Samantha: 87 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 52 Months, Week 4
Owen: 11 Months, Week 1 (Week 49)
With our trip to Boston for Ben's conference coming up next week, this week, the days of August 19-25 were our last days of summer at home together as a family.
Even though Aedan doesn't usually nap anymore, he was a super tired boy on Sunday afternoon, so we decided he needed some extra sleep and needed to take a nap. I got Owen down for a nap, but Ben ended up having to go in with him because he woke up crying. He tried to lay him down, but that didn't work, so, unfortunately, he ended up having to stay in with him and hold him while he slept. I went in Aedan's room to check on him and make sure he was actually napping, and he was too cute to not take pictures of. Sometimes I wonder how often he actually sleeps on his bed in a normal way. I just think it's adorable to see him snuggled up with Happy Bear, sleeping halfway down his bed.
Sometimes it's the simplest things that make me smile the most. Now that Samantha is older and bigger, she takes showers, and that means the boys get to take baths together. They have a blast in the tub together. Aedan is content just sitting and playing with toys, and Owen loves to watch him play and chew on toys. I tried keeping Owen out of the bath seat, but he just wants to climb around too much and it's not safe, so back to the bath seat it is. The one thing they both have in common is there love of splashing in the water. They were splashing so much that I had to move out of the way so I wouldn't get too wet. Here's a video of them splashing around in the tub together. I'm so glad these two boys will have each other.
Here's a really nice picture Ben took of the International Bridge when he was out for his walk with Izzy that evening after putting the kids to bed. It's really pretty cool that we live so close to an international border.
With summer coming rapidly to a close, our schedule was filling up more and more with various appointments, meetings, and trainings. We had small group leader training on Sunday night. Originally, Ben and I were going to take turns going to this, but we decided to ask the Grundmeiers for a babysitting favor so that Ben and I could both go together. It was kind of funny because several couples from our previous small group were there because we are planning on branching off and starting several new groups so we can open up to more people that want to be involved in a group. Our kids did pretty well at the Grundmeiers, all our kids get along pretty well and really enjoy playing together, and we so appreciated them being willing to take on our three in addition to their four.
Since our meeting went until a little after 8:00 on Sunday night, we got the kids to bed late, and Monday was another busy day. I had a MOPS Leadership Meeting and had to take all the kids with me, of course, since Ben was starting with meetings and preparations for the semester. It was a good meeting in planning for the year with ideas for topics for the meetings, and it was nice to have the kids taken care of for the morning. However, Owen was pretty grumpy afterwards and before lunch since he hadn't napped all morning. It was a bit hectic trying to get everything taken care of, get lunch ready, and get everyone fed. Then, I got upset at the kids because Izzy was chewing a Lego princess figure under Samantha's bed and Aedan had little Legos spilled all over his floor. I felt tired of having to worry about what Izzy or Owen was chewing on because they just leave toys all over the floor.
Monday evening was busy for us as well because Ben had a board meeting at church, and I had to go to a Parent Orientation Meeting for Aedan's preschool. I couldn't really take the kids with me, so we decided to hire a babysitter for that night. The orientation was supposed to go until 8:00, but I was hoping it wouldn't go that late and cause us to have another late bed time. I asked that the kids have everything cleaned up and be ready for bed when I got home, since I would have to put all the kids to bed on my own. Unfortunately, I got a text from Mary asking what to do if Aedan won't clean up. He has been very emotional lately, and he has been especially resistant when it's time to clean up or transition to a new activity. I also heard that Samantha and Aedan were fighting over toys quite a bit that evening, and that Aedan hit Samantha several times. I don't know what it is, but he has been much more physically aggressive lately. He has been throwing things, hitting things and people, destroying toys, and just been much more aggressive. I have talked to a few other moms with boys around the same age, and it seems like it is just a phase, but we just want to be consistent so that he knows it's not okay. I also think, in some ways, that the kids might be getting tired of each other. The summers up here are wonderful and long, but now that it's coming to an end and the kids are anticipating the start of school, I think they are just getting on each other's nerves more.
