Snow Days and Aedan's "Almost Life Threatening Experience"

Samantha: 68 Months, Week 4
Aedan: 33 Months, Week 2

This week was rather eventful, starting with one major event that I can't share on my blog quite yet, followed by sickness hitting our family, again. On Wednesday night during dinner Samantha said her tummy felt weird, but didn't mention anything again the rest of the night, and she played and went to bed just like normal. However, just as Ben and I were getting ready to go to bed that night, we heard Samantha coughing in her room. She had a cough for a week or so, so hearing her cough wasn't too unusual, but this wasn't your normal cough. I turned to Ben and said, "Uh-oh, that didn't sound good." Then a couple seconds later Samantha was calling for us. I went in her room and she had thrown up all over her bed. She did a fairly good job of just getting it between her legs in her lap, but it was quite the mess. (Let's just say taco pizza and grapes don't look too good coming back out of your stomach.) I got a towel to help Samantha clean up and took her to the bathroom to change her clothes and help her get calmed back down while Ben lovingly took care of the mess on Samantha's bed. As we were getting ready to go back to her room, she started feeling sick again so I took her over to the toilet and showed her how to throw up in the toilet. I held her hair and reassured her that it was okay, and that it would actually make her feel better if she just let it all come out. She emptied her stomach pretty well, but she just wanted to sit by the toilet for awhile just to be sure. I think she was nervous about getting sick in her bed again. However, we got a trash can and wash cloth ready to keep next to her bed and tucked her back in again, hoping that she would be done throwing up and could get some sleep. Ben and I went downstairs to get to bed ourselves, and just before midnight I heard her get sick again, so I went upstairs to check on her. She was able to sit up and get it in the trash can, so once she was done, I helped her clean her face off, then she said she had to go to the bathroom. We went into the bathroom together so I could clean out the trashcan for her, and she had diarrhea, too. I felt so bad for the little girl. She was saying she just wanted to go to bed, and I hoped that for her sake, her stomach would settle down enough for her to get some sleep. However, Ben and I braced ourselves for a possibly rough night, and we hoped that none of the rest of us would get sick either.

Since Ben had a busy day of teaching on Thursday in getting his classes ready for their upcoming tests, I offered to stay home with Samantha on Thursday. It wasn't too big of a deal for me to miss a day every once in a while, especially for a reason like this. Ben still took Aedan to Miss Lisa's for the morning so that way he could get out of the house and play, and also so that Samantha could actually rest without having Aedan around bugging her and wondering why she wasn't playing with him.

Samantha slept in until about 8:00 on Thursday morning, and then just took it easy, sitting on the couch looking at books and having books read to her, watching a movie, and playing on her LeapPad for awhile. She tried playing games with me a couple times, but she just didn't have any energy to play games. I tried to get her to eat some toast and applesauce for lunch, but she was just not interested. In fact, she said she just wanted to lay down and take a nap, but I told her I wanted her to wait until I got Aedan back home to take a nap since it was still too early. Aedan was having a harder time taking naps at Miss Lisa's this past week, so I decided I'd take advantage of the chance to have him nap at home that afternoon. I put a show on for Samantha and then went to pick Aedan up quickly. The weather out was cold and windy, as a storm was passing through that afternoon, bringing a lot of wind and snow with it, so I was glad that we would be safe and warm inside our house for the rest of the afternoon.

Samantha was pretty happy to nap that afternoon and ended up sleeping for over two hours. Aedan took awhile to fall asleep but then slept until close to dinnertime. It was nice for me to have an unexpected day off at home to get work done around the house, laundry done, and even try to catch up on my blog some. Here is what it looked like that afternoon outside: a cold, blustery, wintery U.P. kind of day.

Luckily, after getting sick many times between 10 and midnight on Wednesday night, she did not get sick at all after that. She didn't have much energy or appetite, but I was just glad that she was getting good rest and didn't get sick to her stomach anymore. She had a slight fever that morning, but not enough to keep her home, so we planned on sending her back to school on Friday unless she threw up or her temperature went up higher.

The weather continued to get worse and worse as the day went on, and the snow would continue during the night and into the next day. I think overall we got six or seven inches in this snowstorm. In fact, we ended up having a snow day on Friday because of all the snow we got, how much it was blowing, and the forecast that we would be getting more throughout the day. I didn't mind another day at home, and it was probably good for Samantha to have more time to rest and recover at home. Since Ben normally stays home on Fridays with Aedan, he stayed home this day as well. He actually went grocery shopping while I cleaned the house. I figured I'd use the day off to get caught up on house cleaning, laundry, and just generally getting the house back in order.

The kids enjoyed a day to just play at home together and were really doing well getting along and letting Ben and I get some things done. However, we still had a fun time playing together. Samantha's appetite and energy gradually came back more throughout the day on Friday. She hadn't gotten sick again after the two hour span of time on Wednesday night. Samantha took these next two pictures with Ben's phone. I'm not so sure about the first picture of Ben, but the picture of Samantha is pretty cute.

