Fun in Oxford and Our Bout with Sickness

Samantha: 59 Months, Week 3

Aedan: 24 Months, Week 1

This past Tuesday was a rough day for the kids, especially Samantha. With our time in Oxford slowly ticking away, I have felt a little more pressure to plan fun activities and take every opportunity we have to do something that we won't be able to do after we move. On Tuesday I had plans to take the kids to the Cincinnati Museum Center. However, as we were getting ready on Tuesday morning, Samantha would just not stop being disrespectful. She got a time out for talking back and then immediately freaked out because Aedan was playing with one of her toys. I kept giving her chance after chance to make the right decision, but she was just too tired to think about her actions. I really wanted to take them to the museum, but there was no way we were still going to go with how her behavior was. I ended up just sending her to her room for awhile for some alone time, and I think if I would have left her up there for very long she would have fallen asleep. Part of me wished that there was a way I could just take Aedan, to teach her a lesson that she can't be disrespectful and still get to do fun things. I decided to take away our opportunity to go anywhere fun, and we had a conversation about how, if her behavior is better, we can try to go to the museum again on Thursday. So instead, I stuck our packed lunch in the refrigerator, and they helped me clean the house. I felt like it was a productive day because by the time nap time was over, I had the whole house cleaned.

Both kids were so tried that afternoon, even Aedan, because he has been waking up super early in the morning, sometimes even before Ben's alarm goes off at 6:20. We have no idea why he's waking up so early because no one is up that early making noise and we have room darkening curtains on his windows to block out the early morning sun, but our kids just both seem to want to wake up with the sun, no matter what time it is. The good thing with Aedan is that we can just leave him in his crib when he wakes up that early. We don't go in and get him right away, and he is generally quiet in his crib just laying down and talking to himself quietly. He has his pacifier, so that keeps him happy for awhile. Samantha has a clock in her room and knows that we don't want her making noise until after 7:00, but she generally is awake before then, usually between 6:30 and 6:45, I think. Anyways, both kids took good naps that afternoon, which I was so glad for. Samantha slept for an hour and forty-five minutes, so clearly she needed the rest.

May 3rd was Teacher Appreciation Day, so Ben got buy one get one free at Chipotle for dinner. There is no Chipotle in Sault Ste. Marie, so we are trying to get our fill while we still live here. It was nice having Ben pick up dinner and bring it home because I didn't have to worry about making dinner and having it ready when Ben got home. As a result, the kids and I had more time to play together, and we decided to go outside to get some fresh air since we'd been cooped up in the house most of the day. They decided to be little gardeners, taking turns with the watering can. They were in much better moods that evening after good afternoon naps.

Nothing of much consequence happened on Wednesday, just a typical day of preschool, work, Bible study, lunch time, nap time, dinner with Daddy, bath time, and bed time. However, it's these "typical" days that are nice sometimes, to just go through the routines of your life, enjoying time together and the blessing it is that I get to stay home to take care of my kids, even though sometimes they are confusing and frustrating.

The kids knew that they had a second chance for the museum on Thursday, so Samantha was especially well-behaved that morning so that she wouldn't ruin our chance of going again. We decided to just buy lunch at the museum, and the kids did great getting ready. Aedan did wake up early again that morning and almost looked like he could fall asleep in the car on the way there, but he did pretty well once we got to the museum. He was excited about playing with the balls and kept talking in a very excited voice, saying "uzam" for museum.

There were quite a few school buses parked at the museum and the Children's Museum area was pretty busy. We normally go to the ball room first but it was so packed that we decided to come back to it later. Instead, we went to the Woods area to let the kids climb around and play. This area was a little better, but still had lots of elementary age kids running around. Samantha was good with keeping track of Aedan for me, helping him up the ladder, and making sure she always told me where she was so I didn't lose track of her as well.

We usually play in the children's museum longer before going to lunch, but it was just so crowded that we decided to just go to the science museum where there were less school groups. Samantha always likes to walk through the caves, so we did that first before playing in the sand for awhile before lunch.

I gave Samantha the choice of hot dogs or pizza for lunch, and she chose hot dogs, which sort of surprised me. However, she and Aedan ate really well for lunch that day. Our day was going well, the kids were listening still, so we decided to stay longer to play. Samantha likes to pretend to ride on the trolley car so we went to the history museum for awhile to do that before enjoying playing with a train table. This is the best place to play with a train table because there are usually no other kids around, so Samantha and Aedan have the area all to themselves. Aedan really likes to play with this train table because all the tracks are nailed down, meaning he can push his trains down as hard and fast as he would like without worrying about knocking over the train track.

Aedan was getting pretty tired as the afternoon went on, so we decided to head back the the children's museum to play for a little while longer. We spent most of our time in the little pretend town area with the bus, which is Aedan's particular favorite because he likes to sit in the driver's seat and turn the wheel. Samantha likes to play in the vet clinic area, but you could tell she was getting tired as well because she wasn't spending as much time in any one area. 

