Aedan: 25 Months, Week 2
Being that we just arrived in Sault Ste. Marie on Friday, June 3rd, we were doing pretty well by Wednesday, June 8th. Ben and I were working hard on getting all our boxes unpacked and things organized into each room. My main goal was to have our house rid of boxes before leaving for vacation. So as I went around on Wednesday afternoon, I took pictures of each room as put together as it could be. We don't have any pictures or decorations on the wall yet, but that is something we will tackle after returning from vacation. (I will update pictures later on once we have everything decorated how we like it.) So here are the first glimpses of our new home.
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| Office (in the basement) |
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| Master Bedroom (in the basement) |
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| Bathroom (in the basement) |
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| Family Room/Play Room (in the basement) |
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| Family Room/Play Room (in the basement) |
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| Guest Bedroom |
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| Mud Room |
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| Samantha's Bedroom |
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| Samantha's Bedroom |
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| Bathroom |
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| Kitchen/Dining Room |
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| Kitchen/Dining Room |
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| Kitchen/Dining Room |
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| Kitchen/Dining Room |
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| Living Room |
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| Living Room |
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| Living Room |
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| Aedan's Bedroom |
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| Aedan's Bedroom |
Overnight Monday into Tuesday, Samantha woke up a couple times crying and complaining about her right ear hurting again. Ben gave her some ibuprofen and told her to try to go back to sleep and get some rest. Her ear was really bothering her, and when I talked to Samantha on Tuesday morning, she described the feeling like bubbles popping her ear. I was pretty sure it was an ear infection again, so we looked online to determine what doctors would be covered under our insurance where we could take Samantha to be seen that day. Ben ended up taking her to a walk-in clinic near the hospital, and Samantha was seen right away. The doctor confirmed that she did indeed have another ear infection in her right ear. In fact, the doctor made the comment that her first ear infection may have never gone totally away, since it came back this soon. That comment made me feel better about Samantha's hearing as well, because if she still had signs of an ear infection, that may account for why she still scored low on her hearing exam right before we moved. The doctor prescribed some antibiotics for Samantha, except this time gave her a different kind than what she had last time to ensure the infection would be gone. We were so glad to be able to get medicine that would help Samantha feel better quickly, especially with our family vacation coming up that weekend.
While Ben took Samantha to the doctor, I took Aedan to the library, just to get out of the house for awhile, to check out our new library, and to try to sign up for a library card. The library was smaller than the Oxford library, which was to be expected, but they still had a pretty decent children's section with a good selection of books as well as some shelves with toys to play with. They had a play kitchen with a shopping cart to push around, so Aedan was happy to do that for awhile. I was unable to get a library card because I forgot to bring proof of our new address, but it was still a good morning outing, as I'm sure Aedan and I will make weekly trips to the library for story time once Samantha is in kindergarten all day.
On Wednesday morning Samantha got to go to her new school, called the Bahweting School. They had to do some preliminary testing on her to help with class placement and things like that, so Ben dropped Samantha and me off at the school while he took Aedan back to the library for story time. Samantha was a little bit nervous when the social worker came to get her and take her back for the testing. I don't think Samantha realized that she would have to go back without me. The testing took about 40 minutes, and then the principal took us around the school for a tour. Samantha got to see the lunch room, the playground, the library, and most importantly, a kindergarten classroom. I was impressed when seeing the classroom because it was bigger than I remember it being. Samantha was pretty excited to meet a kindergarten teacher and see what the kids in the class were doing. They were making beach ball crafts, and you could tell that Samantha just longed to join right in. Since we had not moved here yet when they had their kindergarten round-up, the teacher gave Samantha a white board and erasable crayons, which is something that the other kids received the night of kindergarten round-up.
