Our Trip to Puerto Rico with Ema and Papa Holding down the Fort in PA

Samantha: 103 Months, Week 4
Aedan: 70 Months, Week 2
Owen: 27 Months, Week 4


This week started off with just a few days before our trip to Puerto Rico for Ben's conference/vacation that I was accompanying him on. Other than coming out to Pennsylvania a couple times last spring to look at and make offers on houses, Ben and I hadn't been gone overnight without any kids since before Owen was born. I was looking forward to it immensely and was counting down the days until Tuesday when Ema and Papa would arrive, and Ben and I would take off for the rest of the week.

After being out late at the hockey game on Saturday night, no one really slept in as much as they should have that morning, making everyone a bit tired that Sunday morning. When Ben went into the kitchen that morning he noticed that we caught two mice in the sticky traps we placed out the night before, one next to the oven and one by the toaster. It was so gross to think about mice walking around on our counters, and I was just hoping that they weren't going anywhere else in our house. I also hoped there weren't too many more where they came from, but I was glad that we at least caught some, too.

That morning we went to church, all seven of us, and the little girl did really well, thankfully. I think it helped that Alysse, the lady who babysat them the night before, was the teacher in her classroom, so maybe it helped her to see a familiar face. I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting someone to have to come upstairs to get us to come be with her, but no one ever came, which I was grateful for. After picking her up from her classroom after church, we made a big deal about how proud we were of her listening to her teachers and not trying to run away.

In preparation for Ema and Papa coming to watch all five of our kids, I wanted to type up some general directions, our schedule, important addresses and phone numbers, as well as how to manage our two new little ones. I was hoping that by leaving these directions they might have a more successful time caring for everyone. I felt pretty guilty about leaving them all five kids, especially when the little girl can be a handful sometimes. I definitely felt nervous about, and if we hadn't just used respite care while we were out of town over Christmas, I probably would have considered asking for respite for these days as well.

Anyways, as I was working on typing up the directions, I kept getting interrupted every five minutes, making it really hard to get anything done. I have found myself being really annoyed and short lately. All the toys everywhere from all five kids have been bothering me, and no one is cleaning things up properly or putting things back where they should be so then things are getting lost. There is just constant noise, and I don't know why things are annoying me so much lately. Sometimes I feel like I do not have as much fun at home or with the kids or with Ben as I used to, that all the chaos of five kids with extra mess, extra laundry, and extra tasks, is just stealing the joy of being a mom and watching my kids grow and learn, and being able to play with them, be silly with them, and really engage and connect with them. I really feel like that has been lacking lately, and I don't like it.

I'm sure it also doesn't help that I'm tired from going to bed too late and being woken up by Owen every night, but I stay up late because I feel like I need that time to just relax, decompress, get things done, work on my blog, watch TV, and just spend time actually connecting with Ben instead of just being passing ships that are checking off tasks on our endless to-do list that comes with taking care of five kids. The two hour window of time from when all the kids are in bed around 8:00 to when we should be heading to bed around 10:00 goes awfully fast, and most nights it just doesn't allow me enough time. Time is something I am constantly grasping for these days and can never seem to find enough of. Sometimes I just want to simplify our lives somehow so that I can have more margin for really investing into the relationships around me in my family, in trying to make friends in an area where we know no one, as well as my relationship with God which I often push to the wayside or leave at the bottom of my priority list.

It snowed overnight Sunday into Monday, and Ben took these pictures of what it looked like outside that morning. The kids all had a two hour delay, and it kind of made us laugh that this little amount of snow caused a delay. With Ben not starting his semester yet, he offered to stay home and get the big kids off on the school vans while I took the two little boys out to Walmart to pick up our grocery order. It was nice to be able to get done what I needed to do without having to drag all five kids along with me.

While I was gone at the store, Ben was able to take the pipes under the sink apart and figure out the source of the blockage that was causing our sink to stop up. It had been draining slower and slower over a few days and even putting Draino in it didn't seem to do any good. Eventually, Aedan finally confessed that he dropped something down the drain, and then he explained what happened. It was a monkey sponge toy that you are supposed to put in a bowl of water and over several days it absorbs the water and expands, getting quite large. Well, this monkey was expanding in our pipe with every time we turned on the faucet. We were glad he finally confessed to what happened, and we weren't upset, we just wish he would have told us sooner so we could have gotten the monkey out before it got so big. I took a picture of it stuck right in the curve of the pipe. Ben had to use a coat hanger to push it out. It kind of made us laugh, though.

Here is some work Aedan brought home from school that afternoon. He is working on simple addition and the letter Ff. His coloring on these pictures is very nice!

Ben and I had certain plans of how we thought Tuesday was going to go with doing laundry, packing, and getting ready for our trip, but our plans were hijacked that morning as we woke up to discover that apparently the little girl threw up in her bed overnight at some point and never told us. We have a monitor in their room and never noticed anything, so we weren't sure when it happened. Ben got her out of her bed that morning for school (but didn't notice the terrible smell in their room somehow), and we didn't discover what had happened until she left for school and her little brother woke up a little while later. The little girl never told us anything had happened, so we were none the wiser and sent her off to school like normal. I just could not understand how you could go back to sleep with vomit all over your bed and breathe in that horrible smell all night long. And her poor little brother, too, it didn't seem to phase him at all. On Monday night she mentioned that her tummy hurt, but then she was running around and playing and said she felt fine. Then, she wouldn't eat her dinner but when we asked her if she felt sick, she said no. She is just so hard to communicate with. We can't ever get a straight story that makes any sense. I sent an email to her teacher to let her know in case she acted sick at school, but she said she seemed fine.

Aedan and Owen had been dealing with diarrhea the last few days, but they were back to normal on Tuesday. Owen ended up taking a three hour nap on Monday afternoon. We had to wake him up so that he wouldn't sleep too long, but I think that nap helped him to kick whatever it was that was bothering him.

Anyways, so instead of doing our laundry and getting all packed and ready to go, Ben and I spent the morning cleaning and sanitizing their room and all the bedding on her bed, which took lots of stain spray and two heavy duty wash cycles. Ben is much better with dealing with vomit than I am because I have such a strong gag reflex that I almost can't even smell vomit without getting sick myself. Still the room smelled terrible and once the door was open, it permeated the whole upstairs. I had a diffuser going with Purification oil in it, and I even ended up opening their window to get some fresh air going; it was so bad. I felt queasy all morning, and into the afternoon I was feeling worse. I was hoping it was just in my imagination and that I wasn't catching something from the kids. I feel like I always get everything from them. And of course all this was happening right before we go out of town. I was hoping that no one else would get sick because I didn't want Ema and Papa to have to deal with sickness on top of just the daily care of five kids.

