Aedan: 58 Months, Week 1
Owen: 16 Months, Week 2
This week started off with more cold winter weather. The wind chills for Monday morning were supposed to be -50, so they cancelled school that day so no one would have to be out in the cold weather. It was fun to have an unexpected day home from school for the kids, and we were glad to have a warm house to stay in that day. In fact, Ben's classes got cancelled that day as well so that the students didn't have to walk back and forth in those freezing temperatures. This U.P. winter weather is sometimes pretty crazy.
We had been looking for a time when Emma could come over and have a play date with Samantha. Since we had an unexpected Monday off, we invited their whole family over that morning. Emma brought her American Girl doll and horse over to play with Samantha, and Eli was pretty good at humoring Aedan and Owen, giving them attention as well. Ben and I were able to spend time talking to Chad and Denise, and it was fun to have this time to get together at the beginning of the week. They even stayed for lunch, and then Emma stayed for most of the afternoon to play. We even played Ticket to Ride with the kids. Samantha and Aedan had never played it before, and it was a little above Aedan's head, but Samantha really liked it. We definitely need to start teaching her more card games and board games like that because she's getting old enough to understand how to play more complicated games. It was a fun day of spending time indoors with friends and family while it was freezing outside.
Even though there was no school, our MOPS Leadership Team meeting was still on for that night. We met at the Palace for some Mexican food before going back to Deb's house for our meeting. We talked a lot about the rest of the year's meetings, what things have been going well or not, as well as what leadership might look like for next year. It's been different getting used to not having Jill around. I have decided that I will continue on as the MOPS Kids' Coordinator, since I have taken over all the childcare responsibilities throughout the last couple months. Now we just need to figure out how to recruit more helpers so that we are not scrambling around at the last minute as much.
Ben was in charge of the kids that Monday night since I was gone, and Owen was giving him a hard time going to sleep, just like he did on Sunday night. He ended up having to go in four times before he finally stayed asleep.
On Tuesday morning we had MOPS Bible Study, but since that didn't start until 10:30, we had time around the house before we had to go anywhere. Aedan and Owen were playing with super hero figures for awhile, and the first video is Owen trying to get Spider-Man to stand up on the floor. Aedan decided that he wanted to dress-up, and I suggested that he give some things to Owen so he could dress up as a super hero, too. Owen had never really dressed up with Aedan before, but he was loving it. The boys loved being able to see themselves in the pictures, too.
In this video, Aedan wanted me to take a video of him saying, "Avengers Assemble!" One thing I have been struck with lately now that I have been home with Aedan and Owen, and especially with Aedan's interests developing more towards super heroes and Legos and Owen following right behind, I feel like I have definitely been in "boy mom" territory for quite some time. No more playing dolls, tea party, and puzzles. Now we are flying around like super heroes, fighting bad guys, and building vehicles that can transport all this super hero Legos. It's different, but it's tons of fun.
We had Bible Study at church that morning, and it had been quite some time since we met last. It's always a good discussion that comes from our video about parenting, and we talked some about spoiling kids, doing chores around the house, teaching them financial responsibility at a young age, as well as being on the same page as your husband when it comes to discipline and expectations for the children. Every week there is so much content that it is hard to get through, and it often makes me want to sit down and go through this video series with Ben so we can talk over these things together.
On the way back home, when we were only a couple minutes away from church, Aedan said, "I'm going to go to the bathroom when we get home," in a very nonchalant voice. Well then a minute later he is making a noise, and then says, "I can't hold it anymore. It's already all coming out!" He literally peed all over himself and the car seat on the way home. I was so frustrated because other than his flippant comment, he never even told me he had to go. I usually just let him tell me when he has to go, but I try to make him go potty before we leave for places because sometimes he will hold it all morning long. Well, that must be what he did that morning, and once he got in the cold car and sat down, he couldn't hold it anymore. I got pretty upset that he didn't say anything to me because it would have cost less time to just take him back into the church to go to the bathroom than it would have to then go home, shower Aedan, and clean the whole car seat off. We were in a hurry to get home so we could eat lunch and get him to preschool on time, which of course didn't happen then. Aedan has never done anything like that, and it really surprised me. He must have really been holding it for a long time.
