Thanksgiving, Decorating for Christmas, and Aedan Turning 7 Months Old

Samantha: 42 Months, Week 2
Aedan: Week 31

This past week was a short work week due to Thanksgiving.  I was looking forward to this time for awhile, since we planned to go to Upland and celebrate Thanksgiving with all of Ben's family.  Plus, I always enjoy it when Ben has time off school, allowing us to spend lots of quality time together as a family.  (After all, my primary love language is quality time.)  Samantha had preschool on Tuesday, but just like me, couldn't wait until Wednesday when we would head out for Upland.

I have one story to share from Tuesday, a conversation I had with Samantha.  We talk about God, Jesus, and the Bible quite frequently.  They just naturally come up in our every day conversations, which I love.  Randomly during the day on Tuesday, Samantha said, "If Jesus didn't die on the cross for our sins, we would have to be punished."  It's amazing to me how her little mind is absorbing these Biblical truths.  I love that she is already taking them to heart, and I hope that knowledge will continue to grow, develop, and spill out to those around her.

Both Samantha and Aedan had colds this past week.  Aedan actually had a cough along with his stuffy nose, making it difficult for him to sleep at times.  Tuesday afternoon Samantha usually has ballet lessons, but they were cancelled this week due to Thanksgiving.  It actually turned out to be a good thing that she didn't have ballet because she ended up taking a really long nap that afternoon.  At nap time, Aedan went down fine, like usual, but Samantha wasn't napping.  Then, after about forty-five minutes, Aedan woke up crying pretty hard.  I rocked him for about twenty minutes and got him back to sleep.  Then, shortly after that I didn't hear anything more from Samantha's room, and I think she slept until almost 4:30 that afternoon, which is very unlike her to sleep that long.  I'm glad that little kids' bodies know just what to do when they don't feel well, getting extra rest to help them get well.

After Daddy got home that evening, we had dinner and spent the night packing and getting ready for our trip to Upland.  We wanted to be pretty much ready to go so that way we could just get up, get ready, and go.

Here's a cute video of Samantha making Aedan laugh that evening.  My, how I love his laugh, and my, how I admire how much Samantha enjoys making her little brother laugh.  She will often remark, "Oh!  Look at that cute smile I got from Aedan!"

We were on the road a little after 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, dropped Roscoe off at the kennel, and went on our way to Upland.  We got there in plenty of time to get settled, let the kids play with Grandpa and Grandma, and have lunch before putting them down for afternoon naps.  Aedan was pretty tired after only getting a short nap in the car that morning.  Samantha, however, always has a hard time calming down, especially when we are in Upland.  Daddy tried staying in the room for awhile in an effort to get her to sleep, but it wasn't working.  Everyone else wasn't arriving until later that day, so Ben had worked out a little date for us.  We went to see Mockingjay, Part 1, together and then went out to eat at Mi Pueblo.  Grandpa and Grandma hung out with our children for us after they woke up from their naps (Samantha did end up falling asleep and taking a good nap) and fed them dinner.  It's always nice to get away together, to do things we wouldn't normally be able to do with kids in tow.  It was sweet of Ben to arrange this ahead of time. :)

When Ben and I got back to the house, Uncle Andrew, Aunt Jeni, and Alaina had already arrived.  We hung out for a little while, letting the girls play together more, before we started getting everyone ready for bed.  Since Uncle Timmy was planning on coming up from North Carolina as well, it was going to be a full house.  Last time we stayed in Upland, we tried having Samantha sleep in the spare bedroom downstairs, but it didn't seem to work out too well.  So this time we decided to try all of us in one room.  Generally, Aedan has been sleeping through the night, so we hoped that would be the case in Upland as well.  We asked to sleep in Grandpa and Grandma's bedroom since it is bigger and would allow for more space for all four of us.  They usually give up their bedroom when all the kids and grandkids come anyways, so we figured it would make more sense for us to take it over.  We had Aedan's pack and play set up in the corner, and we put an air mattress for Samantha at the foot of the bed.  Everything was ready for the night, and I nursed Aedan and put him down first.  Daddy got Samantha ready for bed and read books with her so that she was ready when I was done with Aedan.  We had talked with her several times about how, if she wanted to be able to sleep in the same room as us, she would have to lay down quietly and go right to sleep, no singing or playing, because then she would wake up Aedan.  I wasn't too optimistic about how this would work out since we usually have to go in her room several times to tell her to be quiet and settle down when we are sleeping in different places like Upland.  When we first got in the bedroom, Samantha was being a little loud, and I kept having to remind her to be quiet so as not to wake up Aedan.  I tried laying with her for a little while, but I think that was making it worse, so I decided to just leave.  Luckily, she was quiet after I left the room, going to sleep much easier than normal.

When it was time for Ben and I to go to sleep, we snuck into bed as quietly as possible, and really the night went pretty well considering we shared a room with both our kids.  Aedan had developed a pretty bad cough and woke up several times coughing, but other than making Samantha stir slightly, she didn't seem to be bothered by it.  However, because of his cough and cold, he did end up waking up once in the middle of the night, around 3:00 a.m. or so.  I got to him pretty quickly, before he really started making much noise.  Ben helped me hold the pacifier in his mouth while I changed his diaper by the light of the small nightlight clipped on the edge of the pack and play.  Then, I nursed him, he fell back asleep, and I was able to lay him back down to sleep, both children sleeping until past 7:00.  It was a good night for all, and I was glad that it seemed to work for all of us to share a room.

