Samantha: 52 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 16 Months, Week 4 (Week 74)
This past Tuesday was going to be a very nice day, and Samantha has requested several times to use our bike trailer again because she really enjoys riding in it with Aedan. However, I can't just take them out on the roads around our house because there are just too many hills for me, especially with pulling both of them in the bike carrier. We bought a bike rack for the back of our car awhile back but had never since used it. So, I decided that I would try to figure it out on Tuesday morning so that we could drive to a local park with a path and go for a little bike ride. I couldn't find the direction booklet and am usually not the best with trying to figure things out even with directions sometimes, but I figured I'd give it a shot. The bike rack was pretty self-explanatory and really very easy to use, much more straightforward than the used one we got from Ben's parents many years ago that we eventually threw out. Anyways, the kids played outside while I got the bike trailer in the back of the Santa Fe, the bike rack attached to the car, and my bike hooked onto the bike rack. It would have been a little easier to manage if I had Ben's muscles to help me lift the bike off the hook on our garage ceiling and then up onto the bike rack, but I was able to manage.
Once at the park, I got everything unloaded and ready for the bike ride. It's a bit tricky getting both kids buckled into the bike trailer, but then we were off on our ride. Samantha thought it was pretty cool, and Aedan was very quiet which meant he was enjoying himself, too. The path next to the Hanover Park was a little over half a mile long, so not too long, but it was much flatter than the roads, so it was much more manageable for me to pedal around. We went around the path a couple of times and then parked over by the playground so the kids could play for awhile. This park is nice with lots of different features that make it fun, like a pretend train, tractor, and ship, lots of swings, a tire swing, a gravel pit, and a playground with many different climbing features, slides, and tunnels. I like it better than the Oxford Community Park because there are more options for both Samantha and Aedan to play with at the same time and in the same place. Plus, it's just a few minutes away from our house, making it a much easier trip.
Samantha has been very emotional lately, almost like she is overtired and can't handle a lot of commotion. We have been doing our best to get her as much sleep as possible, and she has been taking good naps, so we're not quite sure what the culprit is. At the park we had another of those unfortunate situations with Samantha. I was pushing both kids on the swings and Samantha wanted to stop and take her shoes off. I don't know why. I told her she had to keep them on since we were at the park, and she didn't want to so she took them off anyways and starting yelling at me. I calmly told her that she needed to make right choices and think about her actions. However, then she came towards me and hit me. I told her she had to go sit at the picnic table for a time out, so she threw her shoes and sat in a different place than where I told her to sit, while she screamed and yelled. I told her she needed to sit where I told her and stop yelling or we would get in the car and leave right then. I felt like I was being very gracious and calm, giving her more chances than she probably deserved with the fit that she was throwing, but she just kept making bad choices. So, I decided to make a point and leave the park, even though I knew it would make her very unhappy. I got Aedan out of the swing and headed toward the car, telling Samantha to get her shoes and meet me in the car. She cried and screamed some more as I got Aedan buckled in and loaded up the bike trailer and bike. She did come to the car on her own, but just cried and cried. After that, I decided that it wasn't really fair to make Aedan leave the playground when he was having a good time, just because Samantha couldn't handle herself, so I got her buckled in, opened up the windows, and took Aedan back out onto the playground, telling Samantha that I would give Aedan a few more minutes to play. I could hear Samantha screaming and throwing things in the car from over on the playground. I didn't want to torment her by doing this, but I just wanted to prove a point to her, that she can't throw a fit, yell and scream, and still be able to do fun things. Also, I wanted her to know that by acting like that she would miss out on doing things that Aedan would then be able to do. I waited until she calmed down and I could no longer hear her crying in the car before I went back to talk to her. I told her how she acted was unacceptable and how this whole thing stemmed from something silly: not wanting to keep her shoes on. We talked about what would have been a better way to react, and she apologized for her actions. I decided to be nice and give her a second chance at playing, so I let her get out of the car and play for about ten minutes more before going home for lunch.
