Wonderful Bloomington Memories & Precious Family Moments

Samantha: 38 Months, Week 1
Aedan: Week 12

Back before Aedan was born, Upland Grandma helped us establish our very own garden back behind our apartment, in the grass next to our patio.  We have gotten a lot of yield from it, even though it is just a tiny plot.  We got radishes, carrots, lettuce, and are now staring to get peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and squash.  I have never had a garden before and, in fact, I don't have a very good history of keeping plants alive.  So, I wasn't too sure how I would do in cultivating a garden, but it has been much easier and much more rewarding than I thought.  Here is a picture of some of the yummy vegetables I harvested one afternoon.

Aedan has been grabbing on to things a lot lately and has more control over the movement of his arms.  Here's a picture of him holding on to his pacifier.  It's nice that he can grab things now, but it doesn't work well when he accidentally pulls the pacifier out of his mouth, when really he would rather keep it in.

Aedan really enjoys batting at the toys on his play gym.  You can see him eyeing up a toy and purposefully swinging his arm to hit it.

What a sleepy little guy!  What an adorable little yawn!

Grandma brought Samantha back home on Monday night so that her and I could go to a local Bloomington event called Messy Mania on Tuesday morning.  Ben was scheduled to come home from the hospital on Tuesday, and Grandma offered to stay with us through Wednesday in case we needed more help once Ben got home from the hospital.

Samantha and I met Mindy, Cora, and Millie at Messy Mania, and the girls had a wonderful time playing and getting messy!  Grandma stayed back at the house with Aedan so I could spend this time with Samantha.  We weren't sure how she would like it because sometimes she doesn't like getting messy, so I could have seen her really liking it or really hating it.

They had several stations with lots of different activities, like mixing shaving cream and vinegar, painting with pudding, painting with various implements, and last, but not least, playing in colored shaving cream.  As you can tell by these pictures, Samantha had a GREAT time getting messy.  She knew she didn't have to worry about her clothes getting dirty, and that freed her up to dive right in to these hands-on activities.

As you can tell, playing in the shaving cream was her favorite activity.  Her pants were totally covered and sagging, so I had her just take them off since she had her bathing suit on underneath her clothes.  She was just running around, squealing with excitement, and slipping and sliding everywhere.  I'm so glad that we went to this together, and I'm so glad she let herself get wild and messy.

Here's what the little man was doing while we were getting ready for lunch that afternoon, just lounging and relaxing in his swing.  I feel like he has gotten much chubbier in the last week or so.  He's just so cute and still just loves to hang out in his swing.  It's his happy place. :)

Tuesday afternoon Ben came home from the hospital.  He actually drove himself home since he drove himself there the day of his CT scan.  It's crazy, but he was actually in the hospital a day longer this time than his stay after his surgery.  I was so glad that he was coming home, so glad that he didn't have to go back into surgery again, and so glad that the IV antibiotics were working like we hoped they would.  Hopefully this will be his last stay in the hospital for a very long time.  They put a PICC line in his arm before leaving the hospital so he could continue the IV antibiotics at home.  The IV went into a vein on his right arm and traveled up the vein to close to his heart, distributing the antibiotics much more effectively than taking it in pill form.

Shortly after returning home from the hospital, a home health nurse stopped by to show Ben (and me) how to administer the antibiotic.  He was at our house for about an hour explaining everything, checking Ben out, and making sure he answered all of our questions.  It seemed a little bit intimidating, the thought of administering your own IV, but Ben got the hang of it pretty quickly.  He had to do three doses a day, at 3 pm, 11pm, and 7 am.  Dr. Kasza thought this would be much more effective to ensure all the infection was gone, which was obviously our ultimate goal.  While the nurse was at our house, both Aedan and Samantha woke up from their naps.  Luckily, Grandma was with us and could help corral the kids while I listened to the instructions.  Samantha was pretty interested in Daddy getting checked out.  She even carried on a conversation with the nurse, saying, "I'm going to teach my baby brother how to walk soon."

Wednesday was going to have beautiful weather, and I was trying to do fun Indiana activities before we move, so we decided to make a day trip to Spring Mill State Park to visit the historical village they have there.  We have taken Samantha there a couple times before, but back when she was much younger.  We got a little bit of a late start for the day, making Samantha a little cranky when we first arrived.  However, once we got by the stream and walked toward the village, she perked up a bit.  Grandma is so good with her.  She knows how to calm her down, redirect her, and make her feel special, all at the same time.

