Getting a New Puppy, A Visit from the Clemons Family, and Easter Weekend

Samantha: 70 Months, Week 5
Aedan: 35 Months, Week 3

On Tuesday, April 11th I had a check-up with Dr. Amo. Ben came to pick me up from school, I dropped him back off at his office, and then I went on to my appointment. Every appointment I feel a little anxious, even though I was 17 1/2 weeks and clearly into the second trimester where my chance of miscarriage greatly decreases. This was just a quick appointment, and everything went well. We heard the heartbeat right away, even though Dr. Amo said that sometimes it can take a few minutes to locate the heartbeat, so not to get worried. There was even a noise that we heard where we could tell the baby had moved. Dr. Amo said I should be feeling movement within the next couple of weeks. I thought I may have started to feel some movement, but it's so hard to tell at the beginning. I also set up my next appointments: my ultrasound for three weeks away on May 2nd, and then my next check-up the week after that. It was so exciting to think we were three weeks away from finding out the gender of our baby and three weeks away from being halfway through my pregnancy. I am trying so hard to enjoy this pregnancy, because it is most likely my last one, and I want to enjoy all the feelings and experiences "one last time," but life is so incredibly busy with working full time, and already having two kids, that I often forget about being pregnant until I look down and see my belly getting bigger.

The other event that made our week crazy was my interest in an adorable little mini-Australian shepherd that the breeder on Drummond Island had available. I was originally interested in a different puppy, but she decided that puppy would do better on a farm because he was kind of big and rough. However, this other female puppy became available because the lady that was going to purchase her couldn't anymore. The breeder actually contacted me to see if I was still interested in a puppy, saying that this one would be a much better fit for our family with young kids. Ben still was pretty against the idea of getting a puppy right now. It certainly wouldn't make our life any less crazy, and he has never been as big of a fan of having an indoor pet as I am. However, I just felt like I couldn't pass up this opportunity. This little puppy was just too cute, Ben and I both like this breed of dog, and even though this isn't the best time, it will be much easier once Ben is done for the semester in a few weeks and he's home with Aedan most days. We both were interested in getting a puppy that could grow up with the kids so we didn't have the same problems of trust and aggression we had with Roscoe. So, I was communicating with the breeder throughout the week, and I actually made plans to meet another mini-Austrailian shepherd that a teacher at my school has had for about eight months. I wanted the chance to see a dog more up close, to make sure I wasn't allergic, and also for the kids to see what it would be like to have a dog like that. We made plans to go over to their house on Wednesday night after dinner, to meet their dog named Finn. None of the kids were in good moods that evening, but I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to meet this other dog and talk to the owners before going forward with out interest in this other puppy. Aedan was a little afraid of the dog, but I think it was mainly because he's not used to being around a dog that can have energy and still be nice. Samantha loved being able to play with the dog. She played fetch with him, petted him, and really enjoyed having a dog she could interact with. The dog didn't bother my allergies at all. I made sure to pet him a lot and touch my face and eyes to be sure I would have no reaction. So, after this meeting, we decided to go forward with our plans to get the puppy.

I took the day off on Thursday so that I could run some errands and then go pick up our new puppy from the breeder in Cedarville. I was a little uneasy about it, not knowing exactly what it would be like to have a puppy, and also knowing that it wasn't exactly the best time to be adding a puppy to our lives, but I was also excited to meet the little puppy and bring her home to our family. We met in a grocery store parking lot, I paid for her, signed the contract, got some more information from the breeder, and then we were on our way back home. She was a little uneasy about being in the car for half an hour, but after a little while she finally settled down and laid down on my lap to rest. Here are some pictures I took while in the car that afternoon of the newest addition to our family. Isn't she a cutie?

When I got home with Izzy, I showed her the toys I got for her at the store that morning, and she enjoyed chewing on them for awhile.

I think this is a really cute picture of her face up close. Now it's really hard to get pictures of her because she doesn't sit still very often. She was a little more mellow that first afternoon we brought her home after having a long day of traveling and coming to a new home.

Samantha was super excited to meet our new puppy when she got home from school, and we let Samantha help choose her name. She suggested Isabelle, Izzy for short. We thought it was a cute name and decided to go with it. Samantha couldn't wait to get outside and run around in the backyard with her. It was a really nice, sunny day, and it was so great to see the kids playing in the backyard again, this time with their new puppy. I think the kids are going to really enjoy having a puppy that they can play with and interact with, one that they don't have to be afraid of, and one that can grow up with them and not be wary of kids and strangers.

