Aedan Being Sick, Halloween, and Baby Owen Cuddles

Samantha: 77 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 42 Months, Week 1
Owen: 1 Month, Week 3 (7 Weeks)

Saturday, October 28 into Sunday, October 29 was a somewhat rough night with Aedan. As I mentioned in my last post, Ben took him to the walk-in clinic for a possible ear infection, and we got a prescription for antibiotics, but there were no pharmacies open until 10:00 a.m. on Sunday. We weren't sure what our night was going to look like. Aedan woke up twice during the night, once around 1:30 because he had to go potty and Ben gave him more medicine, and then again around 5:45 because he was hot and thirsty. In addition to the two times that Aedan woke up, Owen was up his normal two times a night to nurse, so Ben and I got up Sunday feeling very tired. We had already agreed that he would stay home with sick, feverish Aedan, while Samantha, Owen, and I went to church. Ben was able to get Aedan's antibiotic for him before we left for church, so we started him on his first dose and he just spent the rest of the day resting and hoping the medicine would make him feel better.

As I was looking through my pictures, I realized that I forgot to include these next two in my last post. The lady that did our family pictures, Misty Sibbald, sent us the full album of our edited pictures. Click here for the full album of pictures. She also posted these two on Facebook, which is what allows me to share them on this blog. Aren't they super cute? Here's Owen ready for Halloween as a little candy corn.

And here's one of my all time favorite pictures. She was almost all done with her photo session and Owen was just resting nicely in this little brown basket. Well, we looked over at him and noticed him smiling in his sleep, showing off his adorable little dimples! She was able to capture it in a picture, and I love it! I know I may be partial because I am his mother, but I think Owen is an adorable little baby. This is definitely one that I will want printed and hung. :)

Aedan was not interested in eating much for lunch, but he took a nice long nap that afternoon. Owen has started to give me little glimpses of his smile now, but it's so difficult to capture it in a picture, so here is my attempt at getting him to smile that afternoon. He will smile for funny things, like when I suck the boogers out of his nose with the bulb syringe or when he's staring at something or when he smiles in his sleep. You can also see the crusty eyebrows and red bumps that Owen developed on his face, just part of being a baby and having his skin adjust. I put some lotion on his eyebrows and that helped soften up the crusty stuff, but I know that it's just something that happens and will go away with time.

Since it was close to Halloween, we decided we would attempt to carve pumpkins. While Ben was working on dinner, we had the kids draw what they wanted their faces to look like, with plans to cut them out after dinner. Aedan stayed in his Buzz Lightyear pajamas all day, and even though he had a nice, long nap, he still was not actin like himself after he woke up. He was still very lethargic and just wanted to lay around. He kept saying he felt cold, and he had very little energy. We felt so bad for the little man.

Here is what Owen was doing while his big siblings drew faces on their pumpkins. He was happily hanging out in the blue chair after getting his tummy filled.

And Izzy had to be in the kitchen as part of the family, too, even if she was tired and wanted to take a nap.

Ben found a recipe for crispy tilapia fingers with lemon-garlic dipping sauce  and that we wanted to try out. We are attempting to eat more fish because it's something that Ben and I don't every think about since we aren't huge fish people. But we don't want our kids to grow up with an aversion to fish because we never served it to them, so we are trying to find some good recipes to try eating it in different ways. It sounded very good, and Ben did a wonderful job of making dinner that night, making roasted potatoes to go with it. He worked on dinner for almost an hour that night, and I was excited to try it.

The food tasted delicious, but Aedan was still acting like he didn't feel well. We often have a hard time getting him to eat his food and to try new things, so we often have to coerce him into trying something or taking a few bites of something before saying he was done. Since we thought he just had an ear infection, we knew that would not really impact his ability to eat food, especially since he didn't have much for lunch and we let that slide. Well, Aedan took three bites of his dinner and started making coughing and gagging noises. Then, he threw up all over his lap at the table. I quickly scooped him up and brought him to the bathroom, putting him in the bathtub so I could deal with getting his dirty clothes off of him, while Ben worked on cleaning stuff up in the kitchen and taking the dirty tablecloth off the table. Needless to say, no one had much of an appetite to each more of their food after seeing Aedan throw it up, which made me feel bad for Ben because he had worked so hard on it.