Aedan fell asleep in the Ergo pretty quickly after arriving in the village and slept soundly the whole morning as we walked around.  The weather was beautiful, nice and sunny, and rather cool for the middle of July.

We got to the woodworking building and the guy in there was very interactive with Samantha.  He explained to her what he was doing and how he was making a table leg.  Then, he did some juggling for her, which she thought was pretty neat.  He even gave her his bean bags so she could try juggling as well.

We had a good day, and it was getting late, so we let Samantha play on the playground while I nursed Aedan.  However, as I was nursing him, he had a HUGE blow out, getting all over his clothes and mine.  So once I changed him and his clothes, we headed out for a late lunch at Wendy's before going home.  Even though we got back way past Samantha's normal nap time, we were still able to get her down for a nap.  Here are Samantha and Aedan cuddling in bed together when we went in her room after her nap.  She loves it when Aedan greets her.

Grandma left that afternoon, and we had a good evening at home by ourselves.  I took this little video of Aedan playing on his floor gym to show how much he enjoys batting at the rattle toy.  It's so amazing to watch his development.  Babies grow and change so much in such a short amount of time.

We had a really busy weekend and week ahead of us with Aedan's dedication on Sunday.  My parents were planning on coming down for the dedication, and I asked if they could come a day early, on Thursday, so that they could help out with bed time so that I could go out with my friends for the pedicure I missed when Ben went back into the hospital.

Here is little Aedan asleep in his bassinet at nap time.  Sleeping babies, all swaddled up, are just so adorable, especially my little man.

My parents came during nap time on Thursday, and we had dinner together before I left for my girl's night.  We met at a local nail salon and got pedicures, then went to Friday's for more time to talk and hang out.  We stayed out until 11:00, making us very tired ladies, (Yes, I know, I know, you know you are getting old when 11:00 feels late, but that's what happens when you become a mom), but it was so fun to have this last time together before I moved out of Bloomington.  I will miss these girls.  Thank you for a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday!

I had never been gone at bed time before.  I always nurse Aedan to sleep at night, just like I did for Samantha.  So, I made Ben promise to let me know if for some reason he wasn't taking the bottle, wasn't calming down, or wasn't falling asleep.  Ben kindly sent me this picture of Aedan sleeping in his bassinet, so I would know I could just relax and enjoy my evening with friends.

We spent the day hanging out on Friday, and Grandpa and Grandma even took Samantha to the park for awhile so that I could stay and pack up more of our house.  We also got final word from our new management company that we could indeed move in the following Friday, July 25, so Ben got to work setting up our utilities and attempting to find internet.  Things were finally moving along, we had an official move-in date, and I felt much better knowing things were moving in the right direction.

Then, Ben and I had a special night planned Friday night.  He received a gift certificate for Restaurant Tallent, a local Bloomington restaurant that is much too pricey for our normal restaurant of choice.  One of Ben's professors gave us a gift certificate for $150 for the work he did on a conference back in May.  We decided it would be the perfect place to go to celebrate our 8 year anniversary that was coming up the following Tuesday.  We had a wonderful dinner together that was very leisurely and very delicious.  We had reservations at 6:00 and didn't leave until around 8:00.  Since we had $150 to spend, we both got appetizers, entrees, and desserts.  My parents were in charge of putting the kids to bed, so we took advantage of our time to ourselves.  We walked around downtown Bloomington a bit, and then drove around for awhile, kind of a last tour of our home for the last four years.  This town will always hold a special place in our hearts as the place where our first two children were born.  It's weird to be doing things for the "last time."  It was weird thinking we will be living in our new home in a week, and I was so glad to have this one on one time with my husband after the busy, stressful summer we've had.  Here are pictures of our dinner entrees.

Since it was our last Saturday in Bloomington, we had to make one more trip to the farmer's market.  I had several checks I could still spend on fruits and vegetables, and we decided to serve some of them at our picnic after Aedan's dedication on Sunday.  Samantha was pretty patient with me as we walked around the busy market, finding a vendor from whom to purchase our food.  I told her that as soon as we got our vegetables, I would get her popcorn and she could sit and listen to the live music that was playing.  She sat like this for quite some time, just enjoying the lovely Saturday morning.

After getting our fill of the music, we let Samantha go over and play in the fountain.  She had her bathing suit on underneath her clothes, and I brought a towel to dry her off with afterwards.  I came prepared this time.  :)  She had a great time playing and splashing in the water, getting herself soaking wet, even though the water was a bit cold.

