Family Time, Beach Day, and Lahey Family Fun Park for My Birthday

Samantha: 109 Months, Week 5
Aedan: 76 Months, Week 2
Owen: 33 Months, Week 5

I know going into it that accepting a foster placement makes life crazy, and this time around was no different. I feel like we were in a pretty good routine, and Ben and I were finally able to find some time for ourselves, like taking turns exercising in the morning, and spending time together in the evenings. I was even caught up with my blog for a short period of time, but now that we are up during the night feeding a baby and have some of our free time taken away with holding, feeding, and taking care of a newborn, things are thrown off again. Especially with my class finishing up in the next few weeks, I am trying to stay focused and do well on these last assignments, so most of the free time that I do have is taken up with working on papers or reading for my class. So, that means my blog, and exercise and reading for fun or even watching a whole show or movie with Ben, do not happen very often anymore. And date night? Forget it. Who would we get to watch four kids, one of them being a foster baby? I am starting to write this blog post on August 25th, so I am quite a bit behind, but I hope to try to catch up as I have the time, and as our little peanut begins sleeping better at night and napping at more predictable times.

Aedan is really creative with his Legos, and on Sunday he made a really cool building with many levels including a bedroom and an eating area. I love to see what he comes up with, and he was excited for me to come downstairs to show me his creation. He says that he wants to be an engineer when he grows up, and so far, I could totally see that fitting with his personality. He loves designing and building things.

We have all of our old baby stuff, so we have bouncy seats all over the house so that we have places to put our little peanut so that she is nearby, but we can have our hands free. Here she is sleeping in this bouncy seat in Samantha's and Aedan's room while we were reading to them before bed.

On Monday, July 13th, Ben and I made our official travel plans for our trip to the Midwest. We heard back from all our family and friends and the new dates worked out well for everyone still with just a minor switch-up, so we started finalizing plans and making hotel reservations. We planned to drive to Upland on Friday, July 31st so we could make an overnight stop and drop off Izzy with Ben's parents, who graciously offered to keep her for us while we went off on our travels so we wouldn't have to board her for two weeks. Then on Saturday, August 1st, we will drive to Verona, Wisconsin to visit our friends the Mosers. We will stay with them for three nights and then on Tuesday, August 4th, drive to Aurora to see my family where we will stay in a hotel for two nights. On Thursday, August 6th, we will drive to Bloomington, Indiana where we will just stay one night. On Friday, August 7th, we will drive to Oxford, Ohio were we will stay with our friends, the Chagdeses for three nights. Then on Monday, August 10th, we will drive back to Upland to stay until Friday, August 14th. During that week, Ben and I will sneak away from Tuesday through Thursday to Indianapolis so we can have a couple nights away from the kids and have a chance to celebrate our 14th anniversary. It's a lot of driving and a lot of traveling, but we were excited about getting out of town and seeing good friends that we haven't seen in a long time.

As we were thinking about making plans for our trip, the more we thought about it, the more we thought it would be easier and better for everyone if we left our little peanut here with some friends. I talked to my friend, Grace, from church and Bible study, since we have had a few conversations about foster care, and her and husband are actually starting the licensing process themselves. I asked her if she would be willing to watch our little peanut for the two weeks we are gone, and after talking to her husband, she said yes the next day. I felt so much better about our decision to leave our little peanut behind with knowing she would be with a family I knew and trusted. I was glad everything was falling in place, and I couldn't wait until we could leave on our "Tour of the Midwest."

Even though Owen will be 3 in September, we really haven't broached potty training with him very much. However, it is something that was one of my goals for the summer. (I think I made too many goals for myself though, because I wanted to get Owen potty trained, transition Owen out of a crib by taking the side off of his bed, teach Aedan how to ride a bike without training wheels, and also teach Aedan how to tie his shoes. But with COVID, my graduate class, and getting a foster baby at the beginning of July, things have not happened quite like I expected.) Anyways, even though we aren't officially potty training, every once in awhile we will have him sit on the toilet, especially if we sense that he needs to go, just to get him familiar with the idea. So on Monday, Owen actually peed on the potty and seemed to be pretty excited about the idea of going potty like a big boy. Ben made the comment on Facebook: "How are things going at our house? Our little peanut is 2 weeks old today, and we have a potty training 2 and a half year old boy. But, on the whole, not bad...but interesting and with a lack of quiet time."