On Friday night Ben surprised me with a date night out together, an early celebration of Valentine's Day. He made arrangements with another mom from church to watch our kids at their house so that Ben and I could go out to dinner together. It was a wonderful, kind, thoughtful surprise, and I looked forward to our night out together. It had stopped snowing by that evening at least, even though some of the roads were still rather interesting to drive on. We decided to go to Karl's Cuisine for dinner because they always have good food, the restaurant is nice and quiet (definitely not a place you'd want to bring kids), and they serve the food slowly, giving you plenty of time to enjoy the food and the pleasure of each other's company. We got a spinach and artichoke dip for an appetizer, a beef dish with mushroom sauce and blackened chicken with pasta to split for our entrees, and we split a cheesecake slice for dessert. It was a really wonderful night out together with my love. We hadn't had a date night in awhile, and I love that we try to keep this tradition alive as much as we are able. :)

Saturday morning was pancakes for breakfast and free time for the kids to play and enjoy time at home with each other and with us. Then, it was off to ice skating lessons. Both kids seemed pretty tired and out of it on Saturday by the time ice skating lessons rolled around, so they weren't participating as much as they normally do. The first video I have is of both of them falling down, which is obviously not what I was trying to record. The second video is Samantha practicing skating and then lifting one foot to practice balancing. This is a hard skill for her, but she is getting so much better.

On Saturday afternoon we had both kids take naps because we had tickets to our last LSSU hockey game that night, and we told them if they wanted to be able to go and stay out past their bedtime, they would have to take a nap. Samantha was tired and still recovering from being sick, I think, so she took a good nap. Aedan, on the other hand, refused to nap. He just laid in his bed talking and playing the whole time, despite attempts by Ben and me to remind him that he wouldn't be able to go to the hockey game and eat popcorn if he didn't nap.

Before nap time that day, Samantha's eyes, her right eye in particular, was looking kind of pink and irritated. It was watering some, too. I tried giving her allergy medicine and eye drops before she took a nap to see if that would help any, but it just looked worse when she got up. So, we decided to just be safe and take her to the walk-in clinic to have her eye checked out. Ben took her while I stayed home with Aedan, and sure enough, she had pink eye. She had antibiotic eye drops that she was to use four times a day, and the doctor said that she shouldn't go to church the next day so that she wouldn't potentially infect another kid. I was kind of surprised that she had pink eye, especially since she hadn't even been at school the last couple days, and she had never had it before, so I wasn't entirely sure what it even looked like. However, I was glad that we decided to take her and get it checked out.

Since Samantha took a nap and wouldn't really be around other kids, we decided it would be okay for her and Daddy to still go to the hockey game that evening. Aedan, on the other hand, had to stay home and pretty much go right to bed shortly after the start time of the game. Samantha had fun at the game with Daddy, eating a cookie, dancing to the music, practicing her addition flash cards, and enjoying the high scoring game where the Lakers won. Ben sent me this video of Samantha dancing. She's so cute, and I love that she is just always herself, no matter what.

Since Samantha was diagnosed with pink eye late Saturday afternoon, the doctor said she shouldn't go to church and risk exposing herself to other kids. My group is a little bit smaller at church, so it's easier for them to just combine with another class, so Ben just took Aedan to church with him. Samantha's first job was to finish some of her homework and then work on writing names on all her valentines. She did a good job getting all her work done before starting to play. It was nice for me to have so much unexpected time at home with Samantha being sick and then having a snow day because I felt like I finally got caught up with everything around the house. That's one thing that's definitely been harder in working full time every day.

The rest of Sunday was kind of a weird day because Ben and Aedan stayed after the service for a taco lunch, then he dropped Aedan off and went back to church for a meeting, and then went to campus to print off his tests for the upcoming week so he would be prepared come Monday.

On Sunday afternoon I got Aedan to sleep for a little while, but he started talking again in his room not too long after I put him down. He didn't nap on Saturday afternoon either, and even fought it a lot the day before as well. So, even though he was cranky and tired, he didn't get the sleep he needed. He's been a stinker again with nap time, and it's hard to know what to do.

Then, on Sunday night, I was met with a surprise. After all the snow that we got that weekend, and with more forecast overnight and most of the next day, they cancelled school for Monday as well. Samantha was all excited to go back to school for they were going to have a publishing party and celebrate the 100th day of school. However, I wasn't too upset about having another day off, the only part that stinks is that I don't get paid if we don't have school, even though the other paras do. I slipped a note under Samantha's bedroom door that night before we went to bed so that she would know she could go back to sleep. I was grateful for another day to sleep in and just relax at home with the kids.

After we were up and playing on Monday morning, I got a message from some friends, inviting us over to their house for a sledding party. The kids were very excited about going to be with other kids. Even though it was a snow day, it was a beautiful, sunny day outside. In fact, it was kind of surprising that they even cancelled school that day. We arrived at the house at about 10:00, and we were the first ones there. We waited in the house and just talked while the kids played, and we waited for all the other moms and kids to show up before we started sledding since the driveway is used as their sledding hill. All the moms and kids started walking down the hill with the sleds, and when we got about halfway down, all the kids just started getting on the sleds to start going down the hill. We had never gone sledding there, so I didn't know what to expect, but both Samantha and Aedan were excited and ready to go sledding. I had Samantha and Aedan get on their sleds, but I didn't realize how fast they would go down the hill. Aedan was already going too fast for his liking, so I was trying to catch up with him to slow him down, but as we rounded the corner of the driveway, there was an unexpected truck at the end of the driveway. Samantha was able to slow herself down and stop herself, but Aedan just zoomed straight down the driveway, no one could catch him to stop him. I started running after him, but I just couldn't catch up. Then, he started going straight for the truck, and my heart just about stopped beating. I was yelling for someone to stop Aedan and motioning for the truck to move, which he did back up a little, but at that point, it was better for the truck to just stop where he was because Aedan was going right for him. His little sled with him on it, went right under the truck, between the two front wheels, and then stopped. I was so scared, as this all happened in a matter of seconds. I got to Aedan just a few seconds later and pulled him out from under the truck. He didn't have a bump or scratch on him. He was crying pretty hard because he was super scared, and he had snow in his face from going down the hill, but other that that, he was perfectly okay. I had flashes in my mind of him getting stuck under a tire, a burn or gash on his face from hitting the truck, breaking a bone, hitting his head and getting a concussion or trauma to the head, but none of that happened. Aedan was laying on his tummy and had gone under the truck feet first, so I'm sure that helped protect him a little more, rather than being face first or face up. On our way home that afternoon, Samantha pointed out that God was certainly watching over Aedan and protecting him. She said, "God was watching Aedan as he went down the hill and under the truck, keeping him safe." A couple moms there were nurses, one a trauma nurse, and they came running down the hill after seeing what had happened to make sure that he was okay. I was a little shaken up, to say the least. It was a super scary experience, but I can only look back and be grateful that nothing terrible happened to my little boy that morning. God sure was looking out for him.