After I got Samantha and Aedan to bed, I decided to feed Owen some more food. Samantha said that he was pretty cranky towards the end of the night, and in order to make him happy while I was putting the big kids to bed, I fed Owen puffs, and he was devouring them, making me think that he was still hungry. After all, Mary had only given him one jar of baby food, and he's used to eating two jars, plus some finger food. I put him in his high chair and after he was mostly done eating, I got this cute video of him playing and laughing. You can definitely see in his eyes that he is tired, and he was getting a little slap happy as I made funny noises for him. (And then he gave himself the hiccups at the end.)
Since our meeting went until a little after 8:00 on Sunday night, we got the kids to bed late, and Monday was another busy day. I had a MOPS Leadership Meeting and had to take all the kids with me, of course, since Ben was starting with meetings and preparations for the semester. It was a good meeting in planning for the year with ideas for topics for the meetings, and it was nice to have the kids taken care of for the morning. However, Owen was pretty grumpy afterwards and before lunch since he hadn't napped all morning. It was a bit hectic trying to get everything taken care of, get lunch ready, and get everyone fed. Then, I got upset at the kids because Izzy was chewing a Lego princess figure under Samantha's bed and Aedan had little Legos spilled all over his floor. I felt tired of having to worry about what Izzy or Owen was chewing on because they just leave toys all over the floor.
Monday evening was busy for us as well because Ben had a board meeting at church, and I had to go to a Parent Orientation Meeting for Aedan's preschool. I couldn't really take the kids with me, so we decided to hire a babysitter for that night. The orientation was supposed to go until 8:00, but I was hoping it wouldn't go that late and cause us to have another late bed time. I asked that the kids have everything cleaned up and be ready for bed when I got home, since I would have to put all the kids to bed on my own. Unfortunately, I got a text from Mary asking what to do if Aedan won't clean up. He has been very emotional lately, and he has been especially resistant when it's time to clean up or transition to a new activity. I also heard that Samantha and Aedan were fighting over toys quite a bit that evening, and that Aedan hit Samantha several times. I don't know what it is, but he has been much more physically aggressive lately. He has been throwing things, hitting things and people, destroying toys, and just been much more aggressive. I have talked to a few other moms with boys around the same age, and it seems like it is just a phase, but we just want to be consistent so that he knows it's not okay. I also think, in some ways, that the kids might be getting tired of each other. The summers up here are wonderful and long, but now that it's coming to an end and the kids are anticipating the start of school, I think they are just getting on each other's nerves more.
After I got Samantha and Aedan to bed, I decided to feed Owen some more food. Samantha said that he was pretty cranky towards the end of the night, and in order to make him happy while I was putting the big kids to bed, I fed Owen puffs, and he was devouring them, making me think that he was still hungry. After all, Mary had only given him one jar of baby food, and he's used to eating two jars, plus some finger food. I put him in his high chair and after he was mostly done eating, I got this cute video of him playing and laughing. You can definitely see in his eyes that he is tired, and he was getting a little slap happy as I made funny noises for him. (And then he gave himself the hiccups at the end.)
Tuesday was another day that we had some business to take care of as well. Izzy had a grooming appointment that morning at 8:30, and then I took the kids to Meijer to go grocery shopping before going back to pick Izzy up. No one is that big of a fan of grocery shopping (not even me), but they really did a great job helping me that morning. The kids knew that we had a short amount of time to get our shopping done so that we could get back to pick Izzy up in time, and we were able to do it. Aedan helped me find stuff on the shelves and fill up the cart. Samantha helped me push the cart and play with Owen so that he stayed happy during our shopping trip.
The rest of the day Samantha and Aedan just enjoyed playing outside together. It was a little different getting used to Ben being back on campus full time, but I was glad that we were slowly easing ourselves back into our normal semester routine. Thankfully, that afternoon, Owen took a long afternoon nap, which is good for him and for me. The big kids were able to do their work (Samantha has been completing a summer work packet she got from her 1st grade teacher, and Aedan has been doing some letter, number, and writing activities with me.), and then have time to play together. We haven't done much quiet time this summer since they really do a good job just playing together, and as long as they aren't too loud where they will wake Owen up, I am glad to let them have as much time as they want to play together.
