Aedan's First Tooth & Wonderful Times with My Beautiful Girl

Samantha: 41 Months, Week 4
Aedan: Week 28

Since this past Tuesday was election day, Samantha did not have preschool.  However, the TRI community center is starting an open gym on Tuesday mornings for children to come play, run around, and kick balls during the cold weather months when you can't be outside very much.  We decided to go to the open gym since Samantha didn't have preschool, as she won't be able to go on other Tuesdays.  It was a bit of a challenge getting ready that morning as Samantha wasn't being the best listener.  She hasn't wanted her hair to be brushed or put up lately, but it's much too crazy to leave down.  Plus, then it's hanging in her face (and food) all day.  When I tried to get her to come sit by me so I could do her hair, she hid behind the rocking chair in Aedan's room.  Eventually I convinced her to let me help her finish getting ready so we could go play at the gym.

Here are some pictures of Aedan that morning when he was playing on his floor gym and kicked it over on himself.

Once we got to the gym, Samantha's attitude improved, and she had a good time playing with other kids.  Many of the kids were younger than her, but she found one boy that was about her age who she enjoyed playing with.  I think her favorite place to play was inside the pop-up fire engine.  Although there were a few boys that would just climb in through the windows or knock the whole thing over, and she would just look at them like, "What are you doing?  Don't you know that you are supposed to go in through the door?"  

Then Samantha and her friend got the idea to pretend they were riding in the fire truck, so they pushed it up with their hands and walked around the gym with it, making fire truck noises and having a great time.

She also really enjoyed the seesaw.  At one point she wanted to go on it, but there was no one to ride with on it.  She stood there just looking around for someone and then said, "Should I go ask someone to ride with me?"  I said, "Yeah, that would be a great idea!"  So Samantha walked up to the boy she was playing in the fire truck with earlier and bravely and independently asked him to come ride with her.  Then, she reached down, grabbed his hand, and they walked over to the seesaw together.  I was so proud of her reaching out to another child like that and being brave enough to do it by herself, without asking me to do it for her.  As you can tell by this video, they had a great time on the seesaw together.

I wish that this open gym was on a different day than Tuesdays so that we could come again sometime.  Samantha really had a good time, and after playing in the gym for over an hour, some of the parents decided to go outside and play on the playground since it was a fairly nice day out.  While we were inside, Aedan took a little nap in the Ergo, so that made him a much happier little boy.  Once outside, I pushed Samantha on the swing, and she climbed and went down the slides.  Then at one point she asked me if she could go in the sandbox.  When she is there for preschool, they don't allow the kids to play in the sandbox for whatever reason.  So once she was in it playing, she looked at me and said, "I hope Miss Betsy and Miss Becky don't see what I'm doing."  I explained to her that she wasn't doing anything wrong since that is just a rule at preschool and she was not at preschool then.  I tried to explain to her that it was okay because I gave her permission to play in there, but she still kept looking around worriedly, like she was going to get in trouble at any minute.  It was so funny to see how much of a rule follower she is.  It could be partly the fact that she is a firstborn, and/or that she is definitely our daughter because both Ben and I are pretty strong rule followers as well.  I think it's not a bad trait to possess.

Since we just went to the open gym, we got home a little earlier than normal, giving us the ability to have more down time and to eat lunch earlier, giving us the chance to take naps earlier.  Before lunch that afternoon, Samantha was playing with some dolls and stuffed animals, pretending to put them to bed on the living room floor.  She likes to put things to bed and then pretend that they are playing in their room instead of sleeping, requiring her to go back to them and tell him to go back to sleep.  (Hmm...I wonder where she gets this role playing from.)  From the kitchen I heard her say, "I have to put my two sassy children to bed because they are pretty cranky right now."  Then she walked out into the kitchen and said, "They're so sassy!"  (The word sassy definitely comes from her daddy.)  Her little conversations make me laugh.  It's scary sometimes how kids notice EVERYTHING that you do and say.  It's humbling.  We are such an example to her, and I pray that I am a good example, a reflection of Jesus' love.

They both napped very well that afternoon as they were pretty tired kids that morning.  While they napped, I worked on my Bible study and then had a good conversation with my friend Andrea from Bloomington.  I hadn't talked to her since her son was born in the middle of September, so I couldn't wait to hear how things were going and to hear his birth story.  Once Samantha woke up, she got to watch her show, which was Lady and the Tramp, and then I got her ready for ballet so that she was ready when Daddy got home from campus.  Here's our little ballerina all ready for ballet.