It's times like these, when Samantha is throwing a fit and melting down, that I don't like being a parent. Sometimes I don't know what the proper way to react is, or whether there is some underlying cause to the problem like a lack of sleep, feeling like she isn't getting enough attention, or even going through some kind of growth or development. This parenting thing is hard, that's for sure. Being home all day with kids is no walk in the park, for it challenges me every day to be patient, loving, and kind, but also to hold my kids to a certain standard and keep them accountable for their actions and the way they treat others.
The rest of our afternoon went well with a good lunch and nap time. Then, shortly after nap time, once Ben arrived home from campus, we headed out for our first official meeting of our new community group. We decided to help start a new one with some families that have younger kids and a some that are relatively new to Oxford like we are. We planned to meet at OBF so that the kids could play in the preschool room with all the toys while the grown-ups talked. We met at 5:30 and decided to do a potluck dinner with two families bringing main dishes, two families bringing side dishes, and one family bringing a dessert. We had quite the spread of food, and it was all delicious. It was great to sit around the table and talk and get to know each other while everyone enjoyed the food. Then, we had the kids go in the other room and Ben volunteered to keep his eye on them. We didn't have any formal discussion that evening, but we just discussed more about what we want out of our community group and ironed out details on when and how often to meet. We are excited about this new group forming and developing deeper relationships with other families at OBF.
Wednesdays always go by quickly with taking Samantha to preschool, getting Bennett, and then amusing the boys for the morning. I decided to bring them back home as I had things I needed to get done around the house. We had plans for a chicken and wild rice soup for dinner that night after soccer, so I needed to get it prepared and cooking in the crock pot. I also made some french bread in the bread maker to go with it. The boys were having fun playing at the house, making it easier for me to get my work done.
The rest of the day went by like usual, except that Samantha gave me trouble napping. She was in her room making noise, so I went into her room to tell her to be quiet and she said she had to go potty even though she had gone several times before going down for her nap. It was so strange because she has done so well for so many months now of going to sleep easily for her nap. She was cranky before preschool that morning, crying about not being able to wear these certain clips there, but Miss Betsy said that she did fine all morning and was respectful. However, I was nervous that by her not napping, it would be hard for her to last the rest of the night with soccer practice and a late dinner. It made us wonder if she is getting closer to the point of giving up her naps. It really is pretty miraculous that she still naps on a consistent basis at almost 4 1/2 years old, so I can't complain, but I have to admit that I am not looking forward to the struggle that will occur as we transition from nap to no nap.
After we got home from soccer practice, we had our chicken with wild rice soup, a recipe we never tried before. Usually soups are not that big of a hit with our kids, especially Aedan just because of the consistency and because he can't eat it by himself very easily. However, this soup was a big hit with everybody and was delicious with our homemade bread. Sometimes it's hard eating later in the evening, but it makes everyone really hungry and grateful for their food. Both kids ate so well, we will definitely have to make this soup another time.
We took this video below because we have taught Aedan how to bat his eyelashes. We were being silly at the dinner table and batting our eyelashes at each other. Aedan wanted to do it with us, so here he is. It's so funny to watch him mimic us, and he makes such funny faces when trying to do it. Although, as you can see in the video, Samantha makes pretty funny faces when trying to copy us as well. It's been fun having family dinners together after soccer practice, even though it's late, it's much better eating together as a family.
Sometimes it's difficult for me to know what activities to participate in with Samantha and Aedan because their personalities and interests are so different. There was a special story and craft time at the Miami Art Museum on Thursday, and I decided we would try it out, even though it would be more for Samantha than for Aedan. They had story time in a special meeting room, and Samantha was very excited to see some of her preschool friends there as well. Aedan paid attention for a few minutes, but then just became interested in climbing up and down the stairs and walking around the auditorium. I followed him around to make sure he didn't go anywhere he was not supposed to go and to make sure he didn't hurt himself. He did actually fall down one step at one point during the story time. It looked like he was holding on okay in lowering himself down, but then he lost his balance, tripped, and fell head first into the floor. He cried quite a bit and it took awhile for me to get him to calm down. I did get out the pacifier after that, hoping it would help him quiet down faster without me having to take him out of the room. Meanwhile, Samantha loved story time. We hadn't been to story time much over the summer, and then it hasn't been going on since school started due to their move into the new library. She loves listening to people read to her, and she loves dancing and singing to the songs the librarians have prepared. It will be fun to start going to story time again once the new library opens up.
