Samantha: 52 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 17 Months, Week 1 (Week 75)
Since we have our new community group meeting on Tuesday nights, I decided it would be best to take it easy on Tuesday mornings so the kids aren't too tired to behave themselves at church in the evenings. Tuesday morning was a rainy day, so we just played at home together before going out for a couple errands. Our first errand was getting Aedan a haircut. A month or so ago I trimmed it across the back and around his ears, making him look a lot like a little Amish boy, especially as it grew out and got thicker. It was looking pretty bushy and was constantly getting food in it when he would eat, so we decided it was time for a real haircut. We went to Great Clips in Hamilton, and I was a little nervous beforehand because you just never know how haircuts will turn out or how good the hair stylist will be. Samantha was excited to see her little brother get his hair cut.
The hair stylist, Misty, asked if we wanted to try and have Aedan sit in the chair by himself. Last time he got his hair cut in a fancier hair salon, I had him sit on my lap, but this time I figured it would be good to try him sitting on his own. She put the booster seat on the chair, Aedan sat on top of that, and then she snapped the cover around his neck. I think he found the whole thing fascinating as he hardly moved a muscle. He didn't try to wiggle out of the chair at all, and since his hands were under the cover, it kept him from reaching up and trying to grab the scissors or comb. I showed her a few pictures on my phone of what I liked, and she said, "Okay, so like a typical little boy hair cut?" Then, she wet his hair down and got to work. He made some pretty funny faces as she combed his hair and cut it, but she did a great job of making it even and holding his hair firm so that if he moved, it wouldn't mess up the section of hair she was trying to cut. I was really impressed with how quickly she worked, but also how professional and detail-oriented she was, making sure it was even all the way around. She even used the razor trimmer (whatever it's called), to get the little hairs on his neck and clean up around his ears. Here are a few pictures from his hair cut.
I was so happy with how his hair turned out. It looked so good, so neat, and made him look like such a handsome little man. I was amazed at how much hair she cut off. Our kids are blessed (or cursed, depending on how you look at it) with lots of thick hair. I always have said that Aedan's hair looks a lot like Ben's hair, especially as it grows out and gets thick and bushy. Anyways, here are some cute after pictures of his hair cut. Samantha wanted a sucker when he was done since she waited patiently, and she got one for Aedan as well. It was his first time eating a sucker, and really having any sort of candy at all, so he was so very proud of himself. Isn't he just the cutest? I will definitely be going to Great Clips with Misty again the next time Aedan needs a hair cut. :)
After getting Aedan's hair cut, we made one more stop at Meijer to get Samantha some new underwear. (She was outgrowing all her old ones.) After making our purchase, the kids had to ride on the mechanical horse, of course. They each got their own turn, and then Samantha wanted to go on it again with Aedan that time.
I love this picture of the two of them because it captures their love and enjoyment of one another. Samantha has her arms wrapped around him tightly because she likes to take care of him and protect him. Plus, it was her idea for him to ride with her because she loves to include him. Then, Aedan is grasping onto Samantha's hand and is beaming with joy because of being on the horse with his big sister. I love these two so much and am soaking up all these moments we get to spend together.
The rest of Tuesday went by like normal with lunch time, nap time, getting food prepared for our community group, and heading out the door once Daddy got home so that we could be there on time this week. We had a good second meeting with a new family that wants to join. However, we still have no designated babysitter for our kids yet, so it was a little difficult to discuss the truth discussion questions with parents having to get up and go into the preschool room to deal with their children or having children come into our room needing our attention. I really enjoy getting together and sharing a meal together because it gives everyone a night off in the sense of not having to prepare a main dish, sides, and a dessert. We get to try new foods and new recipes that we don't necessarily get to have in our own families. Plus, it gives us a good time to fellowship and get to know one another before diving into a more spiritual conversation. Even though it's difficult having another event during the week that takes us away from our home, I am glad that we are a part of a new group like this.
