Enjoying the Beauty of Springtime

Samantha: 58 Months, Week 5
Aedan: 23 Months, Week 3 (Week 103)

Samantha had been asking for quite awhile to have her friend, Maddy, over to play. We had plans for her to come over last week, but they had to cancel at the last minute due to complications with their babysitter. Samantha was super excited on the days prior to Maddy coming over. However, Samantha was pretty tired from not napping on Monday after having a long weekend in Chicago where she didn't get enough sleep. Maddy's mom dropped her off around 8:40 and actually offered to drive Ben to campus since his car still didn't start even after trying to jump it. It was nice having a morning at home because the girls were off on their own playing most of the morning, even letting Aedan play with them sometimes. I was able to get caught up on housework, like putting laundry away and catching up on washing sheets, towels, and all the stuff I didn't get done from being out of town.

The process of buying a house is always complicated with hiccups along the way, and we had one this past week with our home owner's insurance. We knew we would have to get insurance, but we figured we had until we got closer to the closing date. However, we found out around dinnertime on Monday night that we needed to finalize our home owner's insurance by Tuesday so that they could get all the documents printed up, finalized, and sent out in time for an April 20th closing, which is the latest we can close according to our contract. Things are more complicated with time lines since we are closing from long distance. We got a few quotes on Monday evening, but we mostly had to wait until business hours on Tuesday when Ben and I were both trying to do other things during the day. Ben and I went back and forth about insurance throughout the day, and I was trying to call people on the phone while all three kids were going wild in the house. Then, Ben was feeling stressed because of having to do all this last minute while being five assignments behind in grading due to our trip to Chicago and other obligations that have taken up his time lately. We were able to find insurance at a decent price and get the information sent in time, but it made for a stressful day.

Samantha was overtired and cranky throughout most of the morning, even with Maddy being over. She yelled at me several times, so I decided she needed to nap in order to be able to go to small group.  However, like normal as of late, even though she was tired, she laid in her bed for over an hour not napping. I went into her room to tell her to be quiet since she was singing loudly and I didn't want her to wake Aedan up. I was going to let her get up and read books in bed, but then I decided I was tired of her being tired and disrespectful and still refusing to get the sleep she needed, so I told her to lay back down and not make a sound. I did not expect her to sleep and was just going to give her fifteen minutes more to lay quietly in her bed, but then she actually fell asleep at 3:45 which was certainly not my intention, for it's not good if she falls asleep that late in the afternoon. In fact, Aedan and I had to go wake her up at 4:45 so that we could get ready for small group. It was difficult knowing that this would probably mess with her sleeping that night, but I was glad that she got some rest after being so tired. Clearly her body was tired and needed some sleep. When we wake Samantha up, she always wakes up very grumpily, so she was in her room crying a couple different times because she couldn't get her dress on or her tights on by herself. When she is overtired, she is much more emotional and moody, but it's hard to know what to do when she is tired but resists letting herself get enough sleep.

Since Ben's car still wasn't starting, we picked him up from campus and went straight to small group. It was a crazy, hectic day where we felt like we had no room to even breathe. Luckily, Samantha did okay at group, even though we didn't have someone to watch the kids. Then, after group was over, Samantha was running to the car in the parking lot and tripped, skinning her knee, which then caused her to cry really hard. Luckily, I had a random band-aid in the car to put over her knee, and it took quite a long time for her to settle down from freaking out about the band-aid hurting when we take it off. She always hurts herself more when she's tired, like she's not aware of her own body. We get home from small group later on Tuesdays, meaning the kids get to bed later than usual. Samantha always takes a long time to settle down to sleep, plus she napped too late that afternoon, so I heard her still stirring at 9:45. 

After the kids were in bed, Ben and I both got to work. Our long day wasn't over yet. I helped him grade the multiple choice questions on his tests, and he graded the essay parts I couldn't help him with. Ben had many late nights ahead of him so that he could get caught up on his grading. I always feel bad for him when he is busy all day, doesn't have any break, and then has to get right to work after the kids are in bed. We are both looking forward to when our life slows down a bit, once the semester is over, once we get settled into our new home, and once Ben starts his new job.

Even though Tuesday was a late night, Samantha woke up with lots of energy and talked a mile a minute for the rest of the morning. Since I washed and hung up all the new clothes she got for her birthday celebration in Chicago, she was excited to pick some new clothes to wear that day. I love how she picked out her blue Cubs shirt to go with her blue skirt and blue leggings. She loves to pick out her own clothes, and it's great to see what outfit combinations she comes up with.

