Aedan: 57 Months, Week 3
Owen: 15 Months, Week 5
Since we had officially booked our house and our flights for our trip to Florida, we are now talking more about how often we will go to the parks and which park we will go to on which day. My parents will be going to the park with us on the Wednesday we are there, and my brother will come with us on Wednesday and on Friday. So we also decided that Christy's family and my family will also go to the parks on the Sunday and Monday we are there, since the rest of the family won't be down there yet, that way on Tuesday and Thursday we can have days for visiting my grandpa and letting the kids relax more and rest, along with swimming in the water park that is affiliated with our rental house subdivision. That way we only have two days in a row at the parks at the beginning, with a rest day thrown in between the others, so that Owen and Oliver will at least be able to take naps in a bed on those days.
Sunday of this week was a fairly normal day. We had church in the morning, and then I took Samantha and Aedan to open skating so they could get more practice out on the ice. We tried a different ice rink this time since it is cheaper, and I didn't go out on the ice with them since they don't have skate rentals. Aedan really enjoys having Samantha out skating with him. In the first video, you can see Samantha doing pretty well zooming around the ice.
In this video you can see Aedan really pushing off hard as he skates across the ice towards Samantha, but you can tell he is still trying to work out how to keep and hold his balance while skating.
Sunday evening we had small group at our house, and then we got our kids to bed as soon as we could. Owen had a rough day with sleeping starting with his nap that afternoon. He woke up crying and Ben ended up having to go in his room and sit with him the whole time in order for him to go back to sleep, while I was at open skating with Samantha and Aedan. Before Sunday, Owen had finally started napping better in his new room, when I gave him medicine before putting him down. He hasn't had any fever, and I checked his ears that afternoon and it didn't look to me like it was red like an ear infection. Normally when he has an ear infection, he won't even let me touch his ears, but today he didn't mind when I stuck the otoscope in his ear to look. Since he had a rough nap time, we definitely gave him medicine before bedtime, but he still was up crying twice between when I put him down at 10:00. It's times like this that it's harder having him upstairs because I don't want his screaming and crying to wake up Samantha and Aedan. But I have to remember that most of the time, when I ask them the next day if they heard him at all, they always say no, so I don't have to worry about it as much as I do.
The rest of the night wasn't great for Owen either. He was up crying and screaming six different times, which is usually what he does when he has an ear infection, so I was trying to figure out what to do come Monday morning. I looked in his ears again, which he didn't seem to mind me doing, but all I could really see was ear wax. However, I had to go to church that morning to set up for MOPS, so I decided to wait and see how he acted as the morning progressed.
After finishing up at church, we went back home and Owen was actually in a pretty decent mood and okay with playing on his own, so Aedan and I spent almost two hours sorting through his Legos and building a castle together. We have spent the last several days rebuilding a lot of his Lego sets, following the directions, and trying our best to use the correct pieces. Our deal was that we were going to build as many things as he wanted to, and then we were going to put all the extra pieces in the blue cinch bag/play mat that we bought for him, so that way his Legos aren't always dumped out all over his room. We hoped that it would make cleaning up easier and less of a battle. The top of Aedan's shelf was covered with his Lego creations, and it was fun to be able to sit down and spend time doing this with him.
After getting the boys some lunch and getting Aedan to preschool, I put Owen down for a nap to see how that would go, not feeling very optimistic ahead of time. However, he ended up taking a good nap and sleeping until it was time to pick the kids up from school, so who knows what the night before was all about.
While Owen napped I was able to get phone calls made, like calling the pediatrician to see what the deal was with getting Owen an appointment for an ENT. They said they were just on the phone with the ENT, and March 21st was the earliest we could get an appointment in Sault Ste. Marie, so we are planning on doing that, unless Owen has another ear infection before that, and then the doctor will call down to an ENT in Petoskey to try and get us in sooner and have him looked at when he still has fluid in his ears. I also made an appointment for Samantha to see an orthodontist in Canada. Before I followed the advice of pulling two of Samantha's baby teeth, as recommended by the orthodontist on our side, I wanted to get a second opinion and see what someone else would say we could do to help with her teeth, the crowding, and the fact that two of her adult teeth don't have room to emerge on the top.
It was Ben's turn to take Aedan to hockey that night, and he was amazed at how much better he was doing. He is finally starting to get the hang of using both feet and sees how it actually makes it easier to skate faster, and more fun, too!