We decided to just have Aedan take a bath and relax in some warm water for awhile. We didn't know why he got sick that night, We thought it might be a reaction to not wanting to eat the food, like he didn't want to eat it, and it just made him gag, which made him throw up. After he got out of the bath tub, we tired to carve pumpkins with the kids, but Aedan was just sitting there shivering, looking miserable, so we decided there was no point in keeping him up any longer. We gave him another dose of antibiotics before going into the bathroom to get him ready for bed, and as soon as he got in the bathroom he got sick again, all over the floor and then finishing in the bath tub because that's what he could get to quicker than the toilet. We didn't know what to do because now he had thrown up all the medicine we had just given him. Poor little Aedan was still hot and had a fever, but we didn't want to risk giving him more medicine that would upset his stomach. I talked to a few of my nurse friends, and they encouraged me to not give him anything, but to see how he does over night and then start in the morning with water and see how he did with that.

Samantha is very empathetic when people are sick, especially her little brother, so while we were dealing with Aedan and cleaning up after him, she was busily making a card for him in her room. She hated seeing him so sick.

After getting Samantha and Aedan tucked into bed that night, Ben and I just felt exhausted after a long night of interrupted sleep and then dealing with a sick kid all day. After nursing Owen he fell asleep on me and didn't want to be put down. I was too tired to do anything else anyways, so I decided to just sit on the couch with him asleep on my shoulder, enjoying his precious baby snuggles and listening to the soothing sounds of him fast asleep.

Ben and I were on high alert on Sunday night because we had no idea if Aedan was going to get sick to his stomach again or not. We had a trash can next to his bed, but there was no guarantee that he would be able to make it into the trash can if he woke up sick to his stomach. It was another rough night with Aedan waking up several times, but not because he was sick, but because he couldn't find Happy Bear. Ben went up to his room once and I went up again. Both times Happy Bear was right next to him on his bed, but he couldn't find it for some reason. Luckily, Aedan never got sick to his stomach again, and his fever went away throughout the night even though we weren't giving him any more medicine. We hoped that he was finally getting better, and we were so glad we didn't have to clean up vomit during the night.

Samantha is an incredible reader. She is probably close a third grade level, and she knows so many words. She will pick up a chapter book and just sit on the couch and read to herself. Sometimes I have to remind myself that she is only in first grade. When I taught there were some third graders that couldn't read books like that without following along with their finger or reading out loud. The one area her teacher has said she needs some work is comprehension, so we are working on Samantha retelling us the story and answering questions about books as we read them together or she reads them to us. Ben came up with the idea of reading "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" out loud to Samantha. He checked it out from LSSU's library, and we have been reading a chapter out loud to her whenever we have a chance. It was cute listening to Samantha's reaction when Edmund was betraying his siblings and watching as she figured out who the White Witch and Aslan symbolize. There are, of course, words and aspects of the book she probably doesn't quite understand, but she is understanding the broad idea of the book and the rich symbolism that C.S. Lewis wove into the book. We will definitely have to keep this up with Samantha. It's fun to read out loud to her a book that she won't be able to read on her own for quite some time.

Izzy was tired that morning as well. As I sat nursing Owen, Izzy was passed out on the couch. This is how she sleeps when she is really comfortable, on her back with her feet up in the air, and her head bent to the side. It doesn't look that comfortable, but she must think it is.

On Monday morning we let Aedan sleep in as long as little body needed. He ended up waking up a little after 8:30, and we started by just giving him some water to drink. He was drinking fine and was really wanting something to eat. I took that as a good sign because on Sunday he had no appetite and didn't want food of any kind. After seeing that the water was staying down, we started with a piece of toast with just a tiny bit of jelly smeared on top of it. Aedan devoured that piece of toast and begged for more. He didn't understand why he had to wait to eat more food, so I explained to him that we needed to see how this food would sit in his stomach before eating too much. I set the timer for fifteen minutes, and Aedan couldn't wait for that timer to go off so he could have another piece of toast.

