Trip to Boston with Owen & Samantha and Aedan at Ema and Papa's House

Samantha: 87 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 52 Months, Week 5
Owen: 11 Months, Week 2 (Week 50)

Sunday, August 26th ended up turning into a busier day than we expected. Owen woke up before 7:00, and I nursed him to see if he would go back to sleep, but he was not interested in doing that. I handed him off to Ben so that I could sleep in a little bit more. Then, Ben tried putting him down for a morning nap two hours later, but Owen woke up both times he tried laying him down, so he had to sit with him in order for him to get any kind of a nap.

Ben and I both served in children's ministry that Sunday, and then we came back home for lunch time and nap time for Owen. With school fast approaching, Samantha had been asking for awhile if we could go get our nails done like we did last year before school started. She said she wanted to try the Angel Nails place inside of Meijer. So that afternoon, after getting Owen down for a nap, we headed out for our little date together. When we first got there, they were already busy doing other people, so we had to wait about an hour for her turn, which she wasn't happy about, but we got our shopping done while we waited.

Samantha was so excited to pick out her colors, choosing two different sparkly shades of blue for her toenails, and a sparkly pink and silver for her fingernails. I decided not to get mine done this time, partially because of cost, but also just because of time constraints. We both got to sit in these big comfy chairs with back massagers, and she got her feet soaked in the tub for a few minutes before the nail stylist started on her feet. I know this picture is blurry, but I like it because she is giving me a nice smile, and not just a silly face.

The best part of the whole experience was that part of the package was to have a small decoration painted on as well, so she got these beautiful little white flowers with a sparkly gem in the middle. When she saw him painting that on her toe, you should have seen the grin that was on her face. It was priceless. :)

Even though we were running out of time and were going to end up being late for the church picnic that night, we stuck it out a little longer so that Samantha could get her finger nails painted as well. She got little white flowers painted on her thumbs, too. She loved them so much and was so proud of them. She couldn't wait to show them off. Here she is waiting in the chair for her nails to be dry before we headed home.

Of course we had to get a silly picture as well. :)

We then rushed home as quickly as we could, and headed out for the church picnic at Sherman Park. Quickly after we got there, Miss Linda swooped Owen away from us, telling us to go get food and eat, and she could take care of him. We pulled out our camping chairs and enjoyed some good potluck food before going off and playing. Ben played volleyball with some other people in the sand volleyball court, and I took the kids down the beach to go swimming. This was the first time all summer we went swimming at Sherman Park. How could that be?! It's such a fun place to go and so close to our house, but I feel like the summer just slipped by us so quickly, and we were busy doing other things, I suppose. We remembered to bring Aedan's floatie this time, and the water is really shallow here pretty far out, so Samantha and Aedan were able to freely go where they wanted to go out in the water. It was fun to watch them go out so far in the water, to experience some freedom away from the shore and away from me. The water was a little chilly, after all, this water does come from Lake Superior, but the kids never seem to mind if the water is a bit chilly. They climbed around on rocks, watched crayfish, and just had a blast enjoying the outdoors.

Owen is also a huge fan of water. He takes after his sister in that way. I tried to get him interested in playing in the sand, which he did for awhile, but then once he saw the water, he just made a beeline for it. I grabbed his baby floatie and stuck him in it so he could walk around in the water like he was using a walker on the ground. He was so happy. Do you see the joy on his face?! There were a few other little girls that were showing him quite a bit of attention, pulling his floatie around, and making him laugh. He definitely enjoys the attention of older kids.

That was one of those evenings where I could have stayed for much longer than we did. The weather was beautiful, the kids were having a blast, and I knew this very well may be our last opportunity to go swimming for the summer. Summer was coming to an end, and I was just wanting to sit and soak up these last moments.

We were going to leave on our big trip on Tuesday afternoon, so on Monday I spent quite a bit of time doing laundry and trying to get some clothes and things packed for our trip so that Tuesday would go more smoothly. We hung out around the house, and the kids enjoyed playing the back yard. Here's a couple of cute videos of Samantha pulling Aedan and Owen around in this little red wagon that was gifted to us. Owen was loving it, and he was just laughing and giggling as he went around for a ride.

On Monday evening, we got the kids bathed and to bed, and then Ben and I tried to get some more packing done so that I wouldn't have to do as much on Tuesday by myself. We planned to leave around 2:00, when he was done with his 1:00 class, and I wanted to make sure we were as ready as possible at that point. However, Tuesday morning was still hectic. It's amazing how long it takes to pack for a week long trip for five people, especially when three of those people would be flying on a plane, so you have to pack a little more carefully. It's amazing how much stuff we had to bring just for Owen alone, from baby food to milk that I worked to pump ahead of time so that I wouldn't have to bring my pump along, to toys for the plane, to snacks, to his stroller, and the list goes on and on. Any time we are getting ready to go on a trip, Samantha and Aedan act listless that morning, not really playing with anything, and generally just being impatient and not helpful, simply because they are so excited to get going on our trip. To make things more complicated, we dropped Izzy off early so that way we didn't have to do it that afternoon, but it messed up Owen's morning nap a little. He was wanting to fall asleep in the car, but I kept him awake so that he could nap at home instead. However, then he wouldn't nap for me, no matter how hard I tried to get him to sleep. I thought to myself, "I should have just let him take a nap in the car!"

