Aedan: 56 Months, Week 4
Owen: 15 Months, Week 2
After a rough start to our trip with Aedan getting an ear infection and having to go to a walk-in clinic on Saturday night, combined with the rough night's sleep we had, we knew Sunday was going to feel like a long day. We had plans to go to Christy's and Matthew's church that morning, followed by a trip to the Brookfield Zoo. We ended up going to the later service because of the rough night we had. Everyone got to bed late, and we didn't want to wake anyone up in order to get to the early service. Plus, getting ready in a hotel takes longer than if we were at home.
Anyways, after some confusion about when we were going to go to the zoo and what we would eat for lunch, we made it to church. Owen was able to go into an area for kids' programming, but Samantha and Aedan stayed with us. They both enjoyed coloring, and the service was a lot more song-based since it was the last Sunday before Christmas. We sang a lot of Christmas carols, which I liked, and it was good to be able to visit the church they have gone to for the last year or so.
After church we drove to the zoo, and Grandpa and Grandma made and brought sandwiches and chips. Christy brought some other things to eat along with that, and we found a place inside to eat right when we got there because we knew the kids were hungry.
After eating lunch, we started around the zoo, seeing wolves and bears, all the monkeys in Primate World, and the dolphins from the underwater viewing area. I was able get Owen to fall asleep for about 40 minutes in the Ergo, so at least it was some nap, but definitely not as long as he needed. Samantha really enjoyed our time at the zoo. She is reaching such a fun age for things like that, except it's hard for her because she wants to spend a lot more time reading signs and observing things than what her little brothers have the patience for. I wish we lived closer to places like this so that Ben and I could take her on dates to do things like this and let her take her time and explore as much as she wants without any time constraints. Here are some pictures of our day at the zoo.
As it started to get dark, it got colder, and although we weren't truly able to see the lights like they would be at night, we were able to see enough of them as we walked around. However, the kids were getting hungry and tired, and with Aedan still working on healing from his ear infection, we didn't want to stay too long. So we left the zoo and went on our way to Portillo's for dinner. On the way there, something scary happened while I was driving. We had some pretzels in the car that we were feeding the kids to help tide them over until we got to the restaurant. Well, Ben also had a pretzel and started choking on one, like really choking, making that terrible noise and he lurched forward to grab some water to drink to help wash it down. It scared me so bad that my heart was beating super fast. It's situations like that that make me realize I don't do well in emergency situations. I was just glad that he was able to get the pretzel unstuck.
Monday was Christmas Eve, and we planned to go to Christy's house to hang out. Since we weren't in a hurry to go anywhere, we decided to go swimming with the kids at the hotel pool that morning. After breakfast we surprised the kids by mentioning that we go, and they were thrilled, especially since Aedan missed out on going swimming on Saturday night. We definitely had a fun time in the pool being silly with each other. Ben and I took turns holding Owen so that we could both have turns playing with the big kids, and we really did just had a great time spending time together as a family.
After we were done swimming, we gave the kids quick baths and got dressed to head over to the Clemons' house. Christy had made the cookie dough recipe from Ben's family that we always make so that way the kids could decorate cookies. Ben and I got to work cutting out the shapes and baking the cookies so that way they could cool and the kids could decorate them. After playing for awhile and having lunch, I put Owen down for a nap, and then we had Aedan go lay down to sleep as well. He doesn't normally nap at all anymore, but with not feeling well, and being out all day on Sunday, we decided it would be best for him to get some extra sleep. He did a great job going right in to Christy and Matthew's bedroom and going to sleep quickly without disturbing Owen at all. In fact, Grandpa and Grandma offered to watch the kids for us, which really meant staying at the house while most of them napped and Samantha just read a book, so that way Christy, Matthew, Ben, and I could go out to eat for lunch together. We don't ever get to go out like this, just the four of us, with no kids, so we can just sit and talk to each other. We went to a Mexican restaurant, since we don't have any near where we live. It was really good food, and it was nice to spend some time with them like that, and we were glad for Grandpa and Grandma holding down the fort for us.