That day we found out about a last minute med-check appointment for the little girl, and Ben and I both decided to go so we could hear what the doctor had to say. (I didn't feel great at home, hardly ate anything for lunch, just as a precaution, and certainly didn't feel good riding in the car.) The appointment was fine. We got to meet another woman who will be assisting us in making sure that we get what we need, particularly in the realm of medication and other special services. The doctor commented that this was the most calm he had ever seen her in his office, that she is normally trying to open the office door and bolt down the hallway or climb up the shelves or get into things. We talked to the doctor about how well she had been doing sleeping at night and that we didn't think the Benadryl was necessary anymore. He agreed that taking that is not a long term solution, and he suggested that we cut out the Benadryl but keep giving her the other medicine because that would need to be cut back slowly. Surprisingly, he also decided to cut her dose of Ritalin by 75%, telling us to only give her half a pill in the morning and then cut her afternoon dose completely, which we didn't quite understand. Looking back, we probably should have spoken up about that more because we were purely talking about her sleep medicine, and that cut in Ritalin seemed pretty extreme, but we didn't know where our boundaries were with that because we have only had her for a month and a half, and he has been seeing her for awhile.

On the way back home, I was just feeling worse and worse, and very close to feeling like I might get sick myself, so when we got back home, I went into our bedroom to lay down and close my eyes, hoping the feeling would just pass. Ben and I had so much to do still with getting the kids fed, and we still hadn't even begun to pack for our trip. We were planning on leaving after the kids were in bed to drive to the hotel near the airport in New York, since our flight left early the next day. It had been a really stressful day with cleaning up after the little girl and then the additional appointment that we weren't expecting, and with me not feeling well on top of it, it was not how we wanted this day or the start of our time away to go.

After taking a little nap, I decided to get up and try to move around and start packing. We were able to get all the kids to bed, finish talking to Ema and Papa about last minute directions, and then were on our way. I remembered that I still had some Zofran that dissolves on your tongue from when I went to the hospital for fluids the last time I had the stomach flu, so I took one of those and it didn't take very long before I started feeling better. I was more lifelike, was able to talk to Ben more, and riding in the car wasn't making me feel sick like it was earlier.

I have never been to New York City before, so it was interesting driving around there to get to our hotel, even though it was nighttime. It was amazing how busy it was and how many bridges we had to cross. Saying it is the city that never sleeps is no joke. We got our hotel on Hotwire for pretty cheap, and it was okay since we only needed it for sleeping, but it was a little sketchy. I'm pretty sure we smelled people smoking interesting things around us, and people were incredibly loud through most of the night with talking in the hallway, playing TVs very loudly, and letting doors slam. We ended up turning on some white noise on our phone to block out some noise and help us sleep. We got some sleep, but it definitely wasn't a very restful night.

Wednesday morning we were up bright and early to catch our plane from New York City to San Juan. We were pretty tired that morning, but I was just glad that I was feeling better and never actually got sick. I basically just didn't eat anything after breakfast the day before, giving my stomach a break, and taking the Zofran really helped to take the queasiness away. I was so grateful to be feeling better, especially because I didn't want to be sick on this trip I had been looking forward to for so long. Ben and I had a few ideas of what we wanted to do in Puerto Rico, but we were mostly looking forward to just being able to relax, sleep in, not be woken up at night, do some sight-seeing, enjoy the warm weather and sunshine, and be able to follow our own schedule to eat when we want and not have clean up after anyone or get anyone ready to go but ourselves. This was a much needed vacation for me, and I'm so glad that the earthquake didn't impact where we would be in San Juan. The city was mostly running on generators, but that wasn't a big deal to us, and we were so excited to be on this trip together. It was going to be so good to have this time to reconnect and remember how much we love being with each other, traveling together, and sharing in experiences together.

We were a bit tired when we first got the San Juan, but we took a taxi from the airport to our Airbnb, got checked in and situated, and then decided we would get some lunch at an area near where we stayed that had lots of different choices. After each lunch, we requested an Uber and walked around Old San Juan for a little while.

Here's a view of the lagoon that was right outside our Airbnb. We stayed on the third floor in the building on the left in this picture, so we had a beautiful view off the balcony of our room.

As we walked around Old San Juan, we went into the San Juan Bautista Cathedral which opened in 1540. We enjoyed looking at the architecture, the statues, and the Christmas decorations that they still had up. It also is the burial place of Ponce de Leon, which is kind of interesting.

From there we walked around a little bit more, stopped at a store to get sunglasses for me and shorts for Ben. (We both forgot those items at home in the rush to get packed up.) We walked up to one of the forts to look around and enjoy the view before sitting down on the grass to call the kids, check on how everyone was doing, and say hello.

At that point we were getting pretty tired from having woken up so early to get our flight, so we found this little coffee shop that we went to last time we were here and liked quite a bit to get a small sandwich and coffee for dinner. We weren't too hungry since we ate a larger, later lunch, so it was perfect for what we needed. Then, we walked down by the cruise ships, just because they are interesting to look at, before getting an Uber back to our Airbnb, enjoying time in the hot tub, and just relaxing in our room for the rest of the night.

One of our goals on this trip was to sleep in as long as we wanted to since we didn't have kids to get up with or a certain schedule to keep. I think I slept in until 8:30 Thursday morning, and it was glorious to get up, drink a cup of coffee, and just get ready for the day in a relaxed manner. Here's a picture Ben took from the balcony of our Airbnb.

Our plans for the day were to take an Uber to a rental car place near the airport, and then rent a car for the day. We decided to spend the day at El Yunque National Rainforest, which was something we didn't see last time we went to Puerto Rico. You could pay for expensive tour groups that went to the rainforest, but we decided it would be much more enjoyable to do it on our own, at our own pace, and for a much cheaper cost. It only took about forty-five minutes to drive to the rainforest. We stopped at a visitor's center, took a picture of the trail map, and then drove into the park. It rained as we were driving in, but it was just beautiful. The lush greenery all around us and the views as we drove up the mountain were breathtaking. Here are some pictures from our day at El Yunque. It was so beautiful there that the pictures don't really do it justice.