I can't quite seem to break Owen's habit of wanting me to take a picture of him in his bed at night making silly faces, so here are a few more pictures from Monday night at bedtime. It just makes him so happy to have the light flash, and then to see what silly face he made for the picture.

I really don't remember what we did on Tuesday of that week. Here are some pictures of Owen fast asleep on my lap from that afternoon, though. He was giving me a little bit of a hard time settling down, but once he found this comfortable position curled up against my chest, it didn't take too long for him to fall asleep. You can see his blankie tucked under his arm, as he has gotten pretty attached to that lately. I love these sweet afternoon cuddles with my little boy.

And here's a picture of our little peanut fast asleep in the baby chair as we played outside with our kids on the patio. She looked so cute in this little outfit!

They decided to play hockey together, and Samantha and Aedan put on their roller skates. I think Owen might have been the goalie. As you can tell in these videos, it wasn't going too smoothly, and they were getting frustrated and annoyed with each other because it was 7:00 and nearing their bedtime. I feel like we don't have much time to just hang out and play with our kids because we are so busy just doing the daily tasks of life and work, classes, and taking care of a new baby. So it was nice to have it just be the five of us playing outside together for awhile. I miss these laidback evenings of the summer where we have no agenda and can just enjoy playing together.

I know the kids have been really missing playing with friends since school was cancelled in March and we have largely been staying home. The ladies I got to know through my Bible study all have younger kids, so Owen has kids to play with, but there aren't really kids for Samantha and Aedan to play with. That has been the hardest thing about moving so many times. We don't have any friends, and it's so hard to make friends. We weren't really able to get to know too many people before the pandemic started, and we don't have any way to connect with any friends the kids made during the year. The isolation is hard, especially during these strange times where it has just been our family together and we haven't interacted with very many people.

Here is our little peanut laying on the floor gym for some play time.

In order to counteract all these feelings, I decided to invite the Stanias over on Wednesday morning for some time for the kids to play together. They have older, elementary kids, and I thought it would be fun for Samantha and Aedan to have kids their age to play with. The kids started off playing outside in our back yard, while Nicole and I sat at our patio table and talked. Once they started getting a little hot, the kids moved inside to play with toys in the basement and in their bedrooms. Then, we had lunch together before heading over to the beach at Harvey's Lake. It was a little challenging trying to get everyone ready, but Ben was able to come home to work that afternoon so that I could leave Owen there to nap while I took the big kids and our little peanut to the beach. If Owen had gone with us, I would have had to be in the water with him more and be keeping my eye on him which would make it hard for me to talk to Nicole at all. The kids had a blast swimming that afternoon. It was warm outside, so the water didn't feel too cold to Aedan, and Samantha really had a lot of fun playing with the Stania girls in the water. It was fun to watch Aedan warm up to playing with the boys as well. They even brought bucketfuls of water up to the sandy area so they could dig and build in the sand. Our little peanut slept in her car seat most of the time, and then when she woke up, I was able to feed her and she just hung out with me while I watched the kids play. The kids had a great afternoon playing with friends, and nobody wanted to leave later that afternoon. The kids love swimming, and this beach is so nice and close to our house. I'm glad we decided to get the membership.

Here are some sweet pictures of Samantha holding our peanut that evening when we got back home from the beach and got changed. She loves holding her. :)

We went outside for a little while that evening after dinner, and I decided to bring our little peanut out there with me to hang out while the kids played since she was awake. It was fun to see her more alert, studying my face and whatever she could see of the sky and the trees.

And here are some more silly pictures of Owen, blankie, and Monkey in bed that night. Owen makes the silliest faces!

After kind of a full, busy day on Wednesday, Thursday was a day where we just spent time at home. I had a phone call that morning as I was getting ready to leave regarding getting our little peanut on WIC so we could receive formula. It was nice that we could just do it over the phone so I was saved a trip down to Wilkes-Barre and the time of taking our little peanut to another appointment.

