Aedan: 33 Months, Week 3
After having a sick day and two snow days in a row, it seemed like a long time since we'd been in school. Samantha was super excited about going back to school on February 14 because not only was it Valentine's Day, but it was also the 100th day of school and her publishing party. The kids were all pretty wired from all the special activities, so it was kind of a wild day at school. Different classes did different activities to celebrate the 100th day, and then in the afternoon Ms. Cornwell's class had their publishing party in the cafeteria, followed by Mr. McBride's class. It was fun to see the kids so excited to share their stories with others, and I was pretty proud of Samantha's story. She wrote about Aedan slamming her finger in the door in Upland. She included a lot of detail and her pictures were very nice as well. They also had cookies and hot chocolate to share with the parents and guests as well as the kids that worked hard on their stories. Ben was able to come too, so I know Samantha was excited to see both of us at school. We were both pretty proud of our little girl.
Then, because our day wasn't busy and crazy enough already, as I was cleaning up the classroom at the end of the day I received a phone call from our DHHS licensing worker asking about a possible foster placement starting that night. Our license had just officially gone through an hour earlier, so the phone call definitely took me by surprise. I won't go into too many details, but the foster child was a two year old boy from a tribal family. They were in court at the time I talked to Lauri, and she fully expected the judge to approve the removal of the child, so they were going through the proper steps to make sure he had a home to go to that night. There were a couple tricky things with the Head Start program the boy was already attending, but we would have been able to make it work in our schedule. Once we got back home, Ben and I talked about it some more and called Lauri back to let her know we would be willing to take him into our home. After getting off the phone, we sat down and talked to Samantha and Aedan about what was going on and frantically got things ready around the house, like making a bed up for the little boy, rearranging some toys, and cleaning things up a little bit. However, a little while later we were notified that the order to remove the little boy was not approved after all, to everyone's great surprise. We were disappointed, especially the kids. Aedan thought that the little boy was going to be just for him. We are glad that the kids are so excited to have a new child in our home. Even though we didn't get the boy that evening, we told them we could still get a call at any time, even in the middle of the night. So the next morning when Ben went into Aedan's room, the first question he asked was, "Did we get a call over night?" It will be exciting when we receive another phone call some day and get to provide a home for our first foster child.
This week was a shorter week, partly because of the snow day on Monday, but also because Thursday was a half day and we had no school on Friday for Winter Break. It was one of those crazy days on Wednesday where I just could not stay on top of everything. We got to school, and I realized Samantha was allowed to bring a stuffed animal if you paid $1 for Love Your Pet day, but I didn't know it was happening, so we didn't have an animal, and she was really sad. Luckily, Ms. Cornwell let her just pick a small beanie baby animal from her classroom to use for the day. Then, after being at school for about an hour, I used the restroom and noticed my eye looked much worse than it did that morning. I stopped by the nurse and she confirmed that I probably pink eye, just like Samantha had. So I had to leave school early so I could go to the walk-in clinic and get checked for pink eye so I could start on the antibiotic eye drops. After going to the doctor and to the store to get my medicine, I actually was able to go out to lunch with Ben. I figured we might as well take advantage of our chance to spend time together since I couldn't go back to school until the next day. Since I didn't have anything else to do, I ran a couple errands and then just hung out at the house until it was time to go pick up Samantha and Aedan. It was a strange day, and I felt silly for getting pink eye and having to leave school and leave Ms. Cornwell without any help.