I learned a few new things that morning about the school. One being that the limit for enrollment in each kindergarten class was moved up to 22 rather than 20 because they found that they were just having six new kids enter first grade, and they would rather just have those kids from the beginning. Even though the number is higher, they at least have two teachers in each classroom which is always beneficial. I also learned that the school has a bus that Samantha can take to and from school, which was really exciting to her. That will also help me since she can take the bus home and I won't have to worry about waking Aedan up from his afternoon nap in order to go pick Samantha up from school. It will be interesting to see what the schedule is like and when she would be picked up and dropped off every day. Plus, I learned about the summer camp that Samantha can attend to help prepare her for the start of school. It runs for a couple of weeks in the mornings, and I signed her up for the last session that ends in the middle of August because I figured the closest to school starting, the better. The summer camp will help Samantha become familiar with the locations of all the classrooms, as well as how to carry a tray in the lunchroom, and how to ride the bus, among other things. She was pretty excited about this opportunity as well. I'm glad that we put Samantha on the wait list when we could and that she was accepted at the Bahweting School. It will be a big transition and change for all of us, since she is our first child going to school full time, but I am excited to see how much she will learn and grow in kindergarten.
A cold front came across most of the Midwest during this week right before our family vacation, so when we decided to go for a walk over to campus on Wednesday evening, we actually busted out the kids winter coats. (I know, I know, winter coats in June? It was in the mid-40s. It will take awhile for our blood to thicken up and get used to the change in climate.) As we walked around campus, we were excited to see that Crawford Hall was unlocked. On the first floor of the building they have lots of cases of taxidermy animals, as well as heads mounted on the wall. The kids really like this part, and Aedan kept pointing out all the heads hanging on the wall, as you can see in the picture below. (Samantha was playing dress-up before we left for our walk, so we decided it wasn't important enough to tell her that she couldn't wear the dress to campus.) It's going to be fun having campus right across the street, making it an easy place to take a walk, ride bikes on the sidewalk, and even go visit Daddy in his office some day.
When we got back home from our walk, Samantha decided to dress Aedan up as well. He gladly put on Samantha's Ariel dress. She tried to get the Ariel crown on his head, but he wasn't a fan of that for very long.
Aedan doesn't normally stay dressed up for very long, but on this evening he was glad to dance around the kitchen with Samantha, until he fell down and cried, of course.
But don't you worry, after dancing, both Samantha and Aedan wrestled around with Daddy for quite awhile, even climbing on him and sitting on him like he was a horse. Ben is so good at giving the kids, especially Aedan, the physical contact that they need. I wrestle with him, too, but it's not quite the same as wrestling with Daddy. It was a fun evening, and life was starting to feel more normal with our usual family activities.
Since we had everything unpacked and were in a good position with getting situated in our house, we decided to take a morning trip on Thursday. Ben found a lighthouse a little more than half an hour away from our house, so we decided to pack a picnic lunch and go explore the lighthouse. It was a beautiful day, even though it was still a bit chilly. We were able to climb the stairs all the way to the top of the lighthouse and got a beautiful view of the water.
The kids thought it was pretty cool being up so high at the top of the lighthouse. Here they are sharing a chair to stand on so they could have a better view.
After climbing back down the lighthouse stairs, we went on the boardwalk out near the shoreline. There were quite a few groups of bugs flying around on the boardwalk, but once we went out on the beach, there were no bugs. We had a great time listening to the waves lap up onto the shore, and the kids were totally content playing with sticks, repeatedly throwing rocks into the water, and writing/drawing in the sand. We stayed there for quite awhile, just enjoying the scenery, talking, and watching the kids play. I think Aedan could have stayed there most of the day, just throwing rock after rock into the water.
I love this picture of Aedan holding his stick, with the lighthouse and shore in the background.
The kids would have played for a lot longer, but since it was getting close to lunch time, we decided to go back to the car to get our picnic lunch. We were going to eat at a picnic table, but the bugs were swarming around a little too much, so we decided just to have the kids eat in the back of the car. They thought that was a pretty neat experience as well. Every once in awhile Aedan will smile for a picture and say, "Cheese!" Here's one good picture of the kids with both of them looking at the camera and smiling. Ben and I have two pretty cute little kids. :) We had a really fun (free) morning excursion at the lighthouse and will definitely have to come back again.