When we got back, all the kids were awake except for Aedan. Apparently they tried to get Owen back to sleep when he started crying, but it didn't work, so he took a pretty short nap that day. Even Samantha went in the room and tried to help him fall back asleep. Aedan slept through all of this, which was amazing to me, and another indication that he wasn't feeling well. So, since all the kids were awake, Ben and I iced the Christmas cookies and placed them on trays for the kids to decorate. Here are Samantha, Brielle, and Oliver decorating the cookies with lots and lots of sprinkles. They were having a good time. :)
After that we got everyone ready for the Christmas Eve service at Grandma and Grandpa's church that started at 5:00. All the kids went to the kids' rooms, even though Aedan was resistant to going into the classroom since he had never been there before and gets really thrown off by new situations like this. Ben dropped off Owen, since he usually has more of an issue with crying when I drop him off, but then Aedan didn't want to leave my side. Luckily, an older boy, who was helping with the kids that evening, got a really cool toy to show Aedan and enticed him to come play with him. Once we finally got everyone dropped off and made our way back downstairs and to the row that my family always sits in, we were able to enjoy another service to remind us what this time of year truly is all about.
Since the service was at 5:00, the kids were pretty hungry by the time the service was over. Luckily, Christy had made food in the crock pot for dinner, so it was ready when we got back to her house. We stayed around for birthday cake, but then it was getting late and we needed to get our kids back to the hotel and to sleep. I went back with Ben to help him get the kids to bed, and then I actually went back to Christy's house so that I could spend some more time with my family. With staying in a hotel and everyone not staying in one central location, it's more difficult to just sit and talk when kids aren't around, so I figured this would give me a chance to do that. My grandma and Don had already gone home, but my parents and brother were still there. I was able to talk with them more about plans for Florida, and Christy and I even went through houses online to come to a conclusion of which ones we like the best. I ended up staying until midnight and was definitely tired when I got back to the hotel for the night. Ben was already fast asleep, and I was glad he didn't stay up waiting for me.
Since we were spending Christmas in a hotel and had already done most of our presents on our family Christmas day before we left, we decided to let the kids bring their presents that they got from their Santa stores on our trip for us to open on Chistmas morning. It was cute to see what things the kids thought of to get for us. Some of them made sense, and some of them seemed really random. Aedan got Samantha a beaded bracelet.
After that, we finished getting everyone ready and headed back to the Clemons' house for our Christmas celebration. We planned to open presents before lunch so that way the kids could get down for naps and still have time to enjoy playing with their new things. Here is Uncle Matthew holding the two youngest boys. I'm not sure if Owen knew what was going on.
Samantha got a horse for Kit, her American Girl doll, and she was super excited about it and couldn't wait to get it out of the box to show Kit. You can tell how excited she was by the look on her face. :) Even Owen was very interested in touching the horse. She is definitely going to like playing with this.
Aedan's big present from the Clemons family was a big box of smaller Legos that he can build with. He has moved beyond the Duplos, and he has been creating so many things with Legos lately, that I figured those would be a big hit for him. You can't tell too much of his reaction in this video, but he was wanting to rip it open and start playing with them right away. He will love busting these out when we get home.
Once the kids opened their presents, they gave the presents they picked out for everyone when we went shopping at Goodwill. Samantha got Uncle Matthew a travel mug because she knows he likes to drink coffee while he drives around for work.
Aedan got Brielle the Twister game, and Samantha got Brielle a little brown horse, and she was really excited to get it out and show Aunt Christy. Both Samantha and Aedan picked out cars for Oliver.
Aedan got Grandma a little Christmas tree plate with a little knife attached. I think it was supposed to be used as a cheese plate or something like that.
Aedan got a wind chime for Grandpa, which I think will actually be a really nice present for him.
Aedan got Uncle Matthew a book that I helped him pick out from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Samantha got Grandpa a coffee mug that said, "I Love My Grandpa."
The kids then got to open more presents, and I'm sure I didn't get pictures of everything, but Samantha was very excited and gracious about everything she opened. Here are some pictures from the kids opening presents.