I left the house to work on my class that morning, sitting by the lake to read the assigned chapter of my textbook, and then going to the library to work on my assignments.

Ben posted this about our little peanut: "How much do our kids like our little visitor? Anytime she cries, Samantha drops what she is doing, washes her hands (because she knows she has to before holding a baby), and comes to help. Aedan routinely talks about how cute she is and how much he enjoys her. Owen woke up in the middle of the night the other night worried that she was gone. The joy of foster care is seeing it be a family thing where all of us are involved. Seeing your kids be selfless and grown beyond themselves. Getting to love a kid(s) as part of your family as long as you have them. The sadness: Knowing you will say goodbye to sweet kid(s) someday. Knowing you and your kids will feel real pain when part of your family does leave. We can already tell it will be hard to say goodbye to this sweet girl that we brought to our house from the hospital. But, it will be a celebration when she does head home, even as it is sad."

I have to piggy back on what he said in that post because I had forgotten about Owen waking up at night worried that our little peanut was gone. He has had several nightmares lately that have woken him up screaming and crying, like the one where chickens were attacking Monkey, but he also woke up crying about our little peanut, feeling sad about her maybe not being at our house when he woke up. We reassured Owen that night saying that yes she was still there because we had just fed her another bottle. It's cute to see how much the kids think about her and enjoy her being with us.

Here are some pictures Ben took during the day while I was gone. Aedan must have made something in the sand in this picture and wanted Daddy to take a picture of it.

Our little peanut had another doctor's appointment that afternoon, so Ben took her down this time. I got back home in enough time for him to take her, with the goal that I was going to still be able to get some work done from home as well.

Our little peanut's birth mom met Ben at the doctor's appointment this time, and we were glad that she could be there for it. We didn't really have any concerns or questions, just a routine two week check-up. She weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces which put her in the 27th percentile for weight. She was 1 foot 7.88 inches which also put her in the 27th percentile for height. Her head circumference was 35.5 cm which put her in the 54th percentile. She was doing great and had gained a whole pound since her last appointment, so the doctor was happy about that because he said babies normally gain an ounce a day, and our little peanut was doing more than that.

That evening after dinner it was bath/shower time for everybody, so while Ben was cleaning up dinner and helping Samantha shower, I took our little peanut upstairs in the bouncy seat to hang out in the doorway of the bathroom while I gave Aedan and Owen a bath. Hey, you do what you you gotta' do with four kids in the house! They still take a bath together because they like playing with toys together still, and Aedan still loves sitting in the warm water.

Don't you just love their pasty white skin? Sorry boys, I think you got that trait from me.

Later that evening Ben got busy making the cake I requested for my birthday, a chocolate cheesecake with chocolate ganache and cherry pie filling on top. He worked really hard on it, and it looked so good. 

Friday, July 17th was my birthday, so we all took the day off to do something fun to celebrate. We ended up going to a place called Lahey Family Fun Park where they had all kinds of things you could do, from mini-golf, to bumper boats, to go kart racing, to batting cages. The kids had never been to a place like this before, so it was fun to see how excited they were. Mini-golf is not taken seriously in our family, and the kids just hit the balls everywhere, but if we just let go of that being a problem and stop trying to have them hit it the right way, they just have fun. I had our little peanut strapped into the Ergo baby carrier, and she was sleeping happily as we walked around the mini-golf course.

The next thing we did was let the kids ride bumper boats. We tried to let Aedan ride by himself so that we didn't waste a ticket on an adult, but he couldn't quite turn the handle enough to get the motor to work properly. It went better when we rode a second time before going home, and I was able to go with him to turn the engine while he steered the boat.

After the bumper boats, we went over to ride on go-karts. Owen was too short to ride, and even Samantha and Aedan had to ride with one of us, but they thought this was the most fun, especially Aedan. He definitely wants to go back and ride go-karts another time.

Even though the kids weren't too excited about going in the batting cages. Ben really wanted them to try it, and he offered to go in and help them, since they had never done them before. So far, it doesn't seem like Samantha or Aedan are very athletically inclined, which I think you can again attribute to my genes, but they enjoyed giving it a try.

Here are Aedan and I riding a bumper boat, with Samantha following behind us. We did a much better job the second time around!

