Aedan: 39 Months, Week 3
After getting back from our week in Toronto, Ben was beginning to get back into the swing of getting ready for the semester. He had two weeks until the beginning of the semester and quite a bit of work he wanted to get taken care of, especially in trying to be prepared ahead of time for missing some class when Owen is born.
On Tuesday the kids and I went to a playground down in Rudyard for a MOPS play date. There were quite a few moms and kids there, but I found it interesting to see that Samantha and Aedan generally just played with each other. The playground had a lot of fun features like a tractor and train to climb on, as well as a couple different playground structures. It was a nice, sunny, warm day, and the kids had a lot of fun playing outside.
Then, since we only have a few weeks left to enjoy summertime activities and to enjoy time together before school starts, we decided to go by campus and "kidnap" Daddy before going to Dairy Queen to get some ice cream. The kids like getting ice cream there, and we haven't done it in awhile. Plus, it was fun getting to see Daddy for a little while in the middle of the day.
This summer we have been working through the second half of the first grade math curriculum. Most days at the beginning Samantha was pretty amenable to sitting down and working on it, but now that it has become slightly more challenging for her, and with the summer slowly coming to and end, it has been a struggle getting her to sit down and do her math. The frustrating part is that she knows the math, but she just looks at it, makes it harder than it really is, gives up, and then makes it impossible to get it right. We tried doing it at different times of the day, but that hasn't seemed to matter much lately, for any time we tell her to work on her math, she puts up a fight about it. Samantha has been confusing to us lately, for she has been so resistant to us telling her anything to do, or any kind of small correction or redirection.
Later that evening it was a bath night, and I took this cute picture of the kids on the floor in Aedan's room. Samantha loves to read, and Aedan loves to listen to her read. They were perfectly content sitting on the floor and reading books together after bath time that night. For however much we have to prod her to continue on with her math (even though it is pretty easy for her still), we never have to tell her to read. She picks up books to read all the time, and she always has a willing audience with Aedan.
I was able to get Samantha in to the dentist in Petoskey for an earlier appointment than September 12th, so Ben was able to drive her down for her appointment. They left before 7:30 that morning so that they could get down to Petoskey in time for her 9:30 appointment. Samantha was a bit nervous about what it would feel like, but we did our best to encourage her and help her feel calm. Neither Ben nor I had ever had a procedure like this, so we didn't quite know what to expect either. They ended up doing a pulpotomy, getting the decayed part of her tooth out, and then fitting a stainless steel crown over her tooth. They also sealed two of the four adult molars that have come in. She has to go back again to do one more small filling on the other side of her mouth and finish sealing the last two adult molars. Even though Samantha did great and was very brave, I felt bad that she had to have this stainless steel crown covering her tooth until it finally falls out, which could be another six years even. I know things like this just happen, but it made me feel like a bad mom, like I didn't take care of her teeth like I should have. The dentist reassured us that some kids are just prone to having more cavities, even if they brush and floss like they should. So if Samantha has a mouth more prone to cavities, we will just have to be more on top of things to hopefully avoid any future issues like this, especially with permanent teeth. Here's a picture Daddy took of the Mackinac Bridge early that morning. It was a bit of foggy day, and we don't normally travel over the bridge so early in the morning.
While Samantha and Daddy went to Petoskey, Aedan and I stayed home and got things done around the house before walking to the library. It's less than a five minute drive to get there, so walking there is not far, we just have to go up and down a pretty large hill. I got Aedan in the stroller to push him there, and he just sat and ate his snack while we walked. I figured it would be good for me to walk some, too. I hoped that there would be story time, but there actually wasn't, which we didn't discover until we got there. Apparently they are done with story time for the summer. However, Aedan didn't really care because he still really enjoys playing at the library with the trains and the educational games on the tablet. He will even build things with the bin of Legos that they have there. Plus, I think he enjoyed having the library to himself and having my undivided attention. It certainly will be an adjustment when Samantha goes back to school and it is just Aedan and me together until little Owen decides to show up. However, it will be nice to spend more time with just Aedan as well, and to see how much Samantha enjoys school once getting back into it again.
Since Samantha was gone all morning, I had her do her math later that afternoon, at the beginning of Aedan's nap time. However, lately I have had more trouble getting Samantha to do her math without whining or complaining or making it take much longer than it should. As I've said some lately, she has been confusing lately and it's hard to understand what's going on in her head and what she's thinking. Sometimes when that happens, it's difficult for me not to take it personally and think I am doing everything wrong with her. Sometimes I feel like we aren't very close, and it makes me feel sad. She's always had more of a bond with Ben, and the kids are particularly sad that he's gone back to a more regular schedule so he's not around as much. But I feel like Samantha and I will be losing even more of a connection after Owen is born. I was having a rough day on Wednesday not feeling like I was failing her as her mom, and I remembered all the feelings I had after Aedan was born and feeling like I didn't have time to spend with Samantha anymore because newborns demand so much of your time. I tried to be positive with Samantha that afternoon when we began to work on math. I complimented her and helped her, sat with her, and it just didn't seem to do any good.