I called the doctor's office that morning to make him an appointment so he could be checked and we could see what to do about taking the antibiotics, but after talking with Ben, we decided to cancel the appointment and not take any more antibiotics. Since the person he saw at the walk-in clinic didn't really see in his ear very well, we began to wonder if he actually had an ear infection at all in the first place. His fever was gone, he was acting much more normal, and the only appointment they had was right during his nap time. We decided it was more important for Aedan to have a good nap than it was to drag him to the doctor.

Since I wasn't able to give Owen a bath the night before, and he had spit up all over himself that morning, I decided to give him a quick bath before lunch that day. Here is our big boy in his baby bath tub. You can see that he is almost too big for the mesh insert that goes inside it. His head doesn't fit inside it anymore. Owen loves baths and will sit happily in the warm water, looking around, and looking at himself in the mirror.

Since Aedan was sick, we just had a slow morning relaxing and playing at home. However, it was a difficult day for me personally. I felt very lonely and isolated, maybe because of too many days at home with sick kids, and also because I had no time to myself that day, plus I was tired from having two rough nights being woken up by both Aedan and Owen. Plus, that day Owen didn't want to be put down. I tried wrapping him up and putting him in his crib to nap that afternoon, but he only slept about an hour. Then, he fell asleep in my arms after nursing, and I tried to put him in the swing, but he just woke up right away. Lately, it has not been working as well to have him nap in the swing, but then at the same time, it doesn't seem like he naps for as long in his crib. It was just one of those days that he didn't want to be put down, but he was perfectly happy sleeping in my arms for as long as I'd let him. Here we are that afternoon, snuggled up together on the couch. He is cute, and I just have to remind myself that these days won't last forever. Sometimes the things on my to-do list just have to be pushed off to another day.

Every day Izzy gets so excited when Samantha gets home from school. There are two buses that go down our street about fifteen minutes before Samantha's comes, so she knows when it is about time. Izzy will eagerly sit in the window watching for her bus to pull up at the end of our driveway. Then, she will run to the door and eagerly jump and wag her tail as Samantha comes in the house. I have been meaning to capture this on video some day, and since I was just sitting on the couch holding Owen that afternoon, I was able to video it. Samantha is just as excited to see Izzy waiting at the door to greet her when she gets off the bus. It's definitely a sweet tradition between a girl and her puppy.

On Monday night Samantha's school had a family Halloween party that we had planned to go to before Aedan got sick. We debated whether or not to let him go, but he hadn't had a fever since the night before, he hadn't been sick again, and he was acting like himself again. (I told Ben I knew he was feeling better when he started bothering Izzy again.) So we decided to try and go to the Halloween party together. Aedan was super excited about wearing his Spider-Man costume again, and Samantha decided to dress up as Rapunzel. They had pizza and sides for dinner, which Aedan ate just fine, then they had some crafts set up in the small gym, as well as trick or treating in the big gym. Owen slept soundly in his car seat in the stroller the whole time, and we had a fun night out together as a family at Samantha's school.

We got back home in enough time to work on the kids' jack-o-lanterns again. Ben and I had cleaned them out the night before, but we figured the kids would like to watch/help us cut the faces of their pumpkins out. I also got some little tea light candles to put inside their pumpkins so they could see what they looked like. They, of course, wanted to see what they looked like with the lights off. Here are their finished products, done with a little help from Mommy and Daddy.

Tuesday, October 31 was one of those crazy days that I would be okay with never repeating again. It was really one of the worst days I've had in a long time. I was extremely tired as an after effect of Aedan being sick Sunday night and waking us up multiple times. I even slept with my contacts in Monday night and didn't notice until Tuesday morning when I went to put my contacts in in the morning. Plus, it was a Tuesday when Ben had his 7:00 meeting, meaning I had to get the kids ready in the morning and take Samantha to school without Ben's help. Since Aedan was still recovering, I didn't want to wake him up because I figured he could just eat breakfast when we got back home, so I let him sleep in until about 7:45. At that point I was also nursing Owen, so I had to rely on Samantha to help get Aedan ready. She went in his room to get him up, took him to the bathroom, and tried to help him get dressed. However, I was relying on her too much, and it was too much of an expectation to put on her. He was not cooperating well for her, and it was taking forever. I felt frustrated and frazzled, and when that happens I often get upset and short with the kids, which is what happened that morning. I tried my best to get everyone ready, but there's only so much I can do when I am stuck on the couch nursing Owen and I can't stop him to help Samantha and Aedan get ready because then he would just cry and be upset. Samantha was late for school that day, and I felt terrible. So that's how the morning started out on this terrible day.

