Owen Recovering & Winter Outdoor Fun

Samantha: 80 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 45 Months, Week 4
Owen: 4 Months, Week 2 (Week 19)

Every once in awhile our kitchen counter gets so full of papers and crafts that I just have to get rid of things. If I asked the kids what they wanted to do with it, they would always choose to keep it. So, I just go through it on my own. I try to take pictures of it before throwing it away, and if it's something really nice or special, I will keep it for a special artwork folder that I have for each of them. However, between school and church and AWANA and the library, there is just too much stuff to keep, so here is the collection of art that I cleaned off our counter on this Sunday morning.

At church the kids were supposed to draw something they knew a lot about, so Samantha drew a picture of a rocket blasting off.

Aedan hasn't shown too much interest in drawing until lately, so I had to take a picture of this creation. I'm pretty sure it was a picture of Maui and Moana in a boat on the water. I love watching how he draws and the way he makes his people as big circles with stick arms and legs coming out of it.

Here's a craft one of the kids made at church, but I honestly can't remember which one it was. Based on the symmetry involved, my guess is that it was Samantha that made this.

Here is Aedan's cat clock that he helped make at library story time.

Aedan often comes home from AWANA with various crafts and projects as well. So here is something they made to tell the story of Adam and Eve in the garden. Don't you like his coloring?

Here's another craft Aedan made at AWANA when they talked about the story of Noah. I'm sure he had some help gluing all those arches on in the right order. :) He was so proud to show me his rainbow.

Here's a memory verse the kids were working on at church. Again, do you like his coloring? He used to do two scribbles and then be done, so this is definitely an improvement.

With talking about Noah's Ark at AWANA, they made a boat out of a paper plate and put animals inside. I just love how he scribbled the same color on everything.

Do you see those marks up at the top of the page? That is Aedan's attempt at writing his name. We need to work on our name writing. He knows his letters and numbers, but we haven't done much actual work with holding a pencil and forming the letters.

Here are two more crafts Aedan made at AWANA.

Owen was mostly back to normal on Sunday, but we were all still pretty tried from having several rough nights of sleep. He was still up several times a night, and we would have to clean out his nose every time, making him very angry. Owen fell asleep in his car seat on the way home from church and then I was able to leave him in it and put him in his room. It's hit or miss whether Owen will stay asleep in his car seat, but he did on this day and ended up sleeping for about an hour, which was a really good morning nap for him. So on Sunday afternoon everyone in the house went to their rooms to take a nap and/or rest. Owen took a nice long nap that afternoon, making me hope that he was finally recovering from being sick. Samantha had just come out of her room from quiet time, and I had just come upstairs from napping myself. She wanted to take a picture with me, so here we are, one smiling and one silly.

We have wanted to go tubing together for awhile now, but we didn't know quite how to work that out with having Owen as well. Ben said I could just take the kids, but I wasn't sure if Aedan would like it very well, which would then make it a little more difficult. I posted on our MOPS page to see if anyone could watch Owen for a couple hours so the four of us could go as a family, and I actually had two moms offer to help us out. Once Aedan and Owen were up from their naps, I fed Owen and then we got all bundled up to head to the tubing hill.

It was so nice to be able to do this as the four of us. Samantha went with Daddy once last year, but hadn't been since then. We decided Aedan was too young last year and wouldn't have liked it, but we were excited to have him try it this year. When we got to the top of the hill, he was pretty apprehensive about it. They have these tubes with covered bottoms for you to sit in, and he's small enough that his whole body can fit inside the tube, protecting him from the ground and from any chance of falling off the tube. Samantha and Daddy went down first so he could see what it was like. I tried to describe it to him as being like a big slide, but he was still pretty nervous to get on the tube and go down the hill that first time. We started on the smallest hill, but you still get going pretty fast, especially with the slippery layer of ice that had formed over the top of the snow. Once we got to the bottom of the hill that first time, Aedan decided it was a lot of fun and he couldn't wait to go back up and go again.

The best part about the tubing hill is that it has a tow rope to pull you back up the hill, making the ride up a fun part of the experience as well. Here are some pictures I took as we were pulled back up the hill.

