Samantha: 56 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 20 Months, Week 5 (Week 92)
This past week was full of frustration in completing this blog post. First of all, I was encountering problems uploading and transferring pictures. Then, I was trying to figure out how to get videos posted on my blog that can actually be seen. There has not been much response regarding the problem that many people using Blogger are experiencing, so I decided to try one strategy of uploading the videos to YouTube and then embedding the code into my blog. That seems to have worked, for I can now see and play my videos, even the long ones that I never would have been able to upload in the past. It took quite a bit longer uploading all the videos in this way, but for the time being, until the bug on Blogger is fixed, I will have to use this solution so that my videos can be seen.
The following video is dark, and it's supposed to be this way, for we were just trying to record Samantha's story telling. She likes to take advantage of our time in the car to tell us funny stories. This one was the story of Ben and Jenny, and we decided it was too good not to record. You'll have to listen to her creativity in story telling. It's pretty great and pretty silly.
Tuesday morning the kids and I thought about going to play at the open gym at the TRI, but we were all suffering from colds, Aedan and Samantha were still coughing, and I felt pretty crummy with a head that felt as large as a balloon. I decided, even though it would have been fun to play and run around, it really would be best for us to stay home and lay low. We played at home together, and I came up with the idea to paint. I covered the dining room table with paper from the easel, filled bowls with paint, put a paint brush in each one, and put the kids each on their own side of the table with their own paper. They had a great time painting for quite awhile. Aedan scooped up as much paint as possible with each dip of his paint brush, spreading the paint around and mixing all the colors together in one place.
It was great to watch the different ways they paint, but still seeing the great interest from both of them. Can you see Aedan using his left hand to paint? It will be interesting to see if he continues using his left hand so much for he still throws right handed, but tends to eat and hold brushes/markers/crayons with his left hand. Painting was a great activity for our morning at home.
Tuesday was a busy day for Ben as he had two interviews plus teaching his class. He interviewed with Lake Superior State University and the Middletown campus of Miami University. He thought the interview with Lake Superior went well, and their goal was to get campus interviews out the following week, with people visiting in the middle of February, so just like all the other interviews we will just have to wait and see. Then, later in the afternoon he had his interview with Miami Middletown. We were both pretty excited about this opportunity because it would be an option for us to stay in Oxford, make more money, get Ben in a tenure track position, and stay in the area in case a line for a tenure track position opens up in Oxford. However, Ben was a little unsure after his interview for it's always hard to read what people really think when talking to them on the phone for twenty minutes. They aren't planning on bringing anyone to campus until March, which was a little disappointing because that just means more waiting and more wondering what options remain open for our future. There are many people from Ben's department that have put in a good word for Ben, basically telling the committee that they couldn't go wrong with Ben. You'd think that having Ben already teaching on the Oxford campus would make it an easy decision for them, but there are so many weird factors in hiring new faculty, really anything is possible. All we can do is wait and pray and trust that God will work things out and provide for us, whether with this job or a job somewhere else.
Wednesday was a big day for us because Ben was heading off to a conference in Columbus, Ohio after teaching his 1:00 class. He planned to come back Friday afternoon, so the kids and I were going to be on our own for awhile. I knew we could handle ourselves, but it definitely is harder doing things with only one parent. Any time Ben is gone, I have a greater appreciation for single moms or wives with husbands that have long work days and aren't home much.
We had a pretty decent morning, with Ben dropping Samantha off at preschool, and Aedan and I spending some time at home before going to the library for story time and play time. They have a story time for two and three year olds, and I figured I'd try it out to see how he liked it. The librarian is much more expressive and interactive. They sing and dance, shake shakers, find letters, and read books. He reacted the same way at this story time as every other story time, enjoying the songs and dancing, but not wanting to sit still for the stories, instead choosing to wander around the room. It was still fun to take him, but he is just not so good at sitting and listening to stories in a group setting yet.
Lately Samantha has been having a really hard time with transitions, like getting ready in the morning, leaving preschool, and getting ready for nap time or bed time. She will throw fits, refuse to listen, cry and scream, and sometimes reach out to try to hit or kick me. Wednesday was one of those days when she was testing me, especially since Ben was gone and she knew our time would be different without him. That afternoon as I was trying to get her ready for nap time, she already started testing me, saying no to everything I said. I hoped that she would take a good nap so that she would be in a better mood and start getting over her cough and cold, but instead she only slept for maybe half an hour and was up singing again. It's frustrating when she's so tired but will refuse to let herself rest.