These next pictures were taken at the top of the round tower that is in the last picture. We walked up the steps to the top and were amazed at this panoramic view of the island, the mountains, the rainforest, and the ocean. 

Here are my attempts at using the panoramic function on my phone. The first one is better than the second one, but it gives you the scope and scale of what we saw. We stood at the top of this tower and looked around at God's beautiful creation for quite awhile.

Here's what the outside of the tower looked like.

On the map it talked about a natural spring pool that you could swim in, so we decided to go check it out before potentially getting our bathing suits on. It was a very pretty little waterfall, but the spring didn't seem big enough or deep enough to warrant getting our bathing suits on to swim. (Plus, there were enough ladies there posing for pictures in the waterfall and all that nonsense.)

We decided to do one trail up to a lookout tower. It was this pretty narrow path through the rainforest, and it was beautiful to do this hike, being surrounded by plants and trees we would never see normally. We even got rained on as we walked, which seemed fitting considering where we were. The hike was pretty much uphill the whole time, but it was definitely worth it, and it was fun doing it with my husband and best friend. Here are some pictures and videos of our hike through the rainforest.

Once we got to the top of the trail and climbed to the top of the lookout tower, it was like we were inside the clouds. It was super windy and cloudy, blocking out any view we might have had, which was a little disappointing, but it was cool to just stand at the top and see the clouds whipping around the mountaintops.

After a few minutes we made our way back down again. You can see the tower that we climbed up to in the distance in the third picture. As we were going back down and looked back, I couldn't believe that we actually climbed up that high because it really didn't feel like it. It was a beautiful hike, it was the perfect length for us, and it was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon.

On our way back down the mountain, we stopped at this dam area with a pathway around the water. Apparently it was used as a swimming area in the past, which seems like a beautiful place to be able to swim.

When you eat breakfast at 9:30-10:00, it's perfectly okay to eat lunch at 2:30-3:00. We stopped at this hip vegan restaurant with outdoor seating because they boasted smoothies and smoothie bowls, and something healthy and refreshing sounded good to me. We got a mango smoothie bowl with lots of yummy tropical fruit blended together for the base. It had granola on top, and we chose blueberries and kiwi as our extra fruit toppings. It even had bee pollen sprinkled on top! Definitely never tried that before! We also got a cocoa-peanut butter-banana smoothie, along with a veggie burger. Ben and I split all of it, and it was very delicious and fresh. In fact, I still think back to that lunch and wish there was a restaurant like that where we live now.

After eating lunch, since we still had the rental car and our bathing suits packed, we decided to stop at a local beach to go swimming in the ocean. You could tell the place used to be very well kept and frequented by visitors, but some of the facilities left much to be desired. In fact, the bathrooms were so disgusting that I couldn't even bring myself to change in them. I just went back to the car and changed. However, despite that, walking along the beach and swimming with Ben in the ocean as the sun set was a perfect way to end our wonderful day out together.

Once the clouds started covering the sun, we decided to get out, change, drop the car back off at the rental car place, take an Uber back to our Airbnb, shower, talk to the kids on the phone, and then find somewhere to eat dinner. We wanted to go to a local Italian place that had good reviews, but it was one of the few places that was closed due to a lack of power. We were able to find another restaurant that was decent, but it was a little loud and slow, and Ben and I were tired, wanting to just get back and relax.

Here are some more pictures Ben took of the view outside our room on Friday morning. It was going to be a warmer day that day as you can tell by the look of the sky that morning.

This picture is not a very flattering one of me, but Ben and I decided to take an Uber to Old San Juan and eat breakfast at a placed called "Chocobar." Everything on the menu had a chocolate theme, and this place had great reviews. We had decadent mochas, and even though our food seemed more like dessert, it was very delicious and definitely a worthwhile place to eat breakfast.

From there we went on to visit the two forts on the island. It was fun to walk around and explore, and read the signs about the history of the forts that were started in 1539. I love imagining what it would have been like for the people that lived and worked there hundreds of years ago, and the views of the ocean from the forts were magnificent. I enjoyed reading and learning with Ben as he was able to explain some things to me about history that I didn't know. He has a wealth of knowledge that I often forget about in day-to-day life, and it was fun to learn from him. Here are pictures from the first fort we visited that you can see across the large lawn space.

After we saw that fort, we tried to find the pathway that would lead down to the the sidewalk along the water, but it was blocked off for some reason, so we had to walk a little ways away to find another entrance that was open. This sidewalk along the water gives you another beautiful, yet different view of the forts and the ocean. Plus, there are interesting animals to see like wild cats and iguanas. I took some pictures of them because I figured the kids would find that interesting to see.

It was pretty hot walking in the sun down on the path, and we had already done quite a lot of walking day, so we decided to eat lunch at a Puerto Rican restaurant where we could get mofongos, a traditional dish. Then, we walked through Old San Juan to the other fort since we could get into both forts with our payment. Here's a picture of a street in Old San Juan because it gives you a good picture of what it looked like there with the narrow, brick streets, and colorful, stucco buildings.

We were getting a little tired by the time we got to the other fort, and a lot of the historical information was the same, so I don't have quite as many pictures. I included this one below, even though it's blurry, because it is ships drawn on the wall of the dungeon of the fort. It was covered by protective glass, but I thought it was interesting thinking about a prisoner in the dungeon drawing pictures of what the ships would have looked like during that time.

Here are some other cool pictures and videos of the fort. It was really windy at the top, but it gave you great views of the city behind you and the ocean beyond you.

After a lot of walking around and being tourists on Friday, we decided to head back to our Airbnb, pick up a pizza, sit in the hot tub, and just relax in our room. Ben had some work to do to get ready for his conference panels on Saturday, but it was fine because we had already had a pretty full day.

Saturday was a little different because Ben would be busy most of the day with his conference panels. However, we couldn't really complain because he hadn't done any work thus far. We ate breakfast at the the little market place across from our Airbnb, and as we were sitting down eating breakfast, the floor started moving, almost like there were waves under the floor. Everyone was looking around with a strange look on their face, even the locals, and we realized that we just experienced our first earthquake, or at least the aftershock of one. For the past week or so the south of the island had been experiencing pretty severe earthquakes, and I was amazed that we were able to feel it where we were in San Juan.

