Aedan: 47 Months, Week 1
Owen: 5 Months, Week 3 (Week 25)
Sunday, March 4th was a big day for us because just a few days earlier we spontaneously decided to book a room for two nights at Great Wolf Lodge. We had been thinking about it for awhile, but we weren't sure how it would work with Owen still waking up so frequently during the night. However, Ben got an email with with a deal on a room, significantly cheaper than any rooms from now through August, so we decided to do it. We didn't tell the kids we were going until that morning at breakfast, and they were super excited. They had been talking about our time there last year and were definitely very surprised.
Ema and Papa were planning on leaving after church, which is when we were going to leave, so it worked out well. We worked on getting everything packed up Saturday night, went to the 9:00 service on Sunday, morning, let Owen nap while we finished packing the rest of our stuff and let Samantha and Aedan hang out with Ema and Papa for a little while longer. Owen was taking such a long nap, that we ended up waking him up after an hour so that we could go get some lunch before everyone hit the road. We dropped Izzy off at the Doggie Bed & Breakfast and then had lunch at Pure Country in Rudyard. It was a little difficult getting Owen to nurse before getting on the road, but he ended up falling asleep in my lap and I was able to then put him in his car seat and strap him in so he could continue his nap. Even Samantha and Aedan closed their eyes and took a nap in the car on our way to Traverse City. Samantha only slept for about 20 minutes and Aedan only slept about 30 minutes, but then I gave them their LeapPads to play on with head phones while Owen kept napping. Here are all the kids sleeping in the car that afternoon.
We arrived at Great Wolf Lodge around 4:30, and Samantha and Aedan were so excited to get in, find our room, and get in the water. However, our room wasn't quite ready yet because they said they had around 250 rooms turn over that day, so it was taking them a little longer to get everyone's ready. Here are some cute pictures of the kids that I took as Ben was getting us checked in. Oh my three adorable kids. I love them so much. :)
Since our room wasn't ready yet, and it was close to dinnertime, we decided to get some salad and pizza at the restaurant inside Great Wolf Lodge. The kids ate quickly, motivated by being able to go swimming once we could get into our room. Once our room was available, Ben brought everything in, we got things put away and situated for bedtime that night, I fed Owen one more time, and then we all got our bathing suits on and headed to the water park. When we came last year, I was pregnant with Owen, so I wasn't able to go on any of the water slides or sit in the hot tub, so this year Ben wanted to make sure I had a chance to go on the water slides with Samantha. Aedan was still a few inches too short to ride the big water slides, but he could go on the red and yellow slides that came down from the large climbing structure. Samantha wanted to go right to the slides with me, so I went on each slide once with her. It was fun to have this time with my girl. Before we got on the first slide, she acted a little nervous because she couldn't remember what the slides were like and felt a little scared. However, she just smiled and screamed with delight down every slide. Not much scares that girl, and she will try anything. I love how brave she is.
While Samantha and I rode the big slides, Ben took Owen and Aedan to the zero depth pool with the small slides. Last year, this area was even too much for Aedan. He was not a big fan of the water, and as soon as he got cold he would be done, but not this year. He LOVED the water. He was playing and splashing around, went down the slides over and over again, and was just having a blast. Ben said he had to tell him to stop climbing on the rocks in between the slides. Once I was done with the slides with Samantha, I held Owen, and then Samantha and Aedan climbed up the large play structure and Aedan was even brave enough to go down the red and yellow slides by himself. Owen was fading and I thought he might fall asleep on my shoulder, but there was just too much for him to look at to fall asleep. We all went on the lazy river together, we sat in the family hot tub, and then we went back to the room to get changed into pajamas so the big kids could go to story time in the lobby. We had a great first evening in the water park with a whole day of swimming ahead of us.
Ben took Samantha and Aedan to story time in the lobby while I put Owen to sleep. We paid more money for a bigger room with a separate bedroom so that we could keep Owen in with us and not bother Samantha and Aedan during the night. They each had their own queen bed out in the main room where Samantha could also access the bathroom. We had Owen's pack and play set up in the corner of our bedroom where we could block off some light with a blanket so Ben and I could still hang out and watch TV before we went to bed, too. Anyways, Owen was tired and ready for bed and went to sleep just fine for me.
Here are some pictures and videos that Ben took of the kids at story time that night. Samantha is in the light blue pajamas, and Aedan is in the Batman pajamas.
Here's the Great Wolf Lodge cheer: stomp, stomp, clap, clap, howl. Samantha and Aedan were really good at the howling part. I love how much they get into things like this. I'm glad they were enjoying themselves.
