Aedan: 35 Months, Week 4
This week felt like another busy week as the semester was wrapping up for Ben, and he was busy finishing grading and writing finals. We also had a lot of appointments schedule, and I still was feeling pretty lousy. I was existing and doing what had to be done, nothing much more than that. With me being at work all day without a car and without any flexibility, I can't really help Ben do any of the errands or taking care of things with the kids. I know it has added a lot of extra stress on him, especially at this busy time of the semester. I kept wishing that I could help him out in some way so he wouldn't always feel like he was running around like a chicken with his head cut off.
Also, after just getting Izzy the previous Thursday and being home with her for most of the weekend, we wondered how she would do with her first day locked up in her kennel all day. Ben came home at lunch to let her out, and he said she was whining and crying pretty loud, but who knows if she was doing that before he came in, or if it was in response to hearing him come in the house. I'm sure it will be an adjustment for her to be in her kennel while we are at work, but luckily she only has to put up with that schedule for another few weeks before Ben is done for the semester and will be home with Aedan and able to let Izzy out more, then we will have summertime and I won't be working anymore. However, we can't complain too much because she's done a really good job of sleeping through the night. After the first night of setting my alarm for 3:00 and taking her out, I didn't do that anymore because I could hear her whining in our bedroom and figured if she needed to go potty, she would just start whining and I could get up then to take her out. But, I didn't want to condition her to getting up in the middle of the night to go potty if she didn't need to. After the first couple of nights, she didn't wake up in the middle of the night, doing a pretty good job of sleeping all the way through the night, until about 6:00ish before she started whining, so I was pleased with that. We had a puppy pad in her kennel, but she never went on it, and her bed was dry every morning. Once she gets older and settles down more, we will probably have her sleep in our bedroom with us like we did with Roscoe, or Samantha has even mentioned wanting Izzy to sleep with her, but she has some growing up to do before we can do that.
Wednesday, April 19th was Ben's last late class for the semester. He had class until 5:50 on Mondays and Wednesdays, which was much better than his late class last semester that went all evening and past the kids bedtime, but I am glad that next fall the latest he will have class is until 5:00. It will be nice to have him home earlier, especially with adding a newborn baby into the mix of our family after only a month of the semester.
I still was not feeling back to normal on Wednesday, but at least my head was feeling better and seemed like some of the congestion was coming loose so I didn't feel like my head was inflating like a balloon. However, it was really difficult being at school all day and talking with students was really making my throat hurt. I also woke up many times during the night to cough, so I'm sure I was waking Ben up a lot during the night as well.
Samantha looked forward to coming home every day after school so she could play with Izzy again. She loves this little puppy, and she loves to be able to pick her up, carry her around, and be affectionate with her. In fact, Samantha put on her play pants so she could go outside and run around with Izzy in the backyard. I love this picture of the two of them together, especially because in about 6 months, Izzy will be full grown, probably around 20 pounds, and will be a lot harder to carry around.
On Thursday I felt like I was finally turning a corner in feeling sick. On Wednesday night I finally slept through the night, not waking up during the night coughing and feeling like I couldn't breathe.
I have still been fairly torn about what to do with Samantha's schooling as far as keeping her in school or homeschooling. Most of me is leaning towards keeping her at Bahweting for 1st grade, but trying to request a certain teacher that I think would be good for her and challenge her. However, I wanted to visit the co-op group that meets twice a month, and have Samantha visit the co-op, to see what it was even like and what "other" option we have if we were to try out homeschooling. Their schedule was an hour of craft time, gym, and then art appreciation, but next year will be different and each year is different depending on what parents offer to teach classes. So, I decided to take half a day off of school and take Samantha out of school for half a day so we could visit the co-op together. Since Aedan was still at Miss Lisa's for the day, Ben also came to eat lunch with Samantha. He brought her Wendy's as a surprise, so she was really excited about that, and about eating lunch with her Daddy. It was nice for him to just give her one-on-one attention.