Later that afternoon, in preparation for our Toll family vacation, Daddy mowed the lawn so that it wouldn't grow like crazy while we were gone. Samantha and Aedan are both really enjoying being outside and playing in the yard. We are so blessed by this outdoor space, and I love seeing the kids outside playing a lot more than normal, enjoying this beautiful weather. When Daddy gets his lawnmower out, Aedan gets so excited and pushes his lawnmower right along with him. (That was a great idea that Aunt Jeni got for him for his birthday this year!) Aedan will push his bubble mower back and forth pretty much the whole time Daddy is mowing the lawn as well. It's so cute to watch Aedan copying everything that Ben is doing. Samantha sometimes gets a turn with the lawn mower, but Aedan doesn't like to share it very often, and Samantha doesn't enjoy pushing the lawnmower that much anyways. Here are the kids helping Daddy pick little white weed flowers from the grass before he mowed them down.
We got all packed up on Thursday night since we were flying to get to vacation which made packing a little more difficult. We wanted to make sure we had everything we needed and that we didn't pack our bags too heavy. Ben and I were up early on Friday morning so that we could get on the road as soon as possible. We had a five hour drive to get to Detroit, which is where we were flying out. Since we were driving past Ann Arbor on the way to our hotel near the airport in Detroit, we decided to stop at the Hands-On Museum in Ann Arbor to let the kids play for a few hours. With our Cincinnati Museum Center membership, we were able to get in at half price. Both kids napped in the car on the way there, although not as long as would have hoped, and they were grateful to be able to get out of the car and play for awhile. I took Samantha to this museum back when she was just over a year old when Ben attended ICPSR for the month of June, so it was fun to visit the museum again.
There were lots of fun exhibits for the kids to interact with. The water area, where they could go fishing and send balls shooting up into a water spout, was probably the place they spent the longest playing.
They have a room for younger kids that we went to, mainly for Aedan to enjoy himself, and as soon as he saw this fire truck where he could "drive," he ran as fast as he could to get to it. Because he wasn't watching where he was going, he tripped and hit his nose on the wheel, making him cry and his nose bleed. I got some tissues to hold to his nose to stop it from bleeding, and one of the employees even brought him an ice pack to see if that would help stop the bleeding. It bled a little on and off for the next hour or so, but Aedan was fine and just wanted to get back to playing.
Aedan is pretty obsessed with driving things right now, and he loves anything that has a wheel he can turn where he can pretend to drive. This pretend ambulance was pretty awesome, and it even had buttons for you to push to make a siren noise and a copy of a phone call with an emergency operator.
There were lots of fun exhibits for the kids to interact with. The water area, where they could go fishing and send balls shooting up into a water spout, was probably the place they spent the longest playing.
While Aedan spent most of his time driving the fire truck, Samantha found a doll and pretended that this was her house where she took care of her doll and put her to bed.
The kids were pretty tired from a long day of travelling and not sleeping much, so this dancing room was our last stop at the museum. Then, from there we walked to a Mongolian barbecue place for dinner that we remembered from that June in Ann Arbor back four years ago. We had a good afternoon/evening together, but we were ready to get to our hotel and get settled down for the night before another long day of travel the next day.
Aunt Jeni and Alaina had plane tickets on the same flight as us, so they also stayed overnight at the hotel with us to use the park and fly benefit. Nobody slept as well as normal in the hotel, especially since we were just getting used to sleeping in our new house, but we were excited to see Aunt Jeni and Alaina at breakfast before getting ready to take the bus to the airport.
We took a bus around 9:30 to take us to the airport, and the kids even thought that was cool, especially sitting on the bus with a seat belt or anything.
As with most airports, they recommend that you arrive two hours prior to your departure time so that you have enough time to get through security, so we had quite a bit of time to kill in the airport afterwards. We walked around some, watched airplanes take off and land, had fun on the people movers, and then got some lunch before boarding our plane for our 12:25 p.m. flight.
