First Field Trip, First Sweet Potatoes, Pumpkin Carving, and Funny Conversations

Samantha: 41 Months, Week 2
Aedan: Week 26

Now that Aedan rolls over all the time, he will roll over in his crib as well.  During the night on Monday, Aedan woke up screaming and crying.  Ben and I both looked at each other and said, "I bet he's on his tummy." Sure enough, he was.  I don't know if he had just rolled that way or if he was like that for awhile, but he gets himself rolled over and doesn't know how to roll back, so he gets stuck and gets upset.

Tuesday was a preschool day, and on the way there, Samantha was talking about being tired and how she sometimes lays down at preschool and the teachers have to tell her to sit up.  After dropping Samantha off, I talked to Miss Becky about that, and she said that Samantha, as well as a few others, will occasionally lay down, but they do it during free time and she doesn't know if they are just role playing or are really tired.  She said there was only one time she could think of that Samantha laid down during circle time and had to be asked to sit up.  I don't like her being so tired when she goes to school, but it's hard because we can't make her sleep, even if we know that she needs it.  She still does well at preschool and enjoys it, she is just in a hard phase with sleeping right now where she's tired, but she's asserting her independence and also gets very excited about things that are happening in her life, causing her to not get as much sleep as she needs.

On the way to preschool, Samantha was reading the Berenstain Bears  Halloween book that we had to return to the library.  She talked about what a mummy is and how it's wrapped up in band-aids.  She also said she knew all the creatures in the book weren't really alive because they were just dreaming about them.  I asked her how she knew they were dreaming, to which she replied, "Because it's coming out of their head."  It's amazing to me how much she understands sometimes.  There were some kids that I taught in third grade that didn't understand what thought bubbles were and that they meant that it wasn't actually happening.  She's a smart cookie. :)

Aedan took a good morning nap at home that day, and in fact, I had to wake him up so that we could go pick up Samantha from preschool.  He had the pacifier in his mouth still and didn't seem to interested in having it taken out, so he kept the pacifier in all the way to the car and halfway to preschool before I heard it fall out.  Even still, he was very quiet riding in the car that morning.  I think he was still waking up.

When I picked Samantha up from preschool, Miss Betsy told me that Samantha spelled her name for them that day.  We have been practicing that at home, and we encouraged Samantha to spell it for Miss Betsy, but I wasn't sure if she'd remember or if she'd act too shy to do it.  She'll spell it like a cheer, "SA-MAN-THA!"  We're so proud of everything she's learning at preschool.

Here are some pictures of Samantha and Aedan playing together when we got home from preschool that afternoon.

I know I say this all the time, but Samantha is SO wonderfully sweet with Aedan.  She loves to see him as soon as he wakes up in the morning.  She can't wait to play with him when preschool is over.  She gets down on his level and interacts with him.  She talks to him, reads him stories, sings him songs, whispers secrets in his ear, and hugs and kisses him all the time.  I had no idea she would be this affectionate for her little brother.  It melts my heart and shows me just how loving and compassionate her little heart is, even for a little girl who is not yet 3 1/2 years old.

Samantha was super tired from the weekend in Upland and from not napping on Monday and being up later than she should have on Monday night, so I knew it would be important for her to nap Tuesday afternoon.  I stayed in her room close to 15 minutes to try to encourage her nap, and she eventually fell asleep around 2:15, sleeping until about 3:30, which was good.  Daddy took Samantha to ballet that afternoon, only to find out it was cancelled because Miss Ashley was sick.  So, they got to come back home and she got to watch her show earlier than expected.

After they got home, Ben called me into the kitchen to tell me some funny things Samantha said while they drove in the car.  I had him go write them down because they were hilarious, and I didn't want to forget them.  Earlier in the day, Samantha was telling me that she invited all her friends at preschool to come to Disney World with us.  I explained to her that we can't take all her friends because it's just a special trip for our family, and they would miss their family if they came with us.  So this is what she said to Daddy that afternoon, "Mommy told me we can't take all my friends to Disney World.  What about one friend...Matteo?"

Here are some other quotes:
Samantha: "I want to invite all my friends over to play, wait, I want to invite just one friend."  Daddy: "Who do you want to invite?"  Samantha: Matteo.  (We think she may have a little bit of a thing for Matteo.  He is talked about more than anyone else in her preschool class!)