Awhile back, when thinking about presents for Samantha, I suggested to my dad that he could get her a set of Magic Treehouse books. They were in one of the book orders that she brought home, and I didn't have any great present ideas for her, but books are a definite win, for she loves to read. Grandpa came over to sit next to Samantha as she opened her present, and you can tell that she was excited by how she raised the books above her head at the end of the video.
Part of the reason there were less presents this year, especially among the grown-ups was because we decided to take a family trip to Florida at the end of February to see my grandpa, and also to go to Disney World together. Ben and I hadn't mentioned anything to our kids about it because we were still waiting to see if everything would all work out. Since we got confirmation from everyone that it was a go, we decided to announce our plans in a special way. Uncle Matthew found the best Mickey Mouse balloon he could find at a store that was open on Christmas Day (even though it said Happy Birthday), and he put it inside a box for all the kids to open together. Samantha was a little confused at first, since she could read what the balloon said, but once we started explaining it to her, she picked up on it, and we finally explained to them that we will be going to Disney World all together. Samantha and Aedan started jumping up and down excitedly, since they know what Disney World is like, and how much fun it is, while Brielle, Oliver, and Owen, just sat and stared at the crazy kids jumping around. Now comes planning for our trip together!
After finishing the presents, it was getting close to lunch time, so we stopped to eat some food before we had nap time/quiet time. I got Owen to sleep upstairs, but we were having a hard time getting him to stay asleep for some reason. I don't know if there was too much noise downstairs or if something was bothering him, but Ben had to go up there a couple times to hold him and settle him back down, and he still didn't take as long of a nap as he should have. We let the older kids watch a movie in the living room so they could have some quiet time and the adults could actually talk and hang out. We tried to play a card game called Five Crowns, but it was too hard to play with the kids that kept interrupting us. We ended up having to just stop after awhile. Once the older kids lost interest in the movie, we had them put their boots and coats on to go play outside. It was in the mid-40s and sunny, so it was a great day to go play outside, and the kids definitely needed to get out of the house and burn some energy off.
We had our big meal for dinner that night, and Ben and I tried our best to try helping as much as we could. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and green bean casserole. The food was all very delicious. The kids sat at their own table, except for Owen in the high chair, and my Uncle Bob and Aunt Diane came for dinner as well. We got to sit and talk to them while we ate, discussing some of my cousins and how their kids are doing, as well as discussing our desire to get back into fostering and our struggles with getting Samantha into the G/T program at school. It was a really enjoyable conversation, and I'm glad they were able to go by and see all of us.
After dinner, the kids had a few more presents to open from Uncle Bob and Aunt Diane, as well as Uncle Matt, since he wasn't there when we opened the presents to morning.
At this point, it was already 7:15 and we hadn't even had dessert yet, so we busted out the pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and lots of Christmas cookies. The kids were definitely getting tired and losing their ability to think and act right, especially Aedan, since we didn't have him nap that day, and Owen because he didn't take a long nap. It was all we could do to get back to the hotel and get all the kids tucked into bed. Ben and I were fairly exhausted as well. We took turns going down to sit in the hot tub, and we prepared ourselves for getting everything packed up and heading out the next morning.
It was a little hectic getting all of our stuff packed and all of us ready that Wednesday morning. We were heading to Upland for Christmas, Round 2, and I was excited to be going there to see everyone, but as we were driving, part of me wished we were just driving back home. It had already felt like we were away from home for a long time, and I knew the kids were tired from staying in a hotel and being out of our normal routine. From now on, Ben and I decided we are just going to switch back and forth who we visit for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So like next year we will go to Chicago for Thanksgiving and Upland for Christmas, and then switch the following year. However, we aren't going to travel anywhere until after Christmas, so we can have Christmas Day with our family at our own house. It just feels like too much for us to spend all this time traveling and spending our whole break away from home. It would be nice to have time with each other at home and with our friends, and time to do projects around the house, before getting back into a busy semester again.
In Upland, we would all be in one house, but that also made things a little more difficult because Owen was going to sleep in the pack and play in the play room, while Samantha and Aedan were going to sleep on air mattresses on the floor of Ema and Papa's room, where we would also sleep in their bed. They willingly kicked themselves out of their room and onto the couches so that the four of us could all be in the room together.
