Aedan Turns 1!

Samantha: 47 Months, Week 3
Aedan: Week 53

The weather this past week was so nice.  Spring has definitely arrived, and we tried to take advantage of the warm, sunny days by playing outside as much as possible.  So on Tuesday, we had a typical day of preschool and ballet lessons.  We had a quick dinner at home and then went to a local park close by our house.  Aedan got to ride on the swings, and he really enjoyed it.

Both Samantha and Aedan love being outside, and it's fun to watch them explore their environment.  Samantha is a lot more confident on her feet than she was at the beginning of fall last year, the last time we were at this park.  She can climb with ease and isn't as afraid anymore.  It's great to see her be active, run, and play because she has always been more cautious physically.  Aedan loved feeling all the different textures of the grass, the wood chips, and the rocks, although it was difficult for us to keep him from eating the small things he came across as he crawled across the ground.  Aedan's age is a little difficult for playing at parks because it's hard to crawl around sometimes, plus we still have to worry about him putting everything in his mouth.  Parks will become more fun for him once he starts walking and can toddle around.

However, I think Aedan's favorite part of the whole playground was climbing around inside this tunnel.  He would just crawl back and forth, towards Daddy and then back to me, smiling and giggling the whole time. It was fun watching him try to climb up the slippery sides to get to us.

We gave Samantha plenty of warning before it was time to go, but she still had a difficult time leaving the park.  Aedan has been getting sleepy pretty early in the evening lately, sometimes even before 7:00, so we needed to get him home and start getting him ready for bed.  Samantha was enjoying our first family trip to the park and did not want to leave, which we understood, but we gave her many warnings and chances and she still refused to come to the car.  Daddy ended up having to pick her up and carry her, and then we had the conversation that that is not the right way to be grateful for our idea to go to the park, and it certainly doesn't make us want to do it again.  It seems like Samantha has gone back to a phase where transitions are hard for her, especially when she's tired.  She did this when leaving music class the day before and will occasionally do it when leaving ballet as well.

Wednesday, April 29th was a big day in our house.  Not only is it a big day in the Toll family since it's Jeni and Andrew's anniversary as well as Upland Grandma's birthday, but it is also Aedan's birthday!  He is now a 1 year old!

Here we are at breakfast that morning...

And here are some pictures from a year ago.  I can't believe it's been a year since I was at the hospital delivering him.  I love to think back and reflect when birthdays come around, of all the ways there have been change and growth and there is so much of that in the first year of life.  There are so many things that I love about Aedan, there's no way that I could list them all.  He is the most precious little boy.  He has a sweet smile that spreads across his entire face.  Many people ask, "Is he always this happy?"  And we answer, "Most of the time, yes."  He loves life, loves to laugh, and loves to play.  Lately, when he's tired, he will come up to me and snuggle his head down into my lap, and I just love it.  When I hug him and hold him in my arms, he will often wrap his arms around me as well.  I will take all the little boy snuggles that I can get. :)  I love his energy and his spunk.  I love his healthy appetite.  I love his independence, but at the same time, he loves to be around his family.  Aedan Arthur has been such a blessing to our lives and to our family over the last year.

 (Man, these sweet little pictures make me so ready to have another little baby.)

Aedan had his 12 month check-up the morning of his birthday.  That probably wasn't very nice of us to take him to get shots on his birthday, but he doesn't really understand that yet.  The appointment was for 9:20 a.m. so Daddy was able to come with us before going to work, and that made it much easier for me.  Dr. Buerk was very nice, friendly, and informative.  Aedan is doing great.  He is healthy, he is eating like he should, he is developing like he should, and we are so pleased with our little rambunctious boy.  He measured in at 24 pounds, 15 ounces which was in the 90th percentile, 31.5 inches which was in the 95th percentile, and his head circumference was 19.  It's kind of funny to compare him from one check-up to the next because at Aedan's 9 month check-up he was 23 pounds, 10 ounces, 30.25 inches long, and his head circumference was 18.75.  It seems like there really hasn't been much change in his size over the last few months.  He followed the typical pattern of a breastfed baby where he got really big and chunky quickly, and now he has plateaued, leveled out, and is now thinning out due to his very active nature.  The doctor discussed a few things with us about what types of food to give him, to have him drink from a cup rather than a bottle (which isn't a problem for Aedan anyways), to baby proof things around the house so that we don't have to take as many things away from him, and to redirect his behavior and only save "No" for certain occasions where he might hurt himself.