Aren't they so cute sitting next to each other? Story time is pretty cheesy, but they liked being able to go down to the lobby in their pajamas.
Owen did fairly well our first night at the hotel. He did wake up right when we were going to bed, but Ben was able to get him back to sleep pretty easily. Then he woke up twice during the night, just before 1:00 and then again around 4:30. It took me a little while to get him back to sleep after he nursed at 1:00, but I was glad he did okay that night. He even ended up sleeping in that morning, not getting up until about 8:00.
The water park doesn't open until 10:00, and our kids were up by 7:00, so we had a few hours to kill that morning before we could go swimming again. Ben got some Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, along with a free refill of our coffee with our reusable cup that we bought last year. We went down to the lobby for another event at 9:00 and then let the kids watch a show. I love this picture of all the kids laying on their stomachs on the bed together. And I love how Owen is laying there looking at his big sister and brother. He loves nothing more than watching the two of them.
We had a great day in the water park that day, even finding our friends from church, the Sayers and the Pierces, who were also staying at Great Wolf Lodge at the exact same time. Samantha got to go down slides with the Sayer girls, and Lauren even held Owen for us so Ben and I could go down a few slides together. Aedan preferred to play in the zero depth area where he could jump and splash and go down the slides. The kids also jumped like frogs across the lily pads and climbed on the water snake as well. There are lots of fun areas to play at Great Wolf Lodge, and the water was nice and warm. After Owen slept for about an hour that morning, he was in a good mood, and we all had a great time swimming for a couple hours.
Once it got close to lunch time, we decided to get out of the pool and go back to our room for lunch. We brought some sandwich supplies with us and figured it would be easier and cheaper to just do that for lunch that day. Then, it was nap time for both boys. Ben planned on taking Samantha back to the water park while the boys napped, so he tucked Aedan in while I nursed and put Owen down for his nap. When I was done with Owen, Aedan was still talking in his bed, so I had to remind him to go to sleep so we could get ice cream afterwards. Owen woke up in the middle of his nap, and it took me awhile to get him back to sleep, but at least I was able to get a little more of a nap out of him. It reached 3:00 and Aedan was still fast asleep, sleeping sideways and looking so small in the big queen-sized bed. By 3:15 I decided to just wake Aedan up because Owen had woken up, and we had dinner plans with our friends from church at 5:00, so we if we wanted to have time for ice cream, we needed to get on with our afternoon. I was very glad that both boys took such good naps, and it was nice for Samantha to just have one-on-one time with Ben, going on slides to her heart's content.
We all decided that Mexican food sounded good for dinner, so we met at the restaurant at 5:00, putting the kids at one table and the adults at another table so we could actually have a conversation. The food was decent, and it was nice to be able to go out with friends. We haven't done anything like that in a long time. I know the kids had a lot of fun hanging out with their friends at the kids' table.
Our second night staying at Great Wolf Lodge was much worse than the first. Owen was up five times throughout the night, sometimes taking quite awhile to get back to sleep. Needless to say, Ben and I didn't get much sleep that night and were pretty tired come Tuesday morning. Here are the kids hanging out on the couch that morning after eating Panera bagels for breakfast. Samantha definitely shows more interest in holding little Owen than Aedan does. She loves to hold him on her lap, making faces for him, blow raspberries on him, and give him lots of kisses.
Since Tuesday morning was our last chance to enjoy our time in the water park, we decided to take advantage of a couple more hours, even though it was starting to snow outside. We got all our stuff packed up and checked out of room before heading to the water park. Samantha and I went on the slides together first, and we had a great time together. After that, when we met back up with Daddy, Owen, and Aedan, Owen was pretty tired and ready for his morning nap, so I decided to put him in the water sling that I bought before this trip. It was made out of a mesh material that could get wet, and I hoped it would help Owen just snuggle up and take a little nap on me while the big kids played. He was definitely comfortable tucked inside the sling, and it helped me to be more hands-free so I could still interact with Aedan. Owen just hung out in the sling for awhile, looking around at all the kids splashing in the pool, but after swaying back and forth for awhile, he finally gave in to sleeping. There were many people that looked at him sleeping and smiled, even commenting on how great the water sling was. He napped for close to an hour in the sling, and Aedan had a blast jumping around the kiddie pool and going down the slide over and over again. I was so glad he was having more fun in the water this year.
While Owen was still sleeping, Ben took the big kids in the lazy river again. Samantha discovered that she could do more than just sit on the tube and started doing tricks in the water where she would tip over the side of her tube and flip the tube over. Then, she would swing back under the tube and up through the hole to get back on the tube and do it all over again. She much preferred going around the lazy river like that, rather than just sitting.