We had thought about having our last small group meeting with our original small group on Tuesday night, but there were many people that couldn't make it, so we decided to just call it off. Because that was cancelled and since Owen took such a good nap, I was able to go to a Lemongrass Party that night at a friend's house to get a little time away and get back a little later to put Owen down for the night.
While I was gone, Ben took the kids to the last night of $2 Tuesday ice cream cones at Zak's, and then time to walk around the locks.
The rest of the day Samantha and Aedan just enjoyed playing outside together. It was a little different getting used to Ben being back on campus full time, but I was glad that we were slowly easing ourselves back into our normal semester routine. Thankfully, that afternoon, Owen took a long afternoon nap, which is good for him and for me. The big kids were able to do their work (Samantha has been completing a summer work packet she got from her 1st grade teacher, and Aedan has been doing some letter, number, and writing activities with me.), and then have time to play together. We haven't done much quiet time this summer since they really do a good job just playing together, and as long as they aren't too loud where they will wake Owen up, I am glad to let them have as much time as they want to play together.
We had thought about having our last small group meeting with our original small group on Tuesday night, but there were many people that couldn't make it, so we decided to just call it off. Because that was cancelled and since Owen took such a good nap, I was able to go to a Lemongrass Party that night at a friend's house to get a little time away and get back a little later to put Owen down for the night.
While I was gone, Ben took the kids to the last night of $2 Tuesday ice cream cones at Zak's, and then time to walk around the locks.
After getting the boring stuff out of the way the first two days of the week, I wanted to do special things with the kids the remainder of the week, as it was our last week together for the summer, before Ben's conference to Boston, his semester starting, and then Samantha starting school the day after Labor Day. We had plans to get together with the Grundmeier girls that morning, but they had Bible study that morning, so we decided to get together after lunch. Owen had taken a decent nap that morning while Samantha and Aedan played and I got stuff done around the house. Then, after eating lunch, we went to the parking lot of the Lutheran church for the kids to ride bikes together. They were all having a lot of fun riding up and down the hill, and pretending to be in a bike parade. However, it was getting close to Owen's nap time, and he was starting to fall down and hurt himself a lot, like scraping his forehead on the bark of a tree, and Aedan was melting down quickly, crying about every little thing. It's so hard to do things with kids sometimes because of everyone's schedules. Valerie and I had some time to talk, but not as much as we would have liked. I am glad that we are neighbors and can get together more often just because of proximity, that makes it a lot easier. Plus, I feel like our kids mesh well together, and Ben and I really enjoy the company of Valerie and Jeff as well. We will definitely have to have more play dates once the school year starts and we have just our two youngest kids, especially once our babies aren't taking morning naps anymore, so it would be easier to get together in the morning. I almost feel like it's harder to do things with Owen now than when he was an infant, because he's not going to just fall asleep anywhere anymore, and it's not great for him to miss too many morning naps or that causes problems from the lack of sleep.
Once we got back home, I tried to get Owen down for a nap quickly, but I ended up having to sit with him that afternoon because he just kept screaming and crying every time I laid him down. Then, to make it even harder to get him to sleep, Samantha and Aedan were running around, making noise on the floor above his room, even though I told them to be quiet. Every time he has a hard time sleeping like this, I get worried he has an ear infection. I don't understand why he does it sometimes. Sometimes he goes to sleep just fine, and other times he is unhappy every time you lay him down. It definitely didn't make for a very restful afternoon for me, that's for sure.
Aedan has been acting up a lot more lately, and part of me thinks that he's doing this more because he knows preschool is coming and it's something different, but he doesn't really know what to expect. Part of me is looking forward to quieter afternoons while Aedan is at preschool, and hoping Owen will fall into a good routine of napping during those hours that Aedan is gone. It will certainly be weird getting used to him being gone every afternoon though. Samantha is getting more ready for school to start, too. A week ago, she probably would have said she wasn't ready for school, but I think they are fighting more because they have just been around each other too much, like they both just need a break from each other and are ready for more structure and routine to their days. Aedan has been hitting, kicking, throwing things a lot, and just being very emotional, crying over the littlest things, especially when he is in trouble or gets hurts. And Samantha has been mean to him and talking back a lot more again. The kids were definitely wearing on me that day.