To top it off, it started snowing that morning. Snow on Halloween? It just did  not feel right.

Samantha had a half day at school that day, and they even got to wear their costumes to school, which she was super excited about. At 8:30 they had a costume parade that parents were invited to. I wasn't sure about staying, but I wanted to be there for events like this for Samantha, and I knew it would only be a few minutes before the first graders would parade through the gym, and then we could be on our way back home. Here is Samantha parading around the gym with her class. She is almost too busy and too excited to stop and say hello to us! It's fun seeing her with her class at school I feel like I'm not as in tune with her school experience this year since the last semester last year I was teaching at her school every day. She loves going to school, and I'm glad that she is having a good year so far.

After getting back home with Aedan and Owen, I got Aedan his breakfast since he didn't have a chance to eat before we left to take Samantha to school. Our job for the morning was to go grocery shopping since we normally go on Mondays but didn't go the day before since Aedan was still recovering from being sick. I nursed Owen again and got everything we needed ready to go shopping. Shopping usually goes pretty well. Owen slept soundly in the Ergo, and Aedan sat in the little seat in the cart, not even wanting to get out and walk around at all, which is unlike him. He was still tired and even laid his head down on his coat in the seat next to him at one point. He didn't have his energy back from being sick. It had already been a long, tiring morning, and then to make things more complicated, when I checked out, my WIC card was not working for some reason. I tried running it several times, and it never went through. I had trouble with it the last few weeks, but it would always eventually work. There was a long line of people waiting behind me, and I knew I only had so long with Owen being happy, so I just had to pay for all the groceries and figure out what to do about that problem later.

Since we stayed for Samantha's parade at school and went shopping later, it was difficult getting home and trying to put all the groceries away and have lunch before my six week check-up with Dr. Amo at 1:00. Ben came home to be with Samantha and Aedan while I went to my appointment. However, Owen needed to eat right before I left, so I ended up being late to my appointment. Apparently they have a rule that if you are more than ten minutes late you have to just wait until the doctor has time for you or come back another time. I didn't want to come back again, especially since Ben had already come home from work to help me out, so I decided to just wait. Luckily, I didn't have to wait for too long, but then I felt silly because it was kind of a waste of an appointment. I thought I was going to get my IUD put in, but it ended up just being a quick check-up. They have to check with my insurance and then get back to me about scheduling an appointment before I can get an IUD. I just assumed that it would be like my experience in Bloomington where I was able to get it at my six week appointment. So, now I have to find time to come back again, which will probably mean that Ben will have to come home again another afternoon.

After a busy and hectic morning, the afternoon was tiring with Aedan not napping, Samantha being home from school for a half day, and Owen not settling down to sleep and waking up every time I put him down. I finally just let Aedan get up since he wasn't napping anyways, but the kids were not listening and got a sticky toy stuck on the ceiling, leaving a greasy mark across both of their white ceilings. I was tired, the day was frustrating, and I again lost my cool and did a lot of yelling. I tried to take Owen downstairs to rock him to sleep in his room and lay him down, while Samantha and Aedan were sent to their rooms to play by themselves. I was feeling so tired and frustrated that I just sat and cried while rocking Owen. He didn't fall asleep, and I tried to just lay him down in his crib, but he just cried. After talking with Samantha and Aedan about their behavior and apologizing for yelling at them in anger, I went back down to get Owen. I wanted to try to have dinner ready shortly after Ben got home at 5:00 so that the kids could go trick or treating after dinner, but that would be impossible to do if I couldn't put Owen down. So I tried putting him down in the blue chair in the kitchen so I could get Izzy from outside and start working on dinner, and he finally fell asleep.

