Aedan: 37 Months, Week 1
It was definitely nice having Memorial Day off from school this week. Going back on Tuesday didn't seem too bad because I knew I only had two weeks left of school. The end was near and the next two weeks had special events sprinkled throughout which I knew would help the days pass by quickly. On Tuesday, Ben returned some library books that were due, and Aedan decided he wanted to stay and play for awhile. He was enjoying himself there, especially since he hadn't been there for awhile. I will have to get the kids back there sometime to get them signed up for the summer reading program and to check out some new books since we now no longer have any books from the library.
Tuesday was a normal day of school, but on Wednesday we had a special bowling trip with our fourth grade reading buddies. However, in the morning there was just a lot of misbehavior. The kids and the schedule at school was crazy, and our own kids were pretty tired in the evening from fun, full days. However, with each passing day, I was more and more ready for a break, ready for summer to start.
Ben had a more low-key morning with the boys on Wednesday. They played at home. Ben took them to Meijer to pick up a couple things that we needed, and then he took them to lunch at McDonald's. They both ate their food really well and were then able to play for awhile together. Aedan napped really well the day before, but it took some work to get him calmed down enough to sleep that Wednesday afternoon. Every once in awhile he will refuse to nap, but not very often. He is a really good napper, which I am so grateful for. Samantha was terrible at napping consistently when she was three years old. Now if this wonderful napping can only continue on for awhile, especially once our new little boy arrives in mid-September.
Thursday was a normal day of school in the morning, followed by an exciting afternoon. All the kindergarten classes were going to ride the buses over to Project Playground to play and enjoy the beautiful, sunny afternoon playing outside with their friends. I found out that the lady I had lined up to watch Izzy for us while we are on vacation wasn't able to watch her any more, so I began frantically scrambling to find someone else to watch her for the two and half weeks while we are gone on vacation. I called a few places, posted on a couple Facebook groups that I am a part of, and hoped that something would turn up soon as we were only two weeks away from leaving to drive down to Upland.
Ben and Aedan had a fun day just hanging out and playing. They went to the bank, but Aedan just loves to play outside in our backyard. Izzy likes playing out in the back yard with Aedan just as much. Ben sent me a message saying how well Aedan and Izzy get along. Aedan loves her, and it is so nice being able to let them just play in the back yard together without much need to interject. Aedan has gotten so much more comfortable around dogs; it's amazing. Back just a few months ago he was afraid to go near a dog, and now he is perfectly fine with Izzy getting up in his face and licking him. She often will jump in his bed and try to steal his teddy bear which he calls Happy Bear now. Every once in awhile he will be in a grumpy mood or Izzy will be particularly jumpy, making Aedan cry and scream for Izzy to get down and leave him alone, but those instances are few and far between. I am glad that we got Izzy when we did. I think she will be a perfect dog for our family, and with her growing up with the kids, they will know each other well, and we won't have any issues with snappiness like we did with Roscoe.
This was a busy week with things wrapping up at school, but for some reason I didn't seem to take many pictures during the week. However, Ben did take some cute pictures of Aedan when they went out together on Friday. He wasn't sure exactly what he was going to do, but after doing the weekly grocery shopping, Ben decided to take Aedan out to the Point Iroquois Lighthouse. They were able to climb up inside the lighthouse this time, which Aedan found to be interesting. Look at that gorgeous view of the lake behind him! He makes some silly faces when we attempt to take pictures of him. :)
On Friday our special event of the day at school was the last drum dance social of the year called Jingtamook. This is a big deal at JKL Bahweting, and Samantha was really looking forward to it. The weather was perfect for it, allowing them to set up for it outside. They had special guests and an announcer, chairs set up in a circle with a couple large drums in the middle, and they even let the kids have snow cones as a special treat. Samantha sat by me for a lot of the time. For some reason she didn't seem to want to dance that day, but was just happy sitting next to me or even cuddling on my lap. Toward the end, she finally decided to don a scarf and dance around the circle for a little while, so I was able to get this little video of her dancing at the Jingtamook.
On Saturday and Sunday, there was a fun opportunity for us with there being a free weekend for many of the tourist locations around town. As long as you had identification showing that you lived in town, you were allowed to get free tickets for the Soo Locks Boat Tour, the Tower of History, the River of History Museum, and the Museum Ship Valley Camp. Many of these things we wanted to do regardless, but we weren't too keen on spending a lot of money to take the whole family to something we weren't sure they would find tremendously interesting. So once we discovered we could do these things for free, we were eager to take advantage of the opportunity.
