Samantha: 110 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 76 Months, Week 3
Owen: 34 Months, Week 1
Life in our house can get pretty silly sometimes. I'm not quite sure why Aedan is in his underwear and Owen is in a diaper, but they were having fun climbing on Daddy. Sorry for these pictures, boys, but they were too great to leave out! They were doing a great job at working together to defeat him!
And here is silly Owen making faces for me in bed that night. He loves to laugh and make people laugh!
And here is Ben's perspective that evening once the kids were in bed, sitting on the couch, watching something on TV (maybe baseball?), holding our little peanut until it was time to put her to bed, with a full laundry basket sitting on the floor.
That night I was feeling so tired of all this virus stuff and just really wished it was over. I was looking forward to our Midwest trip and hoped that we could do everything we wanted to do and go all the places we planned on going. However, if any of the states get added to Pennsylvania's quarantine list, we can't go to them because then we would have to quarantine ourselves which would prevent Ben from starting his job on time and us getting our little peanut back when we got back home. I was really looking forward to seeing everyone and getting away from home, getting a break from the daily grind and responsibilities of life. I think there are just some times when I feel so overwhelmed and tired from the uncertainty of the future. As school is getting closer, some schools have started making decisions about how they will go back to school, but Lake Lehman hasn't come out with any type of plan yet. It's hard with everything being so up in the air and stressful. It's hard to stay positive and engaged with the kids when sometimes I just feel so discouraged, overwhelmed, and tired.
With my class finishing up in the next couple weeks, I was finally in the home stretch. Ben stayed home with the kids on Monday so that I could spend time working on the last few assignments that were due.
Ben told me that Owen didn't fall asleep with him like he usually does at nap time, so he just laid him down. I told Ben we are getting close to having to do that with him anyway. Owen has been taking longer and longer to settle down to go to sleep, and now that we have our little peanut, we can't sit in there for too long anyway. Plus, I don't want it to turn out like Samantha where I had to do all these crazy things to get her to nap, like laying on the floor next to her bed in order to keep her in bed or sitting on the floor in her room until she fell asleep, which would take entirely too long.
On Monday night Aedan had t-ball practice. Since they cancelled the season, they decided to just meet once a week to allow the kids to train and practice if they wanted to come. We decided it would be good for the kids to try it out, and they were excited about going. Here is Aedan working on fielding and throwing the ball correctly. I'm sad that Little League was cancelled this year because the kids were looking forward it, and I really think Aedan would like playing once he learned more of the skills of the game and actually had an opportunity to play. I think he would enjoy a more slow-paced game like baseball, so we will definitely have to sign them up again next summer when things are hopefully back to normal.
While Aedan practiced and Daddy helped out with the kids on the field, I hung out with Samantha, Owen, and our little peanut at the playground next to the baseball field. Our little peanut slept most of the time, but then I got her out to feed her a bottle. After that she just hung out on my lap, falling back asleep pretty quickly. She is still a pretty sleepy little newborn.
Samantha and Owen had a great time playing on the playground and running around playing tag together.
Samantha wanted to take a video of Daddy and Aedan practicing, so here is her video of everyone playing catch, and learning how to use the glove to catch the ball.
Samantha loves holding our little peanut, so she was eager to come take her out of my hands and carry her over to the fence as she watched Aedan practice. She is SO good with babies and always has been. She has such a caring, nurturing, giving personality.
On Tuesday we had an appointment for our van to get checked out because it had been making this rattling sound that had been getting worse and worse as we drove it around on the bumpy streets of Pennsylvania. Especially before we went on our big trip around the Midwest, we wanted to make sure the van was in good, working condition. Because of not having the van, we were at home that day and didn't have any plans. We just got things done around the house and played together. Here are some pictures of our morning with our little peanut enjoying some tummy time, and then Owen curling up next to her while she was laying on our bed. He really is so sweet and gentle with her. It's cute to see.
On Wednesday our little peanut had another visit so Ben was able to take her down and drop her off, while I stayed home with our three kids, and then we left to go pick her up when the visit was over. It went really well, but her birth mom cried when she had to leave her girls. It was so sad and made my heart ache. She definitely wants to be back with her girls, she seems really intent on doing what she needs to do, and she hates being apart from them. So we will just have to see how long it takes to work through the system and process that she has to go through to get them back. Barring some sort of setback for the birth mom, these girls are definitely moving toward reunification at some point. We pray for her most nights with the kids, that she would continue to make the right decisions, and we will keep and take care of our little peanut until their family can be reunified, and then hopefully after that we will still be able to keep in contact with her and her family, and to support them in the future as well.
