Samantha: 112 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 79 Months, Week 4
Owen: 36 Months, Week 2
Samantha is always so sweet and loving with our little peanut. Here she is holding her that Sunday evening. She loves having a little baby in the house.
And here's the happy little girl as we were getting her ready for bed that night: changing her diaper, putting her in pajamas, and zipping her up in her sleep sack. She is always pretty happy when she knows it's bedtime. You can tell she's smiling in this picture, but you can't see the sparkle in her eyes.
As the weekend went on, particularly on Sunday night, Aedan just wasn't acting like himself. He wasn't interested in eating much food, and he was complaining about his throat hurting when he swallowed. Monday morning he was still complaining of the same things. I didn't know what to do because sometimes he says his throat hurts and I take him to the doctor and it's just drainage from a stuff nose. Another time, he didn't really complain about anything, and he ended up having scarlet fever due to strep throat. However, just to be safe, and also because of being careful with Covid restrictions, I decided to keep him home from school on Monday so I could take him to the doctor. I decided to have Owen checked out as well because his throat looked similar to Aedan's: red and swollen, and he was also stuffed up and wasn't eating well either. I also had our little peanut with me, so I took all three kids off to the doctor's office for the walk-in clinic. They ended up only doing the throat swab in Aedan, and the rapid test came back negative. However, I still had him stay home from school and had him nap that afternoon since he was tired and not feeling well.
Here are some pictures I took of our little peanut after lunch that day. She was in a really happy mood and was giving me lots of sweet, adorable smiles. She is such a happy baby!
It was a really nice outside that day, so we decided to all spend time in our backyard after dinner that night. I also took advantage of my chance to take pictures of our backyard changing colors with the coming of fall. You can see some leaves turning yellow on the trees in the forest, as well as the low bushes and ferns along the edge of our property. You can also see the Burning Bushes turning a nice shade of red. I love the changing of seasons and how we get to see the beauty of it all from our very own backyard.
Izzy enjoyed having Ben throw the frisbee for her in the backyard. She loves it when we are all outside playing.
Here is the view of the trees along our driveway.
And here's another view of our backyard from a different angle. You can see just how steep of an incline we have in our backyard.
Here I am holding our little peanut as we played in the backyard. She was starting to look around more and more and always found going outside to be calming and interesting, a change of scenery for her.
As we were still working on potty training and were only on day three of of the three day potty training method, we were still keeping Owen in his underwear when we were at home and just playing around the house. This is what you are supposed to do, plus it makes it easier for us to tell if he is dry or not, and it helps us not having to change his clothes all the time if he does have an accident. It was a little bit hard with going to the doctor that morning and having to be out most of the morning with a newly potty trained boy who wasn't the greatest at telling me when he needed to go yet, but he really was doing pretty good. He definitely had a few accidents where we needed to change his underwear or clothes, but nothing where he was just standing in a puddle or anything like that. He was picking up on it fairly quickly, which I was happy about.
Since Aedan's rapid strep test came back negative, we figured he was good to go back to school on Tuesday morning. However, shortly after the kids arrived at school on the van, I got a call from the doctor saying the test they sent to the lab came back positive for strep. So I loaded up Owen and our little peanut again, called the school and told them what happened, and then went back to pick him up from school since he couldn't be there anymore and was contagious still. After I picked him up from school, which made him really confused as to why he was called down to the office so soon after arriving at school, we went by CVS to get the antibiotics for both Aedan and Owen because they assumed that Owen would have tested positive as well since Aedan did, and they were exhibiting the same symptoms.
On Tuesday Owen was doing a lot better with telling me when he needed to go, rather than me making him go when he was showing telltale signs or at transition times or when it had been a long time since he had gone. However, it was hard with having both boys diagnosed with strep and starting antibiotics because it made Owen a lot crabbier and emotional and not willing to do what he needed to do. Plus, the antibiotics seemed to be giving Owen some diarrhea type issues, so that wasn't fun to deal with in a newly potty trained boy. It felt like it had been a crazy few days with starting potty training on Saturday and then both boys getting sick.
Tuesday, September 29th was the day our little peanut turned 3 months old! Wahoo! Here are some pictures I took to mark the day she turned 3 months old, and I also sent these pictures along to her parents. I love how she's smiling and sticking her tongue out. Her shirt says "So Happy" and that certainly does describe her personality. She is a very happy, easygoing baby, for the most part.
