Samantha: 111 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 78 Months, Week 5
Owen: 35 Months, Week 3
Samantha helps us out with our little peanut more often than Aedan, simply because she is older and can hold her more easily. However, Ben took this picture of Aedan helping to feed our little peanut that afternoon. He was doing a good job supporting her head and holding the bottle carefully in her mouth. It's amazing how small she still looks and how skinny her little legs are. I also love Aedan's skinny little legs, with his shins covered in bruises, a true sign of a summer full of playing outside.
The only thing we had going on on Sunday was soccer practice for Samantha, so we had a pretty laidback day, which was good considering Ben just finished his first week of classes, and this was the kids last week of summer vacation.
Ben and I have been talking about taking the side off of Owen's crib for awhile now, especially after he did so well when we were out of town and he just slept on his special air mattress on the floor. So little did I know that these following pictures would be my last ones of this silly boy making faces at me in his crib when I put him in at night.
I don't like to talk about this too much, but I have been having a really hard time lately with my weight and the way I look. I was doing so well with exercising and trying to eat better during the stay-at-home order because I was actually able to fit it into my schedule more easily since Ben was home, and we really had nothing to go out and do. But especially since we have gotten our little peanut, all that has been thrown out the window. We are waking up at night to feed and take care of her, so we are more tired in the morning, and with Ben starting back to work a more normal schedule on campus, I don't have as much free time to just sneak away and go for a run or fit in a workout of some kind, while knowing the kids will be taken care of. Then, with all the stress of being at home with the kids without any breaks, the stress of Ben's job, and just being more tired, I crave more sweets, so that's not good. I need to find a way to fit consistent exercise into my daily routine so I make it a priority. This has just never come naturally to me, but I need to take more control over my health so things don't keep progressing the way they are.
With this being the last week before school starts, we were trying our hardest to finish the work we were doing over the summer. Samantha had her weekly math review packet to finish up, and Samantha and Aedan both had summer workbooks that I wanted them to complete before the start of school. They weren't very hard, and I only had them do a few pages a day, which we worked on right after breakfast. Unfortunately, Samantha sometimes gives me a really hard time about doing her work and makes the process drag out much longer than it needs to. As you can see, she wrote some lovely notes to me on our weekly math review packet because she was mad about having to do homework. Oh child, the attitude that she has sometimes is amazing!
Once we finally got our work done for the day, I decided to be spontaneous and take the kids to Hillside Farms to get ice cream and then walk around and see the animals. Even though it was lunchtime, the kids were fine with having ice cream first and then going back home to eat something lighter for lunch. They always enjoy going to the farm, and it wasn't busy. We enjoyed our time outside in the warm weather, and Samantha and Owen both love looking at and petting the animals. Aedan does to a certain extent, but he's not as into is as they are. Here are Samantha and Owen looking at the baby calves.
Lately the kids have expressed interest in building some of their Lego creations back together again. However, it's kind of hard to do that when all the pieces are just mixed up together in a big bag, so I encouraged them to get all the pieces out and sort them by color. This process took a long time, and I helped them do it a couple afternoons this week so that way I could help speed the process up a little bit. They have so many Legos, and there's no promise that they will actually be able to find all the pieces they are looking for after having moved a couple of times with these Legos, and just the chance that they could have gotten sucked up by a vacuum or otherwise misplaced, but this is a good starting point, at least.
Samantha had soccer practice that evening, so I took her to practice while Ben stayed home with the other kids. It's kind of relaxing just sitting there reading a book and watching her when it's her turn to run through a drill. She is doing better and coming at the ball with more strength and confidence, which is good. She really enjoys being in soccer, and that's really all that matters. I'm glad she's having a fun time and staying active.
