House Sitting for Upland Grandpa and Grandma

Samantha: 48 Months, Week 4

Aedan: 13 Months, Week 2 (Week 59)

This past week we went to Upland to house sit for Grandpa and Grandma while they were on a mission's trip in Guatemala.  Our job was to make sure the cat had food and water, to make sure the garden had enough water, and to pick the strawberries that were starting to come in.  It's nice that we have an academic schedule, allowing us to take several days and go live our life in a different location.  Samantha was excited about going to Upland, and we tried to remind her that no one else would be there, just us, so it would be a little different than our usual visits to Upland.

We left for Upland once we got up and ready on Tuesday morning, arriving just before lunch time.  We had some time to play outside, swing on the swings, and Daddy and Samantha even went into the garden and picked the first batch of strawberries.  Yum, fresh strawberries are the best!  I couldn't wait to slice some up for lunch.  Thank you for having such a wonderful garden, Grandma, so that all your children and grandchildren can enjoy the fruit of your labor!

After Samantha woke up from her nap, she discovered a new puzzle that Grandpa and Grandma had bought.  It was a 100 piece puzzle, but Samantha was up for the challenge.  I bought several 48 piece puzzles for Samantha for Christmas, but now those are almost too easy for her already.  Daddy helped her some with this new puzzle, especially in getting the outside pieces, but she did much of the puzzle herself and was pretty proud.  I have never been much of a puzzle person myself, but I'm so glad that Samantha is because she's good at focusing on details and sticking to a task until it's completed.  I know puzzles are good for developing your brain as well, such a simple, yet beneficial activity for her.

After having an early dinner, we decided to go over to Taylor's campus for the evening.  It was going to be a nice evening, and there was a lot of rain in the forecast for the rest of the week, so we wanted to take advantage of our chance to be outside.  We brought Samantha's bike with us, as well as Aedan's stroller, so we drove over to campus and parked in the Reade parking lot so that Samantha could have better (flatter) sidewalks to ride on.  We even went inside Reade because there was a poster of Daddy on the wall in the political science area to showcase different occupations you can have with a political science major.  After that, we made our way to the bell tower to hear it chime.  Samantha (and Alaina when she's here) think they own Taylor's campus, like it's their own personal playground, an extension of Grandpa and Grandma's back yard.  We love coming over to campus and walking around.

We also brought a Frisbee with us, one that Daddy used when playing Frisbee Golf with his friends back in college.  We threw around the Frisbee for awhile, and Samantha actually wasn't too bad.  Ben even made a comment about how 10 years ago he never would have imagined being back on campus watching his 4 year old daughter throw a Frisbee around in the grass.  It's funny where life takes you, and it's great to share our love of our time at Taylor with our kids.

Aedan enjoyed looking at the Sammy fountains, splashing his hands in the water, and walking around on the sidewalks.  This little boy is getting better at walking each day.  It's fun to see him progress.  However, when he really wants to get somewhere fast, he will just do this spider crawl up on his hands and feet, so that way his bare knees don't get scratched up crawling across the ground.

After playing on campus for a while, we decided it was time to get some ice cream at Ivanhoe's.  We had never taken Samantha there before, and she was very excited about her clown kiddie sundae.  She picked pink bubble gum ice cream, and even though we told her she didn't have to, she ate almost the entire thing!

Aedan was also really excited to get tastes of Mommy's and Daddy's ice cream, saying "please" in sign language with much enthusiasm!  On our way back to the car, Samantha noticed the Garfield statue holding an ice cream cone, so we had to go over to it and pose for a picture.  After that, every time we passed Garfield when driving down the road, Samantha would wave and say hello to him. :)  We had a good first experience at Ivanhoe's.

Wednesday, while Aedan was taking his morning nap, Samantha helped us make a double recipe of strawberry jam.  We filled up over seven freezer containers of strawberry jam.  However, even with all that freezer jam, it seemed like we didn't even make a dent in the strawberries from the day before, plus we had more to pick that afternoon!  We had plans to make a couple strawberry pies and also to just freeze some of the strawberries to be eaten later in the year when it is no longer strawberry season.  It's a good thing our kids love strawberries!

Once Aedan woke up from his nap, we got some sandwiches, strawberries, pretzels, and water ready for a picnic lunch at the Upland playground.  The rain was not going to come until later that afternoon, so we figured it would be good for the kids to spend some time outside.  They enjoyed themselves on the swings, Samantha loved being spun around on the merry-go-round, and Aedan just wanted to climb up and down the stairs on the little kid playground equipment.

Aedan liked the slide as well, but always wanted to try to crawl down it head first rather than sitting at the top and sliding down on his bottom.  This first video is of him climbing down the slide, and the second video is after I picked him up at sat him down to slide.  He liked the feeling of going down fast, but he still isn't the best at keeping himself upright.

