Christmas in Aurora

Samantha: 67 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 32 Months, Week 1

While visiting Chicago for Christmas, we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Aurora, about 10-15 minutes away from where Matthew and Christy's house is. We got this kids' suite where there is a king bed and bathroom, just like a regular hotel room, but then there's a small room off the side that had bunk beds, perfect for kids. We decided the kids would love to try this out, especially because Samantha is always talking about having bunkbeds when they get older and sharing a room with Aedan. Of course, she planned to sleep on the top bunk, and we brought our portable rail to attach to the bottom bunk so that Aedan could sleep there. He had never slept in a bed other than his crib or a pack and play, but we figured with the rail, it wouldn't feel too much different to him, and we wouldn't have to worry about him falling out of bed in the middle of the night. When we put the kids to bed together on Monday night, Aedan was excited about sleeping in the big bed, but had a hard time quieting down for sleep. We had to go in the room several times to tell him to be quiet and to stop disrupting Samantha from being able to sleep, too. It's difficult, because he will do this some at home as well, just talk in his crib until he falls asleep. We aren't too concerned about it at home because he is by himself and not bothering Samantha. In the hotel room, it was a different story. Then, since we were in a different time zone, instead of waking up at 7:00 like usual, he woke up at 6:00, after already being up late. Ben tried to tell him to be quiet, but it didn't work, so he brought him back in the room with us so that he wouldn't wake Samantha up that early, too. Aedan started crying and carrying on too much and wouldn't calm down, so I decided to set up his pack and play in the bathroom so I could put him in there. The door couldn't close with the pack and play set up, so Ben and I could still hear him making noise, but at least he wasn't bothering Samantha anymore. He ended up falling back asleep at about 6:50, and then pretty much right at 7:00 Samantha came out of the room, awake for the day, since she knows that is when she is allowed to get up. Ben took her back into their bedroom and put a show on the TV in order to let Aedan sleep for awhile longer in his pack and play. We hoped that we wouldn't have this much trouble every night while sleeping in the hotel because we really don't have any other options of places for him to sleep.

My parents both had plans or work on Tuesday, and Uncle Matthew worked that day, so Christy and I planned to swim for awhile in the morning at the hotel pool. I hoped that we could take Brielle in the pool, and Christy could just sit and relax with Oliver in a different environment than her house. Since we all were going to get in a chlorinated pool, we didn't shower right away that morning, we just enjoyed our hot breakfast and then played in the hotel room. Both kids enjoyed sitting up on the top bunk to play together. Then, they came up with this game of throwing their blankies down to Daddy and then he threw them back up to them. They were certainly having a good time. It's the simple things that kids enjoy the most, and Ben is always so good at interacting with the kids and being silly with them. :)

We had a pretty good time swimming, although the kids didn't swim for as long as we'd hoped since the water was a little chilly. Brielle was acting shy and didn't want to come in the water with Ben and me, so she just stuck by Christy's side at the edge of the pool for most of the time. Once we were all done, we went back up to our hotel room, gave the kids a quick bath, got them dressed, and then Ben and I took showers and got ready ourselves. The kids played with their Leap Pads and the toys we brought to the room while we finished getting ready for the day. Then, we headed to Christy's house just before lunch.

After eating lunch, we got a pack and play set up in Oliver's room for Aedan to take a nap in. He was fairly easy to get to sleep that day since he missed out on so much sleep the night before. Since Samantha generally does not nap at home, we didn't have her nap that afternoon. Instead, she hung out with us, adored baby Oliver, and got time to play on her Leap Pad. Here are some pictures from when I was holding Oliver for awhile that afternoon. It was so fun holding a baby that was only three days old, so cute, so cuddly, and so sleepy.

I love these next two pictures, mostly because of Samantha. Aunt Christy did her hair after swimming that morning, and with her new dress from Ema and Papa, she looked like such a big kid. I think she is just beautiful, and that dress color really brings out the features of her face. She was so loving and gentle with Oliver.

Ben took Samantha out for awhile that afternoon to buy some groceries, and to stop at Dunkin Donuts to get coffee for Mommy and Daddy, and to share a donut together, kind of like a little Daddy-Daughter Date.