Ben looked up the schedule for the boat tour and discovered that the first boat was scheduled to leave at 10:00, so we decided to get there a little before that time to get tickets and get in line for the the first boat. We got there in plenty of time, and we had beautiful weather. Do you see that beautiful blue sky? The boat tour was a lot of fun and lasted about two hours. It was a little difficult keeping the kids interested and involved the whole time, but we got to go on the upper and lower deck, watch a freighter pass us by, and watch the boat go up and down in the locks. We were amazed at how quickly we were raised and lowered as we went through the locks. The tour took us over to the steel plant across the river in Canada, and we were even able to come back through the Canadian locks. Ben and I found the tour very interesting, and we were really glad we took the chance to do it as a family.
The boat ride was over around noon, and we debated what to do next since it was lunch time and the boys needed to take naps that afternoon. However, we figured it would be quick and easy to visit the Tower of History. We got to get in for free and took the elevator ride up to the top. Again, this was a something we wanted to do, but we didn't really want to pay a lot of money just to ride up to the top. The kids thought it was pretty interesting because the tower stands out so much in town. It was pretty windy up at the top, and Samantha and Aedan were pretending like the wind was knocking them over. Here was the view from the top. It was pretty cool getting this perspective of our town.
Since the boys were getting tired, we decided against stopping for lunch somewhere. We just went home and had leftovers before getting the boys down for their naps. Luckily, we got them to nap, but they didn't sleep as well or as long as usual. We just let Samantha have quiet time in her room. Unless she is super tired, up really late, or feeling sick, it's better not to make her nap because then she has a harder time falling asleep at night.
After dinner that evening, we decided to head out to the Locks Park to walk around for awhile and let the kids run around the park, explore, play, and let Samantha climb trees. We made our way over to this stairway where the kids found tons of little caterpillars. The kids played with caterpillars for a long time, and I was so proud of Aedan for being willing to let the caterpillars crawl around on his hands. Normally he is pretty afraid of bugs, but since he saw Samantha playing with them and not being afraid, he decided they were pretty fun to play with himself. At one point Samantha had seven or eight crawling around on her hand. I love just watching the kids explore like this. After being cooped up and feeling like the winter was so long, I love finally being able to spend time outdoors. I love these pictures of the kids. They were so proud of their caterpillars. :)
Sunday was another day where you could take advantage of free things around town, so after going to church in the morning and having an early lunch and nap time, we decided to go to the Museum Ship Valley Camp before it closed at 5:00. It was an old freighter ship that they turned into a museum, and again, we got to visit it for free, so we figured even if we didn't spend much time there, we wouldn't be losing anything. It actually really surprised us with how neat it was. They had a lot of exhibits and information. There was a scavenger hunt with questions for the kids to find the answers to as you toured around the museum, so I asked Samantha if she would like to do that. I knew doing something like that would be fun for her, and it would help hold her attention and keep her interested in learning and discovering instead of racing through the museum. We walked all around the ship, both on the inside and on the top deck. We saw the engine room, as well as where all the crew and captain would live, work, and sleep. The kids found it all pretty interesting, and we ended up staying at the museum for close to two hours. I'm definitely glad we came to check it out. Samantha really finds learning new things exciting, and she really was interested to hear about the Edmund Fitzgerald that sank. I love her curiosity for the world. It's so fun now that she's getting to an age where we can really engage with her about things like this, and she will actually remember what she learns.
June 5 was the start of the last week of school. I was so ready for school to be over and was thrilled that it was finally almost the end, that it was almost summertime. That Monday I was the main teacher in the classroom because Ms. Cornwell was gone on a trip for her son's graduation. There was another sub coming in my place to help me out, which I was grateful for. It's nice to even just have an extra person to help with any problems that may arise. I wasn't particularly looking forward to being the one in charge for the day, especially since there weren't very well laid out plans, but I knew I could do it. I had trouble with one student right off the bat because he didn't take his medicine since the nurse ran out in her office. She had already notified the mom about needing more medicine, and she hadn't brought any in for him yet. However, he was being very disrespectful and disruptive to the rest of the class, so I had to take him down to the dean during writer's workshop. I sent a message to his mom, and she actually brought some in for him shortly after that, making our afternoon together much better. The day actually went pretty well, and I felt like they did work pretty quietly and were respectful to me. It helped to remember how much I like being in charge of my own classroom and how you can shape the behavior of the students through your presence, interaction, and expectation of the students. It has been a good experience being a paraprofessional for the last five and a half months, but when I decide to go back to work full time, I'm pretty sure I will want to enter back in as a classroom teacher in charge of my own classroom.
(Blog about May 30-June 5, 2017)
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