Baby Robins, Last Week of School Work, Cuddling with Owen, and Visitors from Indiana

Samantha: 108 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 75 Months, Week 1
Owen: 32 Months, Week 3

With everything going on in the world because of coronavirus, it seems like things can't get much more difficult than they already are, but then on May 25th when George Floyd was murdered and protests began breaking out over the weekend all around the country, it was hard to not be overcome by the brokenness that is all over the world. Luckily, the protests in Wilkes-Barre didn't turn into rioting or violence like they did in other cities around the country.

I put Owen down for his nap on Sunday afternoon, and I wanted to take a picture to document that Owen no longer sleeps in a sleep sack. Back last week when it was in the upper 80s a couple of different days, we decided to let him sleep without his wrap on because we didn't want him to be too hot. He took to it really well and didn't seem to mind things being different. In fact, he was excited to use a blanket like a "big boy," and even talked to Ben about how he is getting closer to being able to sleep on the bottom of the bunk bed with Aedan on the top since he's using a pillow and a blanket now. We have always used sleep sacks because it helps the kids stay warmer when they aren't old enough to keep blankets over them. Plus, I think it helps them not try to climb out of their crib as much since they can't get their feet up enough to climb. Here he is after I laid him down in his crib and covered him up with a blanket. He looks so grown up laying in bed with his pillow and blanket, but still so little with his small hand resting on his blankie, and his favorite animal, his monkey, off to the side. I love this precious little boy.

Going into Monday, we were ready for the kids' last week of school. It was definitely different than what the last week of school would have been, but Samantha and Aedan have done a great job with distance learning, and they were committed to finishing strong this week with their last week of work and Zoom meetings.

Samantha was finishing up her City Packet with deciding what Recreation her city would have and designing a zip line for Innovation.

That afternoon as I was watering the hanging flower baskets on the front of the house, I decided to check in the bush that's on the left side in from of our front windows. Every time I went to water the flowers in the basket on that side, a robin would fly out of the bush, so I decided to peek in and see what I could find. Well, I found a perfect little bird's nest with four perfect eggs inside! I was so excited to see those and to show the kids, especially Samantha. It will be so fun to hopefully watch these baby birds hatch and grow right before our very eyes.

Izzy has been enjoying all of us being at home during this stay at home order, but I think sometimes we tire her out more because she has to keep track of us all day. Here she is on Monday night, all curled up on the couch next to us, with her head propped up on the pillow next to her. She was sleeping very soundly, and I thought it was cute how all of her paws were piled up on top of each other. She's such a cute, loving, devoted dog. We couldn't have asked for a better dog for our family.

Tuesday was one of those days where I was feeling ready for school to be over, but at the same time I was concerned about how we were going to pass our time this summer. Other than doing school work in the mornings, it's kind of felt like we have already been on summer break. And with things still being mostly closed, even though we are now in the yellow phase, it's hard to imagine what the rest of the summer will be like. We will have to find a new routine and a new normal so our days find some kind of order and structure, and so we still get out and do things every once in awhile.

Here is the Cultural Life page Samantha turned in on Tuesday. The kids still had quite a bit of work to do, even though it was the last week of school, but we were plugging away at it and staying on top of it.

Ben and I decided to order portable air conditioners for the kids' rooms to help out with the days when it gets into the upper 80s and is too hot and humid to sleep comfortably upstairs. There were a handful of days where it was too hot and humid last summer, and we ended up letting the kids sleep in the basement so it wasn't too hot. We threw around the idea of getting central air installed, but we don't have the money to do that right now. Plus, it would be better to invest in a better furnace so we can get a better air conditioner, and we definitely don't have enough money to do that right now. So, we decided the best thing to do would be to order air conditioners for their rooms to help make those hot days/nights more bearable. We went back and forth between window units or portable units, and we went with portable ones instead. We decided these would be more versatile and easier to install. We can take them in and out, which is nice because we don't always need the air conditioners in their rooms, just on days when it will be warmer. The air conditioners arrived on Tuesday afternoon so we could have them ready for the next time it got too warm. The kids will definitely be appreciative that we bought something to help them sleep more comfortably.