Aedan really enjoys walking whenever he gets the chance.  This playground had old rubber tires as the soft ground, so it was a bit difficult for Aedan to walk around by himself, but he did a great job of walking across the playground while only holding on to me with one hand.

Once we had our lunch and played for a little longer, it was time to head back to the house for nap time.  The kids had good naps, and since we were in a place with more than just bunny ears, Samantha was able to watch Doc McStuffins after she woke up from her nap.  Also, since we didn't have fruit snacks with us, she got to have chocolate cereal for her snack.  Lucky girl, things like this are the perks of being at Grandpa and Grandma's house.

Both kids were in pretty good moods after their naps, so we decided it would work well for us to go out to Meijer to buy some food items to get us through the rest of the week, as well as go out to eat at one of our favorite local restaurants, Mi Pueblo.  Mexican restaurants are great places to take our family because Samantha and Aedan LOVE rice and beans and cheese quesadillas.  We don't have to fight to get Samantha to eat.  Plus, she loves chips and salsa just like her daddy.  However, the last few times we have been to a Mexican restaurant, we have had to order an extra quesadilla just for Aedan.  He eats so much that just rice and beans and parts of our meals are not enough for him anymore.  We had a great evening out, good food for dinner, and were ready to go back to Upland for bath time and bed time.

Thursday we had a busy day planned, as we figured being closer to Indianapolis than where we are in Oxford, we had to make a trip to the Children's Museum.  We have a membership there still because you pretty much only have to go twice in order to pay for it, and we have already met that requirement.  We made the drive down to Indy, Samantha looked at library books while Aedan napped in the car, and we got to the museum ready to play and have fun together.  We planned to stay as long as Samantha was being respectful.

On our way into the museum, we had to stop to pose as a ninja turtle...

 ...and as race car drivers.

Our first stop was the Playscape.   Many times we end up going to this room later in the day before leaving, but I wanted to make sure Aedan was in a good mood and would have time to enjoy this place because there were so many activities designed just for kids his age.  Last time we came to the museum was the day before we left on our trip to Disney World in January, and at that point he was just starting to roll around some.

His first stop was the water table.  We got a smock on him so he wouldn't get too wet, and he enjoyed playing with a bowl and a ball, as well as watching other kids around him play.  One of his favorite activities lately is to put items into a container, so he would put the ball in the bowl, dump the ball out into the water, and then repeat that again.

While Aedan played with the water, Samantha went into the music room for a special music presentation where they played special child-sized cellos and violins.

After the water table, Aedan and I went into the baby area where he had an absolute blast.  He found balls to throw and chase after, he spider crawled fast, he stood up and walked as many as 15 steps several times, he played with buttons that blew leaves and flowers up into the air, he climbed up and down stairs, went down a little slide, crawled up and down a ramp, and so much more.  I knew he would enjoy exploring this area and having freedom to move and play in a completely baby-proof place.  Here are some fun videos and pictures of him playing.

Aedan probably could have stayed in the baby area of the Playscape for quite a while, but once Daddy and Samantha came out of the music class, I figured we could join them and play with a different area.  Samantha was building a house out of wooden blocks, and Aedan found the ball area.  Normally Samantha doesn't enjoy this part as much, but when she has her little brother to play with, it becomes much more enjoyable.

Aedan really enjoyed picking up the red balls and putting them inside the tubes.  Like I said earlier in this post, putting objects into containers is one of Aedan's favorite activities right now.  We will find toys in drawers in our kitchen or in random places in the toy room at home.  He enjoys throwing all the bath toys in the tub, and one time even threw a ball into the toilet while Samantha was sitting on it going to the bathroom!  Crazy kid!

We played in the Playscape room for over an hour and it was lunch time, so we decided to go ride the carousel together before heading to the food court to get some lunch.  Both kids enjoy the carousel so much, and the museum was not busy at all that day so we didn't have to wait in line at all.

After eating lunch we went to a couple of their special exhibits of a Hollywood movie area and Hot Wheels area.  These places weren't too exciting for the kids, so we didn't spend too much time there.  Although I think Aedan enjoyed playing with the Hot Wheels much more than Samantha did.  There was a little demonstration going on to show what it would be like to be a race car driver, what you'd have to wear, and then a small simulation at the end.  Samantha wanted to watch it, so we did.  They had pre-chosen two boys as volunteers, but Samantha didn't understand that, so when the demonstration was over, she began to cry.  She wanted a chance to dress up and pretend to drive the race car as well, not understanding that not everyone was going to have a turn.  It took us quite awhile to calm her down, and we could tell she was getting tired from a long day.

