Aedan's Hair Cut, Halloween Activities, and Samantha Getting Sick

Samantha: 52 Months, Week 3

Aedan: 17 Months, Week 1 (Week 75)

Since we have our new community group meeting on Tuesday nights, I decided it would be best to take it easy on Tuesday mornings so the kids aren't too tired to behave themselves at church in the evenings.  Tuesday morning was a rainy day, so we just played at home together before going out for a couple errands.  Our first errand was getting Aedan a haircut.  A month or so ago I trimmed it across the back and around his ears, making him look a lot like a little Amish boy, especially as it grew out and got thicker.  It was looking pretty bushy and was constantly getting food in it when he would eat, so we decided it was time for a real haircut.  We went to Great Clips in Hamilton, and I was a little nervous beforehand because you just never know how haircuts will turn out or how good the hair stylist will be.  Samantha was excited to see her little brother get his hair cut.

The hair stylist, Misty, asked if we wanted to try and have Aedan sit in the chair by himself.  Last time he got his hair cut in a fancier hair salon, I had him sit on my lap, but this time I figured it would be good to try him sitting on his own.  She put the booster seat on the chair, Aedan sat on top of that, and then she snapped the cover around his neck.  I think he found the whole thing fascinating as he hardly moved a muscle.  He didn't try to wiggle out of the chair at all, and since his hands were under the cover, it kept him from reaching up and trying to grab the scissors or comb.  I showed her a few pictures on my phone of what I liked, and she said, "Okay, so like a typical little boy hair cut?"  Then, she wet his hair down and got to work.  He made some pretty funny faces as she combed his hair and cut it, but she did a great job of making it even and holding his hair firm so that if he moved, it wouldn't mess up the section of hair she was trying to cut.  I was really impressed with how quickly she worked, but also how professional and detail-oriented she was, making sure it was even all the way around.  She even used the razor trimmer (whatever it's called), to get the little hairs on his neck and clean up around his ears.  Here are a few pictures from his hair cut.

I was so happy with how his hair turned out.  It looked so good, so neat, and made him look like such a handsome little man.  I was amazed at how much hair she cut off.  Our kids are blessed (or cursed, depending on how you look at it) with lots of thick hair.  I always have said that Aedan's hair looks a lot like Ben's hair, especially as it grows out and gets thick and bushy.  Anyways, here are some cute after pictures of his hair cut.  Samantha wanted a sucker when he was done since she waited patiently, and she got one for Aedan as well.  It was his first time eating a sucker, and really having any sort of candy at all, so he was so very proud of himself.  Isn't he just the cutest?  I will definitely be going to Great Clips with Misty again the next time Aedan needs a hair cut. :)

After getting Aedan's hair cut, we made one more stop at Meijer to get Samantha some new underwear.  (She was outgrowing all her old ones.)  After making our purchase, the kids had to ride on the mechanical horse, of course.  They each got their own turn, and then Samantha wanted to go on it again with Aedan that time.

I love this picture of the two of them because it captures their love and enjoyment of one another.  Samantha has her arms wrapped around him tightly because she likes to take care of him and protect him.  Plus, it was her idea for him to ride with her because she loves to include him.  Then, Aedan is grasping onto Samantha's hand and is beaming with joy because of being on the horse with his big sister.  I love these two so much and am soaking up all these moments we get to spend together.

The rest of Tuesday went by like normal with lunch time, nap time, getting food prepared for our community group, and heading out the door once Daddy got home so that we could be there on time this week.  We had a good second meeting with a new family that wants to join.  However, we still have no designated babysitter for our kids yet, so it was a little difficult to discuss the truth discussion questions with parents having to get up and go into the preschool room to deal with their children or having children come into our room needing our attention.  I really enjoy getting together and sharing a meal together because it gives everyone a night off in the sense of not having to prepare a main dish, sides, and a dessert.  We get to try new foods and new recipes that we don't necessarily get to have in our own families.  Plus, it gives us a good time to fellowship and get to know one another before diving into a more spiritual conversation.  Even though it's difficult having another event during the week that takes us away from our home, I am glad that we are a part of a new group like this.

Wednesday morning was October 1st, Uncle Timmy's birthday, so Daddy made a video of Samantha singing Happy Birthday.  Aedan appears in the video for a few seconds as well.  She talks about Uncle Timmy quite often, and it will be good to hopefully see him again sometime soon for more than one day.  His nieces and nephew love him quite a bit.

Wednesday morning was my turn to watch Bennett, so after dropping Samantha off at preschool, I brought Aedan and Bennett back home for awhile.  They played fairly contentedly at home, we had snack about 10:00 when they were both becoming a little more aimless, then I changed diapers and got them ready to go to the library.  I figured playing in the new children's section of the library would be a fun outing for awhile.  I didn't want to plan for too much time (like in being there all morning) because I knew their interest would wane after awhile if it was anything like the little museum on Miami's campus.  We got there around 11:00, giving them plenty of time to play before going back to preschool for pick-up.  The boys enjoyed playing with tools, sitting on the tractor, and playing in the play kitchen with the food, bowls, refrigerator, and shopping cart.  The new library is definitely a fun place to play, especially for toddlers.