Aedan really had fun pretending to work at the pretend restaurant. I sat at one of the little stools, and he brought me food and gave me water to drink. I would pretend to drink it and ask for more, and he would pretend to fill it up at the faucet in the sink. Although, he started getting frustrated when he realized that no water actually came out of the faucet.

Everyone was fading and we had small group that evening, so I knew it was time to start heading home around 2:30. Especially with our busy day, I knew it would be impossible to keep Aedan awake in the car, and I also encouraged Samantha to close her eyes on our drive home. She was pretty resistant to that idea and threw a little fit on our way out of the museum. However, it didn't take long for her to fall asleep in the car, sleeping most of the way home. It's such a peaceful ride in the car when both kids are fast asleep in the back seat.

Lately when Aedan falls asleep int he car, we haven't been able to lay him back down in his bed to continue his nap; however, I figured it was at least worth a try. And it worked! He went right back to sleep for me, sleeping until we had to wake him up for small group. I'm glad that they both got some rest that afternoon before going to small group that evening.

Friday was back to our normal routine as well with work, preschool, Aedan and I grocery shopping, and then dropping Aedan off with Ben so that I could go to Zumba and they could eat lunch together. It was a really nice day, so they decided to stay at the TRI playground to eat lunch and then play for awhile. Aedan was almost falling asleep on our way back to the house, and it was all we could do to keep him awake. He continues to wake up early in the morning, causing him to get really sleepy even before lunch time. A lot of times he will be asking to take a nap and get his paci before we've even eaten. This day was particularly bad because he did not sleep well on Thursday night. We heard him talking and making noise over the monitor at least four or five times between when we put him to bed and midnight. He doesn't normally wake up this often, and we didn't have to go into his room or anything, but he definitely wasn't getting as sound of sleep as usual. As I was getting him ready for nap time on Friday, he seemed pretty warm to me. I took his temperature and it was 100.9 so I gave him some medicine before laying him down, hoping that it would help him sleep better and have a good nap after the night he had. I actually had Samantha nap that afternoon as well because Daddy said he thought she needed one, and she didn't fight me about it which usually means she recognizes that she needs to nap as well. We still have been going back and forth so much with napping because some days it seems like she desperately needs the extra sleep and gets so sleepy by mid-afternoon.

Samantha always draws interesting pictures, and her drawings are becoming more and more detailed as she practices more. Well on Friday she came home from school with this picture of just Kung Fu Panda in the middle of the page, so later in the day she finished up the rest of the Furious Five. She is slightly obsessed with Kung Fu Panda right now, and I think she pretty accurately portrayed all of the characters. For those of you who have seen Kung Fu Panda, can you tell who's who? This is a picture I will be keeping for Samantha's art scrapbook, for I think she will get a kick out of looking back at her artistic ability when she was almost five and how much she liked Kung Fu Panda. (Also, when we talked so Samantha about her picture, I asked her what the black circle was in the middle of the panda, and she simply stated, "His private parts." Oh kids, they seriously don't realize how outrageously funny their comments can be! Ben and I cracked up for a long time thinking about that.) It's fun to see her like something different than princess things, and she actually requested a Kung Fu Panda birthday party rather than a mermaid party as we originally planned. She likes how Po is silly and is always making messes and getting into trouble. I think she really likes his goofy personality, and she will gladly show you her kung fu moves if you ask her. :)

Since both kids took such good naps on Friday afternoon, after dinner on Friday night Ben suggested that we take a family trip Uptown to get some ice cream at Orange Leaf, Samantha's favorite ice cream place. As I was in the house getting coffee for Ben and me, he recorded this video of the kids talking about mother's day. Aedan wasn't too interested in talking for the video, but it was sweet to hear Samantha's little voice answer Daddy's questions.

After enjoying our frozen yogurt, we walked across the street to listen to this a capella group giving a performance on the stage. We ran into Samantha's friend Felix from preschool, as well as his mom and brother, so the kids had fun dancing around in the grass together as they listened to music. It's fun being in a university town where we can just happen upon local, free events such as this. As we drove back home that night, Ben and I both commented that this is the biggest thing we are going to miss about Oxford, just the plethora of events offered by a university the size of Miami. It was fun to spend our evening Uptown, enjoying the nice weather and family time. :)

On Saturday we had plans to help our friends Stephanie, Jim, and Isaac move into their new house. However, I was surprised to wake up and find that I had slept in past 8:00. I came downstairs and immediately Samantha asked if they could take me out to breakfast at Bob Evans to celebrate Mother's Day a day early since we wouldn't have a chance to celebrate the next day. It was so sweet of Ben to let me sleep in and then to take me out to breakfast, because he knows that I enjoy breakfast. The kids did pretty well at the restaurant even though we ate breakfast much later than usual, and it was a nice treat.