And here's a couple great family pictures. It was so fun being able to do this with the two big kids. The weather was in the mid-30s so it was not too cold being outside, and it was definitely better not having Owen there with us as well.

Here's a video I took of Samantha, Daddy, and Aedan coming down the hill. It was such a fun way to spend our evening. I don't even remember how many times we went down the hill. We didn't feel comfortable letting Aedan go down by himself, so either Ben or I would hold on to his tube as we went down the hill, but Samantha would often choose to go down by herself. She was definitely not afraid. Both kids squealed with delight as they flew down the hill on their tubes.

As it got darker outside, the flood lights came on, and it was kind of fun going down the hill as the sky darkened. Aedan was even brave enough to go down the taller, faster hills without a problem. I wasn't afraid of going down, but I definitely am not as much of a daredevil as I used to be. You get pretty fast going down these hills on a plastic tube!

We went down the tubing hill for close to two hours that night, and Aedan was sad when we went down the last time and had to leave. He asked if we would be able to come back again sometime because he had so much fun. We will definitely have to try and come back again another time before winter is over.

It was already after 6:30 and we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so we picked up Wendy's for dinner, picked up Owen, went home to eat, gave the kids quick showers, and then tucked them into bed. Even though Owen had a pretty good day of naps, he had a harder time that night, waking up at 12:30, 3:00, and 5:15. He would nurse and then choke and cough, like he couldn't breathe, making it so that he didn't eat as much and then was probably waking up more as a result.

After being up several times during the night, Owen slept in past 9:00 on Monday morning, giving me some time to get laundry put away and do things around the house before we headed out to do our weekly grocery shopping. Owen was happy in the Ergo, just looking around for awhile as we shopped, then finally fell asleep for the last part of our shopping trip, which was good that he got a little bit of a morning nap in. Then, at nap time, I decided to put Aedan to bed first, and Owen was just so overtired by the time I put him down. He was crying and was so upset that he didn't even want to eat at all. Here's a video of him crying in my lap that afternoon. I didn't know what to do because I thought he was hungry, but he was so mad that I was trying to feed him.

Finally, I just picked him up and held him up on my shoulder, and then he fell asleep. Then, after only about an hour, he woke up crying the same way and was really mad again. I tried to go down and rock him and bounce him, but he kept screaming and crying no matter what I did. I finally just gave up and brought him upstairs. He was not looking good and his cough had gotten progressively worse throughout the day. I was concerned his stuffy nose had moved down into his chest or that he even had croup or whooping cough, so I texted Ben, he came home a little early, and I took Owen to the walk-in clinic. It ended up being nothing, but it made me feel better to know his lungs and ears were clear and his oxygen levels were okay. Poor little Owen was pretty tired and miserable, but I stopped at the store to get him Zarbees cough medicine for infants since that doesn't have any honey in it, and I hoped that would help him get some better sleep that night. I was so worried that we might have another night like the previous Thursday when Ben and I were up with Owen all night. Luckily, Owen went to sleep fine, but then woke up right after Ben and I got in bed at 11:15 and then again at 2:30. Here are a couple videos I took of Owen's cough so I could show them to the doctor in case he didn't cough much while we were actually in the office. Poor little baby. He sounds so miserable.

Depending on the day, Samantha doesn't tell us much about what happens at school. However, a couple days this past week she came home saying a boy in her class was hurting her feelings because he was telling her who she can play with, or more like telling her that she can't be friends with a particular boy. We told her that she didn't have to worry about what that boy said, and that she can be friends with and play with whoever she wants, boy or girl.

Tuesday morning Owen woke up at 6:45 and was not interested in going back to sleep. Normally, he sleeps past 8:00, giving us time to get up and ready and have breakfast with the big kids, even getting Samantha off to school before waking up. Since Owen was still recovering from his cold and cough, I kept him with me during MOPS that morning rather than dropping him off at the nursery. It was a little difficult keeping him with me because he is a lot more wiggly and vocal lately. However, I was able to amuse him enough with the toys that I brought, holding him on my lap, and laying him on the blanket to play. Aedan is a lot more apprehensive when new situations arise. For example, there were different helpers in his room at MOPS, so as soon as he saw it wasn't the typical people, he turned around and started walking away down the hallway. It took a lot of convincing for me to get him to come back to his room and go in. he kept trying to hide behind my legs and was acting very shy. It's funny how the smallest things can throw him off sometimes. He did finally go in the room, and once he was in, he had a great time playing and all his shyness was gone.

