Aedan: 64 Months, Week 2
Owen: 22 Months, Week 3
After being gone for a week, we were looking forward to getting back to our new house and exploring the area a little bit.
Sunday was a day of hanging out and playing at home, catching up on laundry, and me going grocery shopping since we were totally out of food. I tried shopping at Walmart in Tunkhannock, and it was good, but shopping at a new store always takes so much longer because I don't know where anything is. I'm trying to decide where the best place is to shop because this Walmart is about 25-30 minutes away, which is quite a ways, but the Walmart in Wilkes-Barre is the same distance away, and I've heard that it's a lot crazier to shop at. At least the one in Tunkhannock was clean, organized, and not too crowded. I will have to decide if it's worth driving a little farther for a store that has cheaper prices and is more of a one stop shopping experience than Aldi.
When we got back home on Saturday night, we realized that the power was out in the master bedroom and bathroom. Ben looked around a little bit to see if he could figure out what happened, but we decided we would just call an electrician on Monday to come look at it for us. Until then, we just moved an end table in from the living room to our doorway and used the outlets in the hallway.
Samantha was a little sad being back home and not having fun things to do every day, but as we tell them, you can't just be on vacation every day (even though I would love that, too!) Here she is enjoying reading on the book nook after bath time, with little Owen sitting in his diaper next to her.
On Monday, August 5th, Ben took the van in for appointment to check the steering wheel and breaks, and fix the recalls on the van seat that we tried to fix when we lived in Michigan, but the only Honda dealer close to us was in Canada. He got some work done on campus as well, as he is going to start ramping up his working schedule to get prepared for the semester that is starting at the end of the month.
However, he made it back home in enough time to take Samantha to reader's theater again since she enjoyed it so much last time and there were only a couple more weeks.
Owen had trouble napping that afternoon. It took awhile to get him to sleep, then he woke up when I laid him down, and he was awake by 3:00, so not a very long nap for him, making him pretty crabby that evening.
Before school schedules start back up in full force, Ben wanted to take Samantha and Aedan on special dates at places that they would really enjoy. So on Tuesday he decided to take Aedan on his date to the Lego Experience in Philadelphia. I will let Ben fill in his details describing the pictures that he took.
That morning Samantha had her testing to see if she would qualify for the gifted program. We dropped her off a little before 9:00, and the testing was supposed to last a couple of hours. As soon as I got back home, Ben and Aedan took off for their date, and then Owen and I just hung out at home. I had an appointment scheduled with a lady from Budget Blinds to come out and give me an estimate for how much it would cost for the honeycomb looking blackout blinds that you simply pull up and down with no cords hanging down and easy to keep clean. Right now, I just have blackout curtain panels hanging on their curtains, which works pretty well, but I was interested to see how much it would cost to get actual blinds installed. Even with the discount, it was still much more than I expected it to be, and much more than we could afford right now, so that will have to be a project for another day down the road, if we decide that it is indeed important to have blinds on the windows upstairs.
Samantha was done with her testing just before 11:00, so Owen and I got into the car to go pick her up. In fact, as we were in the car driving, I got a message from the lady that did her testing who said that she could already tell me that Samantha will qualify for the gifted program. We were so excited that she got in, and Samantha was so excited when she found that out. We were already going to go get ice cream, but now we had even more of a reason to celebrate. I decided it would be fun to go to Hillside Farm to see the farm animals and have some ice cream. Samantha was excited to have time with just Owen, and he enjoyed having Samantha's sole attention. I got cookies and cream ice cream for Owen, which he really enjoyed. It was the first ice cream that he really seemed to enjoy. Samantha tried a new flavor in a waffle cone, for she often tries a new flavor every time to taste different things. Owen really loves animals, so he loved walking around and seeing the horses, cows, goats, and chickens. It was a lot of fun to spend this time together with Samantha and Owen.
However, he made it back home in enough time to take Samantha to reader's theater again since she enjoyed it so much last time and there were only a couple more weeks.
