Aedan: 42 Months, Week 2
Owen: 1 Month, Week 4 (8 Weeks)
It's kind of strange starting off blog posts on Sundays now because Sundays are usually our relaxing, low-key days. We go to church in the morning and then just spend the day relaxing, giving Aedan a nap, doing some things around the house, and letting Samantha and Aedan have lots of play time together. The only thing different about this Sunday was the fact that the time changed over night, falling back an hour, which to people without kids means you get an extra hour of sleep. Our kids didn't do too bad and didn't wake up super early, especially since they know they can't get out of their beds until 7:00 or when they bunny clock changes, but you could tell their bodies were kind of out of whack the rest of the day, feeling hungry earlier than usual and feeling like it should be bedtime when it was only dinnertime.
It's harder to remember to give Owen tummy time, so on Sunday afternoon I laid him down on the boppy pillow near his floor gym for awhile so he could look around and use his strong neck muscles. You can't tell in this picture, but he has on his cute blue onesie with a tie on the front. He was all dressed up for church.
On Sunday night we decided to go out to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. They have discounted kids' meals, and Ben was craving some wings. I hoped that Owen would fall asleep and stay asleep in his car seat while we were there, but he was wide awake, just looking around. As we ate dinner, Samantha started mentioning that she felt cold. It was not cold in the restaurant, but we didn't think anything of it until we got back home, took her temperature, and discovered that she had a fever. We told her she wasn't going to be able to go to school the next day and encouraged her to sleep in the next morning. She was feeling really worried that she was going to get sick like Aedan did the weekend before. It was very possible that she could have caught something from him, so we told her to let us know if she started feeling sick or if anything else started hurting during the night. She did come down to our room once during the night because she felt hot again, and when she got out of bed to go to the bathroom, she started shivering. Ben got up and got her some more medicine before tucking her back into bed.
Monday morning Samantha woke up a little after 8:30, and we were so glad she slept in. I took her temperature, and it was 101.4. She had red cheeks, still felt cold, but she was talking and acting fairly normal. She didn't feel sick to her stomach, and neither her ears nor her throat were hurting, so it seemed like she just had a fever with really no other symptoms. Aedan was glad that Samantha was home from school, but he didn't quite understand that she wasn't feeling well and wasn't in the mood to play with her like she normally does. I wanted Samantha to rest as much as possible so her fever could go down, so I decided to let them watch "Moana" together. They were pretty excited to be able to watch an entire movie. We don't do that very often. Izzy decided to join them on the couch, very cutely cuddling up with them, and sleeping on their laps. (Do you notice that Aedan is wearing his Spider-Man costume? He loves it and wants to wear it almost every day.)
That afternoon after nap time, once Samantha's medicine had completely worn off, I took her temperature, and it was still 102. I felt bad for her because I was so hoping her fever would go away so she could get back to school. I told her that she wasn't going to be able to go to school again since she had to be twenty-four hour fever free. She was disappointed, but she understood.
I put Owen downstairs for his afternoon nap, but he woke up crying. I went down to get him, figuring his nap was probably over, but he fell right back asleep on my shoulder. Samantha and Aedan were playing nicely in Aedan's room, so I decided to sit back in the black chair in the living room and let him continue his nap on my chest. He was so comfortable, and I didn't mind cuddling with him for awhile until Ben got home from campus.
Later that evening, while I was nursing Owen, Izzy curled up on the top of these pillows that the kids left on the couch. She's a cute puppy. We love her.
Normally Owen does pretty well sleeping at night, but on Monday night it took me awhile to get him down. He was just kind of unsettled, not sleeping for long when I put him down during the day. He sleeps longer stretches at night, but he was up every couple of hours that night, nursing a lot more often during the day and a night. We wondered if he was going through some kind of a growth spurt or if he was learning something new or developing in some way that required more frequent feedings.