The other thing I was working on this week was setting up a newborn photo session for our little peanut for the following week before we left on our trip. We figured that is something we would want if she were our baby, and we wanted to include her birth mom as well so she wouldn't miss out on these precious early days with her little girl. We were put in contact with a photographer through some friends who were happy to work with our unique situation.
That evening it was Samantha's turn for softball practice. She was a little nervous because she didn't know what to expect or who would be there. They ended up practicing at a different field than Aedan did, so it was a little more difficult for the boys, our little peanut, and I to hang out and play and watch. So Ben ended up taking her to practice, while I stayed with the other kids at the playground by the school. They had fun running around and pretending to be ninjas together, while our little peanut just slept away in her car seat the whole time.
Here are a couple videos of Samantha practicing that night. They were practicing fielding the ball and throwing it to first. Ben said that she was holding her own, even in a group of all boys, so we were happy with that. She got hit pretty hard on the leg with the ball one time, so that was hard for her, but I think, overall, she enjoyed playing. It's just good for them to have practice playing different sports, learning new skills, and learning how to be part of a team.
July 22nd was Ben and my 14th anniversary. We didn't have any special or romantic planned because we are planning on going away for a couple nights when we go on our trip to the Midwest while Ben's parents watch the kids for us. With having three of our own kids plus a foster baby, finding someone to babysit is not very likely, plus more expensive than it would be worth. However, it really just has to do with the season of life we are in and we spent the day driving our little peanut back and forth to her visit, taking care of kids, and trying to do our own school work. We will celebrate with relaxation and good food when we get away for a couple of nights in a few weeks.
While I was gone, Ben took the kids over to Lake Noxen Elementary to practice softball/baseball with Samantha and Aedan. He also brought the little tee for Owen to use to practice on as well. I'm glad he decided to take them somewhere and do something with them because I can't really help them learn how to play softball/baseball when I never really learned how to play myself. This is something he needs to take initiative with the kids, and I feel like they would show more interest in it if he would make more of an effort to teach them and play it with them.
As I checked in with him later that afternoon, he told me that it had been a day with the kids. Aedan was yelling at Owen. Samantha was off by herself. Owen stabbed Aedan with scissors. Our little peanut was not happy being laid down. He was tired out and it was only 1:00 p.m. Oh, the joys of having four kids in the house to take care of! I know the same feeling well when I am at home by myself with all four kids.
Here are a couple silly pictures of Owen in bed that night after I laid him down.
Living out in the country means we are surrounded by lots of wildlife. When Ben was going down our driveway a little after 6:00 on Friday morning as he went off to run along the lake, he saw a deer trying to eat out of our neighbor's garden, and as he came closer, it ran away through the woods, but he was able to capture this video of it as it went into the forest. We have seen evidence of deer around our house because they have eaten our hostas and the flowers off our day-lilies, but we very rarely actually see them, so it was kind of cool to see these pictures Ben took.
Pennsylvania was updating its quarantine list every Friday morning, so we waited in nervous anticipation to see if any states that we are planning on visiting for our trip would be added to the list. Being a week out from leaving, we were pleased to see that no states we wanted to go to were added to the quarantine list, so we could proceed with our trip like planned, and I was really excited. I love to travel. I told Ben that I seriously could not wait to get to next week and to our trip: as a vacation to just hang out and be with him and have some time with just him and the kids, to see some good friends and family, and to just get away from life for awhile. I felt like I was having a hard time with things lately and was desperately craving a break from the tasks of daily life like making food, cleaning up, doing household chores, and just feeling like we are busy from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to sleep with hardly a moment to breathe or relax.
The big plans for Friday were that Ben planned on taking Samantha on a date to get some alone time with her. Samantha loves doing history things, but unfortunately, a lot of things are still closed around us due to COVID. The Liberty Bell, Constitution Hall, Gettysburg, Valley Forge, and other places are on the top of the list. As he said in his post: "A lot of history near us for the nerds in the family. Today's adventure was the Battleship New Jersey that served from 1943-1991. It was a win in both of our books. Samantha did get mad when I told her she needed to smile wider for the picture."
Here's what Ben said:
"I put a good amount of research into finding something I thought she would find interesting but that also would not be too much work for us to get to. I found this Battleship, which is just over the river in New Jersey from Philadelphia. It took just over two hours to get to for us. She largely just read in the car and relaxed. We hung out and just drove together. Once we got down to Philly, we stopped at a Five Guys and had lunch. She downed her cheeseburger and we fought over french fries."
