Aedan: 73 Months, Week 3
Owen: 30 Months, Week 5
Sunday, April 12th was Easter Sunday, and even though it was different than how we would normally celebrate with getting dressed up, going to church, maybe getting together with friends for an Easter egg hunt and having a bigger dinner together. Our Easter would have been different this year anyways since we were originally planning on going to Washington, D.C. for the weekend, but we had things we were looking forward to in being home for Easter.
On Saturday night Ben and I spent time putting the kids' Easter baskets together. I ordered the Frozen doll set for all of them to share because they love acting out and singing the songs from Frozen 2. Samantha had asked for a new Anna and Elsa, and we knew Aedan would love having Kristoff and Sven. Plus, the set came with a sleigh and little Olaf with movable hands, which we knew Owen would love. We have really enjoyed giving the kids "group" toys lately because then they can't fight over something being just "theirs." I also found the Window Art set at Walmart where they can paint little stained glass window art. We had a set like this a long time ago that just Samantha did, but we figured this would be something all the kids would enjoy making together. I also got new bubble wands as well as candy to fill the plastic eggs in their Easter baskets and cookies and cream flavored bunnies. We didn't have the baskets sitting out on the counter right away that morning because we didn't want Samantha and Aedan to see them before Owen, so we kept everything in our bedroom until everyone was up and ready.
The kids were really excited to get the toys out and play with them. It was cute to see them playing with it together, and they continued to play Frozen for the rest of the day.
In the morning we did our Easter basket stuff and then we had our tradition of resurrection rolls for breakfast. Ben ended up doing the messy job of dipping the eggs in the cinnamon sugar mixture, and Samantha and Aedan were big helpers in rolling the marshmallows up inside the crescent roll dough. They enjoy eating the rolls and seeing that there is no more marshmallow left inside after they are baked, symbolizing that Jesus had risen from the dead.
After breakfast we watched church like we usually do, and then we took the chance to go outside and play since it was such a nice day out. Aedan doesn't like to ride his bike with training wheels around the driveway because there isn't enough space, and he is still afraid of tipping over, so he he will ride this Big Wheel tricycle. He can get going pretty fast, so he has a lot of fun riding that around, even though he looks too big to be riding something like that around. Owen has gotten pretty good at pedaling his tricycle, although I had to stop the first video because he was almost going to ride the tricycle down the hill off the side of our driveway. Owen kept trying to chase Aedan around, trying to crash into him because that's what brothers do!
Aedan was being really sweet in playing with Owen that afternoon. After they rode tricycles, they went up to our play set to spin on the tire swing. Owen loves spinning with Samantha and Aedan because they can get him going really fast.
So this picture is kind of odd to include, but I found these three bowls in the living room from the kids while they were watching a show during church this morning. We gave them cut up apples, and you can see Samantha's and Aedan's bowls on the left, and Owen's is on the right. He doesn't like to eat the skins on apples, so he very carefully chews them, eats the flesh, and then spits the skin back out. This just cracked me up when I saw it because it is such his personality. Hey, at least they were spit back into the bowl, right?
That afternoon once Owen was down for his nap we attempted to finish watching the "Jesus" production from Sights and Sounds on TBN. Samantha and Aedan were excited to watch it again, and it was cool to watch the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection played out on the screen. Unfortunately, Owen did not take a very long nap, waking up early crying that day and not going back to sleep, so he ended up coming down and joining us for the end of the show as well.
The kids were really having a good day playing and being together. Weekends are nice because we are more free to just hang out, and we don't have the responsibility of work to do, which the kids like. While we were getting Easter dinner ready that evening, the kids went out on the front porch to play with their new Frozen toys, and I took a little video of them. Samantha was doing something gentle with Anna and Elsa, while Aedan and Owen threw Kristoff and Olaf against the chairs.
Since it was such a beautiful day, we spent a lot of time outside. Here is a video of me blowing bubbles for the kids outside that night. They love these big bubble wands, and this activity of chasing and popping the bubbles lasted for a long time. They got a lot of exercise running around! Bubbles are always a hit!
So even though Easter was a much different day than I pictured it, we had a really good, fun, family day together.