I had some questions about nursing because Aedan has seemed very uninterested lately, and I have been concerned about my milk supply diminishing or drying up completely.  It seems like I always have to wrestle with him to get him to calm down enough to start nursing.  Sometimes he nurses well, sometimes he nurses for 5 minutes and seems done.  She encouraged me to keep it up as long as I would like to, and that my milk supply is sort of like a supply and demand relationship right now.  If he wants to nurse more, my body will make more, and if he wants to nurse less, my body will make less.  My body will respond to his needs, isn't that amazing?  I am currently nursing him three times a day: when he wakes up in the morning (or an early morning feed between 4:30 and 6:00, if he wakes up earlier than his normal wake-up time), before his afternoon nap, and then before putting him to bed at night.  Depending on how much he eats for lunch, the afternoon nursing is the one I have the hardest time getting him interested in, so that would be the first one I would wean him from.  In fact, some days when we are out over lunch and nap time, I just skip that nursing time and it doesn't phase him one bit.  It made me feel better that I don't have to nurse a certain amount or pump in order to keep up my supply.  I will just let things go as long as it works for the two of us; however, I think I would like to be mostly done nursing before getting pregnant again, so we'll see.

The last part of the check-up Aedan got one finger prick and three shots in his legs.  He certainly cried, but not nearly as hard nor as long as he has in the past.  When we got finished with our appointment, we made a stop by our management company to sign a lease for next year.  We looked as hard as we could for a different place to rent, a house closer into town, but we just had no luck.  We are happy with our townhouse now and figure we will just stay another year until we know for sure where we might be.  If we end up moving to a different city, or if we stay in Oxford for Ben to continue on in a tenure track position at Miami, we will then look to buy a house.

It was already close to 10:30 by the time we were done with our errand, and even though Aedan was tired from a long morning, it was really too late to take him home and give him a morning nap, so I decided to take the kids to the park where many other moms were meeting for a play date.  I put Aedan in the Ergo to see if he would nap on me, but he was too distracted by all the kids and all the commotion.  We had a fun morning playing outside.  Samantha got to go on the swing, play in the sandbox, and had a chance to play with some of her friends.

Here are some pictures of Aedan's little band-aids on his legs.  I wanted to take some pictures before taking them off after his nap.

Just as I was finishing changing Aedan's diaper and getting him dressed, Daddy got home.  He planned to get home early so that we could go do something fun to celebrate Aedan's 1st birthday.  On his way home, he stopped by Kroger to get a birthday balloon for Aedan.  Aedan thought it was pretty cool and really enjoyed playing with it.  (Samantha enjoyed playing with it almost just as much.)

That evening we decided to go to an indoor play place called Jump and Jack's.  We went there a while back when the weather was really cold, but it was before Aedan even knew how to crawl yet, so he didn't enjoy it as much as he would now that he is crawling and pulling up.  We figured it would be a perfect place to go for Aedan's birthday celebration because we wouldn't have to worry about him getting into anything he wasn't supposed to like at the park.  We ordered pizza to eat for dinner and enjoyed playing for a couple hours.  We even lucked out by going on a night that the inflatables were turned on as well.  Both kids had a blast!

It was fun to watch Aedan crawl around and explore.  The place was pretty empty, especially when we first arrived, so Aedan had the run of the baby area.  He discovered this caterpillar to climb through.  You wouldn't know that he had just gotten his 12 month shots that very morning.  He was having a great time.

I even took Aedan into the big playground area with me so that we could play with Daddy and Samantha.  There weren't very many kids there, so I was comfortable putting him down, letting him crawl around and explore.  There was one section with big exercise balls to push around and of course lots of tubes and obstacles.  It was fun getting out and being active with our kids.  Aedan even enjoyed the bounce house once the inflatables were put up.  Samantha was running and jumping all over the place, getting lots of energy out.  It was great to watch her having so much fun. :)

Before we left a little after 7:00, Samantha was racing another little boy down these big, fast slides.  He could go down the slides twice in the time it took Samantha to go down and climb back up once, but she still had a great time playing with the other kids there.  This was such a fun family night.  The perfect way to celebrate our little guy's birthday.

Before we left, we stopped by our table to have a last drink before heading home.  Aedan was acting really interested in my cup, so I let him have a drink from it, and he loved drinking from a big cup like a big kid.  I couldn't give him enough water!  He kept wanting more and more, acting very grumpy with me if I put the cup down or took it away from him.  Then, at the end he decided to stick his hand in the water and play with it!