We were able to talk to Daddy on the phone for awhile before dinner, and Aedan didn't get up until after 5:00, so our dinner was a little later than usual. I tried to make something I knew they would both eat well, just to make my life easier, so I made fettuccine with spiral noodles, green beans, and fruit. As we were eating dinner, we got to talking about people who don't believe in Jesus and what you would say to them so that they could believe in Jesus like Samantha does. She even asked me if Aedan believed in Jesus, and I said that he hears a lot about Jesus but really is too young to know what he believes. After that she turned to Aedan and started telling him all about Jesus and why he should believe in him. I asked her to explain it again for me so that I could get a little video of it. She is so earnest in her description and so innocent in her belief. If only I could be so bold.
Then, since I was recording Samantha, Aedan wanted to get in on the video as well. I tried to get him to talk or sing, but he froze in front of the camera.
Things always take longer when it's just one of us at home, so the kids got to bed later than I would have liked. Then, Samantha was in a weird mood when I was putting her to bed. I think she was worried that Ben was not at home with us, and she was acting a little scared, wanting me to sleep in her room with her. The kids definitely enjoy playing with Daddy in the evening and miss him greatly when he's gone. Plus, Samantha has been on a Kung Fu Panda kick lately, and every time she watches it, she wants to play kung fu with Daddy where she wrestles him and tackles him. They both love it.
Wednesday night I stayed up way too late working on making a new photo calendar, and we had plans to go swimming at Rec pool on Thursday morning, so I decided to just sleep in until the kids woke up around 7:15. I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast, and we recorded a little Happy Birthday video to send to Aunt Christy on her birthday.
The Rec was having another free week since it was the first week of the semester, so we had plans to meet Stephanie and Isaac at the pool around 10:00 for some swimming. Samantha was doing a good job for me that morning, even though it was after 9:00 before she fell asleep the night before. I told her that she needed to be extra helpful to me at the pool since it was just me taking care of both kids. When she gets her Puddle Jumper on, she can swim around in the water very comfortably on her own. Aedan was a little unsure about the water at times, but he liked having a life jacket on to keep his head above water a little better. He wanted to dunk the basketball a lot, so we did that while Samantha got Stephanie and Isaac to play with her, probably pretending out the story The Little Mermaid. I got Aedan to stay in the kiddie pool area for awhile so that he could walk around in the water by himself without me having to hold him the whole time, giving him more freedom and giving me time to talk to Stephanie. Samantha had a great time diving for her sea horses, getting her head under water, and jumping off the wall into the water. This lifeguard was a little more laid back and actually let the kids play with the pool noodles in the water. Aedan thought those were pretty fun and enjoyed whacking them in the water and making a big splash. We had a fun morning together, and as it was getting close to lunch time, so we decided it was time to get out, get changed, and head home. It's fun being able to take advantage of the free week. Here are the kids once we arrived back home from swimming. I figured Daddy would enjoy getting an update on how his kiddos were doing.
Throughout the morning, Ben sent me these pictures from the conference center where they had dump trucks, ambulances, water tanks, and snow plows on display for city officials to look around at for their city. (He wanted to buy one, but I said no. Ha ha)
The rest of our Thursday went pretty well with a good lunch time and nap time. We were getting pretty well settled into a new routine of just the three of us, and Samantha settled down even though her Daddy was missing. Once Aedan woke up from his nap, we were able to Skype with Daddy so that the kids could see him and not just hear him. It never works all that great to talk on Skype with the kids because they are just all over the place. Aedan wants to keep touching the computer, and then Samantha likes the idea but doesn't really talk much and just wants to make silly faces for the camera. From there it was time for pizza for dinner, followed by bath time and bed time. Another difference I noticed in being at home by myself was just the lack of time to just play with the kids because there was always something to do: making and cleaning up dinner, laundry, baths, picking up toys, always some task to keep us busy, and I still had a hard time getting it all done and still getting the kids to bed at a decent time.
