Aedan: 51 Months, Week 4
Owen: 10 Months, Week 2 (Week 45)
Sunday, July 22nd was the last day of our visit with the Clemons family. Since we were largely stuck in the house on Saturday due to the rainy weather, we decided to go have some outdoor fun after church on Sunday. We ended up going to the first service and then drove down to St. Ignace to eat lunch at the Mexican restaurant down there, walk down the pier to this lighthouse, and let the kids run around and get wet at the splash pad. It started off a little chilly, but once the sun broke through the clouds, it was a nice, warm, sunny day. I got some cute pictures of the cousins together as well.
Samantha is always eager to hold Owen for a picture. :)
After eating some pretty decent food at the Mexican restaurant, we got the kids in their bathing suits and let them run around the splash pad for awhile. It's not anything really fancy or anything, but the kids still had fun getting wet. Even Owen enjoyed crawling around in the water and getting wet in the fountains.
Here are Owen and Oliver hanging out together by the fence. Owen just wanted to go over there so he could pull up and stand on something, his favorite activity lately.
Here are a couple videos of the kids playing in the water, sitting on the fountains, and running back and forth through them.
Owen is a pro at this bear crawl that he does. You wouldn't think it would be that comfortable, but it definitely protects his knees from getting scraped up by getting dragged across the concrete.
Owen was determined to climb to these poles in the middle so that he could pull up on them and stand; however, he didn't realize how slippery it would be when trying to hold on to the pole, so the first few times he tried to stand, he kept slipping and falling, sometimes bonking his head on the pole. Ben took one for the team (even though he was wearing his church clothes) and was willing to run in after Owen when he got hurt or was heading for a fountain that would have sprayed him too much. The kids had a lot of fun playing that afternoon. Going to the splash pad was something on our summer bucket list, so I was glad we were able to go on a nice, warm day, and to enjoy some time with cousins.
Owen was pretty tired after our busy morning, so he fell asleep pretty quickly that afternoon in the car on the way back home. While Owen slept, Aedan and Samantha looked quietly at books. We stopped at Meijer on our way home to pick up something to take to our Married People small group get together that evening, and got the kids some food ready to eat for when Ken and Linda came over to our house to watch the kids. We offered for Samantha and Aedan to come along with us that evening, since it was just a time of dinner and hanging out, but without even hesitating, they chose to stay home so that they could play with Ken and Linda. They were pretty honored that the kids chose them, and the kids will definitely miss having them come to our house to babysit every Sunday night.
After a busy weekend with lots of people in our house, all the kids were grumpy and tired on Monday. The kids weren't very helpful as I was trying to do laundry and start packing for our trip down to Glen Arbor. They fought a lot, and the day felt long. Samantha had a doctor's appointment that morning to discuss her fatigue, and they sent her over to the hospital to get her blood drawn to check different levels and make sure there wasn't anything physically wrong that was causing her to be tired. Then, I had an appointment that I had to take Aedan to, so it was kind of a busy morning. Aedan was 41.75 inches tall and in the 60th percentile, and he was 40 pounds, 6 ounces and in the 75th percentile. Owen slept for about 45 minutes that morning, but only slept 20 minutes that afternoon, even though he was tired and crabby. I was just hoping we were done with this short nap phase since he did so well the end of last week and into the weekend.
Monday night Ben had softball like he usually does, so I had all three kids at Aedan's t-ball practice. It was the last practice of his season, which I think he was okay with. They did a game against each other for their last practice, and Aedan did a good job batting and playing in the field. He has definitely learned a lot through his first team sport experience, and it will be interesting to see if he wants to continue on next summer. I wanted to get some videos of him at this last practice, but with having to watch Owen, I didn't have much of a chance. In this picture below, you can see the fun game that Owen discovered of climbing up on to his stroller, but you can also see Aedan standing on third base in the background, getting ready to run home.
After a busy Monday evening and trying to get as packed up as we could, we hit the road on Tuesday morning to go down to Glen Arbor to spend a few days hanging out with Ben's friends from college, Neil and Kyle, and their wives. We decided to bring Izzy along with us since we were staying in a cabin by ourselves, and the family was more than willing to have a dog there. We have wanted to take her on trips with us, but it has just never worked out for the locations we are staying. We left mid-morning, stopped for lunch in Gaylord, and then continued on our way to Glen Arbor, arriving mid-afternoon. The kids did pretty well in the car, and we were able to get Owen to take a morning and afternoon nap while we drove, so that was good, too. Here is Izzy sleeping in the car that afternoon, trying to keep herself out of the sun.
As we were getting closer, Owen was getting tired of being in the car, so I tried my best to amuse him in the back seat. I tried to get a video of him clapping, because he had just learned to clap in the last few days, but he was too upset to clap for me.