In fact, when Sissy walked into Aedan's room wearing her Cubs shirt, he immediately said, "Go, Cubs, Go!" Then, he wanted to join in and wear his Cubs shirt, too. Samantha wanted Ben and me to put our Cubs shirts on as well, but we were already dressed for the day, and we told her we could all wear our matching shirts when we go to the Cubs game together in a week and a half. I'm sure Ben is glad that he is raising up Cubs fans. :)

Once we dropped Daddy off at campus after dropping Samantha at preschool (since Ben's car is still not working), Aedan and I went to Bible study at church. I decided to join up with the Wednesday morning women's Bible study since the Thursday one is not meeting right now and Beth is teaching at the morning one instead. I figured this would be my last Bible study at OBF, and I'm glad I can be a part of it. I was a little worried with how Aedan would do being dropped off to be watched because sometimes he gets upset when we leave him. However, he did fine going to the room without crying, and Andrea even came and brought Bennett. It was really good to talk to her more and for her to be comfortable sharing in a group she doesn't know. I'm so glad that she can be a part of the Bible study, and I am glad for this time each week.

Samantha brings up interesting conversations sometimes, and I am amazed at how much she understands and remembers about the Bible. On Wednesday at lunch, she started talking about how Jesus had the most pain ever when he died on the cross and how he had to do that to take all our sin away. I love her simple understanding of these profound truths, and I am so excited to see her knowledge of the Lord grow as her faith matures.

Both kids were in good moods that afternoon, and as I cleaned up the dishes from lunch I was able to capture this video of the two of them dancing and singing together. I love how you can hear Aedan's attempt at counting, even though he just keeps repeating the same numbers over and over again.

One of my favorite times of day is when I get to put Aedan down for his nap. He is always ready and loves to get his paci and go to sleep. In fact, Aedan continues to fall asleep with me rocking him at nap time, which is probably why it's one of my favorite times of day. I love to hold his little body, watch his eyes close and his body go limp, and feel his steady breath against my arm. Some day I will experience the last day I rock him to sleep, so I will soak up these quiet moments with my little man.

After Samantha's late night on Tuesday due to falling asleep late in the afternoon, plus the struggle we have to even get her to nap when she actually does, Ben and I decided on Tuesday night that we would stop trying to get her to nap on a daily basis unless there is some extreme circumstance like sickness or a really busy day. So while Aedan napped, Samantha just had quiet time to play and look at books in her room. We will see how this transition goes. We feel like she is ready for it, like her struggle to fall asleep for a nap and then staying up later at night when she does nap were signs that she is done napping, but when we have tried cutting out naps in the past it hasn't gone well, so we hope the transition is a little easier this time.

Since we dropped Ben off on campus in the morning, we had to go pick him up in the evening. I had dinner in the crock pot, and we decided to head over to campus early so that kids could walk around on campus for awhile until Daddy was done with his class.

On our way over to campus, we noticed a lady walking down the street walking a pony. We saw her stop under a pavilion, and Samantha desperately wanted to try to find the pony so that she could pet it. After finding a parking spot, we walked toward where we saw the pony and apparently they were doing some kind of stress free day where people could pet dogs and ponies. Samantha loved petting all the animals, but Aedan wasn't so sure. It was fine if he could pet their backs and sides, but as soon as the animal turned their face toward him, he would back away and whine a little. He especially didn't like it when the dogs would try to give him kisses on his face. I think he is just used to keeping his distance from Roscoe since Roscoe is an old, grumpy dog, so Aedan doesn't understand that there are nice, friendly dogs out there. Samantha wanted to give every dog a chance to be petted and hugged by her, and she loved it. It was so fun to be able to run into an event like this on campus when we were just expecting to walk around. Daddy met up with us in the Armstrong Center after his class ended, and then we went back home to eat dinner together as a family.

Aedan learns so many new words every day that it's hard to keep up with him sometimes. He also is parroting back many words that we say, and it's so cute to hear his little voice trying to pronounce all these different words. Also, he has started putting together several words into a sentence like these, for example: "shoes on off ice skating," "coat on," "apple in there," "oh no, oh no (when something is going to fall over), and "oh my, oh my". After watching and Elmo video where he learns to get rid of his paci, Aedan was also singing, "by bye paci, paci bye bye" over and over again. We are starting to talk to him some about how he will eventually have to give up his paci, that he can't sleep with it forever. He likes to sing the song, but he doesn't like the idea of giving up his paci, at least not right now.

That evening consisted of dinner, bath time, and an early bed time. Since we are transitioning Samantha out of naps, we are trying to make a more concerted effort to get her to bed early so that she can get enough sleep at night. She wakes up around 6:40-6:45 on most days, so we were happy when we heard her snoring before 8:00. Putting the kids to bed earlier cuts our family time short, especially on days when Ben teaches until 5:20, but it's nice for Ben and I to have more time together in the evenings by putting the kids to bed earlier.

On Thursday the kids and I had plans for a trip to the zoo with our friends Stephanie and Isaac. With our zoo pass we could get them in for free, and we even decided to all ride together, partly because Ben's car still wasn't starting, but also so that we could save on gas and have more time to spend together and to talk. Stephanie and I have grown to be good friends over the last year, and I will really miss her and her family when we move to Michigan. The weather was going to be beautiful on Thursday, and the Cincinnati Zoo plants thousands of tulips all over the zoo in the spring time. I heard they were beautiful, and we didn't get to see them last year, so I was pretty excited about our trip.

