Aedan: 52 Months, Week 5
Owen: 11 Months, Week 2 (Week 50)
Sunday, August 26th ended up turning into a busier day than we expected. Owen woke up before 7:00, and I nursed him to see if he would go back to sleep, but he was not interested in doing that. I handed him off to Ben so that I could sleep in a little bit more. Then, Ben tried putting him down for a morning nap two hours later, but Owen woke up both times he tried laying him down, so he had to sit with him in order for him to get any kind of a nap.
Ben and I both served in children's ministry that Sunday, and then we came back home for lunch time and nap time for Owen. With school fast approaching, Samantha had been asking for awhile if we could go get our nails done like we did last year before school started. She said she wanted to try the Angel Nails place inside of Meijer. So that afternoon, after getting Owen down for a nap, we headed out for our little date together. When we first got there, they were already busy doing other people, so we had to wait about an hour for her turn, which she wasn't happy about, but we got our shopping done while we waited.
Samantha was so excited to pick out her colors, choosing two different sparkly shades of blue for her toenails, and a sparkly pink and silver for her fingernails. I decided not to get mine done this time, partially because of cost, but also just because of time constraints. We both got to sit in these big comfy chairs with back massagers, and she got her feet soaked in the tub for a few minutes before the nail stylist started on her feet. I know this picture is blurry, but I like it because she is giving me a nice smile, and not just a silly face.
Owen is also a huge fan of water. He takes after his sister in that way. I tried to get him interested in playing in the sand, which he did for awhile, but then once he saw the water, he just made a beeline for it. I grabbed his baby floatie and stuck him in it so he could walk around in the water like he was using a walker on the ground. He was so happy. Do you see the joy on his face?! There were a few other little girls that were showing him quite a bit of attention, pulling his floatie around, and making him laugh. He definitely enjoys the attention of older kids.
That was one of those evenings where I could have stayed for much longer than we did. The weather was beautiful, the kids were having a blast, and I knew this very well may be our last opportunity to go swimming for the summer. Summer was coming to an end, and I was just wanting to sit and soak up these last moments.
We were going to leave on our big trip on Tuesday afternoon, so on Monday I spent quite a bit of time doing laundry and trying to get some clothes and things packed for our trip so that Tuesday would go more smoothly. We hung out around the house, and the kids enjoyed playing the back yard. Here's a couple of cute videos of Samantha pulling Aedan and Owen around in this little red wagon that was gifted to us. Owen was loving it, and he was just laughing and giggling as he went around for a ride.
On Monday evening, we got the kids bathed and to bed, and then Ben and I tried to get some more packing done so that I wouldn't have to do as much on Tuesday by myself. We planned to leave around 2:00, when he was done with his 1:00 class, and I wanted to make sure we were as ready as possible at that point. However, Tuesday morning was still hectic. It's amazing how long it takes to pack for a week long trip for five people, especially when three of those people would be flying on a plane, so you have to pack a little more carefully. It's amazing how much stuff we had to bring just for Owen alone, from baby food to milk that I worked to pump ahead of time so that I wouldn't have to bring my pump along, to toys for the plane, to snacks, to his stroller, and the list goes on and on. Any time we are getting ready to go on a trip, Samantha and Aedan act listless that morning, not really playing with anything, and generally just being impatient and not helpful, simply because they are so excited to get going on our trip. To make things more complicated, we dropped Izzy off early so that way we didn't have to do it that afternoon, but it messed up Owen's morning nap a little. He was wanting to fall asleep in the car, but I kept him awake so that he could nap at home instead. However, then he wouldn't nap for me, no matter how hard I tried to get him to sleep. I thought to myself, "I should have just let him take a nap in the car!"
On a side note, Owen has definitely started to show interest in playing with balls. He will carry this soft ball around the house, try to put it in his mouth, it will then fall on the floor, he will pick it up, and then continue to walk around with the ball. It's kind of cute to watch, so I decided to take a little video of it.