Thanksgiving day was a great day of family time, starting from the moment we all woke up.  Samantha helped make pumpkin cake, and then the girls helped stir together batter for pancakes.

The girls had a blast playing with each other, like always.  Grandma found an idea online for the girls to make chocolate turkeys, so that was a morning activity, although the girls were more concerned with eating the turkeys than they were with building them.

Samantha even got Grandma to act out Snow White with her, playing the part of the wicked queen.  Samantha certainly loves acting out stories.

We had a delicious Thanksgiving meal for lunch, thanks to Grandma, Aunt Jeni and Ben for working on all the wonderful food.  Aedan was having kind of a weird day and was acting much fussier than normal.  He didn't take a very long morning nap, and I tried to hold him off for his afternoon nap until after lunch like normal, but he just wasn't in the mood to be placated.  So instead of listening to him fuss during our Thanksgiving meal, or having someone take him and walk around with him, I decided to just take him downstairs to nurse him and put him down for his nap.  However, he was just incredibly tired.  He didn't even want to nurse, so I gave up trying after much crying and protesting from Aedan, and ended up just using the pacifier and rocking him to sleep.  Then, I was able to go back upstairs and enjoy my meal in peace.

Here are some cute pictures of Aedan wearing his Thanksgiving outfit.  It was a 6 month outfit, so was a bit tight on him, but it worked.  The shirt said, "Mommy's Little Turkey," and there was a picture of a turkey on the tushy of the pants.

Our second night of sleeping all together didn't go as well as the first.  Aedan still wasn't feeling well and woke up coughing quite a bit.  Samantha did a good job of going to sleep quietly again, which we were very thankful for.  However, instead of waking up in the middle of the night, Aedan woke up around 5:00 a.m., which was actually worse because it was hard to get everyone back to sleep.  Aedan made more noise in getting his diaper changed and nursing, which woke Samantha up.  Ben had to go over to Samantha and talk to her about going back to sleep because it was too early in the morning to get up for the day.  However, every time she would make a little noise or jingle her blankie, Aedan would rustle, and every time Aedan would cough or cry, Samantha would rustle.  I finally got Aedan to sleep after rocking him for quite some time, but when I tried to lay him down in the pack and play, he woke right back up again.  So then it was Ben's turn to try and get him back to sleep since I had already been up with him for over an hour.  Apparently, Aedan was very ready to go back to sleep and rested comfortably in Daddy's arms, so Ben decided just to sit in the chair and rock him and let Aedan sleep in his arms, rather than trying to lay him back down again and chance that he would wake up again.  Samantha continued to rustle around in bed for awhile, but after I talked to her several times, she finally calmed back down and fell back asleep.  Ben ended up getting up with Aedan around 8:00, when he started to wake up for the day, and Samantha (and I) continued to sleep until 8:45.  I was so surprised that she slept for so long.  Thanksgiving must have really tired her out with skipping her nap and then having a somewhat disrupted sleep that night.  

Here are some videos from that morning of Aedan enjoying his breakfast, and all three grandkids interacting with each other.

After everyone was up and ready, I put Aedan down for his morning nap and Grandma offered to stay back with him while the rest of us went over to the Taylor gym to let the girls run around and play with balls.

The girls ran around for quite awhile, each playing with their own ball.  The adults offered to play with them, whether by kicking the balls back and forth or playing catch, but the girls were more interested in playing by themselves, kicking or throwing the ball and then chasing after it.  Samantha actually did a pretty good job of kicking the ball as she continued to run after it.  Who knows, maybe she'll enjoy soccer when she gets a bit older.

After the girls started losing interest in the gym, we took them to the aerobics room where there is mirror along the whole front of the room.  We often go in there and let the girls dance.  Little kids can't resist watching themselves in a mirror.  Samantha did some ballet moves and even did a spider hang on the bar.  Towards the end of our time, the girls took turns being the teacher, telling the rest of us what to do as far as stretching or dancing across the floor.  They were having a great time and were getting some good energy out.  We had already been there for over an hour and it was getting close to lunch time, so we decided it was time to go.  I found the Frozen song "Let It Go" on Pandora and played it for them to dance to as our final thing before we left.

