Aedan: 61 Months, Week 3
Owen: 19 Months, Week 4
Sunday, May 12th was Mother's Day, and our church took family pictures as a Mother's Day present. We were out of town last year for the picture, so I was looking forward to getting them done this year. It is always fairly windy outside our church, which is why my hair is a little fluffy looking, but I think the picture turned out well. Samantha and Aedan have really cute smiles in the picture, and it's nice to have an updated picture of our family.
After we got back home, the kids gave me the presents they made for me for Mother's Day. Samantha colored this rock with my favorite colors, green and purple, and then wrapped the wire around the rock to make a picture holder. Then, her teacher took a picture of her at school to attach to the picture holder. I love that picture of Samantha as well. Her smile is just beautiful, and her gift for me was precious. I love handmade gifts.
We went to the 9:00 service at church that morning so that way we could get back home, have an early lunch, and get Owen down for a nap early so we could go to the circus that afternoon. We got tickets for the 2:00 show because we figured we would have small group that night, plus we didn't want the kids to be out past bedtime. We woke Owen up at about 1:00, giving him about an hour nap, which was better than nothing, and then we headed over to the Pullar Center for the circus. We had never taken the kids to the circus before, so this was a new thing for them. They had different animals you could ride before the circus, but of course everything cost more money, and it was like $10 per kid per ride. We decided to let Samantha and Aedan choose one thing, and they decided on the elephant because it's not every day you get to ride on an elephant. I think Aedan was a little nervous, but he was happy to be safely in front of Samantha. Here are some pictures and videos of their elephant ride.
After walking around for a little while, we found our seats up in the stands and gave the kids the snacks we brought for them (so we could avoid having to pay for expensive snacks there). Here I am with my three kiddos, celebrating Mother's Day doing a fun, family activity. :)
There was also a tiger trainer, which actually didn't hold the kids' attention for too long. It was a little slow and boring for them.
One of the highlights of the circus for Aedan was when this yellow car came out and transformed into Bumblebee. Aedan was totally mesmerized. I don't think he thought a car could actually transform in real life.
This act of the two boys doing this incredible tumbling, spinning act, was amazing to watch. I couldn't believe how fast he was spinning around.
His next favorite part was a man dressed as Spider-Man who came down from the ceiling from a bungee cord type rope. He swung around and climbed just like Spider-Man does, and Aedan thought it was totally awesome. Here is a video of him watching Spider-Man, as well as a couple videos of what Spider-Man was doing.
If you wanted to stand right in front of Bumblebee, you had to pay money for a picture, so we just had Aedan stand off on the side to get a picture of him in the background.
After intermission, they had several different groups of dogs doing tricks, which was fairly entertaining. All their different acts reminded me a lot of America's Got Talent.
The show ended with the elephants coming back out with ladies riding on top. It was pretty amazing to see what they could do, especially when it looked like they were hanging from the elephant's trunk/mouth. It was a great way to end the circus, and even though Owen got pretty wiggly during the second half of the show, Samantha and Aedan stayed pretty entertained by it most of the time. It was definitely worth our time to go, and I'm glad to have had this experience with the kids.
The kids were a little disappointed that they didn't get any of the special treats or snacks they were selling at the circus, so we decided to surprise them by offering to get them Dairy Queen after leaving the circus. They were pretty happy with that idea, so we stopped there for some ice cream before going back home for some play time outside. It was a beautiful day and is finally turning to spring slowly around here. It was a great Mother's Day with my family.