Wednesday morning was October 1st, Uncle Timmy's birthday, so Daddy made a video of Samantha singing Happy Birthday. Aedan appears in the video for a few seconds as well. She talks about Uncle Timmy quite often, and it will be good to hopefully see him again sometime soon for more than one day. His nieces and nephew love him quite a bit.
Wednesday morning was my turn to watch Bennett, so after dropping Samantha off at preschool, I brought Aedan and Bennett back home for awhile. They played fairly contentedly at home, we had snack about 10:00 when they were both becoming a little more aimless, then I changed diapers and got them ready to go to the library. I figured playing in the new children's section of the library would be a fun outing for awhile. I didn't want to plan for too much time (like in being there all morning) because I knew their interest would wane after awhile if it was anything like the little museum on Miami's campus. We got there around 11:00, giving them plenty of time to play before going back to preschool for pick-up. The boys enjoyed playing with tools, sitting on the tractor, and playing in the play kitchen with the food, bowls, refrigerator, and shopping cart. The new library is definitely a fun place to play, especially for toddlers.
Wednesday night was another soccer practice night, so we met Daddy at the soccer fields. Aedan and I stayed for about half of the time before coming back home and getting a start on dinner. I find that it's just as easy to do this because Aedan starts getting antsy in his stroller after about half an hour anyways, then I can go home and fix the rest of dinner, having it mostly done by the time Daddy and Samantha get home. After dinner, Samantha decided it would be great to dance around the kitchen and get Aedan involved as well. Again, do you see how much he loves it when Samantha includes him? He loves to copy her, and he loves to dance.
Wednesday was a hard day for me because Ben has been under a lot of stress lately. He gave tests on Monday and Tuesday, meaning he now has tons of grading to do. Plus, he talked to me on Wednesday morning about how we are getting low on money and may have trouble paying our bills over the next few months. There are several reasons why we just aren't quite saving money back as we would like, for example, our move to Oxford pretty much depleting our bank account after not having that much money to begin with since we were living off of Ben's graduate student stipend and my income from babysitting and piano lessons, our Disney trip costing more than we expected, Ben not getting paid his normal salary over the summer, and then just having more expenses than what we had in Bloomington. Anyways, he hasn't been sleeping well and has been super busy with work and applying for jobs, and I could just see the stress on his face and felt burdened for him all day. He mentioned how he might have to get another job, which I told him he can't do. If anything, I would be the one that needs to find a way to bring in some money. It's hard because I know that my role is important in taking care of our kids and our home, but sometimes I feel like I'm not doing anything to contribute, leaving Ben to shoulder the weight and the responsibility of working and making all the money to support our family. I can't wait until we find out where we might be next year, and hopefully hear that Ben is offered a tenure track position somewhere. It would be such a relief and an answer to prayer. It is hard to trust God and wait patiently, knowing that He has a great plan and will provide for us, just as He has every step of the way until now.
Since Thursday was a day without plans, no preschool and no evening plans together as a family, I decided to take the kids to EnterTRAINment Junction. Back awhile ago I bought two-for-one tickets online so that we could go when they had their Halloween activities and decorations up. Aedan got in free, so Samantha and I got in for the price of one ticket, making it a much cheaper outing. Ben and I took the kids here last fall to try it out, but we hadn't been back since, so I was excited to see what Aedan would think of it now that he can walk and interact with things. After getting our wrist bands, we began walking through the large train display. It goes through the different periods of train history, and they even provide step stools for the kids so that they can get a better view. I think Aedan was more interested in this part that Samantha was. He was fascinated by the trains going along the tracks in front of him, many different directions. Some displays even had buttons you could push to make lights flash, make sounds, or even make trains go. These displays are very well put together and elaborate, with many details you don't catch when just walking by quickly.
However, once Samantha saw the play area, she didn't want to look at the train display anymore, so we stopped to play for awhile. Aedan really enjoyed the pretend train you could climb in and use a shovel to scoop pretend coal into the front of the train. Samantha climbed all over the inside play set, going down slides, and swinging. Most of the play set was too advanced for Aedan since he isn't that skilled at climbing yet, but there were a couple areas with steps closer together where he could swing his leg up and climb up by himself. He even got really good at turning around and sliding down the steps or holding on to the netting and lowering one foot down at a time. I was proud of him for being so brave and for learning how to move more independently.