Grandpa and Grandma were going to be taking Alaina back to meet up with her mommy and daddy that evening, and we were undecided about how long we were going to stay.  Because of the night we had on Thanksgiving, and because both of our children were suffering from some colds and coughs, we decided it would make more sense to just head back Friday night, rather than make everyone sleep in the same room again just to leave the next morning.  We decided to let the kids take naps in Upland and then head out after that.  However, Samantha was being pretty silly in going to sleep.  At first we didn't think she was going to nap, but then she ended up falling asleep after playing around in the room for quite awhile first.  Aedan also did not fall asleep right away, which is unusual for him.  Ben ended up having to go back in the room and rock him again to get him to fall asleep.  Samantha was still napping when Alaina was up and starting to get ready to leave.  We didn't want Samantha to wake up and find out that Alaina had already left and that she didn't get a chance to say good-bye.  We knew that would make her really upset.  So, we tried to do something nice by waking her up so that she could play with Alaina for awhile.  Alaina came in with me to get Aedan up, and then Alaina and Aedan both came in with me to wake Samantha up.  However, even though she was greeted with a welcoming committee, Samantha did not wake up happy.  She often is pretty grumpy when woken up early, particularly from a nap.  After that she was just in a funk.  She refused to play with Alaina.  She refused to hug and kiss people good-bye.  She just laid on the couch, moaning and crying.  Apparently we made the wrong decision in waking her up and should have just let her stay sleeping.  Our little girl is so emotional and dramatic sometimes.  We're not sure if it's just a phase for her age or if it's because she's a girl, but either way, it will be interesting to see how her emotional personality plays out as she gets older and turns into a middle schooler with hormones.

Once we got all our stuff packed up, we hit the road ourselves.  Around 6:00, we stopped for dinner in Richmond at a Wendy's.  It was nice not having Roscoe with us because we were able to all go in and eat together without worrying about leaving Roscoe in the car and having to feed him and let him go to the bathroom.  As we were getting ready to leave Wendy's, I peeked in Aedan's mouth, and guess what I saw, another tooth!  So now he has three teeth on the bottom!  I thought that was a bit strange because normally kids get the two bottom teeth and then the two top teeth, and that's what Samantha did as well.  After noticing that, Ben and I thought, well maybe that's why he has had a fussy last few days!

Both kids did really well in the car on the way home, making for a nice trip.  Samantha did a much better job of not being whiny or impatient.  Aedan had a good time watching his sister, playing with toys, and then taking a little cat nap after eating dinner.  We got back in just enough time to get our car unpacked, get most things unpacked and put away, and then it was bedtime for the kids.

Another reason we wanted to get home on Friday was because we planned to go cut down our Christmas tree on Saturday morning.  I asked for recommendations from my Oxford Moms Facebook group, and we found a local Christmas tree farm that had firs and would cut it down and tie it to your car for you.  We didn't want a huge farm to walk around because we knew that would make the decision process too difficult.  This is actually the first time since Austin that we have actually cut down our own tree.  We have gone to Christmas tree farms in both Waco and Bloomington, but they did not have very good choices in the fields, so we ended up just buying a pre-cut tree.  Koch Christmas Tree Farm was perfect, a family run operation, with personal touches like free hot chocolate and cookies, as well as a hay ride for Samantha.  

Daddy decided it would be fun to go out for breakfast before getting our tree, so he found that Frisch's Big Boy has an all-you-can-eat breakfast bar.  Neither of us had ever been to a Big Boy restaurant before, so we didn't know what to expect, but it was actually rather good.  I think breakfast is Samantha's favorite meal of the day, as she had a whole piece of french toast, pears, and five sausage links.  (The girl likes her pig products.)  It was nice to be able to go out to breakfast together like that.

After eating our fill of breakfast food, we went to the tree farm and got Aedan all bundled up in this little bear outfit so that he would stay warm as we walked around outside.  We didn't want him to get any worse of a cold or cough than he already had.

Then, I put him in the Ergo baby carrier so that we could walk around and find our tree.  Samantha kept pointing at different trees and exclaiming, "Mommy, Daddy, look at this tree!  Let's get this one!"  We tried to steer her towards ones that were the right size and the right look for what we needed, and we settled on this one. :)

Samantha thought it was pretty interesting watching the man cut the tree down with a chainsaw and pull it on a little cart back up to the front.  Then, they put it on the shaker, wrapped it up in netting, and helped us tie it on the roof of the Santa Fe.  In the past, we just folded down one side of the seat in the back and put the tree inside the car, but now with Aedan, of course, we can't do that anymore.  We always get nervous about our tree falling off the top of our car, and in fact, as we were driving home that morning, we went through a particularly windy area where the wind whipped across a field and knocked the tree so that it was partially hanging off the roof.  Luckily, we were on a little country road where we could just stop in the middle of the road, so that Ben could get out and fix it, tightening up the ropes for us.  However, he must not have felt that confident about the ropes because he told me to drive so that he could hold his hand out the window and hold to rope secure as we drove the last few minutes home.

Our tree made it home safely, and like usual, we had a hard time getting it straight in the stand.  (This is probably the main reason Ben doesn't like getting live trees.  There is definitely more that you have to mess with than if you just set up a fake tree.)  While Samantha and Aedan napped, we got the tree secure in the stand, and we were going to start putting the lights and garland on, but we discovered several of our strands of lights weren't working.  Ben offered to go out and get more, as well as some groceries at Meijer.  So, to make a long story shorter, we didn't have it decorated at all when Samantha got up from her nap.  However, she was actually a really big helper with the lights and garland.  Daddy always gets in the back of the tree and I stand in the front, so I would do my side, hand the light strand to Samantha who would then pass the strand back to Daddy.  It worked out pretty well, and Aedan enjoyed watching us decorate the tree from his view in the exersaucer.  We made quick work of the lights and garland.  Here are Daddy and Samantha behind the tree when we were all finished with the lights and garland.