After telling Samantha we would have to leave if she didn't calm down, she decided that she wanted to play some more in the room with the carousel in it so that she could walk through the glow-in-the-dark room and play in the tree house, play house, and ice cream shop.  Aedan enjoyed walking through the area with all the convex mirrors, and Samantha showed him her favorite place where there are mirrors surrounding you on all sides.  Both kids thought it was pretty neat to see hundreds of images of themselves moving every time they danced to the music of the carousel.  They have such a fun time together. :)

It was already past 2:00, and we didn't want to stay too much longer because Aedan (and Samantha) were getting pretty tired, so we made a quick trip to the ScienceWorks area so that Samantha could climb up and go down the slide as well as visit the Health House.  Aedan liked playing in the pretend bathroom while Samantha read the sleepy bear a bedtime story.

Then, our last stop for the day was the dinosaurs.  Daddy walked around with Aedan while Samantha pretended to a Mommy dinosaur laying her eggs.  However, after a while she was just sitting in her nest starting to zone out.  It was past 3:00, and we decided it was time to drive back to Upland and let the kids sleep in the car.  We had a fun, long day at the Children's Museum.  It was a great family day, and I'm glad we took this opportunity to go out and play together.

Both kids fell asleep quickly in the car and slept most of the back to Upland.  One of the highlights of driving to Indianapolis from Upland and back is passing the bunny drinking chocolate milk outside the Nestle factory.  Samantha was asleep when we passed it on our way back, so Ben told me to take a video for her so she could see the bunny whenever she wanted to.

Friday was a day Samantha was looking forward to all week because she knew that Alaina and Aunt Jeni were going to come to Upland that evening and spend the night.  All day long she kept asking when Alaina was going to get there.

After Aedan's morning nap, we decided to go over to Taylor's campus to take a walk and let Samantha ride her bike again.  However, as we started around, it started to rain, so we went into the library.  We figured while we were there we would check to see if JoAnn was working in the library.  We just caught her and her husband Mark as they were on their way out with their grandson.  We stopped and talked to them for quite a while, and it was great to catch up with each other.  Also, while we were talking with the Cosgroves, Vance Maloney walked by as well.  He stopped and talked to us for awhile too, which was great.  It's fun to reminisce about past times with old professors.  Ben and I met in Ireland on our semester abroad with Vance as our leader.  I worked with JoAnn in the library every day I was a college student at Taylor.  Plus, the summer I graduated, I stayed in Upland and lived with Mark and JoAnn until Ben and I got married in July.  These people are important to me and a crucial part of my college memories.  It was wonderful to see them.

The rest of the weekend went by quickly with a fun time hanging out with Aunt Jeni and Alaina on Friday night and Saturday morning.  We planned to leave after nap time on Saturday so that we could get back home, so we spent Saturday picking strawberries, getting Grandpa and Grandma's house clean, doing laundry, and making sure they would come home to everything being taken care of.  It was good to be able to stay in Upland for several days and help Grandpa and Grandma out, but we were ready to get back home.

On Sunday we had a great family day.  We went to church, had lunch, and got the kids down for their naps earlier than usual since we didn't have small group that afternoon.  I went grocery shopping while the kids napped, and then we made something for dinner that we've never made before, tilapia cooked with lemon, green beans, and tomatoes.  We have wanted to branch out and try some more fish recipes so that we can expose our children to the taste of fish.  (Just because we don't particularly care for fish, doesn't mean that our kids won't either.)  Samantha has really liked shrimp in the past, so we figured we'd give this a try.  Aedan definitely enjoyed it as he ate a whole piece of tilapia as well as fifteen green beans and ten strawberries.  Samantha liked the fish okay, but it definitely was not her favorite.  Ben and I enjoyed it, too.  It didn't have that fishy smell that normally turns us away from eating fish.  We will definitely have to try it or something similar again sometime.

After dinner, since the weather was warm and sunny, we decided to bust out our baby pool to play in for the evening.  We got Samantha and Aedan in their bathing suits and filled the pool up with water from the hose.  However, that water comes out pretty cold, and it was just a little too cold for Aedan's liking.  He didn't stay in the pool for very long, but instead chose to play with the water table and in the driveway with balls.

Samantha didn't mind the cold water and liked sitting in her chair in the pool and sliding in and out of the pool.

So you know how we said our little guy is walking more and more now?  Here are some great videos of him walking.  He actually was doing it much more before we even got this on video, but you can see him standing up taking steps, going down and then trying again.  He always chooses to walk on our concrete driveway, and it actually slopes downhill as well which probably makes it even tougher to walk steadily.  We love to see this new skill emerging and developing.  He is always so proud of himself when he walks from one place to another.  Isn't he doing so well?