Tuesday, September 1st was a big day, as Samantha decided she was ready to get her hair cut and donate the hair that she has spent so long growing out. I did some research of different hair donation groups, and some of them had really long hair length requirements which would have meant Samantha's hair would be too short after being cut, or she would have to wait another year or more to get it cut. However, I found one called Children with Hair Loss, and they only required a minimum of 8 inches, which is something we could work with. I was anxious to get Samantha's hair cut before school started because it was just getting a little too long and harder to take care of. I took her to the hair salon that day, and she was pretty nervous going in and wondering how short it would be and what it would look like afterwards when she has been used to having long hair for so long. The hair stylist had cut hair for donation before, and her name was Samantha, too, which made my Samantha smile. She first separated it into four ponytails, carefully measured the length and secured the ponytail holders in place, then she braided each section to help keep the hair together better and not falling out of the ponytail holders.
Here is the hair stylist cutting off the first braid with a razor so that way it came off nice and straight without pulling. You can see the nervous expression on Samantha's face.
And here she is working on the last braid, and you can see the difference in length of her hair on the other side of her head.
Finally, after cutting all the braids off, we put them in a plastic bag to keep them safe, and the hair stylist continued to even out and add longer layers to Samantha's hair to finish off the hair style. She looked super cute with her new hair cut, and it was shoulder length, which is what Samantha was wanting. She kept running her hands through her hair, commenting on how weird it was to feel how short it was, but I think she was glad she did it, and she was glad she could donate her long, thick, beautiful to someone who needed a wig.
She wanted me to take these pictures of her making a sad, pouty face, like she was sad that her hair was cut off and in the plastic bag. She is so funny and has a great, silly sense of humor.
Ever since Owen did such a good job staying in bed on our two week Tour of the Midwest when he slept on his special air mattress on the floor, we decided it would make sense to switch Owen's crib into a toddler bed by taking the side off of it. I tried to get a last picture of him laying in his bed, but he was not wanting to cooperate for me and smile. Nevertheless, here is Owen in his crib for the very last time.
My sister, Christy, was able to send me her video monitors that she used to use with her kids but didn't use anymore. I figured this would help me out a lot because I would be able to see through the monitor if Owen was getting out of bed or not, instead of just listening in on the sound monitors we already have. I know with Samantha and Aedan it was always hard to tell, and I had to spend time sitting outside of Samantha's room to be able to hear if she was getting out of bed, and going back into Aedan's room to check and make sure he was indeed in bed sleeping. I didn't want to have to do that during this transition time with Owen, so I'm glad for getting these video monitors from Christy.
It was easy for Ben to take the side off the bed, so within ten minutes, Owen had his new toddler bed, and he thought it was so cool that he could just get in and out on his own like a big boy. He climbed right in and got under his blanket to show us how much he liked it. We will see how he does! Samantha fell out of bed a couple of times when we transitioned her, and we had a hard time keeping her in her bed at nap time, so I'm hoping we don't have too much trouble in this transition with Owen.
We gave all the kids baths/showers that night, which is quite the process sometimes. Samantha is mostly independent and just needs helping making sure she rinses all the shampoo and conditioner out of her hair. However, it's going to be easier now with her hair shorter. Here is our little peanut in the baby bathtub. She really enjoys being in the water and usually gives some pretty great smiles.
We figure it's always better for the first time without a side on the crib to be at night since they are more likely to be tired and go to sleep. It's dark in Owen's room, and there's nothing for him to be able to see and play with. I put him to bed that night, so here is our little boy sleeping his first night in his toddler bed. I can't believe we are done with the crib and pack and play stage with our kids. Even though I was a little sad thinking about him growing up, he was so excited about his bed!
I ended up putting a big stuffed dog on the floor next to his bed, just in case he rolled out of bed at any point during the night, and even though he was doing something different, he settled down to sleep really well and never tried to get out of his bed at all. Here he is fast asleep in his bed, as we could tell through the video monitor.
Just because we are crazy and one transition is not enough, we also decided to put our little peanut in her crib in her own room for the first time that night. We have had a hard time settling her down the last few nights, and we wondered if it would be helpful for her to just be in her own space so that we didn't make noise that bothered or woke her up, and so we weren't woken up by small movements or grunting that didn't need our attention. Ben and I were excited about having our room back and not having to tiptoe around at night or in the morning. She is two months old now, so she is becoming more sensitive to noises around her.