Wednesday night was another soccer practice night, so we met Daddy at the soccer fields.  Aedan and I stayed for about half of the time before coming back home and getting a start on dinner.  I find that it's just as easy to do this because Aedan starts getting antsy in his stroller after about half an hour anyways, then I can go home and fix the rest of dinner, having it mostly done by the time Daddy and Samantha get home.  After dinner, Samantha decided it would be great to dance around the kitchen and get Aedan involved as well.  Again, do you see how much he loves it when Samantha includes him?  He loves to copy her, and he loves to dance.

Wednesday was a hard day for me because Ben has been under a lot of stress lately.  He gave tests on Monday and Tuesday, meaning he now has tons of grading to do.  Plus, he talked to me on Wednesday morning about how we are getting low on money and may have trouble paying our bills over the next few months.  There are several reasons why we just aren't quite saving money back as we would like, for example, our move to Oxford pretty much depleting our bank account after not having that much money to begin with since we were living off of Ben's graduate student stipend and my income from babysitting and piano lessons, our Disney trip costing more than we expected, Ben not getting paid his normal salary over the summer, and then just having more expenses than what we had in Bloomington.  Anyways, he hasn't been sleeping well and has been super busy with work and applying for jobs, and I could just see the stress on his face and felt burdened for him all day.  He mentioned how he might have to get another job, which I told him he can't do.  If anything, I would be the one that needs to find a way to bring in some money.  It's hard because I know that my role is important in taking care of our kids and our home, but sometimes I feel like I'm not doing anything to contribute, leaving Ben to shoulder the weight and the responsibility of working and making all the money to support our family.  I can't wait until we find out where we might be next year, and hopefully hear that Ben is offered a tenure track position somewhere.  It would be such a relief and an answer to prayer.  It is hard to trust God and wait patiently, knowing that He has a great plan and will provide for us, just as He has every step of the way until now.

Since Thursday was a day without plans, no preschool and no evening plans together as a family, I decided to take the kids to EnterTRAINment Junction.  Back awhile ago I bought two-for-one tickets online so that we could go when they had their Halloween activities and decorations up.  Aedan got in free, so Samantha and I got in for the price of one ticket, making it a much cheaper outing.  Ben and I took the kids here last fall to try it out, but we hadn't been back since, so I was excited to see what Aedan would think of it now that he can walk and interact with things.  After getting our wrist bands, we began walking through the large train display.  It goes through the different periods of train history, and they even provide step stools for the kids so that they can get a better view.  I think Aedan was more interested in this part that Samantha was.  He was fascinated by the trains going along the tracks in front of him, many different directions.  Some displays even had buttons you could push to make lights flash, make sounds, or even make trains go.  These displays are very well put together and elaborate, with many details you don't catch when just walking by quickly.

However, once Samantha saw the play area, she didn't want to look at the train display anymore, so we stopped to play for awhile.  Aedan really enjoyed the pretend train you could climb in and use a shovel to scoop pretend coal into the front of the train.  Samantha climbed all over the inside play set, going down slides, and swinging.  Most of the play set was too advanced for Aedan since he isn't that skilled at climbing yet, but there were a couple areas with steps closer together where he could swing his leg up and climb up by himself.  He even got really good at turning around and sliding down the steps or holding on to the netting and lowering one foot down at a time.  I was proud of him for being so brave and for learning how to move more independently.

Since this is a place all about trains, they had many different train tables for kids to play with.  This picture and video is Aedan playing in the toddler area.  He found these train tables very interesting because he could push his train on the track without knocking the track over since it was nailed in place, unlike Samantha's train tracks at home that he just demolishes anytime he comes near.  His favorite part was this bridge.  He put his train in one side and would push it with his hand to the other side of the bridge.  However, the first couple of times he tried it, his hand got stuck and he couldn't figure out how to get it out.  I had to show him how to pull his hand backward rather than pushing it forward.  After a few times, he caught on and was able to help himself after that.  You can see that in action in the video below.

From there, we walked through more of the model train display before going to the outside train ride.  A cold front had arrived overnight and it was much chillier that morning, requiring long sleeve shirts, pants, and sweaters.  Samantha wanted to go on the train with Aedan by herself, but I told her that wouldn't be safe because we couldn't guarantee that he would stay sitting and that would be too much responsibility for her to make sure he didn't fall off the train.  I got the kids on and tried to take a picture quick, but Aedan was too fascinated with the train car that he was sitting in to look up at the camera.