Here are Daddy and Aedan happily floating down the river together.
I took advantage of having my phone with me to take more pictures and videos of the fun things we got to do at Great Wolf Lodge. Here are the kids crossing the lily pads one more time before swimming in the deeper pool for awhile.
Once Owen woke up from his nap, I sat on the edge of the pool with him for awhile watching the big kids cross the lily pads. (You can tell he's still waking up in these pictures.) Then, I decided to take some pictures of me with the kids. I so often take pictures of them, but I very rarely include myself in the pictures.
As it was getting closer to lunch time, we knew it was time to wrap things up and head back home. We didn't know how bad the roads were going to be with the snow that was going to be falling for most of the day. Plus, everyone was getting sleepy. We had a fun couple of days enjoying the warm temperatures inside the water park, riding water slides and tubes, floating in the lazy river, sitting in the hot tub, staying up later than usual, seeing friends, and just having a blast together as a family. Samantha was pretty sad to be leaving, commenting that she wished we could stay there forever. She is a lot like me in that she gets sad when things are over, especially big events like this that you look forward to for a long time. However, I told her that Daddy and I discussed making this a yearly tradition. It's fun to get away in the middle of winter and to forget how cold and snowy it is still outside.
After getting changed out of our bathing suits and into dry clothes, we went across the street to eat lunch at Panera before heading out of Traverse City around 1:15. Then, it was nap time in the car for everybody. The kids were pretty tired, so it was fairly quiet in the car for the beginning of the drive, and I was even able to read some of a book on my Kindle. We got home a little after 5:00 and then begun the unpacking process, as well as getting dinner ready and preparing for Aunt Christy, Brielle, Oliver, and Uncle Matt to arrive at our house for a visit. It was a little crazy cramming all of this stuff back to back, but we already had plans for them to visit before deciding to go to Great Wolf Lodge. It was Ben's spring break, so luckily he had a little bit more flexibility and having visitors wouldn't impact his work schedule too much anyways.
Our visitors arrived around 7:00 that evening, amid a flurry of activity in bath time and getting our kids ready for bed. Plus, we still had to get our grocery shopping done for the week, as we had no food in the house to make meals. As I put Owen down that night, Ben lovingly made a menu for the week and a shopping list and went to the store. I am pretty lucky to have a husband who will do things like that, no questions asked. He knew it would be more fun for me to stay at the house and hang out with my sister and brother once the kids were all asleep. I don't even remember the last time that the three of us were all together like this for an extended period of time, probably since I went off to college. I was glad they made the trip up, even if it made for a full house.
Christy, Brielle, and Oliver all shared the guest room together, with Oliver in a pack and play at the foot of the bed. Since Samantha was still in school that week, we didn't want to mess up her chance to sleep well by sticking Aedan in the room with her since he kicks around and makes noise in his bed so much before he falls asleep and sometimes in the morning, too. Oliver had a little bit of trouble settling down to sleep that first night, crying quite a bit, but I reassured Christy that it wouldn't bother our kids if he just needed to take his time and cry himself to sleep.
Owen woke up twice during the night on Tuesday, which is not unlike what he has been doing lately, but I think the tiredness from being up five times the night before at Great Wolf Lodge had caught up with me. I was pretty tired on Wednesday morning, and Ben was off to campus and Samantha was off to school, just like normal. She had missed the first two days of school that week and was excited to get back to see her friends. The rest of us hung out around the house while Brielle and Aedan enjoyed some play time together. It was fun to watch them interact with each other since they are so close in age. Then, we got ready to go to the library for story time. There isn't too much to do in our town, particularly during the winter with little kids, so I at least try to take advantage of the things there are to do, even something simple like story time. After listening to the librarian read a couple books, they made rhinoceros hats and then played in the library for a little while. It seemed like everyone was a bit tired that morning, so after a little while we went back to the house for an earlier lunch and nap time.
To help everyone sleep better that afternoon, I moved Aedan into Samantha's bed for nap time so that Brielle could sleep in Aedan's bed, and Oliver could have the room to himself so everyone could sleep (hopefully). I figured Aedan hadn't been napping much lately anyways, so going in Samantha's room wouldn't make much of a difference. I had to remind him to be quiet a couple times, but he actually napped that afternoon. The boy definitely must have been tired. However, we had a problem at the end of nap time that day. He knows that we have a monitor in his room and that we keep it on so we know when he wakes up and if he needs anything. Well, he had been napping for a long time, so I went into the room to check and see if he was awake and just being quiet, or if I needed to wake him up. As soon as I walked into the room, I noticed him acting weird, not wanting me to look at him, and I discovered that he had peed his pants and it got on Samantha's mattress. Samantha does not have a waterproof cover on her bed, since we don't have to worry about her having accidents, so I got pretty frustrated with him. He always wears underwear for naps, and he has never wet himself like this before. It was such strange behavior from him. I pulled him out of bed, took the sheets off, and worked on cleaning up the pee so it wouldn't leave a stain or a smell behind, while Ben helped him get cleaned up and changed. (He had just arrived home from work into the midst of all this craziness.)