It started off a little chilly in the morning but warmed up to the mid-70s by the afternoon. Aren't these tulips just gorgeous?

We followed our typical route and got to see the elephants in their house. It was almost more fun seeing them in the house than when they are out on exhibit because they are farther away. We got to see the enormity of these animals up close, and we all just stood there watching them walk around, eat hay, and use their trunks to pick up small peanut shells from the ground.

We arrived for early entry to try and beat some of the crowds, and we decided to go ride on the train before the lines got longer as the day went on. On our way to the train, we saw this peacock with it's feathers spread out. It's amazing to me how large they look with their feathers. What interesting animals God has created!

We got in line and were able to ride the next train. The kids all had fun on the train, and here is a pretty patch of tulips as seen from the train car.

We then went back into the Africa section to see the giraffes. In all of our visits to the zoo we have never paid to feed the giraffes, mostly because it's a little pricey, but since we aren't going to be coming to the zoo much anymore, I figured it would be a great day to do it. In fact, Stephanie actually volunteered to pay for us since we were got them in for free. I had given the kids their snack cups before reaching the giraffes, and I told Aedan that he had to put his snack down if he wanted to feed the giraffes. Well, he did not want to give up his snack so he got really upset when I tried to get him to leave it on the stroller. He just wanted to stay upset and was too upset to feed the giraffe, so Samantha and Isaac got to feed them Aedan's lettuce. Samantha thought it was fun feeding the giraffe and thought its tongue tickled.

We stood and watched the flamingos for awhile, and Aedan was fascinated by how they would move their head side to side when they were looking around. Plus, there was one that stood right in front of Aedan and honked really loud so he thought that was really funny.

We got to see lions and meerkats before stopping to eat our lunch. Then we went into the bird house and walked down the hill past the bears before going on the jungle trails. This area is Samantha's favorite part because there are different things to climb on and hang on to pretend like you are a monkey. The gibbons were really active outside, so that was really fun to watch, too. They were super loud and could be heard from across the zoo. We also thought the orangutan sitting in the window was fun to watch for awhile.

Samantha, Aedan, and Isaac had a great time together, enjoying each other's company and the beautiful weather at the zoo. Here's an adorable picture of Samantha and Aedan walking along holding hands. I love their relationship. :)

And of course we had to take a ride on the carousel as well since it was closed the last time we took a trip to the zoo. Aedan did a great job holding on to the pole all by himself.

It was getting late in the afternoon and we could tell the kids were fading so we decided we would brush and pet the goats, play at the playground for a little while, and then get some ice cream before heading out for the day.

Our kids did a good job of staying together throughout the day, giving Stephanie and I lots of time to talk with each other, so it was an enjoyable day for us as well. We even got pink and blue colored ice cream as our treat. Then we walked back through the zoo, passing on some lovely paths lined with tulips. I feel like I could have just walked around all day enjoying the flowers, the beautiful scents floating around in the air, and feeling the warm air shining down on my skin.

The kids had had a long, fun day at the zoo together. Aedan was the first one asleep. Isaac was talking one minute and then asleep the next. Samantha said she wasn't going to be able to fall asleep, but then I looked back and she was conked out against Isaac's car seat. Even though Stephanie and I continued our conversation up front and we stopped at several stop lights for quite awhile, our kids just kept on sleeping all the way back to Oxford. They were so cute asleep in the back seat that I just had to take a picture.

For all the joy the day at the zoo brought, I was also faced with strong pain that comes with infertility. Ben and I have been trying to conceive for eleven months now with no success. We were very hopeful this past month, really feeling that we could be pregnant, but felt the extreme disappointment once that was shown to be a false hope. I felt like I was doing okay with my emotions regarding not being pregnant yet, but then someone close to me told me on Thursday that she took a pregnancy test and it was positive. This news hit me like a ton of bricks, and it was difficult not to burst into tears while walking around the zoo. I was filled with pain, sadness, anger, jealousy; wondering why so many other women are getting pregnant, but not me; wondering if there is something wrong with my body; wondering what the reason is that it has not happened for us. I didn't realize how painful infertility could be and how these emotions resurface every month as you get your hopes up and then experience the disappointment of an empty womb. I know that God has purpose for this suffering in my life, and I know there are so many factors in even getting pregnant in the first place, but all of that is hard to swallow when faced with pain in the midst of suffering.

Friday was a pretty typical day for us with dropping Ben off on campus, preschool for Samantha, and grocery shopping for Aedan and me. Then, we followed our typical Friday schedule of having the kids eat lunch with Ben while I go to Zumba. I hadn't been for awhile due to our busy schedules, so it was fun to be a part of it and get some good exercise. It was a beautiful day out, so the kids actually ate lunch at the TRI playground so they could play after they ate. Ben said they ate the fastest they ever have before because they were so motivated to play. Aedan was definitely ready for a nap that afternoon, and Samantha did a good job playing quietly in her room for quiet time.