Since Samantha had preschool on Friday, and I had plans to watch Isaac for Stephanie and Jim, I made sure to get up and get showered and ready before the kids woke up for the day. Lately Samantha has been wanting to wear dresses every day, especially on preschool days. It took some coercing to get her ready to go, as she always resists getting dressed and ready since she would rather be playing. However, we made it to preschool pretty close to 9:00, and I was able to drop Samantha off quickly before getting Isaac and bringing him back home to play with Aedan. The boys had fun together playing with Aedan's Vtech train set, playing the piano together, and watching the fire truck drive around and around the kitchen. It didn't take Stephanie and Jim long to finish up with their meeting and come pick Isaac up, giving Aedan and I time to play and read books together. He loves to read books with us and has even started this funny thing where he will sit down with a book and pat the floor next to him as a way to signal for you to come sit next to him. It's pretty cute, and it's a great way to get some cuddling in, so I will read Aedan as many books as he would like.
For lunch that day, to do something special with just the kids, I decided to take them out to eat. I asked Samantha that morning where she would like to eat, and she decided she would rather go to Chipotle than McDonald's. I made sure to order our food online ahead of time so that way we wouldn't have to wait in line once we got there. Samantha told her teachers about going to to lunch that day, so she was excited to leave preschool so that we could go out. We had a great lunch together. The kids were very respectful and ate well, even though they were both grabbing at the food as soon as we sat down since they were so hungry. It was fun to be able to spend this extra time with them, just the three of us.
Everyone was very excited for Daddy to come home that afternoon. He got home while the kids were napping and went to get Samantha when she woke up from her nap. She was excited to see him and wanted to cuddle with him while she watched her show.
We were both glad that she napped well that afternoon because Ben got tickets to a Miami hockey game. He had wanted to take Samantha on a date to a game, and this was the only game with tickets left still. We all ate dinner together at home before they left for the game. Aedan and I took Roscoe on a walk together with his truck flashlight because he was pretty unhappy that Daddy and Sissy were leaving without him. He even went to the closet to get his shoes, the poor little guy. Then, he was pretty happy just hanging out at home and playing with me. We did puzzles for awhile and I was surprised at how well he did with them. I had never really seen him work so diligently on puzzles before, but he was getting almost all the pieces in the correct places by himself. I've noticed that Aedan is a lot more focused on a task when either Ben or I am sitting with him, next to him. I love to see all the new learning that is taking place in him every day.
Ben and Samantha had a good time at the hockey game together. They walked in and everyone got a towel, which she found odd, so Daddy had to explain what to do with the rally towel and got into it later in the game when she saw other people swinging around. They got to their seats about 6:50 and decided to get their snack of a frosting cookie with hot chocolate for her and coffee for Daddy. She took most of the rest of the game to eat her snack. During the game she enjoyed asking Ben questions about what was happening and during breaks in the game, they weren't able to go walk around until the Zamboni was done because she liked watching it drive around on the ice. She also liked dancing any time there was music playing. There were synchronized ice skaters during one of the breaks which she found fun to watch, too. During the first break, they even ran into the dad of a boy from her preschool class and he gave her a real hockey puck used during the game. She thought that was pretty cool and couldn't wait to show me when she got home. It was a fun date night with her Daddy, and she was a little revved up and took some convincing to get her to bed.
I can't remember exactly when I started this, but I believe it may have been on Friday. Since we have had so many struggles lately in transitions and getting Samantha to do what we ask her to do without fighting, I decided to try a positive outlet by making a "Good Choices Jar." I wrote "Good Choices Jar" on a label an placed it on a pint size glass jar with a handle. Then, I got some fluffy balls out from my stash of craft items that she could use to fill the jar. Every time she made a good choice, whether that be listening to us when we asked her to do something, going right to sleep, or choosing to share with her brother, she could put another ball in the jar. Then, once the jar is full, she can trade the balls in for a special incentive like being able to sleep in our bedroom for the night, having extra play time instead of napping, having extra TV time, getting to go somewhere special with Mommy or Daddy, going out for ice cream, or something special like that. I don't want all my interactions with her to be negative or to feel like I'm constantly nagging her or threatening her in order to get her to behave and listen. I wish that she would have more intrinsic motivation to do these things, but that is just not happening right now, so I thought some extrinsic motivation might help to encourage her to think about her actions and choose good behaviors over bad ones. My plan is to give her plenty of opportunities for her to earn them, allowing the jar to fill up quickly so she can earn her special privilege and see the benefits of making good choices.