After the rough nap time that I had with Owen, I was worried about how our night would go on Wednesday, but luckily, Owen slept well that night. Plus, on Tuesday night he actually slept all the way until 4:30 a.m., nursed, and slept until about 7:15, which was good. His sleeping has definitely improved, and he is starting to make it longer and longer at night without waking up. I know Aedan did that 4 or 5:00 wake up for quiet some time, and I am fine with getting up once during the night to feed Owen, if he will then go back to sleep easily. Lately when he has nursed during the night, he won't eat for very long and sometimes he is asleep and I am back in bed in about fifteen minutes.
Once we got back home, I tried to get Owen down for a nap quickly, but I ended up having to sit with him that afternoon because he just kept screaming and crying every time I laid him down. Then, to make it even harder to get him to sleep, Samantha and Aedan were running around, making noise on the floor above his room, even though I told them to be quiet. Every time he has a hard time sleeping like this, I get worried he has an ear infection. I don't understand why he does it sometimes. Sometimes he goes to sleep just fine, and other times he is unhappy every time you lay him down. It definitely didn't make for a very restful afternoon for me, that's for sure.
Aedan has been acting up a lot more lately, and part of me thinks that he's doing this more because he knows preschool is coming and it's something different, but he doesn't really know what to expect. Part of me is looking forward to quieter afternoons while Aedan is at preschool, and hoping Owen will fall into a good routine of napping during those hours that Aedan is gone. It will certainly be weird getting used to him being gone every afternoon though. Samantha is getting more ready for school to start, too. A week ago, she probably would have said she wasn't ready for school, but I think they are fighting more because they have just been around each other too much, like they both just need a break from each other and are ready for more structure and routine to their days. Aedan has been hitting, kicking, throwing things a lot, and just being very emotional, crying over the littlest things, especially when he is in trouble or gets hurts. And Samantha has been mean to him and talking back a lot more again. The kids were definitely wearing on me that day.
After the rough nap time that I had with Owen, I was worried about how our night would go on Wednesday, but luckily, Owen slept well that night. Plus, on Tuesday night he actually slept all the way until 4:30 a.m., nursed, and slept until about 7:15, which was good. His sleeping has definitely improved, and he is starting to make it longer and longer at night without waking up. I know Aedan did that 4 or 5:00 wake up for quiet some time, and I am fine with getting up once during the night to feed Owen, if he will then go back to sleep easily. Lately when he has nursed during the night, he won't eat for very long and sometimes he is asleep and I am back in bed in about fifteen minutes.
I know I've mentioned how much Owen is walking around now, but I feel like I haven't been able to get a very good video of it. However, on Wednesday night, I got this great video of Owen walking across the basement with my brush in his hand. He is much sturdier on his feet than he used to be, and when he falls down, he almost always chooses to stand up and keep walking, rather than to continue crawling. We can definitely say this little boy was walking at 11 months! I love watching this little boy toddle around, even if he still seems to short to be walking around so well!
I know that Samantha has enjoyed her more relaxing mornings at home, staying in her pajamas, and not having to rush to get ready for school. Here she is giving Izzy some love on Thursday morning. It's so nice to have a puppy that is so affectionate and loving.
It was going to be a beautiful day on Thursday, so instead of staying home to let Owen take a nap, and then wasting our whole morning, I decided to pack a picnic lunch for us, and the kids and I went over to Canada to Bellevue Park. Owen ended up falling asleep in the car on the way there, so when we got to the park, I actually left him in the car with the car running and let Samantha and Aedan get out quietly and go start playing on the playground together. I stood right in between the car and the playground so that I could see everyone and went over to the car every five minutes or so to peek through the window to check and see if Owen was awake or not. He ended up taking a pretty good nap that morning, and when he woke up, he was excited to get out an play.
Now that Owen is mobile and is mostly walking around, he has a lot more fun at playgrounds than he used to. He particularly liked climbing up inside this blue tube and peeking out through the holes at me.