Friday afternoon Ben got the Saturn towed to a local car shop to see why it wouldn't start. We were hoping that it wouldn't be anything that was too big of a deal or something that would cost a lot of money. They said there was a bad connection between a wire and the battery which was an easy fix and they only charged us $60 for the tow and the work they did, which was good with us. Hopefully the car will last us a few more months, until the fall when we will probably trade the car in for a minivan.

Saturday was a busy day for Samantha because she had her last art class in the morning followed by her last ice skating lesson, and then later in the afternoon she had a birthday party she was invited to. While Samantha was at art class I was able to get laundry put away and finish the cleaning that I had started the day before. Then, I started going through boxes in the garage, which was my project for the weekend. I am trying to go through and organize thing in April, before beginning to pack in May, so the garage was my next task.

I took Samantha to ice skating lessons and was super excited to see how well she could skate. I just sat there and felt so proud of her. When she first started lessons, I wasn't so sure she would ever pick up on skating, but she learned so quickly and now she is one of the best in her class. She gives it her all every time, she listens well to the teachers, and she really enjoys herself. I was so excited to watch her skate, and it was her last lesson, so I took a lot of videos. Look how great she is doing! In fact, after class she told Miss Cassie that she wants to keep taking skating lessons so that she can be a skating teacher when she grows up. So sweet, and I'm so excited that we can continue skating lessons up in Sault Ste. Marie, as it is a common past time for many people during the winter months.

Aedan is always really happy to see Samantha when she comes back home from being gone all morning. He ran up to her and gave her a huge hug, and they had a fun lunch together. Aedan even got creative in how he was eating, holding both a fork and spoon together to scoop up his food. I guess he felt like it was more efficient that way. :)

On Saturday afternoon Samantha got to "cash in" her cotton balls from her Good Choices Jar for a reward, and she chose to watch all of the movie The Good Dinosaur during her normal quiet time. I had a meeting to go at the library that afternoon to learn how to replace elastic on cloth diapers, so Ben stayed home while Aedan napped, and a friend picked up Samantha to take her to the birthday party. She had a gymnastics party, and Samantha had a great time playing on all the equipment. She especially liked playing with the parachute at the end and didn't want to leave the party because she was having such a good time. She even told me that she ate two pieces of cake! It's so fun that Samantha is getting to the age where she can participate in fun birthday parties with her friends. I love to see my little girl growing up, turning into a school aged kid, more and more ready for kindergarten every day.

After a busier day on Saturday, Sunday was a much more restful day. We went to the first service at church, played outside for quite awhile that afternoon, and even went over to the Oxford Community Park to play while Daddy finished up his softball practice. It was such a wonderful weekend to spend time outside together as a family. I love spring time, although this weather has reminded us more of summer because of the warm temperatures.

I took this picture below to show our cute little man. Daddy took him to get his hair cut on Saturday morning, and with his new clothes on, he looked like such a big boy. I feel like he has grown so much lately, both in height and in development. Aedan is always full of fun and energy. He keeps us on our toes, and he makes us laugh every day. He is silly, he is cuddly, he loves Sissy, and I can't believe he will be two years old in just a couple weeks. Where has the time gone?

(Blog about April 12-18, 2016)

Our Family Trip to Chicago

Samantha: 58 Months, Week 4

Aedan: 23 Months, Week 2 (Week 102)

This was the week of our big trip to Chicago for Ben's political science conference. Since the trip is mostly paid for by the department, we always use it as an excuse for an extended trip to see my family as well. 

Because of our trip, we had a shortened week of normal activities in Oxford. We gave our kids a bath on Monday night, and I forgot to include this picture and video in my last post. Normally you hear about bath time being a calming and relaxing part of the the bedtime routine. However, almost the exact opposite is true of our kids. It seems like bath time riles them up even more. After the kids got in their pajamas, this is what Ben and I got to be a witness to that evening. Aedan starting spinning around in circles, singing "Oh Where is My Hairbrush" very loudly. It wasn't very long before Samantha joined in as well, and it was hilarious to watch. I love the fun that they have with each other, even though it's not the best activity to participate in right before bed.

I had thought about taking the kids somewhere on Tuesday, but it was just one of those days where I could tell we needed to stay home. Both kids were too tired and crying about the smallest thing. Samantha decided she wanted to stay home, and she was actually playing really well with Aedan that morning, giving me a chance to get laundry done and other chores around the house. Especially with our week coming up, I knew it was good to just get rest and play at home. In fact, Samantha was tired enough that she actually took a nap that afternoon, which I was thankful for. She was very emotional and still trying to recover from her cough. I got both Samantha and Aedan down for earlier naps, and Samantha ended up napping for an hour and a half. In general, we are still trying to give up naps, but there are some days where it is just still necessary.

