More Toll Family Vacation

Samantha: 37 Months, Week 1

Aedan: Week 8

Tuesday the 17th had a forecast for rain, so we laid low for most of the day, just playing in the house, making a brief trip to a local playground for some play time, a nice afternoon nap, and then some time to relax and watch a show while we tried to stay cool in the hot and humid house.

That evening after dinner we loaded up in the cars and drove to a local ice cream place called Oinks.  Apparently it is a tradition if you are in this neck of the woods.  In fact, they even had a sign posted on the building saying Joe Biden once ate there.  The ice cream was pretty good, and they had a lot of flavors to choose from.  Samantha got a little bowl of cotton candy ice cream, and I got a waffle cone with a scoop of black cherry and a scoop of something full of chocolate.  Samantha must have really enjoyed her ice cream because she had no trouble eating it all up without much help from Grandma, who was sitting next to her at the table.  (We have been having a little trouble getting Samantha to focus on eating meals during this vacation.  She is too distracted by all that is going on around her and wants to socialize rather than eat.  Apparently that's not true when she's eating ice cream.)

Here are Samantha, Alaina, and Daddy playing the "Monster Game" outside in the yard after getting back from eating ice cream.  Apparently there is a difference between the "Monster Game" and the "Scream Game."

We then got back to the house in time for baths and bedtime.  Samantha and Alaina enjoy taking baths together, and we let them use the big tub up in our bedroom.  They always have so much fun together, no matter what they are doing they can laugh with each other.  I'm so glad that they are so close in age and can grow up with these wonderful memories together.  I hope they will always be close friends.

Wednesday was also forecasted to be a rainy day, with the highest chance of rain all week, so we decided to make this our museum day.  There are two hands-on children's museums in St. Joseph, and we got tickets to both and made a day of it.  Aedan was peacefully sleeping before we left and we hoped he would stay asleep in the car on the way there.  (It was about a half an hour drive.)  However, that was not so, and we had one pretty unhappy, hungry baby in the back of the car.  We thought about stopping early so that I could nurse him, allowing Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Jeni, and Alaina to go on ahead without us, but he calmed down enough that I thought we could make it all the way to the museum.  That way Samantha could have fun playing while I nursed Aedan instead of having to sit in the car and wait.  These are the tricky things about having two kids, trying to juggle two schedules, especially when one schedule is determined by a baby who doesn't know how to wait for his food.  So once again, I stayed in the car and nursed Aedan while everyone else went inside and started playing at the museum.  The building was pretty small and I didn't anticipate there being much of a place for me to sit and nurse.  However, I was starting to feel more and more left out because of this.  I know that it is just a phase, that Aedan won't always be this needy and need to nurse so frequently, but I was just feeling sad about missing out on time to play with my little girl and be with the rest of the family.

Here are some pictures of Samantha and Alaina playing in the museum that day.  They had a vet clinic, a dinosaur area, a toddler village, and face painting that they went through before I got into the museum with Aedan.

There was a place where you could use tools and build...

A place where you could pretend you're picking apples...

A place where you could do some pretend grocery shopping...

A pretend fire truck with clothes to try on and a hose to put out fires...

There was also a place where you could stand on a platform, have your parent pull a cord, and experience what it feels like to be inside a bubble!

A place where you could maneuver around in a wheelchair and stamp out the alphabet in sign language.

She got to pretend to be a weather forecaster with Daddy...

Her favorite room was probably the one with all the musical instruments, along with the weather and radio station.  She loved to really pretend and try out everything.  Plus, she liked how her Daddy got into it with her.  As you can tell, I was the photographer of the day, mostly because I was carrying Aedan in the Ergo and he was fast asleep.  I still played and did things with Samantha too, but Daddy is not that great at remembering to take pictures of her and I together.  That is something we will definitely have to work on because I don't like my lack of presence in pictures with my daughter.  I want her to know that I did things with her as well as her Daddy.