Thursday was a rough day for Aedan, probably because of side effects from his shots the day before.  He was super tired and super grumpy.  I had planned on going grocery shopping, like I usually do on Friday mornings, but I knew that would not go over well, he would just be fussy the whole time.  I decided it would be more important to get Aedan home for a nap, and he ended up sleeping the whole morning.  I actually had to wake him up so that we could go pick up Samantha from preschool.  Since I didn't go shopping that morning, I planned to go after my Bible study that night, but it made for a very late night.  I think I got home close to 11:00 p.m., and we still had to get all the groceries unloaded and put away before being able to go to bed.  It was nice shopping in peace and quiet, without a baby to entertain while I shopped, but I did not like getting home so late and being gone from Ben more than I needed to.  Hopefully next week Aedan will be in a better mood, and we can go back to our normal routine.

Friday was going to be a busy day.  It was May 1st, Daddy's birthday!  We also had big plans to meet some preschool friends at Highfield gardens for a play date together.  The weather was beautiful, a perfect day to be outside.  Before leaving for the gardens, Samantha helped me mix together the batter for Daddy's birthday cake.  I always make him an ice cream cake for his birthday, and I wanted to get the cake made so that I could freeze it while we were gone and then finish it with the ice cream and frosting during nap time that afternoon.

We ended up leaving a little late because of all the things I was trying to get done that morning.  Plus, Aedan woke up early in the morning and didn't go back to sleep, so he was crabby and in need of a nap.  It was difficult to get lunch ready and make sure everything was taken care of when Aedan was fussy and crying and Samantha was impatient to leave.

When we arrived at the gardens, Samantha was so excited to play with her friends Matteo and Henry.  They had a big treehouse to play in in the center of the garden with tunnels and stairs to climb and explore.  Then, at 10:45 there was a program about flower power in the garden center.  They got to be junior scientists and even got science kits to investigate the flowers they were dissecting.  The lady running the program talked all about the importance of bees and all the different parts of the flower that they taped down and labeled on their paper.  Samantha was a very good listener and enjoyed the program.

 Here is Samantha, the scientist, studying her flower with her microscope.

After the program we spent the next hour letting our kids enjoy the outdoors.  They played in the tree house, the little tea house, watered a garden, ran around, climbed, explored, and created some precious memories together as friends.  Aedan thoroughly enjoyed himself as well.  He crawled around everywhere, exploring anything he could reach.  He really was in a pretty good mood for not having napped all morning.  I think he's finally reaching the point where he can skip his morning nap and not be a wreck, as long as we're doing something fun.

Samantha couldn't wait to show me this tunnel that led back to some pretend bats that hung from the ceiling with eyes that blinked red and blue.

 Aedan enjoyed playing with this rock and pulling grass and leaves off bushes.

They all had a great time in the tea house.  Aedan enjoyed playing with the big kids.

And they all enjoyed exploring the tunnel underneath the tree.  Aedan even did a pretty good job of not trying to eat everything he found on the ground.

Once it was getting close to noon, we decided to break for lunch.  There was an area with tables, and we all got our packed lunches out.  Our kids had been playing hard and were pretty hungry and thirsty.  Aedan ate a lot of food: two jars of baby food, one piece of cheese, two pieces of lunch meat, and plenty of puffs.  Samantha was a bit distracted by her friends, but I eventually got her to eat a pretty decent lunch.  While the moms continued to sit and talk at the table, the older kids got down and played around the fountain, running and chasing each other, having a good old time.

After giving the kids plenty of time to play, we all decided to part ways for the afternoon.  It was time for us to get back home for nap time, and the other families had plans as well.  Once on the road, I encouraged Samantha to stay awake in the car so that way she could take a better nap once back home.  (I knew that if she fell asleep in the car, there would be no way she'd go back to sleep once we got back home again.  Plus, I knew we still had a big night ahead of us that wouldn't be very fun if she didn't nap.)  I knew there was no way we could keep Aedan awake for the 38 minute drive back home since he hadn't napped all morning, but I figured I could get him back to sleep once home again.  Aedan fell asleep in the car as soon as we started driving.  However, Samantha was tired and whiny, saying she was tired and wanted to sleep, so I finally told her she could just close her eyes and sleep.  I figured a 30 minute nap would be better than nothing.  She tried closing her eyes, but kept opening them and looking around.  Then, she started looking at her library books again, so I assumed she just wanted to wait to nap until we got home.  However, about 15 minutes before we got home, she dropped her book and fell asleep.