On a side note, Owen has definitely started to show interest in playing with balls. He will carry this soft ball around the house, try to put it in his mouth, it will then fall on the floor, he will pick it up, and then continue to walk around with the ball. It's kind of cute to watch, so I decided to take a little video of it.

We were on the road to Upland by about 2:30 that afternoon, and we were going to drive straight through, hoping the kids would crash in the car once it got to be bedtime. Owen was definitely ready for a nap when we started driving, and he was asleep before we even got to the bridge, taking a pretty decent nap, and actually giving Ben and me a chance to talk together in the front of the car while Samantha and Aedan played quietly on their Leap Pads. We stopped after about three hours at a Chipotle and then got back on the road again. After driving another hour and a half or so, we stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom for the last time, and for Ben to get some coffee for himself. It was bedtime for the kids, and we so hoped that everyone would go to sleep and stay asleep in the car, especially little Owen. His sleeping is so unpredictable sometimes, that I was having a lot of anxiety about how he would sleep on this trip. Samantha and Aedan snuggled up with their animals, I put Owen in his sleep sack, nursed him one more time, hoping that he might fall asleep while he was eating. He did not fall asleep, but he was definitely pretty drowsy, so I put him in his car seat and started rocking it back and forth to get him to fall asleep. He fussed for a little while, but not too long and not too loudly, and then he fell peacefully asleep. I actually ended up downloading a white noise app on my phone and played it in the car for the kids, just to help block out any noises and maybe help them sleep better since they are not used to sleeping in super quiet environments.

Once I was confident that Owen was fast asleep, I crawled up to the front seat to sit next to Ben and we were able to share his head phone set to listen to a couple sermon podcasts as we continued our drive. Much to our surprise, all three kids stayed asleep for the rest of the drive. We didn't get to Upland until about 10:15, and Aedan stirred and whimpered a little bit at one point, trying to get comfortable, and probably because his little feet were falling asleep from having his legs dangling for so long. But once we pulled into Ema and Papa's driveway and everyone woke up, we made sure to tell the kids how proud of them we were. The drive went so well, when it could have been so bad, and we were so happy that they were able to get some sleep as we drove.

Once we got everyone's stuff inside and situated and got everyone to bed, it was after 10:30. I nursed Owen and he fell asleep, but as soon as I laid him down he woke up. I tried walking around with him and he fell asleep again, but then woke up again when I laid him down. So eventually Ben offered to go in the room to try to get him to sleep. It was understandable that he was having a little bit of a hard time calming back down after being asleep in the car and waking up in a new place that he doesn't remember, plus sleeping in a pack and play in a different room than his own. It was almost 11:30 before Ben got him down, and then he was afraid to leave the room for fear of waking him up, so I got ready for bed and slipped in the room quietly. Even though it took some time getting him down that night, Owen gave us the wonderful gift of sleeping in until about 7:15 the next morning, not waking up once during that time. It was wonderful because even though we went to bed late, we ended up getting about 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I don't even remember the last time I got that many of hours of solid sleep. It was wonderful to start off our trip feeling well-rested.

Ben and I didn't have to leave for the airport until around lunchtime, so we spent the morning just hanging out in Upland. The kids couldn't wait to play outside, and even though Ema left early for work, Samantha and Aedan were excited to get some undivided attention from Papa. Samantha in particular was excited that we were taking Owen with us. I was excited for the kids because I knew it would be good for them to have some one-on-one time with Ema and Papa, and to also have a break from Owen, having to watch him for us, and having to determine our schedule around when he would need to eat or nap. Now, Ben and I would have much rather left Owen with Ema and Papa as well, so we could have had a trip away by ourselves, but considering Owen is still nursing, doesn't take a bottle, and still wakes up quite a bit during the night, that would not have been fair to them. Some day, some day... I am dreaming about the day that Ben and I can get away for a weekend by ourselves again. :)

The other issue that we were dealing with this week came after hearing news from the teacher we thought Samantha was going to have for 2nd grade, the one we met with several times at the end of last year to get everything set up for this year, was actually changing positions in the school and would no longer be Samantha's teacher. I was disappointed and frustrated when I got the message from her teacher because Ben and I were so excited for Samantha to have her, and we were confident that she was going to have a good year. Now, with teachers changing, everything was up in the air again, just like it was last year, and we now had a week before school was starting to figure it out. Samantha was in the new teacher's class, which at first I wasn't too thrilled about, simply because I didn't know anything about her. As a teacher myself, new teachers can be so hit or miss, and so often there is a steep learning curve when a teacher is trying to get used to a new school and a new class. Then, there was the trouble of trying to find a time where Samantha could go up for math and not be missing things in her class. The math times between 2nd grade and 3rd grade didn't seem to line up at all, so it just made everything all the more complicated. We just didn't want a repeat of last year where she was not being sent to math class consistently, and even though she was supposed to be pulled for an advanced reading group, that did not happy very consistently either. We know Samantha will do well because she is an extremely intelligent little girl, but we don't want her to just coast through 2nd grade. We want her to learn, and we want her to be challenged. So throughout the week I was in communication with the principal to try and figure out what we were going to do, as well as to schedule a meeting for when we got back from being out of town.