On Monday we didn't have too many plans, just trying to get back into a routine after last week being so weird with Ben and I being out of town through Wednesday, all the drama of finding a house, and then Owen's surgery. On Monday night, after getting all the kids to bed, I heard a weird sounding cough come from Owen's room. I thought about going in to check on him, but he didn't cry or make any more noise after that, so I just assumed that everything we okay. However, as Ben and I were going to bed, I decided to go in and check on him after the lights were all turned off in the living room so that I wouldn't wake him up. As soon as I walked into his room, I knew what had happened because it smelled so bad. I felt around in his crib, and confirmed what I thought had happened. He had gotten sick to his stomach. I quickly went downstairs to tell Ben that I was going to need his help so one of us could hold him, while the other changed his sheets and cleaned things up. As we walked into his room, he was rustling around a little bit, and as Ben picked him up, he got sick again. He just held him over his bed and let him get sick, since his bed was a mess already. Ben held Owen while I changed his sheets, and cleaned things up. We could tell Owen was just so tired and wanting to go back to sleep. He was just cuddling up in Daddy's lap. We hoped that he got it all out and would be able to at least sleep some, but we were prepping ourselves for a long night of having to get up and clean things up.
Luckily, Owen did not get sick at all the rest of the night, and he never ended up getting sick to his stomach again. I had MOPS that Tuesday morning, and it was our last meeting of the year, as well as Spa Day, so Ben offered to stay home with Owen that morning so that I could go to MOPS. Owen ended up waking up after 8:30 that morning, and Ben said that his room smelled horrid, but he hadn't thrown up anymore. Ben said he just had the worst diaper he'd seen in his almost 8 years of parenting. From then on, Owen just had lot of diarrhea and no appetite, but he was acting fairly normal.
That morning Ben said Owen was acting much more clingy and just wanting to be near him a lot. In fact, he crawled up on Ben's lap to cuddle and ended up falling asleep on his shoulder before 11:30. He held him for awhile before deciding to lay him down in his crib and see if he would stay asleep. He stayed asleep for the whole rest of the afternoon, and we ended up having to wake him up at 4:20 so he would still be able to sleep that night. He slept for almost 5 hours straight, which is amazing! However, it's just a sign of how crummy he was feeling, and I was glad that his body was getting extra rest.
We had beautiful weather again that day, so we decided to eat an early dinner and then go to get $2 ice cream at Zak's downtown before walking around the locks for a little while. Ben and I took turns eating ice cream and hanging out with Owen because we didn't think it would be a good idea for him to have ice cream yet with his upset stomach. Here are Samantha and Aedan finally wearing shorts and t-shirts and baseball hats, loving the warm weather to play outside even more. Even Owen enjoyed running around for awhile. It was our first trip for ice cream and our first trip to the locks for the season. We figured we will enjoy it for the next month that we live in Sault Ste. Marie.
By Wednesday Owen was largely acting like normal, but he was still having diarrhea quite a bit. Although, I would take that over vomiting any day. Since we knew he was still recovering, we kept him home and didn't worry too much about what he ate as long as he kept drinking, which he was. In fact, I even got to go grocery shopping by myself that morning while Ben stayed home with the boys. It's funny how doing anything by yourself, when you are a mom, feels like a special treat, even if it's just grocery shopping.
Wednesday afternoon, however, I had a REAL treat that Ben planned for me. For Mother's Day he set up a hot stone massage for me. I hadn't had a massage since right after Aedan was born, so about five years ago. Sometimes it's a little awkward, but it feels so relaxing, that you forget pretty quickly. He got me an hour and a half long massage, and it was very nice. The hot stones were definitely something different that I hadn't experienced before, but it was fun to try. The only things I would have changed is having a less talkative masseuse, (I don't particularly like making small talk with strangers.) and also, I would have enjoyed a little more deep pressure on my shoulders and upper back because that's where I feel the most tension. Nevertheless, it was a very relaxing way to spend my afternoon.
It's difficult to get a video of Owen talking because he tends to stop anytime he sees me taking a video. However, on Wednesday night, I was putting Owen to bed a little early because he didn't take a very long nap, and I caught him on video saying good night to everyone, which came out as "bye." It made me laugh to hear him say bye because he sounded so southern when he said it. He was just so sweet going around to everyone in the house saying "bye" and waving.