Once we got home, I attempted to get both kids down for a nap as quickly as possible since it was already 2:00.  I put Samantha to bed first so that she wouldn't have to wait for me to nurse Aedan.  Aedan fell asleep pretty easily, sleeping for another two hours.  Samantha, on the other hand, did not go back to sleep.  She whined and cried in her room, asked to go to the bathroom once, and generally just refused to try to lay down and sleep.  I was a frustrated with her because that was why I didn't want her to fall asleep in the car.  I knew she wouldn't go back to sleep once we got home, so she only had a 15 minute nap all day, even though she was very tired.

I probably was a little too ambitious with my plans that Friday since Ben and I had plans to go out on a date to celebrate his birthday.  I tried to find a babysitter for Saturday night instead, but it was prom, so no one was available.  I knew Friday would be a busy day with being gone all morning at the gardens, but I didn't want to miss out on the chance to go out with Ben.  I really wanted Samantha to take a good nap so that she could have a good night with the babysitter and not be cranky and disrespectful, but what can you do?  You can't make her sleep!

While the kids were upstairs for nap time, I finished Ben's birthday cake, cutting the frozen cake in half so that I could spread chocolate cookie dough ice cream in between the halves.  Then, I made some homemade buttercreme frosting to go on top.  It looked good, and I knew Ben would appreciate this special treat.

Our babysitter, Kayla, arrived a little before 4:30.  We finished making mac and cheese for them to have for dinner, showed her where everything she may need was found around the house, and then left.  This was only the second time we have ever had a babysitter that has not been family.  The other time was back in Bloomington before Aedan was born when Ben and I went out to dinner and then to the Beauty and the Beast live stage show at the IU Auditorium.  Anyways, Ben picked a little hole in the wall barbecue place for dinner that had really good reviews.  It was so enjoyable to just be able to sit and talk at a restaurant.  We took our time, had good conversation, and thoroughly enjoyed our time together away from our kids.  After dinner, we stopped by Bed, Bath, and Beyond to purchase a new rug to go in front of our sink.  We shared a brownie sundae at Graeter's, and then we visited a mattress store to begin looking at prices of a twin size mattress for Samantha.  It wasn't a really exciting date, and we didn't go anywhere fancy, but we had a great time being away from home for awhile.  Date nights have been increasingly important to me as our kids have been extra taxing at times lately.  Plus, it was great to celebrate my wonderful husband's birthday.

We got back home around 7:30 and found everything had gone really well with Kayla.  In fact, when she left Aedan started crying, so he must have had a lot of fun with her.  :)  Then, it was time for cake and presents for Daddy.  Samantha would not let us get away with forgetting about cake.  We got Daddy's cake out, put candles on it and lit them, and then sang Happy Birthday.  When you're turning 31, birthdays aren't that exciting to you anymore, but we still had to get Daddy some presents.  Earlier in the week Samantha, Aedan, and I stopped by TJMaxx (the only clothing store in Oxford), so that Samantha could help pick out a present for him.  It was difficult to steer her towards shirts that I thought he might like.  Her first choice was a bright pink shirt and then a black shirt with white flowery designs on the side, but I eventually helped her settle on a t-shirt that was more of a turquoise color.  She also picked out a pink and blue plaid tie for him to wear to work.  I got him a couple polo shirts as well since most of his shirts are from back during his college days.

We love Daddy so much, and this little celebration doesn't do it justice.  Samantha is Daddy's little girl and is always SO excited when he gets home from work.  He is the one she can be silly with, wrestle with, sing songs with.  He is the one she gets to do puzzles with every night before bed.  He makes her feel special and loved and beautiful.  Aedan also loves his Daddy.  He likes to wrestle him and watch him throw balls up into the air.  I also love Ben, and I can't believe we have almost been married for 9 years.  I love him more now than I did before.  Having kids has made our relationship better and stronger and closer.  He makes me want to be a better person.  He cares for me and supports me and loves me.  I can't imagine my life without him.  Happy Birthday Ben!

Saturday morning, after attempting to get Aedan to take a morning nap to no avail, we went to Uptown Oxford to see the Red Bricks and Roses Parade.  This was a great event with live music, special activity centers for kids, and the opening day of the farmer's market.  Samantha got to decorate a stick horse with crayons and stickers while Aedan crawled around on the grass listening to the live band.

 There was a historical carriage you could sit in and pretend to ride.

Then, we found a seat along the edge of the road so that we had a good view of the Red Bricks and Roses parade.  The parade was comprised of many horse-drawn carriages.  There was an announcer telling you what breed of horses they were, what type of carriage the riders were in, as well as what year or era the carriage was from.  It was pretty interesting to watch, and Samantha found the horses to be fascinating.  It was such a wide range of horses for giant Clydesdales to miniature ponies.  Aedan particularly liked the sound of the loud horses and carriages passing by.

