Samantha: 43 Months, Week 2
Aedan: Week 35We have been going back and forth lately about car seats to use for Samantha and Aedan. Aedan outgrew the 22 pound limit on the infant car seat, so we knew we needed to do something different. We received a Britax hand-me-down from some good friends in Bloomington. However, after we installed it in the car for Samantha to use, I discovered it was actually expired. So, we were then going to put Samantha back in her original Britax car seat and use one of the Cosco car seats, which we bought back when Samantha was being watched by Jaime, for Aedan. However, we were not comfortable with how it was installed rear-facing in the Santa Fe. We tightened it as much as possible, and it still moved around too much to make us comfortable. Ben and I were then thinking of just getting a better car seat of some kind, but we were unsure of what kind to get, especially since Samantha is getting bigger and will eventually move to a high-back booster and then a backless booster. We figured it would be nice to have a car seat to adapt to fit all those needs. Well, we were in luck because I am a part of an Oxford Online Yard Sale Facebook page, and just that day I noticed someone posting a car seat for sale. The mom purchased it for her son, but there was miscommunication with her husband who bought the same car seat at a different location, but that car seat had Thomas the train on it. The mom had already opened the car seat box and thrown it away, but of course the boy wanted the Thomas car seat and not the plain blue car seat. So, she decided to sell the car seat that she bought for $90 for $60. It is a Baby Trend brand car seat and is a 3-in-1 car seat with a five point harness to use right now, and then has the capability for the harness to be removed so that it is a high-back booster for use with a seat belt. The whole back can also be removed for use as a booster seat. I was so excited to see this advertised because it was perfect for what we needed, a car seat that will last for a long time for Samantha, and the bonus of only being $60. Anyways, all that to say, on Tuesday morning, we met the lady in Oxford to get the car seat from her, and then worked on installing that car seat properly and giving Aedan the Britax car seat back again, which does an excellent job of being secure rear-facing. I'll have to get a picture of Samantha sitting in her new car seat sometime. She looks like such a big girl sitting in it. I think she likes it best because it has cup holders and gives her more space for her legs so she can actually sit criss-cross comfortably. It will be a nice transitional car seat for her as she grows.
That evening, I had plans to get together with some friends from OBF. We were going to go out to eat together and then go back to Maggie's house to do a craft. I was looking forward to time away with other women. Ben, of course, lovingly accepted responsibility of putting the kids to bed for me that night. Before I left, I helped him give them baths. Our Christmas event of that day was watching The Polar Express. We specifically picked it from our Netflix account so that we could watch it right before Christmas. Samantha watched it last year and really enjoyed it, so I figured she'd enjoy it even more this year. Trains are always a big hit with her. They watched about an hour or so on Tuesday night while I was gone, and we had plans to finish the rest of it on Christmas Eve morning.
This year is really the first year that Samantha was understood what Christmas is, and it's exciting to see the anticipation in her face. Her chain link kept getting shorter and shorter, and she couldn't wait for Christmas, not really so much for the presents, but really for the time we were going to spend in Upland with family (particularly Alaina).
Here are some pictures of my two cute kiddos on Christmas Eve morning. Samantha wanted to hold Aedan, which led to this progression of pictures:
First, cute cuddling...
We got home after 6:00, which is later than we usually eat dinner, so we were all pretty hungry. Our potato soup tasted delicious, and we finished off our dinner with ice cream for dessert. Samantha was pretty excited about that part. :) We very rarely have dessert, so she definitely thinks it's a special treat. She didn't want to waste any of the ice cream, drinking the last melted drops of ice cream.
After eating breakfast, Aedan was still asleep, so we decided it was time to wake him up so that we could open presents. Samantha hardly ate her french toast casserole because she was too excited about opening presents. Here are some pictures from Christmas morning before we started opening presents.
We planned to have all four of us share Ben's parents' bedroom again, and we hoped that it would go just as well as it did for Thanksgiving. However, at nap time, we have Samantha sleep in Ben's old room because she is just too silly and unpredictable at nap time. We don't want her waking up Aedan. We also didn't have too high of hopes for any napping happening for Samantha while in Upland, especially considering she hadn't really napped at all at home for the last week. However, she was much more tired than usual, and we knew she would have a much better evening if she took a nap. I put Aedan down and Ben put Samantha down. Both kids took great naps and were ready for our Christmas celebration with the Tolls!
These next few pictures were taken just after Aedan woke up from his nap, so he was a little surprised by all the commotion and overwhelmed by two little girls who both wanted to hold him. I have a picture of Samantha sitting by Grandpa and Grandma's Christmas tree, so I was trying to get one of Aedan as well; however, Samantha wanted to sit behind him to make sure he didn't fall back into the tree, but then wouldn't look at the camera so that I could get a picture of both of them. Oh well!