My friend Kaili recently had a baby, and I hadn't had the chance to bring her a meal yet, so I offered to take one to her on Tuesday night. Ben and I made blueberry banana bread on Monday night together, and then he helped put together two sheet pans of our lemon chicken and potato meal. I left around 4:00 to bring the meal to them and stayed and talked to her for awhile. It was fun to be face-to-face, to see their little boy, and to hear how they are adjusting to being a family of five. Meals meant so much to us after we had a baby, so I am happy to do that for other people as well.

Wednesday was a busy day as we did school work in the morning and then in the afternoon I went to Tunkhannock to get dog food and garden stakes at Tractor Supply, as well as do our weekly grocery shopping in preparation for our visitors arriving on Saturday.

Here are the pictures the kids drew for art, of what summer activity they were looking forward to the most. Aedan drew Samantha and him riding bikes together, and Samantha drew watching fireworks.

When I was on my way home from the store, Ben told me that he scheduled a telemedicine appointment for Samantha because we thought she might have an infection in her knee. Back a week or so ago, she was trying to climb up on something on the play set without wearing shoes, and she slipped and fell, getting quite a cut on her knee. She came right in the house and we cleaned it off really well, but we are thinking that as it began to scab over, she must have scratched or picked at it, and it got infected. She was making a lot of comments about it hurting, and we didn't know if it was hurting because it was healing and scabbing over or because something happened to it. However, it wasn't looking good that Wednesday, it was turning white in the middle and red and puffy around the outside, plus puss starting oozing out, so we decided it would be good to have it checked out and make sure we were taking care of it properly. Sure enough, after the doctor saw the picture and heard about it, he said it was infected and sent in a prescription for antibiotics for her. I was glad that Ben thought to schedule the appointment, and I'm glad that we can get some help for Samantha's knee to heal up properly.

While I was shopping that afternoon, Samantha and Aedan were tasked with cleaning up and organizing their room. They had just been shoving stuff under their bed, and the bins and book shelves were just a mess, so it was time to clean it out, throw stuff away that was trash or that they didn't want, and get things organized a little better. It took them pretty much all afternoon, but they did it, and it looked much better when they were done. Plus, now they actually know where everything is when they are looking for a certain toy!

Owen took a really long nap that afternoon, sleeping until 4:10 when Ben actually went in to wake him up. He slept for close to 3 hours! Maybe that's why he was so cranky earlier in the day; he must have just been really tired, poor little guy.

On Thursday when I checked on the robin's eggs again, I noticed that one was actually hatching from the egg. It will be so exciting to observe their growth and development while also not bothering them too much.

That afternoon I put Owen down for his nap. He fell asleep cuddled up against my chest, and I thought it was so sweet. I just can't resist taking sleepy pictures of my little boy. I just love that he is still so cuddly, and I get so sad thinking about a day when he won't fall asleep in my lap anymore.

Thursday afternoon, evening, and most of the day on Friday, I spent time cleaning the house, doing laundry, and getting things prepared for our out-of-town guests to arrive on Friday evening. I don't specifically clean because people are coming, but I use visitors as a reason to plan my whole house cleaning for a certain day.

Friday morning I took Aedan to a well child visit. Because of the virus, his previous appointment that was closer to his birthday had to be rescheduled, but I was glad that we could at least get in at some point so we can stay a little closer to being on track. Ben stayed home with Samantha and Owen, while I took Aedan to the doctor. It was at a different office than what we would normally go to because they switched offices around so that well child visits were all done at this one office. It was a pretty easy process to get checked in, and we didn't have to wait long at all to be taken back. The doctor he saw was really nice, and she tried to make small talk with him to make him feel at ease, but you could tell he was so nervous and shy. When he feels that way, he kind of wrings his hands, his cheeks turn a little pink, and every time someone asks him a questions he looks to me for assistance or affirmation. I told her that he is pretty shy around people he doesn't know, and she understood. Part of me has a hard time seeing this trait coming out in Aedan's personality, because that definitely is a lot like how I feel, and he gets that personality trait from me. I feel very nervous and shy around people I don't know, I'm not good at making small talk with people, and I get very easily embarrassed. I hope that we can encourage him to be more confident in himself and not worry too much about other people, but just be himself, because I know that is something I still struggle with today and it can have negative effects on my relationships with others.