The man driving the truck was just a neighbor coming over to drop off some cookies since their boys were sick and couldn't come over to go sledding. In fact, he even gave Aedan a cookie to eat right away as a way to make him feel better, so now Aedan will say, "He was just coming over to bring me cookies!" After this whole scary episode, Aedan wasn't interested in trying to sled anymore, which I don't blame him for, so he just stayed at the bottom of the hill with the other moms and me and watched the big kids sled. I was able to get him to sit on the sled again and just pulled him around a flat spot at the bottom of the driveway, and before we went back to the house, I even got him to sit on the sled and go down a small part of the hill as I held on to the string attached to the sled so that he wouldn't get going too fast. I just didn't want him to be afraid to ever get on a sled because of this one experience. I told him it was just an unexpected accident that the truck was at the bottom of the hill, and that if he were to go again, that would not happen. He still would have gone faster than he would have liked, but it would not have been a life threatening experience. For the next week or so, and even beyond that, Aedan will still talk about getting stuck under the truck.

Luckily, Aedan's experience didn't stop the rest of the kids, including Samantha, from having fun sledding down the hill. She went up and down over and over again, and did a really good job stopping herself and slowing down when she needed to avoid running into other kids. Here is a video of Samantha coming down the hill.

After having some goldfish and hot chocolate in the house, it was already past noon and was time for us to go home for lunch. The kids both requested mac and cheese for lunch, then it was nap time for Aedan and quiet time for Samantha. I was glad that Aedan took a good nap for me that afternoon. Here are the kids that afternoon watching a show together after nap/quiet time. They always sit right next to each other, but on this day, Aedan got even closer to her, basically laying on top of her. The two of them are so cute together. Of course they fight sometimes, but they sure do love each other.

(Blog about February 7-13, 2017)

Snowy Weather & Adorable Kids

Samantha: 68 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 33 Months, Week 1

This week was a busy one for Ben on campus, plus, the kids and I got sick. Aedan had a stuffy, runny nose. Samantha had a bad cough and scratchy throat, and I just a small cold and a scratchy throat. So far Ben had not caught any of our germs. But it's difficult for me to go about my normal day of dealing with kindergartners all day when I'm not feeling well and am already tired out.

Wednesday night we had more snow come through, making it tricky to drive around. I was praying for a snow day, but unfortunately it stopped in enough time for school to carry on like usual. Here is a picture of our back yard that I took through our screen door that evening. The snow is a few inches from reaching the top of the barrels in our back yard. It's amazing how much snow we get up here. We knew we would, but we didn't know quite what to expect. The snow just doesn't go away here; it just keeps piling up. That's the biggest difference I've noticed is that other places, like Chicago can get big snowstorms, but they will have more swings in temperature, so the snow will sometimes melt away and you can see grass and the temperature is warm occasionally. When it does start to warm up here, it will take forever for all this snow to melt, and then our grass will be totally wet and soggy. These winters are definitely harder for me than I thought they'd be. I'm definitely ready for no more snow, and unfortunately the winter season is not close to being over yet.

Since Samantha wasn't feeling very well with her cough, we told her to just sleep in as late as she wanted to on Thursday morning to give her some extra rest. When I told Mr. McBride about Samantha staying home, he commented on how she didn't look like she felt well on Wednesday with her eyes watering and sunken in, so we were glad we made the decision to let her stay home for awhile. We hoped to get her better and cut off the sickness before it got any worse. Campus had a scheduled power outage due to some issues that needed to be resolved with power on campus, so Ben was working from home anyways since classes were cancelled. Ben said that Samantha was having fun playing by herself and was acting fine, but she started crying when he talked to her about going to school. Apparently she wanted to stay home, even if she was not sick. He gave her about twenty more minutes to play and then had her get ready to go to school, arriving around 10:30.

Ben still dropped Aedan off at Miss Lisa's house for the day on Thursday so that he could actually get work done at home. If Aedan was at home too, he wouldn't be able to just sit at the table and work. Plus, we had already paid for the day of care anyways. When Ben got there on Thursday to pick him up, Aedan was still sleeping, which happens a lot because it sometimes takes Aedan a long time to fall asleep in the first place. So when Lisa and he went back to the bedroom, he got to snap a couple pictures of Aedan sleeping before he woke him up. It's funny how he's cuddling his teddy bear and is laying on the pillow, but his feet are hanging off the side of the bed. You wouldn't think that would be very comfortable. It's cute though, and he is definitely a tummy sleeper like his daddy.

