Fun Activities In and Around Oxford

Samantha: 57 Months, Week 2

Aedan: 21 Months, Week 4 (Week 96)

This past Tuesday I figured we would follow our normal plans of going to open gym at the TRI for a little while before heading over to story time at the library. However, I got a message from my friend, Stephanie, saying that she was going to take Isaac to Jump and Jack's. I asked Samantha what she would like to do, and of course she chose going to Jump and Jack's. It's always a great place to play, and Samantha just loves it there. We get there and she disappears, climbing and sliding and checking back with me every once in awhile so that way I know where she is. Aedan was actually a little bit more adventurous than usual this time. He wanted to go climb with the big kids and most of all, keep up with Sissy. It was good to be able to catch up with Stephanie as well since life has been pretty busy for both of us lately. We stayed until about 11:30 when we got ready to come back to our house for lunch. I invited Stephanie and Isaac to eat with us, so the kids were looking forward to that. Samantha and Aedan were in good moods, were respectful, and both of them took good naps and went to sleep well for me. It was a good, productive day for me, and I always like to have those every once in awhile. It was good to be back home from my trip to Chicago, to have our family back together again, and to be back into our normal routine.

On Wednesday after dropping Samantha off at preschool, I took Aedan to get his hair cut. It was getting pretty long and scraggly looking, and I figured it would be much easier to get it cut when I just had him, rather than Samantha and him. The lady that cut his hair the last two times, who I really liked, is no longer working at the Great Clips in Hamilton, so I decided to just take him to the one in Oxford. Aedan did a pretty good job sitting still on the booster seat in the chair. He was a little more wiggly than usual, but he really did a pretty good job considering he's not even two yet. Plus, at the end, he was very excited to get a lollipop. He jumped up and down and even said "ank oo (Thank you)" to the stylist without me having to ask him to say it. Isn't Aedan such a cute little guy?

Sometimes I feel like our weeks just rush by with the schedule that we keep during the week. We have our community group on Tuesday nights, Ben goes to Bible study on Wednesday nights, I go to Bible study on Thursday nights, and Ben teaches late classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. These are all wonderful things to be involved in, and we are getting to know many people at OBF through these groups as well as growing in our relationship with God, but sometimes it is exhausting. That's why slow mornings at home are nice, and Thursday morning was one of those days. Samantha does a pretty good job of getting up and getting dressed right away, and then she gets right to playing, usually in her room. Well, Ben was upstairs finishing getting ready and as I was coming upstairs, he mentioned that I was going to want to bring my phone to take a picture of the kids. They were both sitting in Samantha's reading corner looking at books while sitting side by side. I also thought it was funny that Roscoe was laying right near them as well, for he likes to be sleeping in a room wherever they are. I love that Aedan has such a good big sister to look up to, to copy, and to take care of him. They are so sweet together; it just warms my soul.

And here she is trying to tell Aedan the story in the book she was reading, but he is mostly concerned with pulling books down off the shelf.

I'm not exactly sure what happened before this picture took place, but something happened that made Aedan cry. Samantha came right over to him offering to give him a hug and saying, "Sissy is here for you." This is another example of the magic calming power of Sissy. Everything is better after a hug from her. It calms him down almost instantly, and he just looks up at her face with the cutest look of admiration.

Originally I didn't have any plans for Thursday, I figured we would just stay home and play. However, I found out at the last minute about the Art Explorers program at the Miami art museum. Samantha loves this program as it is story time with Miss Connie followed by a craft time. I gave Samantha the choice of what she would like to do, stay home and play or go to Art Explorers, and she chose Art Explorers. Miss Connie does a great job with the stories. She is engaging, uses props and songs, and also calls on volunteers to help her with the story. Samantha gets really into it, following along with whatever Miss Connie does. Aedan did a little bit better at listening during this story time. He wasn't as focused on just trying to wander around the room. It also helped that Matteo and Bennett were there as well, giving Samantha and Aedan fun friends to be with.

The rest of the day went by like normal. We stopped by Kroger to pick up a few groceries to get us through the weekend, and then we went back home for lunch and nap time. Samantha ended up taking a really good nap that afternoon and got to watch half of Mulan, her show of choice. I enjoy Thursdays because Ben usually gets home a little earlier from campus, giving us extra time to spend together in the evenings before I go off to Bible study.

When we are in the kitchen making food, Aedan has enjoyed sitting up on the counter watching us. On Friday morning Aedan was watching Daddy cook breakfast, and he was just too cute up there not to take a picture of him. I love how he crosses his ankles when he sits. And, what a face! His smile is just so great.

Aedan always goes down for naps so easily, and now we have a new routine established. He gets to pick out two books for us to read together, then I turn of the light and hold him in my lap with his head resting on my left arm. He says, "Jesus" so I sing "Jesus Loves Me," and then he says, "Pray" while he holds his two little hands together, so then I say a prayer. After that I lean over, kiss his forehead, and say "Night-night, Aedan," to which he replies, "Nigh-nigh." He then moves his little fingers around his paci for a few minutes before totally falling asleep in my arms. It never takes more than five minutes for him to fall asleep, but I always rock him longer than that. I love the heaviness of his body once he's fallen fast asleep. I love to see his peaceful face while he's sleeping. And most of all, I love to cuddle with my little boy who is often too active to even sit on my lap for very long. Sometimes I wonder how long we will be able to carry on this nap time tradition. I imagine there will be a day when he no longer falls asleep with me rocking him at nap time. Until then, I will soak up and cherish these sweet moments with my little guy.