Tuesday was a make-up day for MOPS because of the snowstorm that happened the week before. Since we cancelled last week and moved it to this week, it was a little trickier getting childcare helpers lined up, but we ended up having just enough. It was a smaller group of moms as well, but it was nice to be able to talk more in a more intimate environment. We watched a video called, "Mothering Right When Your Kids Do Wrong," which was really a great video for me to hear that day. It was all about how we expect our kids to not act like kids and not do wrong sometimes, then wonder why we get upset and angry with our children. However, this video talked about expecting our kids to do these wrong things that push our buttons, seeing these as opportunities to parent, and planning out our response ahead of time. It was definitely something I needed to hear that day and something I have been needing to work on lately. We also played a game called "If You're Like Me..." which was a great game to laugh and get to know each other. It was a really good MOPS meeting, and it was nice to get everyone back together again after Christmas break and our snowy start to the year.
However, even the next day, we were doing well and were actually going to be on time for preschool, but then Aedan spilled his milk cup all over the floor, chairs, and rug at lunch time. And I just yelled at him. I immediately felt terrible and so mad at myself that I was so easily letting myself go to anger. I hate when I yell at the kids, and I don't want to lose my temper so easily. I felt so frustrated that I couldn't accept the fact that the kids are going to act immature and do wrong, like spilling milk, and then react in a calm, mature manner, and just get him to help clean it up, rather than exploding at him in anger. I apologized to him afterwards for how I reacted, and he forgave me, but it doesn't change the fact that I still need a lot of help from God in this area of my life. I want him to create change in this area of my life, to refine me, and help me to become more like him in how he reacts to me when I do wrong: pouring out his never-ending, sacrificial love, his kindness towards me, extending me mercy every day, and overflowing with grace to cover my wrongs. I want to do those things for my children as well, that is my prayer.
After finally getting Aedan off to preschool, getting back home and cleaning up the milk spill and the rest of the lunch dishes, I finally got Owen down for a nap, but he took another short nap that day, which felt exhausting to me after the frustrating time I had around lunch time.
The rest of the week went by in typical fashion. I took the boys to story time at the library on Wednesday, and we did our weekly grocery shopping on Thursday. Thursday night is our night of no activities, so we just enjoy time at home together. The kids get to play, we can eat a more relaxed dinner together, and then the kids have bath/shower time. Most of the time we make Samantha take a shower, but she has been begging to take a bath with Owen, so we decided to let her do it that night. Owen and Samantha had a great time playing in the bath together. She does a nice job interacting with him and playing with him. I love the way he smiles and laughs at her playing peek-a-boo with him, and the way she jumps to the rescue when he starts to fall backwards into the water. She does an excellent job of watching out for and taking care of her two little brothers.
On Friday morning Ben had an early morning meeting and then planned to go to Samantha's school for reading groups, but they ended up not having groups that day, so he just came back home for awhile before going to the dentist. Here's Aedan giving Daddy a funny look that morning while still wearing his dinosaur pajamas.
Samantha had a half day of school that Friday, so both boys were pretty excited to see her when she got home on the bus. In fact, once Owen was done eating lunch, Samantha and Aedan just started chasing him up and down the hallway, making these crazy monster noises. Owen was loving it, and Ben and I were enjoying watching the craziness of them all having fun together. It's a pretty great life we have, and these are some wonderful, fun-loving kiddos that God has blessed us with.
Samantha has been wearing the same winter coat for a couple years now because we bought it for her on the bigger side so that it would last longer. However, she has gone through a major growth spurt lately, and it was definitely looking small on her. I noticed the other day that Meijer had a lot of coats on sale to end the season, so Ben took her to Meijer that Friday afternoon to pick one out. This was the style she liked, and it was a 14/16, which is the next size up for her. You can tell the sleeves are a bit long, but it looked good on her, it was warm, and now she has another coat that will last her for awhile. Sometimes I just can't believe how fast she is growing and how tall she is. She is looking more and more like an upper elementary kid. (She wasn't really grumpy, she was just making faces for Daddy.)
When I was down in our bedroom that afternoon sorting laundry, I decided to open our blinds, and noticed how huge the pile of snow was outside our bedroom window. Now granted, our room is in the basement, but still, that is a pretty big snow drift!
I wanted to spend some one-on-one time with Samantha that afternoon on her half-day off of school, since Aedan still had preschool. After putting Owen down for his nap, I went into Samantha's room to hang out with her while she did things in her room. She was working on making a pot holder from the loom that Ema got for her for Christmas, and she was having some trouble getting the pattern correct because she started from both sides on the outside and worked her way in, meaning, she was off by the time she got to the middle. I helped her fix a couple rows, and then I helped hold the loops on as she used the crochet hook to make the finishing edge around the outside. It took us most of the afternoon to finish this project, but she was very happy that she stuck with it because she had a beautiful end product that she was excited to give to her teacher, Ms. Allison. She also wanted me to take a video of her talking about her project and send it to Ema so she would know that she was able to make another one.