At this point it was almost 3:30, and we decided to declare it a day. Owen had already started melting down while we were there, crying about not being able to do the go-karts or bumper boats. We had done everything there was to do there, so we went on our way back home so we could have dinner, present time, and dessert. It was a fun day out as a family to celebrate my birthday!

Here is the final product of the cheesecake Ben made for me. He always says that he is good at baking, but not at making things pretty. Nevertheless, this chocolate cherry cheesecake looks pretty good! I couldn't wait to eat it!

Last year the kids planned a scavenger hunt for me, so they threw one of those together at the last minute as well. (I'm usually glad to be the one taking pictures because then it means I don't have to be in the picture myself, but here are some pictures of me finding the presents during our scavenger hunt.) Samantha made me a headband that said "MOM" spelled out with pipe cleaners, but it didn't stay up very well as a headband, so I wore it more as a necklace. I really appreciated the time and thought she put into making something for me though, and that was sweet. Ben got me a large, stainless steel water bottle, which is something I have been wanting and needing for some time. It's not a fancy brand, but it will be nice to have a water bottle that doesn't leak and actually keeps my water colder longer.

And here is everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to me. (Right before this video, there was some kind of fight between Samantha and Aedan, which is why they both look kind of grumpy, and why I leaned over to give them a kiss, as a way to help them feel better.) I love celebrating my birthday with my family, and we definitely enjoyed the yummy cake that Daddy made. :) It was delicious!

I know I've said this a lot before, but Samantha is always such a big help with our little peanut. Here she is holding her while she reads on her Kindle so that way I she could be held, which is what she wanted at the time, but also so that Ben and I could get the things done that we were needed to do after lunch and with getting Owen down for his nap, too. She is such a huge help. I honestly don't know how we would be doing with the addition of newborn if we didn't have such a helpful girl like Samantha. She loves to sit and hold our little peanut, or give her a bottle, and she does it all with such a servant's heart.

That night before bedtime, Ben was watching some baseball on his phone. Owen found it pretty interesting, so he held his phone to watch it too. Then when it was bedtime, he walked upstairs holding the phone in his hand the whole time. We thought it was pretty funny to see him doing this because we don't normally let our kids have our phone for any reason, not to watch anything or play games. That's just always a rule that we have had, but Owen really seems to like watching baseball, and he seemed to enjoy the attention he was getting from this as well.

Our little peanut usually joins us in the room with the kids while we read them and go through out nighttime routine of reading the Bible, singing to them, and praying with them. Here she is in the bouncy seat, hanging out in Samantha's and Aedan's room.

Samantha and Aedan really like having our little peanut lay next to them in bed as I sing to them and pray with them. I always take turns going back and forth being with Samantha and Aedan, and they like me to scratch their backs for a little while. On Saturday night it was my turn with Aedan, and he was so cute with our little peanut as she laid next to him. I couldn't include the video in my blog because of not being able to block her face out, but he said, "It's so cute when she cries and her little white tongue comes out." And then he said, "When is she ever gonna' learn to do this?" (and then he stuck his tongue out). And then, "How far do you think she's gonna' grow out her hair?...Do you know what I want? I want the mom to take pictures and send them to you when she gets older. We know what she looks like now, but we won't know what she looks like when she's not a baby anymore." When he said that last part, he brought tears to my eyes. I love how our children think and how he cares about her so much that he wants to know how she is doing and what she looks like when she gets older. He has such a sweet heart and is a much deeper thinker and feeler than we give him credit for.

(Blog about July 12-18, 2020)

Enjoying Time with Our Little Peanut & Family Fun at the Playground, Beach, and Museum

Samantha: 109 Months, Week 4

Aedan: 76 Months, Week 1

Owen: 33 Months, Week 4

With our new arrival on Saturday afternoon, we figured most of this week would be about survival and trying to fit a baby's needs into the life of our family. I was definitely thankful that we got this placement during the summer when I could have more time to adjust with Ben being home a little bit more to help out when needed.

We had thought about maybe hosting or attending a micro-gathering on Sunday morning, but with our newborn, that was definitely not going to happen. We watched church with Neil and just kind of hung out for the morning before he left that afternoon.