Then, it was time for the ornaments, which Samantha was so excited about.  Daddy got them all out of the box and put hooks on them so they were ready for the tree, and Samantha enjoyed hearing the stories behind some of the ornaments and seeing the ornaments that were special just for her.  Again, she did a really good job helping me hang up the ornaments.  There are definitely more right about her height in the front of the tree, but she did a fairly good job of trying to spread the ornaments out in different places.  I enjoyed having her help me this year as normally I do the ornaments by myself.  It's fun having her get older and able to help us with things like this.

And here is our finished product and our proud decorator. :)

I just love Christmas time.  I love the decorations.  I love the music.  I love the excitement and joy it brings.  I love celebrating God coming to earth as a little baby.  There's just something wonderful about this time of year, and there's something wonderful about a brightly lit Christmas tree decorating our living room and filling the house with the smell of evergreen.

Saturday was a long, somewhat tiring day with getting all the Christmas decorations up, so I was looking forward to a more relaxing day on Sunday.  We all ended up sleeping in until about 7:30, so we decided to get up and get ready for the 9:00 service at church.  We normally have been attending the 10:45 service because that allows for us to give Aedan somewhat of a morning nap before going to church.  But we figured since he slept in until 7:30, he wouldn't be ready for a nap in time to get one in before 10:45.  However, after going to that service and having to rush around quite a bit to get ready, I wasn't so sure I liked going to the early service.  Plus, then Aedan was really tired right after church, so I laid him down for a nap and he slept through lunch, meaning that he woke up just as Samantha was going down for her nap.  Then she woke up just as Aedan was going down for his evening nap.  I don't like days where the kids are tag teaming with their naps because then there is no point during the day that I have a break from kids.  I much prefer getting them to both nap at the same time in the afternoon, if at all possible.  I think we will stick with the 10:45 service from now on.

Last year we got a Little People Nativity scene for Samantha to play with, and we keep it on our coffee table.  Samantha has really enjoyed playing with it, probably more so than she even did last year.  Sunday after church she lined up all the figures under the Christmas tree and wanted me to take a picture of them.

I was a little behind on taking Aedan's 7 month pictures, but here are some cute pictures of him on Sunday, the day after he turned 7 months old.

I feel like Aedan's changed so much lately.  He's gotten so big and strong.  :)  He can sit up fairly well on his own as long as he has something in front of him to lean on.  We usually stay close by though in case he tips backwards or to the side.  When on his back, he will roll over to his tummy very quickly, pushing up on his arms as you can see in the picture below.  He still doesn't roll too much from his tummy to his back, and definitely doesn't do continuous rolls to get places like Samantha would do when she'd roll all the way down the hallway.  I think there is enough commotion going on around him, particularly when his sister is around, that he doesn't feel a great need to try and get other places.

Some of Aedan's favorite toys are a little piano toy that rattles and plays music, as well as the cube toy you can see in these pictures of him.  He doesn't seem to like the exersaucer much any more.  For some reason he really likes to grab hair, so unfortunately, Samantha and I get the brunt of those attacks.  He has a REALLY strong grip, and sometimes I wonder if he's going to make me go bald with how hard he pulls at times.

Also, now that he has three teeth he has discovered that he can bite.  There is no putting your finger in his mouth anymore to let him suck on it.  His little jagged teeth are pretty sharp, so you can only imagine how it feels when he bites during nursing.  Samantha only bit me a couple times and I immediately stopped her and said no very sternly.  That seemed to work with her, and she never really bit me after that.  Aedan, on the other hand, had bitten me quite a bit lately, and I've tried stopping him and saying no very sternly, but it hasn't worked on him.  In fact, when I do that, more often than not, he smiles and laughs.  Oh man, he is all boy: laughing at biting, laughing when we change his diaper and have to wipe off his private parts, loving his food, and enjoying being thrown around in the air and tipped upside down.  I'm excited to see how this little man's personality develops as he grows and develops physically.

Aedan really likes his baby food.  We feed him 3 to 4 tablespoons of rice cereal or oatmeal mixed with breastmilk for breakfast.  At lunch and dinner we give him 2 tablespoons of vegetables followed by 2 tablespoons of fruit.  We are still working on introducing all the variety of fruits out there.  He generally likes all the food that we give him, although I think green beans have been his least favorite.  He always a sour face when we give him a spoonful of those, which is funny because those were always one of Samantha's favorites, still are.  His favorite vegetable is probably sweet potatoes.  He seems to like all fruits, savoring each bite by rubbing his lips together and eagerly opening up his mouth for more.  Aedan goes through phases with nursing, some days nursing really well, and some days being distracted and uninterested.  I will nurse him in the morning before feeding him breakfast, then again in the late morning before lunch, then again before laying him down for his afternoon nap usually as a way to help him fall asleep, then again before feeding him dinner, and lastly before bed, rocking him and nursing him to sleep.  He still goes back and forth between sleeping through the night.  Some nights he will wake up between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. to nurse, and some nights he will sleep through the night, then waking up between 6:15 and 7:00ish.  I have to admit that I really enjoy those nights when we he sleeps through the night, but I can't complain.  Aedan is doing really well.  He has such a sweet and pleasant disposition.  He rarely cries and when he does cry you know there is some reason for it.  Everyone always remarks at how happy a baby he is.  We are truly blessed with two wonderful children.  Ben and I often remark at how we make really cute kids so it couldn't possibly be right to just stop at two. :)

Monday morning it was back to reality, with Ben going off to work for the last week of classes before finals.  It's always strange to go back to being without him after an extended break like Thanksgiving.  We've had him with us full time since Wednesday, and we were all a bit sad to see Daddy go off to work that morning.