Once I got back home and got Owen down for a nap, I got some time to myself. I am trying to get caught back up on my blog because Christmas travels got me behind and I'm still not back to where I should be. I don't like being behind because it's harder to write about things that happened several weeks ago, and it takes up too much of my time. I was able to take my computer with me to gymnastics lessons that evening and work on it a little more there because I figured out how to get on their Wifi. It's always enjoyable taking them to gymnastics because they love it so much, and we get a free hour to ourselves as we sit outside the gym and wait for them.
Wednesday was our typical routine of going to story time. The new librarian is doing a great job organizing stories and crafts, and Aedan always loves going. Owen has been a little trickier lately and sometimes isn't too happy about staying around the library for too long, but it's a good weekly outing, regardless.
That evening while Samantha and Aedan were at AWANA, my friend Linda came over to our house to go over the Young Living essential oil starter kit that arrived in the mail a couple days before that. She talked about what the different oils could be used for, and she brought a whole bunch of supplies to help me start out. I was very grateful for her expertise, and even though I still feel somewhat skeptical, and I am definitely interested to see what essential oils could do for us. I know some people swear by them and the benefits they have seen in their health. The biggest reason I was interested in them was for something to help boost our immunity in these long winter months. I feel like we have all been stuffed up with colds on and off since before Christmas. Linda helped me make an immunity roller, a pillow spray, and a roller to help Ben sleep, as well as Thieves cleaning spray. I really like the idea of using this stuff, and I have been slowly switching our household over to natural products for cleaning and for personal care and cosmetics. I am definitely open to trying things that are better for us. I even got the "free" trial kit from Grove Collaborative where you get a whole bunch of free stuff if you spend $20. I figured it doesn't hurt to try, and especially if it's not too cost prohibitive, I would much rather use products or make things that I don't have to worry about having toxic chemicals in it.
That night Ben took Aedan to hockey practice, since it was cancelled on Monday. Samantha went along with them so he could just take them both straight to AWANA, and he sent me this video of Aedan. He said he was actually trying that night. He was falling down a lot, but he was actually skating with both feet. He has definitely improved so much from the little boy at the beginning of the year who couldn't even remember how to stand up on the ice. We are proud of how far he has come!
Thursday was our weekly grocery shopping trip, which is always tons of fun. Owen has been a little more difficult to go shopping with lately because he gets antsy being trapped in the cart, especially when we are checking out. By the time we get to the store, get all our groceries, which most of the time fill up the entire inside of the cart, check out, ride Sandy, get back home, unload the groceries, and put everything away, I feel pretty exhausted. That day it was so cold outside that the back of the van was frozen shut, too. I tried chipping the ice off, and another man in the parking lot saw me struggling and offered to come over and help me, but it still wouldn't open, so I just had to pile all the groceries on the inside of the van instead. I consider shopping my workout on those days. :)
After having lunch, getting Aedan to preschool, and putting Owen down for his nap, I started on my next project of going through pictures to make a new calendar. I didn't have a calendar starting in February, and I had been writing down appointments and things on sticky notes or random places and knew I would start forgetting things soon if I didn't get a calendar ordered. I like making my picture calendars because it's fun to look back at the old pictures for each month. Plus, when we are done with the calendar, I take it apart and place it in a binder so I am in essence making photo books at the same time. It takes a lot of time to go through pictures and choose the best ones, so I knew this project would take some time.
When Ben went to school to pick up Samantha, she told him that she wasn't feeling well, but it didn't start until the end of the day, so she didn't think she needed to tell her teachers. When she got home, we took her temperature and it was 100.3, so not quite a fever. However, she was not acting like she felt well, just generally sitting on the couch and acting like she didn't have much energy. She was supposed to have a half day on Friday anyways, so we decided to let her stay home if she wanted to, and she thought that was a good idea.
It was a fairly busy day for me on Friday because I had to take Aedan (and Owen) to an appointment to get his new car seat on Friday morning through the KARS program. We were able to get a combination car seat for $20, and I hoped it would work better for him to use a seat belt, be more secure, and have it be a more comfortable seat than the one we had from Samantha. Samantha hung out with Ben in his office while we were at the appointment. Then, once we got back home, Samantha and Aedan had fun playing together. They have really been enjoying each other a lot lately, and they love when they have these extra, extended periods of time to play.