Before opening presents, we took our annual family Christmas picture. We wanted to maximize the good moods and attention of the little ones by doing it before the presents. The pictures turned out so well: a serious picture and a silly picture. I love the time we get to spend together. Even though it's a bit chaotic with everyone in the same house, and even though our sleep wasn't the greatest, we share so many memories with each other when we all get together. We are glad that Uncle Timmy is closer so that we can see him more, and we were super happy that Andrew could come celebrate with us as well.
Uncle Timmy also got the girls a Robot Turtles board game, which is a beginning programming game for preschoolers, plus gave us gift cards for Disney that we can use for food or any other purchases while we are there, so that will be super helpful. Grandpa and Grandma got Samantha little princess figures with dresses that you can take on and off by pinching the bottom and pulling the figure out of the top of the dress. That was a nice present because we could open it and let Samantha play with is while the rest of the family opened their presents. Aedan got some cute 12 month clothes from the family, as well as a gift card so that we can purchase more clothes down the road when needed. Thanks family!
We didn't really know what to expect as we went into the night together. Aedan had been battling a cough for a week or so, and he still isn't sleeping through the night, so we weren't sure how he would sleep that night. Samantha did a great job going to sleep quietly and not waking up her brother. It was actually rather amazing that he didn't wake her up with all the noise he made. We had a rough night with Aedan. Sometime around 1:30 a.m. he woke up and I did our normal routine of changing his diaper and nursing him, but he would not go back to sleep. Or, if we did get him back to sleep, he would wake up as soon as we moved or as soon as we laid him down. Ben sat up with Aedan for several hours that night, just holding him as he slept in his lap. We were trying so hard to keep Aedan quiet so that he wouldn't wake up Samantha. We didn't want two kids awake in the middle of the night. It was hard to know what was causing his trouble with sleeping, whether it was sleeping in the pack and play rather than his crib or his cough or even teething pain.
Ben and I were pretty tired after a long night with Aedan, but Friday was another fun family day. We did a lot of playing, built princess Lego castles, and Samantha and Alaina had a blast together. They even made little snowmen treats together that afternoon.
And that evening after dinner, we had another dance session with Alaina's "Just Dance" Wii game that she got for Christmas. The girls got into it and really enjoyed taking turns picking out songs, sometimes following the dancing on the screen and sometimes dancing however they wanted.
On Saturday morning, we decided to get out of the house and let the girls play at the Taylor gym for awhile. I stayed home while Aedan napped, but he ended up waking up in enough time for us to join them as well. Aedan got to ride around the gym in the stroller while the girls danced in the aerobics room. Even though Samantha was super tired, she fought napping that afternoon, choosing to play in the room for an hour before finally falling asleep and sleeping almost to dinnertime. Aedan took a long, almost three hour nap that afternoon, making us see that it probably wasn't sleeping in the pack and play that was bothering him, since he slept fine in it during the day.
Once again, we hoped for the best on Saturday night, but it was by far the worst night there. Aedan woke up shortly after we came into the room to go to sleep, close to 11:30. Then, he fought with sleep throughout the rest of the night, with Ben and I taking turns holding him and rocking him, letting him sleep on our laps. We each would make attempts to lay him down, but every time Aedan would wake up and start to fuss or cry. We didn't want him to wake up Samantha, and amazingly, she slept through all this commotion every night. I even tried different things like bringing him into bed with us to sleep or sleeping up on my chest, but nothing was working. Ben sat in the rocking recliner to let him sleep, and I sat in the bed and let him sleep on my lap after nursing him, and he slept like that for a couple hours in the wee hours of the morning. Ben and I felt pretty discouraged from trying and trying for hours to get him to sleep and to stay asleep in the pack and play. We were extremely tired on Sunday morning. I don't even remember a time when I've felt this tired in the recent past. Three nights a row of little sleep is not good for me. However, when you have two kids, you don't have the option of sleeping in, you just have to get up and move on with your day as if you got the sleep you needed.
We all went to church on Sunday, and the kids dressed up in their Christmas outfits. Here are some cute pictures from that morning.
Ben and I debated whether or not we would leave Upland on Sunday or stay one more night so that we could make a family trip to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We had said that if Aedan had a better night that we would consider staying, but didn't know what to do since he had such a rough night on Saturday. However, we didn't want to miss out on the Children's Museum. Samantha loves that place and misses it, even pretends like she's visiting there when she plays at home. So, we decided to stay another night.