However, later that afternoon, after she had some quiet time in her room, Samantha came out requesting that I teach her how to sew. There were several things that had holes that needed repair, so I decided this would be a perfect time to teach her and to get another task checked off my to-do list. I showed her how to do it, getting the needle and thread ready for her, and she helped sew Izzy's squeaky stocking toy back together, as well as the back of one of her penguin stuffed animals. She really enjoyed doing it, and she didn't poke herself once. She started talking about wanting to make more complex things like blankets and clothes, but that's a whole different thing, and I don't really know how to do those things myself, especially not without a sewing machine. It was fun just sitting there on the couch with my little girl, doing some sewing together, watching her learn a new skill, and just being able to spend some time talking together. It definitely made up for the frustrating time we had earlier in the day.
Sometimes I feel like I am so busy doing things around the house that I actually don't just sit and spend time with the kids by playing with them or reading to them. Ben caught one of these times where I sat down to read a book to the kids. :)
With there only being a few weeks left of summer, we decided to go to another concert in the park together. It was a country singer, so not something that really interested the kids all that much, but it was a nice night to be outside, and the kids can't pass up an opportunity for popcorn. Ben and I took turns walking around with the kids in the park during the concert; however, Samantha was disappointed to learn that they aren't allowing kids to climb trees anymore because a kid fell out and broke their arm. Climbing trees was one of her favorite things about going to the locks park, but I was able to distract her by taking the kids to the visitor's center where they could play with the interactive locks exhibit, letting their wooden boats travel back and forth through the locks. Here's Daddy with his kids at the concert that night. I love the look on Aedan's face as he watches his sister. He loves her so much.
The forecast for Thursday was rain all morning, so since I knew we'd be stuck inside the house all day, I decided it might be fun to have some friends over to play. I asked Samantha who she would like to invite, and she mentioned Telisa's family, since we never had them over before. Her kids are a little younger, but they know them from playing with them at church. I don't know if the kids were just too tired from being out later at the concert the night before or what, but they were very whiny that morning and both of them cried multiple times over silly things. At one point I even had to send Samantha to her room for awhile to calm down and refocus her attitude with our friends. Samantha wasn't doing well with making good decisions and it seemed like she has been reverting in her behavior and how she responds to things. Unfortunately, with all the time they are spending together, Aedan has been copying this behavior as well, so they are both responding in a totally emotional way. I hoped that this play date would be fun for them, and I don't know if Samantha is just bored and ready to start school or what, but it was difficult trying to have friends over with the way they were acting. I don't usually admit this, but I felt embarrassed of the way they acted that morning, and I wished we could have had a better play date that morning.
Ben has been making different desserts every once in awhile for us to enjoy at home. Well, this week we bought the ingredients to make tiramisu. Someone was talking about it at the playground on Tuesday and that got me to thinking about how easy something like that would be to make. I can't claim anything to do with making these desserts, but here is how Ben's tiramisu turned out. It looked good, and it also tasted delicious.
When we got to August 17, it was a bit of a reality check for us, being that my due date is September 17, so we were now officially a month away. On Saturday with me being 36 weeks along, I decided we needed to check a few things off my list. One thing was switching Samantha's and Aedan's car seats, as well as installing the infant base and car seat for Owen. We went back and forth on what the best arrangement of car seats would be and decided on putting Owen behind the passenger's seat so it wouldn't hinder the leg room of the driver as much. Plus, when I'm driving around town I can potentially reach back to him easier from the driver's seat than if he were directly behind me. So because of where Owen will be, we switched Aedan to the other side of the car because we still have to reach in the back to buckle him into his car seat, meaning we have to move forward the bucket seat in the middle to reach him. It wouldn't work very well if we had to move Owen's seat every time. Since I was taking all the car seats out of the minivan, I decided to take advantage of my chance to vacuum the crumbs out of the seats, vacuum the floor mats, and even take off their car seat covers and wash them.