Aedan is never very interested in the stories, but he did like listening to the songs and even danced along. :) Both kids love music and dancing so much.
After the story time was over, they had a craft time where you could make music instruments, like a tambourine out of paper plates and rice, as well as an egg shaker with beans inside. Samantha is very diligent when working on crafts, and she loves to color, so when working on decorating her tambourine, she was very conscientious, coloring every inch of white paper plate. She said she was drawing the United States. Meanwhile, I was trying to amuse Aedan since the craft really wasn't something he could do. I helped him make an egg shaker, but that didn't take too much time. Aedan was getting a little tired of waiting on Samantha, but it was good to let Samantha have this experience as well. It's fun to see how much she enjoys being creative, making crafts, drawing, and coloring. She really is very good for her age, and it holds her concentration for a long time.
The art museum has a sculpture garden outside, with many sculptures being ones for kids to climb on and enjoy, so before heading home, we walked around to see the sculptures. The weather was beautiful that morning, and I want to soak in as much outdoors time as possible before the weather changes more fall-like and chilly.
Aedan ate his snack while Samantha did her craft inside, so when she wanted to eat her snack, I told her that she needed to go hide somewhere so that Aedan didn't see her eating and whine for more to eat. So Samantha found a good place between two tall evergreen trees where she could eat in peace. While she did that, Aedan found two sticks to play with, banging them together and on things, discovering the different noises he could make with his sticks. Playing outside like that made me look forward to the day when we own our own home that hopefully will have a backyard with trees, giving our kids endless play opportunities just by going out in nature.
We saw a couple more sculptures before it was time to head home, and again Samantha gave me some trouble, although not as bad as Tuesday when leaving the park. She just developed an attitude, disrespectfully saying that going there was boring anyways and that we were never going to go back there again. I gave her a time out for being disrespectful, and then went back to talk to her about how saying things like that hurts my feelings. I tried to plan a fun morning, with activities that I knew she would enjoy, explaining that it wasn't for Aedan at all, but really just for her, and she was being totally ungrateful. I went through each activity that we did that morning, and she said each one was fun, so I explained to her how it really wasn't a boring morning at all, she was just telling a lie after having a good morning together. She didn't have any explanation for why she said that.
Both kids were getting tired, so it was time to get home and have lunch. Samantha continued to act sassy once we got home, fighting over things with Aedan and not watching her own strength when playing with him, which resulted in him getting hurt. It just felt like one of those days where if it wasn't one, it was the other, and they both tested my patience in different ways at different times.
This next video is a favorite of mine because it shows Aedan's little personality. I took it after getting him up in the morning. You can see his beloved pacifier. You can see him trying to climb on the bumper pads that I just recently put back on his crib after using mesh bumper pads for awhile. You can see him bouncing up and down, with his hair flopping as he bounced. You can also see him batting his eyelashes at me. This little guy wakes up happy and is such a joy. I think sometimes Ben and I fight over who is going to go in his room and get him when he wakes up because he is so happy. We are truly blessed.
Friday was an easier day for me because Andrea took Aedan to play with Bennett, giving me the morning off. I didn't have anything special planned, just going grocery shopping and getting some house cleaning done without the kids underfoot. It's amazing how quickly time flies when you have a long list of things to do. I was able to at least vacuum the floors before needing to make lunch for the kids and head out to meet Ben so that we could do our switch before Zumba. I am so glad that Andrea and I are doing these babysitting swaps because it is so nice to have a built in morning each week where I can have time to myself, time to get work done, or even time to meet a friend.
Here are a couple pictures that Andrea sent me from their morning. They went for a walk Uptown and then stopped to look at flowers. Aedan picked some flowers for me, which Andrea sent home with me in a cup of water. However, she said they spent most of their time playing with the rocks which isn't surprising because Aedan loves picking up, dropping, and throwing rocks.