After Ben went off to his panel, I went back to our room to just hang out for a little while before going back to the conference hotel to see if I could go swimming while waiting for Ben to be done. However, I discovered that they were keeping people off the beach and out of the pool because of the strong waves and high tide, which was sad because I really enjoyed sitting out on the beach in a hammock reading a book the last time we were here. That's where I was planning on spending my day while Ben was working, so I had to come up with a new plan. (Here are some parrots that the hotel had in the lobby.)

While I was back at our room, I sat on the patio and noticed some movement in the water. It was like a little nostril kept poking up out of the water every few minutes. I got a few videos of it, but none of them are very clear. I decided that it was probably a manatee, but I wasn't sure.

Between Ben's panels, we were able to get lunch together, and then I decided to head to a beach on the other side of the lagoon. I could see people swimming, so I knew it was open, plus I discovered it was a public beach, which was perfect. I got my bathing suit on, packed a water bottle, towel, and my book, and I was off to spend the afternoon at the beach. I'm not normally a beach person, as far as just sitting out in the sun. But laying in the sand in the warm sun reading a book? That was just heavenly. I don't remember the last time I've enjoyed being by myself that much. It was so relaxing to hear the waves lapping the beach, the seagulls squawking, and people enjoying their time outside on this beautiful day. I did end up getting in the water to swim towards the end of my time there. I'm so glad I was able to find a beach to read at and water to swim in. It was perfectly relaxing and rejuvenating.

Once the sun started going down and it was getting closer to when Ben would be done, I walked back to the hotel and got showered and ready for dinner. We debated where to go for a long time and ultimately ended up back at "Chocobar." It was just too good to pass up for our last meal together in San Juan. Here I am thoroughly enjoying my chocolate grilled cheese. :)

After eating dinner we walked around Old San Juan for a little while before taking an Uber back to our Airbnb. We had to get packed up and get to bed early, as we were going to be picked up early Sunday morning to get the airport on time. I was sad that our trip was ending, and I didn't want to go. We had such a blast together, and it helped me remember why we fell in love with each other to begin with. Ben is intelligent and fun to learn new things from. We love to travel and experience new places and new food together. He is caring and thoughtful, and he is my best friend, the only person I would want to spend this much time with. This trip was a well-needed time for us to reconnect with each other, and I was so grateful for it.

To end my blog, I will include the words written by Ema and Papa, and the pictures that they took while they were taking care of our kids. I'm grateful that they are willing to do this for me so I can include their voice in my blog as well.

"We arrived on Tuesday while the little boys were napping and the big kids were still in school. Since Ben and Jenny had an after school appointment with the therapist for the little girl, we were to get Aedan and Samantha form the school van. Bill stayed home with the sleeping boys while I walked to the van stop. The kids were glad to see me and talked to me non-stop while we walked back to the house. Samantha had a pre-test in math about fractions and was appalled that she had only scored 47% on it. I reminded her that she was not expected to know how to do any of that since it was only a pre-test. We helped Samantha and Aedan with their homework and after the meal, observed and slightly assisted with the process of bathing five kids and getting them ready for bed. It is quite a process but it all flowed rather smoothly. Ben and Jenny left for NYC as soon as the children were in bed. The evening and overnight went well and the only noise we heard from the children was Owen crying two different times before 11:30. I got him back to sleep, and he did well for the rest of the evening. The weather turned snowy so I was expecting a school delay for Wednesday. I did not sleep well since I was so worried especially about whether the little girl would stay in bed and Bill was awake coughing quite a bit of the night."

"When we got up, indeed there was a two-hour school delay. That did not surprise us since the roads were snow covered. Before too long school was cancelled for all the school kids. Aedan, Owen, and Samantha wanted to go out and play in the snow so about 10:00 they started getting ready. Ben suggested that we didn't let the little girl go out since the last time she did not keep her gloves on and she did not want to stay in the yard. I talked to the little girl about that and made her promise to obey, stay in the yard, and keep her gloves on. We were out for about an hour and she did quite well for me. The kids played for the remainder of the day. AWANA was cancelled so we were able to get them all in bed at the normal time."

"On Thursday we had some trouble getting the little girl out the door to her school van. She chose to tell me that Aedan's backpack was hers and also had a fit that I wouldn't let her take a bracelet to school. After Bill drove Aedan and Samantha to the school van, we cleaned up breakfast dishes, got the little boys around for the day, and played with the little boys. The new little two year old boy fell down the stairs and had a rough morning because of that. Thankfully, he was not hurt but since he really prefers men, Bill needed to hold him for the rest of the morning. After the little girl came home from school, Bill helped her with her homework, and I went to get Aedan and Samantha from their school van. They had homework also to do, so before playing, they all sat at the table to do their homework. At mealtime the problems really started with the little girl. She left the table, refused to come back or listen to us, and went to hide. Bill tried to get her under control while I finished up the meal with the other children. We knew it was bath night so we started the process first with Samantha in the shower downstairs and Aedan and Owen in the bathtub upstairs. Because the little girl was throwing such a fit, Bill was pretty well occupied with her, and I was trying to help the other kids. I needed to check Samantha's hair while she was showering, as well as cleaning up the boys. On top of our stressful evening, Owen pooped in the bathtub. So there I am cleaning out the bathtub while Samantha was waiting on me. By the time the boys got back in the bathtub, the hot water was all gone, and there were still two kids that did not have their baths. We tried to give the little girl her medicine, and she fought that process. So after we got the medicine in her, we got her ready for bed along with the little boy and got them down. They didn't get their baths, but I don't think we could have managed that due to the behavior of the little girl. The remaining three went to bed well for us and Owen slept until about 5:00 a.m. but we were able to get him back to sleep. We had a much better sleep than we did the previous night."

"On Friday morning we had trouble getting the little girl ready for school but with a little psychology mixed in, we managed it. That morning I had time to spend some one-on-one time playing with Owen. We had read him many books while we had been there, but I had not played that much with him. He was at his table cutting his toy fruit that is connected together by Velcro. His cutting tool was a wooden toy knife. After he cut a piece of fruit, he said ouch since the wooden knife also hit him slightly. I told him to pretend I was a doctor and he should come and let me see him. He did, and I pretended to fix his hand and then he ran to get a book so I read it to him. Then he repeated the whole process of pretending to hurt his hand, visiting the doctor, and having me read him a book. I figured that for Owen, visiting the doctor must be associated with reading a book."