Samantha stayed home from school again on Tuesday, but really was acting pretty much back to normal. Aedan and I had to do our weekly grocery shopping, and I didn't want to make Samantha come with us, so we dropped her off on campus so she could just sit in the back of Daddy's class while he taught that morning, coloring and playing on her LeapPad. Once again, Aedan was super excited to have Samantha back home again. He loved having someone to play with. He misses her a lot when she's at school. In fact, when I was putting him down for his nap that afternoon, he said that he didn't really want Samantha's fever to go away because he didn't want her to go back to school. It was cute. I told Samantha that he said that, and later heard her talking to him, saying to him that she heard that he said that, and that she knew he said it because he loved her and wanted her to be around to play with him. She reassured him that she loved him too.
As Tuesday went on, Samantha made a few comments about her throat hurting. I looked in her throat a few times, and it looked like there were some white spots in her throat, so I wondered if we should take her in to have her checked for strep, just to be sure. Ben lovingly agreed to come home that afternoon so he could take her to the walk-in clinic. The strep test came back negative, and I felt bad that I made Ben miss out on time to work to take her to the doctor for no reason. But, I was glad that she didn't have strep throat and that her fever hadn't gone back up all day, meaning she could go back to school on Wednesday.
The days were a bit more chaotic having all three kids at home all day, but I still had plenty of time to play with this little guy in the afternoon. I loved watching him bat at the toys on his floor gym, looking around at the toys hanging and up at me, having a great time playing and exploring his world.
On Tuesday night we kept Samantha home from small group just to be safe. Her fever was gone, and we planned on her going to school on Wednesday, but
she needed to get to bed at a decent time that night. Ben offered to stay home with Samantha so I could have some time around adults. so I took Aedan and Owen to small group by myself. It was a little difficult being there by myself though because I couldn't help Aedan eat very much while also holding Owen. Owen hasn't been staying asleep for very long. Even that day I tried the swing and that didn't work, leaving me feeling confused about where was best to put him down where he would actually stay asleep for longer than twenty or thirty minutes. I was super tired by the end of small group, and I remember feeling like it was all I could do to concentrate on driving on the dark country roads on our way home that night.
Wednesday was more of a normal day with Samantha back at school, and Aedan, Owen, and I fell back into our normal routine. We went to the library that morning, but Aedan was having a rough morning. He was tired and wasn't listening very well. He was trying to build a rocket with the TinkerToys, but it kept falling apart and he was getting frustrated. I was feeding Owen, so I couldn't help him right away, but as soon as he was done I got up to help him and he started freaking out and running away from me. In fact, he ran all the way out of the children's department and across the entire library, screaming part of the way, and not stopping until he reached the far corner of the library and couldn't go any further. I tried not to lose my cool with him, but very calmly walked him back to the children's department, talking to him about how I was disappointed that he did that and how we might need to stop coming to the library if he wasn't going to listen. Since he ran away from me, he lost his chance to play any longer and he also lost his chance to watch a show once we got back home, which he was very upset about. (He's been watching Rescue Bots whenever he gets the chance lately.) But I hoped that providing a consequence for his actions would help him think in the future and not run away from me and scream in the library.
Most of the reason Aedan was having a hard time that morning at the library was because he was tired, so I was glad the Aedan took a nice, long nap for me and didn't give me a hard time falling asleep. Owen also actually let me put him down in the swing after falling asleep on my shoulder, and he kept napping, so it was a much quieter afternoon than the two previous days.
Every once in awhile, Samantha's school has a drum dance social. Samantha enjoys dancing around as the drum plays, and her teacher captured a picture of it and posted it on ClassDojo.
Samantha went back to school on Wednesday since her fever was gone, but she came home with math in her folder to do. I told her to sit down and work on it, to get it done before AWANA that night. However, she was not wanting to work on her math, and she ran away from me and refused to do it, told me I was wrong, and talked back to me. She made something that should take her only twenty minutes drag out to almost an hour. Ben and I both tried to work with her and get her to concentrate and get it done, but she just wouldn't listen. We knew she was tired after a full day of school after being home sick for a couple days, but it still was frustrating. We threatened to keep her home from AWANA and finally decided to follow through, so she had to go with Ben to Bible Study at church and do work rather than go to AWANA and have fun with her friends. We hoped that following through and giving her a consequence for her actions and for not listening would encourage her to think in the future and realize we are serious when we tell her to do something.