Wednesday morning was our second to last Bible study, and again, Aedan was ready for a nap right at the time it started, so we made sure to leave extra early that morning so that I could rock him and lay him down in the pack and play for a nap in the nursery at church.  I wrapped him in the sleep sack, put the pacifier in his mouth, and held him towards me, all cuddled up, and it only took about ten minutes for his eyes to droop closed.  Success!  Not only did I get him down for a nap, but I was still on time to the video at the beginning of our Bible study.  That morning, a girl from my small group who is a speech and hearing major took Samantha to do a little practice test on her for one of her class projects.  I went down to check on Aedan at the mid-morning break, and he was already awake.  I asked the childcare workers how long he slept for, and they made it sound like he woke up shortly after I laid him down because they turned on the TV to play some music and it was so loud it woke him up.  That made me kind of sad after I took the effort to get there early and get him down for a nap.

The more I've been attending this Wednesday morning Bible study, the more I am thinking about switching to the Thursday night group.  I feel like I haven't really gotten to know anyone there.  It's a hard time of day with Aedan needing to take a morning nap.  When he doesn't nap, it makes the whole rest of the day hard because he is overtired and lacking sleep.  Also, sometimes I don't feel comfortable leaving him there with the college students that watch the children.  He is the youngest child there, and I'm sure they do fine with the older kids, but I sometimes feel like Aedan gets overlooked or neglected.  One time they left him in his sleep sack the whole time.  They never change his diaper, even if it's wet and he needs to be changed.  I don't know, I'm sure he's fine, but I don't feel totally comfortable.  It seems like the format of the Thursday night Bible study may be more beneficial for meeting and getting to know other women from the church.  Plus, the small group that I was put into on Wednesdays slowly fizzled out.  We started with seven or eight women, and this week there were only three of us left.  One week there was only another woman and me.  I talked to my friend, Maggie, who attends the Thursday night Bible study, and she made it sound like there is more open discussion and that there are more younger women/moms that attend.  Plus, if I go on Thursday nights I can always nurse and put Aedan to bed before I leave, or Ben can be in charge of bedtime one night a week, giving me a night out of the house as well.  I may try it out and see what I think.

Anyways, the morning still went well, and then it was time for lunch.  We finished giving Aedan squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots, the orange vegetables, so it was time to move on to the green vegetables of which peas was our first.  He really enjoyed his peas. :)

What a cutie!

My friend, Maggie, called me on Wednesday afternoon, wondering if I would like to hang out with her on Friday night for dinner and whatever else sounded good to us.  So, knowing that I might be out over bedtime, I knew we had to figure out a way to get Aedan happy in taking his bottle.  I looked on Amazon to see how much the Dr. Brown level three nipples would cost, but they were too cheap to purchase on their own, they had to be added on to something else for shipping purchases.  So, I figured it would be just as easy to make a trip to Target to get the nipples and also to get the breathable bumpers.  Originally, Ben was planning on getting home early on Wednesday night, as he was going to let his class out early.  However, he ended up getting caught talking to students and got home not much earlier than he normally does.  While we were waiting for him to arrive, Samantha was showing Aedan her baby book, but I think he was more interested in trying to eat her.

Once Daddy got home, we piled in the car and headed to the area with Target and Five Guys.  We had yummy burgers and fries for dinner, grilled cheese for Samantha, and then went to Target to make our purchases and take advantage of the Starbucks in the store.  Samantha and Aedan both did a pretty good job, even though they were getting tired toward the end.  This end to daylight savings time thing is really throwing everyone off.  When it's practically dark at 5:45, it's hard to realize that it's not bedtime.  It's hard not to get sleepy early, and it's hard that we can't go on family walks together after dinner anymore because it's too dark and too cold.  When we were driving to Five Guys, Samantha remarked, "I should be getting ready for bed by now!"  So we tried to explain to her that it was not even 6:00 yet, it was just that it's getting darker earlier now.  I always find it a hard adjustment to make, and I'm sure it's confusing to kids as well.

One interesting development with Aedan lately is that he will get upset if you take something from him.  In the past, you could take something from his hands and he didn't seem to care.  Now, if I have to take a toy from him in order to buckle him into his car seat or if Samantha takes a toy out of his hands, he will start crying.  Because of that, we have started talking with Samantha more about sharing with his brother and not taking away a toy he is playing with.