We were all in one row of seats, three on each side of the aisle, so Aunt Jeni had the two girls next to her, and Ben and I had Aedan in between us. We had no idea how Aedan would be on the plane. The only other time he'd been on a plane was when he was about 9 months old when we went to Disney World, and he just nursed and slept the whole time. We hoped that he would do well for the flight, but we were a little worried since it was right during his usual nap time.
Here we are settled on the plane, waiting for it to take off. This picture is all blurry, but I thought it was a great picture to see how silly our little boy can be.
And here are the girls all ready for take off as well. They made a deal with each other. Samantha got to sit next to the window on the way to vacation, and Alaina was going to sit next to the window on the way back.
When the plane began to taxi down the runway, all the kids got excited, and when the plane made a loud noise and rose into the air, the girls squealed with delight. The adults around them smiled and thought their excitement was pretty cute. They enjoyed watching the ground grow smaller and how the plane went right through the clouds. Then, they got busy playing with the toys they brought along, coloring in their coloring books, and eating some snacks. Samantha and Alaina did great on the plane. Even though Samantha was recovering from an ear infection, the pressure didn't seem to bother her at all. And even though this was Alaina's first time on a plane, she did not act scared at all.
Aedan did a really good job on the plane, surprising both Ben and me. We let him eat his sucker during take off, and then played with him for a little while before we decided to try and get him to take a nap. We got his pacifier out, and I tried holding him and rocking him, but he was acting really uncomfortable and kept wiggling into different positions. He even tried just laying down on the uncomfortable plane seat. Ben offered to take Aedan and held him with his head resting on his shoulder, supporting his bottom. Aedan thought this was pretty comfortable, especially since he is used to sleeping on his tummy so it was a more natural position for him. It didn't take long for Aedan to fall fast asleep, even amidst all the hubbub of the plane. We were just glad for any sort of nap to help get us through the rest of the day. Here are some super cute pictures of Aedan napping on Daddy.
Aedan didn't wake up until the flight attendant began speaking loudly over the speaker before we were about to land. Even then, he stayed snuggled up on Daddy's chest with his pacifier in his mouth.
After landing in Myrtle Beach, SC, we waited for our luggage, got our rental minivan, and began our forty-five minute drive to Ocean Isle Beach, NC where our vacation house was. We arrived right around 4:00, just about when Ema and Papa arrived as well. We explored the house a little and then began getting settled in the bedrooms, putting up Aedan's pack and play, making the beds, and unpacking our clothes. We had originally thought about having Samantha and Aedan share a bedroom, but with how early Aedan has been waking up lately and how loud he is in the morning sometimes, we didn't want Aedan to be the reason Samantha wasn't getting enough sleep. So Ben and I decided to set up his pack and play in the bathroom attached to our bedroom instead. There was just enough room in it for the pack and play, and it would work just fine for him.
After dinner at the house, we decided to all walk down to the beach for our very first glimpse of the ocean. There were lots of vacation homes on Ocean Isle Beach, and ours was only a couple blocks away from a public access entrance to the beach. None of the kids had ever seen an ocean before so they were pretty amazed. They loved running around and splashing in the water, and even though we didn't plan on Aedan getting all wet, the waves lapped up on his pants a little farther than we intended. It was a great first experience with the beach and the ocean, and the kids couldn't wait to come back the next morning in their bathing suits so they could get all wet in the waves, dig in the sand, and build sand castles. What a great place to pick for a vacation with kids of two and five years old!
Later that evening, after getting the kids to bed and making sure they were pretty well asleep, we left Uncle Timmy behind at the house while the kids slept (he had hairline fractures in his foot and had to wear a boot, so he couldn't walk much anyways), and the rest of the adults went for a walk on the beach. It was so calming, peaceful, and relaxing. Ben and I walked along the water, just enough so the water rushed up around our ankles. We looked out over the great expanse of water, enjoyed the salty wind, and were actually able to have a conversation. When we are this close to the beach, there is no way that we can't take advantage of it. It was beautiful. :)
On Sunday morning our only plan consisted of going to the beach, so after breakfast we all got our swimsuits on and were at the beach playing a little after 9:00 a.m. (When all the kids wake up between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m., you might as well get there early before the heat of the day kicks in.)