Once I got in, I asked another mom to take a picture for me, and even though it's crooked, it's still a good picture of the three of us together.  Aedan doesn't look the happiest in the picture, but it was just because he was being squeezed too tightly by his sister and pulled backwards.  He thought the train ride was a lot of fun.

After we finished riding all together, Samantha wanted to ride by herself, so Aedan and I got off.  She likes feeling big and independent, doing things on her own away from us.

Then, we went back inside to look at the train display some more before going back to where the Halloween activities were.  They had a talking plastic pumpkin and hay bales with mini pumpkins all around for each kid to pick one to bring home.  They also had a table with pictures to color, and Samantha chose one, sitting down and coloring very carefully and diligently.  Aedan was getting pretty bored waiting for Samantha to color, but found amusement in throwing the mini pumpkins as if they were balls.

I tried as hard as I could to get a picture of them near the pumpkins, sitting on the hay, but they weren't in the mood to cooperate very well.  It was almost lunchtime, and they didn't want to sit down and smile at the camera, so this picture is the best that I got.  I do enjoy the love that you can see between the two of them.  They love to hug each other, even though you can't see much excitement in Aedan in this picture.  I love how their little hands are together as well.

I packed lunch for us in an effort to save some money, so I got our cooler from the car and we enjoyed our yogurt with granola, cheese, lunch meat, crackers, and some fruit.  I figured it's easier bringing things I know they will like instead of packing sandwiches which they both don't seem to like right now.

After lunch we went to the A-Maze-N Funhouse section of EnterTRAINment Junction.  They have lots of different rooms like a curtain room that you have to try to find your way out of, a clown house with many silly rooms like one with a floor at an angle so that you couldn't walk up it or even look into the room without feeling dizzy.  There was a hall of mirrors and another fun room like you were traveling into outer space.  There were lots of disorienting things, making it so that I had to carry Aedan most of the time so that he wouldn't hurt himself.

After we were done in the Funhouse, we realized that we had not gone on the crank cars that ride on the track.  There was going to be another scheduled time in about 40 minutes, so we decided to go back to the play area for some more play time while we waited for the ride to open up.  Aedan enjoyed climbing up a small ladder that led to a slide, except he just wanted to go down head first every time.  I tried to get him to sit on his bottom to slide down, but he just screamed and got upset, like I was trying to get him to do the worst thing in the world.  So, like any mom of a second child would do, I just let him go down head first on his belly, as long as I was nearby and could control him if he got going too fast.

It started raining, so the crank cars opened up a little later than expected, giving us extra time to play in the play set.  I didn't take any pictures or videos of Samantha on the crank car, but it was basically a car on a track where the kids sat on a seat and turned handles like the pedals on a bike to make the car move down the track.  Samantha had a great time and enjoyed this even more than riding on the train.  There was no one else in line for a while, so she was able to go around three times in a row before having to get off.  Aedan was very jealous of Samantha being able to ride these cars when he was too small for them and cried pretty hard when he realized he wasn't going to have a turn.

Our last stop for the day was the hay maze out in front.  Samantha and Aedan had a good time just running around in the maze together.  In fact, Samantha wanted me to come in with them as well, so we played a fun little game of tag inside the maze.  There was another little kid there that enjoyed me chasing them around as well.  It's amazing how much kids enjoy it when you actually get involved, play, and get silly with them, rather than just sit on the outside and watch.  I am trying to be conscious of doing this more.  I want to be a mom that plays with her kids and is a part of the moments rather than just watching them happen.

Aedan fell right asleep in the car as it was already 3:00 by the time we left.  Samantha was tired as well, and she talked about falling asleep in the car, but we only had a half an hour drive, and I knew she really wouldn't fall asleep anyways.  Aedan usually is good about going back to sleep at home even after falling asleep in the car, but on this day that was not the case.  I tried to get him to sleep, but he was just not interested, then he had a poopy diaper that I had to change and he thought I was going to get him up rather than try to rock him and lay him down again, so that didn't make him happy.  Luckily, Samantha took a good nap for about an hour, taking the edge off enough to get through the rest of the evening.

Friday was a busy day leading into a busy weekend.  Andrea took Aedan to play with Bennett, and Samantha was at preschool.  I met Maggie at the park to take a walk together and catch up with each other.  It was good to hear more of her story of what happened with Elliott, and I enjoyed being able to cry with her and giver her a hug.  Friday night we had plans to go to a softball player and family get together at the Marcum's house.  It started at 7:00, so we fed the kids a small dinner before heading over to their house.  It's always hard going over to people's house at this time of night because Aedan usually wants to go to bed around 7:30, so we push him to be up and be happy longer than he would like.  Luckily, they both took later, longer naps that afternoon, so I hoped that would help them get through the night better.  We were the first family to arrive, but the kids had fun playing in a new environment.  After a while, more families with kids showed up, giving Samantha and Aedan plenty of playmates.  We tried to stay as long as we could that evening to give Ben a chance to hang out with the guys he played softball with, but Aedan was slowly losing it and we couldn't do much to make him happy anymore.  I think we left for home around 8:30 with two tired kids on our hands and got them to bed as soon as we got home.  Ben and I were tired, too, so we were in bed not too long after them.