Just because our week wasn't crazy enough already, we also had Uncle Matthew, Aunt Christy, Brielle, and Oliver coming to visit for the weekend. They arrived after we had the kids in bed on Thursday night, and Ben went out to buy groceries while I hung out at the house with Izzy. She was fairly calm that night and just laid by me on the couch for awhile, being very aware if I got up or moved. It's funny having a dog that actually notices what is going on. Roscoe was so out of it for so many reasons, he was basically just a lump on a log at nighttime.

The other thing that made the weekend even busier was that Ben had a Model UN conference that he was working for, taking up all his time on Friday and Saturday, meaning I was left with all three kids and trying to be a good host for our guests. Our sleeping arrangements were different as well because Aedan was sleeping on a mattress on the floor in Samantha's room so that Brielle could sleep in Aedan's room. Then, Christy, Matthew, and Oliver were in the room connected to ours. We put up a blanket in the doorway, but it's not quite the same as having a door separating us. And we also had a new puppy, who we kept out in the playroom in her kennel so that we wouldn't disturb her and her whining wouldn't bother us as much during the night. She did pretty well that first night in our house, and I didn't really know what to expect. We got Roscoe when he was five, so he was already house trained and well past the puppy stage. The breeder said she would set her alarm for 3:00 in the morning to let all the puppies out and then put them back in their kennel for the night, so I decided to follow what she did and also take Izzy out around 3:00 a.m. to be sure she didn't have an accident in her kennel overnight. However, when I woke up during the night I realized that I was starting to not feel very well. My throat was hurting, my nose was running, and I was starting to cough. It was not the best time to be sick, that's for sure.

After letting Izzy out in the middle of the night, she whined for a little while when I put her back in her kennel, but not nearly as much as I thought she would, then she slept until 6ish, whining to get out again. Her whining was loud enough for us to hear in our room, but I don't think it bothered anyone too much.

On Friday morning Ben had to be out the door before 8:30, and the rest of us had breakfast together and hung out and relaxed with Uncle Matthew, Aunt Christy, Brielle, and Oliver. Here is the cozy place Izzy found to curl up and sleep that morning.

After awhile of playing in the house, we decided to walk across the street to play at the playground at the school for awhile and get some energy out. However, Samantha was acting super tired that morning and was being whiny. She was overreacting, falling down the stairs because she wasn't watching where she was going, and rubbing her eyes. However, it was a nice day outside though and the weather was nice and sunny. I ended up convincing Aedan to go down a couple slides where he could hold my hands going down, so that was a success, and it was nice being able to talk more in between having to help the kids on the playground.

After a quick lunch, we got all the kids down for a nap, for which I was grateful for. As the day went on, I felt worse and worse. I had caught a cough, and my throat was hurting pretty bad. It was hard for me to have the energy to deal with the kids and to try to have some life in me to visit with Christy and Matthew at nap time. I felt bad that I was getting so sick on a weekend they made the long trip up to visit us.

Samantha never naps for as long, so she was the first one up, giving her the opportunity to play with Oliver for awhile. She definitely loves babies and giving them lots of love and attention. She will love playing with our new baby come mid-September. :)

I was very glad when Ben got home that evening for the day so that I had someone else to help share in the load of taking care of the kids and house. It would have been much better if I wasn't feeling sick. However, things definitely change when you have kids anyways. Back in the day, even in the earlier days of us having kids, we would still want to play board games at night. But now, I feel like we are so tired after the kids go to bed, especially with me being pregnant now, that I have little to no mental or physical energy for any kind of games. But still, we enjoyed sitting around and talking to each other without kids to interrupt us or needs to go tend to. When you have kids around, you have a lot less time to just talk and hang out. It's definitely a different phase of life.

On Saturday morning, Ben had to go back to campus to work for the Model UN conference. I still was not feeling well, but I was trying to hang in there as much as I could. We had plans to go to an Easter event for foster families at a local church. I got permission for our guests to come with us, and I'm glad we decided to go. They had things really well organized and planned out, keeping the kids busy and occupied moving from one activity to another. We started out in a room just playing with puzzles, blocks, and trains. I was trying to keep my eye on everyone to make sure they were sharing and getting along okay. Here's Aedan standing up and trying to figure out how to do his puzzle.

The next activity was making Resurrection rolls so that they could bake them and have them ready for snack time. We also had craft time where the kids decorated little plastic flower pots and planted some flower seeds in dirt. Of course, since it was an Easter event, they had an Easter egg hunt, and I really liked how they did it. They had dozens of eggs hidden around the sanctuary of the church, and they gave each kid an egg carton to use to collect the eggs. They made it very clear before the hunt began that there was nothing in the eggs, but that each kid would receive a bag of candy on the way out that day. It was a little difficult trying to help all the kids at the same time. Samantha was fine doing it on her own, but I was trying to be around both boys to help them hold the egg carton and collect their eggs. Both Samantha and Aedan were totally fine with how they did the egg hunt, they understood and didn't put up a fuss, for which I was glad. They just enjoyed going around to collect as many eggs as they possibly could. Every time they filled up their egg carton, they were allowed to dump the eggs in laundry baskets in the back of the room before going around to collect more. Here are some pictures of them during the Easter egg hunt.