Luckily, Christy and I had put dinner together while the kids napped, because I was at least trying to be on top of things so we could eat early enough to get everyone ready for AWANA that night. Things got a little crazy though, and Samantha was tired and not making good choices. However, on a positive note, after a couple weeks of doing rice cereal and oatmeal, we decided to start Owen on sweet potato baby food. Wednesday night was his first night trying it, and even though it was a bit of a zoo in our kitchen, I got a little video of him trying sweet potatoes for the first time. He liked them pretty well, even if he is still trying to figure out what to do with his tongue, and you have to feed him while dodging his flailing arms. :)
To help everyone sleep better that afternoon, I moved Aedan into Samantha's bed for nap time so that Brielle could sleep in Aedan's bed, and Oliver could have the room to himself so everyone could sleep (hopefully). I figured Aedan hadn't been napping much lately anyways, so going in Samantha's room wouldn't make much of a difference. I had to remind him to be quiet a couple times, but he actually napped that afternoon. The boy definitely must have been tired. However, we had a problem at the end of nap time that day. He knows that we have a monitor in his room and that we keep it on so we know when he wakes up and if he needs anything. Well, he had been napping for a long time, so I went into the room to check and see if he was awake and just being quiet, or if I needed to wake him up. As soon as I walked into the room, I noticed him acting weird, not wanting me to look at him, and I discovered that he had peed his pants and it got on Samantha's mattress. Samantha does not have a waterproof cover on her bed, since we don't have to worry about her having accidents, so I got pretty frustrated with him. He always wears underwear for naps, and he has never wet himself like this before. It was such strange behavior from him. I pulled him out of bed, took the sheets off, and worked on cleaning up the pee so it wouldn't leave a stain or a smell behind, while Ben helped him get cleaned up and changed. (He had just arrived home from work into the midst of all this craziness.)
Luckily, Christy and I had put dinner together while the kids napped, because I was at least trying to be on top of things so we could eat early enough to get everyone ready for AWANA that night. Things got a little crazy though, and Samantha was tired and not making good choices. However, on a positive note, after a couple weeks of doing rice cereal and oatmeal, we decided to start Owen on sweet potato baby food. Wednesday night was his first night trying it, and even though it was a bit of a zoo in our kitchen, I got a little video of him trying sweet potatoes for the first time. He liked them pretty well, even if he is still trying to figure out what to do with his tongue, and you have to feed him while dodging his flailing arms. :)
Brielle was able to go to AWANA with Aedan that night, and Ben and I still went to our Bible studies. Christy was able to get Oliver down to sleep before the rest of us got back home, so that helped the bedtime craziness. Everyone enjoyed AWANA that night, and I had Owen with me at Bible study. Since we fed him baby food at home, I brought a bottle along with me, not thinking I would really need to use it, but as it got to be about 7:30, Owen was getting pretty fussy and was acting hungry. I got about 2 ounces in his bottle ready and held him in my lap in the rocking chair. He downed that bottle! I couldn't believe my eyes! He wasn't just playing with the nipple and making a mess. He was actually latched on to the bottle and drinking the milk. It was like a miracle for this boy who, up until this night, acted very disinterested in anything plastic in his mouth. However, he drank up those two ounces and then was almost looking like he wanted more, but I didn't bring any more with me since he never drinks that much. I was SO excited that he finally drank successfully from the bottle. I don't know if I finally found one that works, (AVENT is what he seems to prefer.) or if he just decided it was finally okay, but it made me feel so much better about leaving him with Ben's parents in a week and a half.
After being pretty tired for most of the day and having a busy night out, I decided it would be most relaxing to sit and watch the episode of "This Is Us" that we missed on Tuesday before going to bed. Owen woke up again twice that night, making it until 3:45, nursing and then going back to sleep until 6:50.