We were on the road to Upland by about 2:30 that afternoon, and we were going to drive straight through, hoping the kids would crash in the car once it got to be bedtime. Owen was definitely ready for a nap when we started driving, and he was asleep before we even got to the bridge, taking a pretty decent nap, and actually giving Ben and me a chance to talk together in the front of the car while Samantha and Aedan played quietly on their Leap Pads. We stopped after about three hours at a Chipotle and then got back on the road again. After driving another hour and a half or so, we stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom for the last time, and for Ben to get some coffee for himself. It was bedtime for the kids, and we so hoped that everyone would go to sleep and stay asleep in the car, especially little Owen. His sleeping is so unpredictable sometimes, that I was having a lot of anxiety about how he would sleep on this trip. Samantha and Aedan snuggled up with their animals, I put Owen in his sleep sack, nursed him one more time, hoping that he might fall asleep while he was eating. He did not fall asleep, but he was definitely pretty drowsy, so I put him in his car seat and started rocking it back and forth to get him to fall asleep. He fussed for a little while, but not too long and not too loudly, and then he fell peacefully asleep. I actually ended up downloading a white noise app on my phone and played it in the car for the kids, just to help block out any noises and maybe help them sleep better since they are not used to sleeping in super quiet environments.
Once I was confident that Owen was fast asleep, I crawled up to the front seat to sit next to Ben and we were able to share his head phone set to listen to a couple sermon podcasts as we continued our drive. Much to our surprise, all three kids stayed asleep for the rest of the drive. We didn't get to Upland until about 10:15, and Aedan stirred and whimpered a little bit at one point, trying to get comfortable, and probably because his little feet were falling asleep from having his legs dangling for so long. But once we pulled into Ema and Papa's driveway and everyone woke up, we made sure to tell the kids how proud of them we were. The drive went so well, when it could have been so bad, and we were so happy that they were able to get some sleep as we drove.
Once we got everyone's stuff inside and situated and got everyone to bed, it was after 10:30. I nursed Owen and he fell asleep, but as soon as I laid him down he woke up. I tried walking around with him and he fell asleep again, but then woke up again when I laid him down. So eventually Ben offered to go in the room to try to get him to sleep. It was understandable that he was having a little bit of a hard time calming back down after being asleep in the car and waking up in a new place that he doesn't remember, plus sleeping in a pack and play in a different room than his own. It was almost 11:30 before Ben got him down, and then he was afraid to leave the room for fear of waking him up, so I got ready for bed and slipped in the room quietly. Even though it took some time getting him down that night, Owen gave us the wonderful gift of sleeping in until about 7:15 the next morning, not waking up once during that time. It was wonderful because even though we went to bed late, we ended up getting about 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I don't even remember the last time I got that many of hours of solid sleep. It was wonderful to start off our trip feeling well-rested.
Ben and I didn't have to leave for the airport until around lunchtime, so we spent the morning just hanging out in Upland. The kids couldn't wait to play outside, and even though Ema left early for work, Samantha and Aedan were excited to get some undivided attention from Papa. Samantha in particular was excited that we were taking Owen with us. I was excited for the kids because I knew it would be good for them to have some one-on-one time with Ema and Papa, and to also have a break from Owen, having to watch him for us, and having to determine our schedule around when he would need to eat or nap. Now, Ben and I would have much rather left Owen with Ema and Papa as well, so we could have had a trip away by ourselves, but considering Owen is still nursing, doesn't take a bottle, and still wakes up quite a bit during the night, that would not have been fair to them. Some day, some day... I am dreaming about the day that Ben and I can get away for a weekend by ourselves again. :)
The other issue that we were dealing with this week came after hearing news from the teacher we thought Samantha was going to have for 2nd grade, the one we met with several times at the end of last year to get everything set up for this year, was actually changing positions in the school and would no longer be Samantha's teacher. I was disappointed and frustrated when I got the message from her teacher because Ben and I were so excited for Samantha to have her, and we were confident that she was going to have a good year. Now, with teachers changing, everything was up in the air again, just like it was last year, and we now had a week before school was starting to figure it out. Samantha was in the new teacher's class, which at first I wasn't too thrilled about, simply because I didn't know anything about her. As a teacher myself, new teachers can be so hit or miss, and so often there is a steep learning curve when a teacher is trying to get used to a new school and a new class. Then, there was the trouble of trying to find a time where Samantha could go up for math and not be missing things in her class. The math times between 2nd grade and 3rd grade didn't seem to line up at all, so it just made everything all the more complicated. We just didn't want a repeat of last year where she was not being sent to math class consistently, and even though she was supposed to be pulled for an advanced reading group, that did not happy very consistently either. We know Samantha will do well because she is an extremely intelligent little girl, but we don't want her to just coast through 2nd grade. We want her to learn, and we want her to be challenged. So throughout the week I was in communication with the principal to try and figure out what we were going to do, as well as to schedule a meeting for when we got back from being out of town.