On Wednesday evening we had to eat a quick dinner before heading over for ice skating pictures. The kids were supposed to arrive 15 minutes ahead of their scheduled picture time, which we did, so they could change into their costumes and be ready for pictures. However, this was another instance where I feel like people didn't communicate clearly about what we were supposed to do. When we arrived early, everyone was already dressed, so apparently most people just had their kids get dressed at home. Aedan just had to slip on a hockey jersey, so that was no big deal, but Samantha had to get her whole costume on, tights and all. I took her to the bathroom and I tried to get changed as quickly as we could. I was told to try and put warmer tights on underneath the special ice skating tights that Ben bought special just for this ice show. It was frustrating to me because we got there at the time we were supposed to be, and then someone came down to the bathroom looking for Samantha. She was almost ready, so I just had her come out so we could finish it while waiting with everyone else. I was told that the tights we got would have to go over her skates, so I thought that meant I had to put them on at the end. Mind you, we are not from this area, ice skating is not as much of a part of our life as it is for everyone else. But apparently, I was supposed to put the tights on, leave them rolled up, then put the skates on, and then pull the tights down over the skates. One of the ladies in charge was rushing me along, even though it was before the time we were scheduled to have the picture taken. In fact, they had even already taken some pictures without Samantha. She said it didn't matter that Samantha didn't have the tan tights on like everyone else did. I wanted to finish getting Samantha dressed the correct way, but apparently they didn't want to wait for us, so Samantha just got in the picture with her white tights on. I felt terrible about the whole situation. I was emotional and tired, I was frustrated and embarrassed, and I felt so stupid that I was the only one that couldn't get my daughter dressed properly for ice skating pictures. So now she is the only one wearing the wrong color tights in their professional pictures. I know it doesn't matter, but I feel like it's a negative reflection on me because I wasn't on top of things enough. Sometimes I feel like no matter what I do, I can never be on top of things enough. After this evening, I was ready to just go home, get comfortable, relax on the couch, and go to bed early.
Despite my bad day, and my negativity, their little ice skating pictures were cute. These are just the ones we snapped with our phones while the professionals were taking their pictures.
Thursday was a big, exciting day for us because after Ben was done teaching his 1:00 class, we had plans to leave for Great Wold Lodge in Traverse City. Samantha and I just had a half day, and then we went to pick up Aedan from Miss Lisa's. We came back home and the kids just played while I tried to get everything packed up and ready so we could leave as soon as Ben was done. The kids were not exactly being helpful so I didn't get things done as quickly as I would have liked, meaning we left more like 2:30 rather than 2:00.
The drive to Traverse City was pretty easy. The weather was good, and both kids were tired and ready for a nap by the time we crossed over the Mackinac Bridge. Here they are sleeping in the car that afternoon. So cute when they're sleeping. :)
The drive to Traverse City was pretty easy. The weather was good, and both kids were tired and ready for a nap by the time we crossed over the Mackinac Bridge. Here they are sleeping in the car that afternoon. So cute when they're sleeping. :)
The kids (and parents) had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time, so we were thrilled to finally get there. It was amazing how little snow Traverse City had, especially in comparison to Sault Ste. Marie, and it was nice to be in somewhat warmer, sunnier weather, even though we were going to an indoor waterpark. While Daddy was checking us in and bringing all of our junk to the room, the kids and I checked out the lobby. They had this area with pretend bears, a kid zone area, a great big chair that looked as if it had been carved out of wood, and a wall of windows overlooking the waterpark down below. The kids were amazed at how big it was and couldn't wait to get in. They also got a free pair of wolf ears that they could wear on their head like a headband. Samantha liked wearing his around, but Aedan was not as much of a fan of them.
We then all went down to our hotel room to check it out and get dressed to go to the waterpark for awhile. We were all so excited, especially since they keep the waterpark at 80 degrees. There are so many different areas that it's hard to explain, but I will do my best. There is a toddler area with a zero depth entry, pretend jet skis that shoot water, water features that dump and spray, and several little slides for younger kids to go down. There was also a large fort area with rope bridges to climb up, lots of ways to get wet, as well as a huge bucket on top that filled up and dumped out every five minutes. (Samantha really loved that part and would always run to stand near it so she would have some water dumped on her.) There was a deeper pool with some basketball hoops and other fun things you could climb on, like a large floating snake and lily pads you could climb on from one end of the pool to the other. There was a lazy river, a family friendly hot tub, and then way in the back were three different big water slides that you would ride down on tubes. Lots of fun stuff, and I knew we would have a great time. We spent over an hour at the water park before we decided it was time to head back to the hotel room and get the kids dressed for bed. They have story time at 8:15, so we went down to the lobby for that. We figured we were on vacation, so bedtime doesn't really mean much of anything. You can see Aedan standing up in the front, closest to the character, and Samantha is sitting down next to him. The story time was pretty cheesy, mainly just more plugs for Great Wolf Lodge, but the kids enjoyed it, and then they got their pictures taken with the raccoon.