Thursday was a busy day. Aedan had a follow-up appointment with the doctor for his bumps/rash on his leg and foot. The rash was starting to go away with the two prescription creams, even though the tests came back negative for it being fungal or a staph infection. While we were at the doctor, I had Aedan get a flu shot as well. However, he got really, really nervous about getting the shot. He refused to let us pull down his pants so that the nurse could get to his thigh. He started crying and reaching for me, clinging to my arm, and saying he didn't want to get the shot. However, the nurse already had the shot ready and had to give it to him. This whole time I was holding Owen because he got upset when we arrived at the doctor's office. It was difficult trying to get Aedan to cooperate with my hands full. As soon as the nurse got the alcohol swab out and rubbed his leg, he started crying. I was doing my best to hold his arms away from his legs, and the nurse quickly poked the needle into his thigh, and then it was over. I asked him, "See? It wasn't that bad, was it?" I think it had just been so long since he'd gotten a shot of any kind that he couldn't remember what it was like. But this certainly was a very nerve-wracking experience for him.
It's nice having ClassDojo so we can see a little glimpse into what Samantha does at school every day. On Thursday morning, Samantha got to go up in front of the class and show the pictures she drew to go along with her writing about green snakes. She split her picture box into three sections, inside the egg, partly coming out of the egg, and being all the way out of the egg. She even showed how she added labels to her pictures. Mrs. Gillett was very proud of how detailed her pictures were. I'm sure Samantha loved being able to show her writing to her class. She has been telling us all about green snakes lately and is learning a lot about them by doing this writing at school.
That morning it started snowing pretty hard and kept up for most of the afternoon. It was very pretty watching the snow fall, and even though it's a little too early for it to already be snowing for my taste, I figure if it's going to be cold, it might as well be snowing.
After dinner that night, we had a good evening just hanging out together. Aedan asked Samantha to read Peter Pan to her, and while I was sitting on the couch nursing Owen, I took this little video of Samantha reading. She loves to sit and read, it's good practice for her to read out loud, and Aedan loves to listen to her.
Once Ben was finished with the dinner dishes, the kids requested some wrestling time. They love to rough house with Daddy, and he usually happily obliges. Izzy also loves to get in on the action, wrestling right along with the kids.
Then, it was bath time, and Aedan wanted to take a bath with Owen, so I just set the baby bathtub inside the tub, and he had fun sharing his space with his little brother. He even shared some of his bath toys with him, and Owen loved laying there in the warm water, watching his brother play.
Here is Owen all clean, in his pajamas, snuggled up against me for a little pre-bedtime nap. I was attempting to help Samantha and Aedan get ready for bed while also holding Owen. Luckily, when he is asleep like this, nothing much bothers him. I asked Ben to take a picture of me holding him because he is so cute when he snuggles up into your shoulder like this.
And here are some close ups of my little Owen. You can see some of the cradle cap that has formed on the top of his head and around his eyebrows, as well as the little red bumps on his cheek.
Samantha had a half day that day, again so teachers could meet with parents. It was a bright, sunny day outside, and the kids really wanted to go out and enjoy the freshly fallen snow. It was so windy on Thursday as the snow was falling, that I didn't want them to go out and play in it, especially with both kids being sick recently. But on Friday it was perfect weather to play outside, and they had a blast running around in the back yard, making snow angels, climbing up on their play set, and zooming down the slippery slide. Here are some videos of Samantha and Aedan playing that afternoon.
I would have loved to go out and join them, but I was inside with Owen. He had fallen asleep in my arms again, and I laid him down in his blue chair to continue his nap while I cleaned up lunch dishes and watched the older kids play outside in the snow.