After seeing how well Samantha did on the first grade end of the year assessment test, the first grade teacher I was in communication with was pretty open to having Samantha come up to her class for math as many days as we would like, as long as the schedules allowed it. However, I emailed all three first grade teachers to explain what the situation was and see what their schedules were like, and I got a reply from one saying that I needed to talk to the principal before I moved any farther because she would have to approve any decision or plan that was being made. I talked with Ben, and we decided it would be good to talk to her, to let them know that we understand, but also want her to be challenged. It would not be hard for Samantha to be done with 1st grade math by the end of the summer, so then we would need to have a conversation about what we would do for math and reading next year. Ben was not opposed to the idea of Samantha doing the 1st grade workbook independently this year, rather than participating in the lessons in her class that she has already mastered, but he would not be okay if she came into first grade next year knowing everything, but she was still kept at the same level as her peers. So on Friday I emailed the principal, and we set up a meeting time for 8:15 on Monday morning to discuss Samantha's progress.

The other fun thing that happened on Friday was Samantha advancing to Level F books. She just moved to Level E a few weeks ago, shortly after switching to Mr. McBride's class. Samantha was super proud of herself, and we talked excitedly about what level she might be able to reach by the end of the school year. Again, Samantha is well beyond where she needs to be in kindergarten. They just need to be working at a Level D by the end of the year, and she is already on Level F. That little girl just blows me away. We always knew she was smart, but we didn't know how that would play out in a school setting. It seems like as soon as she hit kindergarten, her learning just exploded and she has made so much progress in half a school year. Ben and I are so extremely proud of her.

Ben and Aedan followed their Friday tradition of grocery shopping in the morning, coming home to put away groceries, and then heading back out to play at Jump U.P. Aedan was a tired boy and fell asleep for a good nap for Ben that afternoon. I think Ben had to go wake him up so that he could come to school to pick up Samantha and me, so that's why he got these cute pictures of Aedan all cuddled up in his bed.

It felt like a long week for everyone involved, so on Friday night I suggested we go out to eat to relax. We went to Zorba's because they have good gyros and the kids like the pizza there. It was nice to just sit and talk and hang out as a family, not having to make or clean up food. I think we were all looking forward to a weekend to relax, rest and try to get everyone healthy, and spend time together as a family.

Saturday morning was our usual routine of a more laid back morning of pancakes and playing before ice skating lessons. Ben and I take advantage of our time to sleep in, and we just wake up when the kids wake up in the morning. Then, we were off to ice skating. This first video is of one of Aedan's teachers trying to show him how to hold his hands out straight and twist his body back and forth.

In this next video, Aedan is beginning to learn how to skate backwards while following a line drawn on the ice. Then Samantha's class is learning how to skate around in circles.

This last video is Aedan with his favorite teacher, Miss Emily, and she's trying to get him to play ball with her, but he's not overly interested at that moment since he is just skating away from her. We have about a month left of skating lessons and then an ice show. It will be fun to see the kids skating for the show.

On Saturday we tried to get Samantha to take a nap since she was acting pretty tired, and we don't like her to nap on Sundays because it messes with her going to sleep at night. Ben thought she fell asleep when he was in the room with her, but apparently she was just pretending. Once we realized she wasn't actually asleep, and she got up to go to the bathroom, Ben decided to suggest that he take her to a LSSU basketball game. He has some students that are players on the team, and he thought it would be fun to take Samantha to a game. Aedan was napping, so the two of them just went together, while I stayed home with Aedan. She really had a good time at the game and was amazed at how high scoring a basketball game is in comparison to hockey. She cheered on the Lakers, and she asked Ben to give her math problems while they sat and watched the game. Samantha was subtracting the double digit numbers from the score and actually getting the correct answer. I think it's great that she thinks doing math problems is fun.

Aedan has been doing something adorable at night, after I read him books, sing him songs, and pray with him, I will hold him and rock him for a few minutes. Usually he takes this opportunity to just talk to me about his day or anything else that pops into his mind. I like this time to hear what thoughts have been swirling around in his head that day. Then, after a short time of talking and listening, I put Aedan down and he runs to his bed to lay down. I tuck him into bed and cover him up with his blanket, then he will always ask, "Pet my back, Mommy?" So I will rub his back for a few minutes before kissing him good night and saying I love you. He will always say, "I love you too, Mommy." It's the sweetest little interaction and makes putting him to bed the best part of my day.

On Sunday, Ben and I taught in the children's department during second service, so we stayed there for both services and then came home for a quick lunch before nap time/quiet time. I think Sunday was a day that Aedan didn't nap, which always makes our evenings more interesting. He does fairly well, but he loses his ability to think and he fights with Samantha a lot more, so then he makes a lot of bad decisions. Since it was Super Bowl Sunday, Ben and I decided at the last minute to make some football type food for dinner. He lovingly went out to the store to get the extra materials we needed to make meatballs in the crock pot, as well as buffalo chicken dip that Ben and I both like. I even came up with the idea to move our little kid's table into the living room so that we could all sit and eat in the living room while watching the Super Bowl. We have never let the kids eat in the living room before, so they were most excited about this part. It was a fun family time of eating, enjoying the funny commercials, and watching football together. We didn't let the kids stay up past their normal bedtime since school was the next day, but I think it was still a memorable experience for them. Last year we invited people over from our small group to eat food and watch the game together. We didn't have anyone to invite over this year, but we still had a good time together.