I wanted to bring meals to Sam and Telisa who just had babies, since I know how much meals meant to me when I had new babies. So after dropping Aedan off at preschool and getting Owen down for a nap, I got to work on their meals. I made brownies, salad, and pizza pasta casserole. Ben had made arrangements with Mary to babysit our kids on Friday night so we could go on a date. However, he went to pick Aedan up from preschool and couldn't get back home because all the streets were blocked off from the snowmobile parade through town. I still had to get the meals dropped off for Sam and Telisa, too, so things were a little rushed getting all those things taken care of.
We decided to go over to Canada for our date, and there was a long line to get over the bridge, cutting into our date time even more, but luckily, there was no one at the barbecue restaurant, Low and Slow. We got the barbecue platter and got to taste lots of yummy meat, and mostly had the restaurant to ourselves. It was great to just sit and talk about how things have been going, our future, and where we see ourselves as we look ahead in our lives. We got back just before bedtime, which was nice, but it still isn't fun having to get home and then still get everyone to bed. I told Ben that the next date we go on, we need to let the babysitter put our kids to bed so we can come home to that job already being done. The hard part is whether or not Owen would let someone different put him to bed and have us feel confident that he wouldn't give them a hard time. Even so, that night Owen woke up screaming and crying three times. I know he has teeth coming in, and I gave him medicine before bed and rubbed some Copaiba oils on his gums that is supposed to help with that sort of thing. Eventually, when I went into his room again after midnight, I held him for a long time. He has preferred to be held sideways, with his head in the crook of my elbow, facing me like he's nursing, and he fell asleep like that. However, he woke up as soon as I laid him down. Instead of picking him back up again, I decided to talk to him. He understands what we are saying, and he knew he was supposed to be asleep, not screaming and crying in his bed. I told him that that was enough, and that he was waking everyone up by screaming and crying. I told him that we had already held him enough, and it was time to just lay down and go to sleep. He was thrashing around in his bed for awhile and crying, since I wasn't picking him up, but eventually he calmed down, and I left my hand on his back until he fell fast asleep. After that, we didn't hear any more from him the rest of the night. I was glad that my talking to him seemed to work, and I thought that maybe we need to try that with him more often. He's not a little baby anymore, he understands a lot of what we say, and especially when Ben and I have both been in his room and gotten him to sleep in our arms, but he wakes up crying and screaming shortly after laying him down, there's no point in us going back in his room over and over and doing the same thing.
Here are some papers Aedan brought home from school on Friday.
Saturday morning we took advantage of our chance to sleep in since Samantha and Aedan will just get up and play with each other and let us be. In fact, that morning, Ben and I were able to sleep in until about 8:40, which is amazing to me. I'm glad Owen chooses to sleep in like this on Saturdays. It is a welcome relief to Ben and me, and we will take it whenever we can, especially from that little boy who was such a terrible sleeper for so long.
After just relaxing at home for most of the morning, I decided to take Samantha and Aedan tubing that afternoon after putting Owen down for his nap. Ben was not feeling great, as he seemed to have caught the cold/stuffy nose bug that the kids had been passing around for a week or so, so I was glad to take the kids out of the house for awhile for him. It was finally "warm enough" to spend some time outside, and I was looking forward to spending time with the big kids. It was pretty busy at the tubing hill, and I had a few issues with the kids not listening or Samantha talking back or Aedan not wanting to walk, but once I gave them each a time out, making them sit out for one of the runs down the hill, they finally got the point that I wasn't playing around and that there were consequences for their actions. (I have been really trying to check myself when I start feeling frustrated, trying to keep myself calmed down and not exploding at things when the kids get under my skin or act disrespectful. I have found myself closing my eyes and taking many deep breaths lately, trying to collect myself and think about how to respond before I say or do something that I would regret later.) Anyways, after getting over the beginning hiccups, we had a blast on the tubing hill that day. I think we went down every single tubing run. It's too hard to get videos or pictures, but here we are going up the hill on the tubes. We were there for close to two hours, and it was definitely a fun way to spend our Saturday afternoon. We will be back again, I'm sure. :)
(Blog about January 27-February 2, 2019)
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