"If I ever have a boy, I will name him Matteo.  If I ever have a girl, I will name her Sessa...no, wait!  Bea!"

Then, after going through the relation game (discussing Aunt Jeni as her aunt and Alaina's Mommy, and Aedan as her brother and Alaina's cousin, Samantha said, "If my name were Alaina, Aedan would be my cousin.  If Samantha were Alaina's name, Aedan would be her brother."

Last weekend we were in Upland visiting the Toll family, and Aunt Jeni and Alaina were using Grandpa and Grandma's car because their car was damaged from an accident.  So since Samantha was talking about Aunt Jeni and Alaina, it got her mind on that, and she said, "We may get into a car accident some day, and then we can borrow Grandpa and Grandma's car until ours is fixed."

You can be part of some of the most interesting conversations if you ride in the car with Samantha. :)

Aedan had a good three hour nap and woke up around 4:45.  However, he still was being strange with nursing, acting hungry, but then arching his back, crying, and pushing away when I tried to nurse him, even though it had been over four hours.  I finally convinced him to calm down and he ate fairly well, but still not great.  I feel like there must be something going on that is causing his resistance to nursing, but I'm not too concerned, he will let me know when he needs to eat.

We then had a good family night of chili soup for dinner and took a family walk in our new (to us) stroller.  Our old stroller had a broken wheel and a broken buckle, and when I contacted the company to see how much it would cost to get replacement parts, we discovered that it would be close to $50.  That got us to thinking, we could probably just get a whole new stroller for close to that price.  I've seen lots of families with these Sit and Stand strollers, and that really appealed to me because then Aedan could sit in the front strapped in or even in his infant car seat hooked on, and Samantha could sit, or stand, in the back.  I especially thought this would be helpful for our trip to Disney World in January.  Samantha does a pretty good job of walking independently, but her little legs get tired, and she wants to be carried sometimes.  She usually winds up on Daddy's shoulders, which is fine for a short amount of time, but not for several days of walking around Disney World.  So now, with this stroller she can ride and give her legs a break, or she can walk, and she can get in and out easily.  I had to take a picture of Samantha and Aedan in the stroller on our walk that evening because their faces were great.  Samantha was SO excited about riding in the new stroller, and Aedan also thought the new experience of riding in the front, not in his infant car seat, was really neat (even though you can't tell by looking at the picture).  He sat quietly, staring, and taking everything in.

Samantha helped Daddy make chocolate chip cookies that evening as well, and she really enjoyed it.  She helped pour the ingredients in and helped stir the ingredients in the mixer, doing a wonderful job keeping her hand and the spatula away from the beaters.  The best part was being able to taste a cookie when they came out of the oven.  She now is officially a Toll and has been let into the secret of making "Toll-house" cookies. :)

After making cookies and beginning bath time, right about 7:15, Aedan just lost it and got really upset, so it took both Ben and me to finish getting him ready for bed so I could nurse him and get him in bed sooner.  It's hard when he sleeps later, like until 4:45 that day, because then he's ready for another nap around 6:45, but that's too late for a nap when we usually start getting him ready for bed around 7:30.  I'm halfway wondering if I should just put him to bed earlier at night, just getting him in bed before Samantha's bed time, and seeing if that impacts his nighttime schedule at all.  It's worth a try.

On Wednesday morning, both kids woke up a little after 7:00, and Ben helped me with Aedan while I finished getting ready, got Samantha up, and took Roscoe out.  There's no slowly waking up around here, you have to hit the ground running.  Sometimes mornings are exhausting.

Here is Aedan hanging out in the exersaucer while we ate breakfast.  He woke up with the hair sticking out on the right side of his head, so Daddy and I commented on how he was having a bad hair day.  Samantha decided that a headband would help him with his bad hair day.  I just had to get a picture.  He will love these pictures some day!