After a while our neighbors came down to play with us, and the kids had a great time splashing in the pool, blowing bubbles, and enjoying time outside.  These neighbor kids have been so fun to get to know.  There are two older girls and one boy that is three.  Samantha loves it when the little boy, Ben, comes and knocks on our door to see if she wants to play.  We are sad that they will be moving away from our little row of town homes at the end of the summer.  We've really enjoyed having kids to play with outside on these warm summer evenings.

Monday was the start of a big week for Samantha.  She had her first week of summer camp this week.  The camp's theme was on gardening, and it meets every day of the week from 9-12.  They get to go swimming and play at the playground every day, so Samantha was really looking forward to it.  Daddy took her on his way to campus for the day, and she discovered that she knew several people in her camp, one friend from church and three from her preschool class.  I'm sure that made her feel more comfortable and excited about the week to come.  She had a great first day, remarking that she was hungry and tired after having such a busy morning.

That evening, after good afternoon naps for both kids and an early dinner, we left for an event at the library for Samantha.  They had a stuffed animal sleepover with a special story time beforehand.  All the kids came to the library in their pajamas with their stuffed animal friends, and Samantha chose to bring Piggy.  The plan was to read some stories, sing songs, do a craft, and then leave your stuffed animal in the library for a night of fun.  You could then come back the next day to pick up your animal and see what fun things they did over night.  Samantha knew about all of this ahead of time and was excited for Piggy to experience her first sleepover.

Samantha really enjoyed listening to the stories and dancing to the silly songs.  She always really loves story time, and we haven't been able to get into it as much in Oxford because the story time for her age group was on Tuesdays when she had preschool.  Next year we will be able to go more because Samantha will have preschool on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays instead.  

After story time was over, they made a bat for a craft, and then it was time to check in their animals for the night so that way the librarians would know what their name was and who they belonged to.  However, when it got to this point, Samantha got really upset and started crying.  I think she was mainly just tired from a long morning at camp.  She's not used to getting up and being active like that all morning.  I think she knew in her head what the plan was with leaving Piggy at the library, but she got worried and nervous and didn't want to part with her animal.  We went out to talk with Daddy who was letting Aedan play in the Children's Department, and we got her to calm down some.  Samantha agreed to go back and check Piggy in, but then she got upset when we approached the librarian again.  We reassured Samantha that it would be okay and that she would get Piggy back the next day, and she finally decided to check her in, even in the midst of tears.  (Sometimes it seems like it is just too much for Samantha to go out and do things in the evening, especially if she was out all morning long.  Even with taking a good nap, she just gets so tired.  I can't imagine what she'd be like if she wasn't napping anymore like a lot of kids her age.)  After that we decided to get both kids back home and in bed as we had two tired kids on our hands.  More about Piggy's night in the library on the next blog post.

(Blog post about June 9-15, 2015)

Fun Family Times in Oxford

Samantha: 48 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 13 Months, Week 1 (Week 58)

Ever since we got the dollhouse and Barbies from Chicago Grandpa and Grandma over the weekend, Samantha has LOVED playing with them up in her room.  She did not even care about us because she was busy dressing her dolls and discovering all the various accessories.  We got her a big under the bed storage bin to hold the Barbies and bigger things, as well as some smaller bins to hold the doll clothes so that way she could find what she was looking for easier without having to dump everything out onto the floor.  It's fun for her to have her room with special toys just for her.  Aedan is pretty much not allowed in her room because that's where she keeps all her little things.  I think she likes having a space to call her own.

Here is a picture of the Barbie house with all Christy and my old Barbie furniture.  I sent this picture to her, and she said, "Wow!  That brings back so many memories!"  It's fun that Samantha can play with this and enjoy it for a few years, and then we'll pass it off to Brielle!

This week was pretty exhausting with the kids.  Aedan woke up super early Monday through Wednesday morning, sometimes as early as 5:00 a.m.  Ben and I would take turns trying to get him to go back to sleep, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.  I probably would be more inclined to just leave him in his crib babbling, but sometimes he can get pretty loud.  He will bang on the wall and squeal pretty loud, and I don't want him waking up Samantha at that early of an hour either.  I was working on a project throughout the week which kept me up later at night than I should have been.  Having our sleep interrupted and waking up that early in the morning made it rough for all of us, and by Wednesday evening I was really feeling the effects of the lack of sleep and was feeling very tired.  I took the kids to the park that morning because some other moms were meeting up for some play time.  To be honest, I just needed to get out of the house, let the kids play somewhere where I didn't need to entertain them constantly, and get some adult interaction for myself.  However, by that afternoon I was so tired that I wasn't really feeling well.  Ben lovingly came home early to be with me and help me out with the kids, even bringing me my favorite drink from Starbucks.