Thursday was a pretty normal day of taking Samantha to preschool, going grocery shopping with Aedan, and getting both kids to take naps.  It's so funny to watch her fall asleep.  She will sometimes wiggle around and be silly in bed, hiding under the covers, dangling her arms or legs out, sticking her tushy up in the air, but I can always tell when she is getting sleepy and is about ready to fall asleep because she will lay on her back and pull the blanket all the way up to her chin like you can see in the picture.  That is how she falls asleep every time.  It's so adorable.  I'm just so glad that she has been napping so well for me lately.  We've been wondering if she might be going through a growth spurt because she has been super tired and sleeping a lot more than usual, as well as super hungry and eating a lot more than usual.

As I was adjusting Aedan's car seat straps that day, looping them through the top hole instead of the bottom hole, I noticed that the weight limit of his car seat is 22 pounds or 29 inches in length.  At Aedan's six month appointment, he was already 22 pounds, so apparently we are going to have to switch him out earlier than we expected.  We have another Britax car seat given to us by some friends in Bloomington that have given us all their girl clothes, plus many other things.  So we will switch Aedan into Samantha's car seat, but obviously still have it rear-facing, and will let Samantha use this other car seat since it it brown with pink flowers.  The only problem is that the other car seat is with Ben's parents in Upland, so we'll either have to get it from them somehow, or wait until we go there around Thanksgiving to make the switch.  Aedan is getting too big, too fast!  He is wearing mostly 9 month clothes now, and you can definitely tell that he is getting too big for his car seat already.  We always just take him out and carry him anyways, so it really won't make much difference to have him in the convertible car seat rather than the infant car seat that can be taken in and out of the car.

The other exciting event of Thursday was that I felt in Aedan's mouth and noticed a tooth had popped through!  We have been wondering for awhile if Aedan was teething, but you really never know until you see a tooth pop in.  I took the below picture a few days later, but I wanted to be sure to get a picture of Aedan's first little tooth. It is the left tooth on the bottom.  You can see a tiny bit of jagged white sticking up through his gums in this picture.  No wonder teething is so bothersome to little babies!  When I told Samantha that Aedan got his first tooth in, she was so excited.  She couldn't wait for me to show her what it looked like.  I love how she gets excited over Aedan's little firsts as well, like when he sleeps through the night, when he first tries different food, when he sits up or rolls over by himself, and now, when he sprouts a new tooth!

It's funny how your perspective is so much clearer in retrospect.  Once I noticed Aedan's first tooth poking through, I thought, "Wow, that must have been why he was having such a hard time nursing the last few days when he would scream, cry, arch his back, and push me away."  It'll be interesting to see if he does that the next time before a new tooth comes in, then I'll know it's one of his signs of teething and not be quite so worried about whether he is losing interest in nursing or not getting enough to eat.

Thursday night, as we were getting ready for dinner, Samantha was playing around and being silly, slipped and fell and then said, "The floor hit me in the tushy!"  What a silly little girl!

Friday morning I had thought about taking the kids to family story time at the library.  We haven't been to the library in awhile, and now that story time at the park is over, I figured we'd try this out at the library since it's the same guy who led story time at the park.  Anyways, Samantha and Aedan both woke up early that morning.  Plus, Aedan had a rough night the night before, I think Ben or I were up at least four times during the night either nursing him or trying to rock him back to sleep.  We just could not get him to sleep, and he was up for a couple hour chunk at a time.  Needless to say, Ben and I were both super tired Friday morning and would have loved to get some extra sleep.  Samantha was pretty tired too and decided she just wanted to stay home and play rather than go to the library.  She was in a rather subdued mood, and Aedan took a two hour nap that morning, so I took advantage of our morning at home to get the cleaning done.  Samantha even helped me dust some.

Then, Friday evening I had plans with my friend Maggie.  She came and picked me up at 6:00 so we could go eat dinner at a local coffee shop, giving us the chance to hang out and talk, just the two of us without kids around.  After eating dinner, we went to some local shops and walked around, casually shopping and talking more.  I got home a little before 10:00, and had a great evening out.  I enjoyed getting some time to have adult conversation and getting out of the house for awhile.    Thank you for the sweet invitation, Maggie!