"Then, we headed to the Battleship. She thought it was interesting driving through Philadelphia and really enjoyed seeing the ship up close. The ship was laid out in a way that made it easy to follow a path. We had conversations about how the ship changed over time from being a WWII ship to being used in the Cold War, and eventually the first Persian Gulf War. She asked a lot of questions about weapons groups, lifestyles on the ship, and spent time talking to one of the employees who used to serve on the ship. I think he found it interesting that a 9-year-old girl wanted to know about life and work on the ship. We spent a good 3 hours just walking around, talking, and enjoying the narrow confines of the ship."
"Then, it was time to head home. I told her it would be fun to stop for a snack and we did on our way out of town. She read and we talked some on the way back. It is weird thinking this girl is developing such an interest in history and is so curious about so many different things. Anything we can do to allow her to explore her interests while still spending time with her counts as a win in my book."
Since Samantha had her turn on Friday going on a date with Daddy, I took my turn taking Aedan on a date on Saturday. Here is Owen sitting next to our little peanut, watching a show while at home that day.
When thinking about where to take Aedan on a date, really only one place came to mind, and that was The Legoland Discovery Center down in Philadelphia. He was so excited to be able to go back again, even though it was going to be different with wearing a mask, only have couple hour time frame that we could go and play, and the Legos were not going to be out everywhere like they were when he came with Ben. We decided to get the afternoon time, so after lunch we headed out, and he was so excited that the two hour ride in the car to get there was almost torture for him.
I was excited to see Aedan in his element that afternoon because Ben talked about how much he loved it last time. Instead of having Legos out in bins around the center for kids to take and build, you had to check out Legos from a main desk and then take them back when you were done so they could sanitize them. We started off in the arctic expedition area where he attempted to build a couple different things, but then got frustrated that they didn't include all the right pieces in the bag.
From there we checked out the movie schedule and decided which shows we were going to see, and then we went on the little Lego ride where you get to shoot lasers with a wand at screens to pop bubbles or find treasure in order to earn points. He loved the little ride, and we went on it a few times while we were there.
After going on the ride, we discovered this Ninjago laser maze where you picked what level you wanted, from beginner to sensei, and you had to make your way through the maze without touching any lasers and trying to hit the targets on the side. He LOVED this! It was definitely his favorite part of the the day, and he and I went through the maze together over and over and over again.
After that I think we watched the short Lego movies, the one about Ninjago being his favorite. (He is really into Lego Ninjago right now.) Then, we did some more building. He wanted to build a Lego race car and then race it down the slide next to him. He liked it best when it exploded into pieces at the bottom.
Here is his race car creation. He wanted me to take a picture of it.
After he was done racing his car, we had about half an hour left before our time to play was up. We got Aedan a discovery pack which was basically a lanyard with different activities for the kids to do and then get a stamp on different pages. Then, they could show their discovery pack to an employee and get a prize. Aedan chose a little Lego figure, and he was really excited about that.
We also spent some time looking at the Lego city and exploring what all the interactive buttons would do. This place was really neat as all the buildings were replicas of popular and famous buildings in Philadelphia, and Aedan had a lot of fun exploring and showing we all the cool things he saw.
He is just so cute and obsessed with Legos right now. He just loves it so much there. Here he is posing next to Sensei Wu. I love this little boy of mine, and the fact that he specifically wore his Lego R2-D2 shirt that day.
We spent that last few minutes of our time going through the Ninjago laser maze again before Aedan just flitted around the place, playing with his little Lego guy on all the creations that they had set up. He was so happy to have this new little Lego guy to take home with him. It was fun for me to just watch him play.
Before we left the Legoland Discovery Center, we upgraded our tickets to season passes so we could come back anytime we wanted to, which he was really excited about. Plus, I let him pick out a little Ninjago set that had a couple different Ninja people in it. Also, an employee came up and gave him a Ninja named Zane because Aedan was talking about how Zane's his favorite Ninja. Aedan was ecstatic to have all these new Ninjago Legos to take home and enjoy.
He decided he wanted to get a yummy hamburger from Five Guys, so we went there for dinner, and while we waited for our food, and even while we were eating, I let him build, too. I had such a fun date with my little Aedan. He just makes me smile, and I was so glad to see him in his element. He loves Legos right now, so this was the perfect date day for him. I loved spending time one-on-one with him so much.
We didn't get back until bedtime, but we were excited to talk to the rest of the family about our day. Earlier in the day, when I touched base with Ben, he said that Samantha was troubling. She was still just off by herself and talking back. He was playing with Owen and our little peanut, while she was just off. He would tell her to help, and she did for a few minutes, and then would just leave again. Nevertheless, the day went fairly well, and then I was able to help with bedtime. Here is my silly little boy laying in his bed and making silly faces for the pictures.
(Blog about July 19-25, 2020)
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