Wednesday night we went to bed thinking we may actually be able to sleep in past 5:00 a.m. on Thursday, but boy were we wrong.  Just before 5:00 a.m., we were woken up with a start because ALL our smoke detectors were going off at the same time.  It took me longer to figure out what was going on (I don't respond very well in emergency situations), but Ben went into Aedan's room and got him just as he was starting to cry from the loud beeping noise awaking him from a good night's sleep.  He handed Aedan to me, as he went down the hall to Samantha's room.  All of us got down the stairs and out the door quickly, as Ben went around the house to see if he could smell any smoke, see any fire, or even try to figure out what caused our smoke detectors to go off.  Once we were sure there actually was no fire, Samantha Aedan, and I came back inside because it was rather chilly outside that night in our pajamas.  Ben and I weren't sure what to do because the smoke detectors would stop, but then a few seconds later start beeping again, meaning we weren't going to be able to stay in the house and try to put the kids back to sleep.  Ben called a non-emergency fire department number, and they recommended that a fire truck come out so that some firemen could look our place over and be sure everything was okay, as well as try to figure out why the smoke detectors continued to beep.  We backed our car out the driveway so the fire truck could have space to pull up, and we all sat in the car while we waited.  The fire truck came a few minutes later, and Samantha thought it was pretty fascinating seeing a fire truck with flashing lights sitting in our driveway and firemen in their fire suits entering our house.  They checked everything out, even using a special heat camera to see if there was any fire in our neighbor's townhouse that is connected to ours.  Everything was clear, the smoke detectors were reset, and they said it was most likely a faulty censor that caused the smoke detectors to go off.  Once that matter was settled, we went back inside and decided to try and get everyone some more rest.  Daddy took Aedan to rock him back to sleep, and I took Samantha to tuck her back in bed.  We hoped that they would go back to sleep or else it would be a long day with two crabby and tired kids.  Both kids took a little while to calm down, but they eventually fell asleep by 6:15 or so.  Ben and I tried to go back to sleep as well, but it was difficult for me to relax because I was paranoid about the smoke detectors going off again.  I eventually fell back asleep as well, and we all got about another hour of sleep in before waking up for the day, so that was a much needed thing.  Needless to say, it was not the best way to start our day, but we were so glad it was just a false alarm.

I had plans to go out to breakfast with my friend Maggie that morning, and both kids (and parents) were pretty tired, so they just had a relaxed morning at home, giving Aedan a good morning nap, and playing together.  We had plans to go Uptown for the Summer Music Festival that evening, so we knew a low key morning would be good.

We were all pretty tired that afternoon from being awoken so early that morning, so we actually all took a nap.  After that, we left to go to Miami's campus to push Aedan in the stroller and let Samantha ride her bike.  We parked in a place close to the inner area of campus where there are a lot of sidewalks leading to various academic buildings, including Daddy's building.  Samantha had a great time riding her bike around.  She is really good at riding her bike now and has pretty good control over the direction her bike goes.  She is now working on controlling the speed now with braking.  

Daddy asked Samantha if she wanted to go into his building to see his new office.  We visited Daddy's old office and new office, before exploring the classroom across the hall.  Samantha thought it was fun to make us sit in the seats and pretend to be teaching us about political science.  Then, Daddy showed her how he can play things on the big screen and played a clip of Frozen for her.  Some day it would be fun for him to bring her here to watch a movie on the big screen.

 

After being on campus for awhile, we made our way Uptown to get some sandwiches at Jimmy John's before finding a spot in the park to have our picnic and listen to the concert.  There was some nice bluegrass music playing which made Samantha just get up and dance.  Here are some cute videos of her.

After we ate our dinner and listened to the music for awhile, we visited the booths set up with various games and activities for kids to play.  Samantha got some prizes and even got her face painted like a butterfly to match her shirt.

She even got a balloon animal, which she held on to with dear life since she popped the first one.  We stayed at the concert until almost 8:00, and then we decided that it was time to go home and get the kids to bed.  We had a great time at the first summer music concert in the park.  After being there that evening and enjoying this wonderful, family environment, it made us even more excited about the possibility of being in Oxford long term.  (We'll see what the future holds for us.)

(When we got home that evening after the concert and started getting ready for bed, Samantha realized that she would have to get her butterfly washed off her face.  She thought she could leave it on forever, kind of like a temporary tattoo, and she was VERY upset that she had to lose her butterfly so quickly.  It took us quite a while to calm down our tired, upset little girl.)