That evening was going to be a little bit busy for us, with soccer in full swing, Aedan had a game on Monday night and Samantha had a game on Tuesday night. Plus, I had a dentist appointment Tuesday afternoon, so Ben came home early from work to be home with the kids while I went to the dentist. With Owen still learning how to stay dry, we didn't want to take him to the soccer fields where there is limited access to a bathroom, so Ben and I just took turns going to soccer with the kids. He took Aedan on Monday since he is the coach and has to go, and I took Samantha on Tuesday. I don't have as many pictures or videos of Aedan playing soccer because Ben can't take any when he's coaching, and I don't always go to his games. However, here are a few pictures of Samantha on the field with her team, and then a video of her running to get in place to be defense for her team.
On Wednesday Aedan stayed home from school again, because he technically couldn't go back until October 1st. Wednesdays are our typical grocery shopping day, but I had both boys with me and didn't want to drag them into the store. We had to drop our little one off for a visit, and then I did a pick up order instead and ran a couple other errands while we waited until it was time to go back and pick her up. Both boys were grumpy because they were tired and didn't feel well. Then, when we got home, Owen just stood there and peed his pants while I was bringing groceries upstairs to put away, rather than telling me that he had to go. It was too crazy of a morning, and this was just too much for them when they were both sick.
The worst part about missing school for Aedan was having to do all the work that he missed during the day. Samantha would bring all his work home from his teacher at school, and then we spent quite a bit of time in our evening getting his work done, which was a struggle at times. Nevertheless, here is some of his work from the week, and he was looking forward to going back to school on Thursday. He was practicing words with short a sounds and doing practice with subtraction.
Here are a couple papers from Samantha. Math where they were practicing PEMDAS, and a vocabulary page on Wonder.
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Here is Aedan's Chapter 1 Math Test that he got a 95% on. Way to go, Aedan! We are so proud of his hard work in school so far this year.
And here are some more math papers for practice on taking apart, or subtraction. I like seeing his pictures where he showed his work.
And here is some practice with writing numbers 1 to 50, as well as more practice with his spelling words that have the short a sound.
As we have been thinking about this year, the future, and where we are financially, we decided it would be good for me to start doing some substitute teaching. I finally got licensed as a teacher in Pennsylvania last winter and went through the process to be an approved substitute for Lake Lehman School District in the spring, only to sub one day before the pandemic hit and schools were shut down. However, we decided it would be good for me to sub again, and Ben thought he would be able to stay home one day a week so that I could work that one day a week. As I thought about subbing again on Thursday, I felt a little nervous because of the different ways things are now done because of Covid in school, and wearing masks all day as well, but I felt glad to be getting out of the house and doing something productive to make money and start getting my name and face known in the school district so that hopefully I can get a full time teaching job some day. Plus, I didn't mind having a break for a day from potty training and sick kids and baby schedules. I am not really interested in working full time until Owen is in kindergarten, which won't be for another 3 years, since he won't be 5 until mid-September. The only way that would change is if a job were to come up sooner that I wouldn't want to pass up because people say it's hard to get a teaching job around here. Over the next few years, especially next year when we put Owen in some type of preschool, I will start subbing more regularly, too. So even though I won't be making a lot of money by subbing, it was going to be a good step in the direction towards getting back into what I was trained to do professionally, even though I have now been home for seven years which is the same amount of time I taught before I started staying home.
After the kids were in bed Wednesday night, and Ben and I were hanging out in the living room, we heard a noise in the kitchen. We went out to see what it was, and a mouse was stuck on a sticky trap on the counter next to our oven, and what we could hear was it thrashing around trying to get free. It ended up flipping itself upside on our stove, in between the metal grate that you set pans on. I hate mice, and I don't know what we need to do to get rid of them. We have had such a problem with them lately. If we keep having problems, we may have to get an extermination company to come to our house because this was the second one we have caught when we were still awake and all the lights were on in the kitchen. I just don't want more mice to be coming in our house as the it gets colder outside. They are getting into our kitchen somehow. We've never seen any anywhere else in our house, so we need to figure out how to keep them out. Ugh, it just grosses me out to think of them walking around our kitchen.