Owen had trouble napping that afternoon. It took awhile to get him to sleep, then he woke up when I laid him down, and he was awake by 3:00, so not a very long nap for him, making him pretty crabby that evening.
Before school schedules start back up in full force, Ben wanted to take Samantha and Aedan on special dates at places that they would really enjoy. So on Tuesday he decided to take Aedan on his date to the Lego Experience in Philadelphia. I will let Ben fill in his details describing the pictures that he took.
That morning Samantha had her testing to see if she would qualify for the gifted program. We dropped her off a little before 9:00, and the testing was supposed to last a couple of hours. As soon as I got back home, Ben and Aedan took off for their date, and then Owen and I just hung out at home. I had an appointment scheduled with a lady from Budget Blinds to come out and give me an estimate for how much it would cost for the honeycomb looking blackout blinds that you simply pull up and down with no cords hanging down and easy to keep clean. Right now, I just have blackout curtain panels hanging on their curtains, which works pretty well, but I was interested to see how much it would cost to get actual blinds installed. Even with the discount, it was still much more than I expected it to be, and much more than we could afford right now, so that will have to be a project for another day down the road, if we decide that it is indeed important to have blinds on the windows upstairs.
Samantha was done with her testing just before 11:00, so Owen and I got into the car to go pick her up. In fact, as we were in the car driving, I got a message from the lady that did her testing who said that she could already tell me that Samantha will qualify for the gifted program. We were so excited that she got in, and Samantha was so excited when she found that out. We were already going to go get ice cream, but now we had even more of a reason to celebrate. I decided it would be fun to go to Hillside Farm to see the farm animals and have some ice cream. Samantha was excited to have time with just Owen, and he enjoyed having Samantha's sole attention. I got cookies and cream ice cream for Owen, which he really enjoyed. It was the first ice cream that he really seemed to enjoy. Samantha tried a new flavor in a waffle cone, for she often tries a new flavor every time to taste different things. Owen really loves animals, so he loved walking around and seeing the horses, cows, goats, and chickens. It was a lot of fun to spend this time together with Samantha and Owen.
"While Samantha was doing her testing, I took Aedan on a daddy-Aedan date. I wanted to take each of the older kids on a bigger date to spend a day with them before the semester started for him and the kids started in school. Aedan wanted his destination to be a surprise, so I did not tell him until we were about halfway down to Philadelphia where I took him to the Legoland Discovery Center."
"In the car Aedan just played and talked to me. It was interesting how much he can talk when he is by himself and just carry conversations. When Samantha is around he can be talked over quite a bit so it was fun to just listen to him talk about the things he found interesting."
"This is just a quick video of when I told Aedan what we were doing. He had seen an advertisement for the Discovery Center at the Children's Museum in Philly a while before. But, we had not really let him think that this was a possibility to get to. He would call it LegoWorld, and we would just remind him that LegoWorld is in Florida, and we can't go on a date there. But, he was very happy when I told him we were going to the discovery center, as you can see in the video. "
"At first, Aedan seemed kind of overwhelmed with all the places he could play. There were so many different places, all with Legos, for him to just explore and enjoy. It was almost too much. He started with a quieter part of the center and just got used to his surroundings. This is actually an area designed for the Lego Friends, which is more geared toward girls than toward boys. But, Samantha plays with those quite a bit. After he got warmed up, it was hard to not just smile watching him. It seems weird to me that he is not far from starting kindergarten, yet not weird at all. He is ready for school, but he is so cute and I don't want him to lose the innocence that he has. He is so sweet, and loving, and I want him to stay that way where he will just come up and cuddle with you."
"The place that really caught his attention first was the little area where you could build a car out of Legos and race it down a track (you would slide down next to it). At first, he wanted to just use one that someone else had made and left there. But, I convinced him to try and make one of his own. He made one with two seats, one for me and one for him. The next set of pictures and videos are him making the car and going down the slide with the Lego car he built."