Ben did a great job holding down the fort, dealing with two tired children, and putting them both to bed.  We had the pack and play set up in our bedroom for Aedan to sleep in since Matt, Christy, and Brielle were coming to visit for the weekend, and we decided to let them use Aedan's room so that they could use his crib, the changing table, and the rocking chair.  They got off work a little early, but didn't end up leaving the Chicago area until around 5:00 p.m.  They stopped twice and ended up arriving at our house close to 1:00 a.m.  We waited up for a little while for them, but once we discovered it was going to be so late, Ben and I just decided to leave the front door unlocked and head to bed.  However, just as we were about to crawl in bed around midnight, Aedan woke up crying.  I think he thought sleeping in the pack and play in our room was a little strange.  I decided to take advantage of the fact that he was awake to nurse him.  (When Ben put him to bed, he took the bottle much better since we had the right size nipple, but he didn't drink much of it, so I thought he might be getting hungry again.)  I nursed Aedan, but being in a different room was strange to him, so it took awhile to get him to fall back asleep.  We had a rough night with Aedan again, with him waking up again around 4:15 and both Ben and I trying to get him back to sleep.  Ben tried rocking him at first and got him to sleep in his arms, but all of a sudden Aedan just freaked out and starting screaming and crying.  It was at that point that I decided to take over.  I took Aedan and decided to try nursing him again, partly to see if he was hungry again, and partly in an attempt to calm him down.  I knew that Matt, Christy, and Brielle were asleep in the room across the hall, and I didn't want Aedan to wake them up.  After nursing him, he still wasn't asleep, so I had to hold him and rock him.  I wanted to make sure he was good and asleep before laying him down in the pack and play.  It was probably around 6:15 a.m. when he finally was back down again, making it a two hour experience of getting Aedan back to sleep, not exactly what we were hoping for after having a rough night on Thursday as well.

Once we finally got Aedan back to sleep in the morning, we hoped we could get more sleep before Samantha woke up, but she was up bright and early.  Pretty much as soon as I laid Aedan down and crawled into bed, I started hearing Samantha making noise around 6:30 a.m.  I tried going in her room to tell her it was still time to sleep, that everyone was still sleeping, and to go back to sleep, but it didn't really work.  She was quieter, but I don't think she fell back asleep.  In fact, after a little while I ended up just turning down her monitor so that her noise wouldn't wake up Aedan and so Ben and I could still sleep.  We ended up waking up at 7:45 when Aedan started to stir.  I know this is crazy, but this is the longest we've "slept in" for a long time.  Even though Ben and I got a little extra sleep, we were both still very tired that day.

Matt, Christy, and Brielle ended up sleeping in until about 10:30.  Daddy and Samantha had gone out to get doughnuts for breakfast.  Then, we just spent the day hanging out.  Samantha was SO excited to see Brielle.  She doted on her and brought toys to her.  She talked to her, sang to her, and gave her lots of kisses.  It was cute to see them together.  Aedan noticed Brielle, but I don't think he really knew what to think.  I thought about putting them together on the floor gym, but I was afraid that Aedan would try to roll on Brielle, pull her hair, or whack her in the face.  It'll be fun once Brielle gets a little older and she and Aedan can interact and play together a little more.

After a good nap time for all, we decided to drive Matt and Christy around Oxford, showing them campus, Samantha's preschool, and Uptown.  Then, we all went to Skyline for dinner.  We figured they might enjoy trying out the Cincinnati tradition of chili on top of spaghetti.  :)  After dinner, it was time to get back home for bath time and bed time for all three kids.

Aedan did slightly better on Saturday night with sleeping, waking up only once, but still had a hard time falling asleep after nursing.  In fact, I ended up just laying him down while he was still awake, hoping he would fall asleep on his own.  He made noise for a little while and then fell asleep, which we were glad for.

Here are some pictures from Sunday morning, hanging out before going to church.  Samantha couldn't wait to see Brielle that morning, going to sit by her instantly so she could play with her and show her her kitty, Ellie.

After going to church together, Ben and Samantha went to small group while the Clemons family, Aedan, and me came back home to get the babies down for a nap.  Matt, Christy, and Brielle planned to leave shortly after lunch, so they could make the trek back to Chicago.  Ben and Samantha got back from small group around 4:00, and then, since everyone was pretty tired from the long weekend with not enough sleep, we just hung out as a family.

Samantha and Aedan played blocks together on the blanket, and this is how she lined up the blocks before it was time for bed that night.  Every block had to be turned so that the doors or windows faced outwards and each house needed a roof facing the exact same direction.  Oh my, is she our child, or what?

Sunday night we got a nice surprise as Aedan slept all the way through the night!  After a few nights of not sleeping well, we were so glad that getting him back in his own room in his own crib seemed to make a difference.

Monday we had a nice, relaxing morning at home.  Roscoe had the right idea of napping on the couch in the sun.  He looked so cute and peaceful, and he gets forgotten a lot with two kids around the house, so I decided to get a picture of him as well.  He's an old dog and sleeping is certainly his favorite pastime.

