Samantha: 114 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 81 Months, Week 4
Owen: 38 Months, Week 2
This week was a different one with Thanksgiving coming up. Plus, since Ben was done with his semester already, I took advantage of him being able to be home so I could do extra subbing. I was subbing Monday through Wednesday that week for the same teacher, with Wednesday being a half day, but it was going to be a busy week for me. Ben still had grading to do to finish up the semester, and he has a lot of reading, writing, and research he needs to do during these next couple of months for the chapter of the book he is writing, getting ready for the next semester, and publishing more so he can get tenure some day. Plus, we need money right now, so I am going to try and sub as much as I can while Ben is more free and flexible between the semesters.
Ben made a comment on Facebook about Owen walking around the house with a book in his hands, reading it. Lately, it has been Eric Carle. He has most of them memorized. He fits in well in our house where reading is a favorite pastime.
Life continued to feel busy for me as I still needed to find time to work on my class. I was doing well and got 100% on every assignment so far, it just seemed like a lot of work that I had to try and fit in when I don't seem to have a lot of extra time. In fact, that Sunday night I was up really late finishing an assignment that ended up being a 19 page chart. It was called a Genre Matrix, and I had to list a book that would fit in each of 9 genres of literature, and then analyze their character, plot, setting, and theme. It took quite a lot of time and work.
Plus, we just found out that they cancelled all in person visits for foster kids due to spikes in Covid cases, so I won't have that time during the week that she is being taken care of by someone else where I have one less kid to take care of and I have extra time to get things done.
I was able to get our lights put up outside, but all the other Christmas decorations were going to have to wait until I had more time because I needed to spend Sunday getting my assignment done for my class. I thought that maybe Ben could help me put the tree up on Monday night so I could start fluffing out the branches, and then maybe we could decorate it together as a family Tuesday night or Wednesday afternoon or evening after school.
As I mentioned in my last blog post, our kids have been not listening and fighting a lot lately. They have been making messes and refusing to clean up, talking back, saying no, and just generally having a hard time with life. We didn't know what was going on. It hasn't been working for Samantha and Aedan to be sharing a room lately because they have been talking at night and in the morning instead of sleeping. I think Samantha is just getting old enough, too, that she doesn't want to share a room with her little brother anymore. That's one reason I am looking forward to our little peanut going home because we are going to split Samantha and Aedan up for awhile. It just doesn't seem to be working anymore for them to share a room, and they need a break from each other. We will try putting them by themselves for awhile and see if that makes any difference in their behavior. I don't think Owen is ready to share a room yet. I feel like Aedan and him would fool around even more than Samantha and Aedan do.
Samantha and Aedan were "grounded" on Saturday this past weekend because they cracked the glass all the way across on the mirror on their closet door on Thursday morning because they were shoving each other around instead of getting ready for school. They were going to have school friends over to play with yesterday, but we cancelled that, and we told them they were not going to have any shows or Kindle time. They were going to do jobs for us around the house with no whining, or complaining, and that was our way of grounding them so that hopefully they will learn something from this experience. Some of the things we had them do was cleaning out and wiping down the inside of both vehicles, and basically just gave them job after job for most of Saturday. This was the first time we have ever grounded them. Time outs only go so far, and we were tired of reminding them or yelling at them to get them to listen and obey.
Another thing we have to work on is fixing the shower handle that broke off when a shampoo bottle fell on it, and now we have to use pliers to turn it on and off. We ordered a new handle and faucet set, but Ben says he doesn't know if he feels comfortable enough replacing it himself. So I'm trying to think if we know someone who is handy and could help us figure it out. We would rather not have to replace the whole faucet if there is an easier fix for it.
Here are some papers the kids brought home. Aedan has his official report card, picking a word to complete a sentence, telling what a story is about, and practice with his spelling words.
And here she is dressed and ready for the day. We have transitioned her into 6 month clothes because she is getting so big. I specifically remember Samantha wearing this little outfit when she was a baby. It's been fun to pull out the baby girl clothes to use for our little peanut. She certainly is a cutie!
Here is work Aedan brought home from school on Monday: practice with his spelling words, solving subtraction word problems, breaking numbers apart to subtract, and picking words to complete a sentence.
I had Ben get all the bins of Christmas decorations out of the storage room in the garage, and he helped me set up the Christmas tree so I could begin fluffing all the branches out in preparation for putting the ornaments on with the kids. I took out the carved Christmas trees made by Papa for Samantha and Aedan several years ago because he was asking for what they looked like so that he could make one for Owen, as well, and send it to us in the mail for him to paint and then display. It's nice of him to think of Owen because he always wants anything that Samantha and Aedan have.