Anyways, back to our Wednesday. After eating lunch and saying good-bye to Samantha and Aedan, Ben, Owen, and I got in the car to drive down to the Indianapolis airport. Owen took a little bit of a nap at the house that morning, but he was ready for his afternoon nap as we drove. He slept most of the way down, which we were thankful for, hoping that would make our time on the plane go more smoothly.
We got to the airport in plenty of time, got through security with relative ease (even though I forgot a few liquids that I didn't take out of Owen's bag), and then we got ourselves some coffee and let Owen walk around and play in a little children's play area in the airport. Our flight was delayed about 50 minutes right off the bat for whatever reason, and then once we got on the plane and started taxiing out on the runway, the pilot came over the intercom to announce that a fuel light came on that they had to check out. We ended up having to go back to the gate to get it inspected, and they had to wait for someone to get to the plane to check it out. All that being said, it was going to possibly be another hour we were going to have to wait. I was dreading being stuck on a plane with an antsy 11 month old who just wanted to walk around, but luckily, they let off anyone who wanted to deplane and then come back on once they made the announcement that everything was ready. So Ben, Owen, and I deplaned, so we could let Owen walk around, feed him his baby food for dinner, and pick up some sandwiches for ourselves for dinner as well. All told, our flight ended up being delayed over 2 hours, which is not how we wanted to start our trip, but what can you do? Those circumstances were out of our control.
Here are some pictures of little Owen's first trip on a plane. He thought it was pretty interesting.
He probably slept for about 40 minutes, which was good, just enough to take the edge off and get him through the rest of the night. Here he is sitting on Daddy's lap, enjoying some snacks before we landed.
We didn't get to our hotel until around 9:00 that night, we got our stuff situated, and then I got Owen to bed as quickly as I could. It had been a long day of traveling and trying to contain a baby that just wanted to walk around, so Ben and I were exhausted. Since we were in a new place and Owen was sleeping in a metal crib with a pretty hard mattress, he woke up more often than he would when we are at home, especially considering how late we were up that night. We were hoping that he would get used to sleeping there after a little while.
We stayed in a Holiday Inn Express right in the city, just a couple blocks away from a subway station. We thought the hotel would have breakfast, like those hotels usually do, but this one was under renovation, so there was no breakfast in the hotel, which was kind of a bummer. I always look forward to their breakfast. Anyways, all that to say, we had to go over to a little coffee place to get breakfast instead. The hotel gave us coupons to use, which was nice, but it just took longer to order our food and eat there, and they didn't have high chairs for Owen, so we had to always feed him in his stroller.
Our plan for Thursday was to do a tour of Fenway Park, where the Red Sox play. Ben really wanted to be able to see a game here, but they were out of town the whole time we were there. We got tickets for the 11:00 tour, and I put Owen in the Ergo since he was needing to take a nap and it would be easier to carry him in that than to push the stroller around. It took me a while of walking around and bouncing, but I eventually got him to fall asleep, which I was glad for. Here are some pictures from our tour. I definitely enjoyed the tour more than I thought I would. There was a lot of interesting history the tour guide told us about, and it was cool to see the park from different vantage points, even going into the press box and up in the seats above the Green Monster. I also really loved listening to the guide's very thick Boston accent.