On Thursday I did my first day of subbing out at Ross Elementary School. I was nervous, but it went well. I helped with some kindergarten classes for the morning, doing a lot of copying and sorting of papers. Then, I was in a 3rd grade class for the afternoon, and it really was pretty easy. The class size at Ross is a lot smaller, so I had a very small class, maybe twelve to fifteen students, and it was very manageable. It felt nice to be in a school again. They are pretty desperate for subs right now, so they were grateful for me being there to help them out. I will definitely try to continue subbing once a week on days when Ben can stay home with the kids. He can't stay home too often or he will get too far behind in his work.
Aedan went back to school that Thursday, and he was glad to not have to do any more make-up work, but he started to have a pretty runny nose and his voice still sounded like his throat hurt. However, he had been on the antibiotics for 48 hours, so he was clear to return to school. Owen was still not feeling well either and was grumpy and whiny and still not eating well. He didn't take a good nap for Daddy that day, so bedtime was kind of a mess. Plus, with taking the antibiotic, his poop being a different consistency, and not knowing how to poop in the toilet yet, it was not a fun situation with him.
Here are a couple of papers that Aedan brought home from school.
Friday, October 2nd I was back home with the two little ones, and it was not a good morning with the kids. Our little peanut was eating slow so I told Samantha and Aedan they needed to help make their lunch or eat at school instead. Samantha was giving me attitude about not wanting what we had, and Aedan was just standing there. I got frustrated that it seemed like they couldn't do anything themselves. I felt like most kids in 4th grade should be able to make their own lunches. And she just talked to me with that mean voice that she uses, so the day started off in a frustrating way.
We needed a more relaxing morning at home on Friday, so after taking Samantha and Aedan down to the van, Owen got to watch a show while I tried feeding our little peanut again. He asked to hold her, so I put her on his lap and got these really cute pictures of the two of them together. He does a good job of being really sweet and gentle with her.
That afternoon, after I got both kids down for naps, I was just struck with how beautiful it was in our backyard. The sun was shining through the trees just perfectly, and I loved how our back yard looked as the leaves were gradually changing colors. Fall is beautiful when you are surrounded by trees and mountains. I just love so much where we live.
Since Owen didn't sleep well on Thursday, I wanted to make sure he took a good nap on Friday afternoon. I turned on the video monitor to check on him, and it made me smile to see how he was laying. He always seems to lay like this with his head right on the edge of his bed like that. It was just too cute, so I took a picture of it. It's kind of fun to have a video monitor and be able to see what positions he falls asleep in and what he does in his bed before he finally falls asleep.
Our little peanut had another two hour visit with her mom that afternoon, so Ben came home early so I could take her down for the visit. I stayed down in that area and did some work for my graduate class before picking her back up. Ben and I decided to meet up at Red Robin for dinner, but our little peanut was grumpy and overtired. I was grumpy, too, and everything was taking longer than we expected it to, and the whole night felt like a flop. Ben was wanting to take Aedan on a date and the timing just wasn't working out. He wanted to take Aedan to get a Build-a-Bear since Aedan has been lamenting that he is the only one without a Build-a-Bear, and then he was going to take him out for a little treat, but we got the restaurant later than we wanted, and the food took a long time to come out. However, Aedan was pretty insistent on still going and really wanted to get a Build-a-Bear, so they ended up going to Build-a-Bear really quick anyways, and Aedan picked out a Pikachu stuffed animal and a Batman outfit for him to wear, so he was happy even though the evening did not go how we intended.
Saturday morning was another day for soccer games. Here is Aedan playing that morning, and you can see how into it he was! Running back and forth across the field, being aggressive, and getting his foot in there and kicking the ball quite a bit. The biggest thing we need to remind him of is to not use his hands, arms, or elbows to push other people out of the way! In the third video you can see Aedan kicking the ball several times, and doing a corner kick that led to his team scoring a goal. Yay! Way to go gray team!
Then we were off to watch Samantha's soccer game. Here you can see her playing defense again, which is her favorite position that she feels the most confident in. In the second video you can see her do three good kicks getting the ball going the other direction by getting the ball to one of her teammates. Way to go, Samantha! Good kicks, and way to turn the ball around! It's been so fun watching them play soccer this season, seeing them grow in their athleticism, be a part of a team, and learn new skills.
(Blog about September 27-October 3, 2020)