On Monday morning Ben and I had our meeting with Samantha's principal. It went pretty well, and she was very open to the idea of Samantha doing first grade work and had actually already spoken to Mr. McBride about doing more challenging material with her in the classroom and not just using Samantha as a helper to teach other kids that are behind. I was a little confused about whether she would want Samantha to stay in her own class and work on first grade stuff, or go up to a first grade class for math instead. So for right now, we are planning on letting Samantha work on the first grade workbook in her own classroom and see how it goes. The real issue will be next year, especially if she knows all or most of the first grade material. We would like Samantha to be able to go up to second grade, if she's ready, so hopefully one first grade teacher and one second grade teacher can try to align their schedules so that their math times coincide, which would make it much easier for Samantha to make that transition. We will see what happens! I'm just glad that the school is willing to work with her and with us to help challenge her in her learning.

(Blog about January 31-February 6, 2017)

Our Smart Little Girl

Samantha: 68 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 32 Months, Week 5

Now that I am working full time and am not home with the kids as much, I don't have as many stories or pictures to share. On Tuesday evening, we gave the kids a bath earlier so that way we'd have more time to play afterwards. We usually let Samantha take a shower first by herself, and then we give Aedan a bath and let him play in the tub for awhile. Now that Samantha is getting older, she needs more privacy in the shower/bath, and we want her to learn how to do it on her own. She enjoys taking showers more than baths, anyway, and then it gives Aedan a chance to play freely in the bathtub with toys for as long as he wants. However, on Tuesday night, for the sake of time, I gave them a bath together, I think because Ben was outside snow blowing the driveway. (Ah, the joys of living in the wintry U.P.) Here are the kids in the bath that night together. They were having fun playing together and were too cute not to take a picture of.

After bath time we were all just hanging out together. I think this next picture is just an accident, but I kind of like it. It's not too often that we get a picture of Aedan's little feet and toes, and you can see the teddy bear that Samantha got for him for Christmas. This is the teddy bear, along with his blankie, that he now sleeps with every night. When we put him to bed, he rolls over on his tummy and puts his blankie tucked into one elbow and his teddy bear tucked into the other elbow.

The kids got a hold of Ben's phone and decided to take some pictures and videos together.

In this video, Samantha is trying to take a video of Aedan singing a song, but she has the camera pointed the wrong way. Either way, it's cute to see her face close up and to see her two grown-up teeth growing in on the bottom. I think it's been a couple weeks since she lost her second tooth. I don't remember if I talked about when that happened. This second tooth is growing in a little crooked, so it will be interesting to see how her teeth grow in.

One thing I like about being at Samantha's school is just being a part of her every day events. For example, on Wednesday they had a drum dance in the afternoon. They have these every once in awhile, and I always wondered what they were like. They let the kids come down on the floor in the gym to dance around the drum. They even have special scarves for the girls to wear while they dance. The drum dance lasted for about an hour, and Samantha was dancing around for almost the entire hour. Most of the kids really enjoy this time, and it's a fun way to include exposure to a tradition of the Native American culture.

The kids' favorite time of the night is when they get to wrestle with Daddy. We move the coffee table out of the way, and they use Ben as a human jungle gym. They climb on him, kick him, punch him, are thrown in the air by him, and giggle like crazy. Daddy is such a good sport, and he loves giving the kids this physical outlet in the evenings.

While Samantha and I were at school on Friday, Daddy and Aedan followed their normal tradition of going grocery shopping right after dropping us off at school and then going to Jump UP for Tot Time. Ever since I allowed Aedan to get popcorn one morning for a snack, he asks for popcorn every time he goes, but he always enjoys himself there and has gotten really good at climbing the obstacle course and going down the slide. In fact, Ben said that he really had fun during the story and craft time as well. Apparently there were a lot of other kids just crawling around and not paying attention to the story, but Aedan did a good job of sitting and listening. I miss having these times with my little guy, and it's times like these that I wish I was at home with him again, even though I know I am only working for a few months and I know that it will really help our family get on a more secure financial footing. Nevertheless, I am so happy that Ben can spend these Fridays with Aedan having their "Daddy-Aedan days." :)

Friday, January 27 was another half day at school, but I was on my own that morning with the kindergartners because Ms. Cornwell was out for the day. I had a pretty easy morning since it was just a half day, and we had reading buddies, plus a special, meaning we really only had calendar and time for classroom rewards before lunch, recess, and dismissal. It was kind of nice having the class to myself, and they responded pretty well to me, for the most part. Right after school let out at noon, Ben and Aedan met us at school so we could have a parent-teacher conference with Mr. McBride. There weren't any concerns because Samantha's behavior and academics were excellent, but he still likes to meet with each student's parents. She scored very high on her last round of testing, putting her in the 92nd percentile in math and the 91st percentile in reading among all kindergartners nationwide. She basically topped out on the test and with how the test is run, she won't really be able to score any higher. She ranks high in all categories in math and reading, and she knows all of her uppercase and lowercase letters, knew all the sounds except the two different sounds that u and y make, all her numbers through 20, all her colors and shapes, counting objects, counting my 1s, 5s, and 10s all the way to 100 and counting by 2s to 16, extending patterns, and spatial relationships. She is well past where she needs to be at the end of kindergarten already, and is definitely into first grade level stuff. Mr. McBride has her doing Accelerated Reader twice a week to encourage her reading, but he didn't really say much about what he could do with her for math except for encourage her to help teach other students who are having a hard time. I don't necessarily disagree with having her teach others, because that definitely shows a high level of mastery, but I want Samantha to be challenged and continue learning during this second half of the school year. We will definitely have to brainstorm ways that we can encourage, challenge, and support the learning of our bright, gifted little girl.