 And what was Aedan doing while Samantha was playing?  He was hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma, enjoying being held and watching all the commotion around him.

Saturday afternoon during nap time, I spent time boxing up the rest of our kitchen, meaning we were going to use paper plates, and plastic silverware and cups until we moved out.  Grandpa helped Ben get his office books packed up and loaded into the car, since Ben can't lift more than 15 pounds.  We also have been trying to use up food from our refrigerator/freezer so that we have less to move next week.  We found a recipe using pork and a variety of vegetables, so that's what we had for dinner.  We had zucchini and squash from our garden, and tomatoes and corn from the farmer's market.  It all looked so delicious and fresh that I just had to take a picture of our dinner before we all dove in.

Sunday was a busy, busy day with Aedan's dedication.  We planned a picnic at Bryan Park after church as my parents were in town and Ben's parents, Jeni, and Alaina were coming into town for it as well.  Aedan did a really good job at church, just looking around at everything during the beginning of the service until it was our turn to come up front.  Samantha did a great job standing with us and smiling at the Campbells in the audience.  It was such an honor to have Aedan dedicated at ECC before we left.  ECC has meant so much to our family and has been a wonderful church home for us over the past four years.  We were glad Pastor Bob could dedicate Aedan.  (My dad took a nice video of it, but it's too long to include on this blog.)  It was a great way to commemorate our last Sunday there.

The picnic in the park went well, even though we had two tired children on our hands.  Aedan was a little fussy and wouldn't take the bottle that we brought for him, even though Chicago Grandma and Daddy both tried.  He was getting more and more fussy, so I decided to just go to the car and nurse him since he wouldn't eat otherwise.  After that he was in a much better mood.  Samantha LOVED having all of her favorite people gathered in one place, and at one of her favorite parks nonetheless.  She had a ball running around the playground with Alaina and playing the scream game, just like on vacation.  Leaving was very difficult for her.  She didn't want to see everyone go home.  It had been such a fun day that she didn't want to end.  However, we were able to get a family picture before everyone left.  I wanted to get one at the church, but we just ran out of time.  Samantha wasn't exactly the most cooperative for the picture, but it turned out pretty well, considering it was right in the middle of nap time for the kids.

After a good afternoon nap for both kids, all relatives were gone, and we were left to ourselves again, at least for a few days until we started packing up our U-haul on Thursday.  It was nice having things relatively back to normal, to have my husband back home again, and to spend quality time together in Bloomington before our big move.  We spent our evening hanging out at home and snapped these cute pictures of Aedan peeking over the couch and Samantha painting on her easel.

To end this post, I want to share a few of my favorite things about Samantha and Aedan from this week.  

I love how Samantha talks.  Her vocabulary is so developed for a kid her age, but she still has a few words that she says incorrect.  I don't dare correct her though because it is so endearing, like it's the last glimpse of toddlerhood.  For example, she says "hopsital" instead of hospital, "ife" instead of knife, "aminal" instead of animal, "yogrit" instead of yogurt, "sion" instead of sign, and "lion" instead of line.  She doesn't get her tenses right sometimes, often adding an -ed to any word to make it past tense.  And she still has trouble with her ls, saying "Awaina" instead of Alaina.  The th sound is also hard for her, resulting in her pronouncing her name "Samanta" instead of Samantha.  It's interesting to see how her little mind processes things.  Many of her dolls, fairies, and animals have been "moving" when she plays with them.  They will pack up all their belongings in a play car and move to a new house.  I'm sure it's her way of wrapping her mind around what we are about to experience as a family.  When I asked her what her dolls were doing, she replied that they were moving to "Awkward" instead of Oxford.  What a wonderful little girl we have!

My favorite memory with Aedan this week was just his little baby snuggles.  Particularly after nursing, I will lift him up against my chest with his head up by my shoulder so that I can pat his back to burp him.  He will gently lay his head on my shoulder, often rubbing his face back and forth until he is in a comfortable position, and then will heave a great big sigh, falling even more deeply asleep.  Even though he is fast asleep and I could lay him down without worrying about him waking up, I find myself just rocking and cuddling my son longer.  I love to hold his soft, warm, little body up against my chest and to kiss his soft, pudgy cheeks over and over again.  I am totally in love with my little man.  Being his mommy is such a wonderful blessing.