Anyways, back to our Wednesday. After eating lunch and saying good-bye to Samantha and Aedan, Ben, Owen, and I got in the car to drive down to the Indianapolis airport. Owen took a little bit of a nap at the house that morning, but he was ready for his afternoon nap as we drove. He slept most of the way down, which we were thankful for, hoping that would make our time on the plane go more smoothly.

We got to the airport in plenty of time, got through security with relative ease (even though I forgot a few liquids that I didn't take out of Owen's bag), and then we got ourselves some coffee and let Owen walk around and play in a little children's play area in the airport. Our flight was delayed about 50 minutes right off the bat for whatever reason, and then once we got on the plane and started taxiing out on the runway, the pilot came over the intercom to announce that a fuel light came on that they had to check out. We ended up having to go back to the gate to get it inspected, and they had to wait for someone to get to the plane to check it out. All that being said, it was going to possibly be another hour we were going to have to wait. I was dreading being stuck on a plane with an antsy 11 month old who just wanted to walk around, but luckily, they let off anyone who wanted to deplane and then come back on once they made the announcement that everything was ready. So Ben, Owen, and I deplaned, so we could let Owen walk around, feed him his baby food for dinner, and pick up some sandwiches for ourselves for dinner as well. All told, our flight ended up being delayed over 2 hours, which is not how we wanted to start our trip, but what can you do? Those circumstances were out of our control.

Here are some pictures of little Owen's first trip on a plane. He thought it was pretty interesting.

I was worried about how his ears would respond to the pressure of take off and landing, and I tried to nurse him, but he doesn't nurse well in public and doesn't do well with a nursing cover, never has. So, I attempted to get him to nurse, but the more I tried, the more angry he ended up getting. After taking only a couple short naps that day, and our plane getting delayed for so long, Owen was tired and definitely needed to take a nap, both for his sake and our sake. After rocking back and forth with him for a few minutes, he finally fell asleep on my shoulder.

He probably slept for about 40 minutes, which was good, just enough to take the edge off and get him through the rest of the night. Here he is sitting on Daddy's lap, enjoying some snacks before we landed.

We didn't get to our hotel until around 9:00 that night, we got our stuff situated, and then I got Owen to bed as quickly as I could. It had been a long day of traveling and trying to contain a baby that just wanted to walk around, so Ben and I were exhausted. Since we were in a new place and Owen was sleeping in a metal crib with a pretty hard mattress, he woke up more often than he would when we are at home, especially considering how late we were up that night. We were hoping that he would get used to sleeping there after a little while.

We stayed in a Holiday Inn Express right in the city, just a couple blocks away from a subway station. We thought the hotel would have breakfast, like those hotels usually do, but this one was under renovation, so there was no breakfast in the hotel, which was kind of a bummer. I always look forward to their breakfast. Anyways, all that to say, we had to go over to a little coffee place to get breakfast instead. The hotel gave us coupons to use, which was nice, but it just took longer to order our food and eat there, and they didn't have high chairs for Owen, so we had to always feed him in his stroller.

Our plan for Thursday was to do a tour of Fenway Park, where the Red Sox play. Ben really wanted to be able to see a game here, but they were out of town the whole time we were there. We got tickets for the 11:00 tour, and I put Owen in the Ergo since he was needing to take a nap and it would be easier to carry him in that than to push the stroller around. It took me a while of walking around and bouncing, but I eventually got him to fall asleep, which I was glad for. Here are some pictures from our tour. I definitely enjoyed the tour more than I thought I would. There was a lot of interesting history the tour guide told us about, and it was cool to see the park from different vantage points, even going into the press box and up in the seats above the Green Monster. I also really loved listening to the guide's very thick Boston accent.

Here's Owen sleeping in the Ergo as we got to see the view from the Green Mosnter.

Once he woke up, we let him get out of the Ergo, walk around some, and look around at the sights of the ballpark.

The tour ended at a small museum where they had this cool display of signed baseballs from World Series from years ago. Ben took a picture of the one that Babe Ruth signed, as well as the one that the Cubs signed when they won the World Series two year ago.

After our tour was over, we went across the street for lunch before heading back to the hotel to let Owen nap for the afternoon. We didn't have anything in particular we wanted to do, it was really hot outside, and we figured it would be good for him to get at least one nap a day in a bed. He ended up sleeping for almost 3 hours, and I had to wake him up when it was almost 5:45. I was glad he took a good nap, and we then felt like it would be okay if we stayed out a little later that night. There was an end of summer event that night and they were going to shoot fireworks off over the water at 8:30. We took the subway down, ate pizza at a local brick oven place, and then walked to this park right down by the water. (A cold front was starting to come through, and it was getting a little chilly out that evening. We were glad for that because it was in the 90s with heat advisories in the days before we came on our trip.)