After such nice weather on Sunday, Monday was going to be a rainy day, so we decided to get all the kids ready early that morning and head down to play in the Skillet parking lot before getting started with our work for the day. It was still fairly warm outside, and we knew it would be good to let the kids get some energy out before the rain came. I helped Owen get his shoes and coat on, and it was the first time he wore these little boots. (He doesn't have any rain boots that fit him right now, so these were the best that we could do.) I commented about how cute he looked in these boots, so he wanted me to take his picture with with cool, new boots on. I just LOVE the faces he made in these pictures. He is just so adorable.
Owen's number one choice of activity is playing hockey. He loves hitting the hockey puck back and forth, and he really is pretty good at it. He could hit it back and forth with me all day. I love how he throws his stick so he can go rescue the puck.
Meanwhile, Samantha and Aedan were kicking the soccer ball back and forth with Daddy, passing and bouncing the basketball, and then decided to ride around on their scooters. They love going up, around the restaurant, and zoom down the hill. I love these videos of Aedan coming past me screaming with delight. They have gotten really good at these scooters!
We had put the hockey sticks away for awhile to play soccer, and Owen decided he wanted to play hockey again, so he decided to climb in the back of the van and get out the hockey stuff himself. I didn't get a picture fast enough, but there was one point where he was in head first with his feet sticking up in the air.
With Easter and all our activities of the weekend, I never had a chance to take pictures and send in all the work from the kids that week. Samantha was finishing up a lot of her packet work that had been sent home, so she has her work from the Fibonacci packet for Gifted, math spiral review, geography worksheets, writing prompts, "Charlotte's Web" worksheets, and questions from science articles.
Aedan's work was four different boxes covering various areas each day. One was a math box where they practiced counting or basic addition, one was reading sight words, one was a Storyline Online story to read and talk about, and the last box was a tic-tac-toe board where they were to choose three different activities to get three in a row. The activities ranged from writing sentences with sight words, adding numbers, skip counting, coming up with rhyming words, and reading a book. Mrs. Weaver also sent additional worksheets and resources to practice, so he and I finished up a few of those as well. He had fun with the packet work that was given out two weeks ago.
I felt like we were pretty successful with the packet work, and most of it was pretty easy for the kids and they got it finished in a shorter amount of time because it was all review or enrichment. However, starting this week, Lake Lehman School District was going to be transitioning to more official online distance learning since school is now cancelled in-person for the remainder of the school year. We got several messages and emails regarding things starting up on Monday, April 13th, and that the teachers were going to be utilizing Google Classroom to communicate and post assignments more, so we were to be checking that, as well as the student's email to receive further instruction. So now, after settling into a good routine over the last couple of weeks of the packet work that we picked up from school, we were now going to be heading into another transition, so I was unsure how that was going to go.
For some reason I was really just itching to get away from the house and our area of the world. I hadn't been down to Wilkes-Barre in weeks, and Chick-fil-a was sounding good to me, so I decided we could drive down there to get food for dinner, sit and eat it in the car, and just give us a chance to get away from the house on this rainy day. The kids enjoyed their food, and it was nice to be in the city again and see people, more than we do up in Harvey's Lake, even if it's just people out in their cars, it's still something these days.
Then, when we got home we gave the kids a quick bath before doing a Zoom meeting with my family. I figured it would be good to try to connect and be able to see each other. Kids are always bad at actually talking in situations like this, so there was some silence and awkwardness in trying to figure out how to talk through a screen. However, I think everyone enjoyed seeing one another, and the kids got to perform a rendition of a song from Frozen 2, so that was fun!
Tuesday morning was another day of getting used to our new rhythm of distance learning/online school, or whatever you want to call it. The teachers post new things on Google Classroom every morning, or assignments for the week, and we have to go online and figure out what to have the kids do. Meanwhile, Owen somehow got a new bubble wand container and dumped the solution all over the green play table. It apparently had been there for awhile, and no one noticed that it had spilled but me. I had the older kids help grab towels to clean it up, and I put Owen in time out, but there is still a white tint to the green table now from the bubble solution sitting for long enough before I cleaned it up. It's hard because Owen is starting to get into more trouble around the house, making messes, and getting into things that he shouldn't because no one is watching him or interacting with him, and he knows that I am busy with the older kids. It's nice having more time with the older kids, although I would rather be doing other things than making them do school work; however, I miss my time with just Owen when things were simpler, when he and I could spend more time together, when he would help me cook, clean, and do laundry and other things around the house. I miss being able to go places with him, being able to run errands and go grocery shopping, visit the library and go to Bible study at the coffee shop and play dates with other moms.