Since we were having such a good morning and Owen actually took a nap while we were out, we decided to head back over to the the U.S. so we could make it to the library for a special dinosaur craft time. The librarian read some books about dinosaurs to start out, and then a paper crafting group gave the kids all they would need to make dinosaur cards with dinosaurs, trees, volcanoes, and glitter glue to look like lava. Both Samantha and Aedan made several cards and were having a great time being creative. After that, the kids picked out some new books to check out while Owen had fun just walking all over the library and climbing underneath the low bookshelves. However, as it was getting close to time for him to take another nap, and he was starting to fall down more, one time hitting his head pretty hard on a bench and getting a pretty large bump on his forehead, so we decided to head home so I could get him down for at least a little bit of an afternoon nap. On our way home Samantha commented, "Thank you for letting us do so many fun things in one day, Mommy." I'm glad we were able to have such a fun day out doing things together. I sure am going to miss my girl when she goes off to school in a couple weeks.
After Owen woke up from his nap that afternoon, I was trying on some shoes for him, and letting him play down in the basement. He found the drums and a stick and was having a blast hitting the drums and making noise. (Do you notice all the scratches and bruises on his face? You can tell this little boy is just learning to walk and has the battle scars to prove it. It seems like he always hits the same part of his forehead when he falls.)
Here is Samantha posing with her little brother, making silly faces, and some close up shots of all the scrapes, bumps, and bruises on Owen's poor little forehead.
That night for dinner we had a yummy instant pot pasta recipe, along with some strawberries and blueberries. We have been trying to give Owen more finger food when we can, especially when our meal is conducive to that. In fact, we have been taking his clothes off a lot more at meal time because when he eats with his fingers, he gets super messy! I just wanted to document that in this video, even though he stopped eating when I started to record him. He was a big fan of this dinner and ate quite a bit of noodles and fruit.
When Aedan saw me taking a video of Owen, he wanted me to take a picture of him as well. I think this little boy is just so adorable. I love his big brown eyes, his little pink cheeks, and his chin. Don't you think he's looking so much more grown up these days?! He's getting taller and losing a lot of his younger looking qualities. How can you ever get too mad at this face with his smile?
And here's a video of all three of the kids that night at dinner. Boy, do I love them so much, even in all their craziness, messiness, and loudness. I have been blessed with wonderful kids.
Here's a picture of the beautiful sunset from Thursday night on Ben's walk with Izzy.
Friday was another day where we didn't have too much exciting going on because both Samantha and I had to go back to the dentist to get fillings done. Mine was on an area that had gotten a filling a long time ago but was not as it should be anymore, and Samantha had a little one in one of her baby molars. After getting done at the dentist, Samantha and Aedan just had a fun afternoon playing outside together while Owen took a nap. They just love being in the back yard together, coming up with imaginary games, and running around together. I love to watch them play and interact with one another. This is what I'm going to miss the most about Samantha going back to school. They really are each other's best friends.
On Friday night I was able to go out to eat with a few ladies from our small group. We had been trying to plan this night out for a long time, and I decided I would try to make it happen before school started back up again and everything got busier for everyone. We went to Karl's for dinner, and it was fun to just sit and talk. I know for me I don't get much of a chance to get to know people when the kids are around because I am dealing with them, getting them food, or feeding or chasing Owen around. So at the restaurant that night I was able to just sit and enjoy my meal and some good conversation. We will definitely have to do that again sometime soon.
On Saturday, after having a relaxing morning at home and letting Owen take a good morning nap, we decided to go over to Canada to go swimming, after eating lunch at Stack Burger. We hadn't been swimming here for awhile, probably since the beginning of July, and Owen was only crawling around then, so it definitely presented a different challenge having to follow Owen around as he tried to walk around in the water. He is not sure enough on his feet, and he is too little to wear a Puddle Jumper floatie, so we had to be pretty careful with him. Like we usually do, Ben and I took turns following Owen around and playing with the older kids. The kids had a good time, as they always enjoy swimming and being in the water.
We stayed until close to the end of the public swim and then headed back home to get Owen down for a little bit of an afternoon nap. We spent the rest of the day spending time together as a family, which is what Saturdays are for. Then, that night after getting Owen to bed, I went over the Grundmeiers to "babysit" their sleeping kids while they went out for a couple hours that night. I was able to sit and do some work for MOPS, watch a show on Netflix, and just relax in the quietness of a different house. They said they would return the favor to us some day if Ben and I ever wanted to go out after the kids were in bed and sleeping for the night.
(Blog about August 19-25, 2018)
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