Saturday was a super fun day for Samantha as her art class started that morning, and she was really excited about it. Miami students put on these art classes as part of becoming art teachers, and everyone in Oxford says great things about the program. I dropped Samantha off that morning, filled out the paperwork, and took her to her classroom. She was not nervous at all, but went right in, found a seat, and started coloring a picture. She loves to draw, color, and paint. She's very detailed and particular when she does art, and I love to watch her creativity come out. Ben picked her up when it was over, and he was able to get this picture of her. He said that all the other kids were up playing, but she was quietly working on her project still. She was the last one still working, which doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, I'm glad that they allow her the time she needs/wants to work on her project. The teacher even commented to Ben about how she is going to be a little artist when she grows up. After a couple failed attempts of different activities like soccer and gymnastics, it's fun to see Samantha really interested in something. She definitely seems to be more artsy than athletic, at least so far. It will be exciting to watch her interests grow and develop and she gets older.

After Samantha came home from art class, we decided to let the kids watch a show and have a snack. Ben took these pictures of us sitting on the couch together. I love how close together they sit, squished on one couch cushion. Aedan couldn't wait for Sissy to get back home so that he could play with her. He misses her tremendously when she's gone. It's like he's a little wandering soul without his big sister.

Samantha ended up taking a good nap Saturday afternoon after not napping a couple days in a row. That's how it's been with her lately. She will skip a nap a couple days in a row, and then she will crash the next day. It's nice that she at least gets rest when she needs it. I was also glad she napped because I wanted to take her on a date that evening. She was so excited when she woke up and I told her that we were going to see Kung Fu Panda 3. She is slightly obsessed with Kung Fu Panda right now, and she thought she would really like the third movie where they go to Panda Land. We drove down to the theater in Colerain with the fancy reclining seats and had a great time watching the movie together. Samantha couldn't take her eyes off the screen, and even though she had to go to the bathroom close to the end of the movie, she didn't want to get up and miss part of the movie. She loves to pretend to do kung-fu lately, and she loves to play superheroes with her friends at preschool. When she plays kung-fu with Daddy, she is always Po protecting people from the bad guys. (However, she still likes it when Daddy locks her up in prison and she tries to escape.) After the movie we went across the street to have dinner at Chipotle, which was her restaurant of choice. Then, we stopped at Once Upon a Child on our way home so that Samantha could pick out some dresses. She loves to wear dresses almost every day, and I wanted to give her a treat by letting her choose the ones she liked the best. Of course, she chose dresses that were extra poofy on the bottom so it could be like a princess dress, plus one long one that went down to the floor because she always wanted a long dress just like princesses wear. Samantha and I had a good time together on our date. It was so fun to be able to spend this one-on-one time with her where I didn't have Aedan pulling my attention away. This is definitely a tradition that we will continue. :)

While Samantha and I were out, Daddy took Aedan out to eat at Skyline. We haven't been there in ages, probably not since Aedan actually started eating normal food, which was a long time ago. He got Aedan the hot dog meal, and Aedan loved it! He devoured the whole thing and most of all loved the pile of cheese and the little crackers. Ben said that it was a bit odd eating out with just Aedan since he doesn't carry on a conversation at all, but he did get a lot of cute looks from people who saw them out together. Afterwards they stopped by Kroger to get a couple of things, so here is Aedan hanging out in the shopping cart.

I'm not exactly sure what the cause of this crying video is, but apparently Aedan was mad about something and Ben was trying to get a video of him crying, probably very pathetically. I imagine it had been a long day of being without Sissy, and he missed her. It was getting close to bedtime, and he was getting sleepy.

The rest of our weekend went pretty well with church on Sunday and then a pretty relaxing afternoon together as a family. Here are the kids in the car on the way to church. Samantha was very excited about wearing her long dress that went down to the floor, even though it was more of a summer dress, she was just fine wearing a sweater and tights with it.

It was a nice, sunny day with warmer than normal temperatures. Samantha put her sunglasses on so Aedan wanted to copy her as well. Normally he likes the idea of wearing sunglasses but doesn't leave them on for more than a few seconds. However, he left his sunglasses on the whole ride to church. In fact, it was difficult for me to make him leave them in the car when it was time to go in to church. Doesn't he look cool? I love the look on his face, no smile or anything, just a serious dude with his "eyes" (what he calls sunglasses).

On Monday Ben had a busy day with his normal schedule on campus, plus he had another phone interview at 5:30 once his class finished for the day. Luckily, I got a little bit of a break because my friend Andrea and I decided to start our babysitting swap back up again. I know it's helpful to both of us to have one morning off a week to get things done, run errands, meet with a friend, or whatever it is that we want to do. I feel like I was struggling to find time to get everything done during the day/week without feeling like I am just ignoring the kids when they are at home because I have all these tasks that need to be accomplished. So, once dropping Samantha and Aedan off I was able to run some errands, start laundry, get caught up on my Bible study, and even go to the faculty work-out room on campus. It was really nice to have a morning to myself, and it was amazing how much I could get done in such a short period of time.

Aedan just has the greatest laugh when he is being tickled, so I decided to capture it on video while I changed his diaper before nap time. You have to ignore Samantha whining to tell me something in the background and focus on his laughter. (I promise I did meet Samantha's needs after stopping the video. She just didn't like that I was focusing all my attention on him and not on her.) Oh kids, I'm glad that I get these moments with them every day. I am one lucky Mommy.

(Blog about February 23-29, 2015)