We let Aedan take a good nap that morning before heading out to do some shopping.  Samantha played dominoes quietly in the living room while I made tortilla soup in the crock pot for dinner, and then we played together for awhile until around 11:00 when I decided it was time to wake Aedan up from his nap.  I didn't want him to sleep for too long so that he could still take a good afternoon nap, plus I wanted to go to Hamilton to a couple stores that morning.

Anyways, after getting everyone ready and out the door (it's not so easy going shopping with two little ones), we went to Hobby Lobby first.  As we unpacked our Christmas boxes over the weekend, we discovered a mouse had gotten into one (or more) of our boxes.  We discovered this because there was a hole chewed through the stocking we had purchased for Samantha a couple years ago.  Once we discovered the hole, I made Ben look through the rest of the box in the garage in case there was a mouse still in the box, dead or alive.  We ended up not finding one, which was good for my psyche.  So I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby to buy a new stocking for Samantha, as well as one for Aedan, a stocking holder, and a new tree topper.

I had Samantha and Aedan ride in the stroller and our shopping really went pretty well.  However, the stocking aisle just had WAY too many choices and Samantha had a hard time deciding.  I tried to steer her away from the princess ones because I wanted more of a classic stocking that we could keep around for many years, and I told her that eventually she won't like princesses as much as she does now.  I found two cute stockings that matched, one was red with a gingerbread boy, and one was green with a gingerbread girl.  I thought those were perfect for Samantha and Aedan, and Samantha agreed that those would be good to get.  After getting our other items, we headed to Meijer.  Our main goal was to buy presents for the little boy we picked for the Angel Tree ministry.  At this point it was already noon, so both kids were getting hungry and tired.  It was confusing trying to find the right Wii nun-chuck and Lego game, taking longer than I thought it would, so even though I had other things on my list to look at while we were there, I decided to skip those and just buy our presents and head home.

Of course we saw Sandy, the mechanical horse, on our way out, which Samantha loves to ride.  She hopped on to ride, and I decided Aedan might like a little bit of a turn, too.  He wasn't so sure, but Samantha thought it was great to have him ride with her.  She had her arms wrapped tightly around him, and I really was only there to provide stability.  I love how much she loves her little brother.  I feel like a lot of kids would feel jealous or want things to themselves, rather than having to share with their little sibling.  However, at least so far, it seems like everything is better if she can share the experience with Aedan.  I hope this sentiment will continue even when Aedan starts crawling around and getting into her stuff. :)

We had a bit of a rushed lunchtime that day since we got back late from our shopping excursion.  Both kids were tired and ready for a nap.  Aedan had a bit of a rough time sleeping that afternoon for some reason.  He went to sleep for me fine, but then woke up after about 45 minutes.  I got him back to sleep after rocking him for 15 minutes, only to have him wake up 30 minutes later.  I tried leaving him alone to see if he'd fall back asleep, but he just kept getting more and more upset, so he didn't get too long of a nap that afternoon.  Nevertheless, I snapped a few cute pictures of my sleeping children, all warm and cozy in their beds.

Aedan on his Tummy & Festival of Lights

Samantha: 42 Months, Week 1
Aedan: Week 30

After our big snow on Monday, Tuesday was super cold, and we had a lot of snow that blew around overnight, covering driveways and roads.  In fact, it was hard for me to see where our driveway ended, so as I backed up that morning when taking Samantha to preschool, I went over the edge into the snow.  My tire just kept spinning in the snow, and I was so afraid that I would end up getting stuck and be unable to take Samantha to preschool.  Luckily, backing up slightly and trying to accelerate forwards from a different angle/path worked, and we were able to get on the road.  For how pretty the snow is, I'm still not a big fan of driving in it, especially on country roads that aren't as frequented by cars and have snow that is blown back over a previously cleared road.

Anyways, Samantha did a really good job listening and getting ready that morning.  It's amazing how much preschool is a positive motivator for her.  Aedan was pretty tired and fell asleep in the car on the way home.  I ended up just leaving him in his car seat upstairs in his room, and he took a nice long nap that morning while I got some work done.  It's nice having calm and quiet mornings together.

That afternoon at lunch is when I took the picture of Aedan with his two teeth that I included in last week's blog.  However, I wanted to include it again, because it's cute, and also, since I was taking a picture of Aedan's teeth, Samantha wanted me to take a picture of her teeth as well.

Whenever we talk about Aedan's two little teeth, Samantha talks about how she has LOTS of teeth!

Our trip to Disney is a work in progress as there are so many things you can do in advance to make your time there easier.  Ben got exciting news on Tuesday from his friend, Tim, saying that he has main gate access and can get us into the parks.  So, it looks like we will be able to avoid buying tickets to the parks, saving us TONS of money.  We are so grateful that Tim is going out of his way to help us make the most of our trip.  We are getting excited, as it is about two months away now.