We got to Bible study right on time, but I decided to try putting Aedan down for a nap in the nursery pack and play since it was time for him to nap, and I knew if I just dropped him off with the other kids, a nap was not going to happen.  It took about ten minutes of standing and rocking him with the pacifier in his mouth, before his eyes drooped closed.  However, I was then able to lay him in the pack and play and let him take a little nap that morning.  I knew if he didn't nap, he (and I) wouldn't make it through Bible study, and I was glad he let himself fall asleep.  I was a little late for the video part of the Bible study, but it was worth it to be able to get Aedan down for a nap.  Like usual, I was going to go down and check on him during our break time, but I ran into a lady that had just been downstairs and was talking to Aedan.  She said he had just woken up and was very happy, smiling and talking at everyone.  He probably slept for about forty-five minutes, so I was happy for that.  However, when I picked him up at the end, he was starting to lose it.  He was getting hungry and tired.  Samantha was also tired (even though that doesn't mean anything for whether she will nap).  We got home and ate a quick lunch, so that I could get Aedan down for a nap.  While eating lunch, Samantha said, "I want Duckelin (as she calls him, his real name is Declan, I think) to be my father, my daddy when I grow up.  That way we will be married.  I will be his wife.  He's a boy so I can marry him."  She certainly says interesting things!

Nap time on Wednesday was a little rough.  Even though Samantha was tired, she decided not to nap and was acting pretty disrespectful, climbing up on her changing table, playing with clothes in her closet, and being rather noisy.  Aedan took a nap, but not as good of one as I'd hoped after our busy morning at Bible study.  He woke up several times crying and making noise.  It seemed like something was still bothering him, both in sleeping and in nursing.  After they both woke up for the afternoon, we were hanging out in Samantha's room while we picked up all the things she had taken out during her nap.  I laid Aedan down on the ground, and he promptly rolled over and pushed himself up on his arms.  He is getting so strong!  He can use his arms and legs to scoot and rotate himself around on the carpet.  It will probably be no time before he starts crawling, and then there will be no stopping him!

Thursday was an exciting day for the family because Samantha had her very first field trip.  We went to a place called Wendel Farms, which was about 25 minutes away from our house.  Siblings were allowed to attend, and I originally planned on bringing Aedan, but I decided I would try to find a babysitter for him instead so I could spend more time focused on Samantha.  My friend, Maggie, offered to come over and watch him for the morning, to put him down for a nap and play with him, while I took Samantha on her field trip.

Samantha and I had a wonderful time together, and the field trip was perfect for preschoolers.  When we first got there, we went into a barn where the kids got to see a puppet show about how a pumpkin grows.

Then Miss Sue explained how they were going to get the chance to be little farmers.  They went around to different stations and collected an item for their basket at each station.

First, they were flower farmers and collected a flower.

They got to be chicken farmers and collect an egg.

They got to be cow farmers, pretended to milk a cow, and collected a milk bottle.

 They got to be apple farmers and pick an apple.

They got to be vegetable farmers and pick a carrot and a potato out of a pretend garden.

Then, we took a hay ride out to a pumpkin patch where they were able to pick a pumpkin to take home.  Samantha loved the hay ride and was laughing most of the ride down the bumpy, gravel road.

After the hay ride, they got taken around to see the animals.  They were allowed to feed to goats, and then the farmer took them around to see many of the other animals located on the farm.  They got to pet all of them, and Samantha was very attentive and obedient.  The farmer did a great job of giving them a little information about the animal, but keeping it at a level a preschooler could understand.

After that part of the field trip was over, the kids had about half an hour to play.  They had a track marked out for tricycle races, and there was a hay maze and a corn pit to play in.  Samantha had a wonderful time!  It was great to watch her play and be active, and we had the most wonderful fall day for a field trip to a farm.  I am so glad that I get to stay home and do this kind of stuff with her.

Aedan had a good morning with Maggie.  She got him down for a nap for about an hour, and then they just hung out and played together.  I left her with milk for a bottle, but he didn't need it.  It was nice to be able to leave Aedan behind, knowing that he was being well take care of.

Here are my two kiddos when they woke up from their naps that afternoon, both wearing fleece footie pajamas and looking very cozy.

Aedan has been pretty regularly waking up once a night, anywhere between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m.  However, Thursday night was a rough night.  He woke up twice during the night to nurse, and one time I couldn't get him back to sleep so Ben went in there to help rock him back to sleep.  While Ben was in with Aedan, Samantha woke up making noise, I went in to tell her to go to bed, and she said she had to go potty.  So eventually we got both kids back to sleep, but had a hard time settling ourselves back down to sleep, just to be awoken for the day not much later.  It was a long and tiring night, and everyone woke up sleepy.