Owen saw this bear dressed up and was very interested in going up to it and staring at it, but he wanted no part in touching it or giving it a high five. He didn't know what to think about it.

Here are some pretty pictures of the water and the city as the sun set. I love this time of night when everything turns a lovely shade of blue.

Even though Ben and I would have rather been in Boston by ourselves, we were still having a good time exploring a new city, and it was definitely an interesting experience being with only one child and having that child not talk.

As the night went on, Owen was getting a little listless, even though he slept for a long time that afternoon. We followed him around as he walked up and down the stairs and waited for the fireworks to start.

We put Owen in his stroller when the fireworks started so we didn't have to keep chasing him around. At first he was pretty amazed by the fireworks and bright lights he saw in the sky, but after a few minutes, he started to get bored and squirmy, so we had to take him out. Here are some pictures and videos from the fireworks that night. Ben and I both love watching fireworks.

It took us awhile to get back to the hotel after the fireworks because of a power outage that delayed some of the trains. Owen was definitely very tired, and he wasn't as entertained by riding on the subway as we thought he would be. I didn't get him to sleep until about 10:00 that night, and we hoped that he would sleep better. I put a folded blanket underneath the fitted sheet to help it be a bit softer for him, hoping that would help.  He woke up twice during the night, and one of those times I fed him and he went back to sleep pretty quickly, so that wasn't bad.

On Friday we decided to take the subway down to Boston Commons and then walk the Freedom Trail to see some of the famous historical sights around Boston. Here's a look back at Boston Commons. It really was a pretty park tucked inside a bustling city.

One of our first stops was the statehouse. We decided to go in and take a self-guided tour of the inside. Ben definitely enjoyed seeing this building, and I thought the chambers were really fascinating.

We also saw some old buildings like churches and cemeteries where famous historical figures were buried. We stopped and had lunch at a little Italian place before seeing a couple more things and heading back to the hotel. Ben had his presentation for the conference that afternoon (after all that was the whole reason we came out to Boston in the first place), so he wanted to get back to shower, get ready, and get to the conference center in enough time to be prepared for his presentation. While Ben went to his conference presentation, I stayed at the hotel while Owen napped in the bedroom. He slept for two and half hours, and once again, I was so glad he was taking such good naps for us there. While he napped I was able to get a lot of work done in preparation for our upcoming MOPS meeting.

Once Owen woke up, I got us ready and we made our way on the subway to meet Ben over by the convention center for dinner. However, we experienced a few hiccups along the way. First, the elevator that we usually took down to our normal subway station was closed, so I had to find another way to get down with Owen and the stroller. Then, I had to lift the stroller up the few steps on to the subway, which a nice old man helped me with. The station we got off at didn't appear to have any elevator. I walked back and forth across the platform several times and never found one, so I ended up having to take Owen out of the stroller and carry him on my hip while lugging the stroller up all the stairs in my other hand. It was a little bit stressful doing all the by myself, and hoping that I went the right direction and would be able to meet up with him.

We decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner since we don't have that restaurant anywhere near us anymore. However, Owen was not in a very good mood. He was hard to entertain and contain, and he wasn't very interested in the food we were offering him, so it wasn't the most enjoyable dinner for us. The more we were on this trip with just Owen, the more we realized how much Samantha and Aedan help entertain him. I think he was kind of bored with just Mommy and Daddy. When I was done with my food, I ended up just taking him out of the restaurant and letting him walk around the children's section of Barnes and Noble while Ben finished his burger. (It was raw in the middle, so we had to send it back and wait for them to make another one.)

Originally, we had thought about stopping at the park that evening on our way back to the hotel, since once again Owen had a later nap, but with the mood he was in, we decided it would be better to just get back to the hotel and get him to bed at a more normal time. However, right off the bat, he was having a hard time. He had already woken up three times before when I put him down and when Ben and I went to bed, which usually isn't a good sign for how the rest of our night would go. He woke up quite a bit during the night, and both Ben and I were getting really frustrated with him because he would wake up just minutes after us laying him down totally asleep. It made me wonder why we thought we could just take Owen, who is a bad sleeper even at home sometimes, to different places and expect him to sleep okay. Then, he woke up at 6:15, and I tried nursing him back to sleep, but he was not wanting to go back to sleep, making it much too early of a morning. I foolishly thought that maybe we would be able to sleep in some on this trip, since sometimes Owen will sleep in at home, but that was definitely not the case. It made me look forward to the day when he finally starts sleeping through the night and is more predictable in his sleep.

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Saturday, September 1 was our last day in Boston, and we decided to spend most of it finishing the Freedom Trail. We saw some cool spots, like King's Church, which was an Anglican church until after the Revolution, when it became a Unitarian church. But what I thought was the most interesting was the pews they had. They were like sectioned off rectangles with walls and doors, and people had to buy their pew in the church. If you couldn't afford to buy one, they you had to sit on the upper floor where it was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. I had never seen anything like that before, and it was interesting to read these signs about the various people that owned different pews.

Here's the church that shone the light on the night of Paul Revere's famous ride.