Samantha and Aedan just found out who their teachers would be for this coming school year. There will be no Meet the Teacher night because of Covid, so that will make this year a little strange, but I heard good things about Aedan's teacher, Mrs. Hynick. And even though Samantha was disappointed that she didn't get Mrs. Richards for her teacher, since she had her for math last year and really liked her, we hoped that Mrs. Gannon would be a good teacher as well. We were looking forward to the start of the school year, even though things will be strange and different with the Covid precautions and restrictions. Samantha and Aedan are nervously anticipating the first day of school next Tuesday.
There are certain things I see around the house that make me smile, and that night after getting all the kids to bed, I saw this in the kitchen. Samantha made Josefina a little notepad out of paper and gave her small pencils to use, rubber banding them to her wrist so it looks like she's writing. Seeing this made me smile, so instead of cleaning it up, I just left it there as a reminder of my little girl who is growing up so much, but still enjoys playing with her American Girl dolls.
Owen did really well in his bed that night, never getting out of bed, and staying there laying down until his Hatch Rest sound machine turned green, which is what we have trained him to do. It was cute to see him pop out of bed when it turned green, open his door, and come downstairs all on his own without having to call out to us or wait for us to lift him out of his crib. Our little peanut, on the other hand, never even made it into her crib in her own room. She was really unsettled again, so we just put her in the rock and play to sleep in her own room. However, even though she wasn't in the crib, she slept well in that room. She only woke up once, around 2:15, and then slept until about 8:40, so it was a really good night for her. I wish we could lay her down flat more often and not use the rock and play all the time, but I think she likes to be more upright because of her acid reflux issues. We are giving her medicine now to help it, and that seems to make her grunt less and seem less uncomfortable at night. We are also using that Swaddle Up sleep sack where she is swaddled with her arms up, so maybe that's helping her as well. Nevertheless, it was really nice for Ben and I to have our room back again, though.
I was unsure how nap time was going to go with Owen being in bed and able to get out. However, again, he did a great job and didn't ever try to get out of his bed. I thought it was cute that he fell asleep with his foot hanging out of the side of his bed. I have never been able to see what position the kids sleep in because I don't go back in to check on them or anything, but I thought this was a cute picture to see his little foot sticking out from under his blanket.
Thursday wasn't the greatest day at home with the kids. We just had a down day because I wanted them to have the chance to just play and hang out before school started next week. I wanted to take advantage of my time with them, but at the same time, they were driving me crazy! Samantha has just been talking back and being mean lately, especially to Aedan. Aedan has been whining and acting very baby-like in not being able or willing to do things on his own. He makes so many messes and then gives us a really hard time about cleaning them up, which is pretty frustrating. When I talk to Ben about it, we think that they may just be sick of each other. They have been around each other too much, for five and a half months now, with really little interaction with other people or other kids, so I think they just need space away from one another after all this time together. They are getting underneath each other's skin, and pressing each other's buttons, and in some ways you can't blame them after the craziness of how school ended and everything being cancelled this summer.
Ben is definitely the better cook and baker than I am. I can do it, I can follow a recipe, and things turn out okay, but I do do it more because I have to and I know we have to eat, rather than really enjoying the process of cooking. We found a recipe for fruit and yogurt parfaits, so we decided to have that for breakfast along with hard-boiled eggs on Friday morning. There were mixed reactions as Aedan doesn't really like granola and was trying to pick the granola out of his yogurt. Samantha liked it and ate it well, but she will pretty much eat anything willingly. I liked it, and it was a nice alternative to have for breakfast.
I decided to take the kids to the Lewisburg Children's Museum on Friday since we had the time, and I'm going to really miss doing things like this with the kids once Samantha and Aedan go back to school. Event though they drive me crazy sometimes, it has been a gift having this extended time together with the stay-at-home order. We have gotten a lot of quality time together, and I love spending time with my kids.
We have gone to the Lewisburg Children's Museum before, but it's a little different now because of Covid. You have to reserve a certain time that you want to go, and you choose either morning or afternoon, and then they close over the lunch hour to clean before the next group comes in. We chose the 10-12 time, and we got there just a little after 10:00 and had the whole place to ourselves. Our little peanut continued sleeping happily in her car seat, and the kids had fun exploring and playing in a safe and clean environment. Here are Samantha and Owen making designs with colored cylinders against a light background. Samantha was following an example on the wall to make a certain constellation, but Owen was just putting them in randomly.