"At 1:00 the social worker came to get the little boy since he and his sister had a home visit on Saturday and Sunday. That gave us a break from the two extras and allowed us to have some time with our three grands. On Friday evening Samantha had a pizza and game night with her AWANA group, so after we dropped her off, Bill and I took Aedan and Owen out to Wendy's. It felt good to get out although it was a dark and rainy evening."

(This is Jenny writing again.) I just want to insert a few comments of my own about Ema and Papa having to deal with our two new little ones while we were gone. After hearing about how hard of a time the little girl gave Ema and Papa, I felt really bad. I was afraid that this would happen because it seemed like she only behaved and listened to Ben and me, for some reason. We hoped that she would just continue in how we did things because she was still in our house, but that unfortunately was not the case. However, I am really glad that we requested the weekend overnight from Friday into Sunday. The little boy was picked up at 1:00, and the little girl went straight from school. Samantha told us that Ema and Papa literally sang "Hallelujah!" when she got on the school van that morning. She was just not listening, running away from them, making bad choices after just having a time out, fighting them about not being able to wear certain clothes, not wanting to leave the house for the van in the morning, and not getting ready for bed. I felt bad that they were having such a hard time. It wasn't fun for them trying to deal with her behavior as she can definitely be a bit of a handful. She definitely tests us sometimes, and every once in awhile she will have a harder night, but not as bad as they described to us. It is common for her to get one or two time outs pretty much every night with us still, but she usually improves after we give her a time out and reinforce the  good behavior that we want to see in her. It sounded a lot like she was behaving more like how she was when she first came to our house in November. I was very glad we arranged the weekend overnight visit so that they didn't have to continue with battling with her at home over the weekend, too. Plus, they got to spend special time with our three kids, which I'm sure they soaked up. They love when Ema and Papa come to visit, and they have their undivided attention.

"On Saturday, Samantha had play practice in the morning. The boys played in the morning while Bill and I got some cleaning and laundry done. I had completed the laundry for the two new little ones but wanted to do the bedding on the other beds on Saturday."

(This is Jenny writing again.) I heard the story about this picture later after I found the paper on the counter. Apparently Aedan said the word "heck" because he heard it in a song and thought it was okay to say it himself. However, Samantha came down and told on him, telling Ema that he said a bad word, so after talking to him about it, she had him write that he was sorry several times on the back of this paper. Hearing about it kind of made me chuckle. I'm glad they think a word like that is a bad word. 

"On Saturday afternoon, Aedan and I baked a cherry cake with chocolate icing for dessert. Owen said the cake was like a donut since it was baked in a bundt pan. That evening for supper we had chili soup, which apparently Owen did not want. He shoved his chili soup out of the way and patiently sat there with his fork on his plate. Although no words came out of his mouth, it was very evident that he was only sitting at the table and waiting for a piece of cake. No amount of bribing convinced him to eat a few bites of chili soup. He only wanted cake."

"I was able to help Samantha with her embroidery kit that she got for Christmas. She picked up some of the basics about embroidery very quickly. Saturday evening bath night went much smoother than Thursday."

"On Sunday we went to church, had leftovers for lunch, and allowed all three of the kids to play outside. It was a balmy day for January so they were glad to get out and explore. Ben and Jenny arrived home about 2:30 and were greeted with a piece of cherry cake by Aedan and Samantha."

"Our time with our grands is so precious, and we love to do life with them. They each have their own unique personality that we adore. We were blessed to be able to spend this time with them and hopefully give Ben and Jenny a small vacation. It is apparent that their hands are full with the two extras, but they are doing a wonderful job trying to make a better situation, although temporary, for the two new little ones."

(Blog about January 5-11, 2020)

A Week of Sickness, Tiredness, and a Trip to the Please Touch Museum

Samantha: 103 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 70 Months, Week 1
Owen: 27 Months, Week 3

This blog post continues with our night at the hotel in Ohio, as we drove back home from Chicago. We got a hotel room what was a one bedroom suite, so we set Owen's pack and play up in the corner of the room, and Samantha and Aedan decided they wanted to sleep with one of us instead of each other, so they were asleep in separate beds as well. It took Owen awhile to calm down and fall asleep. He kept talking, which we knew was then keeping up Samantha and Aedan. (This is why it doesn't work for us to all share a room. Owen is just not old enough yet.) I ended up having to go back in and hold him for awhile until he was basically asleep. Ben and I hung out in the in the living room area watching TV for awhile, as there was an Ohio State football game on that Ben really wanted to see. I was pretty tired, so I ended up going in to bed before him. I was sharing a bed with Samantha, and Ben shared a bed with Aedan. Our sleep that night was not very restful as Samantha kept tossing and turning a lot in bed, waking me up every time, and making me wonder if there was something going on. Then, around 4:30 a.m., she sat up in bed and vomited all over the bed in between her and I. There was really nothing we could do at that point, so she just finished getting sick, and then I helped her get out of bed and into the bathroom, which was attached to the bedroom. We were trying so hard to be quiet and not wake up Aedan and Owen. Aedan stirred a little bit when Samantha got sick, and expressed concern to Ben, wondering if she was okay. Ben left the hotel room, which I later found out was because he was asking if there was any other room we could switch to, but they were totally booked that night. Meanwhile, I gathered up all the bedding from our bed as quietly as I could and dragged it out into the hallway. I didn't know what else to do with it. I found extra clothes for Samantha and myself, and then I went into the bathroom with her to help her out. She got sick in the toilet one more time, and then after she sat for awhile, I convinced her to wipe off her face with a wet washcloth, wash her hands, and get changed into clean clothes. Ben was able to get extra bedding for the pullout couch in the living room, so he made that up so that she could spend the rest of the night out there. We had no idea how much more she might get sick, and we wanted to keep her away from the boys as much as possible. Ben offered to sleep out in the living room with her, while I went back into the bedroom with the boys, sleeping in bed with Aedan this time. Ben said Samantha took a little while to calm down and go back to sleep, but she didn't get sick anymore, which was good. With all the commotion of the last hour, I had a hard time calming myself back down, and at that point it was close to 6:00. Aedan is also a pretty wiggly sleeper, especially with all the commotion that had taken place while he was trying to sleep. However, it made me nervous every time he stirred because I wondered if he would end up getting sick to his stomach as well. The boys ended up sleeping until around 7:30, and I was so amazed that Owen, the boy who wakes up during that night even when he's in a room by himself, never woke up once this whole night. (I think God knew that we could not handle having to deal with getting him back to sleep as well.) In an attempt to keep the boys quiet so Samantha could sleep as long as she needed, I turned on the TV and let them watch a few shows in bed with me. I was even able to doze in and out while they watched TV.