Friday night was a great family night of cooking out chicken kebabs on the grill, playing outside, and getting the kids in bed before 8:00 so that Ben and I could have a night together with part of our time watching the first episode of the new season of Amazing Race. Every once in awhile I think back to the time before we had kids when we would spend our Friday nights making homemade pizza, watching a show or a movie, and sometimes even going grocery shopping together late at night. Sometimes I miss the days of lazy Friday nights because with kids, it's not too easy to sit around and relax anymore, at least not until they are in bed.
Saturday morning was Samantha's soccer game, and it went fairly well. I was able to mostly contain Aedan to his stroller by giving him snacks and entertaining him with toys. Samantha was pretty spacey that morning, having a hard time concentrating on the ball. She enjoys watching the crowd and the people cheering for her more than trying to get herself into the action of the game. I know she is still enjoying herself, and it is good experience for her, but it's difficult getting four and five year olds to concentrate for that long. Here is a video of Samantha kicking off the ball. She is doing much better at kicking stronger and tries her best, she is just not as aggressive as the other kids, but that's okay.
Saturday afternoon we relaxed together, had lunch, and got the kids down for their naps. Ben and I even napped too because we were feeling tired from the day. Once Samantha woke up from her nap, Aedan was still sleeping, so I decided to take her to the opening of the new Oxford Lane Library. They had special events going on, like a live penguin from the Newport Aquarium for the children to meet. Samantha very much enjoyed petting the penguin, and it seemed to like her as it kept trying to turn its head to try to look at her.
After meeting the penguin, we went downstairs for some playtime in the new children's section. They have a new dollhouse, a big house you can climb in with a soft place to sit to read and a window to do a puppet show, a tractor, a play kitchen, and many other interactive areas. It was fun and very nice. The new library will be a fun place to visit, and I can't wait for story time to start back up again.
On Monday morning Stephanie and Jim dropped Isaac off at our house at 8:20 so that they could go to an appointment without having to keep him quiet and entertained. Samantha was going to preschool, but still had about twenty minutes to play with him before Daddy took her to preschool. She got ready very quickly that morning, quicker than she usually does, because she was so excited about playing with Isaac. After Aedan and Isaac played at home (and made quite a mess), we got ready and left for story time at the community park. I figured it would be a good outing with the boys, and it would be manageable to watch the two of them. Isaac sat right in the center of my lap during the stories, leaving room for Aedan to just perch on my right leg. Neither of them were too interested in the stories, but they did a fairly good job of being quiet. Both of them enjoyed the songs, dancing, and watching the other kids dance.
After story time, I put Aedan in the stroller and Isaac helped me push him over to the little playground. There were lots of other moms and kids there, and the boys had fun climbing, sliding, and even walking around holding hands with this little girl Charlotte that you can see in the picture. You can tell Aedan has a big sister because when Charlotte came up to him and started showing him attention, he just beamed and followed her around. We stayed at the playground until Isaac's parents came to pick him up a little after 11:30. It was a fun morning enjoying story time and being outside.
Monday was a day Samantha had been looking forward to for a long time, as it was her first time as Star of the Day this school year. She woke up super early and couldn't go back to sleep because she was so excited. She had me buy goldfish and small water bottles for snack. Samantha wanted water instead of juice because there is a girl in her class who can't drink juice, and she wanted to make sure she brought a drink that everyone could have. (I love how considerate and thoughtful our little girl is.) For share bag she decided to bring blankie and Belle. It was an exciting morning, and Samantha came home saying that she can't wait until the next time she gets to be the Star of the Day. It's the little things in the life of a toddler that make a normal day special.
That evening after dinner, we took advantage of the nice weather and went outside to play. Samantha got a chance to play with the new neighbor girls that live a few houses down. They rode bikes together and climbed on our play house in the back. Aedan enjoyed riding on Samantha's scooter while Daddy pushed him down the driveway. He wants to be a big kid so bad, and he loves to copy anything the big girls do.
(Blog about September 22-28, 2015)
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