I have still been fairly torn about what to do with Samantha's schooling as far as keeping her in school or homeschooling. Most of me is leaning towards keeping her at Bahweting for 1st grade, but trying to request a certain teacher that I think would be good for her and challenge her. However, I wanted to visit the co-op group that meets twice a month, and have Samantha visit the co-op, to see what it was even like and what "other" option we have if we were to try out homeschooling. Their schedule was an hour of craft time, gym, and then art appreciation, but next year will be different and each year is different depending on what parents offer to teach classes. So, I decided to take half a day off of school and take Samantha out of school for half a day so we could visit the co-op together. Since Aedan was still at Miss Lisa's for the day, Ben also came to eat lunch with Samantha. He brought her Wendy's as a surprise, so she was really excited about that, and about eating lunch with her Daddy. It was nice for him to just give her one-on-one attention.
Our afternoon went pretty well at co-op. I didn't really know what to expect, and I left with mixed feelings. Surprisingly, most of the students were older, like upper elementary or middle school age. There were only one or two other kids Samantha's age. The first hour of craft time they made noise sculptures out of materials they brought or materials the teacher provided. Samantha had fun picking out a wire hanger, glittery string, and some nails to hang like a wind chime. However, the string was too tiny for her to tie on her own, so I had to help her quite a bit, but she had fun being creative, and she was proud of what she made. The next hour was probably the hardest because she was grouped with the "littles" for gym time, but most of those kids were very young, even earlier than preschool age. Samantha and I played soccer together and dribbled the basketball a little, but with no kids to play with and no organized activity, she got bored of gym time pretty quickly. Mrs. Cole was teaching a sign language class that we joined in on for a little while, but now in this class Samantha was too young, plus she wasn't there for all the other classes where they learned certain signs. So, after a while we made it back to the gym area and found another mom with a boy that was kindergarten age. I was able to ask her some questions about her experience with homeschooling, and she was nice enough to share a snack with Samantha. Then, it was art appreciation, and that class was probably Samantha's favorite. The teacher was really prepared and brought pictures for each child to look at and talk about. She then showed them one particular painting that they were going to recreate using glue and shaving cream combined to make clouds, plus paper cut into different shapes for mountains or even the silhouette of a person or object. Samantha very meticulously painted on her clouds and cut out lots of little mountains. She spent a long time on this project.
So overall, she enjoyed her time at co-op, but I think it would be hard if this was our only major socialization and "large" classroom experience each week. Not to mention the fact that the rest of the week we would just be at home together, and she would have Aedan and a little baby distracting her from her work. Sometimes I feel like she responds to and listens to other people better than me as well. School is not perfect, and there are so many things that I wish could be better, but homeschooling would not be perfect either. If I think back over this past year of Samantha's kindergarten experience, she has learned and grown so much, from a girl who was kind of resistant to reading out loud to us, to a girl who will ask Aedan if she can read them a book, who we will often find just sitting on the couch reading a book silently to herself, and who is almost reading at an end of first grade reading level. She is a smart girl and will succeed in any environment she is put in, especially if we are encouraging her and supporting her from home.
On Friday night Aedan had a really weird sleep. He woke up crying four times during the night, so Ben and I took turns going up to see what was wrong. Most of the time he had no answer, or it was because he just couldn't find his blankie and teddy that were right next to him. Needless to say, after that many interruptions in one night, Ben and I were tired on Saturday morning. We so wish that we would have kids that sleep in some on Saturdays, but kids don't really know how to do that sort of thing. They are up at their normal time, which unfortunately is between 6:15 and 6:45 on most days. Our kids are great, but sometimes I long for the days when we could sleep in until the National Anthem played for the baseball games next to our apartment at 8:56 and then have a relaxed morning of eating pancakes, finishing the movie we started the night before that I fell asleep during, or going swimming in our apartment's pool.
So overall, she enjoyed her time at co-op, but I think it would be hard if this was our only major socialization and "large" classroom experience each week. Not to mention the fact that the rest of the week we would just be at home together, and she would have Aedan and a little baby distracting her from her work. Sometimes I feel like she responds to and listens to other people better than me as well. School is not perfect, and there are so many things that I wish could be better, but homeschooling would not be perfect either. If I think back over this past year of Samantha's kindergarten experience, she has learned and grown so much, from a girl who was kind of resistant to reading out loud to us, to a girl who will ask Aedan if she can read them a book, who we will often find just sitting on the couch reading a book silently to herself, and who is almost reading at an end of first grade reading level. She is a smart girl and will succeed in any environment she is put in, especially if we are encouraging her and supporting her from home.