Aedan was practically falling asleep while eating his snack in his stroller and watching the parade, so as soon as the parade was over, we decided it was time to head home for a quick lunch and nap time.  While we were Uptown Samantha really wanted to play in the fountains, but we didn't have any clothes for her to change into.  So we promised her that we would go back to the fountains that evening to play as long as she took a good nap.  While the kids napped, I met a woman from Cincinnati at the Outlet Mall who was selling a bike trailer on Craig's List.  I shopped while I waited for her to arrive, which was wonderful time to myself.  I got some good deals on summer clothes and got to walk around without dragging two kids along with me.  Plus, I am excited about having this bike trailer now.  Ben and I can go on bike rides this summer with Samantha and Aedan in the bike trailer together.  It will be a fun way to spend time together and to get some good exercise as well.

I got back home in time to pick everyone up so we could head Uptown for dinner at Chipotle and time to play in the fountains.  Chipotle was really busy, so Ben went to wait in line while I took the kids across to the fountains to play.  I got both Samantha and Aedan changed into their bathing suits.  Samantha couldn't wait to run around and play in the fountains.  Aedan had never done this before, but was really intrigued by the flowing water.  You can tell by his reaction in the video below what he thought of the water once he got close enough to feel it and get splashed by it.  The cry in this video reminds me of the cry he made when he was a newborn baby.  I think the water just surprised him.  It was a bit cold, and it splashed right in his face.  

We spent the rest of the time watching Samantha from the side lines.  After a while both kids just wanted to climb around and play in the area with the statues.  However, it seemed like the ground was bothering Aedan's knees, so I put his pants back on him so that he could crawl around more easily.  The kids had a great time playing outside in the warm sunshine that evening.  It made me look forward to the summer months coming up ahead of us, the evenings spent outside together as a family, and claiming Uptown for the families once the students go back home for the summer.

Once we got back home and started getting ready for bed, we heard the landscaping crew coming around to lay down mulch, so we had to stop and take a moment to watch out Aedan's bedroom window.  Samantha and Aedan were both fascinated.  It's funny how little things like this are so interesting to kids.

Pretty much the day after Aedan turned 1, we decided to let him try whole milk.  I had been pumping every other day or so up until this point so that we would have breast milk to mix with his baby cereal in the morning for breakfast, so I was eager to not have to do that anymore.  Aedan likes his baby cereal, so we figured we would just keep on giving it to him until his interest in it feigns.  We mixed the whole milk in and gave it to him that morning for breakfast.  Aedan didn't even seem to notice there was anything different about it.  After we tried that for a couple days, on Sunday morning we put milk in a sippy cup for Aedan to have.  I was interested to see how he would like the taste of whole milk not mixed with anything.  Samantha was unsure when she first tried whole milk as a baby.  Aedan, on the other hand, LOVED it!  He loved holding his own cup, putting it up to his mouth, and drinking all by himself.  The milk was running down his chin, but he didn't want to stop drinking!  We will definitely have to keep giving him milk to drink.  It's great watching him become more independent like this.

Sunday was a good day of going to church and having a relaxing afternoon at home.  We played outside again and enjoyed nights with our windows wide open.  I love this time of year.

I took this great video of Samantha and Aedan on Sunday night.  Samantha's room is pretty much off limits to Aedan because she keeps all her small toys like legos, her fairy castle, and her train track in there so that Aedan can't get to it and knock it down.  Well, I think he instinctively knows that he is not welcome there, making him want to go there even more.  Oftentimes he will crawl up the stairs and make a beeline for Samantha's room.  However, on Sunday night Samantha was holding her own and protecting her room by pulling Aedan out of her room by his leg.  He was having a great time, cracking up as he kept crawling forward just to have her pull him back.  I love to see them interacting with each other in this way. :)  Ahh, sibling love.

Monday was a pretty typical day with our last music class with Miss Susan.  We had a great time being a part of it for the last six weeks, and we even bought her CD to listen to.  Samantha and Aedan both love music, and it's great to support a local mom who is trying to help provide for her family.

That evening we tried a new recipe called Greek Dinner with pasta, tomatoes, sausage, and feta cheese.  Both our kids were fans.  It's great when we make a meal that is a big hit for everyone.  We have wonderful family dinners around here with fun, laughter, and a lot of silliness, as you can see in these pictures and video.

(Blog about April 28-May 4, 2015)