Aedan's well visit went well. He was 47 pounds, which put him in the 55th percentile for weight. He was 3 feet 10.46 inches tall, which put him in the 65th percentile for height. His BMI was 15.31, which put him in the 48th percentile. He is pretty average for his age, and I always find it interesting and reassuring to hear the kids' percentiles just because it's helpful to compare and see how they are tracking along. I didn't have any other major concerns, but did bring up the ear wax that seems to accumulate a lot in his ears. It is too far in for a q-tip to do any good, plus he doesn't really like it when I attempt to clean his ears, so the doctor recommended Debrox, which we actually have at home, to help break up the flaky wax and help it to fall out on its own more naturally. I also mentioned the itchy bumps that come and go on his arms, elbows, and knees. Our doctor in the U.P. thought that it was something called molloscum, and that it would just kind of come and go with him, being a reoccurring problem. This doctor said she didn't think it was molluscum, but instead that it was something called Keratosis pilaris which is basically is a common skin rash that consists of many rough follicular papules (small bumps in the hair follicles) that look like goose or chicken flesh. Like I said, Aedan's come and go, and I'm not quite sure what causes that to happen, but she basically said there is nothing you can do to cure it or make them go away, but you can try to exfoliate and moisturize your skin more in an attempt to help release the overabundance of keratin in the hair follicles that then form hard plugs and create the skin bumps. She also said that it is a genetic condition, and after thinking about it, Ben definitely has these reddish bumps on the back of his arms and other parts on his body. They just aren't as pronounced as Aedan's, and don't appear to itch him as much as Aedan's do. So apparently the poor little guy is just going to have to keep suffering with these bumps until he maybe grows out of them some day, but I'm planning on ordering some special lotion for him that will help him with this in particular because I know they can get so itchy sometimes that he can't sleep.

Friday afternoon I was feeling a little bit annoyed by all the messes the kids have been making in the house lately. It's hard with everyone being home more because that will obviously mean there are more messes. However, the part that frustrated me the most was just that they give me such a hard time when I ask them to clean up; I just get whines and crying and talking back. So I decided I would try to stay more on top of them, and if they go off to play with something else, I send them back to clean up what they had just been playing with. I was hoping that maybe things would feel more manageable with school work finally ending that Friday, June 5th. However, I just always find time management a struggle in trying to keep up with things around the house, doing my own school work for my online graduate class, and then trying to find time to exercise, and also relax some, too.

I didn't get a picture of Samantha working, but she is sitting across the table from Aedan, getting some help from Daddy on something on her Chrome Book. Aedan is working on Boom cards to practice his addition facts. He was definitely ready for school to be over, and he actually had quite a lot of work to do on this last Friday of school. Practicing his addition and subtraction facts will definitely be things we need to continue to work on over the summer.

Samantha's last task for her City Packet was mapping out her pretend city of Yellow Bush, Pennsylvania. Ben knows a lot about how to do this since he teaches classes about city planning, so he helped her plan and graph everything. It was fun to see the culmination of all the work she has put into planning her city.

I checked on the robin's nest again on Friday afternoon and noticed that all four baby birds had hatched. They are so small, pink, and featherless. It will be so fun to watch them grow, getting bigger and bigger every day.

After Owen took a nap on Friday afternoon, we decided to make a quick trip to Hillside Farm to get celebratory ice cream for the last day of work for the kids. (The official last day of school isn't until next Friday.) On our way to get ice cream, we told the kids that Ema, Papa, and Alaina would be coming to stay at our house for a few days, and they were almost so surprised that they didn't believe us since we had kept it a secret for so long. They were so excited, and Samantha was super excited to have Alaina come to our house. It is something she has wanted to have happen for a long time now, and her dream was finally coming true.