Samantha wore this cloud friends shirt on Tuesday, and she wanted me to take a picture of it and send it to her teacher because they did a unit studying clouds before school was cancelled.
That day before lunch, the kids were all playing outside because we were done with work before lunch. Ben came outside, so I decided to take my chance to go for a run. I am tired of feeling bad about myself and the way that I look and feel. I need to do something about it, and I feel like I should have enough time to make it a priority right now. Although in all reality, I feel like I have more things on my plate to juggle now than I did before. I feel like I have less time to myself, which makes it harder to prioritize taking time for myself for exercise and things like that. What I wanted to do is start doing a couch to 5K app that I did before when we first lived in Michigan, before I was pregnant with Owen. It would be nice if I could alternate on days that I run I would do a shorter Pilates workout, and then on days when I do a longer Pilates workout, I could just take Izzy on a walk around the neighborhood or something like that so that I am getting cardio and strength training in. I really would like to get in better shape, and if I don't start now, it's just going to get harder and harder as I get older, but I need to try to make it a consistent part of my routine. It's just hard to establish that for me for some reason.
Tuesday afternoon while I was trying to get some work done and have a little time to myself, I could just hear Samantha and Aedan fighting in the basement for about an hour. I think they are getting VERY sick of each other. Weekends seem to be better, but during the week, there are days they just can't get along when playing. They are both bossing each other around and complaining that the other person isn't doing what they want them to do.
We started more official online assignments on Tuesday because technically Monday would have been a day off of school, and it was definitely challenging trying to figure out the assignments, especially for Samantha because she has several different teachers for different subjects that we have to keep track of. Aedan just has one teacher and his work is a lot simpler and easier to complete. It was hard for me to manage helping both Samantha and Aedan at the same time, while also having Owen wanting to be involved in everything and distracting them from doing their work, or complaining when I wasn't giving him attention. I felt like I needed to do it differently, but I didn't know what was best as far as having both kids work at the same time, or maybe to take turns so I can focus on just one of them while the other one goes off to play with Owen to help keep him occupied. I just didn't know, but all I know is that this is going to be an adjustment.
Here are some pictures of what morning school work looks like in our house. Our kids are almost always awake around 7:00 every morning, but we don't let anyone come downstairs until 7:20. We have been following a pretty typical schedule of eating breakfast between 7:45-8:00, then the kids get all dressed and ready for the day (even though we know we aren't going anywhere), so that way we can start work at least by 9:00. Lately, we have been making sure Samantha is starting sooner, possibly even by 8:30, since she has more work and it takes her longer to do. Owen enjoys being a part of what we are all doing in the kitchen, so I have been trying to come up with things for him to do to keep him occupied, while Samantha and Aedan get their work done. On this particular day I got some stamps and dot markers out for him to play with, but he also really enjoys watching Aedan's videos that have to do with his Math or Reading activities for the day.
Sometimes Samantha doesn't finish all her work in the morning, and on this particular day, she had some of her Gifted work to finish. She has been working on a packet about Fibonacci numbers, and some pages have been quite complicated and challenging. On this afternoon, she had to plot points on a graph that actually formed various lines that made the shape of a face. It was pretty cool at the end, but it took her some time to plot all those points. She was so pleased at the end that I had to take a picture of all her hard work. Pretty awesome for a 3rd grader!
We don't do a ton of screen time usually, and even during this time of staying at home, we also aren't doing an overabundance. Every once in awhile we have afternoons that just seem like good time for a movie afternoon. Wednesday was one of those days, and they were pretty excited about being able to watch Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith. Aedan is definitely becoming obsessed with Star Wars, and Samantha is becoming just as enthralled with it. Oftentimes after watching a movie, they will act out the whole story line of the movie. Owen woke up from his nap and watched the end of the movie with them as well, and he knows quite a bit about the story and characters as well. I have to admit, even I got sucked into it! I told Ben that we are going to have to go back to the beginning and watch all the Star Wars movies. I have never watched all of them, and while the kids have been watching them, I've only seen bits and pieces of the movies, so there are a lot of holes, but with how much the kids, Aedan in particular, enjoy watching the movies, I want to show an interest and be able to carry on a conversation with them about it.