After story time was over, we went back to the hotel room to finish getting ready for bed. We were nerds and brought a blanket and duct tape to cover the opening to Samantha and Aedan's little bunk bed room. The walls were open and didn't connect with the ceiling, so it wouldn't block all the sound and light out, but it would give a little separation between them and us. We read a book, tucked them in to bed, and hoped that they were tired enough to fall asleep quickly. Ben and I sat quietly on the couch, waiting for them to fall asleep before we made too much noise, but Samantha just could not fall asleep. Aedan seemed to fall asleep pretty quickly, but it was close to 10:00 before we finally heard snoring coming from her. It was a little frustrating to us because sometimes it's just so difficult to get her to sleep in new places. (She is so much like her daddy, in more ways than one.) Luckily, her wiggling around and jingling her blankie didn't seem to bother Aedan any, and he was so cute all snuggled up on the bottom bunk. Pretty soon after we knew the kids were asleep, Ben and I fell into bed ourselves. We knew morning would come earlier than we wanted it to.
Sure enough, at 5:30 in the morning we heard Aedan start to make noise, starting with whispering to himself, then counting, then singing. I went in there to tell him to go back to sleep, Ben went in and was a little more stern with him, and then I had to go back in again to talk to him. It told him in a very calm voice that if he wanted to have a donut for breakfast, he would have to be quiet and go back to sleep. After that, he got quiet and I'm pretty sure he went back to sleep. At some point Samantha got up to go to the bathroom, but it was at least quiet for a while longer. The waterpark didn't open until 10:00 so there was definitely no reason to get up early, but kids don't understand that too much. Once we finally woke up and sensed the kids were awake, we went down to the Dunkin' Donuts that was inside the hotel to get some coffee, donuts, and breakfast sandwiches, eating them in the lobby in our pajamas. We still had time before the waterpark opened, so we got the kids ready and let them watch a show and relax a little while Ben and I got ready for the day.
After getting our fill of the waterpark in the morning, we got dressed and went out for lunch at Fazoli's. They have places to eat inside the hotel, but we heard mixed reviews about the quality of food for the price you have to pay, so we figured we'd take advantage of the chance to eat at restaurants we don't have anywhere near us. Aedan was getting a little tired to eat very well, but Ben and I definitely enjoyed our food. Then, it was time to go back to the hotel to put Aedan down for a nap. Our plan was for Ben and Samantha to go back to the waterpark to go on some of the bigger slides together while I stayed in the room with Aedan. He needed one reminder to be quiet and go to sleep, but then he was fast asleep after that, sleeping for close to three hours. In fact, I ended up just waking him up around 5:00 since it was getting close to dinnertime and we wanted to go back to the waterpark again that evening. This picture probably won't show up very well, but this is my attempt at a picture of him napping. It was nice and dark in their little Kid Camp area, and he was one tired little boy from being up late, waking up early, and being so active in the water.
After Samantha had her fill of water slides, they got out to do some activities in the lobby of the hotel. There was someone making balloon animals and Samantha was nice enough to ask the lady to make two, one for her and one for Aedan because she knew Aedan would be jealous of her if she had one and he didn't. I love how thoughtful she is and how much she thinks of others on a daily basis. She did some coloring, had a little snack with Daddy, and tried to keep themselves occupied until Aedan woke up from his nap. We had no idea that he would sleep for so long.
Since Aedan took such a long nap, our evening got pushed back later, so we decided to go out and get some dinner first. We just went across the street to Panera so we could get some healthier food like salads and sandwiches, plus they have pretty good choices on the kid's menu as well. We wanted to eat a quicker dinner so we could get back to the hotel and do some more swimming. Plus, Ben and I wanted to buy the kids ice cream for a special treat that night. Samantha was getting pretty tired as the night went on, since she didn't get a three hour nap like Aedan did, but she hung in there pretty well. After we were done swimming, we all got dried off and put the kids in warm pajamas before going to get ice cream. I think it was like 8:00 at night when we were eating ice cream, but we were on vacation and were having a great time together, definitely trying to make the most of it.
Once we got back to our room that night, we let the kids watch a Super Why show to kind of calm down some before bed, and luckily they both did much better that night. In fact, I think Samantha was asleep even before I stopped singing. As soon as she got in bed she rolled over toward the wall, getting herself nice and comfortable. They both had a more normal night and even slept in some in the morning since we stayed up later than normal the night before. Ben and I were definitely glad we didn't have a repeat of the first night.