Wednesday was a full, busy, somewhat crazy day. First of all, Wednesdays are my days to watch Bennett, so I already planned on having him at the house playing with Aedan. Then, we agreed to watch Isaac for Jim and Stephanie, so for awhile we had all three boys playing at our house. Isaac got dropped off at 6:40 a.m. so that they could get to a doctor's appointment, so we put on a show for him to watch until our kids woke up for the day. Samantha was really excited when she heard Isaac was there since we didn't tell her about it ahead of time. When Aedan woke up, Isaac wanted to go with me to his room, and Aedan was thrilled to see Isaac standing next to his crib first thing in the morning. Since we planned to leave for Chicago after Samantha was finished with preschool and Ben already made alternate plans for his classes, he stayed home from campus that morning. It was nice to have him around while we had a full house, plus we still had to get packed for our trip to Chicago, making it a busy morning in our house. However, the boys all played well together and had lots of energy, with lots of running around and chasing each other.

I forget when I took these pictures of Aedan, but I wanted to show his crazy hair after sleeping on it. It was sticking up on the side of his head. I love his crazy bed head.

I also love his little shy smile in this picture. He is so adorable.

We ended up getting everything packed up in enough time to pick Samantha up from preschool and head out. We stopped at Wendy's in Oxford for lunch first and ran into Samantha's friend McKenna from preschool. Samantha asked if we could all sit together, so the girls were super excited to be able to sit next to each other and talk while they ate their lunch. Then, we hit the road for Chicago, letting the kids play in the car until we got to interstate 70. Aedan was pretty tired from a full, busy morning, so he fell right asleep with his paci. Samantha, on the other hand, just wiggled and whispered for over an hour rather than sleeping. Eventually, after several attempts to get her to stop playing and fall asleep, we just gave up and let her listen to one of her books on CD while Aedan continued napping.

After Aedan woke up from his nap, we stopped to fill up on gas and go to the bathroom before continuing on our way. We arrived in Chicago a little after 5:00, dropped Roscoe off at my parents' house, and then drove over to Christy's apartment for dinner. The kids were definitely ready to get out of the car, and they were both hungry and tired. We had fun seeing Aunt Christy and Brielle, playing with toys, and seeing the cats before we went back to the hotel for bed time.

Since Miami was reimbursing us for our hotel, they approved a two room suite at the Staybridge Suites, giving us all plenty of room to spread out and sleep in separate rooms. Samantha had her own queen size bed in a room with an attached bathroom. Ben and I had a king size bed in a room with an attached bathroom, and we had Aedan sleep in his pack and play out in the living room area. It worked out really well. However, since it is an hour earlier in Chicago, that never bodes well with our kids' schedules. They normally wake up around 6:40-6:45 at home, so guess what time Aedan woke up on Thursday morning? 5:40 Chicago time. Ben and I definitely weren't ready to get up yet, but we told him to go back to sleep and that didn't work. We didn't want his singing and talking to wake up Samantha as well, so we brought him into our bedroom for a little while. Daddy was watching Sports Center, and Aedan was perfectly happy cuddling into him in bed with his paci. It was just too cute of a moment not to take a picture of it.

Despite our morning being earlier than we would have preferred, the kids were in good moods and excited for our first day in Chicago. Ben had to present at a panel at the conference, so we dropped him off at the train station before meeting Aunt Christy, Brielle, and Ava, the little girl she babysits, at the DuPage Children's Museum at 9:00. We got there right when it opened, giving us lots of time to play before it got busier. Grandpa and Grandma also met us there, and all the grandchildren were excited to see them. It was nice to have so many adults because then it was a one-to-one ratio with the kids, making it easier to watch them and interact with them in the various exhibits. There were so many fun things to play with at this museum. The kids had a great time. Here are some pictures from our day.

They made pictures with glow in the dark light tubes.

Samantha really enjoyed building this whole town and watching the shadows change as the light went across the ceiling like the sun goes across the sky. She spent a long time putting all these buildings up and was very proud of her finished product.

There was a bridge you could walk on with one side with little bumps up and down. The kids did that for quite awhile before moving on to the bubble area. Aedan LOVES bubbles, so he played here for quite awhile. He loved the bubble wands that he could pick up himself and were easy enough for him to blow bubbles all by himself. As he blew bubbles he kept saying, "self, self," which he always says when he has figured out how to do something all on his own. Brielle also really liked the bubbles. There was a water area there too, and both Brielle and Aedan got soaking wet from pouring water out of the table. In fact, I think Aedan got his shoes soaking wet from trying to pour a cup of water into a bowl and spilling most of it. It was fun to see Brielle and Aedan playing together.

Samantha wasn't too interested in the bubble/water section and wanted to flit around from one place to another, rather than waiting for the little kids to be done playing. Another area Aedan really enjoyed was the tubes with air and ping pong balls. In fact, when I told him we were going to the museum that day, he looked at me and said, "Balls?" He loves the ball area at the Cincinnati Museum Center, which is what he was thinking of when asking that question. I helped Aedan connect the tubes that you see in this video so that he could stick a ball in the bottom and have it go flying out the hole in the top. He did this over and over again. I think it was the activity he spent the most time on in the entire museum.

There was also an area with lots of different sized pinwheels and a fan that would blow to spin them around. Aedan liked taking the pinwheels out and sticking them in different places. Do you see his lower lip sticking out? That's because he is trying to blow the pinwheels himself, and he tried so hard to blow as hard as he could.