My dad ended up coming over for dinner and time to hang out that evening. Here is Papa and all the grandkids sitting on the couch together watching a show after dinner. It's always fun to get all the cousins together, especially at Christmastime.

Since we stayed at a hotel, we couldn't stay too late into the evening so that we could get our kids to bed at a decent time. However, the plus side was that Ben and I could take turns sitting in the hot tub after putting the kids to bed.

However, on Tuesday night we decided to do things a little differently with bedtime. I asked Aedan if he would rather sleep in the pack and play than the bunk bed, and he said yes. So, I just moved his pack and play into the room and put it right next to the bed. Bed time that night went much better. There was a little talking, which is to be expected, but he did not wake up crying early in the morning and he seemed to sleep better. Maybe he's just not ready for a big bed like that since he has never slept in one before. It was just too different for him, and he likes the familiarity of the pack and play that he has always slept in.

Wednesday was going to be our celebration of Christmas with my family. Here are the kids all dressed and ready to go that morning. Aedan sure did enjoy all this one-on-one time with Sissy over break. He's really going to miss having her around when she goes back to school. She loves it when he cuddles into her lap like this. :)

Once we got to Uncle Matthew's and Aunt Christy's house that morning, Ben and I got to work preparing the meals for the day while the kids played. We made a chicken, broccoli, and cheese casserole for lunch, and got it all ready so that way we could just stick it in the oven when we were ready. We also made sure we had everything we needed for our Christmas dinner and figured out when we needed to start making things.

I know Samantha really missed having someone her age to play with because when we are in Upland, Samantha and Alaina are stuck to each other like glue, which probably makes Aedan feel sort of left out sometimes. Well, in Chicago, it's the opposite where Brielle and Aedan are fairly close in age, leaving Samantha sort of left out sometimes. However, Samantha really enjoyed holding Oliver, and she asked to hold him several times that day. She always washed her hands first and was careful to support his head and treat him gently. So here's the oldest cousin holding the youngest cousin. :)

Since Christy and I are the ones with kids and schedules to deal with, and since we were having everyone over at her house, we decided to pick the time that would be the most convenient for us. We told family to start arriving around 10:00, and that we would start opening presents around 10:30. We wanted to make sure the kids had enough time to open presents and enjoy playing with some of them, so we didn't want everything to be crammed into the after dinner time when kids will be getting tired. Opening presents with kids is always a little bit chaotic because they are so anxious to open presents that it's hard to wait. We don't have a typical way of taking turns for opening presents, so we decided to hand out our presents to people first. Brielle got the Frozen play-doh set and craft supplies from us, as well as the ceramic train that Samantha got for her to paint.

We got Grandma and Don a framed picture of the kids, and I had plans to take them out to eat when I stayed with them before flying back home.

And we gave my parents a canvas print of pictures, something different than just a regular picture frame. Those Antiquities pictures were just too cute not to share. After all, that's why I bought the digital rights to them.

We got my brother, Matt, a World Series Cubs shirt. And then it was on to presents from the rest of my family, and to be honest with you, I'm not sure who got us what because it was such a flurry of activity. Aedan got this dinosaur puzzle, two box set puzzles with trucks and diggers, waterproof mittens that won't fall off, a blue toddler bedding set, and a race car with a track, and probably other things that I can't recall right now.

Samantha got some cool new clothes, a light-up tracing pad, a Frozen watch, a space puzzle, a 3D dollhouse puzzle, The Fairy Game board game, the space ship to go along with the rocket that we got for her, and some special markers and coloring book, along with other things I am probably forgetting.

We saved this present for last because we knew as soon as Aedan got it, he wouldn't want to play with anything else, which was definitely true. Ben and I had gotten him Woody, and we suggested that Uncle Matt get him Buzz, since he was looking for a present to get for Aedan. Aedan was SO excited to get Buzz out of the box, now he had Woody's friend and the completed pair. I don't think he played with anything else the rest of the day, or the week for that matter. This will probably be one of his favorite toys from this Christmas, just as the guitar was his favorite toy from last Christmas.