They arrived around dinnertime on Friday night, and the kids were excited to show Alaina around our house, help them get their things carried in, and then got right to playing. We had a later dinner so we could all eat together, and then Ben and I worked on setting up the beds and then getting everyone settled down to sleep. Alaina had been up late the night before and had a long day of traveling, so she was tired. We put a mattress on the floor in Samantha's and Aedan's room, so they could all enjoy having a sleepover while she was visiting.

On Saturday morning once Ben was done with his Bible Study, we drove out to Ricketts Glen State Park to do a hike to see a waterfall and walk around the forest area. We have done this hike several times, and the kids always enjoy it. It's not too short nor too long, and it gives you lots of different scenery to take in, as well as places for the kids to get close to the water and play with sticks and climb on fallen trees. What more could you want as a kid, right? Here are some pictures from our hike. It was going to be another beautiful, warm day, and we enjoyed our time out in nature with family, immensely. It's so beautiful there, and I feel like every time we go it looks just a little bit different.

Towards the end of our hike, the kids were getting tired, so they all sat down together on a large rock. I took several pictures of them, but I don't think any of them have all the kids looking at the camera and smiling at the same time, but that's okay. These are four great kids, cousins, and friends. I love that they can have memories like this together as they grow up.

Ben had to mow the lawn that afternoon, so I volunteered to put Owen down for his nap again. You can tell by his pink cheeks that he got a little sun, and it was a little warm in his room, so he wasn't wanting to cuddle up into me too much like he usually does. Instead, he faced outward on my lap, and he fell asleep sitting up that way, eventually letting his head rest on my right arm. (Don't mind the weird expression on my face in the last couple pictures.) He's such a little sweetheart, and I love being able to sit and hold him like this.

After a busy morning outside, we just hung out around the house the rest of the day. The kids played pretty well together, both inside and outside, and really they largely ignored the adults because they were having so much fun playing with each other. It was great, and I was so glad that they could all come out and visit us.

(Blog about May 31-June 6, 2020)

Playing in a Creek, Memorial Day Parade, and Finding Toads

Samantha: 108 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 74 Months, Week 5
Owen: 32 Months, Week 2

During this whole stay at home time, days and weeks sometimes seem to run together, and with nothing really distinguishing going on, sometimes it's hard for me to remember what happened in a particular week unless I took a picture or video of it.

On Sunday, after watching online church in the morning, Ben took Samantha and Aedan to play baseball in the field at Dallas. This is something he wants to do more of because it's hard to really play much in our yard because of how steep it is. Samantha got a new bat and glove for her birthday, and we were hoping to have the kids in Little League right now, but because of coronavirus, that was cancelled. However, we still want to take the time to teach them some skills this summer while we have more time with school not being in session and most public places closed. He said they were pretty good at grounders, are better at throwing, but are not great at catching things in the air, but that that takes time. As Ben works on things more with them over the summer, hopefully they can gain more confidence and gain some athletic skills. Neither Samantha nor Aedan seem to express much interest in sports so far, which makes Ben sad because he is such a sports fanatic; however, I feel like if they are just exposed to more sports and play it more with Ben for fun, they will grow to enjoy it more.

While Ben and the older kids were gone, I spent my afternoon reading discussion posts and writing my responses for my online graduate class. I have reading and a discussion post due every Thursday, with follow-up responses due by Sunday night. Sometimes it's difficult to find time to fit reading and writing into my schedule with the kids at home doing school, general housework, trying to prioritize exercise, and just finding time to relax and spend time with Ben as well. I'm glad that I'm taking the class, and it's great because I get to take classes for free since Ben teaches at Wilkes, but it's difficult to fit everything that I want to do into my day.