After a walk through the streets of Little Italy, we came upon Paul Revere's house. Owen had fallen asleep in the stroller, so we kept walking around at first, but once he woke up, we decided to go back and pay the money to tour the inside of it. I like seeing old houses and imagining what life would have been like for people back in different time periods. (I forgot to take any pictures of the inside.)

Owen was getting pretty squirmy in our arms while we toured the house, so when we got into the gift shop area where they had these original fireplaces, we let him crawl around and play while we figured out where we were going to eat for lunch. I think these fireplaces were his favorite part of the trip. :)

Also, isn't he super cute in his collared shirt? He looks so grown-up these days, much more like a toddler than a baby.

After eating at a very quaint and delicious Italian restaurant in Little Italy, we walked over to this little park, enjoying the sunshine and the fun swings.

I love these pictures of the three of us together. It was so fun to spend this time together before the busyness of the semester really began.

After an early morning and just a short nap in the stroller while we were out walking around, Owen was again ready for a good afternoon nap, and he slept for about three hours again, giving Ben and I time to rest and relax as well. It was kind of nice having this built in rest time every afternoon, even if it meant that we didn't do as many tourist things as we would have if we didn't have Owen along with us.

Once he woke up from his nap, we took the subway down to the Boston Public Garden because we didn't see that part when we were in Boston Commons the day before. They had this beautiful pond area, lots of paths to walk around on, and swan boats out on the water (that didn't seem to be running on that night we were there).

Owen enjoyed playing in the grass and trying to catch squirrels. (He got pretty close to one once. These squirrels were definitely not afraid of people.)

Then, we made our way over to the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues based on the classic children's book that takes place in Boston. Owen loved these ducks that were just his size, and just like all the other kids, he posed for a picture sitting on one of the little ducks. (He was mad when I pulled him off the statue to let other kids have a turn.)

Owen really likes animals. Anytime he saw a squirrel, a dog, or a duck, he wanted to try to go up and touch it. This family was feeding the ducks peanuts, so there were tons of ducks around them, and Owen got up pretty close to one of them. However, we were afraid of what he would do (and what the duck would do) if he got too close, so we tried to restrain him as much as possible, which did not make him too happy.

After getting our fill of the Public Garden, we decided to eat a quicker, cheaper dinner at Panera, before taking the subway back to the hotel. We had a long day of traveling the next day, and we had no idea what would be in store for us that night with Owen's sleeping. We had a good time being tourists in Boston, and even though we would have done different things if we had Samantha and Aedan with us, we felt like we got a good feel for the city, and we enjoyed experiencing a new place.

Now, after talking about our time in Boston, I will switch to Samantha and Aedan's time in Upland. Papa gave us the pictures they took and a little description about their days together.

"Wednesday we played outside quite a bit until Donna got home. I went to Bible study at church, but the kids stayed up until I got home so each of them could have a grandparent put them to bed."

"Thursday we went to the zoo in Fort Wayne and stopped at an orchard to pick some apples and buy some pears on the way home."

Here are some pictures of their day at zoo. It looked like they had a blast. The kids had never been to that zoo before, and I was so glad that Ema and Papa were taking them to do special things like that.

A highlight of their day was being able to feed the giraffes.

They also always love petting and feeding goats.

I love my silly kids and enjoy how much fun they have together. :)

"On Friday they played outside much of the day. They did a good job of playing by themselves both inside and outside. They began collecting caterpillars. Samantha made a friend with the girl who lives at the end of our lane Thursday and played with her some Friday afternoon. We had tacos for supper and then went to Ivanhoes, with both of them getting the clown sundaes that they like. We also built a house for squirrels, and Samantha made sure to have 3 kinds of nuts for them. It took her some work, but she learned and remembered we had walnuts, hickory nuts, and buckeyes--and knew which was which."

"Saturday we went to an orchard near Indianapolis to pick some more apples for applesauce. They also had a chance to play at a playground and climb on a big pile of straw bales. We ate at Wendy's on the way home. We all hung out and played outside. Every day, both kids, but especially Samantha, had several times to get the caterpillars out of the jar so they could have playtime."

This was their outdoor laboratory, with a jar to keep the caterpillars, and room to let the caterpillars get some exercise. I love how much these kids enjoy the outdoors. It's been great to see what they come up with to do outside, and how much they love to learn and explore nature. I'm so glad that Samantha and Aedan did so well and had so much fun in Upland. In fact, after we left, they talked about how they wished they could live there. :)

(Blog about August 26-September 1, 2018)

Our Last Week of Summer at Home

Samantha: 87 Months, Week 1

Aedan: 52 Months, Week 4

Owen: 11 Months, Week 1 (Week 49)

With our trip to Boston for Ben's conference coming up next week, this week, the days of August 19-25 were our last days of summer at home together as a family.

Even though Aedan doesn't usually nap anymore, he was a super tired boy on Sunday afternoon, so we decided he needed some extra sleep and needed to take a nap. I got Owen down for a nap, but Ben ended up having to go in with him because he woke up crying. He tried to lay him down, but that didn't work, so, unfortunately, he ended up having to stay in with him and hold him while he slept. I went in Aedan's room to check on him and make sure he was actually napping, and he was too cute to not take pictures of. Sometimes I wonder how often he actually sleeps on his bed in a normal way. I just think it's adorable to see him snuggled up with Happy Bear, sleeping halfway down his bed.