Just look at that smile! He was ecstatic.

Even though Aedan had taken decent naps the previous afternoons, he had a really hard time on Wednesday afternoon. I put him down, and he fell asleep in my lap just like he always does, but then he woke up when I laid him down. He did this several times, with both Ben and me trying to get him to go to sleep. Lately, he has been doing this more, where he will wake up when we lay him down, but he will usually just roll over and continue sleeping, not just sit up and start crying. I peeked my head into the room a while later, since we didn't have a monitor for him, and he was just standing up in the pack and play. So, no nap for him that afternoon which was going to make for a potentially rough evening. It's not like him to just not take a nap, especially after so many attempts to try to get him to sleep.

Once again, we didn't have Samantha nap there, but Daddy worked with her on building her space shuttle, which she played with a lot the rest of the day. She also got time to play on her Leap Pad, which is always exciting to her. Then, once all the kids were up from their naps, Christy put on a Mickey Mouse Christmas show.

That afternoon, I tried to sit in the kitchen and talk with my grandma for awhile, since I don't get to see her or talk to her very often. While I sat at the table, I also got to get some baby snuggles in, giving Christy a break for awhile since he was nursing most of the day. I don't mind. I enjoy holding little babies.

Ben did a lot of work to make Christmas dinner for my family. We baked a ham, made mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, rolls, and had different flavors of pie for dessert. I tried to help him as much as I could, but our kids were tired from not napping that afternoon, meaning they were fighting a lot more, and I had to keep stopping what I was doing to help them. At one point, both of them were in time outs upstairs, and I think they were feeling sort of left out because they didn't have anyone to play with. There were almost too many adults there, and the kids just got lost in the shuffle.

We tried to leave a little earlier that evening to get our kids to bed at a normal time and try to catch up on some sleep. Aedan decided to sleep in the pack and play again, and especially since he didn't nap that afternoon, he went right to sleep. It was quiet in their room pretty much right away after a long day of commotion and people.

Since we had spent most of the week at the house, we suggested going to the Children's Museum on Thursday morning, especially since both my parents were off work and could join us. I tried to convince Christy to stay back at the house with Oliver since he didn't need to be out around so many people. I said we could just take Brielle with us, and especially with mom and dad with us, we would have more than enough people to keep an eye on all the kids. However, she wanted to get out of the house and come along with us, so we all headed to the DuPage Children's Museum for the day. With Christy's pass, we can all get in with only having to pay $5 each for Grandpa and Grandma. Once we got in, we tried to stay in the same area and then just let the kids have fun playing. Here are some pictures from the day.

It is a fun museum, a good place to go spend a few hours with kids. We packed lunches at Christy's house, so we stopped to eat lunch after finishing most of the first floor and before going up to the second floor. The kids were all getting pretty tired after lunch, so we went back to Christy's house for nap time. Since Samantha was acting pretty tired and grumpy and hadn't napped since her short nap in the car on Monday, we told her she was going to take a nap that afternoon, much to her chagrin. Ben laid down with her and told her to just lay down and see what happens, and she fell asleep right away. She was a tired little girl and needed some extra rest. I put Aedan down, and even though he fought the idea of napping himself, he fell asleep pretty quickly in my arms as I rocked him, but just like he did the day before, he woke up as soon as I laid him down and started crying for me, so I left my hand on his back for a little while until he fell back asleep and was breathing deeply. We were so glad our kids were napping and would be in better moods for our last night together in Chicago.

A trip to Chicago is not complete without some deep dish pizza, so that was our plan for dinner on Thursday night. We got Lou Malnati's, my favorite, and it was the perfect amount of sauce, sausage, cheese, and crust. Pizza, deep dish in particular, will always be my favorite food. It was fun to spend one more night with family before Ben and the kids started the drive back home to Sault Ste. Marie. I planned to stay for about six extra days to help Christy out with Oliver, learning how to deal with two kids, and chores and work around the house. I had a one way ticket back home the following Wednesday, so I packed the things I needed in my carry-on suitcase, and Ben and I worked together to get all our things picked up, organized, and packed from around the hotel room. 