With this weekend leading up to Memorial Day, a lot of people that live in Harvey's Lake, and specifically have houses on the lake, were coming back for the official start to summer. It was definitely much more crowded and busy than usual. Also, with more people enjoying the long weekend, there were fireworks set off every night from Friday through Monday night. It was a little annoying because the big booms right down the street from us scared our kids and woke them up from sleeping, and also really scared Izzy. I don't remember her being quite so scared last year with the fireworks, but she was shaking from head to toe, trying to climb up on our laps or even up above our heads, and she was panting so hard, refusing to calm down for most of the night. It was difficult having a little dog that was so nervous; poor girl!

Monday, May 25th was Memorial Day, so since the kids didn't have any school work to do, we decided to relax more in the morning and let the kids just play together. In fact, Ben and I were even able to enjoy our morning coffee out on the front porch while the kids played happily. Then, we decided to go out to Frances Slocum State Park to go on a short hike and let the kids play in the creek that we found the last time we were there. We brought water shoes and a towel so that the kids could walk through the water and on the rocks. After walking up and down the creek, we spent some time throwing rocks into the creek, getting wet, and having a wonderful time enjoying nature. It was the perfect way to spend the morning with my family. Here are some pictures from our morning.

I love Owen in his little blue baseball hat. It's so adorable.

Here are some cute pictures of my little 2 1/2 year old boy cheesing it up for the camera. I love his silly, cute personality so much.

After getting everyone dried off and dry shoes back on, we hiked back to the car and headed out to pick up lunch from Wendy's to take with us to watch the Memorial Day parade in Harvey's Lake. It started at 12:00, but we knew it was going the opposite direction from our house first, so we would have time. We parked outside of the Lakeside Skillet, popped the trunk, and folded down half of the back seat so the kids could sit and eat while we waited for the parade to come by us. The parade was just a lot of older or restored cars driving around followed by fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars. It was actually a lot better than we thought it would be, and the kids enjoyed it. We even got to see Aedan's teacher, Mrs. Weaver, who pulled in and parked in the same parking lot as us!

It was a pretty hot day, so once Owen woke up from his nap we had the kids get on their bathing suits, got the sprinkler set up, busted out the water guns, and had a fun water fight in the back yard. It was fun watching them run around and have such a good time, and Daddy is such a good sport in getting right in on the action with them. It was a great Memorial Day spending time outside and being together as a family.

Later that night as I was talking to my sister through Messenger, I realized that I have been kind of in a bit of a funk lately. I think I am just tired of it all and want the virus and the ramifications of it to just be over. With summer approaching, it's hard thinking about how we won't be able to do the things we normally do in the summer, like go to Michigan with Ben's college friends or go on the Toll family vacation. Plus, the kids won't be able to do Little League or the Hillside Farm Camp that we signed Samantha and Aedan up for at the end of July. It's just disappointing, especially as we were looking forward to exploring more of what made moving to northeast Pennsylvania more appealing to us: D.C. is four hours away, New York is 2 1/2 hours away, and we can even get to the beach by the Atlantic Ocean in a few hours. However, now a lot of those places are largely closed down. Even a lot of the zoos and museums that we would frequent over the summer, and the two that we have memberships to, we probably won't be able to go to at all this summer. I know it's selfish and petty of me to be complaining about these things in light of the pain and sickness that people are encountering due to coronavirus, but I agree with Samantha when she says, "If I had one wish, I would wish that coronavirus never happened." I also feel like it's been harder for us in some ways because we haven't even lived here for a year, and I feel like we were just starting to get to know people before the stay at home order happened. I have just felt very isolated, like I don't really know anyone and no one really knows me. Friday, May 29th, our county is moving into the yellow phase, but that doesn't really mean too much. It really only lifts the stay at home order, and more businesses will be allowed to open, but people are still encouraged to follow social distancing and groups of over 25 people are prohibited, so it really doesn't change our life too much other than allowing us to start seeing smaller groups of family and friends.