Sometimes it's the simplest things that make me smile the most. Now that Samantha is older and bigger, she takes showers, and that means the boys get to take baths together. They have a blast in the tub together. Aedan is content just sitting and playing with toys, and Owen loves to watch him play and chew on toys. I tried keeping Owen out of the bath seat, but he just wants to climb around too much and it's not safe, so back to the bath seat it is. The one thing they both have in common is there love of splashing in the water. They were splashing so much that I had to move out of the way so I wouldn't get too wet. Here's a video of them splashing around in the tub together. I'm so glad these two boys will have each other.

Here's a really nice picture Ben took of the International Bridge when he was out for his walk with Izzy that evening after putting the kids to bed. It's really pretty cool that we live so close to an international border.

With summer coming rapidly to a close, our schedule was filling up more and more with various appointments, meetings, and trainings. We had small group leader training on Sunday night. Originally, Ben and I were going to take turns going to this, but we decided to ask the Grundmeiers for a babysitting favor so that Ben and I could both go together. It was kind of funny because several couples from our previous small group were there because we are planning on branching off and starting several new groups so we can open up to more people that want to be involved in a group. Our kids did pretty well at the Grundmeiers, all our kids get along pretty well and really enjoy playing together, and we so appreciated them being willing to take on our three in addition to their four.

Since our meeting went until a little after 8:00 on Sunday night, we got the kids to bed late, and Monday was another busy day. I had a MOPS Leadership Meeting and had to take all the kids with me, of course, since Ben was starting with meetings and preparations for the semester. It was a good meeting in planning for the year with ideas for topics for the meetings, and it was nice to have the kids taken care of for the morning. However, Owen was pretty grumpy afterwards and before lunch since he hadn't napped all morning. It was a bit hectic trying to get everything taken care of, get lunch ready, and get everyone fed. Then, I got upset at the kids because Izzy was chewing a Lego princess figure under Samantha's bed and Aedan had little Legos spilled all over his floor. I felt tired of having to worry about what Izzy or Owen was chewing on because they just leave toys all over the floor.

Monday evening was busy for us as well because Ben had a board meeting at church, and I had to go to a Parent Orientation Meeting for Aedan's preschool. I couldn't really take the kids with me, so we decided to hire a babysitter for that night. The orientation was supposed to go until 8:00, but I was hoping it wouldn't go that late and cause us to have another late bed time. I asked that the kids have everything cleaned up and be ready for bed when I got home, since I would have to put all the kids to bed on my own. Unfortunately, I got a text from Mary asking what to do if Aedan won't clean up. He has been very emotional lately, and he has been especially resistant when it's time to clean up or transition to a new activity. I also heard that Samantha and Aedan were fighting over toys quite a bit that evening, and that Aedan hit Samantha several times. I don't know what it is, but he has been much more physically aggressive lately. He has been throwing things, hitting things and people, destroying toys, and just been much more aggressive. I have talked to a few other moms with boys around the same age, and it seems like it is just a phase, but we just want to be consistent so that he knows it's not okay. I also think, in some ways, that the kids might be getting tired of each other. The summers up here are wonderful and long, but now that it's coming to an end and the kids are anticipating the start of school, I think they are just getting on each other's nerves more.

After I got Samantha and Aedan to bed, I decided to feed Owen some more food. Samantha said that he was pretty cranky towards the end of the night, and in order to make him happy while I was putting the big kids to bed, I fed Owen puffs, and he was devouring them, making me think that he was still hungry. After all, Mary had only given him one jar of baby food, and he's used to eating two jars, plus some finger food. I put him in his high chair and after he was mostly done eating, I got this cute video of him playing and laughing. You can definitely see in his eyes that he is tired, and he was getting a little slap happy as I made funny noises for him. (And then he gave himself the hiccups at the end.)

Tuesday was another day that we had some business to take care of as well. Izzy had a grooming appointment that morning at 8:30, and then I took the kids to Meijer to go grocery shopping before going back to pick Izzy up. No one is that big of a fan of grocery shopping (not even me), but they really did a great job helping me that morning. The kids knew that we had a short amount of time to get our shopping done so that we could get back to pick Izzy up in time, and we were able to do it. Aedan helped me find stuff on the shelves and fill up the cart. Samantha helped me push the cart and play with Owen so that he stayed happy during our shopping trip.

The rest of the day Samantha and Aedan just enjoyed playing outside together. It was a little different getting used to Ben being back on campus full time, but I was glad that we were slowly easing ourselves back into our normal semester routine. Thankfully, that afternoon, Owen took a long afternoon nap, which is good for him and for me. The big kids were able to do their work (Samantha has been completing a summer work packet she got from her 1st grade teacher, and Aedan has been doing some letter, number, and writing activities with me.), and then have time to play together. We haven't done much quiet time this summer since they really do a good job just playing together, and as long as they aren't too loud where they will wake Owen up, I am glad to let them have as much time as they want to play together.