Saturday morning was going to be cold and rainy, so Ben took Samantha to her soccer game while I stayed home with Aedan.  There was no point in taking him out in that kind of weather, so he and I went grocery shopping together instead.  Ben was a solo coach that morning because the head coach couldn't make it, and he tried to make it as fun as possible, getting the kids moving and dancing in between plays so that they wouldn't get too cold.  We dressed Samantha in many layers to keep her warm and prevent her from catching a cold.  She told us that she has more fun playing soccer when it is warm outside rather than when it's cold, and I can understand her feelings on that.

After lunch and getting the kids down for their naps on Saturday afternoon, another woman from OBF picked me up to give me a ride to the fall women's event.  I wasn't able to go to any women's events last year for various other commitments, so I was looking forward to this one.  We were able to talk with other women, hear a good speaker, and eat some delicious food.  Plus, it was nice to be away from the kids for the afternoon and evening.  Ben held down the fort at home, and they had a good day together, even though there was a broken decoration and some fighting between siblings.  I got home right after Ben got Aedan to bed and was in the middle of doing a puzzle with Samantha before bed.  Here are some pictures Ben took with the kids that day.  (I don't think Aedan knew what he was supposed to do in the picture.)

Saturday we made a spur of the moment decision to accept an invitation from the Schroer family to go to the zoo for their HallZOOween event.  We wanted to go sometime in October but hadn't picked a time yet, so we figured that day was as good as any.  Plus, Samantha would really enjoy having Matteo to play with at the zoo, and Aedan would enjoy having Bennett to play with as well.  IT also would be good for Ben and I to get to know Andrea and Joe better.  Both of our families went to our separate churches that morning at 9:00 and then we left to meet up at the zoo.  Since it was a celebration of Halloween, the kids got to dress up in their costumes.  Aedan was Super Man and Samantha was Wonder Woman.  The kids had a great time seeing the elephants and noticing all the kids dressed up around us.  Aedan thought it was particularly interesting seeing all the kids wearing costumes, giving a few of them second looks as if he thought they were real.

Matteo wanted to go to the children's area and play on the playground, so we headed that direction.  We let Aedan walk around most of the morning, and he was very interested in the outdoor penguin exhibit.  The penguins were very active, diving under the water, and splashing around.  He stood at the fence for quite awhile just watching the penguins play.

After getting our fill of the playground, we went over the the petting zoo.  Ben and I don't normally have change, but the Schroers did, so they bought some food for Samantha to feed the goats.  Then, it was time to pet and brush the goats.  Both Samantha and Aedan love this part.  Here are some cute pictures of the two of them with the goats.

From there we decided it would be a good idea to ride the train before the line got too long.  We had to wait for a couple train cycles, which made Bennett and Aedan get antsy, but Samantha and Aedan did a good job of trying to amuse them while we waited.

Here are some pictures of our train ride. :)

Samantha and Matteo are such good friends.  It's fun to see them interact with each other.

We actually didn't see too many animals that afternoon, as the kids were more interested in going Trick or Treating at the various treat stations.  We rode the carousel, of course, and then the kids were all getting tired, so we left around 2:30.  In fact, Aedan actually fell right asleep in the stroller as we walked around.

I love this picture of Samantha and Matteo that Andrea took.  Samantha's sideways glance at Matteo is so great. :)

Both kids were worn out from a long day of church and then going to the zoo.  Samantha fell asleep right away with her sunglasses still on her head.  I gave Aedan his pacifier to help him stay quieter for Samantha.  I wasn't sure if he would fall asleep or not since he had napped at the zoo, but he did end up falling asleep for part of the trip home.

Once we got back home, we just had a relaxing evening together.  Ben turned on a football game and both kids joined him on the couch as they watched together.

We played outside for awhile that night as it was such a nice, warm day.  Aedan enjoyed drawing on the ground with chalk, and Samantha poured the water over it, "watering" the driveway.  It's fun to be able to let Aedan draw with the chalk because earlier in the summer we couldn't let him play with the chalk because he would just put it in his mouth and try to eat it.

Later that evening I noticed that Samantha's cheeks were red and thought that she had just gotten some sun at the zoo that day.  However, we felt her and she was burning up.  I took her temperature and she had a fever, so we were sure to give her medicine before she went to bed that night.  A little before 10:00, I heard Samantha coughing over the monitor and then she started crying, so Ben and I both rushed upstairs to see what happened.  She had gotten sick to her stomach and thrown up in her bed.  This is only the second time she has vomited in her life, and of course, she was really upset.  We took her to the bathroom, cleaned her up, and got her near the trash can in case she would need to vomit again.  I worked on cleaning up her room, taking off her sheets, putting on new sheets, and getting everything in the washer.  We brought up an end table from the living room so that we could set the trash can on top of it, making it easier for her to reach from in her bed.  We also plugged in a night light in her room so that she could see better if she did wake up.  There was a virus going around Samantha's preschool that involved a fever and a stomach bug, so we figured she caught it from there.  We were hoping that she wouldn't get too sick over night, but she knew she could call for us if she ever needed us.