We didn't leave the hotel until around 11:00, which was later than we wanted. Owen ended up falling asleep before lunch again because he was getting too tired and we figured we would just let him sleep. We made it Lafayette and thought he might just keep sleeping, but as we got of the interstate to turn, the slowing of the car woke him up, so we took advantage of our chance to stop in a city that had a lot of restaurant choices. We ended up going to Chick-fil-A, and all the kids ate really well. Even Owen enjoyed his chicken nugget kids' meal with fruit. We let Samantha and Aedan play in the play area for a few minutes while Owen finished his food.
Then, it was back in the car for the last hour and a half to Upland. You could tell Aedan was pretty tired out and still recovering from his ear infection, so we encouraged him to close his eyes that afternoon. Even though Owen was awake and not exactly being quiet, it didn't bother Aedan one bit, and he slept almost the whole way there. Poor guy, I hate that his Christmas break started with him feeling so lousy.
The one present the kids were allowed to open that night were matching Mickey Mouse pajamas for all the kids from Ema and Papa. They couldn't wait to get ready for bed and put them on.
I was a little worried about how all the kids would sleep, just being in a different place and with Samantha and Aedan being in the same room as Ben and me. Plus, Owen woke up crying twice between when I put him down and when Ben and I went to bed, so I was hoping he would have an okay night. He had napped before stopping for lunch that day, so he was way overtired by the time it was bedtime. Our first night in Upland I didn't sleep very well at all. I don't know if it was just because we were in a new place or what, but it took me a long time to fall asleep. After that, I slept much better, but it's always difficult for me to regulate my breathing when there are other people around me snoring or breathing loudly.
In this video, Aedan got a moon ball and a Spider-Man mask.
All the kids got white boards with markers that came in a special bag that Ema made to hold the markers, and a fabric square to use as an eraser. The bag even had magnets in it so that it would stick to the board. They were pretty excited about these presents.
The rest of the day was spent just hanging out, relaxing, and letting the kids play with a few toys that they got for Christmas, like the white boards, the remote control car, and the space suit for Kit. We had our big meal for lunch, followed by nap time for Owen while the big kids went over to the gym to play for awhile and get some energy out. I stayed back with Owen so I could have some quiet time to myself as well, and Owen cried for a little while, but then stopped, which I was glad for. I was hoping he would take a decent nap that afternoon. While he napped, I worked on looking up houses for our trip to Florida, making a spreadsheet comparing the different ones and emailing the owners to get more details on them.
Here are some pictures of Alaina feeding Owen his breakfast. (I can't remember what day this was.) I think he liked the attention from his cousin. Alaina is really sweet with him; it's great to see them interact.
Friday was a day I was looking forward to, because our friends Brad and Melissa Moser, along with their two kids, were going to come to Upland to hang out with us for awhile. We like to try and get together as much as we can if our paths cross when we travel to see family over holidays. They had just gotten in the night before, so their youngest was pretty tired. The kids were getting a little listless playing at the house, so after awhile we decided to head over to the Taylor gym to let the kids run around and play, and hopefully give the adults time to talk and catch up. Melissa is by far one of my best friends, and we can talk together as if no time has passed between our last time talking. We don't need to make small talk, we can just talk about how life is really going, the things we are struggling with, and even how we want to work on decluttering our houses in the new year! It was so refreshing talking to her, and I wished that we could have just had all day to talk together. However, it was approaching lunchtime, and we knew the kids would be getting hungry soon, so we decided to go over to Ivanhoes for lunch. We put the kids down on one end of the table to eat, so we could have a little more time to talk to our friends. We even got everyone ice cream to round out our meal, milking out time together for all it was worth. A few hours was definitely not enough time, but much better than nothing, and we planned on getting together sometime this spring, or at least over the summer, Ben and I would make the trip down to Madison to see them. These people are lifelong friends, and it does my heart so much good to be around them and their kids.