Friday was another day that Daddy decided to stay home since he went to campus Monday through Wednesday.  After Aedan took his morning nap, we decided to visit a new place on Miami's campus, the Formal Gardens.  I had heard of this location from some other local moms, and we were excited to check it out.  We even brought some bread for any hungry ducks we might see.  The gardens were beautiful with many varieties of flowers, and there was also a large pond with a fountain in the middle  We enjoyed walking around and exploring the place, and even though we didn't find any ducks, Samantha scattered bread around in the grass in case the ducks came back later.

Aedan enjoyed holding our hands and walking around the grass.  He also really liked playing with the sticks he found on the ground.  

It's been fun exploring campus a little more the last couple of days.  Now that the students are gone for the summer, it's much easier to get around and to park, so I imagine we will be doing this a lot more during the rest of the summer months.

Once we got back home, it was time for lunch and I had plans to meet my college roommate, Janell, in Indianapolis for dinner and time to catch up.  Daddy planned to hold the fort down for me while I went out.  I hadn't seen Janell or talked to her for quite awhile, so I was really looking forward to it.  Plus, Samantha and Aedan really tired me out that week, so I was looking forward to some extended time away from them.  I love them and love being able to stay home with them, but it's good for introverted me to have some time away as well.  I am so grateful for Ben, for his freedom in his schedule and for his willingness to let me get out on my own like this.

Aedan has been getting pretty messy when he eats lately, so many times we will just take his shirt off at meal time.  He is in a phase where he likes to take his bib off as well, so it's often just easier this way.  We remember doing this with Samantha when she was his age as well, although he is actually neater than her because he likes to make sure the majority of the food goes in his mouth.  This kid LOVES to eat.  In fact, he often gets pretty grumpy when waiting for meal time, especially in between when he wakes up from his afternoon nap to when it's time for dinner.  We will always give him a snack to tide him over, but some nights that just isn't good enough.

We had another fun family night planned on Saturday night.  They had a special free concert planned at the library as a kick-off to their summer reading program.  I thought both kids would enjoy that, and we couldn't go wrong in attending something that is free in the first place.  Daddy was really craving some Mexican food, so we went to a local Mexican place Uptown for dinner before walking over the library.  When we walked in, one of the librarians recognized Samantha and carried on a conversation with her about how she usually brings her Anna and Elsa backpack with her to the library to hold the books she checks out.  It's fun being in a small town and being recognized by various people.  When we go places, we often know at least one person or family.  Aedan got bored and antsy after about ten minutes or so of the concert, so Ben and I just took turns taking him to the children's department to let him play with the toys there.  However, the concert was really fun for Samantha.  All the kids sat up in the front on the floor, and the man was really entertaining in his songs with actions and ways for the kids to get involved.  There was one song about a ghost, and the kids were to turn around to the grown-ups in the chairs and shout, "Boo!"  This was Samantha's favorite part of the concert, and she re-created it in the car on the way home.  Aedan loves to mimic people, especially his sister, so this was our car ride home from the concert that evening.  Even though it gets loud sometimes, they are great together and have such a special sibling bond.  Ben and I just kept looking at each other in the car that evening and smiling. :)  We have a wonderful little family.

On Sunday, after many weeks of not meeting, our community group decided to get together again.  There was a youth meeting after church that the other families had to attend, so we decided to get together later in the day for an afternoon swim and cook out.  One of the families has a pool in their backyard, and Samantha couldn't wait to get her bathing suit on and get int he pool.  She played with her friend Tia and had a blast climbing up on the rafts with her.  Aedan got in the water for a few minutes as well, but was mostly interested in walking around and playing with the pool toys outside of the pool.

The pool had a small diving board at one end, and Samantha had never jumped off a diving board before.  We told her she could do it since she always wears her floatie in the pool, and she really enjoyed it.  She would jump off the diving board, swim to the ladder, climb out, and then jump right back in again.

Monday morning was another day where Daddy went to work on campus since we had plans to be gone in Upland for the rest of the week.  I had thought about taking the kids to this thing called Preschool Playground, but it was a rainy day again and it was cancelled, so we decided to just spend the morning at home.  While Aedan napped, Samantha and I did some preschool activities together for the letter M, and this time I remembered to take some pictures.  I let her choose which activities she wanted to do.  So first, she colored in the pictures related to the letter M that then get stapled together into a little book.

Then, she practiced her scissor skills by cutting out the little pictures and gluing them on the outlines of the Ms.

After that she played a roll and race game where she rolls the cube with uppercase and lowercase Ms placed inside the pockets.  Whichever one she rolls, she picks the correct paper with either an uppercase or lowercase M on it, and glues it on the proper side of the ladder.  The side that reaches the top first, wins!  (Although, Samantha likes to then just fill in any extra spaces leftover so that way it's a tie every time.)

