Samantha: 95 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 60 Months, Week 3
Owen: 18 Months, Week 5
These pictures are my attempt at capturing Owen's sweet little ringlet in the back of his hair. His hair is getting long, and it will probably need to be cut sometime soon, so since he was actually sitting still next to me on the couch, I decided to take a few pictures of his wispy baby hair. It's just been too cute for me to cut, but I know it's getting to that point pretty soon. To be honest, I'm not ready for him to lose his baby hair and look more grown up yet.
Ben and I served in children't ministry during the first service, we stayed for second service, and then Ben had to stay after that service for another meeting, so I came home with the kids and got them started on lunch. We just had leftovers, and everyone was hungry and tired. These mornings when we are at church for over three hours are hard on the kids, especially little Owen.
However, it just makes him that much more ready to take a nap. I love rocking him to sleep every day at nap time, so here's my little guy fast asleep in my arms that afternoon. (You can tell in the first picture that he is scrunching his eyes some from the flash shining on him.) I'm so glad he will still fall asleep with me and cuddle with me, even if I'm not nursing him anymore.
Once getting Owen down for his nap, I spent most of the afternoon cleaning up the house and getting ready for small group. We started a little earlier that night because Ben had to leave early for another meeting that night. We had a good discussion, and after eating dinner we all just talked and hung out while the kids had a great time playing together. It was fun watching them play and run around with lots of yelling and laughing. I'm so glad we were able to form this small group over this past year, and I hope that they will continue to meet even after we move.
With Ben being gone at his meeting, I did bedtime by myself that night. I think on nights that are different like this, Samantha has a harder time falling asleep. She was up five times between bedtime and 9:30, and I felt like there was really nothing I could do to help calm her down and get her to fall asleep.
Since we didn't have MOPS set-up to go to this week, I decided to take the boys back over to Canada for open gym at the gymnastics center again. Our friends couldn't go with us this time, but we still had a blast together. Owen's favorite thing was running and jumping on the long trampoline, and Aedan was really excited about pushing Owen on the swing and to go in the foam pit with him (although Owen didn't really know what to think about the foam pit because he couldn't climb around as well as Aedan could). Once again, they had an excellent snack of fruit, veggies, cheese, and crackers, and then we went back into the gym to play some more. I think sometimes Aedan gets disappointed because he wants to play with Owen more, but Owen doesn't really know how to play with people yet, which is why Aedan much prefers to play with Samantha at this point. However, Aedan made a new friend that morning. The boy was a little younger than him, but it made Aedan happy to see that he could still have fun even though his friend Owen didn't come along, too. At first Aedan didn't want to come, but I kind of forced him to because I knew he would have fun once we got there, and it would be good for him to run around and play for awhile. Here are some videos and pictures from our morning.
Since the open gym went until 11:00, we got home in plenty of time to relax and play a little more before lunch time. Aedan asked to watch a show, so I figured that would be okay. He picked Super Why, which used to be Aedan's favorite show, and Owen was very interested in watching the show. He particularly liked when the dog came on the screen. Every time he saw him, he would say, "oof, oof," which is his way of barking like a dog. You can hear it at the beginning of this video.
Owen really likes pushing trucks around the house. While I was making lunch that day, he was just going around and around with this truck. However, as soon as I tried to take a video of him, he stopped because he is always so interested in watching himself in the video. It's cute to watch Owen become more interested in toys, especially ones that Aedan never really showed much interest in.
Since Owen wanted to see my phone, I was able to sneak in a few pictures of us. I love this first picture of Owen. It's like he's really smiling for the picture!
After picking the kids up from school, we came home and went straight outside to play because it was finally getting nice here. The snow was almost all gone from our front yard, and Owen was thrilled to be able to get his boots on and play in the driveway. In fact, our neighbors from two doors down came over to play with the kids as well. They were playing a pretend hockey game in the driveway, and it was just too fun being outside in the sun that I didn't want to make everyone go back inside so I could make dinner, so Ben and I just decided to order pizza to be delivered from North of Chicago Pizza. I am SO looking forward to the weather finally warming up around here so we can spend more time outside. The kids and I are longing for it, and we have been cooped up for far too long this winter.