Owen was super tired when we got home from MOPS because of being up so early and only sleeping for about forty-five minutes that morning. It was all I could do to get him to wait until after Aedan ate lunch to take a nap. I just didn't want Aedan to be eating while I put Owen down just in case he would choke on his food or something like that. I fed Owen and put him down for his nap first, and he ended up sleeping close to 2 1/2 hours. Aedan talked for awhile in bed and had Happy Bear and blankie taken away, but he finally fell asleep and took a good nap, which I was incredibly thankful for. While I was getting dinner ready for small group that night at our house, Ben texted me with the news we had been waiting for, but with an unexpected, disappointing outcome. I couldn't help but feel angry, even slamming my hand on the counter-top when I read the text. Ben and I were both looking forward to this opportunity for our future and for our family, and we were not expecting the news that we received. To say that I was sad was definitely an understatement, and I couldn't help but just sit on the couch and cry that afternoon. I just didn't understand why it was happening. Part of me would rather not even have had the chance at this opportunity, then have them come up and feel like they are so close and within our grasp, and then feel like they were just taken away from us. Ben had such a good feeling about it, too, and we just let ourselves get too carried away with thinking it was a for sure thing that was going to happen. It was hard to think about or concentrate on anything else that afternoon. I was so glad that the boys took good naps so that I could have this time to myself. It was like God knew I needed this uninterrupted time to think and to process.

When Samantha got home from school, she sat on the couch and read her Boxcar Children book, and since she knew we were having small group at our house that night, she was kind and asked me how she could help me get ready. She also told me about how she got to sit on a special chair at school because she was doing such a good job in class listening and being respectful. I love to hear good reports like that from my little girl, and I'm glad that she is respectful to her teachers.

I knew Ben wouldn't be in the mood to lead small group that night, so I arranged for another guy to facilitate and give Ben a break. We had a smaller group that night because people were dealing with sick kids, so the kids just went downstairs to watch Veggie Tales while the babies played upstairs in the living room. We had good conversation, and it was nice not to have to drive home with Owen screaming in the car the whole way.

Once again Owen went to bed fine but woke up shortly after Ben and I went to bed again, so I fed him again before going to sleep myself around midnight. Then, Owen woke up again around 3:30, so it was nice that I wasn't woken up twice, but it still felt like a short night with starting off the night nursing him again. I'm not sure why he keeps waking up at this time of the night because usually he can make it two or three more hours before waking up.

Wednesday was a typical day with a visit to the library for story time. The librarian read a story about a rooster and then the kids got to make rooster hats. Going to the library always works out pretty well because Owen falls right asleep in the car on the way there, even though our trip is only about three minutes. Then Aedan and I sit down to listen to the stories, and I use one hand to rock his car seat back and forth to help Owen sleep longer, and I cuddle with Aedan with my other arm. He loves sitting and listening to books read to him, which is funny to think about taking him to story time in Oxford where he would be walking around and doing anything but listening to the stories, but that was back when he was a two year old. I'm glad to see that his attention span has improved, and he always looks forward to seeing what the story is about and then going back to make the craft. Aedan usually needs help putting his craft together, but he really enjoys coloring and gluing to make something. At that point, Owen is usually waking up, so I get him out of his car seat to just hang out and look around the library. Aedan will play educational games on the tablet for awhile, he will build things with these Knex type toys, he will drive vehicles around and fly airplanes, and sometimes he will even go over to the train table to play. There are usually a few other kids there, but they are younger than him, and he doesn't usually choose to play with them. This day Aedan wanted to play a board game with me. They have a shelf full of games that you can play, and he found a Berenstain Bears game. It wasn't too complicated of a game, and he had fun moving his bear around the board. It's fun to have these times together with him, just like I did with Samantha when she was his age.