It's fun to have a little bit of downtime at home, yet still do something productive where I can increase her learning of letter recognition and sounds, plus use my teaching skills since I'm no longer in a classroom.

(Blog about June 2-8, 2015)

Samantha's Last Day of Preschool and the Beginning of Summer

Samantha: 48 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 12 Months, Week 5 (Week 57)

After getting home from the weekend in Upland, Samantha couldn't wait to ride her new bike at home.  We try to go on family walks after dinner when we take Roscoe out, and Samantha enjoys riding her bike up and down the little frontage road of townhouses.  It's amazing how much this bigger bike is working better for her.  She can pedal much easier and has much more control over the direction of the bike.  I don't know if it's because her old bike was too small and this one is better because the wheel diameter is bigger, or if it could have to do with the old bike's condition and the tires that wouldn't hold air.  I'm so glad that I suggested this as a present idea for Upland Grandpa and Grandma because Samantha LOVES her new princess bike.  She rides it every day, sometimes multiple times a day.  Here is a video of her riding her bike; however, she can go pretty fast and got too far away from us to really get a good video of how well she can ride.

These pictures are actually from Monday, May 25th, but I did not put them up on my last blog.  We got a couple flowers from Grandma over the weekend for Samantha to plant.  I thought it would be fun to let Samantha pick out a few more to plant as well.  Ben and I spent time on Sunday night digging out all the weeds and thistles that had grown up around our bushes in the mulch.  Then, on Monday night, Samantha helped me plant the flowers.  She helped decide where she wanted them to be placed, and then we each helped dig the hole with the shovel.  Samantha enjoys pretending to be a gardener and was excited about watering and taking care of her plants.  She was (mostly) careful about not stepping on the flowers as she walked around.

This past week was one of a lot of "lasts" since it was the last week before summer break and everything slows down.  On Tuesday it was Samantha's last ballet class.  We haven't decided if we will sign her up for ballet again in the fall.  She enjoyed it, and she loves to dance, but we have also signed her up for soccer which practices one night a week and then they play a game on Saturdays, so I don't want to commit her to too many things.  We'll have to make that decision in the fall and see what we think.  

Now that summer is here, Ben is going to work on campus three days a week and stay home two days a week.  He stayed home on Monday since it was Memorial Day, and we ran some errands together as a family.  Wednesday was another day that he planned to stay home, and we made plans to visit the Cincinnati Museum Center.  Samantha does a puzzle with Daddy almost every night and usually leaves it on the table with one piece out for me to do.  Then, in the morning she cleans it up so that Aedan doesn't get into it.  However, on Wednesday morning, Aedan decided to help us clean up, too.  It was adorable to watch him pick up pieces and place them in the box, most of the time successfully.  He was so proud of himself, too.

Then, after breakfast we were off to the museum.  Even though Aedan was pretty tired, he did not take a nap in the car and once we arrived at the museum, there were too many fun things for him to even notice being tired.  We stopped at the ball area first, and Aedan loved playing with all the balls covering the floor.  This isn't normally Samantha's favorite area, but we got her  a little more involved this time in collecting balls in a bag and then pouring them in a bucket.  I would then pull the bucket up to the top with a pulley where it would then dump down a ramp and release a lever that would allow all the balls to fall out on whoever was standing underneath it.  Samantha loved that part, when the balls would come cascading down on her head.

Since we went to a favorite area for Aedan first; next, it was time for an area that is Samantha's favorite: the forest.  There are lots of places to run and climb, even a place for smaller children that Aedan enjoyed.

While Samantha climbed in the big kid area, Aedan crawled over the the large tank where there were lots of fish and turtles to watch.  He found it very interesting to watch them swim right by his face.  He kept reaching out and trying to grab them.

I even convinced Samantha to go in the little tunnel with Aedan so I could get a picture of the two of them together.

After Aedan ate a snack, I took him up into the treetops of the forest to let him crawl around for awhile.  He found the rope bridge tunnels to be very fun to climb on.  We took a break for lunch before visiting the history part of the museum center, which we had never been to before.  They had a huge model of Cincinnati which Samantha thought was pretty interesting to look at.  Then, we checked out some trains and let Samantha and Aedan play with the train table for awhile.  Aedan was able to walk around by holding on to the table, and even got a train for himself.

After playing with the trains, we saw a few other things in the history museum before going back to the children's museum.  Aedan was getting pretty tired, and I wanted him to have a chance to play with the water before it got too late.  He really loves playing and splashing in the water.  This is probably another one of Aedan's favorite places to play.  He was a happy boy. :)

After the water, we made our way through the Kids Town section and the area with blocks to build and a pretend construction area.  Aedan was still in a good mood even though he hadn't napped all day, so we just let him crawl around and play with whatever interested him.  He found things to throw and places to explore.  Samantha really liked this area with the pretend rocks that you could scoop up with a shovel into the dump truck.  She played there for quite awhile.