Since I had nursed Aedan right before picking Samantha up from preschool, he didn't fall asleep with me after lunch like he usually does.  I wanted to get Samantha down for her nap since she was acting so tired and had ballet that afternoon, so I just laid him down in his crib to see if he'd fall asleep on his own.  I sat in Samantha's room for awhile, tried to be stern with her to get her to calm down and take a nap, but I could hear Aedan crying a little and didn't want to leave him for too long.  I left her room after a few more minutes, even though she wasn't asleep yet.  At that point, I didn't hear Aedan crying anymore, but I peeked in his room to check on him, and the below picture is what I saw.  He usually sleeps on his tummy, so this surprised me.  Often when he rolls over on his tummy, he will get upset and cry and won't fall asleep like that.  I wonder how often he sleeps on his tummy and we don't even know it!

Luckily, Samantha did end up falling asleep, for after I left the room, I didn't hear any more noise.  Aedan has been preferring to nurse closer to dinnertime rather than right when he wakes up from his afternoon nap, so I decided to take Samantha to ballet that evening.  I hadn't been for awhile and was excited to watch her dance.  Here are some videos and pictures from ballet.

I think one of Samantha's favorite parts of ballet is towards the end when they are allowed to pick things to dress up in, some days it's dresses or hats or tutus, or in the case of this day, they wore flower hats and carried around pretend flowers in their hands.  Miss Ashley knows the right music to get the girls dancing, and today it was "Let It Go" from Frozen.  Samantha is so cute running around the dance floor.  She has really been enjoying these dance lessons. :)

Since we don't have Bible study on Wednesday mornings anymore, we decided to just stay home and play that morning.  It was a much more relaxing morning.  Aedan was able to take a good morning nap in his own crib, giving Samantha and I some one-on-one play time.  She had a little bit of a cold starting as well, so it was good to take it easy that morning.

While Aedan was napping we played with all kinds of things: trains, dolls, stickers, puzzles, and hide and seek animal (One of her favorite games where where we take turns hiding stuffed animals around the house for the other one to find.  However, we did have to have a conversation about how the trash can is not a good hiding place.)

Samantha really enjoys reading out of her Bible.  We always read her a Bible story every night before bed, and we have read through her Bible many times throughout her life.  She remembers many of the stories and enjoys going back through the Bible explaining the story by looking at what is illustrated in the picture.

Aedan took a really long nap that morning, so long that I decided we should wake him up so that way he could have lunch and still go down for an afternoon nap at a somewhat normal time.

Samantha is always very excited to go in Aedan's room to wake him up from a nap or to get him when he has woken up.  However, he was so cute that I had to first take pictures and a video of my little sleepy guy.  Man, sleeping babies are so adorable!  The way he's laying on his hand, his little chubby cheeks, the indentation in his chin, and the way his bottom lip is tucked in under his top lip (which by the way was the exact way he slept as a newborn, too).

It's funny how this is now the second day in a row that he's fallen asleep on his tummy, staying that way and sleeping comfortably, rather than freaking out and crying about being stuck on his tummy.

It's always cute when you have to wake up Aedan, and I have wanted to get it on video for awhile now.  Well, today, I took advantage of the opportunity of having to wake him up to get this cute video.  It's great how he goes from being sleepy to being somewhat confused to giving his sister a big smile.

For how good the morning went, the afternoon was somewhat exhausting.  It took some work to get Samantha to fall asleep for a nap, even though she had been acting sleepy all morning.  Since Aedan took a long nap that morning, I pushed nap time back a little later to account for when he'd be ready to sleep again.  Aedan fell asleep around 1:50, but then woke up after about an hour and a half crying because he was on his tummy with his head smushed into the side of his crib.  I went upstairs and rocked him back to sleep, but then when I went to lay him down, he woke up, so I just laid him down to see if he would go back to sleep.

Ben and I were both in the mood to go out to eat the night, but we knew it wouldn't work if Aedan didn't go back to sleep because then he'd be ready for a nap right in the middle of dinner.  When he sleeps until around 4:00 or later then he doesn't really need an evening nap, but if he wakes up early, like 3:20 on this particular day, we know he won't be able to make it through the whole evening without a little nap.  While Ben and I were talking about what to do for dinner, Samantha woke up from her nap, and Aedan started crying again because he had flipped back over on his tummy.  I laid him on his back again and gave him the pacifier to see if he would go back to sleep.  However, after a few minutes, I realized that Aedan was not going to be going back to sleep that afternoon.  It was not a very restful afternoon.  I felt like I spent all my time just trying to get the kids to go to sleep.  Ben, being the loving husband that he is, offered to pick up Jimmy John's and bring it home for dinner so that I wouldn't have to cook.  That way, we wouldn't have to worry about taking tired children out to a restaurant, but we still get the chance to not have to cook or clean up a meal.  I have such a thoughtful husband, that even after a long day at work, he's willing to run errands for me and pick up dinner.  Love you, my dear. :)

After a seemingly long day, it's always nice to play and laugh together as a family.