After playing outside for awhile, the kids were definitely ready for dinner when we came back in. Owen ended up eating three pieces of pizza, which is amazing to me. Ben had another meeting that evening with a board meeting at church that would keep him out past bedtime again, so he rushed off shortly after eating dinner.
This was one of those days that was so wonderful I wish I could just bottle it up and relive it on days when I miss our kids at these ages. As I was putting the kids to bed that night, Aedan turned around, reached over me, and gave me a great big hug. It just melted my heart. I laid in bed with him for a few minutes, and he was talking to me about heaven, concerned that he wouldn't recognize me or that I would look different in heaven. We talked about all the other family members that will be heaven, as well as famous Bible characters that he has read about. I said to Aedan that night, "When you get to heaven, I will shout, 'Yay! Aedan is here! I've been waiting to see him again!'" And he had a huge grin on his face when he heard me give him that reassurance. Then, as I laid in bed with Samantha, she cuddled up into me as I sang to her and scratched her back. She said she wished I could stay in there and scratch her back until she fell asleep. After tucking in Samantha, it was Owen's turn. I sang him songs and talked to him about how he has always loved being held up on our shoulders from when he was first born. He fell asleep holding on to my hair, so I held him extra long as I felt his heavy body in my arms, wanting to soak up all the time I could get with him, not wanting to put him down to sleep that night.
Even though we had a really positive bedtime experience, Samantha still had a rough time falling asleep that night. She was up to go to the bathroom five times again, being up past 9:30 when Ben got home from his meeting. Part of me wondered if she was coming out to check whether he was back home or not. Four of the last five nights either Ben or I were out over bed time, and that definitely made it harder for Samantha to calm down and fall asleep.
As Ben and I have been thinking about our move to Pennsylvania, we finally decided to go with a moving company to help us. The movers gave us a really good price, making it a good deal to go with the whole moving package, which included them packing everything for us as well. Even though we would rather not spend that much money, it would be an expensive enough move to do on our own with packing our own stuff and renting and driving our own trucks. They said it will take two days to pack all our stuff, and then after they pack they will take one day to drive out there and then meet us the next morning to unload. They start with the bedrooms and put all the beds together, then they put the boxes in their places and set all the furniture in the designated area. It seems weird to have someone else pack our stuff, but they will probably be more thorough than I would be because they have unlimited resources and they want to be careful with our stuff so that nothing happens to it in transit that they would be responsible for. The more I think about it though, hiring movers that will also pack our stuff, takes such a huge burden off of me. I don't have to scramble to find moving boxes and spend the next two months packing things up bit by bit. We can largely just continue on with life like normal, living in our house as we currently do. Ben and I will take time to go through everything in May once his semester is over, so that way we don't take things with us that we don't want or need, but other than that, the work will all be done for us, which sounds wonderful.
Tuesday was another rough night with Samantha, and it's been harder and harder for us to keep our patience because it seems like she isn't even trying to stay in bed and fall asleep. She was up three times this night and one time was even in her room crying so loudly that we could hear her out in the living room. We didn't understand what else we could do to help her, and it almost seemed as if the problem was getting worse. I was hoping Tuesday would be better because Ben and I were both home for bedtime, but that didn't seem to make a difference. It definitely is worse when she's tired, and with how much she has been up at night with not being able to fall asleep, she is tired most days lately.
Wednesday was our morning for grocery shopping. (Aedan really enjoys dressing to match other people, which is why they are both wearing red shirts.) We got one of the giant carts at Meijer so that they could sit next to each other, and they really do so well together. Aedan helps me with Owen when he wants his snack or water cup, and sometimes he will even help me get items off the shelves and put them in the cart. Here they are sitting next to each other in the produce section. Aedan was being really sweet and kept putting his arm around Owen and giving him great big hugs. They are lucky to have each other.