We decided it was getting late, both kids were getting tired, so after stopping to play in the sand for a little while, we decided it was time to head home.  Samantha wanted to get her picture taken in front of the fountain before we left, and both kids passed out in the car on the way home.  We even got Aedan back to sleep in his crib to continue his nap more once we got home.  We had a great day out together.  (I think we were just as tired out as the kids!) I'm so glad that Ben has the flexibility in his job to be able to spend this kind of time with us.  

Thursday was a big day for Samantha as it was her last day of preschool.  They had an end of the year party, and parents and family were invited.  Daddy came with Aedan and me, and we had a good time celebrating Samantha's year.  All the preschoolers played on the playground, and Samantha enjoyed writing with chalk and playing with Aedan as well as her friends.

After playing for quite a while, the kids gathered together for a little performance of their favorite songs.  They were pretty cute singing together, and Samantha loves to sing, so of course you could hear her voice loud and clear.

Then, everyone gathered around for the preschool awards.  Samantha sat with her good friends Henry and Matteo.

Here is Samantha's first day of preschool...

...and now her last day of preschool.  My how she's grown, not just in height, but in learning, too.  It's amazing how much she's learned this year with her numbers and letters and sounds by just going to preschool two days a week.  She has made some new friends and loves her preschool teachers, Miss Betsy and Miss Becky.  We are looking forward to another year of preschool next year three days a week with the same teachers and many of the same friends.

We had a more relaxed morning at home on Friday after a rather busy week.  We played outside with our neighbors, let Aedan have a good morning nap, and prepared for the arrival of Chicago Grandpa and Grandma, as well as Uncle Matt later that afternoon.

I don't take very many pictures of Roscoe, but I came downstairs and saw him laying on the couch in a cute way, so I just had to take a couple pictures of our senior citizen doggie.

It was a good weekend visit with my family.  On Friday after nap time and dinner time, we went Uptown to the fountains to let the kids play and show my brother around Oxford a little more.

Grandpa and Grandma brought down some special toys from my childhood that I was going to pass down to Samantha.  They brought our old Barbie dollhouse that my dad made for us, as well as all our Barbie related paraphernalia.  On Friday night I went through it all to decide what I wanted to keep so that we could show it to Samantha on Saturday morning.  Daddy took Samantha out for a few minutes on Saturday morning so that we could get the Barbie dollhouse up into Samantha's room and set up.  Then, once she returned home she opened a few other birthday presents from Grandpa and Grandma: a new mattress pad, bed skirt, and bed sheets.

Then we let her come upstairs to see the new dollhouse.  She was SO excited and pretty much wanted to play with nothing else the entire rest of the weekend.  It was fun to see her playing with something that holds so many memories of playing with my sister many years ago.  Plus, she even got Uncle Matt to play with her.  I don't think he played with Christy and me that much!  There must be something special about playing with your little niece.

On Sunday after church, before we put the kids down for their nap, O took a picture of Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Matt, Samantha, and Aedan.  We got a pretty good one, at least everyone is looking at the camera!

Then, Samantha wanted to take a silly picture of Daddy with Ariel and her horse.

We had a long and busy weekend with family staying with us, and for some reason that always tends to wear Samantha out.  She's more of an introvert than we originally thought she was, and I think she gets overwhelmed when around people outside of our family for an extended period of time.  Samantha played quietly by herself for much of the morning on Monday because I think she sensed that she needed some down time.  We did end up going to the library for a little while to do a scavenger hunt, find out how to sign up for the summer reading program, check out some new books, and let the kids play for awhile.

For some reason Aedan has been waking up really early lately, sometimes as early as 5:00-5:30.  Monday was one of those days.  Starting our day off that early makes it rough for everyone involved.  I hope that there is some reason for it, maybe that he is going through a growth spurt, or maybe because of his top right molar that is still trying to push it's way through, or even maybe because he is learning how to walk and that is disrupting his sleep patterns.  We could all use more sleep!

Samantha was wearing a sparkly skirt over her pants that Monday.  (She likes to dress herself in some pretty over the top outfits sometimes.)  I decided to put the skirt on Aedan as a joke to Samantha.  She thought it was pretty funny, and we just had to get a picture of Aedan in a sparkly skirt with a football shirt.  Poor little guy, that's what happens when you have an older sister; you're going to get dressed in girl clothes at least sometime in your life :)

(Blog post about May 26-June 1, 2015)