Luckily, she did not get sick any other time.  She woke up a couple times during the night, wanting water, and also wanting more medicine since she was still very hot from her fever and threw up her last dose of medicine.  I was very glad that she wasn't sick to her stomach again.  Once she woke up on Monday morning, she already knew that she wasn't going to be able to go to preschool since she was sick, so we took a chance to take it easy at home.  She ate a light breakfast of a piece of toast and some banana, but had very little appetite.  She played quietly in her room for awhile, I let her watch a show, she took a shower, and we just focused on her resting and getting better.  She still had a fever of 101.1 that afternoon before nap time.  But thankfully, she ended up napping from 1:45-6:00.  We actually had to wake her up for dinner once Ben got home.  I was amazed that she slept for so long!  It's nice that our kids tend to listen to their bodies when they are sick and sleep more than usual to let their bodies recover.

We had a bland meal of chicken and rice casserole for dinner, the perfect dinner for someone with tummy troubles.  Samantha didn't eat too much of it, but so far nothing was bothering her stomach and making her sick, so we hoped that the vomiting was over after that one time.  We went outside and played after dinner that evening, but Samantha mostly stayed inside to watch her show, coming out for just a few minutes when our neighbor girls came over to play.  Aedan was feeling fine, and we were doing our best to keep the kids away from each other so that they didn't share germs and get Aedan sick as well.  It certainly is no fun having sick kids, so we hoped that Samantha was on the mend now. 

While playing outside, Aedan found Samantha's pink umbrella in the garage and carried that around while playing in the driveway.  It's nice to be able to play outside while we can, since soon enough the evenings will get cool and it will be dark by dinner time.

(Blog about September 29-October 5, 2015)

Discovering New Things in Oxford

Samantha: 52 Months, Week 2

Aedan: 16 Months, Week 4 (Week 74)

This past Tuesday was going to be a very nice day, and Samantha has requested several times to use our bike trailer again because she really enjoys riding in it with Aedan.  However, I can't just take them out on the roads around our house because there are just too many hills for me, especially with pulling both of them in the bike carrier.  We bought a bike rack for the back of our car awhile back but had never since used it.  So, I decided that I would try to figure it out on Tuesday morning so that we could drive to a local park with a path and go for a little bike ride.  I couldn't find the direction booklet and am usually not the best with trying to figure things out even with directions sometimes, but I figured I'd give it a shot.  The bike rack was pretty self-explanatory and really very easy to use, much more straightforward than the used one we got from Ben's parents many years ago that we eventually threw out.  Anyways, the kids played outside while I got the bike trailer in the back of the Santa Fe, the bike rack attached to the car, and my bike hooked onto the bike rack.  It would have been a little easier to manage if I had Ben's muscles to help me lift the bike off the hook on our garage ceiling and then up onto the bike rack, but I was able to manage.

Once at the park, I got everything unloaded and ready for the bike ride.  It's a bit tricky getting both kids buckled into the bike trailer, but then we were off on our ride.  Samantha thought it was pretty cool, and Aedan was very quiet which meant he was enjoying himself, too.  The path next to the Hanover Park was a little over half a mile long, so not too long, but it was much flatter than the roads, so it was much more manageable for me to pedal around.  We went around the path a couple of times and then parked over by the playground so the kids could play for awhile.  This park is nice with lots of different features that make it fun, like a pretend train, tractor, and ship, lots of swings, a tire swing, a gravel pit, and a playground with many different climbing features, slides, and tunnels.  I like it better than the Oxford Community Park because there are more options for both Samantha and Aedan to play with at the same time and in the same place.  Plus, it's just a few minutes away from our house, making it a much easier trip.