Samantha was interested in going to a woodworking area. We had to wait for a little while for a station to open up, and I brought Aedan in with us as well, but it was hard to help both of them at the same time. Eventually Grandpa saw us in the room, so I motioned for him to come in and help us out. Then, Grandpa helped Samantha saw some wood, hammer some nails, and use the screwdriver. Aedan desperately wanted to use the tools, but he kept trying to hit the nails with the hammer sideways which didn't work out so well. He just wasn't quite coordinated enough to hold the tools correctly, but it was fun for them to experience real tools in a safe and contained environment. What a fun idea for a children's museum!

They even had a small art room where the kids could do some watercolor painting. At this point it was getting close to lunchtime and I could see Samantha and Aedan losing energy, so we took a break to go down to the cafeteria to eat our packed lunch. Christy was kind enough to make sandwiches for all of us, as well as bring fruit, chips, and other snacks for the kids. We had a good lunch and were in better moods and ready for more play time afterwards.

We decided to check out the second floor that had lots of mathematical games using shapes and patterns, as well as this large triangular prism that kids could walk through. Aedan and Brielle found it to be interesting, especially since it was covered with mirrors on the inside.

They had a whole table of maga-tiles, so Samantha, Aedan, and I sat down to build with these for quite awhile. Samantha said that they have these at preschool and she likes playing with them quite a bit. I started building a house and then noticed that Samantha was copying me, building a house identical to mine. She thought our houses looked great together and wanted me to take a picture. It was so fun spending this time together being creative and building.

Aedan decided to just stack one square on top of another, making a tall tower. Then, he finished it off with a triangle at the top. I love to see how differently their brains work and how everyone can enjoy the same activity in different ways.

There was a large section on the Chinese culture on the second floor, including this area where a video played of a man practicing tai chi. I told Samantha that it looked he was doing kung fu, so then she had to go over and try it out, eventually saying that it wasn't really kung fu. So she had to show me what kung fu really looked like.

It was getting close to the time we needed to head out for the afternoon so that all the kids could get down for a good afternoon nap. We went back down to the first floor and most of the kids engaged in more quiet activities. Samantha found this wall of holes to fill with pegs, and she decided to make a pattern from the top all the way down.

Samantha called me over when she finished her pattern, and she was so proud of herself. It took her quite awhile to complete this. Toward the bottom she ran out of blue so then did a pattern of yellow and red instead. I love to see her focusing on a task like this and deciding how to play with it all on her own.

Brielle and Aedan played with tiles on a light board.

We played with legos on a light board as well.

Then, our last activity of the day was in a toddler area with musical instruments and books. It was fun to see all the little ones interacting with each other, even if Aedan was banging on the xylophone with all this strength.

Before we left the museum, the kids got pictures taken on the cow and then all the cousins sat together on the big pink chair. Aedan wasn't much in the mood for smiling since he was so tired from waking up at 5:40 a.m., so this is the best picture we could get.

Aedan couldn't wait to go to sleep that afternoon, and I ended up moving his pack and play into the big bedroom so that way I could hang out in the living room and be able to reach Samantha's room without having to bother Aedan. I was determined to get Samantha to nap that afternoon since we had plans for the joint birthday party that evening with my family and I knew bedtime would be later. I told Samantha that she would be able to stay up later and swim longer if she took a nap. Plus, I told her this was the only day I was going to make her nap since we were going to be out in the afternoon the next two days. I was going to lay with her to help her fall asleep, but she actually asked that I leave. I gave her a chance to fall asleep on her own but said that I would come back in if she wasn't laying quietly. However, within ten minutes or so I could hear her snoring over the monitor. I was so glad that she let herself sleep because it was going to allow us to have a much better night.

Daddy walked back from the train station since Aedan was still sleeping and I couldn't leave to go pick him up. A little after 5:00 I left to pick up Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza for dinner. Christy ordered a cake from a friend of hers who has a bakery business. My Grandma and Don bought balloons, plates, and napkins. We met in the breakfast seating area in the hotel, pushed some tables together, and got ready for our little birthday celebration. Aedan got an Elmo balloon, and Samantha got an Ariel balloon, which they both loved. The balloons provided plenty of entertainment as we got everything set up.

I love deep dish pizza, and Lou Malnati's is definitely my favorite. It's fun to have deep dish pizza at least once a year when we come up to visit. After everyone ate pizza, we decided to let the kids open presents before cutting into the cake. I had Samantha and Aedan sit next to each other with their balloons to get pictures of the birthday kids (even though it's not their birthdays yet).

It was fun for both Samantha and Aedan to open presents, making sure neither of them felt left out. They got some great gifts, and I am very thankful for how thoughtful my family was in blessing them with these kind and generous presents. Samantha got a new Ariel bathing suit, cover-up, nightgown, Frozen watch, sparkly sandals, Frozen flip flops, Fancy Nancy book set, the Tangled movie, and lots of new clothes for spring/summer, including many cute dresses that made Samantha very happy. Aedan got a new Cars bathing suit, construction pajama set, a whale Puddle Jumper floatie, two pairs of shoes, a Veggie Tales book and two movies, and lots of new clothes for spring/summer. Here are some pictures during present time.

