Aedan's 4 Month Check-Up & EnterTRAINment Junction

Samantha: 39 Months, Week 3
Aedan: Week 19

September 2nd was Aedan's four month checkup, which included his four month immunizations.  So after dropping Samantha off at preschool, we headed to the Oxford pediatrician's office.  I had to fill out a whole bunch of new patient paperwork, and then we were brought back to the room.  Aedan was scheduled to see a nurse practitioner named Jill.  She was very nice, friendly, and welcoming.  She explained a little more about how they do things in their practice, and then checked Aedan's heart, lungs, ears, eyes, hips, the same things Dr. Esarey would check every time.  He weighed 18 pounds, 8.6 ounces, which put him in the 94th percentile.  His height was 27 inches, which put him in the 98th percentile, and his head circumference was 17 1/2, which put him in the 99th percentile.  Jill said that his height to weight comparison is exactly where it should be.  We looked back at Samantha's baby book to see what she measured at when she was four months old.  She was 17 pounds, 2 ounces and 25 1/2 inches long, so Aedan is heavier and taller than she was at this age.  Many people comment to me on how big he is, and sometimes that makes me feel self-conscious, like I make big babies or that I'm feeding him too much or something.  But I'm glad that Jill mentioned his weight and height are just where they need to be, that he is healthy and growing and happy.  After getting his check-up, it was time for the dreaded shots.  He had one to take orally and then one for each leg.  This office let me hold Aedan, rather than laying him on the table and holding down his legs, so that was nice.  The nurse told me to hold him like I'm nursing him to give the oral vaccine, and he did pretty well with that, not spitting out much at all.  But then came time for the shots, poor little guy.  The nurse was so fast with poking him, getting the band-aids on, and getting out of his face, but that didn't matter.  Aedan's whole body tensed up, his face turned bright red, and then the loud crying and tears came.  She let me stay in there with him to calm him down, but he was a pretty unhappy camper.  I hate having to do this to him, but I knew he'd be okay shortly and vaccines are very important to get.  Eventually, I had to get him his pacifier to suck on because cuddling him, holding him, and bouncing him around wasn't calming him down enough.  But after that, he calmed down pretty quickly, falling asleep in the car on the way home.  He was a bit more fussy that day because of his shots.  He was super tired and fell asleep easily for his afternoon nap, but then woke up crying quite a bit, even though I gave him acetaminophen before I laid him down.

Here he is playing on his play gym after his nap.  You can see his cool Spider-man band-aids on his legs, not that he knows who Spider-man is yet.  You also can see the new thing he is working on when laying on his floor gym.  He turns himself and pushes off with his right leg, like he is trying to roll over but can't quite figure out how.  Surely he can get enough momentum with those HUGE thighs of his!

Samantha took a good nap for me after preschool that day.  I peeked in her room during nap time because I left her room before she was asleep and wanted to check and see if she actually had fallen asleep.  I saw blankie cuddled right up to her chin, which meant she got out of bed and got her blankie out of the closet.  (For awhile now, we have restricted blankie just for bedtime because it was becoming too much of a toy and a distraction at nap time.)  It's so funny how kids her age will fess up to anything because when I went in to get her after she woke up from her nap, she had hidden blankie under the covers.  However, as soon as I got by her bed, she pointed to her covers, saying, "Blank (which is her nickname for her blankie)."  Then she pulled her blankie from under her covers and showed it to me, prompting a conversation about how we aren't allowed to sleep with blankie at nap time and that she shouldn't be sneaking out of bed to get it either.  I had to stop myself from smiling and laughing at her because it was just too cute.

I was looking forward to bed time after a rough and fussy afternoon/evening with Aedan.  However, as I was holding his sleeping body in my arms that night, my mind flashed forward to when Aedan grows up.  I started thinking about the day he might get married.  I started thinking about what he will look like and what career and what spouse he might choose for himself.  All those things made me wrap my arms around my little boy just a little tighter that night.  Kids grow up so fast.  The days are long, but the years are short. 

Aedan had a rough night Tuesday night, probably because his shots bothered him.  He woke up a lot during the night and wouldn't go back to sleep like he usually does.  Ben lovingly took a turn in there once, rocking him until he fell asleep, which I was grateful for.  In fact, Samantha even woke up crying during the night because she had to go potty.  So it was not a restful night for anyone.  Everyone was tired come morning.  I am part of a parents of toddlers group on Facebook, and every once in awhile they will organize a get together at various kid friendly places around town.  Well on Wednesday they decided to meet up at the library, so I decided to take Samantha and Aedan as well, hoping to meet some other stay at home moms in the area.  The library was packed!  We had never been there when it had been so busy.  Samantha enjoyed story time, and Aedan was getting pretty cranky and tired after that, so luckily I got him to take a nap in the Ergo while Samantha played at the library.