Our little peanut has had such a hard time sleeping lately. In fact, she was awake for two hours in the middle of the night on Monday. She is definitely going through some sort of sleep regression. It is making us pretty exhausted during the day.
I let the school know that I would be late on Tuesday morning because I had to take Aedan to get his staples removed, and they were okay with that. They were just desperate for subs to help cover classes. His appointment was first thing in the morning, so I hoped we would be in and out and off to school. He got a little worried and nervous about it, but they reassured him that he would hardly even feel it. It healed up nicely, and the staples came right out. In fact, Aedan wanted to keep them and take them home with him, so they placed them in a small plastic cup with a lid for him to take and keep. After he got them removed, you could hardly even tell where on his head he used to have the staples, so I'm glad about that.
While I subbed in 5th grade again, Ben took Owen and our little peanut grocery shopping that morning. He made a comment on Facebook saying, "Why is it that going grocery shopping with a recently potty trained child and a 5 month old who refuses to sleep make it feel like I have done enough work for the day?"
With all in person visits cancelled, we didn't have any visits for our little peanut that week, and we also didn't have an in person home visit with our caseworkers. Ben did a teleconference that afternoon and they were able to talk for a few minutes so they could see our little peanut, too.
Here is some work Aedan brought home from school: two color by subtraction pages, making a sentence, matching up words, using subtraction strategies, and breaking apart to subtract.
Samantha brought home a spelling test that she got 20/20 on and a Chapter 3 Social Studies Test that she got 100% on. Great job, Samantha!
Throughout the week, I realized that I was probably experiencing a urinary tract infection, which was making the day harder to get through, especially when I was subbing because you don't have a chance to go to the bathroom as often when you're a teacher. However, the week was going pretty well, and even though it's not the same as being the actual teacher, I at least was in the same class all week. Plus, they increased the pay to $120 a day, which was nice to be making more money. I also was enjoying the break from dealing with diapers and Owen having accidents and crying babies, but I was super tired, especially on Tuesday after our little peanut was up for two hours in the middle of the night. I couldn't get her to go back to sleep after I fed her that night and ended up being with her for an hour in the middle of the night. I wasn't getting enough sleep, and I was definitely feeling the impact of that on how I felt throughout the day. She's been up at least two times a night to eat, and even on Tuesday night, she had already woken up crying two times, and we have had to go up and give her her pacifier. She seemed to be almost over her cold, so I didn't know what was going on. It's been nice not having to transport her to visits and deal with her being extra tired because of those, but it makes it more difficult to care for her when we don't have any breaks at all.
This week was very different for me as I subbed every day, and Ben stayed home with Owen and our little peanut. Wednesday was an early dismissal day, so it went by fairly quickly, and then we were on to Thanksgiving break!
Here is a picture Ben took of our little peanut that morning, hanging out and playing in the bouncy seat in the kitchen.
Here is one of Samantha's art pieces that I saw hanging in the hallway at school. I thought it was really neat how they made these, and each one was so unique!
In preparation for Thanksgiving, Ben had the kids help him make the pecan pie that afternoon since they were home from school early. Here is the finished product! Mmm, it looked and smelled so good!
I was able to get the Christmas tree branches fluffed out and ready to decorate, so Wednesday night before dinner, we got the ornaments out and started the decoration process. Aedan was tired and kind of in a grumpy mood that night. For a little while he went off and pouted, not even wanting to help us decorate, but eventually we were able to get him to come back. I accidentally dropped his Super Why ornament on the wood floor, and it cracked in half, so that made him upset and sad, I think. Everyone was very excited to hang up their special ornaments, and we had fun talking about what each one meant and why we got them. They did a really good job of spreading the ornaments out around the branches as well. We almost have too many ornaments and not enough branches!
I just love how pretty the living room looks with the lights from the Christmas tree. It's my favorite time of the year, and I love how it brightens up these dark nights of winter.
Ben made a funny comment on Facebook comment that night about dinner. He said, "Is it just my house where a normal dinner conversation turns to war? Then, what wars we have fought in, a discussion of current military actions around the world, the draft and Vietnam, and then to pacifism and the consistent ethic of life? All of this because Samantha started asking when was the last war we fought, and I told her that was a complicated question. Surely this is normal?"
After getting all the kids to bed that night, Ben and I spent the evening looking for and ordering Christmas presents for family members. Fun, fun, but it's so much easier doing it all online!
Thursday, November 26th was Thanksgiving, and it was a different one than we have ever had before. We invited both sets of parents to come out to our place, but for varying reasons, they couldn't come, so we were just on our own, probably for the first time in a long time. We had a pretty laidback morning, as we planned on having our Thanksgiving meal for dinner.