Since this is a place all about trains, they had many different train tables for kids to play with. This picture and video is Aedan playing in the toddler area. He found these train tables very interesting because he could push his train on the track without knocking the track over since it was nailed in place, unlike Samantha's train tracks at home that he just demolishes anytime he comes near. His favorite part was this bridge. He put his train in one side and would push it with his hand to the other side of the bridge. However, the first couple of times he tried it, his hand got stuck and he couldn't figure out how to get it out. I had to show him how to pull his hand backward rather than pushing it forward. After a few times, he caught on and was able to help himself after that. You can see that in action in the video below.
From there, we walked through more of the model train display before going to the outside train ride. A cold front had arrived overnight and it was much chillier that morning, requiring long sleeve shirts, pants, and sweaters. Samantha wanted to go on the train with Aedan by herself, but I told her that wouldn't be safe because we couldn't guarantee that he would stay sitting and that would be too much responsibility for her to make sure he didn't fall off the train. I got the kids on and tried to take a picture quick, but Aedan was too fascinated with the train car that he was sitting in to look up at the camera.
Once I got in, I asked another mom to take a picture for me, and even though it's crooked, it's still a good picture of the three of us together. Aedan doesn't look the happiest in the picture, but it was just because he was being squeezed too tightly by his sister and pulled backwards. He thought the train ride was a lot of fun.
After we finished riding all together, Samantha wanted to ride by herself, so Aedan and I got off. She likes feeling big and independent, doing things on her own away from us.
Then, we went back inside to look at the train display some more before going back to where the Halloween activities were. They had a talking plastic pumpkin and hay bales with mini pumpkins all around for each kid to pick one to bring home. They also had a table with pictures to color, and Samantha chose one, sitting down and coloring very carefully and diligently. Aedan was getting pretty bored waiting for Samantha to color, but found amusement in throwing the mini pumpkins as if they were balls.
I tried as hard as I could to get a picture of them near the pumpkins, sitting on the hay, but they weren't in the mood to cooperate very well. It was almost lunchtime, and they didn't want to sit down and smile at the camera, so this picture is the best that I got. I do enjoy the love that you can see between the two of them. They love to hug each other, even though you can't see much excitement in Aedan in this picture. I love how their little hands are together as well.
I packed lunch for us in an effort to save some money, so I got our cooler from the car and we enjoyed our yogurt with granola, cheese, lunch meat, crackers, and some fruit. I figured it's easier bringing things I know they will like instead of packing sandwiches which they both don't seem to like right now.
After lunch we went to the A-Maze-N Funhouse section of EnterTRAINment Junction. They have lots of different rooms like a curtain room that you have to try to find your way out of, a clown house with many silly rooms like one with a floor at an angle so that you couldn't walk up it or even look into the room without feeling dizzy. There was a hall of mirrors and another fun room like you were traveling into outer space. There were lots of disorienting things, making it so that I had to carry Aedan most of the time so that he wouldn't hurt himself.
After we were done in the Funhouse, we realized that we had not gone on the crank cars that ride on the track. There was going to be another scheduled time in about 40 minutes, so we decided to go back to the play area for some more play time while we waited for the ride to open up. Aedan enjoyed climbing up a small ladder that led to a slide, except he just wanted to go down head first every time. I tried to get him to sit on his bottom to slide down, but he just screamed and got upset, like I was trying to get him to do the worst thing in the world. So, like any mom of a second child would do, I just let him go down head first on his belly, as long as I was nearby and could control him if he got going too fast.