"Like most kids he was probably not too interested in the cityscapes they built. but he spent around 15-20 minutes looking around and playing with the different parts that he could with the city."
"Next up was the train table, and Aedan spent a good amount of time just building a Lego train and driving it around the track. There were some other boys who were playing at the same time and they spent some time just driving their trains around together. It was cute to watch how he simply gets along with other kids and lets them play well with him."
"Aedan's favorite part of the center was a really simply little ride welcoming you to the discovery center. You were allowed to ride it as many times as you wanted, and he wanted to ride it 4 or 5 times. It was really boring, but he liked it so we did it a lot."
"After lunch we went to a demonstration for building a Lego structure. It was led by a "master builder" and required that you follow his instructions for building this ice cream truck. Aedan was easily the youngest kid in the room, but he paid so much attention and did a great job of listening and following along. The pictures don't do justice of how seriously he was taking it. The video shows him asking me if he was doing it right and how much effort he making in trying to do it well. This was another favorite activity of his."
"Aedan enjoyed playing with this table where you tried to build a tall building and have the table shake to see if it strong enough to withstand an earthquake. We spent some time trying to build good buildings and some time intentionally building things that would fall down right away. "
"Aedan enjoyed watching the 4-D Lego movie with the VIP pictures and getting an ice cream cone before we left for home. Aedan and I had a great time just hanging out. He really enjoyed just having me there and being able to do what he wanted when he wanted. It was a lot of fun just hanging out with my boy who is just so grown up and yet so small at the same time."
Aedan had a great time out with Daddy, so much so that he had a pretty hard time the rest of the day. He wanted to go back to the Lego place again because he had so much fun. Both boys had trouble going to sleep that night, probably because they were both overtired. Owen has been crying every time we put him to bed lately. It's hard to know if we need to just get him used to us not coming into his room as much because when were out of town, we went into his room quickly when he cried so he wouldn't wake up Samantha and Aedan with his crying. Aedan also has been calling out for us more lately after being put to bed, and we have no idea why. Particularly that night, Aedan was so tired and wasn't making any sense.
Since moving into our new house at the end of June, I hadn't really done a full, deep clean of the house, so I decided to try and get that done on Wednesday. My goal was to try and get the kids to help, especially with their rooms and the upstairs bathroom. However, they were just refusing to listen when I asked them to do something. I felt like it shouldn't be my job to clean the whole house by myself when they are the ones making the messes, and that they should be willing and able to help me out, but it was difficult to get the house cleaned while having all three of them at home. Next time, I will clean the house at a different time. I worked really hard cleaning the house that whole day, except for when I had to do something with the kids, make food, or put Owen to bed. It was a long day of cleaning, but I always feel so good at the end of the day when everything is nice and clean, picked up and put away.
We had an interesting experience on Wednesday morning as I noticed in the morning that both our bird feeders were knocked down, and then when I was outside, I noticed a big pile of poop on the grass with bird seed in it. After a little looking around, I figured out that it was bear poop, which also explained how the bird feeders got knocked over. Apparently, bears like bird seed, and they will do whatever they can to get it. This was about six feet from our bedroom window, and that it a little too close for comfort for me. I don't want black bears to be wandering around that close to our house looking for bird seed. Local people recommended to us that we don't feed birds until the winter when the bears go into hibernation.
On Thursday Ben decided to take Samantha on her date, and he gave her a few choices of museums in Philadelphia to go to. She decided to go to the Museum of the American Revolution because she is really interested in learning about wars lately. I will let Ben tell more about his time with her along with the pictures below.
The boys and I were on our own that day, and we decided to take a trip to the library for preschool story hour. I signed Aedan up for it at the beginning of the summer, but for some reason or another, we never were able to go to any of them. However, Aedan was excited about it, and he felt a little less jealous about Samantha getting to go on her date. Aedan enjoyed story hour, and it was very well put together. Two high school girls read five or six books about summertime, and then they made a craft. Owen wasn't too interested in sitting there to listen to the stories, but Aedan did a great job listening attentively and participating in the craft. We ended our time at the library with some time playing games on the computer before heading out to have a special treat of donuts before heading back home.