From the restaurant we parted ways so that Ben could go help move while I took the kids over to the Kidd's house to hang out with the other moms and kids while the husbands from our small group helped move. We played at their house for awhile before heading Uptown for the Red Bricks and Roses parade. We took the kids last year and enjoyed it, so I figured they would find it interesting again this year. We were lucky to find a good parking spot and walked up to find a place to sit along the street. I packed a lunch for us to eat while we watched the parade, and Samantha and Aedan were both excited to sit in their little chairs near the edge of the road. There was some music performed before the parade started that Samantha and Aedan enjoyed listening to for awhile.

We even got to watch the parade with our friends, Stephanie and Isaac as well as Kristyn, Jonas, and Micah. The parade didn't last for too long, but really it was the perfect length to hold a little kid's attention.

After the parade was over, one of the carriages gave rides to anyone that wanted a ride around the block. We got in line and only had to wait a few minutes for the next turn. Even though it doesn't look like it in this picture, Samantha and Aedan were very excited to ride on the carriage, pulled behind the horses as their hooves clopped down the street.

After getting off the carriage, the kids wanted to play on the animal statues and then of course noticed the fountains. Samantha asked if they could run around in the fountains and get wet, and at first I was going to say no since I didn't bring a change of clothes, but then I thought, "Hey, why not?" It was a warm, sunny day, and a perfect day to get wet in the fountains. At first Aedan was pretty unsure about getting all wet, but once he saw Sissy running straight through the water, splashing, and getting all wet, he knew it would be okay for him to do it as well. He still was a little more cautious, and he didn't like when the water would splash up into his face, but he got soaking wet and had a wonderful time running around and shrieking with delight. Here are some great pictures and videos of our time at the fountains that afternoon.

We got home much later than anticipated that afternoon since we stayed to play in the fountains, so I quickly got Aedan down for a nap (even though I had to put him in a swim diaper since we ran out of disposables and his cloth diapers were still wet in the washer) and I let Samantha just have quiet time in her room. On days we let Samantha nap, even though she naps at a normal time in the afternoon, she almost always has a hard time falling asleep at night. It took us awhile to get her to sleep on Friday night after napping Friday afternoon and then being out past her bedtime, so we didn't want to deal with her not going right to sleep again on Saturday night.

Aedan slept until close to dinnertime since I got him down later that afternoon, and when he woke up I noticed that he has this red rash all over his face and neck. It wasn't there when he went down for his nap, and I was slightly concerned about what could be causing the sudden rash and wondered if it could possibly contagious, wondering if it had any connection to the slight fever he had on Friday afternoon, even though he didn't have any fever after that one time. The rash didn't seem to be bothering him or itching him, and it wasn't anywhere on his body. He didn't have any other symptoms of being sick, so we thought that maybe it could just be an allergic reaction to something. My first thought was maybe a reaction to the water in the fountain because Aedan has pretty sensitive skin, and he didn't have bumps anywhere else maybe because he was wearing clothes that protected his skin. Here are some pictures of his rash.

Since Saturday was a busy day, Saturday night we just took it easy at home, playing, giving the kids a bath, and getting them to bed early. We gave Aedan allergy medicine and put hydrocortisone cream on his bumps to see if that would help any overnight. Ben and I put a movie on after the kids went to bed, and I packed while the movie played in the background.

Sunday was Mother's Day, and we didn't have any special plans since we'd already celebrated on Saturday morning. Ben volunteered to help out with the elementary kids since they were desperate for help, and I just brought the kids back home to play while Ben stayed for second service. However, on his way back he did buy me some beautiful purple tulips. In the picture below you can also see the project Samantha made for me for Mother's Day, she painted the pot, and the flowers are made of cut outs of her little hands. I told Samantha that I loved her flowers, and they were the best kind because they won't die so I can keep them forever. I felt very loved. :) It was a lovely reminder for me of how blessed I am with my thoughtful husband and two wonderful kids, especially after having a rough day on Saturday when I discovered our attempts at trying to conceive were unsuccessful yet again.

Again, Aedan was so tired that he had a hard time waiting to eat lunch and take a nap. He just wanted to go right up to his room and go to sleep, not understanding that it wasn't even lunch time yet. We let Samantha have quiet time in her room again that afternoon because we feel like it's better when she doesn't nap so that she can get to bed early and go right to sleep instead of making us fight with her to get her to calm down and go to sleep. Really, if she sleeps for an hour and a half in the afternoon, she will stay up an hour and a half past when we put her to bed, so really they just cancel each other out and there is not much benefit to her having napped. Plus, it's nice having the kids in bed at 7:30, giving Ben and I more time to work or spend time together in the evenings, and we don't have to fight to get Samantha to go to sleep because she's usually tired enough that she falls right asleep.