That afternoon and evening, we spend quite a bit of time outside playing and getting some fresh air and exercise. Ben and I have been working on pulling these large vines that we have discovered growing up around the trees around our house. I think they are called wild grape vines, and they wrap themselves around trees, climbing from one tree to another, preventing the branches from growing, and also stealing the water out of the ground. When we cut them apart, water would come dripping out of the inside of the vine. Once we started noticing the vines growing in one spot, I began seeing the vines in other areas as well. Technically, none of these trees or vines are on our own property, but they are affecting the trees that line our property and we don't want these invasive vines to kill all the trees. There is a very large area in the back forest area of our yard that we need to talk to our neighbors about since we know they own that area of the woods. There is a huge vine growing back there, and it has already wrapped itself around several trees, so we need to encourage them to take care of that vine before it does more damage. Anyways, here are a couple pictures of the vines on the ground, as well as the large clump that we were trying to pull down from the trees. It wraps itself so well around that it's really hard to even pull out.
I also took some pictures of our weeping cherry tree that we have in our front yard. I wanted to take note of what it looked like in full bloom. Plus, there are a few branches that are hanging down longer than the others that I need to trim so everything is more even all the way around. It's a beautiful tree though, and I love that I can see it from our front kitchen windows. Plus, a robin has built it's nest in our tree, and the kids have noticed the bird sitting on the nest, so maybe we will be able to hear baby birds at some point.
As I was taking pictures outside, I noticed how beautiful the sun was shining in through the trees. It was just after 6:00, what could be considered dusk, or the golden hour, and it was just so beautiful to look back over our property, to notice everything growing and blooming, to see the lush, green grass, and I was just overcome by a feeling of gratefulness for this wonderful home that the Lord has provided for us. I love living here. I love our house, our outdoor space, and all the opportunities it has opened up for us since moving out here.
Aedan has gotten really been growing in his reading abilities. He still reads to us every day, in the morning when we do our school activities together, and he also reads a book to us before bed. It's fun to hear him reading, and Ben took a video of him reading that night before bed. Isn't he doing a terrific job?! I think he is really enjoying reading more real books with stories. He feels really accomplished and proud when he reads out loud to us, and he is eager and willing to let us help him learn new words. I am super proud of how far he has come in kindergarten.
On Thursday morning Ben took over doing school with the kids, while I went to Walmart to go grocery shopping. We are doing a pretty good job of making a little bit longer of a menu and list so we can make it through a week and a half before having to go again. It was good to get out, even if just to go to Walmart. I was able to listen to a podcast while I drove, and being out made the morning go by a lot faster. Plus, I actually put real clothes on and wore jeans for the first time in awhile. I feel like there's no point in wearing "nicer" clothes when I am just at home, in the house, or in the backyard every day. I still get showered and dressed every morning, but I am just wearing comfortable pants and t-shirts, because, why not? However, it kind of made me sad going to Walmart by myself. I missed having Owen shopping with me and having his company. It made me miss all these little daily activities that were normal for us to do together. In fact, he even asked the other day if he could go to Walmart. He doesn't understand why he can't come with me like he would before, even though he will tell you that everything is closed because of the virus.
The Tunkhannock Walmart is much better than the Wilkes-Barre Walmart. It is never really busy, and even though they have a place for people to line up set up outside, it's never busy enough to have to use it. The biggest difference this week was that it had plastic boards up in front of the cashiers. This is all just so weird. It made me wonder how long it will take things to get back to normal, or how long people will still be uncomfortable being around other people. Right now people just avoid everyone, don't talk to anyone, and you can't even see if anyone is smiling because of wearing masks. I wore a mask for the first time that day, and it was so weird. I didn't like wearing it. It was uncomfortable and made me feel really strange, even though most people around the store were wearing them as well. The other precautions I take are cleaning the cart handle with the wipes they provide. Then, before I get in the car and touch anything to start driving, I use hand sanitizer. There are a lot of people that wipe down all their groceries, but I don't go that far. After putting all the groceries away at home, I use cleaning wipes on the counter where the bags and groceries were sitting, and then I wash my hands again.
By the time I got home it was almost lunch time, so we got all the groceries put away, had lunch, and then moved on to our afternoon. The kids' specials teachers have started posted assignments as well, so Samantha chose to make a color wheel using objects from around the house.