After a busy week of working and school, we take advantage of our time on the weekend to rest, relax, and get some extra sleep. Saturday morning we left a little earlier than normal for ice skating lessons so that we could go to the library. We didn't have many books left since Aedan isn't going to the library with us every week or so, and we also figured we would check out a couple movies that the kids have been asking to see. We found some good books for the kids, plus some longer chapter books that we could read aloud to Samantha before bed. Then, the kids got to play for a little while before it was time to head out. They had a new tool set and table that was right up Aedan's alley, so he really enjoyed playing with the pretend drill that made noise and all the other tools on the table.

Aedan got to go with Samantha's class for a little while since his main teacher, Miss Emily, was gone and the other teachers were busy helping the other students. Here you can see Aedan holding his arms out to the side, trying to do what Samantha's teacher showed him. He's trying so hard to get down the ice to be with the rest of the kids.

And here's Samantha practicing what I think she calls "swizzles." She's gotten pretty good at them, and when she's not distracted by her brother calling for her, she really does a good job of not even falling down much. The other thing I love about her lately is that she is starting to wear a dress or skirt to ice skating every week, probably so she looks more like a figure skater. She will definitely enjoy dressing up in her costume for the ice show in March.

On Saturday evening I decided to go out of my comfort zone a little and attend a painting party with moms from MOPS that were having a Mom's Night Out event. We met for dinner at Apple-bee's first, and then we went back to a mentor mom's house to do a painting on canvas. It was a sunset scene on a grassy hill with bushes and trees in the distance and a cherry tree and fence in the foreground. We added some little bundles of grass at the end, and I wish I would have skipped that part because I liked it better before that. However, it turned out much better than I thought it would since I'm not exactly the most artistic person in the world. It was a fun night out, and it was good to be around other moms since I don't get to go to MOPS anymore.

Ever since changing Aedan's crib to a toddler bed, he's been doing such a good job. He doesn't ever get out of his bed, even if he's awake. In fact, on Saturday I thought he was just so cute because he was just sitting there waiting for me until I came in to his room. When he sees us come in, he just hops right out. Samantha definitely wasn't like that. It took us a long time to get Samantha used to staying in bed. We never even really talked to him about it or suggested the idea that there is anything else to do besides just staying in bed. For example, we never say, "Now don't get out of bed..." because we don't want to give him any ideas since it's been going so well. So far, Aedan seems to adjust to new things really well, like giving up his paci and now in getting used to a toddler bed.

Sunday was just a relaxing day at home with church and spending time together. Aedan was a stinker and refused to nap that afternoon, but the one good thing about not napping one day is that he will usually nap really well the next day to make up for it. So on Monday at Miss Lisa's house, he took a long nap and Ben had to wake him up when he got there so that they could come pick up Samantha and me in enough time to get Ben back to his class by 4:30.

Aedan loves the freedom to get in and out of his bed on his own now. He will often just go in his room and lay down on his bed to look at books or take toys in his bed to play with. On Monday night Aedan had Buzz and Woody, along with lots of other toys in his bed, like teddy bear, blankie, Elmo, and Cookie that he was putting to bed along with him. He had a crowded bed. Good thing we don't let him sleep with whatever he wants every night and just limit it to teddy bear and blankie! I thought it was cute to get this little interaction on video, and also just to have a recording of his little voice talking when he was a 2 1/2 year old. Some day I will really miss my home being full of these cute little voices.

Over the past week, I talked with a first grade teacher about Samantha being advanced in math, looking for advice on what we could do to challenge her. She said to start with she would like her to take a first grade end of the year assessment to see how much first grade material she actually knew. Ben and I helped her complete it over a week's time, as it was rather lengthy, and we read the questions to her, but she did the work all on her own. We didn't show her how to do anything or give her hints. After the first grade teacher graded it, she got 43 out of 65, so that's pretty good for a girl only halfway through kindergarten. She was able to do more complicated addition and subtraction, order numbers into the hundreds, measuring, and tell temperature as well as more and less likely. The parts she had the most trouble with were rule function boxes where a number goes in, a rule changes the number, and a new number comes out. Samantha had just never seen anything like this, so she didn't understand what to do. She also hasn't had much practice with adding quarters, dimes, and nickels, or telling time, but that was all just because she had not been exposed to it yet in kindergarten. We were all very impressed with how much she knew, and we know that with a little exposure and teaching, she will pick up on these skills very quickly. In fact, I could see her learning most or all of the first grade skills through the rest of the year and into the summer. It will be interesting to see what the teachers and school think we could do for Samantha. All I know is that I am super proud of her and how much she has learned in such a short amount of time.

(Blog about January 24-30, 2017)

Aedan Transitioning to Toddler Bed & Issues with Roscoe

Samantha: 68 Months, Week 1

Aedan: 32 Months, Week 4

This week was a super busy, not so fun one with Ben being out of town Monday night through late Wednesday night. It was difficult for me to be at home with the kids on my own, to get them up and ready in the morning and still get out the door on time, and to drop Aedan off at Miss Lisa's before going to school with Samantha. Then, working a full day and still having to come home and do everything around the house on my own, just tired me out completely. I don't know what it is, but I feel so worn out and exhausted every day now that I am working full time. Kindergartners are an exhausting age to work with, and I have no time to myself all day long.