Thursday, May 16th was Samantha's 8th birthday! Man, it's hard to believe we have an 8 year old already. I feel like she was just a preschooler at home with me. These last three years of school have gone by so quickly. It's always difficult to do much when a birthday falls on a school day. However, Ben was able to come home from work and take Aedan with him to have lunch with Samantha at school. She didn't like the school lunch that day, so he picked up Subway and brought it to school for her. She was definitely excited to have lunch with Daddy and Aedan. :)
I volunteered to stay home with Owen, since Ben had stayed home with him the previous two mornings. The poor little guy was just stuck in the house all week long, but he was slowly improving. He was still having diarrhea pretty consistently, but not as bad as the previous days. He still was hardly eating anything, which I guess makes sense. His body was still trying to heal itself. As you can see in this video, I gave him green beans and goldfish for lunch, and he didn't even want to eat those, which says a lot. However, I was able to get him to eat most of a yogurt, so that was good for his stomach. I took this video of him because I was trying to record the way he says thank you, which usually sounds like "ah-ooh." He was saying it every time I gave him one of my chips, but stopped once I started recording him. However, I did get the way he says "mmm" when he likes something and "uh-oh" when he noticed his cup had fallen over. I love little toddler voices and the way they say new words in their own unique way. It's so fun to hear Owen learn more words and be able to communicate better.
Thursday was a busy evening with Samantha's birthday and also having their weekly swim lessons that night. However, we let her open presents when she got home from school. Ema and Papa wanted to wish her a happy birthday, so we FaceTimed them while she opened her present so they could be a part of the experience. One of the only things Samantha asked for for her birthday was an American Girl doll named Josefina. We told her that if she really wanted that, we would go in with Ema and Papa and that would be the only present she would get from them and us, and she was okay with that. So here she is opening her new American Girl doll. She was so excited to get her out of the box and to look at her long, black hair and gold, hoop earrings. Samantha has really enjoyed having Kit, but she wanted a doll with longer hair so that she could do things to it.
Jenn
Once I got her out of the box, she had to go get Kit so she could meet Josefina, so here is Samantha with her two special American Girl dolls. I'm glad she was pleased with her birthday present. She's definitely getting the to age where she no longer wants little, silly toys, but much prefers bigger things that cost more money, but will be used and played with for much longer.
Even though it was Samantha's birthday, Aedan also got a late birthday present in the mail from Uncle Matt. We decided to let him open his present first before letting the birthday girl get to the rest of her stuff. I took a video of it so that way Uncle Matt could see him. It was a pretty cool Spider-Man set with a giant lava monster. He doesn't look too excited in this video, but he asked to build it for days after this until we finally were able to help him put it together.
After that, Samantha opened the present from Aunt Christy and family. We did Facebook video chat, so I couldn't record it, but I did take this one picture of the conversation. Samantha got a pink and purple analog watch, a bunch of new earrings and a charm necklace, as well as s straw hat for Kit that she wanted. Samantha was pretty excited about being able to change her earrings on Saturday after waiting eight long weeks, so earrings were definitely a big hit with her.
It was definitely a different birthday with less gifts, but it was perfectly okay. I know kids love to get presents, but sometimes it gets a little excessive with the amount of toys and things kids can accumulate over the years. Samantha is a lot less interested in playing with toys now anyways, so we have been paring down our girl toys that she no longer plays with.
After having spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, which was Samantha's request, we got ready for swim lessons. With Owen still recovering and having diarrhea, we decided to keep him out again, so Ben and I just let him walk around the halls and watch the swimmers for the half an hour that Samantha and Aedan were in their lesson. After swimming lessons, we told Samantha she could choose between Dairy Queen or Tim Horton's for her special treat, since we were saving her cake for her sleepover party the next day. She chose donuts from Tim Horton's, so we stopped there and let everyone pick a big donut. We even sat in the restaurant to enjoy them, rather then just bringing them home. Samantha had a good birthday, but she was looking even more to Friday night when she was having her sleepover party with her friends.
On Friday morning I worked on getting the house cleaned up and decorating Samantha's birthday cake. She chose chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream and chocolate frosting. Aedan attempted to build his new Legos with the lava monster and Spider-Man, but it was a more advanced Lego set, and he had a hard time building it by himself, but I didn't have time to sit down and help him with it that day. Here he is hard at work with all the pieces and the direction book spread out before him.