Samantha was really excited to pick out a cute outfit for our new baby that day. She got this adorable outfit that Samantha actually wore the day we brought her home from the hospital, and she even picked out a cute little pink bow headband for her hair. I wish I could include pictures of her face, but this little girl was super cute, and she was so small that she was swimming in the newborn sized outfit. Here are some pictures of her dressed up that morning.

Owen was very excited to see her and touch her as well. He was so gentle and kind with her; it was sweet to see him interact with a baby. I used to think he was so small because he was my baby, but in comparison to our new little girl, he looked so big and grown up!

She was definitely still in the sleepy newborn phase, and it seemed like no matter how much we tried to keep her awake for a little while after she ate, she would fall asleep pretty much wherever she was: on the floor, in a bouncy seat, or in our arms. I just love her tiny little legs.

I put Owen down for his nap that afternoon so that Ben could spend more time talking with Neil before he had to leave. Here he is fast asleep on my lap. I know these moments and days are fleeting where he wants to cuddle with me to fall asleep. He is getting so big that he barely fits on my lap anymore. Since I know this time will soon end, I often take pictures of him sleeping, just in case it's the last time and I didn't even know it. He just looks so calm and peaceful, and very adorable when he's sleeping like this. I will never regret cuddling with my children until they fall asleep. These are precious moments that I will never get again.

Here he is laying in bed after I put him down.

Just to get a little perspective on how small our little baby is, here she is in our little baby chair. So tiny, and so sleepy!

I put Owen to bed that night as well, and he wanted me to take silly pictures of him in bed again. I have no idea why he thinks this is so funny, but he laughs so hard at the bright flash in his room with the light turned off. He has such a wonderful, silly sense of humor.

The weekend was going pretty well with getting used to having a newborn in our house. We set up a pack and play with the newborn insert in it to raise it up higher and make it easier to set her in it. We were also able to attach the changing table to the top of that, which made it all compact. My friend, Grace, let me borrow a glider chair to keep in our room, since we still use the glider with Owen right now. Another friend, Melissa, brought a rock and play for us to use as well for another sleeping option, and another friend and fellow foster parent brought us a bunch of Dr. Brown bottles to use since they help with gas. That was the brand we had used with our kids as well, but we only had four bottles, which wasn't going to be enough for an exclusively bottle-fed baby, so we were glad to borrow these bottles from her. We were appreciative of all the initial help and support in getting adjusted to this new addition to our family.

We are big proponents of swaddling babies, and these Velcro swaddles make the process so much easier. We have saved all our stuff from when our kids were babies and beyond so that we can be prepared for any age foster child, so we had a lot of swaddle wraps to pull out. Especially since this girl was 3 weeks and 2 days early, she will enjoy being wrapped up tight even more than our kids did since she is "younger." I decided to take the picture of her wrapped up and happily sleeping. This was after 8:30 a.m., and she was still fast asleep. It was nice that she would sleep in more in the morning, giving Ben and I a chance to get up, showered, and ready, make and have breakfast with the kids, as well as get them started on their day and get Owen dressed as well.  It would be nice if Ben and I could sleep in a little more too, but with three other kids that are up by 7:00 every day doesn't leave us with that choice.

Everyone is pretty smitten with his adorable little girl we are taking care of, but Samantha is particularly sweet and loving with her. She picks out her outfit every day, and she is always willing to hold her and give her a bottle. I love the following pictures of Samantha holding her: the smile on her face, the gentle way she cradles her, and her excitement for finally having the baby sister she has always wanted. It makes me proud to see how well she take to the responsibilities of being a big sister and how eager she was for us to get another foster placement. She is definitely "all in" with us in this and is super helpful. She is great with little kids.

Here is our little girl wrapped up and sleeping in the swing. She enjoys sleeping there as I think the rocking movement and the upright position helps her to feel more comfortable.

Taking a foster placement is always really busy at the beginning because you have more appointments and visits and the initial placement hearing as well. The hearing for our little girl was Monday at 12:30 via conference call, due to COVID. We were told we would be able to listen in to the hearing, but once we called in, we were actually told that we didn't need to be present and were asked to disconnect. We thought that was a little odd, because we thought it was our right to be there, but our caseworker said that we have the right to be heard, but not necessarily to hear everything being said in a hearing. We were filled in afterwards and there wasn't too much said other than what we already knew, but we just like to be kept in the loop as much as we can be as foster parents.