I brought this great little sun hat for Aedan, and it fit him just right. I didn't think that he would actually leave it on, but he did, which really helped keep most of the sun off his face, for his face gets so red in the heat. Aedan was interested in digging in the sand much more than going in the water. As long as he had a shovel and bucket, he was a happy kid. Now, we all know that Ema has long been his favorite person, but this trip confirmed that even more. He chose Ema to dig with him more than any other person, and she was happy to sit next to him while he dug sand to his heart's content.
I brought this great little sun hat for Aedan, and it fit him just right. I didn't think that he would actually leave it on, but he did, which really helped keep most of the sun off his face, for his face gets so red in the heat. Aedan was interested in digging in the sand much more than going in the water. As long as he had a shovel and bucket, he was a happy kid. Now, we all know that Ema has long been his favorite person, but this trip confirmed that even more. He chose Ema to dig with him more than any other person, and she was happy to sit next to him while he dug sand to his heart's content.
While Aedan was busy playing in the sand, Daddy took Samantha out in the waves with Aunt Jeni and Alaina. They all held hands and would jump whenever a wave came by. The girls were loving it.
And here's Aedan digging in the sand again. Ema was making sand castles for him, which he would promptly knock down. We even nicknamed him Godzilla because no castle would stand a chance if you built it anywhere close to Aedan. You can tell that Aedan is trying to build his own in the video, he's filling up the bucket and trying to tip it over, but doesn't quite have it full enough for it to work.
After returning from the beach, we got the kids washed off in the shower outside and got them dressed. Then, it was time to hang out in the house for awhile, play, and have lunch before nap time. Here are two great pictures of Ema and Papa interacting with and reading books to the kids. They loved all the attention that they got from their grandparents on this vacation. :)
After a good nap time, we spent some time playing outside before dinner. Most of the houses in this area were propped up so that you could park under the house, which gave us a nice place to play that was more shaded. we saw a fun little lizard that puffed it's neck out and even changed colors. Later on in the week, we discovered it was called a Carolina Anole Lizard. The girls had fun watching it crawl around on the wood under the house next to ours.
Then later, as we were playing with some of the beach toys in the bucket outside, I noticed the orange bucket had a tiny frog inside of it. The girls were trying to get it to come out, but it was too scared to come out with all of us around staring at it. We set the bucket next to some bushes, and a little while later, when we were longer paying attention to it, the frog jumped out of the bucket and into the bushes.
And to round out our afternoon of spotting wildlife, we found this toad sitting under a drain spout that came off the side of the house, enjoying the cool water dripping on him.
Aedan wasn't too interested in the lizard, frog, and toad, he just wanted to walk around with his "eyes" pushed up on his head like a cool dude, carrying his slotted spoon.
That morning on the beach, Samantha collected quite a few seashells from the beach. She was very particular about Aedan playing with them because she didn't want them broken, but she was willing to give him one or two.
After eating a good dinner that evening, we decided to drive into the little town and have ice cream at this local homemade ice cream shop. The girls got pink ice cream that was called "Barbie," and Aedan wanted the "norange" ice cream which I think was Dreamsicle flavored. Everyone enjoyed their ice cream very much, and it was a great idea on a hot day.
Across the street from the ice cream place was a playground, and since everyone had taken good naps that afternoon, we decided it would be okay to stay out a little later and let the kids play. And of course, what did they have under the playground? More sand! Kids just took their shoes off at the gate to the playground. There were canopies overhead to give us more shade, and it really was a beautiful evening to play outside.
Aedan was super excited to have more sand that he could dig in and play with. That was more interesting to him than climbing or going down the slides. This little boy sure does love sand!