It started raining, so the crank cars opened up a little later than expected, giving us extra time to play in the play set. I didn't take any pictures or videos of Samantha on the crank car, but it was basically a car on a track where the kids sat on a seat and turned handles like the pedals on a bike to make the car move down the track. Samantha had a great time and enjoyed this even more than riding on the train. There was no one else in line for a while, so she was able to go around three times in a row before having to get off. Aedan was very jealous of Samantha being able to ride these cars when he was too small for them and cried pretty hard when he realized he wasn't going to have a turn.
Our last stop for the day was the hay maze out in front. Samantha and Aedan had a good time just running around in the maze together. In fact, Samantha wanted me to come in with them as well, so we played a fun little game of tag inside the maze. There was another little kid there that enjoyed me chasing them around as well. It's amazing how much kids enjoy it when you actually get involved, play, and get silly with them, rather than just sit on the outside and watch. I am trying to be conscious of doing this more. I want to be a mom that plays with her kids and is a part of the moments rather than just watching them happen.
Aedan fell right asleep in the car as it was already 3:00 by the time we left. Samantha was tired as well, and she talked about falling asleep in the car, but we only had a half an hour drive, and I knew she really wouldn't fall asleep anyways. Aedan usually is good about going back to sleep at home even after falling asleep in the car, but on this day that was not the case. I tried to get him to sleep, but he was just not interested, then he had a poopy diaper that I had to change and he thought I was going to get him up rather than try to rock him and lay him down again, so that didn't make him happy. Luckily, Samantha took a good nap for about an hour, taking the edge off enough to get through the rest of the evening.
Friday was a busy day leading into a busy weekend. Andrea took Aedan to play with Bennett, and Samantha was at preschool. I met Maggie at the park to take a walk together and catch up with each other. It was good to hear more of her story of what happened with Elliott, and I enjoyed being able to cry with her and giver her a hug. Friday night we had plans to go to a softball player and family get together at the Marcum's house. It started at 7:00, so we fed the kids a small dinner before heading over to their house. It's always hard going over to people's house at this time of night because Aedan usually wants to go to bed around 7:30, so we push him to be up and be happy longer than he would like. Luckily, they both took later, longer naps that afternoon, so I hoped that would help them get through the night better. We were the first family to arrive, but the kids had fun playing in a new environment. After a while, more families with kids showed up, giving Samantha and Aedan plenty of playmates. We tried to stay as long as we could that evening to give Ben a chance to hang out with the guys he played softball with, but Aedan was slowly losing it and we couldn't do much to make him happy anymore. I think we left for home around 8:30 with two tired kids on our hands and got them to bed as soon as we got home. Ben and I were tired, too, so we were in bed not too long after them.
Saturday morning was going to be cold and rainy, so Ben took Samantha to her soccer game while I stayed home with Aedan. There was no point in taking him out in that kind of weather, so he and I went grocery shopping together instead. Ben was a solo coach that morning because the head coach couldn't make it, and he tried to make it as fun as possible, getting the kids moving and dancing in between plays so that they wouldn't get too cold. We dressed Samantha in many layers to keep her warm and prevent her from catching a cold. She told us that she has more fun playing soccer when it is warm outside rather than when it's cold, and I can understand her feelings on that.
After lunch and getting the kids down for their naps on Saturday afternoon, another woman from OBF picked me up to give me a ride to the fall women's event. I wasn't able to go to any women's events last year for various other commitments, so I was looking forward to this one. We were able to talk with other women, hear a good speaker, and eat some delicious food. Plus, it was nice to be away from the kids for the afternoon and evening. Ben held down the fort at home, and they had a good day together, even though there was a broken decoration and some fighting between siblings. I got home right after Ben got Aedan to bed and was in the middle of doing a puzzle with Samantha before bed. Here are some pictures Ben took with the kids that day. (I don't think Aedan knew what he was supposed to do in the picture.)