Samantha has been very emotional lately, almost like she is overtired and can't handle a lot of commotion.  We have been doing our best to get her as much sleep as possible, and she has been taking good naps, so we're not quite sure what the culprit is.  At the park we had another of those unfortunate situations with Samantha.  I was pushing both kids on the swings and Samantha wanted to stop and take her shoes off.  I don't know why.  I told her she had to keep them on since we were at the park, and she didn't want to so she took them off anyways and starting yelling at me.  I calmly told her that she needed to make right choices and think about her actions.  However, then she came towards me and hit me.  I told her she had to go sit at the picnic table for a time out, so she threw her shoes and sat in a different place than where I told her to sit, while she screamed and yelled.  I told her she needed to sit where I told her and stop yelling or we would get in the car and leave right then.  I felt like I was being very gracious and calm, giving her more chances than she probably deserved with the fit that she was throwing, but she just kept making bad choices.  So, I decided to make a point and leave the park, even though I knew it would make her very unhappy.  I got Aedan out of the swing and headed toward the car, telling Samantha to get her shoes and meet me in the car.  She cried and screamed some more as I got Aedan buckled in and loaded up the bike trailer and bike.  She did come to the car on her own, but just cried and cried.  After that, I decided that it wasn't really fair to make Aedan leave the playground when he was having a good time, just because Samantha couldn't handle herself, so I got her buckled in, opened up the windows, and took Aedan back out onto the playground, telling Samantha that I would give Aedan a few more minutes to play.  I could hear Samantha screaming and throwing things in the car from over on the playground.  I didn't want to torment her by doing this, but I just wanted to prove a point to her, that she can't throw a fit, yell and scream, and still be able to do fun things.  Also, I wanted her to know that by acting like that she would miss out on doing things that Aedan would then be able to do.  I waited until she calmed down and I could no longer hear her crying in the car before I went back to talk to her.  I told her how she acted was unacceptable and how this whole thing stemmed from something silly: not wanting to keep her shoes on.  We talked about what would have been a better way to react, and she apologized for her actions.  I decided to be nice and give her a second chance at playing, so I let her get out of the car and play for about ten minutes more before going home for lunch.

It's times like these, when Samantha is throwing a fit and melting down, that I don't like being a parent.  Sometimes I don't know what the proper way to react is, or whether there is some underlying cause to the problem like a lack of sleep, feeling like she isn't getting enough attention, or even going through some kind of growth or development.  This parenting thing is hard, that's for sure.  Being home all day with kids is no walk in the park, for it challenges me every day to be patient, loving, and kind, but also to hold my kids to a certain standard and keep them accountable for their actions and the way they treat others.

The rest of our afternoon went well with a good lunch and nap time.  Then, shortly after nap time, once Ben arrived home from campus, we headed out for our first official meeting of our new community group.  We decided to help start a new one with some families that have younger kids and a some that are relatively new to Oxford like we are.  We planned to meet at OBF so that the kids could play in the preschool room with all the toys while the grown-ups talked.  We met at 5:30 and decided to do a potluck dinner with two families bringing main dishes, two families bringing side dishes, and one family bringing a dessert.  We had quite the spread of food, and it was all delicious.  It was great to sit around the table and talk and get to know each other while everyone enjoyed the food.  Then, we had the kids go in the other room and Ben volunteered to keep his eye on them.  We didn't have any formal discussion that evening, but we just discussed more about what we want out of our community group and ironed out details on when and how often to meet.  We are excited about this new group forming and developing deeper relationships with other families at OBF.

Wednesdays always go by quickly with taking Samantha to preschool, getting Bennett, and then amusing the boys for the morning.  I decided to bring them back home as I had things I needed to get done around the house.  We had plans for a chicken and wild rice soup for dinner that night after soccer, so I needed to get it prepared and cooking in the crock pot.  I also made some french bread in the bread maker to go with it.  The boys were having fun playing at the house, making it easier for me to get my work done.

The rest of the day went by like usual, except that Samantha gave me trouble napping.  She was in her room making noise, so I went into her room to tell her to be quiet and she said she had to go potty even though she had gone several times before going down for her nap.  It was so strange because she has done so well for so many months now of going to sleep easily for her nap.  She was cranky before preschool that morning, crying about not being able to wear these certain clips there, but Miss Betsy said that she did fine all morning and was respectful.  However, I was nervous that by her not napping, it would be hard for her to last the rest of the night with soccer practice and a late dinner.  It made us wonder if she is getting closer to the point of giving up her naps.  It really is pretty miraculous that she still naps on a consistent basis at almost 4 1/2 years old, so I can't complain, but I have to admit that I am not looking forward to the struggle that will occur as we transition from nap to no nap.

After we got home from soccer practice, we had our chicken with wild rice soup, a recipe we never tried before.  Usually soups are not that big of a hit with our kids, especially Aedan just because of the consistency and because he can't eat it by himself very easily.  However, this soup was a big hit with everybody and was delicious with our homemade bread.  Sometimes it's hard eating later in the evening, but it makes everyone really hungry and grateful for their food.  Both kids ate so well, we will definitely have to make this soup another time.

We took this video below because we have taught Aedan how to bat his eyelashes.  We were being silly at the dinner table and batting our eyelashes at each other.  Aedan wanted to do it with us, so here he is.  It's so funny to watch him mimic us, and he makes such funny faces when trying to do it.  Although, as you can see in the video, Samantha makes pretty funny faces when trying to copy us as well.  It's been fun having family dinners together after soccer practice, even though it's late, it's much better eating together as a family.