We did not have any plans on Thursday morning, so we just spent time around the house, letting the kids play together. Sometimes Samantha gets tired of playing super hero and Rescue Bots with Aedan, but Brielle was more than happy to play with him in this way. It was cute watching them run around the house together that morning. Here is Aunt Christy reading them a story that morning.
https://www.facebook.com/christy.kappel/videos/10213279581003184/
Our one outing for the day was going tubing at the tubing hill. Brielle had seen that our family did this before, and she was excited to try it as well. During the week they are only open from 3-9, so we decided to go pick Samantha up from school and go straight to the tubing hill. Aedan decided not to nap that afternoon, which made for an interesting afternoon and evening since he was so tired, but we didn't want him to miss out on time with his cousins and sister. He loves tubing, too. It had just snowed some overnight, so the hill had a light layer of fluffy snow, making it a slower trip down the hill. Aunt Christy was a little nervous before her first time down the hill, but Brielle had no fear at all. She even went down by herself quite a few times. Ben stayed home with Owen, Uncle Matt, and Oliver, since the babies couldn't go tubing anyways and Uncle Matt didn't bring any snow pants or boots along with him. Even though the hills were slower, everyone had a great time. The weather was not too cold. All the kids took turns going down by themselves sometimes, or connected to someone else, or all of us together in one big chain. I'm glad we were able to work out going tubing together, letting the Clemons family experience what winter fun is like in the U.P.
At one point Samantha and Aedan decided to take a break at the bottom of the tubing hill so they could make snow angels together. It was fun for me to be able to spend this time with my big kids, knowing Owen was happy and warm at home with Ben.
Here are some great pictures of all of us together before going up the hill for the last time. We were tubing for close to two hours and had so much fun!
Since Ben is a great and thoughtful husband, he had dinner all ready for us when we got back home. Everyone was hungry from being active and outside, so the kids wolfed down their dinner that night. Then, everyone had a little bit of time to play before it was time to tuck everyone in to bed for the night. Aedan and Brielle wanted Uncle Matt to read them their bed time books that night. :) Aedan loved having Uncle Matt around and was always asking him to play super heroes with him. I'm glad he was able to come up to visit, too.
Here are some pictures Ben took that night when he took Owen down to start getting him ready for bed. Do you see how much he is pushing up on his arms, getting his whole tummy up off the floor? This boy is getting so strong! And he's so proud of himself for doing it, too.
On Thursday night, Owen only woke up once around 3:15, then sleeping until about 7:15, which was nice for me. It's amazing how much better I feel when I don't get up twice or more during the night.
Friday was our visitors last day with us, and Samantha was off of school, so we decided to go swimming over at the Norris Center swimming pool together. They were open from 8-10, and we got there a little after 9:00. At first Samantha gave me attitude about going swimming, saying it was going to be boring, but once we got there and in the water, she had a blast. We even went into the diving pool for awhile. Samantha jumped off the diving board several times. Aedan thought he might want to, but it was too scary for him to try. However, he enjoyed just floating around in the deep water with me, playing with his water toys, watching Sissy jump. I had to give her a few pointers on how to jump so she didn't hurt her legs. She kept wanting to do cannon balls, but her shins were hitting the water harder and it was hurting her a little. She's a fun kid and loves jumping into the water. We stayed in the water until just before 10:00. Since Ben was technically on Spring Break, he stayed home with Owen so he could nap and Ben just worked from home. (I even convinced/coerced him to work from home the rest of the day as well.) The rest of the morning we just hung out and let the kids play together for a little longer before our visitors left after lunch time. Oliver was very interested in Owen, and I think Owen was very interested in Oliver as well. Owen loves watching big kids play, and it's even more fun now that he can roll back and forth onto his tummy and push up on his arms to get an even better vantage point.
That night Ben and I didn't feel like cooking or cleaning up dinner, so we decided to go out for dinner at Applebee's. The kids like their kids' meals pretty well. Samantha thought the mini-hamburgers and salad were really awesome, and Aedan got a corndog and apples with yogurt to dip them in. We even tried putting Owen in a high chair to eat his sweet potatoes and practice sitting up a little more. Isn't he cute? He is looking so big these days. I'm not ready for my baby to growing up so quickly. It's already hard for me to remember the days when he was a little newborn curled up like a frog on my chest.
After having a busy week of two sets of visitors with a trip out of town in the middle, we spent our Saturday at home. Ben and Aedan got their hair cut, but other than that, Samantha and Aedan just enjoyed relaxing and playing together at home. They were actually doing a really a good job playing and being imaginative together for most of the morning. Then, after awhile we sent them outside to play and run around for awhile. It's always a little hard for me after we have people leave because our house feels emptier, and sometimes I like the busyness and excitement of having people around and things to do. But it was good to have a couple days to regroup before getting back into a new week of work and school and normal life.
(Blog about March 4-10, 2018)
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