Our routine shopping trip went south when we were leaving the parking lot and something sounded really funny on the van. I pulled over right away, got out of the car to check out what happened, and noticed the back right tire was totally flat. I wasn't sure what to do, so I called Ben quickly, knowing that he was about to go into class. He ended up calling Brooks for me to see if he could help me out, so we waited just a few minutes before he arrived to help us. He filled the tire up with air, and luckily, the hole in the tire was right at the top for us to see. He said the tire should last for our drive to the tire shop, and he would follow me there just in case something happened on the way there. This was not exactly what we wanted to be dealing with, especially since we were supposed to be going home to eat lunch, but I was glad Brooks was able to come help me and then it was a relatively easy fix. The tire shop is just first come, first serve, so we had to wait for a little while. Luckily, they had a coloring book that Aedan found interesting, and Owen enjoyed just wandering back and forth, looking at all the tires.
We didn't get home until after 1:00, when Aedan was already supposed to be at preschool, and we still had to eat a fast lunch and I had to unload the groceries. It was crazy getting all that stuff done, and Aedan didn't get to school until around 2:00, but that was the best that I could do considering the circumstances. I hoped that Owen would fall asleep in the car on the way home, but here he is right before I put him down for his nap that day. I was trying to get him to sing, "Oh, Where Is My Hairbrush," which turns out to mostly be, "Oh whe..." but it still is pretty cute. Then, he waves to say night-night at the end.
Wednesday night was another busy night as Ben had senior presentations that he had to listen to, and then they were taking the seniors out afterwards. Christy arrived just before dinnertime, so it was kind of a hectic day with all that took place. However, the cousins were all excited to play with one another, so they got busy playing while I made dinner.
The kids had AWANA that night, and it was the last one before the awards ceremony next week, so Samantha got to use up the rest of her shares. She was really sweet and got earrings for Brielle and a little stuffed animal chicken for Aedan. Ben was able to pick the kids up from AWANA, and he took this cute video of Aedan getting situated in his bed that night. He is always very particular about where Happy Bear and blankie go. Usually Happy Bear stays up at the top of his pillow as you can see in the video, and then he cuddles with his blankie. But since he had the chicken to cuddle with, his blankie also got moved to the top of his pillow. Do you see how he burrows himself in his covers and tucks it all up around his neck? That is exactly how I sleep as well. :) He never wants you to turn off the light until he gets himself fully situated in his bed. It makes me smile, even if it is a little bit quirky.
Thursday was a normal day with Samantha going to school, Ben going to work, and Aedan going to school in the afternoon. However, we had our visitors at our house to play with as well. After sticking around the house for a couple hours for play time (and lots of toys being strewn about), we decided to get out of the house for awhile. There was a MOPS play date at McDonald's, so we decided to head there for a little while to let the kids run around, play, and get some energy out.
That evening, after eating potato soup and bread for dinner, Ben and I headed over to Canada with our kids for swim lessons. It was Ben's turn to get in the water with Owen, so I sat up in the bleachers and took a few videos of the kids while they swam. Samantha has her lessons in the big lap pool and is doing a fantastic job of learning different strokes and how to swim without assistance. She has grown so much in her swimming ability. I am so proud of her.
Here she is learning how to dive! She is so brave going head first into the deepest part of the pool. That's my girl!
And here's Aedan's group jumping into the water. You can see that he waited to jump in until the instructor could help catch him, but he definitely does not need that assistance. He still is trying to figure out how to be in this pool without his floatie on, since he can't quite touch the bottom yet. However, he has made huge strides in being comfortable putting his head under water and not freaking out or getting a ton of water in his mouth. I think buying him goggles really helped with that, too.
And here's Owen playing in the beachfront pool at the end of his lesson. He really enjoys going down this slide, but he has a hard time keeping his footing because he tries to run through the water and falls face first into the water. However, it doesn't seem to phase him much at all. He's just like Samantha was in the water: absolutely fearless. He loves water of any kind, and he's been loving this time to play in the pool.
After several weeks of waiting, we got word from the Proulx's that they received pre-approval from their bank and were ready to make an offer on our house. We talked back and forth throughout Thursday night and Friday morning about their offer. We finally settled on on $147,500, including the play set in the back yard. We were all happy with the deal, and I was so excited to have things coming to an end in selling our house. In fact, they actually came over to our house on Friday morning to sign the sales agreement so that we could take the paperwork in to the title company and make everything official. Yay!