Once we got to the house in Glen Arbor, the kids were really excited to get out and look around. The property had a main house and two cabins, as well as plenty of outside area to play with a fire pit and a dock out on to the lake. Kyle's parents owned the property and have kids there to visit every once in awhile, so they had this ride-on motorized jeep that Samantha and Aedan LOVED. We couldn't get them out of that thing, and Samantha got pretty good at driving it around and not hitting anything. (Eventually we let Aedan take turns driving it as well, but he had to be supervised more so he would drive safely.)
Here's Owen sitting on a little kid's rocking chair on the front porch. It was just his size. :)
The first day was a little rough with Izzy because there were so many new people to meet that she barked quite a bit. We put her bark collar on her and used it when we needed to, and we kept her on her leash so that she was with us at all times, giving her a break in the cabin when needed. At first we were unsure whether or not it was a good idea to have brought her, with how much she was barking and how much we had to watch her when we already had three kids to keep our eyes on. However, she did much better by that evening around the campfire and into the next day, once she had met everybody and was comfortable with the family at the house.
Owen developed a bad cold and runny nose on Tuesday, and Aedan had diarrhea and kept going in his pants starting on Wednesday because he couldn't make it to the bathroom on time, so it was a pretty crazy day dealing with boys that weren't feeling well. No one else in our family got diarrhea like Aedan, so we weren't sure what was going on with him, I just felt so bad for him, and Ben and I were tried of cleaning up poop after he had to change his underwear five times in one day. We were just really glad we had a washer and dryer in our cabin. Owen was not sleeping great and was up quite a few times on Tuesday night, but luckily, he took a really good nap on Wednesday afternoon, which I was grateful for. Ben and I hung out in the cabin while Samantha had some quiet time outside with some books and coloring books and Aedan and Owen took naps. I was reading a book on the couch in the living room and kept falling asleep as well, so I ended up laying down on Ben's lap and falling asleep for about 25 minutes. I was definitely tired and felt much better after getting a little rest.
On Wednesday morning Samantha and Aedan got the pleasure of helping Mr. Andy make homemade vanilla ice cream in an ice cream maker. Here they are helping to turn the crank on the ice cream maker. They thought it was fascinating to watch the ice cream maker work. Mr. Andy and Mrs. Olivia Dupont were wonderful hosts. They were so welcoming to us, inclusive of the kids, and provided a wonderful place for a vacation away from home.
That Wednesday Kyle and Sheridan, and their families, got together for something they called Grill Fest. They started preparing things for it on Tuesday afternoon and spent most of the day on Wednesday cooking and getting things ready for the feast. Since everyone there was busy preparing for the meal and Owen wasn't napping well that morning, we decided to just leave and do something together as a family. We went into Glen Arbor to visit the Cherry Republic store, try some samples, get some lunch at the restaurant, and stop at the store for some baby food for Owen. It was good to just get out and do something for a little while.
The food that Kyle planned and his family and Neil helped prepare was outstanding. They call it Grill Fest because it was a 3 hour meal with like 6 or 7 different kinds of meat, and lots of sides. Everything was gourmet with exotic ingredients, not your typical burgers and hot dogs. The kids were a little wary at first, but we told them we just wanted them to try a little bit of everything. Samantha's favorite was the lamb and the fish. Aedan was a little more unsure about trying new things because a lot of it looked a lot different than stuff they are used to eating, but he definitely had enough little bits of food to fill his tummy. Both kids were probably most excited about the homemade ice cream for dessert, so we were sure to let them try some ice cream before it was time to tuck them into bed for the night. Here are some pictures from Grill Fest that day.
Here are the kids enjoying the hammock together after dinner that evening.
And here's Owen enjoying the outdoor, playing with sticks he found on the ground, pulling up on this old tree trunk, and just sitting there practicing his new skill of clapping. He claps all the time now, and it's so cute to see how happy he is with himself when he claps. If you say, "Yay!" he will usually clap excitedly with you. :)
After everyone had their fill of food that day, and our kids were tucked into bed, we enjoyed sitting around the campfire and talking. However, Owen woke up crying three times that night, so Ben and I kept having to go back into the cabin to try to get Owen back to sleep and quiet so that he didn't end up waking up Samantha and Aedan who were sleeping on the other side of the wall in the next room. Then, it was also supposed to storm in the middle of the night, which I was afraid would wake everyone up. Luckily, it ended up just being rain and nobody was bothered by it at all. We weren't sure why Owen kept waking up so much that night. Sleeping in a different place always throws the kids off for a couple nights, so we thought that might have something to do with it, but it was frustrating nonetheless.
Many of the nights we stayed in Glen Arbor, Ben ended up staying up late talking to his friends around the campfire. On Wednesday night I ended up just going in and going to bed because Owen kept waking up. However, Ben stayed up very late, sometimes until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. Staying up late, combined with waking up a lot with Owen overnight, made for some pretty tired parents in the morning. However, we didn't get this chance to hang out with college friends very often, so we were okay with a few nights of little sleep.