Owen took a pretty good nap that afternoon, and after he woke up and Samantha and Aedan were occupied playing in the basement together, I asked him if he wanted to watch "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse," so he sat on my lap and watched the show. It's definitely one of his favorites. He wakes up slowly still, so he really enjoyed being able to just sit with me, cuddle for awhile, and allow himself to wake up. I didn't mind the extra time with Owen. He is so sweet and affectionate, and I will take all the time he wants to spend with just me. We don't get as much of this time anymore these days, so these were a precious few moments to me. Also, I was able to capture a picture and video of the little curl that he has going on the back of his head. He twirls his hair around and around, especially now that his hair is growing so long. Sometimes he twirls it so much that it forms a little ringlet. He has always been a hair twirler. Even as an infant; as soon as he could reach for things, he was always pulling on my hair and trying to play with it. It's just something that gives him comfort, I think.
After sitting on my lap for awhile, he regained his energy and had to get up and dance during the hot dog song at the end of the show.
The end of this week brought with it some cold, snowy weather, which wasn't exactly what we were looking for in the middle of April. However, it was kind of pretty watching the big, fluffy snowflakes fall from the sky that afternoon and evening.
Owen brought over a PJ Masks book for Daddy to read to him, and he has heard it so many times at this point that he has it largely memorized. It was so fun to see how many words of the book he could remember. Plus, I love it when he says, "I don't know word is..." He has an impressive memory!
Thursday nights are our Zoom small group meetings. We have been meeting at 6:45, and in past weeks we have set the kids up with a show while we talk through Zoom. However, that night Samantha and Aedan had a mess to clean up in the basement, so they were busy doing that. Owen sat with us at the counter most of the time. Then, I went upstairs to put the big kids to bed while Ben stayed with Owen and the Zoom meeting. Then, once I was done, he took Owen upstairs to put him to bed. We did talk and a time change was suggested for people who are usually putting their kids to bed during that time right around 7:00. It would definitely be more helpful to us if we could meet after our kids were in bed.
Owen's little ringlet was super curly that night. Do you see that little thing? He's curling his own hair! We keep joking around about how he's going to wear a bald spot on the back of his head with how much he twirls the hair around in the same place.
Even though it snowed some on Thursday, it did not stick on the ground at all, and this is what it looked like outside on Friday morning. It was cold out, but at least it was sunny.
Here are a couple more pictures of Samantha and Aedan hard at work on their school work. Do you see how long Samantha's hair is growing as well?
Aedan got really creative that afternoon and made his own Darth Vader mask. I helped him cut out the eye holes that he drew, and then we stapled the paper strips to help hold it on his head. He loves to engineer his own things out of paper like light sabers, swords, and masks. He is a very creative and innovative little boy!
I asked if I could take a picture with him in the mask, and he said yes. Then, he crossed his arms and started breathing heavily just like Darth Vader does. It was priceless. Darth Vader is definitely his favorite character from Star Wars.
Here is the work Samantha finished on Friday that we sent in to her teachers.
On Thursday night there was a Disney Singalong on TV that I had us record so that we could show the kids. I thought they might find it interesting, so we watched it before dinner on Friday night. Aedan sat in his normal seat on the couch and mostly just watched it. I don't think he sang to any of the songs. Samantha sang to every song that she knew as the words came across the screen, and Owen stood right in front of the TV, sometimes singing and dancing.
Even though it was clear and sunny that morning, the weather drastically changed by the afternoon, and we actually had snow that stuck. It covered the grass, covering everything in a white, wet blanket. (However, it was going to be 58 degrees on Sunday, so we knew it wouldn't last too long.)
The kids were actually really excited that we got snow and that it stuck around long enough for us to go outside and play in it on Saturday. It wasn't a lot of snow, but it was the right consistency to build snowmen and to make sledding tracks down our hill. Samantha and Aedan enjoyed riding together, while I rode with Owen. We were having a blast! We went down the hill over and over again, and as you can see in the last video, Izzy was keeping everyone in line (and getting a little too rough with Owen). It was a wonderful way to spend our Saturday playing outside before lunch. I enjoyed just being able to play and spend time with the kids. Even though staying at home is hard and doing school at home is hard, I am trying to remember that this is a time I will never get back. I have my husband and kids at home with me all the time, and I want to take advantage of my time with them, to not just wish it away, and to make memories that the kids will look back on fondly from this time where we were staying safe at home as family.
(Blog about April 12-18, 2020)