We had the kids outside playing with the Proulx's came over that morning, and Owen was just having a rough time falling and hurting himself a lot. In fact, he was trying to ride on a a balance bike that we had, and he fell and hit his chin on the handlebars. He got a pretty big cut in his chin, and he wasn't happy when I brought him inside to stop the bleeding, clean it, and put a band-aid on it. The band-aid probably bothered him more than anything. He kept moving his chin up and down and trying to pull at it. Poor kid, he was having a rough time that day. Even at nap time he was having a hard time. He just kept waking up and crying.
On Friday afternoon, once Samantha and Aedan got home from school, we spent more time playing outside while dinner cooked. We got a gift certificate for a local grocery store with great, fresh meat, so Ben got some real bacon and a beef roast. We baked the roast and served it with mashed potatoes for dinner that night. I didn't think the kids would eat the meat that well, since our kids aren't used to just being served meat by itself as a main dish (mostly because it is too expensive for our budget), but they all devoured it. But man, this meat was delicious. I thoroughly enjoyed our dinner, and as we were eating that roast, I decided Ben and I needed to splurge a little more and buy nicer cuts of meat like this to enjoy every once in awhile.
That night, after getting the kids in bed, Christy and I spent some time going through our old Barbie house and bins of clothes, getting everything ready for her to take with her the next day when they headed back home. Ben went to bed about 11:00, but I decided to stay up and talk with Christy for awhile, just the two of us. We were up until close to 1:30, and it felt just like old times when we were sharing a room and would talk until all hours of the night. I was glad she was able to come visit with Brielle and Oliver, even if she had to come up on her own since Matthew had to work. It was nice to have them visit for a few days.
Saturday was a busy day. We decided to dye our eggs that morning. We had the traditional cups with dye, as well as a different sponge paint kind that was fun for the kids to be creative with. Owen had a hard time while we were decorating the eggs because he wanted to be a part of the action, but he just didn't understand what to do and was getting upset when we moved him away. Here are the big kids hard at work!
After coloring our Easter eggs, we finished getting ready, Christy packed up her car, and then we went over to the Norris Center for the community Easter egg hunt. There were a few activities in the big gym, as well as popcorn, and a craft station. This is what Owen found to do. He really enjoys hitting balls with clubs/bats/sticks. Maybe he will be a hockey player? He is definitely more interested in doing things like this than either Samantha or Aedan were at this age. He was having a blast, and that was just fine with us.
Here are the big kids making egg crafts at the craft table, all very hard at work.
Here are some Daddy and Owen pictures from before the egg hunt. You can see the big cut on Owen's chin from falling down on the bike on Friday.
Here is Owen experiencing his first ever Easter egg hunt.
After the egg hunt, they read off the numbers for the raffle prizes, and Owen even won a large stuffed monkey! He didn't want to put it down the rest of the day.
It was then time to say good-bye to Aunt Christy, Brielle, and Oliver so they could head back to Aurora, and we could go on to our next event for the day. We were invited to an adoption party, and we were thrilled to be a part of their celebration of the new member of their family. Owen fell asleep in the car on the way there and I stayed him in the car for a little while until he woke up, so it wasn't the longest nap, but it was good enough to get him through the rest of the day. There was yummy food and games for the kids, so they had a blast playing together.
The weather was beautiful that day, so when we got home from the party, we got the kids' bikes ready, a stroller for Owen, and even took Izzy with us on our first walk/bike ride around campus. It was so fun to watch the kids ride their bikes again. Samantha wiped out turning too fast around a corner where there was loose gravel, but even though she scraped up her knee, she was a trooper and didn't let it keep her from getting right back on her bike again. Aedan was nervous about riding his Spider-Man bike, but he picked up on it quickly and was speeding around the sidewalks in no time. We love living across from campus and having these safe sidewalks for the kids to ride around. That is definitely something we will miss about where we live now.
And just to end this happy day on a happy note, here are the kids singing, dancing, and making music very loudly after dinner that night. Nothing is better in Owen's world than being included in what Samantha and Aedan are doing. :) And nothing is better than a day spent making happy memories together as a family.
(Blog about April 14-20, 2019)
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