Owen falls asleep with me at nap time every day, almost always just like he is in this picture, with his head cuddled up on my right shoulder, and his legs tucked up as a frog, even though he is getting too big to fit this way. As I was thinking about how big he was getting, I decided to take a few pictures of my little boy fast asleep on my shoulder. Who knows how much longer he will do this, for there will be some day that will be the last day he will asleep with me like this at nap time. I love the little spot of drool on my shoulder. I love how this is the exact way he has loved to sleep on me since he was a newborn. I love feeling his slow, steady breath that indicated he has finally fallen asleep. And most of all, I love these snuggles with my little cuddler who is more than happy to let him hold him until he falls asleep.
Since moving into our new house at the end of June, I hadn't really done a full, deep clean of the house, so I decided to try and get that done on Wednesday. My goal was to try and get the kids to help, especially with their rooms and the upstairs bathroom. However, they were just refusing to listen when I asked them to do something. I felt like it shouldn't be my job to clean the whole house by myself when they are the ones making the messes, and that they should be willing and able to help me out, but it was difficult to get the house cleaned while having all three of them at home. Next time, I will clean the house at a different time. I worked really hard cleaning the house that whole day, except for when I had to do something with the kids, make food, or put Owen to bed. It was a long day of cleaning, but I always feel so good at the end of the day when everything is nice and clean, picked up and put away.
We had an interesting experience on Wednesday morning as I noticed in the morning that both our bird feeders were knocked down, and then when I was outside, I noticed a big pile of poop on the grass with bird seed in it. After a little looking around, I figured out that it was bear poop, which also explained how the bird feeders got knocked over. Apparently, bears like bird seed, and they will do whatever they can to get it. This was about six feet from our bedroom window, and that it a little too close for comfort for me. I don't want black bears to be wandering around that close to our house looking for bird seed. Local people recommended to us that we don't feed birds until the winter when the bears go into hibernation.
The boys and I were on our own that day, and we decided to take a trip to the library for preschool story hour. I signed Aedan up for it at the beginning of the summer, but for some reason or another, we never were able to go to any of them. However, Aedan was excited about it, and he felt a little less jealous about Samantha getting to go on her date. Aedan enjoyed story hour, and it was very well put together. Two high school girls read five or six books about summertime, and then they made a craft. Owen wasn't too interested in sitting there to listen to the stories, but Aedan did a great job listening attentively and participating in the craft. We ended our time at the library with some time playing games on the computer before heading out to have a special treat of donuts before heading back home.
Owen falls asleep with me at nap time every day, almost always just like he is in this picture, with his head cuddled up on my right shoulder, and his legs tucked up as a frog, even though he is getting too big to fit this way. As I was thinking about how big he was getting, I decided to take a few pictures of my little boy fast asleep on my shoulder. Who knows how much longer he will do this, for there will be some day that will be the last day he will asleep with me like this at nap time. I love the little spot of drool on my shoulder. I love how this is the exact way he has loved to sleep on me since he was a newborn. I love feeling his slow, steady breath that indicated he has finally fallen asleep. And most of all, I love these snuggles with my little cuddler who is more than happy to let him hold him until he falls asleep.
"The next person up for a daddy date was Samantha. She asked for me to take her to a museum so I chose several different options for her in Philly. Samantha didn't deliberate for long before choosing the Museum of the American Revolution which is primarily focused on the mid-1760s to the mid 1780s. Samantha will say that she really likes history and learning about wars."
"On the ride down to Philadelphia, Samantha spent the entire time talking about one of her American Girl doll stories (a series of 7 books) that is framed around the Revolutionary era. This series has a lot of convoluted things that happen and she read the books earlier in the summer. She remembered everything. She spent an hour basically telling me the story of the books and connecting things to events that happened in the real world and throughout the book series."