During Ben's drive down to Warsaw, he encountered some snow and not so nice roads, so it took him longer to get at the hotel he was stopping at than he would have liked, not getting there until just before 1:00 in the morning.

Tuesday morning went pretty well for us, and it was kind of fun dropping Aedan off at Miss Lisa's, seeing him take his boots off and run right in to start playing. He really likes it there, he is respectful, and he really enjoys playing with the other boys. I'm so glad it's been going well and that he is taking a nap every day now.

By the time we got home from school, the kids and I are were tired and ready to just be home and play together. I had thought about taking them to McDonald's so that we could eat dinner and let them play, but I did not feel like going back out again. So instead, I decided to just order pizza from Guido's to be delivered. The kids thought it was really cool to see the delivery guy pull up with our pizza for us. They squealed in excitement, and the delivery guy said, "This job is so good for my self-esteem. Kids are always so excited to see me." We enjoyed our pizza together, and then we did FaceTime with Daddy, Ema, Papa, Jeni, and Alaina. However, Samantha and Aedan just kept fighting with each other while we were trying to talk, so I just had to hang up and give them both time outs. They were both tired, cranky, and disrespectful, and I felt defeated by the day. I felt like I didn't have what it takes to take care of the kids on my own. While they sat in time out, I gave myself a little time out, sitting at the kitchen table, trying to take deep breaths while I cried a few tears myself. It would be different if I wasn't working full-time, but working all day and still dealing with everything myself was difficult. When Ben stayed with the kids while I was in Chicago, he was mostly just hanging out with the kids at home and running a few errands, so it was a lot easier for him to handle everything. I don't know how single moms do this for I sure was tired that evening.

Wednesday was more of the same, but it was a little bit better of a day. We got good news from Samantha at school. Since she is already reading at a first grade reading level, Mr. McBride told me that she is going to start doing Accelerated Reader twice a week in the library. I was so excited for her, and I'm so glad that the move to Mr. McBride's class was causing more positive change to happen for Samantha. I'm so proud of my smart little girl.

On Wednesday night after tucking the kids into bed, Aedan kept waking up crying. I went in his room three times, and every time I went in there he never needed anything and there was nothing wrong. He would stop crying while I was in his room but then cry as soon as I would leave. At one point I just stood there an held his little hand to comfort him. He fell right back asleep, but as soon as I tried to move my hand away, he would wake up and grab onto my hand again. I even rocked him for quite awhile one time, telling him that this was going to be the last time I was going to come into his room, and that he needed to go to sleep now. It was strange because he doesn't usually need us at all at night, but in some ways I didn't mind the extra time to snuggle with my little man.

Ben got back late at night on Wednesday. In fact, I didn't even notice him get into bed with me. All I know is that it was sure nice to have him back home again on Thursday morning and to get back to our normal routine again. However, even though it was crazy for me, I was really glad Ben could go down to Warsaw to support Jeni and Alaina. We are far away, but we want to make the effort when we can.

Thursday morning we awoke to Roscoe sniffing in his kennel because he had peed and pooped in it. So we had to take him outside, put his bed in the washer, and Ben gave him a bath. Not exactly what we wanted to do at 6:00 a.m. when we needed to be getting ready for the day. I was trying to decide if I was in denial about keeping Roscoe around longer that we should. This was his third accident in his kennel, but he hasn't had many accidents in the house lately. However, I have tried to be more on top of things, like taking him out every time he comes out of his kennel, after he finished his dinner, and anytime he's sleeping and then gets down to walk around. There is just no way to tell when he has to go, and he doesn't do anything to indicate he has to go, like going and standing by the door like he used to. Roscoe is definitely losing control, and Ben is just done and is having a hard time understanding why I want to keep him around. Sometimes I'm not sure either because we have too many other things going on to deal with cleaning up Roscoe's accidents. But then he cuddles with me on the couch at night and moans like he's purring while I pet him. It's so hard for me to make the decision to put him down. It seems so strange to decide to kill another living thing, and Roscoe will do something annoying, but then be fine for a long stretch, making me want to keep him around a little longer. I just hate being wrought with indecision, waffling back and forth.

Friday, January 20 was going to be an easier day because it was just a half day at school, and our mornings are pretty easy with morning work, calendar time, reading buddies, a special, and then one more subject before lunch and recess. I was looking forward to the afternoon off to be at home and to spend more time with my family.

Both kids woke up super early on Friday morning for some reason, so we told Samantha that she was going to nap that afternoon. Since Aedan was just at home with Daddy that morning, he let him stay in his Woody and Buzz pajamas, which of course made Aedan's day since they are by far his favorite ones. Here is Aedan dressed up in a Tinker Bell costume, singing the Veggie Tales theme song that afternoon before nap time. I love how he bobs back and forth, and then leans forward and says, "Have we got a show for you!" Then, at the end he gets up so he can fall down on the floor like they do at the end of song. He's such a cute little kid that loves to sing.

During nap time that afternoon, I took advantage of my time at home to clean the house, and I actually got pretty much all the cleaning done that day by bedtime. It is definitely difficult for me to find the time get the cleaning done, or even to just pick toys and things up from around the house. But that's okay, I just have to be more relaxed about when I get things done and not feel pressured to do things in a certain way, but just do what I can when I can.