While Aedan napped, Samantha and I got a chance to play together, just the two of us.  I really enjoy when we get to do this.  It's fun to be able to give her attention and to have the freedom to play.  She is such a creative little girl.  To be honest, I have gotten a little sad lately thinking about Samantha reaching school age.  Many parents do the two day a week preschool like we're doing now, then the three day a week preschool the following year, and then full time kindergarten and off into elementary school.  I can't believe she is getting so old, so fast, and I actually kind of miss spending time with her.  I feel like my time with her is so limited, even though I'm staying home with her now.  With preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Bible study on Wednesdays, I don't get many mornings to play with my little girl and enjoy her company.  I'm looking forward to our busy days calming down some so that I can spend more time with her.  I want to take advantage of all the time I can get. :)

I just love this picture of Samantha.  Isn't she just beautiful?  She picked her clothes out and got dressed all by herself that morning.  (Apparently it was a blue themed day.)  This reminds me of a conversation that Ben and I regularly have with Samantha.  We'll ask, "How much do we love you?" Samantha will respond, "This much! (stretching her arms out as far as they can go.)  Then we'll ask, "How long will we love you?"  Samantha will respond, "For the rest of your life."  Then we'll ask, "Why do we love you?"  Samantha will respond, "Because of my heart."  Man, that's for sure, little girl.  You are beautiful inside and out.  You are special.  You are loved.

I don't know if you can tell in this picture or not, but she has a dolly up under her shirt/dress.  Her dolly was hungry so she needed to nurse her.  :)

Samantha will go through phases of what toys she plays with.  Her stuffed animal and dolls have been forgotten about for awhile, but now they have come back out again.  We played Duck, Duck, Goose with her stuffed animals, and then Piggy and Dolly got put down for a nap in the laundry basket.  (Samantha asked me to take a picture of them, as you can see below.)  We also played Hide and Seek with her animals.  She would hide a few animals around the house for me to find, and then we would switch roles.  She found some pretty creative places to hide her animals.  The only place that wasn't so great was inside the trash can!  The dog that got hidden there had to get a little bit of a bath as he may or may not have gotten egg goo on him.  From then on, Samantha promised not to hide her animals in trash can anymore. :)

 At about 11:00, I decided it was time to wake Aedan up from his morning nap.  I didn't want him to sleep too long and ruin the chances of him taking a good afternoon nap.  Plus, it was going to be a high of 62 degrees that day, and I wanted to take advantage of our nice weather and go play outside at a park before a cold front would come through and dip temperatures down into the 30s.  We got ready, made some sandwiches for a picnic lunch, and headed out.  We don't normally leave the house at 11:30 to go somewhere, but I figured it would be okay, especially since Aedan took a good nap.

We had a couple errands to run first, dropping a movie off at the library and stopping at Kroger to grab a few groceries.  I decided it would be fun to let Aedan ride in the shopping cart rather than wearing him in the Ergo.  So I strapped the Floppy Seat into the cart, strapped Aedan into the seat, and let him have a new perspective on Kroger.  He has been doing much better at sitting up lately and did pretty well holding himself up in the cart.  By the end he was leaning over a little bit so that I had to support him, but I think it was mainly because I didn't have the strap tight enough around his waist.  He was a pretty happy little guy.  And Samantha was happy riding in the car attached to the front of the cart.  She calls these "special carts."

After finishing at Kroger, we went to the playground that is located by our church.  I told Samantha she had to eat her lunch before she could play, giving her added motivation to eat quicker than usual.  She had a wonderful time playing outside, climbing and sliding and swinging.  I could have sat outside in the warm sunshine all afternoon, but knew Aedan wouldn't stay happy for too long before wanting to eat and take a nap.  However, I soaked up our time together and enjoyed watching Samantha pump her legs back and forth on the swing and squeal as she slid down the slide on her tummy multiple times.

That evening, once Daddy got home from campus and we had dinner, we decided to make cherry pie.  Samantha suggested this sometime last week, so I bought cherry pie filling at Kroger that afternoon.  Daddy and Samantha made the pie crust together that night after dinner.  She's getting quite the practice in the kitchen, isn't she?  I love how she has liked to help.  In fact, Ben made this comment on Facebook earlier in the week: "Last night as I called Jenny to tell her I was on my way home, I heard a 3-year-old voice yelling, "I am making dinner all by myself!!!!"  Now, I doubt that Jenny was truly that successful at training Samantha, but all I have to say is that I will look forward to the day when Samantha is the executive chef and Aedan is the sous chef while Jenny and I sit back and relax..."