I have been trying to train myself to get up earlier again and spend some time reading my Bible, devotional, and write in my journal. It's so quiet and peaceful in the morning when everyone else is still asleep. The sun begins to rise at 5:30 here at this time of year, so it is bright and sunny in this video I took just before 7:00 as I sat on the couch, doing my quiet time, and hearing all the birds chirping around our house. I love hearing the sounds of birds in the morning.

Tuesday morning was back to our normal routine of school work. This was the second to last week of school, so we were in the home stretch. While I did work at home with the kids, Ben went grocery shopping because I had been the one going pretty much every other week, and he was needing a turn to get out of the house for awhile, even if to just go grocery shopping.

I don't want to spend too much time talking about myself in my blog because it's much more interesting hearing about the kids and what they are up to, but I do want to document that I was having a hard time just feeling tired all the time and crabby a lot. Now that it's warmer weather, I am realizing that I have not been taking care of myself or my health. Things aren't fitting how I would like them to, and feeling like that has really been wearing on my mind. I know that I need to make healthier choices, but my problem is just sticking to something. Plus, it can't be something that I have to spend a ton of money on, or that requires me to make something different for myself and a whole different meal for my family. I am part of an online program called The Balanced Life Sisterhood, and it is an online Pilates program with a whole calendar of work outs built in and a whole library of recipes using more whole food ingredients. My goal was to start by changing my lunch choices because that's where I tend to grab things that are quick and not as good for me, so I'm trying to have green smoothies, salads, or veggies and hummus. It's just so hard for me to not give in and take the easy way or to eat when I'm not really hungry, but just eating for comfort or out of boredom. Also, I want to stop having late night snacks after the kids are in bed, giving myself one night a week that I can have something. I also know that getting healthy is not just about eating better, and exercise has never been a consistent part of my life, so my goal is also to increase my exercise and make it a part of my daily schedule. I want to do my C25K running app, which does a mixture of walking and running for 30 minutes, gradually ramping you up to more running and less walking, and then do 15 minutes of Pilates on those days to help with flexibility, mobility, and strength building. Then, on the opposite days I want to do a longer 30 minute Pilates workout with a 15 minute walk on the hills around my neighborhood. But again, I have this plan, but I just struggle with consistency and sticking to what I would like to do and what I know would help me feel better and healthier. I also struggle with finding what time of day works best for me to exercise because I don't like taking two showers in one day. (I don't have time for that!) But I also have a hard time waking up early enough to get ready, go exercise, and have enough time to shower and be ready before or around when the kids come downstairs at 7:15. I am hopeful that  I can continue to use this time at home to integrate exercise and healthier eating into my daily life so I can maintain it when things get "back to normal."

Art for the week was coloring their favorite ice cream cone flavors. Aedan's has mint chocolate chip, rainbow sherbet, and chocolate ice cream. Samantha's has chocolate and peanut butter ice cream. This was an easy art assignment!

Later that afternoon, once Owen woke up from his nap, the neighbor girl, Carter, came over to our house to play. It was another warmer day, so the kids got their bathing suits on and the sprinkler ready to play in. They were all so excited to have another kid over at our house to play, as they have not really interacted with other kids since school was cancelled. Carter wasn't too interested in playing in the sprinkler, but she liked our sandbox, and here are the boys playing with her. Aedan was doing such a nice job interacting with both Owen and Carter. Her parents came over after a little while and we all sat around and talked for a little while, which was really nice. We would like to get to know them better and form a relationship with them, as there really aren't many people with kids in our neighborhood, and we want to be able to support each other and give our kids others to play with.

On Wednesday morning Ben had some music playing, and Owen decided to get up and dance. (Owen standing in his chair at the table is definitely a regular occurrence.) I love how he shakes his bottom back and forth when he dances. He has always danced this way, and it makes me smile and laugh.

The rest of Wednesday morning, the kids and I did school work, like we usually do. Here is some of the work Samantha was working on with the Education plan for her city, and her spiral review page for math.