We had thought about having our last small group meeting with our original small group on Tuesday night, but there were many people that couldn't make it, so we decided to just call it off. Because that was cancelled and since Owen took such a good nap, I was able to go to a Lemongrass Party that night at a friend's house to get a little time away and get back a little later to put Owen down for the night.

While I was gone, Ben took the kids to the last night of $2 Tuesday ice cream cones at Zak's, and then time to walk around the locks.

After getting the boring stuff out of the way the first two days of the week, I wanted to do special things with the kids the remainder of the week, as it was our last week together for the summer, before Ben's conference to Boston, his semester starting, and then Samantha starting school the day after Labor Day. We had plans to get together with the Grundmeier girls that morning, but they had Bible study that morning, so we decided to get together after lunch. Owen had taken a decent nap that morning while Samantha and Aedan played and I got stuff done around the house. Then, after eating lunch, we went to the parking lot of the Lutheran church for the kids to ride bikes together. They were all having a lot of fun riding up and down the hill, and pretending to be in a bike parade. However, it was getting close to Owen's nap time, and he was starting to fall down and hurt himself a lot, like scraping his forehead on the bark of a tree, and Aedan was melting down quickly, crying about every little thing. It's so hard to do things with kids sometimes because of everyone's schedules. Valerie and I had some time to talk, but not as much as we would have liked. I am glad that we are neighbors and can get together more often just because of proximity, that makes it a lot easier. Plus, I feel like our kids mesh well together, and Ben and I really enjoy the company of Valerie and Jeff as well. We will definitely have to have more play dates once the school year starts and we have just our two youngest kids, especially once our babies aren't taking morning naps anymore, so it would be easier to get together in the morning. I almost feel like it's harder to do things with Owen now than when he was an infant, because he's not going to just fall asleep anywhere anymore, and it's not great for him to miss too many morning naps or that causes problems from the lack of sleep.

Once we got back home, I tried to get Owen down for a nap quickly, but I ended up having to sit with him that afternoon because he just kept screaming and crying every time I laid him down. Then, to make it even harder to get him to sleep, Samantha and Aedan were running around, making noise on the floor above his room, even though I told them to be quiet. Every time he has a hard time sleeping like this, I get worried he has an ear infection. I don't understand why he does it sometimes. Sometimes he goes to sleep just fine, and other times he is unhappy every time you lay him down. It definitely didn't make for a very restful afternoon for me, that's for sure.

Aedan has been acting up a lot more lately, and part of me thinks that he's doing this more because he knows preschool is coming and it's something different, but he doesn't really know what to expect. Part of me is looking forward to quieter afternoons while Aedan is at preschool, and hoping Owen will fall into a good routine of napping during those hours that Aedan is gone. It will certainly be weird getting used to him being gone every afternoon though. Samantha is getting more ready for school to start, too. A week ago, she probably would have said she wasn't ready for school, but I think they are fighting more because they have just been around each other too much, like they both just need a break from each other and are ready for more structure and routine to their days. Aedan has been hitting, kicking, throwing things a lot, and just being very emotional, crying over the littlest things, especially when he is in trouble or gets hurts. And Samantha has been mean to him and talking back a lot more again. The kids were definitely wearing on me that day.

After the rough nap time that I had with Owen, I was worried about how our night would go on Wednesday, but luckily, Owen slept well that night. Plus, on Tuesday night he actually slept all the way until 4:30 a.m., nursed, and slept until about 7:15, which was good. His sleeping has definitely improved, and he is starting to make it longer and longer at night without waking up. I know Aedan did that 4 or 5:00 wake up for quiet some time, and I am fine with getting up once during the night to feed Owen, if he will then go back to sleep easily. Lately when he has nursed during the night, he won't eat for very long and sometimes he is asleep and I am back in bed in about fifteen minutes.

I know I've mentioned how much Owen is walking around now, but I feel like I haven't been able to get a very good video of it. However, on Wednesday night, I got this great video of Owen walking across the basement with my brush in his hand. He is much sturdier on his feet than he used to be, and when he falls down, he almost always chooses to stand up and keep walking, rather than to continue crawling. We can definitely say this little boy was walking at 11 months! I love watching this little boy toddle around, even if he still seems to short to be walking around so well!

I know that Samantha has enjoyed her more relaxing mornings at home, staying in her pajamas, and not having to rush to get ready for school. Here she is giving Izzy some love on Thursday morning. It's so nice to have a puppy that is so affectionate and loving.

It was going to be a beautiful day on Thursday, so instead of staying home to let Owen take a nap, and then wasting our whole morning, I decided to pack a picnic lunch for us, and the kids and I went over to Canada to Bellevue Park. Owen ended up falling asleep in the car on the way there, so when we got to the park, I actually left him in the car with the car running and let Samantha and Aedan get out quietly and go start playing on the playground together. I stood right in between the car and the playground so that I could see everyone and went over to the car every five minutes or so to peek through the window to check and see if Owen was awake or not. He ended up taking a pretty good nap that morning, and when he woke up, he was excited to get out an play.