Our little girl also had a follow-up appointment at the doctor that afternoon. I had plans to meet her birth mom at the doctor for the appointment, but when I arrived and texted that I was there, she called me and said that the appointment had to be cancelled because the doctor was out for a family emergency. However, no one ever called to tell me that, which was frustrating. I decided to go up to the window to reschedule her appointment, and they actually said she could still be seen, since she had to be seen in a certain number of days after being discharged from the hospital. I felt bad that her birth mom wasn't there for the appointment, but I didn't know what else I could do. Her appointment went really well. She was a tiny little thing at 6 pounds, 10 ounces which put her in the 17th percentile, 18 inches long which put her in the less than 1st percentile, and her head circumference was 34.3 cm which put her in the 43rd percentile. I had a few questions like about how many ounces of formula she should be expected to eat at a time, if the amount she was pooping was normal, and the fact that her umbilical cord had already fallen off. So she was small but doing well, and they loaded me up with formula samples to take home to tide us over until we could get her signed up for WIC where we would get the formula paid for for us.

Here I am holding our baby girl when we got home from the doctor. I thought this was a good picture because you can see how tiny she is and her dark hair, but you can't see her face, so I didn't have to block anything out. I posted a picture on Facebook and commented, "We have only had this little peanut for a few days, but we are already feeling super attached to her. The kids love her like she is their little sister and are excited for every little moment of her eyes opening and seeing her take her first bath. After seeing Ben kiss her on the head, Aedan even remarked, "I didn't know we were allowed to kiss her!" So now kissing her good night is part of our nighttime routine. It's hard loving and becoming attached to this little girl when we have no idea how long we will be blessed to have her in our family, but love and attachment is exactly what she needs right now, so that is what we will give her."

Here is our little peanut (I think that is how I will refer to her from now on in my blog), enjoying some tummy time on the Boppy pillow. Samantha and Owen enjoyed sitting next to her on the floor while they looked at books.

On Tuesday morning I decided to be brave and take all four kids out to the playground at the kids' school all by myself. Really, it's much easier with a bottle fed baby because I don't have to worry about breastfeeding in public or anything like that. Plus, our little peanut is still in the sleepy newborn phase, so she will pretty much sleep wherever she is with no problem. It was going to be a cooler, cloudier morning, so I knew it wouldn't be too hot to play on the playground, and I think Samantha and Aedan enjoyed being at their school, a place they haven't been for many months. Our little peanut fell asleep in the car seat and stayed asleep the whole time we were out. It was fun to watch the kids play together, to push them on the swings, and to find all the hidden animal shapes on the playground together. Plus, at the end of our time there, they put on a little concert for me. I don't know where they come up with these ideas! We had a fun morning together.

I included these pictures of Aedan because as I was taking a video of their song, I couldn't help but look at him and smile, just the look on his face, the seriousness of his drumming, and the way he looks back at Samantha for direction, it melts my heart. I love this shy, quiet (around people he doesn't know), sensitive, kind, thoughtful boy. I can't believe he will be starting 1st grade in the fall.

Samantha was such a big help to me on Tuesday. While I was putting Owen down for his nap, which took awhile, she sat with our little peanut and when she woke up and got fussy, Samantha tried a pacifier, and when that didn't work, she got a bottle made and fed the whole thing to her, all by herself, while I was up with Owen. She said she remembered watching me make a bottle earlier, and she remembered how many scoops to put in the bottle. Samantha is growing up right before my very eyes and can do so many things all by herself. I enjoy watching her express her independence, even though I miss the days when she was little and needed me more and would back her little bottom up into my lap to have me read her book after book.

Owen woke up slowly from his nap that afternoon. Here he is cuddling next to me on the couch that afternoon while I was trying to read my textbook for my class.

Once he woke up a little more, he started being silly with me!