Thursday was another big day for Samantha because she was Star of the Day at preschool again.  She was so excited that as soon as she finished her breakfast, she said, "I'll be upstairs brushing my teeth!"  It's not every day that she is this excited about getting ready.  Samantha chose to bring raisins and apple juice for her snack.  And after much deliberation and changes of mind, she decided to bring Piggy for the Share Bag.  Now, you have to know something about this stuffed animal.  One of my students, Parker Denney, bought it for Samantha for Valentine's Day back when she was not even a year old yet.  For some reason, probably since it's a pink bear, Samantha thought it looked like a pig rather than a bear, and ever since then, has called it Piggy.  I don't mind that she calls it something different than what it really is.  I think it's cute, a little glimpse of when she was younger that she still holds on to.  Piggy is a pretty well-loved animal, often gets chosen to sleep with Samantha at night, and often gets chosen to be brought places when she can pick toys.  However, Samantha did mention to me that afternoon that a kid in her class told her that it wasn't a pig, it was a bear.  I hope that little pink bear is always called Piggy.

Since this is the month of November, Samantha's preschool has been discussing a lot about what a feast is, what harvesting is, and of course, about Thanksgiving.  This week in particular, they learned more about the first Thanksgiving, so Samantha came home with the obligatory Native American costume of a vest made out of a brown paper bag and a feather headdress.  She did look pretty cute all dressed up.

I love nursing Aedan and having him fall asleep in my arms.  I had my phone in the room with me on Thursday afternoon, so I was able to take this precious picture of him sleeping on my shoulder before I laid him down in his crib.

Aedan is always pretty tired on Thursdays because we go grocery shopping after dropping Samantha off at preschool.  However, for how easy it was to get Aedan down for a nap that afternoon, Samantha was not so easy.  She was being silly and disrespectful and would refuse to lay down in her bed.  I tried to stay in there for a few minutes like I usually do, but eventually just gave up.  Then, the instant I left the room, she got up out of her bed and got a book.  Last week was really good with napping as she napped every day.  This week, however, napping has been a battle again.  I don't like having to fight with her to get her to nap, especially because when she does nap it has only been about an hour and fifteen minutes or so, which is good, better than no nap, but still not worth the fight sometimes.  Samantha didn't nap that afternoon, making for an interesting evening.  She's always a bit more easygoing when she's napped and rested.

Friday morning I woke up with a terrible headache, one that hurt so bad it was almost making me sick to my stomach.  Aedan woke up around 6:30 that morning, and I nursed him and tried to get him to go back to sleep, but he wasn't interested, he had slept through the night and was ready to start his day.  I took him downstairs while Ben was in the shower and Samantha slept, but as soon as Ben was done, I went back upstairs to lay down and get some more sleep.  Thankfully, since it was a Friday, Ben didn't have to be on campus at any certain time and could stay and hang out for awhile.  I woke back up around 9:00 and felt much better.  My headache wasn't totally gone, but I felt good enough to function again.  Ben went off to campus, and the kids and I hung out at home for the morning.  Again, I offered to Samantha to go to the library for story time, but she wasn't interested.  She was pretty tired from not napping the day before, still had a lingering cold, and was enjoying her time playing at home.

That afternoon, despite how tired Samantha was, she did not nap again.  She was being disrespectful and thought it was funny that she wasn't staying in her bed.  Her not napping put us in a predicament because we had a small group get together that evening for pizza and games at 5:30, but we weren't so sure we should let Samantha go when she hadn't napped.  We aren't tying what we do to whether or not she naps, but it's hard being out in the evening when she's tired and needs to be put to bed early.  However, Ben and I were really looking forward to this time with our friends, so we decided to go anyways.  

Samantha did pretty well eating and playing with the other kids while we were there.  They all know each other, and Samantha is the youngest out of the kids that are not babies, so she was kind of a tag along, following them around wherever they went.  Sometimes I feel bad for Samantha when I see her in groups of kids because I feel like she is left out sometimes.  I feel like she wants to play and wants to join in but doesn't know how.  I see a lot of myself in her sometimes because that's how I always felt as a kid, like I wanted to be part of the group but was always on the outside, not knowing how to join in and not feeling like I fit in.  I know how that feels, and I don't want her to feel that way.

Aedan was hanging in there pretty well, even though he was getting pretty sleepy.  Ben and I were able to play part of one game before we determined it was time to head out and get our kids to bed.  Somewhere around 8:00 I gave Samantha a five minute warning, which actually ended up being much longer than that.  Then, I went down to the basement to get her, and she was captivated by the movie they were watching.  I gently told her it was time to go since it was both her and Aedan's bedtime, especially since she didn't nap that day.  Of course, she didn't want to be pulled away from the movie when everyone else was staying there, so I had to pick her up and carry her.  She refused to get her own socks and shoes on, so I had to do it for her while she fought me.  Then, she said she had to go potty before we left, so I took her to the bathroom, and she refused to get on the potty, so I had to put her on it.  She then proceeded to yell, "Get out of here!  Get away from me!"  Her face was so tired, her eyes had huge bags under them, and she was actually crying and yelling with her eyes closed she was so tired.  I knew we just needed to get out of there, so I tried to ignore her yelling as best I could, not letting it get a reaction out of me, but it's hard not to feel sad when your child yells at you like that.  I don't know if it was the best idea for us to have gone out that evening with how she reacted when we left.  She has just been so tired lately, especially when she doesn't nap.