After looking at all the presents and getting all the paper thrown away, we decided to have cake. We went with a water theme since we planned to go swimming, so Christy's friend was kind enough to make us a water cake with a mermaid and some fish on it. It turned out really well, and Samantha thought it looked really neat. Although, she did make a comment about how Ariel's "bibs" are supposed to be purple and not pink. (We still love the she calls them bibs, so we are not going to correct her on that one.) She wanted a piece of Ariel's head for her piece of cake. The cake even has raspberries in the middle which Aedan really loved.

After enjoying our cake and cleaning up after ourselves, we went back upstairs to get in our swimsuits. Samantha was excited to wear her new bathing suit and cover-up, and Aedan couldn't wait to put on his floatie just like Samantha. Even though it was getting late, we had to follow through on our promise to go swimming together. Samantha LOVES to swim. She loves to pretend she's a mermaid and that we are either her sister or King Triton. She loves to jump off the edge and make big splashes. Aedan's floatie didn't quite hold him up well enough to let him go around on his own, but it certainly helped him become more independent and not have to be held by us the whole time. He enjoyed walking up and down the stairs as well as climbing onto the edge of the pool and then counting, "1-2-3" and jumping into my arms. He even was kicking his feet out behind him while swimming around in the water. It's great to see him become more comfortable in the water.

It had been a long, full day, and it was already late, so after swimming for awhile we called it a night and went back upstairs to rinse the kids off and get them in bed. On Friday we had plans to go to the Museum of Science and Industry downtown. Our Cincinnati Museum Center pass can get us in there for free, so all we had to pay was gas to get there and parking. Aunt Christy offered to drive so that way we could fit all the car seats in her SUV, and it worked out pretty well with Samantha in the back, Brielle and Aedan in the middle, and Christy and I in the front. Samantha was super excited about sitting in the way back of the car, and Brielle and Aedan enjoyed being able to see each other. Aedan had a snack cup of Fruit Loops and was sharing them with Brielle as we drove. It was pretty cute. Ben was able to come with us in the car rather than take the train, and he even went to the museum with us for a couple hours before going off to his conference. It was fun having Daddy tag along for awhile.

The museum was pretty busy that day and at times the crowds were a bit overwhelming. Our kids did a better job of sleeping that morning and at least made it to 6:45, but that was after being up past their bedtime the night before, so they were tired and it was starting to impact their moods a little bit. However, we had a great time exploring the museum. We even found this area more geared to younger children where they could play with and interact with many hands-on things.

We made our way around the lower level, looking at the circus area, the farm equipment, sitting in a tractor, and looking at the fairy house.

We stopped to eat lunch in the cafeteria before Ben had to take a taxi to the conference hotel, and then Christy and I were left on our own with the kids which made it a little more difficult, especially since Aedan was pretty tired and fussy that day. If you've ever been to the Museum of Science and Industry, you know how big it is, and most of it is geared towards older children or adults, so a lot of the rooms we just kind of walked through and didn't spend too much time in. One of our favorite spots was watching the little baby chicks so we stayed here for quite some time.

We even got to see a chick trying to break free from its eggshell which was pretty cool to watch. Although Samantha did make a comment that she felt sorry for the baby because it didn't have a mother.

We looked at the weather exhibit where Samantha was fascinated by watching the simulation of the tsunami waves, the model train exhibit, walked through the old town streets, and then made our way to the balcony where they have the displays of the inside of the human body. Samantha also found this part interesting. I pointed out many different body systems to her and explained to her how they worked, to the best of my knowledge. It's fun now that she's getting older and can enjoy more higher thinking exhibits. It's fun to be able to teach her new things and to spark her curiosity for learning. I feel like she's getting to the age where she would enjoy going to a museum without Aedan so that she can spend as much time as she wants in one area. Our last stop was the giant plane they had hanging from the ceiling, so all the kids pretended to be passengers on the plane.

We had talked about getting ice cream in the old town area, but the line was super long and I knew no one had patience for that, so before leaving for the day, we stopped by Starbucks so that Christy and I could get coffee, plus we got the kids a little dirt pudding cup for a snack.

Then, we hit the road with three tired kids on our hands. Aedan was happy to get in his car seat with his paci and fell asleep almost instantly. Samantha took a little longer, but I told her it would make her feel a lot better if she could just take a little nap, so I was glad when I looked back and she was asleep as well. Brielle took a little longer to fall asleep, but a nice quiet car gave Christy and I a chance to talk, which was nice. I'm glad we chose to all ride together.

Samantha slept most of the way back, and Aedan slept until we stopped to pick up Daddy from the train station. We then went back to Aunt Christy's house to let the kids play for awhile before Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Matt came over for dinner. We ordered food from Portillo's and just brought it back to eat at the apartment so that the kids could have more freedom in playing. After short naps for all, the kids were fading fast and we wanted to get them to bed at a decent time, so we left to go back to the hotel before 8:00.