On Monday we decided to take a break from the beach and take a day trip to a place called Brookgreen Gardens. The kids were excited to ride in the minivan again, and they did pretty well in the car for the hour and fifteen minute drive to get there.
It was a pretty hot and humid day, but luckily the trees provided some nice shade for us as we walked around. The Live Oak trees were massive and so beautiful, especially with the moss hanging down from them. This is what I think of when I think of trees in the south.
After walking on a couple short trails, we decided to buy some lunch to eat before our boat tour at noon. There was a concession stand with some good choices, and Samantha and Aedan both chose hot dogs, applesauce, and lemonade. It was the first time Aedan had lemonade, and he was a pretty big fan of it. He kept saying, "my emonay," and didn't want to put his cup down to eat his actual food.
I think this is a cute picture of Samantha, sipping her lemonade, waiting for her food to arrive. The North Carolina humidity was good for her hair, making it much curlier than is typical.
And here are the two girls, inseparable, best buddies. The whole way there in the car they were pretending together. Alaina kept saying, "Just pretend..." and then Samantha would say, "And then pretend..." Apparently pretending is a big thing in their phase of developmental play, and I'm glad that they have each other to pretend with.
Brookgreen Gardens was built where there used to be four different rice plantations, so the boat ride that Ben's parents paid extra for us to ride on explored the waterways around the area where the rice fields used to be. The kids got mini-binoculars to use on the trip since they said we would most likely spot several alligators along the muddy banks if we kept our eyes peeled.
Our tour guide gave a lot of background information about the area that we could sometimes hear over the noise of the kids. They were getting pretty tired in the afternoon heat, especially after waking up earlier than they should have that morning, but the boat ride was a relaxing way to see around and spot lots of alligators in their native habitat. I think we probably saw six or seven of them! The alligators were definitely the highlight of the boat trip.
After the boat ride was over, we took a trolley ride to a different area of the gardens where they had a Storybook Village with different buildings created to look like different fairy tales like Rapunzel, Snow White, a pirate ship, a school house, a gingerbread house, and the Little Engine That Could, among others. Samantha had fun discovering what story each house was describing. Her favorite was definitely this one where she could pretend to be Rapunzel letting down her long hair.
Aedan found two sticks on the ground and spent a long time just picking the bark off of the tree or digging in the dirt with the stick. I'm glad he found something that he enjoyed doing, even if it had nothing to do with the Storybook Village. It's fun to just watch him play and see what grabs his interest.
After playing in the village, we decided to walk around the small zoo that was also included in the gardens. They had a large bird area, otters, alligators, and other native animals to the area. Aedan was getting pretty tired and was having a hard time listening since it was the time when he should have been napping, so we didn't spend as much time there as we could have.
All around the gardens they had these sculptures made of Legos. They were really pretty amazing to look at, for each one had thousands and thousands of Lego pieces. Here are two my favorites: the dragonfly (especially since there were so many dragonflies in the gardens) and the colorful peacock.
By the time we finished walking around the zoo, the kids were definitely tired and ready to go. We had to wait for the trolley for 20 minutes (which felt like much longer than that with a very tired and cranky two year old) to get back to our cars.
However, it didn't take long for the kids to all fall fast asleep in the car on the way back to our vacation house. (I love how all of their heads are leaned the same direction.) It was a long, but very fun day out together. Brookgreen Gardens was a very interesting place with a wide variety of activities for families, so I'm glad we chose to spend our day there.
Since we had a pretty busy day out, we relaxed more in the evening, playing at the house, and enjoying our deck space where the kids could run around together.
Then, to keep up our nightly tradition, we went on a walk on the beach. We decided to go the other direction on the beach this time, walking underneath Ocean Isle Beach pier that you can see in the background of this picture. It was nice having this time together every night with Ben. It was almost like a little mini-date each evening, and it is definitely one of my favorite memories from the trip.
(Blog about June 7-13, 2016)