After getting our fill at the Curious Kids Museum, it was time for lunch before we went to the next museum.  We decided to eat at Jimmy John's and Aedan just slept right on through everything we were doing.  Samantha was getting pretty tired, and it took some work to get her to eat lunch before moving on to the Discovery Zone museum down by the carousel.

There were lots of hands-on activities in this museum as well, but it definitely was not as big as the other museum.  There was dinosaur bone digging, a place with little red rods that you could push your hands or body in and leave an imprint, (one of Samantha's favorite things).  There were two different water tables, a climbing tower, and a room where you could dance around.

The girls had a great time playing and exploring, even though we arrived right about when they are normally getting ready for their naps.  It ended up working out really well that we made this day a museum day because a really bad storm rolled in with huge black clouds, and it started pouring while we were in the Discovery Zone.  In fact, the lights even flickered on and off at one point.  After getting our fill at this museum, we decided that we needed to head back if there would be any chance for a nap, and luckily it was no longer raining so we got back safe and dry.  Samantha was so tired from such a long day that she was about ready to fall asleep in the car on the way back to our vacation house.  However, it wasn't too late for a nap, so we were hoping to keep her awake on the way back so she could take a proper nap at the house.  Apparently we should have just let her fall asleep in the car and at least get a little nap because once we got back, even though she was really tired, she did not take a nap.  It was almost as if she had passed the window of opportunity. Oh well!  We have been so lucky that every other day this vacation she has taken a nap so well for us.  It's like the terror of nap time from a couple weeks ago is no more.  She doesn't fight and scream any more, nor does she seem to need to be cuddled in order to fall asleep.

Even though Samantha did not take a nap and was pretty tired that evening, there was still lots of fun to be had around the vacation house, like an impromptu dance party.

The next morning while we were deciding what to do and getting everyone ready to go.  We got these cute pictures of the girls cuddled up on the couch together.  I think Samantha may have actually been tired since she didn't take a nap the day before and almost looked like she could have fallen asleep on the couch that morning.

Chicago Grandpa and Grandma had plans to meet up with us on Thursday since our vacation house was only an hour and a half from where they lived.  We went to a local park that had wooden walkways around a small river.  The girls had fun running around and getting some energy out, and the weather was much more pleasant because of all the rain we had the day before.

After going on another trail to a turtle pond, we went back to the house for lunch and nap time so we could have another fun night of playing.  We decided to make a trip to the beach before dinner, this time being prepared with everyone in their swimsuits.  We even brought Samantha's floatie so that she could go out deeper into the water if she wanted.  Aedan came with us too, and he fell asleep in his car seat on our walk over to the beach.  We tried to just let him stay sleeping in his car seat with an umbrella blocking the sun from him, but just like the Warren Dunes, this beach also had those annoying biting flies.  We were unable to leave Aedan in his car seat because we didn't want him to get bit by the flies.  Upland Grandma took him out and walked around with him, but then he was getting too warm being held in the hot sun, so we decided the best thing to do would be to take him back to the vacation house.  Upland Grandpa and Grandma offered to do that for us while the rest of us stayed and played in the water and in the sand.

Samantha wasn't as interested in the water that day for some reason.  I tried to take her out in it and have her float around, which she did for a little while, but she wouldn't stay in for very long, acting like it was too cold, even though it wasn't that bad once you got in it and got used to it.  So, she spent most of her time playing on the beach, writing in the sand with a stick, building a sand castle, and getting buried in the sand.  It was fun to be able to play with her and interact with her without having to worry about Aedan.  I don't think the beach is the best place for a 7 week old baby, but that's okay, we tried. :)

After dinner that night, Aunt Jeni came up with the great idea to let Samantha and Alaina paint large pieces of cardboard with some body paint.  Alaina had done this before, so she got right into it.  Samantha wasn't so sure at first.  It was almost like she was looking around for the paintbrushes.  But once Alaina showed her how to use her different body parts to paint and that it was okay to get dirty, Samantha jumped right in herself.  As you can tell from these pictures, there weren't too many places on their bodies that weren't covered in paint.  In fact, at one point, Samantha took off her underwear so it wouldn't get dirty.  (I think it was too late for that!)  It's a good thing it was a bath night because the girls certainly needed it!