That evening, we decided to give our little peanut a bath. I wasn't sure if she had one at the hospital, but we figured it was about time. She cried a little bit when she first went into the water, but once she warmed up, she was happy and enjoyed the sensations of the water running over her. All the kids were excited to see her take her first bath, so they crowded around me in the bathroom to watch.

Here is our little peanut, nice and clean and ready for bed!

This has become a strange tradition of ours to take these silly pictures when I lay him down in bed. He loves to make silly faces and then see what he looks like on my phone.

After having our little peanut for a few days, we were starting to settle into a new routine, even though it was hard getting used to being woken up several times a night, but our little peanut was a sweet baby, and our kids just love having her. She is still in the sleepy stage, and falls asleep quite often with very little awake time, but she was awake for almost two hours that evening, so that was good. We haven't seen too many effects of how she was born, and the doctor at the hospital didn't see much either, so that was good. She was eating 2 ounce bottles every time and was eating every 3 hours or so. Two out of the three nights we have had trouble settling her down between 11:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m., but other than that, she was sleeping pretty well in the pack and play in our room, all wrapped up like a burrito in the swaddle wrap.

Wednesday was a busy morning with trying to get up and out of the house, something we haven't done too much since the stay at home order came out in the March. However, we had to be out of the house by 9:00 that morning to take our little peanut down to Wilkes-Barre. While we waited to pick her back up, the kids and I went over my friend Kaili's house to let the kids play and give moms a chance to talk for awhile. It was rainy outside, so there wasn't much of a chance to ride bikes or go to the playground as we had hoped to do. However, Samantha and Aedan disappeared into an upstairs bedroom and played with a little dollhouse, while Owen played with play-doh with the younger kids downstairs. It was fun to actually get together with people again because we haven't done this in a long time either. We didn't leave to come back home until a little before 12:30 because I had to get our little peanut, change her diaper and feed her, as well as get everyone else ready. Toting four kids around is a lot of work! Ben had an appointment for the van, so we had to be back home so he could take it in, and we just barely made it back in time.

The kids ate a little bit at Kaili's house that morning, but they still wanted a little bit of food once we got back home, so Owen didn't get down for a nap until late that day. However, he fell asleep pretty quickly in my lap, and I, of course, had to take more pictures of my sleeping little boy. I love holding him while he falls asleep.

Since we accepted this little peanut to be in our home for as long as if needed, we started thinking a little bit more toward the future and what we would do about our trip to the Midwest at the beginning of August. We could make arguments as to whether we would like to take her with us, as well arguments as to why it would be best to leave her here with friends that we trust. It would be hard to take her on that long of a road trip when our car is usually so full to begin with. Plus, we would have to stop more and potentially deal with a fussy baby who no longer wanted to be in their car seat. We figured her mom would also not like us to take a newborn on that long of trip, and she would miss one of her visits and appointments as well. Ben and I went back and forth about it for awhile and were going to take some time to think about it and consider the options.

It's always tricky to find a good time to go to the beach at Harvey's Lake because of Owen napping and then working around dinnertime and bedtime. However, we decided to make a quick trip before dinner that night, and the kids were so excited to go swimming. Here they are posing for a picture for me in front of the water, sitting on the steps that go down into the water. They definitely enjoy having access to the lake. It's such a fun place to be, and it's just minutes from our house. I'm glad that we decided to get a membership here, and I look forward to getting one every summer. It's been a fun way to get outside and have fun, while also cooling off, and doing something that the kids love. We live in such a beautiful place.

I feel like this week we largely just took it easy and allowed ourselves some grace to figure out our new life and our new state of sleep deprivation. Samantha is so excited every morning when our little peanut wakes up, and she picks out some really cute outfits and headbands for her. I know you can't see her face, but isn't she just the cutest?

Here's Owen making silly faces for me at bedtime again that night. I love how much he enjoys life and likes to laugh. It's hard to be around him for very long before he makes you laugh and smile and forget whatever was on your mind before.

With our little peanut arriving last weekend, I was definitely finding it difficult to find time to do work for my class, so Ben stayed home with the kids on Friday so I could go work in the peace and quiet of the library.