Sometimes it's difficult for me to know what activities to participate in with Samantha and Aedan because their personalities and interests are so different.  There was a special story and craft time at the Miami Art Museum on Thursday, and I decided we would try it out, even though it would be more for Samantha than for Aedan.  They had story time in a special meeting room, and Samantha was very excited to see some of her preschool friends there as well.  Aedan paid attention for a few minutes, but then just became interested in climbing up and down the stairs and walking around the auditorium.  I followed him around to make sure he didn't go anywhere he was not supposed to go and to make sure he didn't hurt himself.  He did actually fall down one step at one point during the story time.  It looked like he was holding on okay in lowering himself down, but then he lost his balance, tripped, and fell head first into the floor.  He cried quite a bit and it took awhile for me to get him to calm down.  I did get out the pacifier after that, hoping it would help him quiet down faster without me having to take him out of the room.  Meanwhile, Samantha loved story time.  We hadn't been to story time much over the summer, and then it hasn't been going on since school started due to their move into the new library.  She loves listening to people read to her, and she loves dancing and singing to the songs the librarians have prepared.  It will be fun to start going to story time again once the new library opens up.

Aedan is never very interested in the stories, but he did like listening to the songs and even danced along. :)  Both kids love music and dancing so much.

After the story time was over, they had a craft time where you could make music instruments, like a tambourine out of paper plates and rice, as well as an egg shaker with beans inside.  Samantha is very diligent when working on crafts, and she loves to color, so when working on decorating her tambourine, she was very conscientious, coloring every inch of white paper plate.  She said she was drawing the United States.  Meanwhile, I was trying to amuse Aedan since the craft really wasn't something he could do.  I helped him make an egg shaker, but that didn't take too much time.  Aedan was getting a little tired of waiting on Samantha, but it was good to let Samantha have this experience as well.  It's fun to see how much she enjoys being creative, making crafts, drawing, and coloring.  She really is very good for her age, and it holds her concentration for a long time.

The art museum has a sculpture garden outside, with many sculptures being ones for kids to climb on and enjoy, so before heading home, we walked around to see the sculptures.  The weather was beautiful that morning, and I want to soak in as much outdoors time as possible before the weather changes more fall-like and chilly.

Aedan ate his snack while Samantha did her craft inside, so when she wanted to eat her snack, I told her that she needed to go hide somewhere so that Aedan didn't see her eating and whine for more to eat.  So Samantha found a good place between two tall evergreen trees where she could eat in peace.  While she did that, Aedan found two sticks to play with, banging them together and on things, discovering the different noises he could make with his sticks.  Playing outside like that made me look forward to the day when we own our own home that hopefully will have a backyard with trees, giving our kids endless play opportunities just by going out in nature.

Both kids favorite sculpture was probably this one with large tunnels through the ground, one tunnel on top of the other.  Aedan loves hearing his voice when in places that echo like garages or bathrooms, so he was a big fan of hearing his voice echo inside this tunnel.  He just kept walking back and forth inside saying, "Ah, ah, ah!"

We saw a couple more sculptures before it was time to head home, and again Samantha gave me some trouble, although not as bad as Tuesday when leaving the park.  She just developed an attitude, disrespectfully saying that going there was boring anyways and that we were never going to go back there again.  I gave her a time out for being disrespectful, and then went back to talk to her about how saying things like that hurts my feelings.  I tried to plan a fun morning, with activities that I knew she would enjoy, explaining that it wasn't for Aedan at all, but really just for her, and she was being totally ungrateful.  I went through each activity that we did that morning, and she said each one was fun, so I explained to her how it really wasn't a boring morning at all, she was just telling a lie after having a good morning together.  She didn't have any explanation for why she said that.

Both kids were getting tired, so it was time to get home and have lunch.  Samantha continued to act sassy once we got home, fighting over things with Aedan and not watching her own strength when playing with him, which resulted in him getting hurt.  It just felt like one of those days where if it wasn't one, it was the other, and they both tested my patience in different ways at different times.

This next video is a favorite of mine because it shows Aedan's little personality.  I took it after getting him up in the morning.  You can see his beloved pacifier.  You can see him trying to climb on the bumper pads that I just recently put back on his crib after using mesh bumper pads for awhile.  You can see him bouncing up and down, with his hair flopping as he bounced.  You can also see him batting his eyelashes at me.  This little guy wakes up happy and is such a joy.  I think sometimes Ben and I fight over who is going to go in his room and get him when he wakes up because he is so happy.  We are truly blessed.

Friday was an easier day for me because Andrea took Aedan to play with Bennett, giving me the morning off.  I didn't have anything special planned, just going grocery shopping and getting some house cleaning done without the kids underfoot.  It's amazing how quickly time flies when you have a long list of things to do.  I was able to at least vacuum the floors before needing to make lunch for the kids and head out to meet Ben so that we could do our switch before Zumba.  I am so glad that Andrea and I are doing these babysitting swaps because it is so nice to have a built in morning each week where I can have time to myself, time to get work done, or even time to meet a friend.