Here's our little guy that day.  Daddy dressed him in his cute little Cubs shirt and plaid shorts.  What a handsome fella'!

Aedan was a bit happier after having a decent nap at the library.  Here is a cute video of Samantha playing peek-a-boo with Aedan as I was getting lunch cleaned up.  She's so good at playing with him and keeping him entertained when I need to get some work done around the house really quick.

However, nap time was rough again, probably due to Aedan reacting to his vaccinations.  I got him to sleep, but he kept waking up, screaming and crying.  I got him settled back down a few times, but it never seemed to last very long.  Samantha was in her room playing for a little while instead of napping at first, so I told her to get back in bed and go to sleep, which she did, for almost two hours, so I was grateful for that.

Wednesdays are days that Daddy gets home from campus later, around 5:45, since he has a later class, so we had dinner and then spent the evening together. I was playing with Aedan and at one point he rolled over from his back to his front two times, but too fast for me to catch on video. Aedan was rather crabby no matter what you did with him that evening, but it was too early to put him to sleep, so I decided to nurse him a little before 7:00 in case he was just hungry and he ended up falling asleep on my lap in the middle of the living room.  He probably was super tired from not having a very good nap that afternoon.

It's kind of funny looking at these pictures because throughout the course of the day, Aedan wore several different shirts, and it wasn't due to messy diapers.  He drools so much that his shirts are constantly wet, sometimes so wet that it requires a change of clothes.

Samantha likes to dress Aedan up sometimes, putting her headbands on him, or in this instance, putting her sunglasses on him.  I meant to take a picture, but instead it came out as a video.

Then we gave Samantha a bath first because she wanted to help give Aedan a bath.  She loves helping with anything that involves her little brother.  She is smitten with him.  She enjoys helping us give him a bath, will dump water on him and even use the washcloth to clean his legs and tummy, and will make sure no water collects inside his belly button.  However, if you agree to bathing Aedan, you have to be prepared to get wet!  Aedan LOVES to splash and kick around in the water.

The last two nights we've told Samantha that if we see her light on at night when she's supposed to be sleeping, we will take blankie away, because we have caught her several nights lately out of bed, with the light on, playing with her toys instead of in bed trying to go to sleep.  So far, it's seemed to work, we haven't noticed her light on at all.  She loves her blankie too much to chance losing it for the night.

Aedan had a much better night's sleep on Wednesday night.  He did wake up at 11:30, which is unusual, but I was able to settle him back down quickly with his pacifier and putting my hand on his chest.  Then, he slept until about 2:00 at which time I nursed him (I think we both fell asleep in the glider together).  I laid him back in his crib and he slept through until the morning, making a little noise around 6:00, but going back to sleep until about 7:00.  It was a great night, hopefully he's recovering from his vaccinations and will get back into a good sleep routine again.  

Here a couple cute stories from Thursday:  When I went in to get Samantha up for the day, she had a confession for me.  She said, "Blankie fell behind the bed so I had to turn the light on to find her."  I have no idea when that happened or when she turned the light on, but it was at a time when we didn't notice.  She knew she wasn't supposed to turn the light on or she could get blankie taken away, so she felt like she had to fess up to what she did.  Hey, at least she's honest, right?  Then, at one point when I was laying Aedan down in his crib for a nap, he examined his hands, moving them back and forth and in circles, watching them very intently, like "Whoa!  What's this?!"

Thursday was another preschool day, and Samantha was being a bit pokey in the morning, but we were still able to get there on time.  Going to preschool is great motivation for Samantha to get up, dressed, and ready in the morning, usually a little faster than her typical pace.  Aedan fell asleep in the car on the way home from dropping her off, but luckily, I was able to get him out and lay him in his crib so he could keep napping when we got home.  While he was napping, I was able to work on my blog and relax some before he woke up again.  Then, he and I just played together until it was time to pick Samantha up from preschool.  Thursday mornings are kind of nice because I have a morning at home, and Aedan is able to take a nice morning nap.  Plus, we are able to get some one on one time together.