Here is our happy little peanut as we changed her diaper that morning. She has the best smiles!
It's hard to see in these pictures, but I finished the rest of the lights around our back patio, and also the rest of the Christmas decorations inside the house. I know it's just now Thanksgiving, but I like to put things up when I have the time, and having Thanksgiving break gave me the extended time I needed with Ben and the kids home. I love how everything looks!
Since we weren't seeing people for Thanksgiving, we decided to set up a Zoom call with the Toll family so we could all see each other and say hello virtually. Owen and our little peanut were napping, and Samantha and Aedan got bored of sitting and listening to adult conversation after a while, so they got some sticker books out to work on while the adults continued to talk. I didn't really feel sad about not seeing anyone for Thanksgiving until this call. This year has been so weird with Covid cancelling and changing so many plans. I will be glad when life gets back to normal again. It was strange and lonely celebrating a holiday at home with no one else there with us.
Here is what the Christmas lights looked like on the front of the house, and you can see our Christmas tree through the front windows as well. Our house looks so pretty from the street, all lit up.
Since it was just the five of us for dinner, Ben and I didn't go too crazy with our Thanksgiving meal. We had a turkey breast, homemade mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing, and homemade cranberry sauce with baked rolls and pecan pie and pumpkin pie for dessert. The food was delicious, and we stuffed ourselves full!
Aedan was really mean and grouchy the last few days. We didn't know what was going on, and he wasn't able to explain. Maybe just the weirdness of everything with Covid? The kids go to school, which we are super grateful for, but we don't do anything else or see anyone else. He, Samantha, and Owen have been getting on each other's nerves, too. In fact, on Friday morning, both Owen and Aedan were sent to their rooms because Aedan purposely stepped on a toy and broke it, and then Owen threw toys across the room when I told him to clean up. I felt like we were having major issues with the kids, particularly Aedan and Owen making messes and then throwing a fit when we make them clean up. We have decided we are going to be enforcing a lot more consequences so we can cut behavior off and not feel like we are saying the same things all the time or yelling at them to get them to listen. We are just going to start telling them, "This is your warning; if you do that (whatever it is we don't want them doing or saying) again, then your consequence will be _____." That way they know if they keep choosing to disobey us, they are essentially choosing the consequence. I think we have expected too much that they are going to just want to behave, and we talk to them about it a lot, but it's not doing much good right now. We will take away watching a show or playing with Legos for Aedan. We can take away Kindle or Kids Messenger time or reading for Samantha. We can have Owen sit in time out or lose out on a chance to paly with a certain toy or not watch a show. Ben and I have just gotten really tired of all the talking back, the fighting, the mean words, and just generally not listening and obeying when we tell them to do something. It's gotten old and frustrating.
We needed to get out of the house, and the weather was not bad, as you can tell with Ben wearing shorts in this video, so we decided to go to the Rimple Loop to let Samantha and Aedan ride bikes, while Owen, Ben, and I walked, and our little peanut got pushed in the stroller. Aedan had never ridden on a gravel path like this before, and he took right off and did a great job riding without his training wheels still. I think he really enjoyed how fast he could go, and that he could finally keep up with Samantha!
Owen wanted to keep up with Samantha and Aedan, which he couldn't do while walking, but he enjoyed being able to push our little peanut in the stroller.
Sometimes Owen wakes up happy, and sometimes not. Friday afternoon was one of those days where he wasn't so happy, but he enjoyed cuddling on the couch next to Daddy and watching some football.
With our busy life these days, Ben doesn't often get to sit down and watch football, or any sports at all for that matter, which I know is hard for him as he is a big sports fan. However, Friday afternoon he enjoyed sitting down and watching the game, and the kids were around to watch part of it with him as well.
On Saturday morning we decided to take a trip up to Dickson City to go to Once Upon a Child. The kids needed some new winter clothes and shoes, and we wanted to look for Christmas presents the kids could give each other. We were at the store for quite a while, but we found some good stuff, so it was a trip well worth it.
I also sent an email out to my family about how we would not be making the trip out to Chicago for Christmas, even though we have every year we've been married except for the year my family all came out to Ohio to visit us. It was a hard decision, and there were many factors that played into it, but I knew it was the right one to make. However, it didn't make it any easier to make the decision and to send the email.
Here's Owen singing and bouncing our little peanut in the bouncy seat. I tried to record it and then he stopped singing, so I asked him to do it again, and he obliged. I like that I can include this video because it doesn't show any part of her face. However, you can see her legs crossed at the ankles and her tummy showing because she always grabs on to her shirt and pulls it up if she's not wearing a onesie. Owen is really cute and loving with our little peanut.
(Blog about November 22-28, 2020)
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