Saturday was supposed to be a fairly warm day, and it was the first day of the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo.  Depending on how Samantha was acting on Saturday morning and whether or not she took a nap, would determine if we were going to go to the zoo that evening.

We just hung out at home that morning, playing together with Daddy.  Here is Samantha singing the "Happy Days" theme song that Daddy taught her.

Both Samantha and Aedan took good naps that afternoon, so we decided to make a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo.  We have been to Christmas at the Zoo at the Indianapolis Zoo, so we didn't know what to expect out of Cincinnati, particularly since it is much bigger, with many hills and many more trees.  It was the first official night of the Festival of Lights, besides for the member's preview the night before.  With the weather being significantly warmer than normal for this time of year, combined with it being open day, made for a very large crowd at the zoo that evening.

When you first arrive in the parking lot, you have to go up an escalator or elevator to get to the bridge that leads you over the road and into the zoo.  Here is the large rhino that was at the entrance to the escalator/elevator.

This was the view from across the road, before crossing over the bridge.  Samantha was SO excited about all the lights.

The bridge was covered in a tunnel of lights that was so cool to walk through.  Aedan was sitting in the front of the stroller and just stared up at all the blinking lights.

Then, in the main entrance of the zoo, they had a gigantic Christmas tree, covered in beautiful, bright lights.  They even had Frosty the Snowman posing for pictures with kids, but we skipped that part.

As we walked over to a little restaurant to get some dinner, we passed the pond that is in the center of the zoo.  Back when we were here for Halloween, we saw some of the lights that they started putting up, but we had no idea it would look like this.  The whole area around the pond was covered in lights, and they were actually playing in time to the music playing over the speakers.  It was wonderful to just stand there and watch the light show.

The last time we came to the zoo and tried to order food there, Samantha didn't eat well and ended up wasting most of it, so this time we brought peanut butter and jelly, raisins, and goldfish for her to eat, but Ben and I ordered food from the cafe.  After getting everyone fed and taking a bathroom break, we decided to get in line for the train.  It was a fairly long line, probably close to forty-five minutes long, because the zoo was pretty busy and the train was the main attraction of the night.  I put Aedan in the Ergo, partially to keep him easily contained and partially to keep him warmer.  Samantha did a pretty good job waiting patiently in line, especially with the company of her silly Daddy who made waiting fun.  We finally made it on, and then got a beautiful tour of the zoo from the view of the train.

However, the best part of the train ride was when we got to circle the pond and watch the lights dance to the music of another Christmas song.  It was just beautiful.

The lights really were the main attraction at the zoo that evening.  In fact, I don't think we saw any animals except for one monkey on top of monkey island and the reindeer that were in a special exhibit.  We spent most of the rest of the night walking around the zoo and looking at the trees covered in lights.  They had a little nativity scene set up, which Samantha enjoyed looking at for awhile.

And near the carousel and reindeer, there was this rainbow tunnel of lights.

Our last stop before going home was a ride on the carousel for Samantha.  Aedan had fallen asleep in the Ergo for a nice evening nap, all wrapped up with a hat and blanket around him, so I waited while Daddy went on with Samantha.  Carousels still put a smile on her face. :)

It was already 8:00, which is bedtime for both children.  We had seen everything we wanted to see and done everything we wanted to do, so we figured we'd take pictures in front of the big Christmas tree before heading out to the car.  We had a wonderful evening at the zoo, and if the weather is ever warmer again, we may have to make another trip there this year.

After having a busy couple of nights over the weekend, we took Sunday as a day of rest, going to church and having the whole family take a nap that afternoon.  Samantha got to watch a show when she woke up and chose to watch Shrek.  She had to go get her Shrek and donkey figure to hold while she watched the movie, so we took a couple pictures of her to send to Uncle Timmy since he helped work on some of the Shrek movies.

Mondays are always fairly relaxing days around our house, as we don't have anywhere to be, so we generally just hang out, let Aedan take a good nap, and play at home.  Plus, it was going to be a rainy day, and I had to clean the house, perfect reasons to lay low.

That morning when I went in to get Aedan out of his crib, he was turned around completely the other direction.  I normally lay him down with his head to the left, and he was turned with his head to the right.  He is definitely starting to move around more in bed, as well as on the floor when he's playing.  In fact, there have been a couple times that he has rolled over and hit his head on something because of where he rolled.  He's very good at rolling from his back to his tummy, but not quite so good at rolling back, so oftentimes he will get "stuck" on his tummy and eventually get frustrated.  However, I think he is starting to like his view of the world better this way, especially when interacting with Samantha.

I know I've mentioned this before, but Samantha has gotten a lot more creative in how she plays with toys.  Sunday night as we were playing together in her play room, she lined up animals and dolls, giving them all plates with a cookie on it, as well as a hot pad underneath each one because the plates were hot as the cookies had just come out of the oven.  Daddy asked me to take a picture of everyone lined up because it was just so cute.