Saturday morning we had plans to go swimming again at the Rec since it was still free. After eating breakfast we headed over to the pool and the kids had a great time swimming. It was fun to have Daddy with us so that each kid could have one-on-one attention. Samantha even took her Puddle Jumper off for awhile and swam back and forth in the water all on her own in an area where she could still touch the bottom if she needed to. Aedan is really warming up to the water as well, for he liked walking around on the bench, playing basketball, and jumping off the side of the pool just like his Sissy. It was so cute watching him try to jump because he doesn't quite know how to jump yet, he just hops a little in one place without moving forward. At one point he was even flirting with the lifeguard a little, looking at her and smiling, jumping into the water, and then looking back up to see if she was still watching him. It's nice when Ben and I both take the kids because then we also get to spend some time sitting in the whirlpool to do some relaxing of our own.
Saturday evening, after a good afternoon of naps, we decided to be spontaneous and take the kids out to eat to our favorite restaurant, Chuy's. It is a bit of a drive, but the kids were in good moods and did a great job playing together in the backseat, even allowing Ben and I to carry on a conversation in the front seat. Chuy's is just so good, and the kids love their quesadillas, rice, and beans, that it's an easy restaurant to take the kids to. Samantha sat coloring for awhile while waiting for our food. Ben and I just kept looking at her, thinking she looked like such a big kid. Sometimes we can't believe how fast she is growing up. The kids also like that they get push pops for dessert. Aedan was pretty proud of being able to hold it and eat it by himself. We just had to help him push it up, and he got himself good and messy.
On the way back home from the restaurant, we decided to put a movie on our portable DVD player since the kids did such a great job for us. Plus, it's hard for them when we drive at night because they can't really play with toys or read books when it is dark in the car. We put on The Little Mermaid, and Aedan enjoyed it for awhile, but once it gets past 7:00 he just gets fussy and wants to go to bed, so for most of the trip I was reaching back around to his seat holding his hand, touching his head, or cupping his face in my hand. We just recently got new pacifiers for Aedan because his last one had a hole in it, and we had yet to put one in his diaper bag. It was a rough trip home for him, but we made it okay and it was a fun family night out together. It's almost easier or Ben and me to talk while riding in the car than when we are at home together in the evenings.
Sunday was a day we had been looking forward to for awhile now because we had tickets to a Josh Garrels concert in Cincinnati. We have wanted to see him in concert for awhile, but it seems like the timing and location never worked out. My friend Maggie agreed to babysit for us so that we could be out later. Samantha was super excited when we she woke up from her nap and we told her Maggie was coming over. We had dinner ready for them, and then we headed out. While we were gone, they played babies, played with Play-Doh, and were easily entertained. She sent a text at 8:20 saying they were both in bed.
Ben and I had a great evening together. We got Wendy's to eat while we waited in line to get into the concert for early admission at 6:30. We probably had not heard Josh Garrels perform live since our Taylor days, so it kind of felt like we were back in college again. Josh Garrels is one of the few musicians that we continually follow. We have all of his albums and still listen to him quite a bit. The venue was called The Underground and was standing room only, which I wasn't quite looking forward to, and my feet hurt by the end of the concert since we were standing in a crowd of people for four hours. Josh Garrels performed first, followed by John Mark McMillan, who we had never listened to before. I felt a little old during the concert because I felt like it was a little too loud and more rock-ish than I would like. I much prefer Josh's slower, acoustic, melancholy musical style, which obviously doesn't lend itself well to this type of environment. However, I enjoyed listening to his thoughtful lyrics and singing along when I could. It was a great evening of music and worshiping God. Ben and I took quite a few pictures and videos, so for those other Josh Garrels' fans out there, you can see part of the concert and live vicariously through us.
At the end of the concert, Josh Garrels came back out on stage and both bands sang "Farther Along" all together. It was a great way to end the concert, even though I would have much preferred listening to Josh Garrels for the entire concert. It was a fun date night for Ben and me, and we were glad to get out knowing that our kids were being well taken care of by Maggie.
(Blog about January 26-February 1, 2015)
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