On Friday we got up earlier than normal to be ready and get ourselves packed up and checked out of the hotel room so that Ben and the kids could get on the road. There was snow that went through Michigan overnight and into the morning, but it was going to be done snowing by 10:00 a.m. It was highly likely that the roads would be fine by the time he got to them, but I was worried about how the trip would go for them. The trip is long enough and hard enough when both of us are in the car with the kids that I didn't want the roads to be difficult for Ben to drive on, while also trying to deal with the kids in the back seat. However, a lot of times they are better in the car when there's just one person because they know they have to behave better, and Samantha does a pretty good job of helping and playing with Aedan. The roads were clear, they were making good time, arriving home around 7:00 eastern time. Apparently Aedan got sad when I wasn't home for bedtime, but he calmed down quickly. They were both tired from a long day of traveling, but were excited to be home again after a week and half of being away. He didn't hear anything but a few blankie jingles from Samantha, so bedtime went well. Here's a video Ben sent me that night as they were getting ready for bed.

My day on Friday was a little different without Ben and the kids. I hung out with Christy while Matthew was at work and tried to be as helpful as I could in playing with Brielle, helping around the house, making meals, cleaning up dishes, doing laundry, putting away clothes, and anything else I could do. After all, I was there to help, so I wanted to be as useful as possible. Mom and dad came over again that night for dinner and then hung out for awhile that evening as well.

On Saturday Ben had to do more things around the house, as well as get the grocery shopping done. He did laundry, put clothes away, put all the toys and presents from Christmas in the third bedroom. The kids were incredibly happy to be home and play with their own toys. The enjoy the space downstairs and just playing together. Samantha seems to have turned a corner where she really does a great job of playing with Aedan and making sure she keeps an eye on him. Aedan, of course, will do whatever Samantha suggests. He loves her so much. Saturday was mostly getting back to normal. The kids did a really good job of playing and allowing me to work. 

On Saturday morning I watched Brielle for Christy and Matt so they could take Oliver to the doctor for a weight check. We watched a little bit of a show together that they had put on before they left, and then we played in her play kitchen, got dressed for the day, and I read some books to her up in her room. Brielle did just fine. She asked about Mommy and Daddy a few times, but I just told them they took baby Oliver to the doctor and that they'd be back soon, and that seemed to suffice as an answer for her. It was nice just spending one on one time with my little niece.

The rest of the day in Aurora was pretty relaxed. Some of their neighbors came over to visit Brielle and see the new baby. We had an early, light dinner of BLTs before heading to church at Harvest. It was kind of nice to go to church on New Year's Eve, to think about the new year from that perspective and what God would have for me in the next year. As I look back on 2016, there were so many unexpected events that took place. We started the year not knowing where or even if Ben would be offered a tenure track position at the almost 90 places he applied. We were still trying to get pregnant with no luck. We had no idea where Samantha would go to kindergarten. Everything was so unknown and up in the air. Then, when March came, everything happened so quickly. Ben had the campus visit, was offered the job at LSSU, we visited just the two of us before accepting the job and looked at schools and houses, and we even put an offer on the house soon after that. We traveled up to Sault Ste. Marie again with the kids over Spring Break for the closing on our house, with plans to move up at the beginning of June. It was a crazy, whirlwind of an experience, and we were sad to leave, but excited for the next step of our journey that we hoped would be more permanent and long-term. Then, we spent our summer getting settled into our new house and town, visiting new places and new sights, and learning how to become home owners. Fall brought a new set of new experiences with Samantha going to full day kindergarten, Ben starting off a new semester at a new school with late classes that kept him away from home two nights a week, and me staying home to take care of Aedan. Our lives have been transitional with Ben in graduate school and then applying for jobs, that each year is so different. It will certainly be interesting to see what happens in the next year of the life of our family.

Matthew wanted to have a special New Year's Eve, so he decided to go out and buy food to make cheese fondue to enjoy after putting Brielle to bed. I helped him get everything cut up and arranged on platters. We had carrots, broccoli, green apples, and french bread to dip in the cheese, as well as some other finger foods. It was nice to have a special evening together; in fact, my brother, Matt also came over for awhile. We talked, ate food, played a game, and stayed up way later than I normally stay up.