And here's Brielle collecting eggs as well. I think she was having a good time as well.

The whole morning was challenging in handling the kids while not feeling well myself, but the hardest time by far was the game time. We went downstairs to listen to the Easter story, which everyone did pretty well sitting and listening to, and then game time followed that. The color of your name tag determined what color team you were on, and all three of them were on different teams. Again, Samantha was fine playing the game by herself, so I didn't have to worry about her too much, but I knew the boys would need assistance in following the directions properly.  Samantha was doing a really nice job helping me with Aedan, and at that point their teams were combined so she was able to help him know what to do.

After game time, the Easter event was over, so we collected our plants and our candy and headed back home for lunch and nap time. I was pretty tired out from the morning, and I felt like I could have taken a nap myself as I felt progressively worse on Saturday afternoon.

Here is Samantha holding Izzy. She loved that Izzy was sleeping on her lap while she held her in her arms. Our family has already fallen in love with this cute little puppy.

After nap time, the rest of the afternoon was spent playing and hanging out. I was very anxious for Ben to get home because my ear started to hurt that afternoon, and I wanted to go to the walk-in clinic to get checked out since I was feeling so crummy. I had most of our Easter dinner ready and left him to take over. Unfortunately, the doctor said I just had a virus I would have to let pass, so I felt kind of silly for going, I just felt so incredibly crummy: ears hurt, throat hurt, coughing, slight fever, congested, runny nose, painful sinuses. I was ready to get back to my normal self. I don't have time to be sick. By the time I got back home Ben was already in the middle of getting all the kids bathed and in pajamas, which is more of a job now that we have three kids that we have to bathe/shower separately.

After bath time, the kids had a little time to play, and I got these really cute pictures of Samantha holding Oliver. He grew so much since the last time we saw him right after he was born. I wish I could have held him more as well, but I didn't want to pass my germs on to him, so I tried to stay away as much as possible. He certainly is a cute little guy!

On Sunday morning we decided to go to the 9:30 service so that Aunt Christy, Uncle Matthew, Brielle, and Oliver could come to church with us on Easter Sunday. Ben and I also had to teach during the next service, but this way they were able to go to church before hitting the road to drive back to the Chicago area. After the service we tried to get a picture of the cousins all together. However, the sanctuary had balloons hung up everywhere, making it very distracting for the kids. These pictures are the best ones I could get. :) It's very hard to get Aedan to look at a camera right now, but at least we remembered to get a picture!

We didn't want Brielle to feel left out, so we decided to get the kids' Easter baskets ready during nap time instead, after the Clemons family left to go back home. Ben got some good candy and a little toy for each kid. They were pretty excited when they woke up from their naps. (Samantha and Aedan needed good naps after waking each other up way too early in the morning since they were sharing a room that weekend.) They each got to open and play with their toy, and they also got to choose one egg and eat the candy.

Since Ben was working all day Friday and Saturday, and I wasn't feeling well, another Easter activity we hadn't gotten to was dying Easter eggs, so after dinner Ben and I worked on getting all the cups with dye ready and we called one kid at a time to decorate and dye their four hard-boiled eggs. However, the kids had a lot of fun, and they couldn't wait to eat their colored eggs the next day for breakfast.

On Monday I ended up staying home because I felt really lousy all night Sunday night. I kept sneezing and coughing and my nose was running like a faucet. I also woke up a lot during the night coughing, so I decided I wouldn't be very helpful or productive at school feel like that. Plus, I didn't want to spread my germs to all the kids. I hoped that a day at home to rest would help me feel at least better enough to get back into normal life the next day. I rested and napped on the couch, journaled for awhile, and just tried to not move or talk much. However, at the end of the day I did have to get up and pick the boys up. Even though it was a little chilly outside at a high of only 42, it was sunny, and I wanted the kids to get some time play time in before coming in the house. Here is Aedan riding his new big boy bike from Aunt Christy and Uncle Matthew. He was having a little trouble learning how to keep pedaling forward instead of pushing backwards and braking. I remember Samantha having a hard time with that too when she first transitioned out of a tricycle. However, he was doing a pretty amazing job considering he just got the bike two days beforehand. Once he gets the hang of this, he's really going to enjoy riding fast and keeping up with Sissy more. :)

(Blog about April 11-17, 2017)