Samantha woke up around 9:15 that morning, and we were so glad she was able to get some good sleep and that she hadn't gotten sick again. However, she was still very lethargic and wasn't interested in eating anything. I think she was afraid to because she didn't want to get sick again. We still had seven hours of driving to do that day, and I was just praying that everyone else would be okay. We had everyone eat a light breakfast, just to be safe. I was just picturing everyone throwing up in the car on the way home, but it wouldn't have made sense to just sit in the hotel and wait to get back home. We all were just ready to be back home, especially after Samantha getting sick in the early morning hours. We took a trash can from the hotel with us in the car, just to be safe, and I was so thankful that if anyone was sick, it was Samantha, because she knows how to throw up in a trash can and not all over the place. She was able to sit in the back of the car and relax, rest, and read, and she still went all day without getting sick again. We had no idea how she got sick, maybe she picked something up from the museum? Or maybe she was just overtired from traveling and not sleeping well and all that comes with that? We did not stop long at all that day, even eating lunch in the car so that we could just keep driving and get back home to pick up Izzy before 6:00. We were so very glad when we made it back home. Samantha was such a trooper for riding in the car all day when she wasn't feeling well, and we were very grateful that we would have the night to adjust, unpack, and sleep before our two new little ones would be dropped off the next morning.

Everyone slept great that night, back in their own rooms and in their own beds. It was nice being back home, and the kids were really excited to open all the presents that we made them wait to open.  They spent the whole next day opening things, playing, building Legos, and dancing to the new Frozen soundtrack played on their new CD player. Owen really enjoyed getting all his kitchen stuff out, and it was just a nice, relaxing way to spend our day. While the kids played, Ben and I were able to tackle our mountain of laundry and put things away from our trip. Samantha was doing just fine, and nobody else got sick either, so part of us were wondering if maybe it was food poisoning or something. We had Chipotle for dinner that night, and she was the only one who got carnitas, so maybe there was something up with that meat that made her sick. Who knows, but we were glad to have a few days at home before the kids went back to school on Thursday.

I had talked with my friend, Heather, about going to see "Little Women" when it came to the theater, and she messaged me that day to see if I would be available that evening to go see the movie. I almost just said no, because I felt bad leaving Ben at home with all five kids on the first night our two new little ones were back with us, and we weren't exactly sure if that would be a difficult transition or not. However, they had been doing fine that day and pretty much fit right back in like they were before we left on our long trip, which I was very grateful for because the lady that did respite care for us said that she couldn't get the little girl to sleep while she was there. We didn't quite understand how it was that everyone seems to have trouble getting her to sleep but us. We have just learned that she literally can't have anything in her room. We tried giving her a My Little Pony shaped pillow and a fleece star blanket to sleep with one night, and she just played with it and talked to it, so we had to take it away. I don't know if it's just the sleep environment we provide with no distractions, a dark, quiet place, and an early bedtime, but what we do seems to be working, and I'm glad she fell right back into our normal routine. Unfortunately, Ben had to go up to Owen's room six times that night in order to finally get him to sleep, so it was our own third born child that gave him the hardest time.

Going to see "Little Women" with Heather and Grace was so much fun. Making new friends is difficult for me sometimes, especially with how introverted I am and how much we have moved in our married life. I was so thankful that I am already making connections with other moms, and I really appreciated that they were thinking of me and inviting me to do things with them. "Little Women" was a wonderful movie, and I enjoyed it so much that I didn't even notice how long it was. After the movie was over, we sat at one of the tables in the theater and just talked for awhile. It was really nice to get out with our moms, women, who are fast becoming friends as well.

On Tuesday, December 31st, Ben went to campus to work because he hadn't gotten much done all Christmas break with traveling and everything. I was home with the five kids all day, and it went fairly well. The little girl slept well at our house the night before, so we were glad for that, but she was acting very tired that day, crying over everything and getting several time outs for not listening.

Samantha spent some day building with her Tinker Crates, the present from Chicago Grandpa and Grandma. She didn't need any help following the directions and setting them up, and I was impressed with how easy it was for her. She is a smart little girl, and I love that doing something like this is fun for her, not like work. This box has a battery pack attached to a motor that spins the plate on the inside of the box, and you drop different colored paint in through the hole on the top to watch how centrifugal force works. She was excited to show me how it worked.

That evening, Ben had to run around to few stores looking for a Sterno can to use for our fondue pot. We have started a yearly tradition of having cheese and chocolate fondue on New Year's Eve. Samantha and Aedan remembered it from last year, and they were really excited for us to have it again. We had bread, green apples, steamed carrots and broccoli, and bacon to dip into our cheese fondue, and it was all very delicious. Everyone pigged out, and we even let the kids drink Sprite out of fancy little punch glasses. After a little while of cleaning up the items from the cheese fondue, we got out the chocolate fondue. We had cake, strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, and pretzels to dip into the chocolate fondue. Everyone was totally stuffed by the end of our fondue meal. I enjoy this tradition we have started, and it's fun to share this with the kids as well.

On Wednesday, January 1st, we decided to be adventurous and take all five kids down to the Please Touch Children's Museum in Philadelphia. We had never taken our two new little ones that far in the car before. (It's about a two to two hour and fifteen minute drive, depending on traffic.) We also had no idea how the little girl would behave somewhere like that. We didn't know if she would try to run away from us, if she wouldn't listen, if we would have to do a lot of redirecting or even time outs, but we didn't want her potential behavior to scare us away from doing things like this, especially when our kids have the day off of school, and we wanted to take advantage of our last day before Christmas break was over. To our surprise, our day went great, even with having to keep our eyes on five kids. The little girl didn't ever try to run away from us. She stayed together with our family, just like our kids were expected to do, and everyone had a really fun day. Here are some pictures and videos of our day.

We started in the water section, with everyone enjoying playing with the planes and boats. (I took pictures of our two new little ones, but I figured since I have to block out their faces anyways, I wouldn't include any pictures that were just of them.)