Because of that, I put Aedan down for a nap on Sunday afternoon and then put Samantha down for a nap with the intention of staying in the room with her so that I could nap as well. I was so tired from our night with Aedan. Ben and the rest of the family were going to be watching the Colts game, so it was a perfect opportunity for me to catch up on some sleep. However, I am a terrible napper. Even though I was feeling tired, I could not get myself to calm down enough to fall asleep. However, even though I didn't really nap, I enjoyed watching Samantha sleep. She was really excited that I was going to be sleeping with her, and she snuggled right up into me, laying her head on the pillow with me and tucking her legs into mine. I'm sure having her so close to me impacted my ability to sleep that afternoon. I have never shared a bed with Samantha before, so it was interesting to watch her sleep. After she had been asleep for quite awhile, she all of a sudden jerked awake, threw the covers off her, and rolled over onto her back. It's so interesting that after a week of not napping, she has gone back to napping again. We are very glad she's napped every day we've been in Upland because it's made the evenings so much better. Being around a lot of people tires her out, plus I'm sure she's not getting as good of sleep on an air mattress in the room with Aedan, Mommy, and Daddy.
That night after ordering out Papa John's for dinner, we went to the old train depot in Upland to see the Christmas lights. It's not a huge display, but pretty decent for such a little town. Samantha particularly enjoyed the nativity scene made out of lights. She decided to go back and pretend to be Mary, telling Grandpa to pretend to be Joseph. Then, Alaina joined in by standing behind Jesus in the manger and putting out her arms to show Jesus dying on the cross. It was precious.
Sunday night with Aedan was better than the previous nights, which made us happy. He still woke up around 1:30, and I changed his diaper, nursed him, and rocked him for awhile until he was solidly asleep. I think that whole process took about two hours, which is longer than normal, but much better than being up all night with him. It was nice that he slept better because we had a big day ahead of us. We planned to go to the Children's Museum and left a little after 9:00 so that we could get there around 10:30 and spend most of the day there. To say Samantha was excited is an understatement. We, of course, didn't tell her we were going until that morning because she never sleeps as well if she's excited about something coming up. I'm pretty sure she squealed when I told her.
Here are some pictures and videos of our day. Our first stop was the Yule Slide, before the line got longer as the day progressed. Samantha raced down with Grandma first, and then Ben, Aedan, and I went together. It was fun taking him on the slide. I'm not so sure what he thought. :)
We then went to the Christmas area where they could climb on an ice castle...
And even do some ice skating and fishing. I took Aedan into the baby area and let him stand up while holding onto a bar in front of a mirror. He thought that was pretty fun and enjoyed seeing the funny faces of the baby in the mirror.
After that we went to the dinosaur area where the girls spent some time digging for dinosaur fossils. Alaina moved on much more quickly than Samantha. I think she could have stayed there for quite a while if I hadn't prodded her to move along to something different.
Right after lunch I nursed Aedan in the nursing mother's room, and since this is his usual time to take an afternoon nap, he fell asleep while nursing. I mistakenly did not change his diaper before feeding him and I forgot to bring the Ergo in the room with me, so I had to wake him up in order to change his diaper and put him in the Ergo. However, he then just hung out in the Ergo as we walked around the museum, enjoying the sights of the museum from the comfort of being held close to me. Finally, as we neared the end of our time in the Playscape area, he gave in and fell asleep. He was so adorable sleeping on me, totally zonked out. It made us happy to see that he would eventually just fall asleep, so at Disney World, if we want to just stay at the parks rather than go back and give him a nap in the hotel, we know that he will sleep just fine in the Ergo.
It was already well after 2:00 and the girls were getting pretty tired from a long day of playing at the museum. I'm so glad that we stayed so that we could come do this as a family. Plus, instead of just paying the day's admission into the museum, we put that money towards a membership, so now we can come back whenever we want. This museum is just too good, and we have missed it since moving to Ohio.
Our drive home went pretty well. We hoped Samantha would nap on the way, but she was too riled up from her fun day. Aedan took a pretty good nap on our way home, and we were SO looking forward to having everyone back in their own room and own bed again. We love our children, but we certainly wouldn't want to always share a room with them. We were hoping that just being back home and being back in his own crib in his own room would help Aedan sleep better. More on that to come in the next post.
So that concludes our Toll family Christmas celebration. It was a busy few days, but it was a wonderful time with the family. I always look forward to this time every year, and it's so fun seeing the excitement in the girls and the precious time family gets to spend with Aedan. Even though we were too tried to really play games together at night, we had a great time watching and critiquing cheesy Hallmark Christmas moves together at night. A great time was had by all. :)