Aedan does not nap every day anymore, and a lot of times it takes quite a bit of coercing to get him to be quiet and at least try to go go sleep. The same was true for Wednesday afternoon. He was just in his bed talking. I got Owen to sleep but then he woke up as soon as I laid him down. Luckily, he ended up falling back asleep, which was good. And Aedan finally fell asleep too after I threatened to take Happy Bear away.

Wednesday evening neither Ben nor I had Bible study because we had a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for the youth group at our church that we went to instead. I figured any excuse to not make dinner was good, and the kids were excited about eating at church before going to AWANA. I dropped them off at AWANA and then went back to church to hang out with Ben and Owen and watch the talent show.

We tried to give Owen a bottle, but he was not too interested. I got a sampling of bottles from moms in my MOPS group to try with Owen to see if there is a certain type of bottle that he prefers, but no matter what we try, he seems to not want to eat much from a bottle. Sometimes we can get him to eat up to an ounce or so, and that's on a good day. It's so interesting how every kid is different. Samantha had to take bottles since I went back to work. Aedan seemed to take bottles easily on the occasion that I was gone over a feeding time. However, he also used a pacifier from an early age, so maybe that helped him know how to latch onto the nipple of a bottle better. Aedan never ate as much as he probably did when he nursed, but it was enough to satisfy him and make me not worry about him getting really hungry and upset if I was gone for awhile. Owen, on the other hand, just does not seem to want to latch onto the nipple of a bottle. He will just chew on it and play with it, spitting it out of his mouth, and getting some milk out of it just by playing around with the nipple like this. It's frustrating to me because I would like to feel comfortable leaving him if I want to go out for awhile, and of course I'm looking towards March when Ben and I will have to leave him in Upland while we go to see Les Mis in Indy. I am really looking forward to this date with Ben, but I would really like Owen to be better at taking a bottle before then. We will be gone for probably at least two or three nursing sessions that day, depending on what we do, and one of those times will be putting him to bed when he usually nurses for a long time. I don't want Owen to get upset because he is hungry and isn't getting enough to eat because he doesn't know how to successfully get full by drinking from a bottle. We will keep working with him in trying to get him used to it, but maybe he is just a boy that will never take a bottle or a pacifier well. Who knows...

On Thursday we didn't really have any plans, so instead of dragging everyone out of the house for no reason, I decided we could just have a relaxing morning at home. Once I got Owen down for his morning nap in his crib, Aedan was able to pick whatever he wanted to do with me, and decided he wanted play some games with me. We played Don't Break the Ice, Hi-Ho Cherry-o, and even put a Super Why puzzle together. It was such a fun time just spending time with my little man, who really is not so little anymore. I know he enjoys having attention just for him when Owen is not around, and I definitely need to carve out more time like this just to sit and play without any other things to do or take care of.

Here are some great, silly pictures I took of Aedan that morning. He is such a ham sometimes, but he sure is a cutie.

Isn't he adorable? I love how expressive he is. And his eyes are just gorgeous. They have always been so big and brown, and he has such long, full eyelashes.

This is definitely my favorite picture of Aedan. This is his normal smile and look when he's not trying to be silly for the camera or give me a forced "cheese" smile.

Here are my two lunch dates every day. I am trying to give Owen a new perspective on the world by having him sit in the Bumbo seat sometimes. Sometimes he likes it and sometimes he doesn't, but it gives him a chance to practice sitting up, and he loves having a bird's eye view of his big brother.

Owen took two really good naps that day and is hardly coughing at all anymore, so that was good. He finally seemed to be getting better, and I was so glad. Aedan finally fell asleep as well, making for a really nice day.

Even though Owen was feeling better, we were still taking precautions to help continue to get better. I still cleaned his nose out frequently with the Nose Frida, and we still had his mattress elevated so that he could breathe and sleep better. However, after a week of doing all these things, I was definitely ready to have my baby back to normal and not have to do all these things anymore that made him so upset. When I would suck the snot out of his nose, he would just scream and try to push me away. I felt so bad, but I knew it would help him get better faster and feel better if I could get as much snot out as possible.