At the last minute, Ben's parents were nice enough to drive to Oxford to deliver all the rest of our boxes along with lot of our tubs of children's clothes that had accumulated at their house over the years. Now we have plenty of storage at our new house, so we can take our stuff out their house in Upland, making it easier to access when sending the next set of clothes for Christy to use for Brielle. Ben's parents are great at being hands-on and helpful, so they didn't just deliver the stuff and leave or sit and hang out, they offered to help me pack, and it was a huge help. My goal for the weekend was to pack up all the pictures and decorations, and they helped me accomplish that goal much faster than if I was doing it all on my own. They stayed through dinner, and the kids were excited to see them after nap time/quiet time. As soon as Aedan heard their voiced downstairs, he said, "Ema? Papa?" and a huge smile came across his face.

We decided to go out to eat at Fiesta Charra that evening, and even though Samantha was running around the house being silly with Papa most of the afternoon, she quickly faded at the restaurant. We felt her forehead and she was burning up, so at some point between home and the restaurant she had developed a fever. She wasn't too interested in eating her food or talking with Ema and Papa because she just didn't feel well and we had no medicine with us to give her, making her feel miserable in the meantime. We had thought about letting the kids play in the park across the street and then getting ice cream at Graeter's, but with Samantha getting sick, we knew it would be best to just get the kids back home.

We put a show on when we got home so that Samantha could relax and let the medicine begin to work. I am so thankful for medicine like acetaminophen and ibuprofen that can bring fevers down and make people so much more comfortable. We hoped that she would have a good sleep and break her fever overnight, although we were already making plans for her to miss preschool the next day because of her fever. I told Samantha to call out to us in the middle of the night if she woke up hot because it meant her medicine wore off, and we could come in and give her more. It was a bit of a rough night because we stayed up later than we should have since Ben was grading, so he woke me up when he came to bed, then about an hour later Samantha woke up crying for more medicine. She had a fever of 102.5 still, so she went to the bathroom and I gave her more medicine before tucking her back into bed. Then, about an hour after that, Ben woke me up because he had the chills and every time he would shake, the whole bed would shake. I was concerned about my family with Aedan's rash, Samantha's fever, and Ben's chills, it seemed like everyone was coming down with something. I knew this week was going to be busy for Ben, too, and I knew he didn't have time to be sick, so I prayed he wasn't coming down with anything.

Samantha slept in past 8:00 on Monday morning, which is pretty unheard of for her. We were so glad that her body was doing what it should do, getting extra rest to help her recover from whatever her body was trying to fight off. I had plans for Aedan to go with Andrea, but just kept him with me since I was staying home with Samantha anyways. She woke up in a pretty good mood and seemed to be mostly back to normal. In fact, Aedan and her were doing a really good job of getting along and playing with each other. They were playing explorers upstairs while I was able to get some work done downstairs. However, as the morning wore on, I was still concerned that they might have something going on because Aedan's rash was still there and went in waves of fading slightly and then becoming more pronounced. Samantha's fever also returned, so I decided to take them into the pediatrician's office. We saw a different doctor than normal, and I wasn't as pleased with his bedside manner. He basically said that it looked look they both had a virus that would pass with time, and that Aedan's rash wasn't contagious since he no longer had a fever. However, he didn't give me any particulars about what the rash was or what may have caused it. I felt a little silly taking the kids in when they said there was pretty much nothing I could do, but at least I had reassurance that the rash was nothing to be concerned about.

Both kids were pretty tired and cranky by lunchtime and needed good naps. Even though Samantha slept past 8:00 that morning, she was acting really tired and since she was sick, I figured that was an exception to our transition to quiet time. We did a joint nap time, reading books and singing together, and Samantha went to sleep pretty easily. In fact, she was still asleep at 4:30! I didn't know whether to wake her up or let her keep sleeping since she was sick and her body was still trying to recover. She ended up sleeping two and half hours that afternoon, and we had to wake her up because we didn't want to impact her sleep too much that evening.

Luckily, after nap time her fever seemed to be gone and she was acting a lot more like herself. We took it easy that night at home as well so that way she could get all better and be able to go back to preschool on Wednesday. However, the two and a half hour nap that afternoon came back to bite us when she was still awake at almost 10:00. I was glad it seemed like all she had was this fever for about twenty-four hours and no other symptoms popped up, especially with her birthday celebration coming up this weekend. It's no fun when your kids are sick, but I was glad that they both seemed to be on the mend and that their symptoms didn't turn into anything worse. Hopefully our bout with sickness is over now and we can continue to stay healthy over the next month with our move to Michigan and our family vacation.

(Blog about May 3-9, 2016)