Owen likes to go in this toddler play area that is right next to water area. They have these lily pads you can stomp on that make different noises, pretend logs to make a campfire, and this cool log slide.

After playing in the water area, we took a break to eat the packed lunch that we brought along. Everyone ate pretty well because and quickly because they were excited about getting back to playing in the museum. We then went to the transportation section where the kids played inside a city bus, a few different cars, and an ice cream stand.

We then checked out the new Eric Carle exhibit, and this area was really fun with the long grass to climb in and different ways to explore his books. I think the most fun area was the place with the insects that were 3D puzzles. Aedan took them all apart and didn't need much help from me to put them back together, but it was fun to work together to complete the larger than life puzzles.

From there, we went through to a back room that we discovered last time with a whole space set-up with rocket launchers and astronaut gear you could dress up in. They all loved this place, and Owen was really excited to wear this astronaut helmet around.

We were done with that side of the upstairs exhibits, so we decided to go to the bottom floor and spend some time in the grocery store and restaurant. The biggest problem with this area is that it's really popular, and there are only four or five carts for everyone to share. Owen has a hard time being patient and waiting for his turn for a cart, but Aedan understood that he needed to be a big boy and find a different way to play in this section. This area was where we realized that Samantha is getting too old for museums like this because she also realizes she is too old to be taking carts from the little kids that want them, so she kind of just stood back and watched. It made me a little sad to think of her being "too old" for children's museums, and it brought back a flood of memories of all the times we have taken her to museums, whether the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, the Cincinnati Museum Center, or now the Please Touch Museum. It has been fun to be able to give her these experiences of play as she has grown up, and now we get to venture beyond children's museums with her as her learning and curiosity grows into more complex topics that require more thinking and longer attention spans. It's sad to see the simple ways of childhood pass, but it's exciting to think about the future and the amazing ways we can connect and continue to build our relationship with her as she grows, learns, and develops into the person God created her to be.

Here is a picture of Aedan sitting at the cash register. He chose to be someone who would check out people's groceries, and he took his job very seriously.

Owen did eventually get to use a shopping cart, and he was very excited to go around the store picking out his groceries and then checking out his own food.

The bottom floor of the museum has a lot of these pretend play exhibits, so the next one we spent some time in was the hospital, which is always one of Samantha's favorites. She loves pretending to take care of the little babies, as well as doing check-ups on Aedan and Owen. For some reason I didn't get any pictures of her performing her serious work of being a doctor, but here is Owen giving his baby an x-ray and Aedan putting together the bones of a skeleton.

After playing in the Alice and Wonderland area as well as building with the big blue blocks, it was after 2:30, and we decided we would ride the carousel as our last thing before heading back home. I stood with the little boy, and he was a little fussy when he had to sit on the horse and wait for the ride to start, but after it started he really liked it. Here are pictures of our three kids on their chosen horses. Samantha doesn't find carousels very exciting anymore either, but she joins in to be a part of the family, and I appreciate that about her. Our three kiddos are just so cute. We had a fun day getting out and doing something together, and I'm glad we took the risk to go with all five kids. We had a great, fun day with no issues, and it was a nice way to spend one last day together on their last day of Christmas break.

After a long, full day of playing, the kids were all pretty tired (and the parents, too!). We stopped at Starbucks so Ben and I could get some coffee for the ride back home. The two new little ones were in the car seats in the back and fell asleep pretty much right away. Owen took a little bit of time, but he ended up falling asleep after looking at a book for awhile. Samantha took time to read, and Aedan colored quietly, allowing the rest of the kids in the car to take a little nap as we drove the two hours back home.

We had dinner in the crock pot that night, so it was all ready for us when we got home, which was good. Then, we just spent the night hanging out together, getting ready for school the next day, and getting everyone to bed early. Ben and I were even able to do a workout together that night after the kids were in bed. Now that the Christmas craziness is over, I really want to start being more consistent in working out every day. I know Ben and I both need more exercise, it's just finding the time and making the commitment to do it, seeing it as important for us, for our health, and for how we will feel in the future.

Owen had a really hard time going to sleep that night. He's been doing something for awhile where after one of us puts him to bed, he will cry out for the other person until we come up to his room. With four other kids trying to sleep in the house as well, we don't like waiting for too long because we don't want his crying to wake them up and keep them from falling asleep. Owen should have been tired that night after being at the museum all day and only taking a short nap in the car, but even though he fell asleep and was snoring in Ben's lap, as soon as he laid him down, he started kicking in his bed, crying, and screaming again. I went in there to try and settle him down, and then we decided we weren't going to go back in there again, and we told him that. We shouldn't have to keep going in there like that multiple times a night, and I think he's getting to the point where we need to draw a boundary and make him get used a new routine. We don't like letting him cry himself to sleep, and we never have done that with him, but with how much he's been crying lately, especially at the beginning of the night when we have just put him to bed, I thought that we needed to start letting him cry for awhile. I just couldn't help but think he was starting to take advantage of us always coming in his room when he cries. He's getting old enough that he knows what he's doing. He rarely falls asleep much with me at night, but he was just being ridiculous lately, and I felt like we needed to start breaking him of his habit. He ended up crying himself to sleep that night, only crying for about ten minutes before he finally started settling himself down.

Once Christmas is over I always feel a little bit of a disappointed feeling because I look forward to things so much, and I love traveling and the extra time together with our family, so I feel sad when they are over. With having our two new little ones, December definitely flew by for us this year. However, I also have almost felt too busy to really feel disappointed, or like there is enough downtime for me to even think about things like that. We will see if I feel more like that once the kids go back to school and Ben starts a new semester. I am always really happy when Ben has extra time off over Christmas break, and I miss him tremendously when he goes back to his normal semester work hours.

Thursday, January 2nd Ben went back to work because he had to get ready for the upcoming semester and finish his conference papers. Samantha and Aedan went back to school, and our two new little ones had a visit all day with their mom, since the little girl didn't start school yet. We are trying our best to make visits around her school schedule so she doesn't miss anymore school than she already has. It was so interesting just being with Owen again. The little boy is pretty easygoing and doesn't require a lot of extra work, but lugging two two year-old-boys is a handful sometimes. Since it was just the two of us, Owen and I ran some errands like dropping checks off at the bank, picking up dry-cleaning, and looking at a clothing store to see if they had any shoes for the little girl. I spent the rest of the day working on laundry and just relaxing some.