Now that Owen is mobile and is mostly walking around, he has a lot more fun at playgrounds than he used to. He particularly liked climbing up inside this blue tube and peeking out through the holes at me.

We had our picnic lunch while trying to keep away from the bees, and then the kids got right back out on the playground. This park is so fun, with so many different playgrounds, and I can't believe this is the first time we have made it here all summer. Owen really enjoyed crawling around and climbing up anything that was his size. Samantha and Aedan had a blast climbing, sliding, and exploring the playgrounds together.

Since we were having such a good morning and Owen actually took a nap while we were out, we decided to head back over to the the U.S. so we could make it to the library for a special dinosaur craft time. The librarian read some books about dinosaurs to start out, and then a paper crafting group gave the kids all they would need to make dinosaur cards with dinosaurs, trees, volcanoes, and glitter glue to look like lava. Both Samantha and Aedan made several cards and were having a great time being creative. After that, the kids picked out some new books to check out while Owen had fun just walking all over the library and climbing underneath the low bookshelves. However, as it was getting close to time for him to take another nap, and he was starting to fall down more, one time hitting his head pretty hard on a bench and getting a pretty large bump on his forehead, so we decided to head home so I could get him down for at least a little bit of an afternoon nap. On our way home Samantha commented, "Thank you for letting us do so many fun things in one day, Mommy." I'm glad we were able to have such a fun day out doing things together. I sure am going to miss my girl when she goes off to school in a couple weeks.

After Owen woke up from his nap that afternoon, I was trying on some shoes for him, and letting him play down in the basement. He found the drums and a stick and was having a blast hitting the drums and making noise. (Do you notice all the scratches and bruises on his face? You can tell this little boy is just learning to walk and has the battle scars to prove it. It seems like he always hits the same part of his forehead when he falls.)

Here is Samantha posing with her little brother, making silly faces, and some close up shots of all the scrapes, bumps, and bruises on Owen's poor little forehead.

That night for dinner we had a yummy instant pot pasta recipe, along with some strawberries and blueberries. We have been trying to give Owen more finger food when we can, especially when our meal is conducive to that. In fact, we have been taking his clothes off a lot more at meal time because when he eats with his fingers, he gets super messy! I just wanted to document that in this video, even though he stopped eating when I started to record him. He was a big fan of this dinner and ate quite a bit of noodles and fruit.

When Aedan saw me taking a video of Owen, he wanted me to take a picture of him as well. I think this little boy is just so adorable. I love his big brown eyes, his little pink cheeks, and his chin. Don't you think he's looking so much more grown up these days?! He's getting taller and losing a lot of his younger looking qualities. How can you ever get too mad at this face with his smile?

Samantha wanted me to take her picture as well, but she wouldn't give me a serious expression. Silly girl! She said she was pretending to be a fancy girl. :)

And here's a video of all three of the kids that night at dinner. Boy, do I love them so much, even in all their craziness, messiness, and loudness. I have been blessed with wonderful kids.

Here's a picture of the beautiful sunset from Thursday night on Ben's walk with Izzy.

Friday was another day where we didn't have too much exciting going on because both Samantha and I had to go back to the dentist to get fillings done. Mine was on an area that had gotten a filling a long time ago but was not as it should be anymore, and Samantha had a little one in one of her baby molars. After getting done at the dentist, Samantha and Aedan just had a fun afternoon playing outside together while Owen took a nap. They just love being in the back yard together, coming up with imaginary games, and running around together. I love to watch them play and interact with one another. This is what I'm going to miss the most about Samantha going back to school. They really are each other's best friends.

On Friday night I was able to go out to eat with a few ladies from our small group. We had been trying to plan this night out for a long time, and I decided I would try to make it happen before school started back up again and everything got busier for everyone. We went to Karl's for dinner, and it was fun to just sit and talk. I know for me I don't get much of a chance to get to know people when the kids are around because I am dealing with them, getting them food, or feeding or chasing Owen around. So at the restaurant that night I was able to just sit and enjoy my meal and some good conversation. We will definitely have to do that again sometime soon.

On Saturday, after having a relaxing morning at home and letting Owen take a good morning nap, we decided to go over to Canada to go swimming, after eating lunch at Stack Burger. We hadn't been swimming here for awhile, probably since the beginning of July, and Owen was only crawling around then, so it definitely presented a different challenge having to follow Owen around as he tried to walk around in the water. He is not sure enough on his feet, and he is too little to wear a Puddle Jumper floatie, so we had to be pretty careful with him. Like we usually do, Ben and I took turns following Owen around and playing with the older kids. The kids had a good time, as they always enjoy swimming and being in the water.

We stayed until close to the end of the public swim and then headed back home to get Owen down for a little bit of an afternoon nap. We spent the rest of the day spending time together as a family, which is what Saturdays are for. Then, that night after getting Owen to bed, I went over the Grundmeiers to "babysit" their sleeping kids while they went out for a couple hours that night. I was able to sit and do some work for MOPS, watch a show on Netflix, and just relax in the quietness of a different house. They said they would return the favor to us some day if Ben and I ever wanted to go out after the kids were in bed and sleeping for the night.

(Blog about August 19-25, 2018)