Saturday we made a spur of the moment decision to accept an invitation from the Schroer family to go to the zoo for their HallZOOween event. We wanted to go sometime in October but hadn't picked a time yet, so we figured that day was as good as any. Plus, Samantha would really enjoy having Matteo to play with at the zoo, and Aedan would enjoy having Bennett to play with as well. IT also would be good for Ben and I to get to know Andrea and Joe better. Both of our families went to our separate churches that morning at 9:00 and then we left to meet up at the zoo. Since it was a celebration of Halloween, the kids got to dress up in their costumes. Aedan was Super Man and Samantha was Wonder Woman. The kids had a great time seeing the elephants and noticing all the kids dressed up around us. Aedan thought it was particularly interesting seeing all the kids wearing costumes, giving a few of them second looks as if he thought they were real.
Matteo wanted to go to the children's area and play on the playground, so we headed that direction. We let Aedan walk around most of the morning, and he was very interested in the outdoor penguin exhibit. The penguins were very active, diving under the water, and splashing around. He stood at the fence for quite awhile just watching the penguins play.
After getting our fill of the playground, we went over the the petting zoo. Ben and I don't normally have change, but the Schroers did, so they bought some food for Samantha to feed the goats. Then, it was time to pet and brush the goats. Both Samantha and Aedan love this part. Here are some cute pictures of the two of them with the goats.
From there we decided it would be a good idea to ride the train before the line got too long. We had to wait for a couple train cycles, which made Bennett and Aedan get antsy, but Samantha and Aedan did a good job of trying to amuse them while we waited.
Here are some pictures of our train ride. :)
Samantha and Matteo are such good friends. It's fun to see them interact with each other.
We actually didn't see too many animals that afternoon, as the kids were more interested in going Trick or Treating at the various treat stations. We rode the carousel, of course, and then the kids were all getting tired, so we left around 2:30. In fact, Aedan actually fell right asleep in the stroller as we walked around.
Both kids were worn out from a long day of church and then going to the zoo. Samantha fell asleep right away with her sunglasses still on her head. I gave Aedan his pacifier to help him stay quieter for Samantha. I wasn't sure if he would fall asleep or not since he had napped at the zoo, but he did end up falling asleep for part of the trip home.
Once we got back home, we just had a relaxing evening together. Ben turned on a football game and both kids joined him on the couch as they watched together.
We played outside for awhile that night as it was such a nice, warm day. Aedan enjoyed drawing on the ground with chalk, and Samantha poured the water over it, "watering" the driveway. It's fun to be able to let Aedan draw with the chalk because earlier in the summer we couldn't let him play with the chalk because he would just put it in his mouth and try to eat it.
Luckily, she did not get sick any other time. She woke up a couple times during the night, wanting water, and also wanting more medicine since she was still very hot from her fever and threw up her last dose of medicine. I was very glad that she wasn't sick to her stomach again. Once she woke up on Monday morning, she already knew that she wasn't going to be able to go to preschool since she was sick, so we took a chance to take it easy at home. She ate a light breakfast of a piece of toast and some banana, but had very little appetite. She played quietly in her room for awhile, I let her watch a show, she took a shower, and we just focused on her resting and getting better. She still had a fever of 101.1 that afternoon before nap time. But thankfully, she ended up napping from 1:45-6:00. We actually had to wake her up for dinner once Ben got home. I was amazed that she slept for so long! It's nice that our kids tend to listen to their bodies when they are sick and sleep more than usual to let their bodies recover.
We had a bland meal of chicken and rice casserole for dinner, the perfect dinner for someone with tummy troubles. Samantha didn't eat too much of it, but so far nothing was bothering her stomach and making her sick, so we hoped that the vomiting was over after that one time. We went outside and played after dinner that evening, but Samantha mostly stayed inside to watch her show, coming out for just a few minutes when our neighbor girls came over to play. Aedan was feeling fine, and we were doing our best to keep the kids away from each other so that they didn't share germs and get Aedan sick as well. It certainly is no fun having sick kids, so we hoped that Samantha was on the mend now.
While playing outside, Aedan found Samantha's pink umbrella in the garage and carried that around while playing in the driveway. It's nice to be able to play outside while we can, since soon enough the evenings will get cool and it will be dark by dinner time.
(Blog about September 29-October 5, 2015)
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