Samantha came home from school that first day with some great news. She was a "Be Your Best" Nominee for demonstrating the value of being: "Helpful." That character trait doesn't surprise me in the least. Ever since preschool Samantha has been described as empathetic and helpful, always looking for ways to reach out to the peers in her class and even to include people that may be feeling left out. She is a good leader in group settings, and she is always willing to go above and beyond what is required of her. She was super excited to tell us about it, and we were very proud of her.

Here is some work they brought home that day, some spelling work from Samantha, and Math and work with the letter Kk for Aedan.

Friday was one of those days where the day started off bad and just got worse and worse as the day went on. It started with Owen waking up crying four times overnight, so Ben and I woke up Friday morning feeling exhausted from a night of interrupted sleep. Then, the little girl woke up her brother that morning, and she was just being overall disrespectful towards us both the night before and that morning after the visit with her mom. 

When Ben came downstairs with Owen and went into the kitchen, he heard something rustling around, and when he turned on the light he saw a mouse run across our counter and go behind the oven. It grossed me out when he told me that. We had these glass jars that we were keeping dried beans in to count the number of days we had foster kids. (It was an idea Ben heard somewhere.) I didn't even think about it when we left for our Christmas trip, but they were all gone when we got back. After seeing the mouse scurry across the counter, we decided we were going to put out some sticky traps and see if we could catch any. We just needed to be extra careful to not leave any food out for awhile. I didn't notice any droppings in our cabinets or anything, but I hated the idea of a mouse scurrying around our house at night and not knowing where they are coming from or how many there might be.

Jenny

Then, at breakfast the little boy threw up all his breakfast all over himself and his high chair. I didn't know if he was coming down with something or what, but he had a bad day the day before with his mom, and I don't think she gave him a nap, so he was really overtired from that plus being woken up by his sister that morning. They had an unsupervised visit at their house, and when they got back to our house, they were acting a lot like when we first got them, reverting back to some of the original behaviors.

Luckily, since classes hadn't started yet for Ben, he was able to help me get things cleaned up and get the big kids sent off to school. We had to cut part of the fabric on the high chair so we could get all the padding off to wash it. Ben took the little boy into our bathroom to wash him off in the tub, while I got the pack and play and set it up in the living room for him. I had no idea if he was going to keep getting sick or not, and with him being little, there was no way he would understand what was going on, and I wasn't going to be able to follow him around all day to watch if he got sick. Plus, if he was really coming down with something, I didn't really want him wandering around the house and playing with a lot of toys. I put some puppy pads that we had leftover from Izzy down to cover the mattress of the pack and play, and then I just let him hang out in there for the morning. I tried giving him a few different toys, but he just kept throwing them out. He was not happy being stuck in the pack and play, and he would cry for me to get him out, but I thought that was our best option. At some point that morning I put a movie on for Owen because everyone was tired and I just needed time to sit on the couch and take a few moments to breathe and decompress. The little boy got sick one more time in the pack and play, and then after cleaning him up and putting him back, a little while later he curled up and fell asleep right in the middle of the movie. He must have just been really tired because when he woke up he had a lot more life in him and was acting fine. He didn't get sick anymore that day.

The craziness of the morning was just made worse by the fact that I was so tired form being woken up multiple times a night by Owen every since we got back home from our Christmas travels. He hadn't slept through the night once, and even before we left and while we were gone he would wake up during the night some, but like once every 2-3 days, not 3-4 times in one night. At this point I had never been more excited to get out of town without kids when Ben and I get to go down to Puerto Rico together for his conference and a little vacation. We arranged for our two new little ones to have a weekend visit with their parents from Friday through Sunday, so that way Ben's parents would get a break from taking care of all five kids, and our kids would get special time with just Ema and Papa.

That afternoon the boys took decent naps, the little boy seemed to be doing fine, so I was able to do more laundry, and spent time on the phone calling for appointments for our two new little ones,and then only had about twenty minutes before the little boy woke up from his nap and his sister got home from school.

Here is some work Aedan brought home from school: color word recognition, more work with the letter Kk, and working on addition problems in Math.

Jen

After a long day, I was very glad that Owen actually went to sleep that night without Ben or me having to go back up there again. It was so nice to not have to deal with him crying over and over for us.

Saturday was going to be a busy but fun day. Samantha was starting her next play at the KISS Theater called "The Journey of the Noble Gnarble." She loved the Christmas play so much that we decided to sign her up for the next production.

Then, on Saturday night we had tickets to a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton hockey game because the kids won free tickets for reading ten books as part of a reading incentive program. Alysse, a friend of mine from Bible study volunteered to come babysit our two new little ones so we could just go with our three kids. Our two new little ones wouldn't be able to handle sitting for a game and being out late like that. Owen would be tired as well, but he would be the one more interested in watching the game, or at least he was when we would go to Lake State games. I thought about leaving him behind to go to sleep earlier, too, but I didn't think he would like that very much.

It was a little stressful getting dinner done and explaining everything Alysse would need to know to take care of and put our two new little ones to bed that night. We left later than we wanted to and were cutting it close to get to the game on time, then I picked the wrong arena for Google Maps, so it was taking us the wrong direction. And to put icing on the cake, apparently the arena has a rule about not being allowed to bring bags in unless they are clear, so Ben had to take Owen's diaper bag back to the car and just carry diapers and wipes in separately, making us even later to get in to the game. It wasn't exactly a relaxing start to our family night out.

The hockey game was fun, but I don't think our kids were quite in the mood for it. It was obviously a much bigger arena than Lake State, meaning there were a lot more people, more noise, and we were farther away from the ice, as well as more scrunched on space since we didn't have a separate seat for Owen. Aedan really only cares about the snacks he can get and then he just got bored and started causing trouble after that. Samantha enjoyed clapping and cheering, but she also said that she would have much more fun if she could bring a book along to something like that, and Owen didn't enjoy having to sit on someone's lap instead of having his own seat. The game didn't start until 7:00, which is usually when we are getting the kids ready for bed, so even though it was fun to get out and have a new experience, part of me wondered if it's not worth it to do things like that where we are out late. It was fun, but not as enjoyable as it could have been (or maybe how I expected it to be).

(Blog about December 29, 2019-January 4, 2020)