Saturday morning I went to Panera to get some bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, and we just ate in our rooms. We still had some time before the waterpark opened for the day, so we did FaceTime with Jeni, Alaina, Ema, and Papa since they were all in Upland together. Then, we had to get all our stuff packed up and out of the room to check out before going to the waterpark. Here are some pictures of the kids wearing their wolf ears and sitting in their bunkbeds pretending to howl like wolves.
Once we got back to our room that night, we let the kids watch a Super Why show to kind of calm down some before bed, and luckily they both did much better that night. In fact, I think Samantha was asleep even before I stopped singing. As soon as she got in bed she rolled over toward the wall, getting herself nice and comfortable. They both had a more normal night and even slept in some in the morning since we stayed up later than normal the night before. Ben and I were definitely glad we didn't have a repeat of the first night.
Saturday morning I went to Panera to get some bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, and we just ate in our rooms. We still had some time before the waterpark opened for the day, so we did FaceTime with Jeni, Alaina, Ema, and Papa since they were all in Upland together. Then, we had to get all our stuff packed up and out of the room to check out before going to the waterpark. Here are some pictures of the kids wearing their wolf ears and sitting in their bunkbeds pretending to howl like wolves.
It was difficult to take many pictures inside the waterpark because we couldn't just carry our phones around with us, but I made a point to take some on Saturday morning. Here are the kids posing for me in the toddler water area.
I thought that Aedan would enjoy going down these little slides a lot more than he did, but for some reason he was just really hesitant to do them. If we encouraged him or bribed him to, then he would go down, but mostly to appease us. Now, he had a good time going down the slide and would smile every time, except for in this video when he slipped backwards a little, but he just seemed uninterested. He is definitely not as much of a risk taker as Samantha is when it comes to going down anything fast, whether it's a slide or a hill. He was much more likely to go down if Samantha would go down with him, so we had her go down with him one more time on our last morning there.
One of Aedan's favorite things to do was to sit on this pretend jet ski that shot water out of the front. However, there was another jet ski opposite this one so that you could spray each other, but Aedan did not enjoy getting sprayed, especially since a lot of times the other kids would spray him right in the face. Aedan eventually learned that if someone got on and started spraying him, he just had to get off instead of just sitting there and crying about it. He also learned that he could just stand and wait for other kids to get off before he got on for his turn, that way he could spray his side around without having to worry about getting sprayed himself, which was a rather smart strategy actually.
Samantha wanted to spend more time going down the big waterslides with Daddy, and she enjoyed going on them over and over again. However, Aedan was kind of tired of the water. We had done a lot of swimming, and he is not as big of a fan of water as Samantha is in the first place, so he wanted to spend most of the morning in the hot water swimming around, which was fine by me. Here is a picture of the whole waterpark from the tables at the front entrance.
On Sunday morning we relaxed more in the morning, giving ourselves time to recover from our trip, and just went to the later service at church. That afternoon before dinner we decided to take advantage of the "warmer" weather and go outside to let the kids ride their bikes around campus for awhile. I had been seeing a lot of our Indiana and Ohio friends posting pictures of no coats and boasting about warm weather and zoo trips, and I have to admit that I was getting jealous. However, our high of 44 felt pretty good, and it was encouraging to see some of the snow beginning to melt. Just for kicks, I thought it would be funny for the kids pose in front of a pile of snow on campus, just so people could see what it looks like in the U.P. I am definitely ready for spring to come, and this long drawn out winter will be hard for me since I will be expecting the snow to go away and the temperatures to warm up.
When we got back home after being on campus, Ben took the chance to shovel some of the snow and ice that had accumulated at the end of our driveway. The kids wanted to help out too, so I had them come back in to get their snow pants and boots on before staying outside. Aedan tried to help Daddy shovel, and then I got their sleds out of the garage and let them sled down the little hill in our front yard from the corner by the mailbox to the tree in the middle. It was such a nice day outside, and we all really enjoyed being outside and playing in the snow together. I wish we could do this more often. I feel like we haven't had many chances to play in the snow because we are too busy during the week, plus they both get to play outside during the day, then on the weekends we have other things going on, or it's just been too cold or too windy or the kids are sick. I certainly wouldn't mind having more days like this.
And to end the blog, here is a picture of our two little cuties relaxing on the couch after a fun afternoon playing outside. :)
(Blog about February 14-20, 2017)
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