Samantha always has such a good time at preschool.  She loves it there, enjoys playing with her friends, and is learning more than she lets on.  Every once in awhile something will come out that she has learned at preschool, like a song she's learned or an activity that she did.  However, on some days it's hard because it ramps her up so much that she has a hard time settling down for a nap.  I still sit in her room for five minutes, as long as she is laying still and not acting silly, but that hasn't been working so well lately.  Unless she is super tired and falls asleep immediately, sitting in her room doesn't really do any good.  She will just wiggle around, look at me, whine, hang her feet out of her bed, you know, anything to delay sleeping.  But then when I get up to leave, she'll get upset and beg me to stay.  She's so confusing sometimes because she acts to tired, but won't stay in her bed long enough to let herself fall asleep.  We aren't quite ready to give up naps for her yet because she still needs them on most days.  However, when it comes down to it, whether she lets herself nap or not, we just want her to have quiet time in her room.  For example, on this Thursday she ended up not napping, but she was still quiet in her room, looking at books and playing with her trains.  As long as she is having some down time, giving Aedan a chance to sleep without being woken up, and giving me some time to get things done or just to have some down time myself, that's all we can really hope for.

On Thursday Ben had an interesting conversation with the chair of his department.  Apparently in a few weeks, the chair is having a meeting with some higher ups to discuss starting a Master's program in Political Communications at Miami, which would mean they would be hiring some tenure track people.  He was telling Ben about this to make sure that he doesn't jump at any old tenure track job, but only if it's one that he really likes.  He also let Ben know that another year at Miami is still available if nothing comes up for next year.  They will know more about the potential of that happening in October, which would be before Ben would have to make any decisions about jobs, if he were to have any offers for next year.  It would be interesting to have the potential of a tenure track position at Miami because in a lot of ways this is Ben's dream school.  Research is expected, but not crazy, and good teaching is valued.  It is a good location in relation to seeing family easily.  It's a well-known, well-respected school and would pay him much more than, say, a smaller Christian school.  It's an exciting option, so we'll definitely see what ends up happening with that.  I'm enjoying Oxford, and would certainly prefer staying here over moving to the west or east coast.

Thursday night Aedan slept well again, sleeping all the way until 4:00, then woke up at 6:30, and Ben went in to see if he could get him back to sleep.  However it seems like his fussiness due to his vaccinations is over, which I am very grateful for.  Being a Friday, Ben to campus to work, and since we didn't have anywhere particular to go, we stayed home and played outside.  Samantha practiced riding her bike, she drew with chalk, and played with bubbles.  Even though it was a little hot that day, it's shady on our patio in the mornings, making it the perfect time of day to be out there.  

Aedan took a nap in the Ergo while we were outside, but it wasn't very long so by the time it got to be lunchtime, he was tired and wasn't patient enough to wait for Samantha to finish eating.  (She likes to take her time eating.)  So I ended up having to leave her at the table to finish eating by herself while I took Aedan upstairs and started getting him ready for his nap.  I waited a little too long to get him ready for his nap, and he was very upset with me.  There were lots of tears and lots of crying because he was so ready to go to sleep.  However, once we got through lunch time and got both sleepy kids in bed, they both took good naps that afternoon.  Aedan woke up crying a couple times during his nap.  The first time the pacifier and my hand lulled him back to sleep, and the second time he fell back asleep on his own.  I know that he's not done sleeping if he wakes up crying.  When he's had a full complete nap, he wakes up happy and talking, just like his sister.  :)

Once Ben got home from campus, we had a good family evening together, eating dinner and then going out for ice cream.  I love our little family, and I love spending time together as a family.  Ben is such a good Daddy and loves his children so much.

I love my children.  Even though it's hard sometimes, they just love each other, and that makes me full of joy.  How can you not smile when you see this video?

I know back a few weeks ago I was worried about wrapping Aedan up for sleeping, wondering if I should start weaning him off it, and worrying how that would potentially affect his sleeping.  However, I should just know better than to worry about things like that because they always just work themselves out if you just wait a week or two.  Things change with babies so much that whatever phase you are in right now will not be the same phase you are in in a couple weeks.  And now, probably for the last week or so, I have been leaving both his arms out of his swaddle wrap and he stays asleep just fine.  He was working his right arm out of the swaddle every day anyways, so one day I just decided to leave it out.  He slept fine, so I just continue doing it every day now.

On Saturday we had a fun day planned as we were going to try a place called EnterTRAINment Junction in a suburb of Cincinnati.  Several people recommended it to me from Oxford, and Ben got a discount through being a Miami employee, so we figured we'd try it out as Saturday was forecasted to be rather rainy and humid.  This place has 25,000 square feet of model trains on an enormous train layout, a play area for kids, a track with a hand-cranked railroad car for kids to ride on, and a train ride.  The reason I wanted to take Samantha at this particular time was because everything was about Thomas the train, and I thought she would really enjoy that.  So after arriving at EnterTRAINment Junction, we got our wrist bands and walked through the model train layout.  It really was huge and rather amazing to think of all the detail into putting it together.  It was a chronological journey through the history of the train, all the way to modern times.