The other people staying at the house and cabin had the privilege of sleeping in in the morning, since they didn't have kids that woke up at 7:00 in the morning regardless of what they time went to sleep. Sometimes they weren't eating breakfast until after 10:00 in the morning, so on Thursday we decided to get up and go out to do something together as a family, rather than just stay around the house and cabins.
We decided to check out the Sleeping Bear Dunes. Ben and I had been there years ago with Ben's family on vacation, but I didn't remember much about it. We tried to explain to the kids what the dunes were, but they didn't quite understand it until we got there. Samantha and Aedan were excited to climb up the huge sand hills, but it was even more fun for them to run back down them, screaming and falling into the sand at the bottom.
Here are Samantha and Aedan looking out over the dunes at the water.
And here is the view at the top of dunes that we climbed up. We knew the kids would never be able to go up the big hill climb, so we figured this lookout area would be much more manageable for them.
The big kids enjoyed just playing around in the sand and digging tunnels through the sand. During this time I was trying to get Owen to sleep in the Ergo because it was past his nap time and he was super tired, but there was much too much to look at for him to nap.
We walked a little farther down the path to the beach so I could let Owen play in the sand as well. We brought some sand toys with us, and the kids dug in the sand, walked in the water, and just enjoyed exploring a new beach in a new location.
I think this picture is so cool with the perspective, with Owen in the foreground and Samantha in the background, the sand, the worn shells, the water as far as the eye could see, and the puffy white clouds in the sky.
Here are some videos and pictures of the kids playing on the beach that day, as well as Owen enjoying standing with his feet in the water.
Even though we were having a great time playing in the sand, it was getting close to lunchtime, and we decided to leave the beach and drive to this little picnic area. The wind had picked up some, so we all got a little chilly sitting outside, but luckily, we had some sweaters with us. The kids were definitely hungry so they ate well, and then they ran around and played in the grass. I just love these kids and these precious moments we have to spend together. We have gotten to do some pretty amazing trips this summer, and we have had such a fun time. I am sad that the weeks of summer are winding down, but I am extremely glad that we have been able to spend so much time making memories together.
After enjoying our picnic in the park, we went back to the house/cabin to put Owen down for a nap. We decided to let Samantha and Aedan watch a movie upstairs in the house in their theater room so that they could relax a little, and Ben and I could then have the chance to hang out with our friends more. Owen took a decent nap, and then we all got our bathing suits on so we could go out on the Dupont's boat for a ride and a chance to go tubing. The kids had never been on a boat before, let alone on a tube, so they were really excited about it. I hadn't gone tubing probably since a youth group trip in high school. Samantha decided to go first, and she went out with Kyle, since he was a little more experienced than the rest of us. Both of them had life jackets on of course, so if they fell off, it was perfectly safe. Kyle did his best to shift his weight back and forth and keep the tube level so it wouldn't tip. Samantha was having the time of her life and was perfectly okay with the boat going faster. In fact, after awhile she requested that Mr. Andy try to knock her off, so he went faster and whipped her back and forth harder, and as the tube skirted out to the side, she lost her grip and fell into the water. However, it didn't scare her at all. She was laughing and grinning ear to ear. Here is a video of Samantha on the tube with Kyle. The last video shows both of them falling off the tube at the end.
Next, Aedan went with Kyle. I was a little worried that Aedan wouldn't like it, or that he would be traumatized if he fell off the tube and landed roughly in the water, since he doesn't like jumping into the water and getting his head submerged. However, they didn't whip him around as much, and he actually never fell off. When it was time for his turn to be over, Aedan actually voluntarily slid off into the water because he wanted to get wet like Samantha.
After Aedan's turn, it was Samantha's turn again, and she went out on the tube with Neil. I don't have a video of that, but she was having a great time, and she wanted to get knocked off again, but it was actually Neil that fell off at the end, and Samantha stayed on. However, she did tell us later that she actually helped him fall into the water by pushing his hand off when he was trying to hold on. That silly girl of ours!
Aedan wanted another turn on the tube, and this time he chose to ride with me. I was a little nervous about getting out on the water, and I was actually a little nervous about falling into the water myself. However, it was super fun to be out on the water with my little boy. He has gotten so brave lately and has tried so many new things. I was so proud of him, and we were having a blast talking and laughing out on the water. Towards the end of our ride, Aedan wanted to get knocked off in the water just like Samantha did, so I tried my best to not keep us on the tube when we were flung out to the side. I let myself fall off the tube into the water, but Aedan still stayed on. We had such a fun time out on the boat and going tubing that the kids didn't want to stop. However, they both had two turns and it was getting to be dinnertime, so we decided to call it a day. They probably could have kept going all night.