We also got our official home evaluation emailed to us on Friday to review before Lauri sent it out to Lansing for approval, probably going out in the mail on Monday, January 23rd. So that means that sometime near the end of February we will be officially licensed as foster parents. I'm excited for this opportunity that God has opened up to us, and it will be interesting to see when we get the first call about a child that is in need of care. I'm glad that we can help other families in our community in a very real, practical, self-sacrificial way. I know this will grow and stretch Ben and me, as well as our kids, in a big way, and I am already praying about and for the child that we will welcome into our home.

On Saturday we had another relaxing morning at home. Ben let me sleep in an hour longer while he got up with the kids. We ate pancakes, played around the house, and did a few tasks around the house like changing and washing sheets and towels and cleaning the floors, all things that I would normally take care of during the week but can't do until the weekend now that I'm working. The kids didn't have skating lessons due to a hockey tournament at the rink where they usually have their lessons. I had thought about trying to come up with something fun to do together, but it's hard living in such an isolated place because there are not places to go anywhere close by, definitely nothing for just a day trip with kids. So instead we decided to just hang out at home, have an earlier nap time and dinner, and then go to the community center pool in Canada. It's always fun and the kids swam and played for an hour and a half. It's nice to be in a warm pool and forget that it's cold and snowy outside. Of course, we also made our obligatory stop at Tim Horton's on the way home, but this time we got donuts to eat the next morning for breakfast since we already had cupcakes for dessert that Daddy and Aedan had made together. I was glad that we could go do something fun together as a family.

The big event that took place on Sunday was switching Aedan's bed from a crib to a toddler bed. Since we go to the first service at church, we always have plenty of time when we get home before lunch and nap time, so Ben took advantage of that time to remove the side bar and attach the small rails that turn it into a toddler bed. We had been thinking about doing it for a few weeks, but didn't know when would be the best time. We had Samantha in a toddler bed at a similar age to Aedan, but she was also trying to climb out of the crib and had actually fallen out onto the floor a couple times, so it seemed more necessary for her. Aedan, however, hasn't even attempted to climb out of his crib. The reason we got the idea is because he sleeps in a toddler bed for nap time at Miss Lisa's every day now, and he doesn't even try to get out of it and play, so we thought that maybe if we start the transition now, when he is already experiencing it in a different setting, maybe he will just be used to it, and he will stay in bed better rather than get out all the time like Samantha did. I had Aedan get in his bed so I could take a few last pictures of him in his crib, and then I took a few more of him sitting in his new toddler big boy bed, playing with Woody and Buzz. We have also transitioned him to the bedding set with the blanket that he got for Christmas because he was getting too big for his wraps anyways. He looks like such a big boy sitting in his new bed. He was super excited about it. He ended up not napping that afternoon, but he went to bed just fine at night. He didn't even fall out at all the first night. When we switched Samantha to the toddler bed, she fell out of bed twice during the first night of the transition. Aedan is growing up, and sometimes it makes me feel nostalgic, but I know these are all necessary and important steps for him. Now, probably sometime over the summer, we need to tackle potty training this little guy. It seems like he does well just going cold turkey on things, like just taking the paci away, and now just switching him to a toddler bed, so hopefully potty training will be just as simple and easy!

That evening after an early bath time since neither kid napped that afternoon, we let the kids do some Go Noodle, per Aedan's request, before going to bed. They are so cute dancing together and trying to mimic the movements of the dancers. Samantha tries to do everything as accurately as she can and keeps getting distracted by football on the TV in the background. I love how Aedan is trying so hard to keep up but is always a couple steps behind. I also love how he jumps way off to the side. He's so animated with his motions and dancing. I'm not so sure our kids have very good rhythm, but it's cute watching them dance.

Sunday nights have always been my least favorite time of the week, simply because the weekend if over and everyone has to go back to the week's work and normal routine. It's even more difficult for me now that I'm working. Weekends just go by too quickly. I love our family time.

Monday was a pretty good day, a little hectic, and a little frustrating. Sometimes it's challenging getting everyone up and out the door by 7:35, and then when I got home with the kids and went to get Roscoe out of he kennel, I discovered he had pooped and peed all over himself and his kennel again. Ben even came home at 3:30 to take him out, so he did all that within the last hour of being in his kennel. After that episode, I was seriously considering putting Roscoe down that week, on Friday since I had a half day and would have extra time to take him to the vet. He had pooped and peed in his kennel like that four times now, and I am getting tired of having to clean up after him. Ben is already done and ready for him to be put down, so it's just up to when I decide I'm ready. All these thoughts of putting Roscoe down mainly makes me sad just because I like having a dog around, but I'm not necessarily overly attached to Roscoe, especially with all his issues and how grouchy he is anyways. However, the problem is that if we get another dog, we want one with no issues like Roscoe has. We want the dog to be friendly towards kids and strangers, so we would have more success training a puppy, rather than getting a dog that had already been abandoned and probably has issues. But, we don't have the money, nor do we want to pay a lot of money, to buy an expensive puppy, or to spend all the time it would take to house break one. Then, there's more issues with paying for boarding when we travel or trying to take the dog with us as well, which makes traveling more complicated. Dogs are expensive and sometimes more of a nuisance than they are worth, but I have always grown up with a dog. So it is definitely something we will consider sometime in the future, but not right away. We will give ourselves some time without a dog for awhile, whenever I finally decide it is time for Roscoe to not be with us anymore.

(Blog about January 17-23, 2017)