We got back to the house, I put Owen down for a nap, and he ended up taking a really good nap. However, when he woke up, he was just burning up. He had a 101.9 temperature under his arm, which made me pretty concerned. Usually when he has a temperature like that, it means he has an ear infection, so I was bracing myself for things getting worse. That night as I put him to bed, he didn't want me to lay him down on his left side to nurse, crying as soon as I tried, so that was another sign that he probably had another ear infection.
Owen woke up several times during the night, and I ended up being with him from 4:00 a.m. on. I gave him more medicine to bring his temperature back down and help him get more comfortable, but he just was not settling down and he was not comfortable. I was trying my best to keep him quiet so that he wouldn't disturb Ben's parents, who were sleeping right on the other side of the door on the couches in the living room.
After the rough night that we had, we decided to find a walk-in clinic to take Owen to on that Saturday morning. We left Samantha and Aedan to play with the rest of the family, and Ben and I took him together. It was kind of like a date, a date to the doctor's office with a sick kid? We got in to see someone quickly and sure enough, he had a double ear infection, so I am so glad that we took him in. With Owen's history of the various antibiotics he's been on, they actually decided to give him a z-pack where he just takes one dose a day. I was hoping that the antibiotics would start working quickly and give this little guy some relief, but now this was the second ear infection he had in three weeks, meaning I was going to have to call his doctor when we got back home to figure out how we get into an ENT to talk about possible placement of tubes. This is Owen's sixth confirmed ear infection that has been treated with antibiotics in the last seven months, and I'm sure there were other times when he had ear infections and we didn't even know that's what was going on.
Since we had to wait for the prescription to be filled at Meijer, Ben and I decided to take advantage of the fact that there was a Texas Roadhouse right by Meijer. On our way down to Chicago, we were commenting on how a steak restaurant like that sounded really good, and after getting Owen some Tylenol, he started perking up a little bit. He did well for us at the restaurant, and he enjoyed his mac and cheese and applesauce for lunch. We hadn't eaten at Texas Roadhouse in years, and it really hit the spot. As we were waiting to pay, a lovely older woman sitting at a table diagonal from us, came up to me, handed me a gift card, and said, "I just wanted to tell you that Jesus loves you, and he wanted me to give you this gift card to help pay for your meal." I said thank you, but she didn't have to, and after she walked away, I teared up because her gesture was so sweet. It had been a long week away from home dealing with two boys with ear infections, sleeping in different beds, and being away from the comfort of our own house. Ben and I were sleep deprived after a rough night with Owen, and it touched my heart so much that this lady thought to give me a gift card for our meal.
The rest of the day went fairly well, even though we had a sick little boy. He took a good nap again, for which I was thankful for, but when he woke up, even though he still had medicine in his system, he was burning up. He had a 103.6 fever, glassy eyes, and a rough, fussy evening. I was feeling worried about how high his fever got, and Ben even called the doctor back to see if there was any point where we should become more concerned and take him in somewhere. I don't think any of our kids have had a fever that high before. The beginning of the night was rough with Owen as well, with lots of screaming and crying until about 1:00 a.m. I was able to give him another dose of medicine, and he finally got comfortable enough to relax and sleep. I held him for as long as my arms would last before they felt like they were going to fall off, and then I laid him down carefully in the pack and play, expecting that we would be in his room for most of the night. However, before leaving the room, I stopped, turned towards his bed, raised my hand, and prayed over my little boy. I prayed that Jesus would heal his body, that the Holy Spirit would provide comfort, and that God would give us rest, even if it wasn't much sleep, that we would get rest through the sleep we did have. I prayed that Owen would sleep well, and that his fever would break so that he could feel more comfortable to sleep. And you know what happened? God very clearly heard and answered my prayer, and remarkably, Owen did not wake up again the rest of the night. In fact, he slept straight until 10:00 the next morning when I had to wake him up so that we could get on the road back home. I attribute that night to God because with how much pain he was in, and how high his fever was, there is no other explanation for the peaceful night's sleep he had after I stopped and prayed over his room and his little body. Praise Jesus!
(Blog about December 23-29, 2018)
No comments:
Post a Comment