After our tour was over, we went across the street for lunch before heading back to the hotel to let Owen nap for the afternoon. We didn't have anything in particular we wanted to do, it was really hot outside, and we figured it would be good for him to get at least one nap a day in a bed. He ended up sleeping for almost 3 hours, and I had to wake him up when it was almost 5:45. I was glad he took a good nap, and we then felt like it would be okay if we stayed out a little later that night. There was an end of summer event that night and they were going to shoot fireworks off over the water at 8:30. We took the subway down, ate pizza at a local brick oven place, and then walked to this park right down by the water. (A cold front was starting to come through, and it was getting a little chilly out that evening. We were glad for that because it was in the 90s with heat advisories in the days before we came on our trip.)
Owen saw this bear dressed up and was very interested in going up to it and staring at it, but he wanted no part in touching it or giving it a high five. He didn't know what to think about it.
We put Owen in his stroller when the fireworks started so we didn't have to keep chasing him around. At first he was pretty amazed by the fireworks and bright lights he saw in the sky, but after a few minutes, he started to get bored and squirmy, so we had to take him out. Here are some pictures and videos from the fireworks that night. Ben and I both love watching fireworks.
It took us awhile to get back to the hotel after the fireworks because of a power outage that delayed some of the trains. Owen was definitely very tired, and he wasn't as entertained by riding on the subway as we thought he would be. I didn't get him to sleep until about 10:00 that night, and we hoped that he would sleep better. I put a folded blanket underneath the fitted sheet to help it be a bit softer for him, hoping that would help. He woke up twice during the night, and one of those times I fed him and he went back to sleep pretty quickly, so that wasn't bad.
On Friday we decided to take the subway down to Boston Commons and then walk the Freedom Trail to see some of the famous historical sights around Boston. Here's a look back at Boston Commons. It really was a pretty park tucked inside a bustling city.
We also saw some old buildings like churches and cemeteries where famous historical figures were buried. We stopped and had lunch at a little Italian place before seeing a couple more things and heading back to the hotel. Ben had his presentation for the conference that afternoon (after all that was the whole reason we came out to Boston in the first place), so he wanted to get back to shower, get ready, and get to the conference center in enough time to be prepared for his presentation. While Ben went to his conference presentation, I stayed at the hotel while Owen napped in the bedroom. He slept for two and half hours, and once again, I was so glad he was taking such good naps for us there. While he napped I was able to get a lot of work done in preparation for our upcoming MOPS meeting.
Once Owen woke up, I got us ready and we made our way on the subway to meet Ben over by the convention center for dinner. However, we experienced a few hiccups along the way. First, the elevator that we usually took down to our normal subway station was closed, so I had to find another way to get down with Owen and the stroller. Then, I had to lift the stroller up the few steps on to the subway, which a nice old man helped me with. The station we got off at didn't appear to have any elevator. I walked back and forth across the platform several times and never found one, so I ended up having to take Owen out of the stroller and carry him on my hip while lugging the stroller up all the stairs in my other hand. It was a little bit stressful doing all the by myself, and hoping that I went the right direction and would be able to meet up with him.
We decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner since we don't have that restaurant anywhere near us anymore. However, Owen was not in a very good mood. He was hard to entertain and contain, and he wasn't very interested in the food we were offering him, so it wasn't the most enjoyable dinner for us. The more we were on this trip with just Owen, the more we realized how much Samantha and Aedan help entertain him. I think he was kind of bored with just Mommy and Daddy. When I was done with my food, I ended up just taking him out of the restaurant and letting him walk around the children's section of Barnes and Noble while Ben finished his burger. (It was raw in the middle, so we had to send it back and wait for them to make another one.)
Originally, we had thought about stopping at the park that evening on our way back to the hotel, since once again Owen had a later nap, but with the mood he was in, we decided it would be better to just get back to the hotel and get him to bed at a more normal time. However, right off the bat, he was having a hard time. He had already woken up three times before when I put him down and when Ben and I went to bed, which usually isn't a good sign for how the rest of our night would go. He woke up quite a bit during the night, and both Ben and I were getting really frustrated with him because he would wake up just minutes after us laying him down totally asleep. It made me wonder why we thought we could just take Owen, who is a bad sleeper even at home sometimes, to different places and expect him to sleep okay. Then, he woke up at 6:15, and I tried nursing him back to sleep, but he was not wanting to go back to sleep, making it much too early of a morning. I foolishly thought that maybe we would be able to sleep in some on this trip, since sometimes Owen will sleep in at home, but that was definitely not the case. It made me look forward to the day when he finally starts sleeping through the night and is more predictable in his sleep.