Wednesday afternoon was a big deal because we convinced Samantha and Aedan to release the toad they had captured. They were keeping it in a cardboard box in the back of the yard, tucked just into the woods. They would take it out and play with it, let it hop around the yard, and put it in the water table to swim. (As you can tell in this video, Aedan is a little more rough with it than he should be.) It made that croaking noise anytime they picked it up. The cardboard box they had it in was starting to fall apart, and we didn't want to keep the toad so long that it would die in captivity, so we decided to take it down to the woods by the Lakeside Skillet to let it go live in the marshy area down by the creek. I want to support their love of catching and learning about living creatures, but I also don't want to starve the poor creatures to death by not giving them the right food to eat or by keeping them locked inside a dark cardboard box. Anyways, they played with their toad, who they named Hermione for awhile, and I took a few pictures before we took a walk down to free her.

Wednesday night I invited my friends from Bible Study over for a bonfire. They arrived about 7:00, and Ben was in charge of putting the kids to bed. Alysse, Grace, and Kaili came, and it was so fun to see people in person again, not just on a computer screen through Zoom. We talked, got to see Kaili's new baby, and had s'mores. They all stayed until around 10:00, and it was such a fun night. I'm glad they were all able to make it, and I didn't realize how much I missed talking to other women. It feels like so long that we have been under this stay at home order!

I can't remember anything much in particular about Thursday or Friday, we were just wrapping up another week of school and feeling very ready for school to be over. None of us were feeling it anymore, and we were just trying to push through to the end. Here is a tower made of out aluminum foil that Samantha had to do for Innovation.

After releasing Hermione the toad on Wednesday, Aedan found two more toads in our yard, I think the very next day. They put them in a different box, and on Friday I found this large terrarium being sold on Facebook Marketplace for $20. I figured the kids would really like having an actual place to keep the toads (and snakes) that they find in our yard, and Aedan was willing to give $20 of his own money to buy this tank to keep the toads in. Ben went to pick it up on Friday afternoon, and then Samantha and Aedan spent time getting their habitat ready and even filling this bowl with water for them to sit in. They were SO excited about this awesome home for their toads that they couldn't stop talking about it, even as they were laying in bed for the night. I'm glad that they are enjoying learning about how to care for animals, and they now have a safe place to keep them where they can get them in and out easily. Now we just have to decide how long we are going to let them keep them and how much effort we are going to put into keeping them alive. I don't want to do something wrong and end up killing them accidentally, but I don't want to squelch their interest in taking care of the toads that they found either, so we will let them enjoy their pet toads for awhile!

Do you see the excitement on her face? Collecting bugs, reptiles, and amphibians is right up her alley. Even though I don't particularly like those things, I'm glad that she has such interest and curiosity. She even researched online about what toads eat and what kind of habitat they would like.

Here are some pictures from Saturday when Owen woke up from his nap. He often wakes up very slowly and enjoys cuddling for awhile. I walked out into the kitchen with him cuddling up on my shoulder, and I asked Ben to take a picture of us because I love to see how he fits on me, how he is growing up and getting so big, but he still likes to be held in a familiar way, like he was as a baby.

Here's a comparison picture from when Owen was just 8 weeks old. Man, I can't believe how big he has gotten, and sometimes it makes me sad to look at these pictures of him so small and know that I will never get those days back again. They really do grow so fast, but when things are so busy and you are sleep-deprived, it's hard to really soak up all those moments. I think that's why I'm okay with still rocking Owen to sleep at nap time, holding him and carrying him when he asks me to, and keeping him in his crib for as long as we can. I also think that's why I have a longing to have another baby. These baby snuggles are just the best. There's nothing else like them. So I'm just trying to hold on to Owen's babyhood for just a little bit longer.

And last but not least, here are some pretty cool Lego creations that Aedan made that afternoon. You can see the two Stormtroopers bowing down to Darth Vader, and the Lego figure in the front middle is one Aedan designed to look like Yoda. I love to see how creative he is in building and playing with his Legos. It makes me smile to see what he comes up with.

(Blog about May 24-30, 2020)