Here are the two boys watching a show on the couch together that day. We don't do this too often, but Owen has been enjoying watching things more lately.
Samantha's friends arrived around 5:00, and they were all super excited to start playing together. They headed straight for Samantha's room, and we did our best to keep Aedan and Owen out so they could just have girl time together. Shortly after that, we ordered pizza from Little Caesar's, since that was Samantha's request for pizza. The girls all sat down nicely at the table to eat dinner, even though some ate more than others. After eating, all the kids were pretty wired, so we sent them outside to play for a little while and burn off some energy.
Even with coats on, it was a bit chilly outside, so a little after 6:30, everyone came back inside so Samantha could open her presents. I asked all the girls to sit on the couch for a picture, so here's Savannah, Samantha, Olivia, and Emma, ready for a fun night together. I love Samantha's big, cheesy smile. She was so excited to have these friends over, and I'm so glad it worked out for everyone to be able to come.
Then, she got some special presents "for her car ride" from Emma, like snacks and magnetic dress-up things. That was really thoughtful, knowing that we are moving in a month and will spend a long time in the car.
Savannah got Samantha new earrings, as well as a little puppy and doctor kit for taking care of the puppy, that is for her American Girl dolls.
After Samantha opened her presents, it was time for birthday cake. Here is the chocolate, mint chocolate chip ice cream cake that she requested.
Here we are singing "Happy Birthday" to Samantha. I love that she was having such a fun and special birthday party, (so much better than spending tons of money on a gymnastics party, which is what she originally said she wanted).
After having cake and letting the kids play a little bit longer, Ben and I worked on getting the mattresses situated and beds made for the girls to sleep in the basement. The girls all got their pajamas on, chose to watch Incredibles 2, and got themselves cozy on the couch. We even let Aedan and Owen join in the movie watching for a little while. They were both pretty interested in the movie and were upset when we made them get up and go to bed.
After putting the boys to bed, I sat on the floor and watched the movie for a little while, but as the night progressed, I was feeling worse and worse. I didn't even have any cake because my stomach was feeling upset, and I had a terrible headache and had the chills. Ben told me to go lay down, so I figured I'd take him up on his offer, and just get up when the movie was over. However, I felt terrible and almost felt like I was going to be sick to my stomach. Every time I sat up or tried to move, I felt even worse. I ended up fading in and out of sleep for most of the night, and I felt bad that I was leaving Ben to deal with all the girls and getting them settled for bed. After being asleep for awhile, I got up to go to the bathroom and realized that I had caught the diarrhea bug from Owen. I got up six times during the night, and it was terrible. I was trying my hardest to not wake up the girls by getting up and going to the bathroom, and I hoped that I wouldn't spread any of my germs to them. Since I got sick overnight, I pretty much quarantined myself to my bedroom so that I wouldn't be around the girls at all. I even got sick to my stomach two times throughout the day on Saturday. It was just a terrible virus. I had absolutely no energy, and my head hurt every time I tried to move. I laid in bed pretty much all day, trying to rest and let my body recuperate. However, I felt so bad that I missed most of Samantha's party, and that I wasn't present to help Ben with breakfast and keeping track of all the kids on Saturday morning. I even missed out on going swimming in Canada with the rest of my family on Saturday night, which made me sad. I was upset that I had gotten sick because I felt like I caught every since thing from the kids this winter. I washed my hands religiously when Owen was sick during the week, but it wasn't enough to prevent me from catching what he had.
Here is a picture from Saturday morning of the kids playing together. They had pancakes for breakfast and just had fun playing before parents came to pick the girls up around 11:00. Samantha had a blast. She loved feeling old enough to have a sleepover party, and these girls were so well-behaved and fun to have around, that it all went pretty smoothly. Samantha is already talking about wanting another sleepover party next year. :)
(Blog about May 12-18, 2019)
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