Friday morning I had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Amo, so Ben stayed home in the morning and took care of the boys. It was kind of a hectic morning because we had to drop Izzy off at the groomer first. She had developed huge mats in her hair behind her ears, and I was unsuccessful at getting them out. I tried a new groomer this time because the last one I took Izzy to acted like she couldn't get the mats out of her hair without making her too afraid. Anyways, so after Samantha went to school, the rest of us dropped Izzy off, then I dropped Daddy, Aedan, and Owen off at the Big Bear so he could play at the open gym. We even brought his bike with us so he could ride it around. Owen does pretty well sleeping while we are out in the morning, and he fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep almost the whole time Aedan played at the open gym. Then, I went to my appointment and then went back to pick them up from the gym and then went to pick up Izzy. It was a lot of running around, but it was nice having Ben with me to help me out and give me company.

Friday night we had tickets to a Laker hockey game, the last home game of the season. It's always a fun time with the kids and Owen was awake the whole time we were there this time, just looking around and taking in all the sights and sounds. We followed our normal routine of watching the game for the first period, then walking around and getting snacks to eat during the second period.

After I was done with my snack, Owen was starting to get cranky since he hadn't fallen asleep yet and it was already past his bedtime, so I decided to walk back home so I could start getting Owen ready for bed. Daddy stayed with the big kids so they could do "chuck a puck" and say hi to the girl they know in the pep band. Here's a couple pictures of them from that night. It's fun going to the hockey games, and the kids always enjoy being able stay up late and cheer on the Lakers.

On Saturday morning we just spent time hanging out around the house together since we had plans to go out that evening. Samantha and Aedan love having time to play together however they want, and Owen loves having his big siblings there to make him smile and laugh. Here they are being silly and making faces for him after lunch.

After both boys were done napping that afternoon, we left to go downtown for the ice festival. There were going to be lots of ice sculptures on display up and down the street in front of businesses, plus in this park area. Across the street there was a fire set up where you could roast marshmallows and drink hot chocolate. The weather was unseasonably mild this weekend, in the mid-30s, so it wasn't so bad being outside for a little while. We are trying to embrace winter as much as we can and take advantage of these weekends when they have special events going on.

We then stopped at Zorba's for dinner. The kids got these little rubber ducks from inside an ice block that a man helped them chip open. So then they got busy drawing boats on their place mats for the ducks to ride on. They were being very cute playing together while we waited for our food. Owen ended up falling asleep in his car seat, so he is on the floor next to Ben.

I also have to mention that Aedan was very proud to be wearing his shirt. He did have a sweater over it that morning, but it was bothering him, so he took it off. When Samantha saw him wearing this white shirt, she said, "Wow, you're shirt looks so pretty, Aedan!" Later in the day he told me that he really liked his shirt and he wanted me to wash it right away so he could wear it again since Sissy said it looked so pretty on him. It makes me smile how much he looks up to her and loves her. He hangs on her every word, and his world is never better than when she is around and is paying attention to him and playing with him.

After eating dinner and trying to get Owen to drink some of a bottle (mostly unsuccessfully), we went back outside to let the kids roast one more marshmallow before going across the street to watch the "Ice Wars" where two guys had twenty minutes to carve a block of ice into a shape the audience picked, and then the audience would vote on whose was better. Here is a video Ben took. The guy on the left is carving a boat, and the guy on the right is carving a princess. It was interesting to watch, and the kids had a front row view.

At this point in the evening, Owen was done, and he especially did not like being wrapped up in the puffy snow suit thing I had him in. It had started to snow and was getting a little windy, so I took him across the street so we could stand inside a bookstore for a little while and warm up while the big kids watched the Ice Wars with Daddy. Then, when that was over we headed back home for bath time and bed time. Here is Samantha all nice and clean, sitting on the couch with Izzy laying on her lap, chewing on a toy. She liked having Izzy all cuddled up with her.

(Blog about January 21-27, 2018)