Since everyone was so tired, we just stayed home on Friday, playing and hanging out around the house.  Aedan took a good morning nap for almost two hours, waking up just after noon.  However, despite that good nap, he was not a happy camper that day.  He was just really fussy and wouldn't really nurse even though he was acting hungry.  It's always hard when he sleeps so long in the morning because then it's difficult to get him down for an afternoon nap.  He wasn't falling asleep, so I just laid him down in his crib so that I could get Samantha down for her nap, knowing that he probably would just cry until I came back into his room.  However, he actually fell asleep.  Then, as soon as I got her to sleep, Aedan woke up crying.  I didn't know what to do.  I checked his diaper because he had a lot of gas earlier.  Before I laid him down the first time I gave him gas drops and Tylenol because he was just so unhappy and that is so unlike him.  When I went back in his room, I tried feeding him since he didn't really eat earlier and he nursed a little bit, not not much.  He still looked sleepy, so I tried rocking him with the pacifier and that kept him calm and still for awhile, but then he just started being squirmy in my arms.  I was grasping at straws, trying to find something to make him happy and satisfied.  Finally, I just laid him down, to see if he wanted to be on his own to fall asleep, but it just was not working.  I listened to him cry for about ten minutes before I couldn't stand it any longer.  I decided to just go in his room and rock him and cuddle him and let him sleep in my arms for as long as he wanted.  I was super tired from the night before and may have dozed off in the glider myself for awhile.  Plus, I haven't had the chance to cuddle with my little guy like this since he was a much younger baby.  Baby cuddles are wonderful.  They make the worst day so much better.  I wish I had my phone in there with me so I could have taken a picture of his cute, sleepy face, his mouth open and puckered just slightly, his body limp, his tired eyes, and his warm breath on my arm.  It was a much better way to spend my afternoon than anything else I may have had on my agenda.

Samantha was watching her show that afternoon and wanted Aedan to come sit on her lap.  She put her arm around him, and they sat like that for quite awhile.  He loves it.  There's nothing better in his world than his big sister.

For awhile now, probably ever since Aedan started laughing, he will laugh when we change his diaper.  I don't know if he thinks it's funny, or if we are tickling him, or if that area of his body getting some fresh air feels strange, but he will just laugh and giggle the whole time.  It's pretty hilarious and makes me smile.  I attempted to get it on video that Friday afternoon, and it was a bit difficult to hold my phone and change his diaper, but I got a little bit of the giggle captured.  Isn't it just too cute?  How can that not make you smile?

Friday night we had our friends, Maggie and Jonathan, over to our house to play games after putting the kids to bed.  Ben and I were pretty tired from our rough night and too early morning, but it was fun to socialize with other adults and to bust out our Ticket to Ride game.  We don't play games as much as we used to because we find that we are just too tired once we put our kids to bed.  Our friends stayed until after 11:30 p.m., which I have come to realize is much too late for me.  I just cannot stay up that late anymore and be functional the next day.  Yes, I am turning into an old lady.  Or, maybe it's just the reality of being a mom with two young kids that keep me going all day long.

Saturday was going to be a beautiful day with weather in the upper 60s to lower 70s, so Ben suggested that we take a family trip to the zoo.  However, Samantha woke up at 6:40 that morning and wouldn't go back to sleep, so she was pretty tired by the time we got to the zoo at 10:00.  Samantha dressed up again, and this time she chose to be Snow White.  We put Aedan in a little onesie that had the body of a football player on it, with Aedan's head for the football player's head, along with little pants that had feet that looked like football shoes. You can't see it in this first picture, but I will put a close up of the shirt in a later picture.

We were having a good time at the zoo, but slowly, Samantha just started losing it.  We got in line for the train, and she cut in front of some people.  Daddy asked her to come back by us and she wouldn't, so he took her out of line and gave her a time out.  After that, it seemed like she was just in a funk, like she was too tired to even enjoy herself.  We decided to go eat lunch, and I was going to nurse Aedan before we continued on our way around the zoo, but Samantha still was not listening at lunch.  She was zoning out and acting more and more tired.  We gave her several chances to snap out of it and start being respectful, but she just wouldn't, so after only being at the zoo for two hours, we decided to go home and get both kids down for a good afternoon nap.  I was a little upset and disappointed because I was excited to spend a family day together outside in the beautiful warm weather, but it was just not going to be any fun dealing with Samantha if we stayed there much longer.