Then, to make matters even worse, I dropped my phone, it hit right on the edge of the front where the screen protector ends, sending thin cracks out from that spot in several directions. I was so frustrated by myself and the day that kept getting worse and worse. I felt like a failure all around, and while Samantha and Aedan played downstairs, and Owen slept in the blue chair, I put my head down on the counter and just sobbed. I was still sniffling some as I attempted to start on dinner and Ben walked in the door from work.

Ben tried to take over and make me sit down and relax, but I was stubborn and tried to keep helping him. The weather was cold, and it was still snowing off and on. Owen needed to eat again right during dinner, so Ben and the kids just ate a quick dinner and went out trick or treating without me. He planned to just take them around the block, and Owen nursed most of the time they were gone. I was sad that I was missing out on being with Samantha and Aedan. It's so hard having a newborn sometimes. So much depends on them and their cycles, and especially with this cold weather, it would be silly to drag Owen outside unless totally necessary. However, the kids had a great time visiting a few houses around our neighborhood, loading up their plastic pumpkins with candy, and then handing out candy to people that came by our house. Here are some pictures and videos of the snow on Halloween (even though it didn't stick)...

...and trick or treating in the U.P., which means wearing winter coats, hats, and gloves over your costume.

For how terrible Tuesday was, Wednesday was much better. I was up and ready by 7:00 and Owen slept in, giving me time to enjoy breakfast with Ben, Samantha, and Aedan. We have been talking some about our upcoming trip for Thanksgiving, and the kids are really excited about it. Aedan doesn't have much of a concept of time, so that morning he was already picking out toys to pack and have ready for our Thanksgiving trip in three weeks. It was cute, so we made sure to let Ben's parents know how excited we all were to get together.

I took the boys to the library for story time, and it was such a fun morning there. I was able to talk to another mom that I've seen there every week and also at MOPS. Owen was asleep in his car seat during story time, so I was able to sit next to Aedan and cuddle with him while listening to the story. I definitely miss cuddling with him because I so often have Owen on my lap. I was also able to sit and help him make his craft, and it was so nice to be able to devote this attention to him. I miss having one-on-one time with him, and I know it will get better, that Owen will start taking more regular naps, giving me more consistent time to spend with just Aedan, but right now it's hard, and I sometimes feel sad not being able to give Aedan the attention he wants. I played with Aedan at the train table for awhile, too, before Owen began stirring and wanted to nurse. However, even while Owen ate, I was able to pull a chair up next to the table and watch him play. He was being really creative with the ambulance, police car, fire truck, and people, and it was fun to watch him play.

That afternoon Aedan went right to sleep and had a good nap. He was tired, and I was glad for a more peaceful afternoon. Owen did better that afternoon, it's just trickier to get him to nap now. He took a good nap in the morning, then a little nap when we left the library and through lunch. I got Aedan down and Owen ate for a long time and then fell asleep with me, but then he had a dirty diaper, so I decided I would try to change him, wrap him up, and put him down in his crib so that he wasn't upstairs when Aedan got up and Samantha got home. I rocked him for awhile and kept thinking he was almost asleep but then his eyes would pop back open again. I laid him down and patted his chest for awhile and his eyes kept almost closing, so I decided to just leave the room and see what happened. It was quiet and I hoped that he had fallen asleep.

Here's Aedan cuddling with Owen before nap time that afternoon. He wanted him to lay on his pillow next to him, and he was so cute putting his hand on his tummy. Owen is just laying there staring at his big brother.

Here are some pictures of Owen playing on his floor gym that afternoon.

Look! I almost captured a picture of him smiling!

When Samantha got home from school, she wanted to hold Owen. She likes to hold him upright like this now, now that he is bigger and can hold his head up better with a little bit of support behind it. He looks so big sitting in her lap like this. Babies grow so fast. You don't notice it every day, but when you look back at how much change happens each week; it's amazing.

Samantha even got to hold him for most of the show that she and Aedan watched together. It was so adorable watching her hold him so securely in her arms. They take such good care of Owen already.