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Saturday, September 1 was our last day in Boston, and we decided to spend most of it finishing the Freedom Trail. We saw some cool spots, like King's Church, which was an Anglican church until after the Revolution, when it became a Unitarian church. But what I thought was the most interesting was the pews they had. They were like sectioned off rectangles with walls and doors, and people had to buy their pew in the church. If you couldn't afford to buy one, they you had to sit on the upper floor where it was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. I had never seen anything like that before, and it was interesting to read these signs about the various people that owned different pews.
After a walk through the streets of Little Italy, we came upon Paul Revere's house. Owen had fallen asleep in the stroller, so we kept walking around at first, but once he woke up, we decided to go back and pay the money to tour the inside of it. I like seeing old houses and imagining what life would have been like for people back in different time periods. (I forgot to take any pictures of the inside.)
Owen was getting pretty squirmy in our arms while we toured the house, so when we got into the gift shop area where they had these original fireplaces, we let him crawl around and play while we figured out where we were going to eat for lunch. I think these fireplaces were his favorite part of the trip. :)
After eating at a very quaint and delicious Italian restaurant in Little Italy, we walked over to this little park, enjoying the sunshine and the fun swings.
Once he woke up from his nap, we took the subway down to the Boston Public Garden because we didn't see that part when we were in Boston Commons the day before. They had this beautiful pond area, lots of paths to walk around on, and swan boats out on the water (that didn't seem to be running on that night we were there).
Then, we made our way over to the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues based on the classic children's book that takes place in Boston. Owen loved these ducks that were just his size, and just like all the other kids, he posed for a picture sitting on one of the little ducks. (He was mad when I pulled him off the statue to let other kids have a turn.)
Owen really likes animals. Anytime he saw a squirrel, a dog, or a duck, he wanted to try to go up and touch it. This family was feeding the ducks peanuts, so there were tons of ducks around them, and Owen got up pretty close to one of them. However, we were afraid of what he would do (and what the duck would do) if he got too close, so we tried to restrain him as much as possible, which did not make him too happy.
Now, after talking about our time in Boston, I will switch to Samantha and Aedan's time in Upland. Papa gave us the pictures they took and a little description about their days together.
"Wednesday we played outside quite a bit until Donna got home. I went to Bible study at church, but the kids stayed up until I got home so each of them could have a grandparent put them to bed."
"Thursday we went to the zoo in Fort Wayne and stopped at an orchard to pick some apples and buy some pears on the way home."
Here are some pictures of their day at zoo. It looked like they had a blast. The kids had never been to that zoo before, and I was so glad that Ema and Papa were taking them to do special things like that.
They also always love petting and feeding goats.
"On Friday they played outside much of the day. They did a good job of playing by themselves both inside and outside. They began collecting caterpillars. Samantha made a friend with the girl who lives at the end of our lane Thursday and played with her some Friday afternoon. We had tacos for supper and then went to Ivanhoes, with both of them getting the clown sundaes that they like. We also built a house for squirrels, and Samantha made sure to have 3 kinds of nuts for them. It took her some work, but she learned and remembered we had walnuts, hickory nuts, and buckeyes--and knew which was which."
"Saturday we went to an orchard near Indianapolis to pick some more apples for applesauce. They also had a chance to play at a playground and climb on a big pile of straw bales. We ate at Wendy's on the way home. We all hung out and played outside. Every day, both kids, but especially Samantha, had several times to get the caterpillars out of the jar so they could have playtime."
This was their outdoor laboratory, with a jar to keep the caterpillars, and room to let the caterpillars get some exercise. I love how much these kids enjoy the outdoors. It's been great to see what they come up with to do outside, and how much they love to learn and explore nature. I'm so glad that Samantha and Aedan did so well and had so much fun in Upland. In fact, after we left, they talked about how they wished they could live there. :)
(Blog about August 26-September 1, 2018)
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