All four of us took a nap at home that Saturday afternoon, making the rest of the day much more pleasant.  Samantha woke up from her nap before Aedan, so we took advantage of that time to carve pumpkins.  Daddy and I worked on cleaning out two pumpkins to carve while Samantha drew on two other pumpkins with markers.

Samantha enjoyed drawing a face on her pumpkin and watching Daddy cut out the face that she drew.  Last year pumpkin carving wasn't too interesting to Samantha, but this year, it was right up her alley.  She was so excited and proud to put her pumpkin on display.

Here's Aedan and I together, hanging out after he woke up from his nap.  You can see his football player shirt much better in these pictures.

That evening, after having dinner, we went on our family walk and then came back and put candles in our jack o'lanterns so Samantha could see what they looked like.

I also took another picture that night once it got dark.

Even though we were home all weekend, we had a rather busy weekend of activity.  Sunday was no different.  We went to church in the morning, and then had a small group get together immediately following church.  We are attempting to join this small group, and this was their first meet-up after a little bit of a break.  The plans were to meet at the park for a taco lunch and then to discuss what our plans were for our small group.  Sunday afternoons are difficult for us on normal days with coming back to have lunch and getting kids down for naps.  Aedan is usually pretty tired, so I wasn't sure how meeting for lunch would go.  We got to the park before anyone else did and let Samantha play for awhile.  Then, we stopped and had lunch, before letting her go back and play on the playground while the adults talked.  Aedan took a short nap in the car on the way from church to Kroger to the park, but was in need of another one.  He also was probably getting hungry because he hadn't eaten since before church.  However, I decided to just put him in the Ergo to see if that would make him happy enough to stay at the park for a little longer.  Being close to me helped calm him down somewhat, as he just hung out, looked around, and eventually fell asleep.  Samantha did a wonderful job playing with the other kids there, having a fantastic time running, climbing, and swinging with new friends.  The other families that are in the small group have 7, 6, and 5 kids each, so we bring down the average with only having 2 kids.  Samantha loved having so many older kids to play with.

Since we were out into the afternoon, there was no point in trying to get Samantha down for a nap.  We told her that she was just going to skip her nap that day, and she said, "Really?!  I'm going to be like an adult!"  She couldn't believe that she was going to be up during when she usually naps and thought it was one of the coolest things in the world.  I nursed Aedan when we got back home and put him down for a nap.  He slept a couple hours, which was perfect timing for him.

While eating dinner that night, we decided to give Aedan his first taste of baby food.  We have given him rice cereal for the last week or so, but Sunday night we decided to try him on sweet potatoes.  He was definitely a fan of the new flavor in his mouth, didn't spit any out, and didn't have a disgusted look on his face at his first taste.  I think he's really going to enjoy trying all the different flavors of food out there.  Per our doctor's recommendations, we are introducing each flavor separately for four days at a time to ensure he has no allergic reactions to any one type of food.

 After a while we began to wonder if Aedan didn't like sitting in the Bumbo, so we decided to try him in the high chair for the first time.  I think he liked sitting up, banging his hands on the tray, and sitting within arm's reach of his sister. :)

And here is Aedan on the floor after dinner that night.  I wanted to capture the fact that he's found his feet!  He will reach for his feet and suck on his toes, especially when I'm trying to change his diaper.

 You can also see one of this boy's most distinguishing features, his huge thighs.  He doesn't really have rolls like Samantha did when she was his age.  His arms and tummy are fairly slim (for a baby anyways), but his thighs are so thick!  Ben says Aedan probably gets that from his side of the family.  It will be interesting to see if that is always a trait of Aedan, or if he eventually grows out of it, kind of like Samantha has grown out of her rolls.

After a long and busy weekend, Ben and I were relieved when we finally tucked our kids into bed on Sunday night.  We put them both down early since we had such a busy day at our small group get together, giving Ben and I the rest of the evening to do work, have some down time, and just be together without kids to take care of.