Here are a couple pictures that Andrea sent me from their morning.  They went for a walk Uptown and then stopped to look at flowers.  Aedan picked some flowers for me, which Andrea sent home with me in a cup of water.  However, she said they spent most of their time playing with the rocks which isn't surprising because Aedan loves picking up, dropping, and throwing rocks.

Friday night was a great family night of cooking out chicken kebabs on the grill, playing outside, and getting the kids in bed before 8:00 so that Ben and I could have a night together with part of our time watching the first episode of the new season of Amazing Race.  Every once in awhile I think back to the time before we had kids when we would spend our Friday nights making homemade pizza, watching a show or a movie, and sometimes even going grocery shopping together late at night.  Sometimes I miss the days of lazy Friday nights because with kids, it's not too easy to sit around and relax anymore, at least not until they are in bed.

Saturday morning was Samantha's soccer game, and it went fairly well.  I was able to mostly contain Aedan to his stroller by giving him snacks and entertaining him with toys.  Samantha was pretty spacey that morning, having a hard time concentrating on the ball.  She enjoys watching the crowd and the people cheering for her more than trying to get herself into the action of the game.  I know she is still enjoying herself, and it is good experience for her, but it's difficult getting four and five year olds to concentrate for that long.  Here is a video of Samantha kicking off the ball.  She is doing much better at kicking stronger and tries her best, she is just not as aggressive as the other kids, but that's okay.

Saturday afternoon we relaxed together, had lunch, and got the kids down for their naps.  Ben and I even napped too because we were feeling tired from the day.  Once Samantha woke up from her nap, Aedan was still sleeping, so I decided to take her to the opening of the new Oxford Lane Library.  They had special events going on, like a live penguin from the Newport Aquarium for the children to meet.  Samantha very much enjoyed petting the penguin, and it seemed to like her as it kept trying to turn its head to try to look at her.

After meeting the penguin, we went downstairs for some playtime in the new children's section.  They have a new dollhouse, a big house you can climb in with a soft place to sit to read and a window to do a puppet show, a tractor, a play kitchen, and many other interactive areas.  It was fun and very nice.  The new library will be a fun place to visit, and I can't wait for story time to start back up again.

On Monday morning Stephanie and Jim dropped Isaac off at our house at 8:20 so that they could go to an appointment without having to keep him quiet and entertained.  Samantha was going to preschool, but still had about twenty minutes to play with him before Daddy took her to preschool.  She got ready very quickly that morning, quicker than she usually does, because she was so excited about playing with Isaac.  After Aedan and Isaac played at home (and made quite a mess), we got ready and left for story time at the community park.  I figured it would be a good outing with the boys, and it would be manageable to watch the two of them.  Isaac sat right in the center of my lap during the stories, leaving room for Aedan to just perch on my right leg.  Neither of them were too interested in the stories, but they did a fairly good job of being quiet.  Both of them enjoyed the songs, dancing, and watching the other kids dance.

After story time, I put Aedan in the stroller and Isaac helped me push him over to the little playground.  There were lots of other moms and kids there, and the boys had fun climbing, sliding, and even walking around holding hands with this little girl Charlotte that you can see in the picture.  You can tell Aedan has a big sister because when Charlotte came up to him and started showing him attention, he just beamed and followed her around.  We stayed at the playground until Isaac's parents came to pick him up a little after 11:30.  It was a fun morning enjoying story time and being outside.

Monday was a day Samantha had been looking forward to for a long time, as it was her first time as Star of the Day this school year.  She woke up super early and couldn't go back to sleep because she was so excited.  She had me buy goldfish and small water bottles for snack.  Samantha wanted water instead of juice because there is a girl in her class who can't drink juice, and she wanted to make sure she brought a drink that everyone could have.  (I love how considerate and thoughtful our little girl is.)  For share bag she decided to bring blankie and Belle.  It was an exciting morning, and Samantha came home saying that she can't wait until the next time she gets to be the Star of the Day.  It's the little things in the life of a toddler that make a normal day special.

Monday afternoons we have extra time time at home because Daddy has a later class, giving us more time to play before dinner.  When Aedan woke up from his nap, Samantha wanted to read Aedan some books.  I took advantage of these precious moments together to snap some pictures and take some videos.  Samantha is such a sweet little girl and such a wonderful big sister.  She loves her little brother, loves spending time with him, and in turn, he adores her and is never happier than when she is around.

That evening after dinner, we took advantage of the nice weather and went outside to play.  Samantha got a chance to play with the new neighbor girls that live a few houses down.  They rode bikes together and climbed on our play house in the back.  Aedan enjoyed riding on Samantha's scooter while Daddy pushed him down the driveway.  He wants to be a big kid so bad, and he loves to copy anything the big girls do.

(Blog about September 22-28, 2015)