The next room we went into had a pretend boat area where Owen threw the fish out into the water and used the fishing pole with the magnet on the end to pick them all up.
Samantha and Aedan were busy playing in the market and restaurant area. They had me come sit down and pretend I was a customer, and they made food for me. It was fun that they had the whole place to themselves because they didn't have to share with anyone or keep their distance from anyone.
Even though Samantha is getting a little too old for places like this, she does a good job of pretending and playing along with her little brothers. They all had fun in the pretend grocery store, pushing around shopping carts, picking out items, filling their baskets, and then taking turns checking each other out. I love how seriously Owen was being in shopping, and how well Samantha did pretending like they were really doing it.
Aedan also really enjoyed pushing around the shopping cart and pretending. He's always wanting to keep up with Samantha and do what she does, so sometimes I forget that he it only six, and is still a little boy who likes to participate in pretend play, too.
One of the cool features of this museum is that they turned the hallway into a road, and they have several Little Tikes cars that the kids can ride around as if they were driving on the road. Samantha is too big for these cars, but Aedan and Owen enjoyed riding around together.
They also have a room with a pretend doctor's office and a theater and art room, which wasn't quite as fun because they didn't have any costumes out like they did the last time we came here, due to Covid. However, our little peanut finally woke up, so I was able to sit and feed her a bottle while watching them act out a short play and then do a craft at the tables.
At this point it was already 12:00, and our time was up, so once I changed our little peanut and Owen, and everyone used the bathroom, we headed out. I decided to find a local place to eat lunch, instead of just going to Wendy's, and I found a little bagel place nearby. We went in and ordered our bagels. The kids all just wanted bagels with cream cheese. Samantha picked a chocolate cream cheese, and the boys picked a rainbow bagel with cookies and cream cream cheese. They loaded these bagels up, and the kids thought it was too much cream cheese! I got a bagel breakfast sandwich which was pretty good. The restaurant was open to eat in, so we just sat inside to eat, but they had a TV on with cartoons playing so the kids weren't really focusing on eating which is always frustrating. But nevertheless, it was interesting place to stop for lunch, and they all enjoyed the different bagels and cream cheese that they chose. After that, my hope was that the boys and our little peanut would fall asleep in the car on the way home. The museum is about an hour and fifteen minutes from our house, so just enough time to get a good nap in.
We had a fun day out at the museum, and I enjoy taking the kids places, even though it's a little crazy with four kids all by myself. They listened pretty well, and it was fun to watch them play and pretend together. It was a great way to spend our last Friday before school!
Someone asked me on Friday night how my week has been and how I was feeling, and I responded that it was hard. Ben and I are just exhausted, overwhelmed, and stressed. Ben going back to normal semester teaching has been hard and stressful for him because classes don't look like normal with Covid restrictions. Having all four kids on my own has been hard, especially since they have been so mean and not listening. Plus, we have all the craziness of visits and running our little peanut around. Then what has been going on at Ben's work makes us feel stressed and overwhelmed, which makes us more impatient with the kids, and they don't understand the underlying stress and worry that we are carrying. I have done much too much yelling lately, which makes me feel like a terrible mom, and like I can't do anything right or good enough. Plus, I've been feeling so lonely lately, as I haven't really had time to make friends here, so I don't have anyone to talk to besides Ben. I've been trying to plan Owen's birthday party and was having a hard time even getting people to come to that because people are too busy or just didn't respond to me. I just felt an overall sense of disappointment and discouragement.
Saturday, September 5th was a more relaxed day again since we were gone for most of the day on Friday. Samantha had soccer practice in the afternoon. Here is a video of her team doing a shooting drill.
Here are a couple pictures of our little peanut who is getting bigger and bigger each week. You can tell she is starting to fill out a little more in her cheeks and tummy, which is cute. Here she is working on some tummy time!
(Blog about August 30-September 5, 2020)