When Samantha and Aedan came back in from playing outside, they requested some hot chocolate to warm them up. I was happy to make it for them, put it in these sparkly mugs, add some frothy whipped cream, and let them drink it out of their Mickey Mouse straws. They were pretty happy with their special treat.
On Friday Izzy had an appointment to be groomed. She needed her nails trimmed and some of her hair shortened up and cut between the pads on her paws. She also had some mats behind her ears from scratching too much. The boys and I dropped her off in the morning, and Ben offered to go pick her up after she was done. Izzy did pretty well for the groomer, but she was a little afraid of the clipper sound so the groomer wasn't able to get the mats out from behind her ears. However, she said the more we bring her to be groomed, the more she will get used to it. Going to the groomer really tired her out, so she curled up on the back seat while Ben drove home.
Friday afternoon I attempted to go through and wash all the 3 month baby clothes. Owen was definitely getting too big for 0-3 month clothes, but I just hadn't had time to go through the bin of clothes from my sister, as well as my baby clothes from Aedan. It had seemed like a long week with Samantha being sick the first two days and then having two half days. My to-do list was too long for the amount of time I am actually able to accomplish anything, and it was making me so short with everyone lately. I felt like I hadn't been able to just sit and relax and have fun with Ben or the kids. Going from two to three kids is hard. Ben could sense my stress that night and offered to take Owen out to Meijer with him so I could have a break at home. Even though he was only gone for like forty-five minutes, it was a nice break to sit in a quiet house with no kids to worry about. Here is Owen sleeping in his car seat that night at the store with Daddy.
Aedan has enjoyed singing lately and is learning a lot of new songs from being in AWANA. In fact, on Friday night after putting him to bed, I could hear him laying in his bed singing "How Great Is Our God." It was too cute to go in there and tell him to be quiet. I was enjoying hearing his little voice sing a song of praise to God. He also woke up from his nap the other day singing the AWANA Cubbies song. He is really enjoying AWANA, and I am so glad he is learning so much while he is there. I will have to try to get a video of him singing some time.
Owen slept in a little bit on Saturday morning, and Samantha and Aedan were really excited to be able to go downstairs and say good morning to their little brother. I love this progression of pictures. He's wrapped up in his bassinet...
...he's starting to get a little upset and crying...
...then Samantha unwraps him so he can stretch out his arms and legs...
...and then he is happy, looking up at his big sister.
I think he's getting a little too big for his bassinet! He almost reaches the top and bottom when he is all stretched out.
We had no big plans on Saturday. The kids played outside in the snow again for awhile. Then Ben got some good cuddle time with Owen as he napped for quite awhile during lunch and for awhile afterwards. (Ben looked like he could have taken a nap with him as well.)
Then that afternoon, I got to cuddle with Owen for awhile, too. We don't always let him nap on us, but it has been a little tricky in getting him to stay asleep when we lay him down, especially with Samantha and Aedan running around and playing. So when I have the chance, I like to hold him and cuddle him. I know he won't always be this little, and I know he won't always want to sleep happily on my chest. And since this is most likely my last baby, I'm going to enjoy these moments when I can.
We tired Izzy out as well. :)
We originally planned to go over to Canada to buy some things at Once Upon a Child and to go swimming at the community center pool. However, after I went back and checked the website, I realized that it was actually closed for some reason. The kids were really disappointed because they love going there to swim, but we told them that we would try to go again the following weekend. We still wanted to go do something to get out of the house and play, so we decided to go to McDonald's for dinner and let them play on the play place. Here is Owen sitting and hanging out while Samantha and Aedan played. I hoped he would take a little nap in his car seat, but there was too much noise and commotion, and he is too interested in the world around him at this point.
After playing for awhile, we went back home for bath time before letting the kids play for awhile before bed. Aedan dressed up as Spider-Man and Samantha dressed up as Spider-Girl, and they ran around the house going on missions together. It was pretty cute to see them playing together in this way, and it was the best of both worlds for how they like to play, Samantha pretending and using her imagination, and Aedan acting like Spider-Man and saving the day. It made me smile to watch them play together.
(Blog about November 5-11, 2017)
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