Ben took these adorable pictures of the boys with our little peanut. Usually it's Samantha who offers to feed her, but Aedan was really interested in helping out that day, and from what I heard, he did a great job feeding her her bottle. I have to say how handsome Aedan looks in this picture. I love his thick brown hair and his big brown eyes. He is still pretty shy, and he doesn't like to have pictures taken of him or to smile for pictures, but I just love the way he looks in this picture. He is so sweet, and I love watching him grow up and see his interests and personality develop more.

Aedan told Ben that day that he changed his mind and does want to get married and maybe have one kid. However, he wants to have foster babies. Apparently he likes our little peanut more than he lets on. It's pretty cool how much our kids have attached and love our little peanut, just in the short week that we have had her so far. Even Owen was cuddling up next to her on his floor when I had her up there and was getting Owen dressed for the day. He said he likes having her in our house. She is definitely getting a lot of love from this household!

I went to the library to work on my big assignment so I could sit in air conditioning, and the internet kept cutting in and out that afternoon, making it really hard to do my work because I don't have Microsoft Word on my computer, so I have to use Google Docs to type my assignments. I ended up not getting as much done as I was hoping for and left the library feeling a little discouraged.

That night I just felt tired. The lack of sleep was catching up with me, I think. It was just hard because I still had to be able to think to work on my class work, which is hard when I'm tired. Also, when I'm tired I snap at the kids a lot more and lost my patience a lot easier, which I don't like doing. When you are pregnant your body kind of prepares you during the last couple months with getting up to go to the bathroom and being woken up by your baby kicking and moving, but in this instance, this was me sleeping through the night to abruptly waking up multiple times a night. Ben and I take turns, which is nice because with our kids it was always on me since I was nursing. Our little peanut wakes up about every 2 1/2 hours at night, but seems to be able to make it closer to 3 hours during the day sometimes. She can usually finish her 2 ounce bottle in 10-15 minutes, which is pretty good, and I try to keep her awake and have her eat as much as possible before she falls back asleep again. Last night she was uncomfortable for awhile because she was trying to poop, so she was unsettled for awhile until she did that. Overall though, she just eats and goes right back to sleep, so it's not too bad so far. Things will obviously change over time, and she will slowly transition to waking up less often, it's just hard with having three kids of our own because we don't really have the luxury of sleeping in or even taking a nap if we're tired because our kids are up and out of their rooms by 7:15 every day, and most afternoons are taken up by other things going on, or it would just be too noisy or distracting to sleep. So sometimes I just feel like I'm in a fog most of the day. Our little peanut is super cute though, and we knew this would be challenging going into it. We feel blessed to be able to care for her and love her while her mom takes the time to work on the things she needs to do in order to get her baby back.

On Saturday, July 11th, I was feeling a little ambitious for only having our little peanut for a week, but I just really wanted to get out of town and go do something fun. Ben and I looked around for awhile on Friday night because so many things are partially or fully closed down due to COVID. We ended up deciding to drive up to Binghamton, New York, stopped at a playground for the kids to play and picked up lunch at Wendy's to eat at a picnic table, while waiting for the museum to open. Here are the kids riding on a double swing with Owen. They thought it was so fun that they were fighting with each other over who could ride on the swing with him first. I guess that's a good problem to have, right?

From there we went to the Roberson Museum and Science Center. We knew it wouldn't be too thrilling, but it was pretty cheap, and they had some exhibits we thought would interest the kids. They had a model train display that the kids looked at for quite awhile. They had a few exhibits on animals and history, which Samantha found more interesting than the boys. Our little peanut drank her bottle shortly after getting there, and then I just held her in my arms as we walked around the museum, looked at the exhibits, and explained things to the kids. It really was a fun day. We were pretty much the only ones there, so we didn't have to worry about social distancing, and it was a good break in our change of pace of largely just staying around Wilkes-Barre. The kids' favorite part of the museum was the old, restored mansion connected to it. They loved exploring the old rooms, thinking about what they could have been used for, and imagining what life would be like if they lived in a house like that.

We had a fun day, and everyone did a great job listening and being respectful. It was good to see that we were capable of still going on family outings together and surviving, even with a newborn in tow.

And to end my post, here are a few more silly bedtime pictures of little Owen.

(Blog about July 5-11, 2020)