Then we decided to go over to the hospital to get a tour of the labor and delivery area. I called ahead of time, and they told us to just stop by anytime. A nurse gave us a tour of the floor, showing us the delivery and recovery rooms. We discovered that they even have a tub room with a really big, nice tub, and a comfortable rocking chair, so that will be a great room for me to labor in. They have gliders I can use as well as birthing balls that they can move into any room that we may be in. The only thing that was slightly disappointing was that they didn't have a bed for Ben to sleep in when we stay after Owen's birth. They have a pull out couch type thing, but that won't be quite as comfortable as the bed Ben had to sleep in after Aedan was born.
After my failed attempt at taking the kids over to campus to ride bikes earlier in the week and not being able to help Samantha take off well enough, Ben decided to take Samantha bike riding during nap time on Saturday. He sent me a message shortly after arriving saying that I must have just gotten her on a bad day. She was zooming around campus with no problem, only needing Ben to help her balance right when she first took off. She was biking all over campus with confidence, not falling down, and biking for minutes at a time. Just watch her in this video! We were so proud of her!
Sunday was a little bit of a warmer day, so I decided to bust something out that we haven't used all summer, the baby pool. I pulled it out into the driveway and started filling it with water while Aedan was napping, thinking it would be ready by the time he woke up. Samantha was excited to get into her bathing suit and get wet. Aedan got the water guns out, and they were having a grand old time getting wet outside that afternoon. Ben even joined in on the action because Aedan wasn't too keen about getting sprayed a lot by Samantha. (My body was feeling pretty tired and sore that afternoon, so I observed from the patio step.) When we lived in Oxford we used our pool quite a bit on hot summer days as a way to cool off, but it's difficult to think it's warm enough outside to get in the cold water from our hose. Nevertheless, the kids had a great time running around and getting wet that Sunday afternoon.
While the kids were outside playing with Ben, I made a new recipe that I found for deep dish pizza with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella. We used our homemade pizza dough, and I was anxious to taste it. It was not the same as the Chicago deep dish pizza that I love so much, but it was definitely an interesting recipe that you could change and adapt in different ways.
On Sunday night we decided to let the kids do something fun. We moved their mattresses down into our room so we could all have a sleepover together. Aedan slept on my side, and Samantha slept on Ben's side. We read to them, tucked them into bed, and let them lay in bed and talk to each other for awhile. They did pretty well sleeping in the room with us, and we didn't seem to bother them too much when we came to bed later. Aedan had a little trouble during the middle of the night because his blanket kept coming untucked from the bottom of his bed, and then he had to go potty, but none of that seemed to bother Samantha at all. She even did a pretty good job of trying to sleep in more the next day. Overall, it was a successful sleepover, and I think the kids enjoyed sleeping right next to Mommy and Daddy.
Monday was a big day for me as I had my 36 week appointment. I had an exam and was tested for Group B strep, a standard procedure during pregnancy. Every time I go to the doctor, she says I am measuring right on target. Our little boy is in position with his head down, but I didn't have much progress otherwise (I was a tight 1 cm and was about 25% effaced) which is pretty normal for being 36 weeks along. I also have only gained twenty pounds from the beginning of my pregnancy, which I was happy about. I'm not necessarily trying to gain less weight during this pregnancy than previous pregnancies, but I am pleased that I have been able to stay within the lower range of expected weight gain during pregnancy. It will be interesting to see if this little guy weighs less than his siblings did since they both weight 8 pounds, 14 ounces. I was pleased with how my appointment went, and now I will be going to the doctor every week until my little boy arrives. :)
August 21st was a big day all over the country as we would experience a solar eclipse. LSSU had telescopes set up and glasses for people to use to view the eclipse. I had thought about trying to take Samantha and Aedan to see the eclipse, but he was just too tired to keep up past his nap time. However, Ben came over to to get Samantha to bring her over to campus, and I got out of the house for just a few minutes as well so I could see the eclipse. It was pretty neat, definitely an event not to be missed. Aedan got up just in time to see the last few minutes, but he didn't really like wearing the special glasses and he was too nervous to look at the sun. Here are some pictures from the solar eclipse viewing on campus.
The other big event of the day was Izzy getting spayed. Ben and Samantha dropped her off early that morning, and the kids and I went to pick her up after Aedan woke up from his nap that afternoon. The surgery went really well, but Izzy was obviously sore from the incision and still a bit lethargic from the sedation. I talked with the kids about how important it would be to be gentle with Izzy and to try to encourage her not to jump and run around a lot. Izzy definitely did not act like herself that night, and you could tell it was difficult for her to find a comfortable way to lay. It's not normal for her to curl up on her bed and sleep during the day when the kids are around, but they enjoyed the extra cuddles with a calmer dog that evening. We knew that she would be back to normal in no time.
(Blog about August 15-21, 2017)
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