And, as you can see in this picture below, Thomas was everywhere!  It was exciting to see how many different places you could spot Thomas and his friends.

Samantha enjoyed the play area that you could climb around in.  Plus, they had train tables and a pretend train where you could shovel coal and ring the bell, pretending to be the conductor.

I think the most exciting part of the day for Samantha was riding on the Thomas train ride and on the hand-cranked railroad car.  Aedan even got to join us on the Thomas train ride. :)

They also had a fun house area included with our ticket.  Right before that, Aedan was getting pretty fussy so I nursed him, changed his diaper, and put him in the Ergo in hopes that he would let himself take a nap.  It took awhile to get him to settle down and let himself sleep, however.  There was just too much exciting stuff to look at!  In the fun house area, there was a small section with toy trains to play with and a table where you could make Thomas necklaces.  Samantha enjoyed lining up all the trains along the edge.

There was also a mirror maze and a crazy house with a room that had a floor at a twenty-five degree angle.  Samantha had a lot of fun in that room, crawling up the floor, and then sliding back down again.  Daddy went in there with her while I waited out in the hallway.  I figured walking on a slanted floor intended to make you dizzy while carrying a sleepy baby in a baby carrier would not be a good idea.

Before we left that afternoon, we let Samantha ride on the Thomas train one more time before heading out to get some lunch and get back home for nap time.

We got back pretty late from our family excursion and put both kids down to nap as soon as we got back.  In fact, Mommy and Daddy both took a nap that afternoon as well.  Aedan was extremely tired from his busy day and fell right asleep.  What a cute little sleepy guy!  I just love him to pieces.

Babies make all kinds of cute noises that evolve over time.  Well, Aedan's new noise is blowing raspberries, although it's more like spit bubbles.  He must love the sensation of the vibration on his lips because he does it constantly nowadays!  Sometimes his face and shirt will be covered in spit because of this new game, not only just because of all his drool.

Here's a cute picture of our little ones upon waking up on Sunday morning.  Samantha thought it would be great if her and Aedan would lie in Mommy and Daddy's bed together.

Oh these two just steal my heart away.  No matter how frustrating the day before may have been, or how long of a night with Aedan it was, when morning comes, I am always SO excited to see their faces and hear their voices.  We are truly blessed with these two little ones.

Sunday morning we went to both services at church because there was a new attenders class at OBF.  Samantha, of course, was fine with staying in the preschool room for two services.  I kept Aedan with me for the class during the first service because I knew he would be in need of a nap.  After a while of chatting with other new attenders, and once the class started I put Aedan in the Ergo in an attempt to get him to nap instead of fuss.  It took quite a bit of walking around, but I eventually got him to fall asleep, so then I was able to listen to the rest of the class.  We then took him to the nursery before we went into the church service.  However, I was only able to make it through about half the sermon before we got a text saying Aedan was ready to nurse.  So I spent the rest of the service downstairs nursing him, but that's okay.  We had already been at church for a long time, and I didn't expect him to last through the whole service.  I appreciate the nursery workers at OBF.  They are really good with Aedan and will try all they can to appease him before texting me to come down.  They dote on him and play with him, saying he's always flirting with all the ladies.  And Samantha really enjoys her preschool class as well.  She always comes out really knowing and understanding her Bible story for the day.  Plus, they are learning a memory verse, which I really appreciate.  Her mind can soak up so much information, so she might as well be soaking up Scripture as well.

On Monday we went to an event that was a combination of the local public library and parks and recreation department called "Stories, Strollers, and Nature."  We met in a gazebo at Oxford Community Park, and Samantha got situated on her blanket for story time.  Aedan had fallen asleep in the car on the way there, but woke up shortly after arriving at the gazebo and hearing all the kids talking and making noise.

Samantha loved having story time outside, loved being able to lay on her blanket, and loved that the librarian played guitar and sang songs.  It was definitely right up her alley.  After story time we took a walk with the other moms and children around the park, and then had some time to play on the playground.  It was a wonderful morning outside together, and I can't wait to go again next week.

On Monday I decided to sign Samantha up for ballet lessons at a local dance studio that a lady from OBF owns.  I had been throwing around the idea for quite some time and decided to sign her up at the last minute.  We tried on her leotard, skirt, and tights on Monday night to make sure what she had would fit her for her first lesson on Tuesday.  Then, of course, she gave us a little ballet demonstration.  She actually spins around pretty well!  She is going to LOVE her ballet lessons.