Monday morning started off just like any other day, with Samantha going in to say hi to Aedan, just like she always does, standing on her step stool and looking over the crib.  We always think it's so cute when she does this, and Aedan eagerly looks in anticipation until he sees her head pop above the side of the crib.

However, she was being goofy that morning, jumping up and down, and banged her chin on the crib railing.  She began to cry and after looking at her mouth, I saw it was bleeding.  She had torn the frenum, the piece of skin that connects her gums to her lips in between her two top front teeth.  This piece of skin has always been rather large and noticeable in her mouth, so I guess it's not too surprising that something like this would happen eventually.

It looked like a pretty big tear, and I wanted to be sure it was okay, so I called to get her in at a dentist.  The local pediatric dentist only works in Oxford on Tuesdays, so we had to drive half an hour to Fairfield.  We had plans to go to story time at the park since it was the last day, but Samantha was too busy sulking and whining about being hurt, so I let her watch a show on the couch while I did things around the house and took care of Aedan.

I did get this one picture of Samantha and Aedan playing together.  We just put together this little toy the night before, so Aedan had never seen it before.  I figured it would help with his stability in sitting up and thought he would enjoy banging it and making different sounds and different songs.  Samantha did a wonderful job supporting his back while he sat and played, making sure he didn't fall over backwards.

The dentist's office was really fun with princess castle Little People and a train track around the ceiling.  Samantha did a great job letting the dentist look in her mouth, and he said it was fine, that it would heal up just fine on it's own.  He just said she basically did a frenectomy on herself, which possibly would have had to be done later on in her life anyways.

We got back a little late from the dentist, so it was time for lunch and nap time.   Samantha was in her room talking quietly for awhile, then I heard the Ariel song, and then a few minutes later I didn't hear anything and she had actually fallen asleep.  

Samantha had a make-up ballet lesson on Monday since Miss Ashley was sick for last Tuesday's lesson.  I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to make it for the lesson from 5:00-5:30, it just depended on how long Samantha and Aedan napped for and if we could get out of the house on time, since Ben teaches until 5:20 on Tuesdays.  They both ended up waking up on time, so we were able to all make a trip to ballet class. 

Like I said earlier, riding in the car with Samantha lets you in on some pretty interesting conversations.  Here are a few stories from Monday: 
On the way to ballet, Samantha was being sort of loud in the car and scared Aedan a little.  Without any prompting, she said, "Aedan, I'm sorry I scared you.  Will you forgive me?"  

Then, several times lately, when talking to Aedan, she'll say, "Aedan, I'm trying to talk to you!"  She will turn his exersaucer around so that he faces her in the kitchen, so that way she can talk to him and see him better.

We read her a story out of her little Picture Bible every night before bed.  Ben will often remark how it seems like she isn't even paying attention when he reads her the story, but then when he asks her questions about it, she knows every answer.  And not only that, she will remember a lot of these stories and bring them up in later conversations.  For example, one day we were talking about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and Samantha mentioned that fire will come down on her head.  So we then had a conversation about the Holy Spirit and how He works in her heart.  There is one story in her Bible about the Pentecost, and it's just amazing to me that she remembered it, that she remembered the fire on their heads, and that she knew the fire was the Holy Spirit descending on the people.  Wow, what little kids can learn and remember is astonishing sometimes!

Along that same line, Samantha often talks about how she can't see God, but He can see her; and that she can't hear God, but He can hear her.  I always talk to her about how there are ways we can hear God through praying or reading the Bible and that we may not be able to see God, but we can feel His presence.  She will just say these random things about God or a Bible story, and it makes me wonder, does she just think about these things a lot and then whatever is on her mind, she lets come out?  Or, is there something that happened that made her think of that?

I pray often that Samantha and Aedan, both, will come to know and love Jesus as their Lord and Savior, that their decision would be personal and meaningful, and that He would work in their hearts even now.  I believe that God is already stirring Samantha's heart towards Him with the truths that are already tucked into her mind and heart at such a young age.  I hope this interest and curiosity continues to grow and bear much fruit.  It is so exciting to see this in my daughter.  It makes my heart so happy.