Friday morning was another low key morning with lots of hanging out and playing.  We took the girls to a local splash pad and playground just before lunch, and they had a great time running around and getting wet.  Then, we rounded out the night with sparklers.  Samantha wasn't so sure what she thought of them.  She would just hold them out carefully so as not to burn herself or her hand, whereas Alaina had played with them before and was more comfortable running through the grass with them.

We had a wonderful night of playing outside together in the cooler weather.  It was a great way to end our vacation together.

Saturday morning, after everyone got packed up, we headed out, each to our respective homes.  It was sad to see the vacation come to an end because we had all had so much fun, especially Samantha and Alaina.  They just love playing with each other and being silly together.  We look forward to this week long vacation every year and can't wait to see where we might go next year, especially with the girls being 4 years old and Aedan being 1; we will have a lot more action going on.

We had a good trip home, with Aedan taking good naps in the car for us.  We stopped at a Chick-fil-a for lunch, just like we did on the way up, allowing everyone time to eat, Samantha time to play, and Aedan time to nurse and be out of his car seat for awhile.  Samantha and Aedan then both napped in the car most of the rest of the way home.  I feel like we were so lucky with our car trip.  Everything went really well and both kids were so well behaved, making the trip so much more enjoyable.

Here's a couple of Aedan updates.  For as much as I mention him not being a happy camper in the car, he has been doing wonderful for me at night and even in taking good naps during the day.  In fact, over vacation I started actually putting him up to bed sometime between 8:00 and 9:00.  He is so ready for bed at that point anyways, so I just swaddle him, nurse him, and lay him down in his bed.  It's pretty strange having a baby that's not even 2 months old up in a room by himself sleeping, but at the same time, it's nice to have a little more time to ourselves without babies around.  It's makes the nights feel that much more relaxing.  (Although it's also making me more of a night owl because I feel like I finally have time to myself and some freedom, so I milk it for all it's worth, sometimes staying up much later than I should.)  When I lay him down at night for bed, he will generally sleep until between 3:00 and 4:00 am, which is amazing!  I will then nurse him again, and he will go back to sleep until sometime between 6:30 and 7:30.  Wow, I can't believe that he is already getting into such a good routine, sometimes sleeping 8 hours straight at night.  I feel blessed with all the good sleep I'm getting as a mother of such a young baby.

Sunday morning was pretty relaxed for us because we were all still pretty tired from our trip.  We lounged around in our pajamas for awhile before going to the second service at church.  I got some cute pictures of Aedan cuddling with Samantha in her bed when we went into her room to get her up that morning.  She certainly does love to cuddle up with her little brother.

Monday morning, since Ben's surgery is coming up in a week, Ben went to campus to spend a good day at work.  Samantha, Aedan, and I went to the Visual Development Lab at the IU School of Optometry.  Aedan was going to do a vision study for 6-8 week old babies.  It was a bit crazy getting out of the house on time since I had to nurse Aedan, then had to change his clothes and diaper, of course.  Nevertheless, we made it, and the vision study was interesting to watch.  They were studying how his eyes worked together to track things.  They held him in front of a computer screen that also had a camera pointing up at him, recording the movement of his eyes by tracking his pupils.  The computer screen would show a duck and as soon as Aedan looked at the duck, the screen would change to gray and white stripes that would move in alternating directions.  The camera would then measure where his eyes looked and if they were working together or not.  Aedan did fairly well for an 8 week old baby, but was extremely tired out after all that concentration for so long.  While I was in the room with Aedan, Samantha was in another room playing with some toys and with another man who worked for the Visual Development Lab.  It was fun to participate in, and it's always nice to contribute to someone's research.  (I think Ben's influence has rubbed off on me!)