitting around our small dining room table again.  Samantha even said, "It's good to be back in Bloomington again."  Traveling is fun, especially around Christmas, but being away always makes us grateful for what we have in our apartment just the right size for us and for our family that will soon expand to four members at the end of April.  There is much to be grateful for.  We are truly blessed.