On Friday night Aedan had a really weird sleep. He woke up crying four times during the night, so Ben and I took turns going up to see what was wrong. Most of the time he had no answer, or it was because he just couldn't find his blankie and teddy that were right next to him. Needless to say, after that many interruptions in one night, Ben and I were tired on Saturday morning. We so wish that we would have kids that sleep in some on Saturdays, but kids don't really know how to do that sort of thing. They are up at their normal time, which unfortunately is between 6:15 and 6:45 on most days. Our kids are great, but sometimes I long for the days when we could sleep in until the National Anthem played for the baseball games next to our apartment at 8:56 and then have a relaxed morning of eating pancakes, finishing the movie we started the night before that I fell asleep during, or going swimming in our apartment's pool.
As I've said before, Izzy loves just hanging out outside. Saturday was a beautiful, sunny day, so she particularly enjoyed just laying out in the sun. I'm trying to take pictures of her because I know someday we won't remember when she was this small and still had her fluffy puppy hair.
Once Samantha woke up from her nap, we got ready to cross the border to see Beauty and the Beast. I'd thought about waiting to take her until it came to LSSU over the summer, but I knew she would love seeing it sooner, and it was a great excuse to take my little girl on a date. I hadn't done that in a long time. We got there in plenty of time, so we decided to stop in the mall and get some ice cream for a snack before heading into the movie. I knew that would be way cheaper than paying for movie theater snack food. We used the bathroom, and then took our picture together in front of the sign for the movie. I love that she leaned over and kissed my cheek. I love my little girl. She is such a sweetheart.
After the movie, Samantha and I went to Once Upon a Child to look for some new spring/summer clothes. She and I went through all the clothes in her closet that morning, and she was a really good sport at trying almost everything on so we could take out all the things that didn't fit her anymore. She needed new sleeveless shirts, shorts, and some t-shirts. She is already reaching the age where she really needs to try things on to be sure that they fit her. I wanted her to help me pick out things that she liked as well; however, she gravitated toward the dresses and just kept piling them into the cart. After we had a good assortment of items, we went to the changing room to try things on, which took quite awhile, but we found a lot of good things that looked good on her, so it was a successful trip. We still hadn't eaten dinner yet, but I wanted to make sure we got to the store before it closed, so we just made a quick stop at Wendy's for dinner and since it was connected to a Tim Horton's, we also picked up some donuts for everyone for breakfast the next morning. It was close to 9:00 by the time we got back home, later than I intended for us to stay out, but we had a fun day hanging out with just us girls.
I can't really say too much about Sunday for it was just a typical day. We went to both services so that Ben and I could still attend the service before teaching our elementary small groups during the second service. Then, it was time for lunch and getting the kids ready for nap time. We tried to get some work done during nap time that afternoon, but Izzy doesn't think that's such a good idea. Especially when the kids are sleeping, she craves even more attention from Ben and me. I know this is just a phase, and she is still a young puppy, but sometimes it's difficult when she won't just play by herself or chew on her toys, but is constantly seeking attention from us. However, she is a cutie, isn't she? You can't see her brown eyes very well in this picture, but I love how she's laying with her toys and has her ears perked up, and then cocks her head to the side, like she's trying to figure out what I'm doing. Izzy makes life more hectic, and sometimes it feels like we just have another kid around, but I really enjoy having such an affectionate, playful dog, and it will be fun to train her and have her grow up to be the dog we want her to be, a true companion to everyone in the house.
Monday was the start of a new week with more crazy life happening every day. It was finals week for Ben, and he had his first review session after putting the kids to bed on Monday night. He also randomly got sick to his stomach that afternoon, but it seemed to be a one time thing caused by a really bad headache. We also were preparing for Aedan's 3rd birthday on Saturday, and we hadn't ordered any presents for him yet, so I spent a long time browsing Amazon to find ideas of what he might like so they would arrive on time for his party on Saturday afternoon. It's hard to believe our little man is almost three. With how busy and overwhelming our lives have been to me lately, his birthday snuck up on me. Aedan was very excited about his birthday and especially about his Woody and Buzz cake. I found someone in Brimley to make one for him, and we decided on orange cake since he says it's his favorite color. We invited the Sayers and Miss Lisa and her family to Aedan's party on Saturday afternoon, and we were looking forward to having a fun time celebrating with friends.
(Blog about April 18-24, 2017)
(Blog about April 18-24, 2017)
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