"Samantha really enjoyed the day. We spent the day reading all of the plaques and discussing the history and context of the war. Part of my struggle was determining how much to tell her vis-a-vis what she could handle as an 8-year-old. She ate up the entire day and just soaked it all in. She asked me lots of questions and there were some I didn't know the answer to. But, I think we had a great day."
"Samantha has entered that age where she is just a really fun kid. She enjoys lots of different things and just genuinely has fun learning and having new experiences. And, she can talk. It was a great day."
On Friday I wanted to take the kids out for a bike ride because I know it is something they have been missing in our new neighborhood since it is so hilly, and we don't live right across from a college campus with lots of sidewalks. However, I ended up talking to Aunt Christy for awhile on the phone, and the kids were just having a hard day again, just like they were on Wednesday. When I asked them to do things, they would just say no, almost like they could care less about what I have to say. Since we didn't have time to go drive anwhere, I decided we could try to ride bikes on the road behind us since it was relatively flat. However, it was just a disaster. It was just too hilly. They couldn't walk their bikes back down because they got going too fast. Samantha was crying, Aedan was freaking out, and I was pushing Owen in the little red car. I ended up having Aedan just sit in the grass with his bike while I went down with Owen and Samantha, and then I walked back up to take Aedan and his bike back down. We definitely will not be riding bikes up there again, so we need to find a nice flat place for the kids to ride around freely because it's something they enjoyed to much about Lake State's campus.
With how tired and cranky everyone was acting that morning, I tried to get everyone to nap that afternoon, since we had plans to be out late at the baseball game that night, but Samantha was just laying on her bed reading, pretending to be asleep. She hid the book when she noticed me peeking in the door at her. I don't understand why she doesn't let herself nap. I was frustrated that she didn't even try, but I was glad that at least Aedan and Owen took good naps.
We ate a quick dinner at home that night before heading up to the Railriders baseball game. They are a AAA baseball team, and we have been wanting to go to a Friday night game as a family, sit in the lawn seats, and watch the fireworks after the game. However, with the not so good day we had, our evening wasn't much better. Samantha and Aedan had no interest in actually sitting down and watching the game at all. They just wanted to run around, which is okay, but it kind of defeats the purpose of going to a baseball game. They did slightly better after we got a snack and sat in some seats rather than way out in the lawn, but we decided that we will not be going back to a baseball game like this again anytime soon, unless we decide to actually buy seats where the kids can see the field and the game better.
The highlight of everyone's night was the fireworks after the game, although Owen kept looking away and squinting his eyes, almost like the the fireworks were too bright for him to look at. I'm sure a lot of it had to do with the fact that he was just tired, and it was past his bedtime, but the kids always enjoy watching fireworks, and it was a fun way to end our evening.
Saturday was a day where we were trying to get work done around the house, as well as hair cuts for all the boys before Ben's work for the semester started. Ben mowed the lawn, and I even took a few paces at the end to try out our new self-propelled mower.
We also were dealing with a couple of our toilets not working because the power went off that afternoon because of an accident where a car hit a power line and knocked off the power in our area. However, I used the water too much after the power was off, which you can't do when you have well water. (I didn't know that!) The tank in our house ran dry, so then when the power came back on, it pulled some sludge up that then got stuck in the pipes along the way. Ben was able to talk through some issues with his dad to get the water back on in the first place, but after trying multiple things, he couldn't get the toilets working, so we decided we would call a plumber on Monday. (Why do things like this always happen on the weekend?) It was one of the those weeks that left me feeling frustrated and defeated by my week with the kids, and with things not working properly around the house. Summertime is just slipping away, and I want to spend time doing fun things with the kids, but you can also tell that they are getting ready to be back to school, to get away from each other, and to have more structure and routine to their days.
(Blog about August 4-10, 2019)
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