After getting the kids to bed on Thursday night, the grown-ups decided to do a Euchre tournament in the main house. Our monitors did not reach far enough, so we used our phones as monitors by leaving one in Owen's room and calling it so we could hear through the phone if he started crying. It was so fun to play games with other adults and to enjoy ourselves well past our normal bedtime. In fact, even as most people were going to bed that night, Ben, Neil, and Kyle decided to stay up a little later and sit out on the porch and talk. I think he was up past 1:00 in the morning that night. I didn't even notice him come to bed.
Thursday into Friday, the temperature dropped quite a bit overnight and it was going to be a little chilly on Friday. Even with the windows closed in our cabin, it got kind of chilly while we slept. I'm not sure if that's the reason or not, but Owen woke up quite a bit that night, and I could tell his nose was getting stuffy again. In fact, he also woke up early that morning, like around 5:00, and it took Ben and I almost two hours to finally get him back to sleep. We were trying so hard to keep him quiet so he wouldn't wake up Samantha and Aedan as well. They were up at the normal time, a little bit after 7:00, but Ben and I were desperately wanting more sleep, so we let them play on their LeapPads, Ben laid in the room with them and slept for awhile longer, and I stayed in the room and slept for awhile longer with Owen. We were tired and and got close to another hour of sleep in.
Once we were all up and around, we decided to head to town again, this time with Kyle, Neil, and MJ. We got some coffee from a local coffee shop, bought some cherry treats from Cherry Republic, ate Chicago style hot dogs at a local hot dog stand, and then let the kids play at the playground for awhile. It was a fun little park, and the kids really enjoyed these swings where they could swing right along with Owen. Owen thoroughly enjoyed the attention from his big sister and brother. He was just smiling and giggling like crazy.
Friday afternoon was rainy and cold, so we spent most of the day indoors. Owen took a decent nap, and then we just spent the rest of the day hanging out and enjoying company of friends. It cleared up just a little bit around dinnertime, allowing the kids to play outside in the driveway with some balls and toys and to drive the jeep around the yard again. After eating a great dinner of grilled chicken and salad, we got our kids bathed and in bed before enjoying another Euchre tournament. I was definitely getting the hang of it after never really playing the game much before. I learned it in college and played it a couple times but never really knew the strategy behind how to play. Since Friday night was our last night in Glen Arbor, Ben and I both stayed up late talking outside on the porch. However, Owen woke up crying around 12:45, shortly after going outside, so I decided to just head back to the cabin, get Owen back to sleep, and then go to bed myself. In fact, Samantha and Aedan were both up shortly after that needing to go to the bathroom, too. I expected Ben to not be too far behind me, but he was out talking with his friends until past 2:00 a.m. He didn't want to miss this time with his friends, even if it meant he would be tired the next morning.
Saturday morning was time for us to get all our stuff packed up and head back home. We wanted to be home for church on Sunday and figured it would be good to have a day home to get situated before our normal life started again on Monday. The kids were sad to leave and were talking about when we could come back again. Here is Ben with his friends, Neil and Kyle. Maybe we will have to do a get together like this again some day (especially when we don't have a little baby we have to follow around and who wakes us up multiple times a night). We definitely had a fun week and enjoyed the Dupont's hospitality.
Our drive went well that day. Owen took a good nap in the morning, we stopped for lunch in Gaylord, and then drove the rest of the way home. Here is what our car looked like that afternoon. Owen, Izzy, and Aedan all sleeping peacefully; and Samantha reading a book quietly. We didn't tell Aedan that he had to nap, but he was so tired that he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. It had been a long week, and the boys were still not feeling back to normal, so they were very tired.
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After we got back home that Saturday afternoon, since Aedan was still having diarrhea, Ben decided to take him to the walk-in clinic. They sent us home with a stool collection kit for us to bring back to the hospital the next day. They said it might just need a few more days to run it's course, but that it didn't seem like a virus, or the rest of us would probably have caught it, too. I just felt bad for Aedan because I'm sure his stomach was not feeling good. He was eating and drinking pretty much like normal, but his tummy certainly wasn't happy, and we wanted to do what we could to help him feel better.
Then, that night in the two hours after putting Owen to bed, he was awake crying three times. We could not get Owen to settle down and stay asleep. He just kept screaming and crying every time we laid him down. In fact, one time Ben came back into our room from being with him, he said that he was worried he had an ear infection again because this is what he did last time he had an ear infection. Ben and I were already so tired from being up late in Glen Arbor, plus being up with Owen during the night quite a bit there, and now we were having a rough night where we got very little sleep. I nursed him four times during the night just to try to get him back to sleep, and I was in there a couple other times as well. I think between Ben and I, we were in his room eleven times that night. It was not great, Ben and I were exhausted, and we were worried that we were going to go through another rough stretch with Owen.
(Blog about July 22-28, 2018)
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