The rest of the night went well with enjoying our crock pot meal for dinner before going to AWANA and Bible Study. When I picked up Aedan at the end of AWANA, he was sitting on his teacher's lap because he didn't want to play the game. He loves his teacher and loves going to AWANA. Samantha got to use some of her Shares to buy things at the AWANA store, and she was so sweet to think of Aedan, buying him a little monster truck, along with the clothes for Kit for herself. She made her brother's day by thinking of him and getting him something she knew he would enjoy. She even gave some of her Shares to another girl who didn't have any. Samantha is so sweet how she thinks of others like this. This is the Samantha we know and love. This is who she really is.

Thursday morning there was a MOPS play date at McDonald's, and I thought Aedan would have fun climbing around and playing for awhile. I wasn't able to take a shower early that morning, so I let Aedan watch a show while Owen napped in the swing and I took a shower, which he doesn't mind. There were only two other moms there with their kids that were younger than Aedan, but I'm glad I went. It's much easier for me to get to know people in a smaller setting like this, and Aedan was able to fill a new role as the older kid, helping a younger girl up and down the steps of the play place when her legs couldn't quite reach. It was cute to see him being helpful. He even said, "I feel like such a grown up now that I am a big brother and can help people. While we were at McDonald's, Aedan started complaining about being hungry. I told him that they weren't serving lunch yet, meaning he wouldn't get a Happy Meal. I showed him his choices, and he seemed to understand that he wouldn't get a Happy Meal, and wanted pancakes anyways. However, when our food came, he was very disappointed that he didn't get a Happy Meal, mainly because that meant that he didn't get a toy. He cried pretty hard for awhile, and I tried to reassure him and told him that next time we will be sure to wait for lunch time so he could order a Happy Meal and get a toy.

Even though we ate some food at McDonald's, by the time we got home for lunch, Aedan was starting to lose it. It's difficult to get him to eat when he's tired and just needs to nap. I have been trying to get him down earlier, by like 12:45-1:00, so that way he can sleep for as long as he wants, but also isn't sleeping until 5:00 or making it so we have to wake him up. He has gone back to taking longer naps again, and sometimes will sleep 2-3 hours in the afternoon. Luckily, that afternoon he went right to sleep and took a nice, long nap. I was even able to get Owen to nap in his crib downstairs, giving me about an hour to get the wood floors clean and get the kids' laundry going. Then, he woke up hungry and nursed for over forty-five minutes. However, I felt good about accomplishing at least something around the house while he slept.

Thursday evenings we spend just hanging out together as a family. As I started making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, I carried Owen around with his head on my shoulder, and he fell asleep as I carried him around the house. He is so easy to get to fall asleep like this! It is definitely his favorite sleeping position. When Daddy got home, he took over holding Owen and he continued to sleep like that for quite awhile. We didn't want to risk putting him down and having him wake up, especially when we were able to continue holding him.

Ben had to leave again that evening for a discussion panel at school, so Ben gave the kids a bath while I fed Owen again. Owen doesn't spit up too much, but as he was laying on the floor gym that night he spit up and it got all over his cheek and the back of his head. I had Samantha and Aedan help me give him a bath and then they played in the basement while I got Owen ready for bed, too. It was a little hectic getting everyone to bed, and as we did our nighttime routine, Samantha started to not listen and wasn't letting me brush her teeth. She started crying and throwing a little temper tantrum, hitting her fist against her head several times. I didn't get mad at her, but I asked her where she'd seen that behavior. It concerned me that she was hitting herself in the head. She said there are a couple boys at school that do that when they get mad or frustrated. I told her that I didn't want to see her do that again. I calmly reminded her that our child is Samantha, not those other boys. We want Samantha, not someone else. We want her to act like herself. She did better after that, and hopefully it was a good reminder for her on what behavior we expect from her.

I read the kids books, tucked them into bed, and then could tell that Owen was feeling tired, too, so I decided to take him downstairs and nurse him and put him to bed in his bassinet so that way when Ben got home, he and I could actually have some much needed time together without kids. It was so nice and felt like old times again, I definitely needed an evening back to myself again.