Also, I don't think I ever posted about this, but Samantha decided over Christmas that she wanted to get her hair cut, so I made an appointment for her on the Saturday after we got back home. She got quite a bit of it cut off, and we also decided to put some longer layers in her hair to help it not get so tangled at the ends. You can see her cute hair cut showed off more in this picture. Now that her hair is lightened up some, we are letting her wear headbands more because they will actually stay in, which makes Samantha happy.
As I said earlier, Aedan and I have been working hard lately on building all of his Lego kits. We did more building on Friday morning and finished Cyborg's helicopter and this bad guy ice vehicle once he got home from preschool that afternoon. He's getting really good at following the directions and placing the pieces in the right places. I wanted to take a picture of Aedan and his creations as well. It was fun putting aside my to-do lists, and just sitting and spending time with the kids, doing what they wanted to do and what was important to them.
Aedan came home from preschool on Friday with this lovely family portrait. I forget who was who, except for Owen being the smallest person. They were learning about the five senses, so the blue sky, orange sun, and green grass that you see are each scented. I'm not sure if the things in the sky are birds or planes, but I love seeing how he comes up with what to draw, and I just love it when kids draw people like this with the legs coming straight down from the heads. This will be one art project that I think I will save, but for right now, it's proudly displayed on the refrigerator.
On Friday night there was a carnival at Bahweting, so once Ben got home from work, we got everyone ready and went there. They had pizza, chips, popcorn, and drinks for dinner. Then, everyone got 10 tickets to use on various games that were set up in the kindergarten and first grade classrooms. The kids were really excited to play the games and earn some prizes, candy, and snacks. In the small gym at the end of the hallway, they had a "cookie walk" and and a large inflatable bounce house set up. It was a really fun time, the kids really enjoyed themselves, and it's so nice that the school offers family friendly activities like this that are free to attend. It was over at 6:30, giving us plenty of time to get back home at a decent time, let the kids play for awhile, and then get them to bed.
Saturday mornings have been more relaxing lately because even though Samantha and Aedan wake up earlier than Owen, they know what time they are allowed to get up, and they will just get up and play with each other, letting Ben and I sleep until Owen wakes us up on the monitor. It's nice to take the opportunity to sleep in sometimes. We didn't have too much going on that day, and we woke up to finding our kitchen faucet's hot water line frozen, so we spent most of the morning getting that unfrozen, while also taking apart the faucet in the kitchen and the bathroom so we could see if we could replace the cartridge and get it to stop leaking. Ben ended up using a hair dryer on the frozen pipe, which unfroze it, so as long as we left the water dripping, it would be okay. This was the temperature on Saturday morning, so it's no surprise that the pipe froze. It was super cold outside and was going to be all weekend.
That afternoon during nap time, I had to go over to the Norris Center for a MOPS bake sale fundraiser. I sat at the table for two hours with Joy while we tried to sell baked goods during the hockey tournament. When I got back, the kids were having a snack, and Ben noticed a rash around the top of Aedan's shirt. I went over to look at him more carefully, and he actually had a rash all over his body. We decided that wasn't good at all, so I loaded him up in the car and took him to the walk-in clinic. As soon as I talked about how he has had a sore throat and now has a rash, the nurse immediately said they would do a rapid strep test on him, and that the rash was scarlet fever. I had to look up about scarlet fever because I hadn't really ever heard of it. Apparently, it's a reaction to the bacteria in his throat from strep throat, so he has these tiny little red bumps all over his body. The last day or two he complained about having a sore throat and wasn't eating well (which isn't that atypical for him), but I looked at his throat several different times and didn't see anything, and Aedan is really bad at actually describing what doesn't feel good, so I didn't think anything of it until this rash appeared. The strep test came back positive, and Aedan was put on antibiotics. The rash wasn't contagious, but he would be contagious from the strep for 48 hours, meaning no church or small group for him. So the only thing we could do is force him to keep his space from everyone else and pray that no one else gets it from him.
I forget what everyone else was doing while I took these videos, but I think I was cleaning up from dinner, and Owen was amusing himself by playing with our pans. He very deliberately took them out of the cabinet, brought them over to the table, put them on top of the table, and tried to find lids to fit on each one. I loved just taking a video of him moving and jabbering to himself as he was happily playing with the pans. I loved watching how he figured out how to climb up on the chair and lower himself back down, and how he came running over to me in his cute toddler way once he saw me recording him. This boy definitely doesn't need any toys. He's perfectly happy playing with things like this.
(Blog about January 13-19, 2019)
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