At home, Ben had a guest in his bed on Saturday and Sunday night. Samantha really enjoys sleeping in the bed with us when an adult is gone. The only problem is that Samantha snores a lot, and cuddles like crazy. From the moment he came into the bed, until she woke up in the morning, there was at least one appendage hanging on him. It was cute, but also hard to sleep. Aedan slept well at night, but was not napping during the day. Our Sunday was spent going to church (we made it on time), and putting together toys from Christmas presents like the 3D dollhouse puzzle. 

It was certainly strange being away from Ben and the kids were so long. By Sunday we were both missing each other a lot. They went to church together and then were having a good time playing together at home. He sent me this cute video of the kids at lunch time on Sunday. 

Aedan still had some trouble napping, even at home with Ben. On Sunday Aedan didn't nap, and Ben just had Samantha do quiet time in her room. He decided to get stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut that night because he needed a break from cooking. Samantha thought it was funny that he got tomatoes on the pizza without Aedan knowing. Samantha and Aedan playied school all day on Sunday, so you could tell that Samantha was missing being at school and looking forward to school starting on Tuesday. Then, he tucked them in a little earlier that night since they both didn't take naps and were getting cranky. This was true the whole time, but it was especially true on Sunday. The kids did a really good job of understanding that he had to get everything done, and then play with them. It was a lot of work to do all the work of the house, but they didn't whine. They knew he would play with them as soon as he was able to. But, it was certainly more tiring than having me around to split duties with him. 

At Matthew and Christy's house, we just hung out for most of the morning, and then I went to IKEA for them to get them an additional curtain rod, balls for the end of the rod, and hooks. It was nice to get out of the house and run an errand for them so they didn't have to do it themselves. Matthew made a yummy shrimp pasta dish for dinner, and the he suggested we go out to get ice cream at Oberweiss, which I would never turn down. It was fun having extended time with the Clemons family, being able to help Christy, hold Oliver, and play with Brielle.

Since we'd gotten more snow at home, Ben took the kids outside to play on Monday morning. They were outside for about an hour, having fun playing together. However, Ben said that Samantha stopped listening and that both kids were testing his patience that day. This was his fourth day of taking care of the kids all by himself, so I'm sure everybody was ready to have things more back to normal. In fact, Samantha even made a comment to Ben at one point that he wasn't playing with them as much as he usually does because he had to do all the cooking and cleaning, so she could sense that there was something different about their time without me there to take care of a lot of the cooking and cleaning, or at least for Ben and I to do things together, rather than having one person have to take care of everything.

On Monday mom and dad were planning on coming over to Christy's, but Grandma ended up going into the hospital on Sunday night with pneumonia, so instead, they picked me up from Christy's to bring me to the hospital so I could visit with Grandma for awhile. I helped make chili before leaving for the afternoon, so that way it would be ready when we all got back to the house for dinner. My plan was to stay at my Grandma's on Tuesday night into Wednesday, so that way Don could drive me to the airport for my flight out, and I could also spend some time one-on-one with my grandma, but now that she was sick in the hospital, that whole plan changed, and I was just going to stay at Christy's instead.

Ben had trouble getting Aedan to nap again on Monday. He fell fast asleep in Ben's arms, but then woke up as soon as he laid him down. Samantha just did quiet time again since she was going back to school again the next day, and Ben just ended up getting Aedan up early since he wasn't napping anyways, so that way the kids could play together. They were better on Monday night. Samantha was so excited for school, but Aedan was sad knowing that Samantha would be gone. 

I know Samantha was looking forward to being back in school, and Ben still had two days alone with Aedan before I got back home late Wednesday night. I'm glad that I had the flexibility to stay and help after Oliver was born, but I know it felt like a lot of time away from each other for all the family involved. It was good to talk to them on FaceTime and message Ben a lot, but things are just not quite the same when your whole family is not together.

(Blog about December 27-January 2, 2016)