A couple nights ago I tried to dream nurse Owen as a way to get some more solid hours of sleep; however, he still woke up at his normal times of 2ish and 5ish. It seemed like he might be going through a little bit of a growth spurt or something because he was eating more often, like every two hours during the day and every three hours at night. On Wednesday night he nursed a lot during Bible study and then fell asleep in his car seat for the rest of the night. I woke him up so I could get him ready for bed and nurse him again. Then, he slept until about 3:00 and then until about 7:00. So on Thursday night when I put him to bed I debated whether or not to dream nurse him again since he was basically asleep by 8:15, but I decided not to and to see how long he would sleep. He slept until 1:30, so a little earlier than he normally wakes up, he nursed for almost an hour, and then slept again until 7:00. He really is doing well for me at night. We have a pretty good routine established considering he is only 6 1/2 weeks old.

On Friday morning we invited Kristen, Owen, and Bryce over for a play date. However, Aedan was tired and grumpy that morning. I don't know if it's because we just had too many mornings of doing things or not enough sleep, or what. The boys did pretty well playing together, but then when it was time for them to go, Aedan cried and refused to help clean up. I had to pull him aside and talk to him about his behavior, and even then he didn't really want to help. I think he was also acting this way because he didn't want them to leave. He enjoys having people over at our house and hates to see them go home.

The other exciting thing that morning was we were able to leave Izzy out while our friends were here. She still barked at them for quite awhile when they first arrived, and I had to put her outside for a little while to calm down, but then when she came back in, she was okay with them being here and acted like herself, sniffing them, following them around, and wanting everyone to play with her and pet her. We want her to get used to people coming into our house and hopefully getting to the point where she doesn't bark at them. We don't want to always have to lock her in her kennel because that isn't going to teach her how to behave. I was glad that our friends allowed us to experiment on them since they have a dog of their own and Izzy's behavior didn't bother them.

We had plans to go to the Laker hockey game that night, and Samantha had another half day of school, so all the kids napped that afternoon so we could feel comfortable staying out late that night. I put Owen in the swing before putting Aedan down for his nap, and he even continued napping for awhile. He stirred when I first came out of Aedan's room, but then he went back to sleep for awhile, which was great. Here he is sleeping away in the swing that afternoon. This was towards the end of his nap, as you can tell by him startling and then waking up and crying at the end of the video.

Here is Izzy looking out the front windows at the birds all over our yard. There were tons of them, and they were so loud! She was extremely interested and watched them until they all flew away.

Samantha always loves to hold Owen, so after she woke up from her nap that afternoon, she wanted to hold Owen for awhile. I am trying to take more pictures, especially of all three of the kids together. However, Aedan was not in the mood to be in the picture. He doesn't like to be forced to pose and smile for pictures. So I eventually got him to sit next to Samantha and Aedan, but it was tricky to get him to smile.

I fed Owen right before leaving for the hockey game that night, then strapped him into the Ergo so we could walk over to the game together. I was going to take him out of the Ergo after awhile, but I figured it would be easier to help with Samantha and Aedan, and to eat a snack after the first period, if I still had my hands free. Then, he just kept sleeping away, very comfortable and warm, snuggled up against my chest, so I decided to just leave him until he started stirring. Toward the end of the game, I unstrapped him from the Ergo, thinking that he would wake up and want to nurse, but he just fell right back to sleep again. He was so cute sleeping peacefully in my lap, so I took this adorable picture of him.

The kids love to get up and dance when they play music during breaks in play. Towards the end of the game, the kids were watching the game from the walkway down below our seats. They started dancing crazy, probably because it was well past their bed time, and I asked Ben to take a video of them dancing around. They are silly kids, and they have lots of fun together. It was a fun family night at the hockey game.

After being out late Friday night, we took it easy on Saturday. We hung around the house and just enjoyed being together at home. We got some things done around the house, of course, and we also went to Walmart to go shopping for the items to fill our Operation Christmas Child shoe box. Here are some pictures from our day. 

Samantha took this picture of Owen and me. :)

(Blog about October 29-November 4, 2017)