Ben was done with his work for the conference, so on Saturday we had plans for a mini-reunion with my cousins up in McHenry. We didn't plan on meeting there until 11:00, so since we had extra time in the morning, we decided to go swimming as a family after breakfast. Our kids woke up at about the same time, 6:45, and we tried to get Aedan to go back to sleep but our attempts did not work, making for a tired little boy that morning. We drove to McHenry with Aunt Christy and Uncle Matthew again since they had enough space for everyone, and Aedan actually ended up falling asleep in the car on the way there because he was just so tired from not sleeping enough over the past few days and already being pretty active for most of the morning. I was glad he could get rest and be in a better mood to play. It was really good to see some of my extended family, like Aunt Diane, Melissa and her three kids, and Brad, Lynn, and their two boys. My other cousins were busy that day and couldn't come, but it was really good to connect with Melissa and Brad again. I really enjoyed sitting and talking with Melissa, watching Samantha and Katherine play Barbies together. We had sandwiches, chips, fruit, vegetables, and cookies for lunch, and then we had more time to visit and let the kids play. Samantha also really enjoyed Nolan, and for awhile Samantha, Katherine, and Nolan were all playing puppies together. Here they are watching some little show on an iPhone.

After lunch we attempted to lay Aedan down for a nap in an upstairs bedroom, but since he had fallen asleep in the car, I think that ruined his chance of napping that afternoon. We left him in the room for awhile, but we don't think he napped at all. While Brielle and Aedan were in bed, the older kids went outside to play. They decided to play a baseball game and even set up chairs along the hill as part of the cheering section. You can't tell which one is Samantha, but she was very excitedly cheering everyone on. When it was her turn to hit, she actually made contact on her first attempt and was able to run the bases. It was so fun to see her playing with my cousin's kids like this. I wish we all could see each other more often so that our kids could get to know their kids more. 

Since Samantha only napped for a little while in the car the previous day, stayed up later than she should have every night, and skipped any chance of a nap on Saturday, she was losing it by the middle of the afternoon. Even though we were all having fun catching up with each other, we decided to head out around 5:00 so that we could get back for dinnertime. Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Matt met us for dinner at a restaurant near our hotel called Sweet Tomatoes because fresh, quick food sounded good to me. Samantha and Aedan were pretty spacey and didn't eat too well because they were so tired. However, no kid will turn down ice cream, so here are all the kids enjoying their ice cream that evening.

The lack of sleep had definitely caught up with them at this point, so the kids started getting slap happy and making silly faces for Aunt Christy.

By the time we got the kids into bed on Saturday night, I think Ben and I were just as tired as the kids were so we weren't too far behind them. No matter what kind of sleep deficit our kids are operating under, they always wake up at the same time every day, pretty much without fail. So since we were up early again on Sunday morning and church didn't start until 11:00, we decided to make one last trip to the swimming pool. The water was much warmer than the previous day and we really enjoyed ourselves. It was a fun way to end our trip to Chicago. After swimming we all took showers/baths and got our car packed up and checked out of the hotel. Here are the kids riding out on the cart that morning. 

Going to an 11:00 service is always difficult for our kids, especially when we are on trips because their schedules are all out of whack and they don't sleep as much or as well as they do at home. In fact, Aedan even woke up crying several times during the night, making him extra tired on Sunday morning. When we picked Samantha up after church, the teachers said that Samantha was spacey and she couldn't tell Ben anything she had learned there whereas at OBF she can always retell us the whole Bible story they learned. When I picked up Aedan, he was standing next to one of the teachers crying with tears streaming down his face and a very red face. I asked the teacher if he'd been crying most of the time, and she said, "Well yeah, on and off, most of the time." That wasn't a very reassuring thing to say. I got him and we left the room, but it took quite some time to get him to calm down and stop crying. He didn't want me to put him down. In fact, we had to go back into the room to get his coat, and as soon as we walked into the room he started crying again, grabbing onto me, and saying "No, no, no..." probably because he was afraid I was going to leave him there again. Apparently it was a fairly traumatic experience for him at church that morning, and I felt bad that he got so upset.

From church we went back to Christy and Matthew's place for lunch. They made eggs and pancakes for us, as well as Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Matt. Ben and I had the leftover Lou Malnati's pizza because there was no way we were going to let that go to waste. After we let the kids play for awhile, we finally got on the road at 4:00 Ohio time which was much later than we would have liked. The kids did pretty well in the car. Samantha slept for about an hour, and Aedan slept for just under two hours. Then, we let them watch a movie on the portable DVD player. We stopped at a Wendy's to pick up dinner and go the bathroom, but we just ate the food in the car so that we could continue to drive. As it was, we didn't get home until 9:15, and then we still had to get the car unpacked and the kids' rooms set up enough to get them to sleep. We were all exhausted and glad to be back home in our own beds. Going to Chicago was a lot of fun. We got to spend good time with family and got to do fun things every day, but now it was time to get settled back into our routine and get caught up on sleep.

On Monday morning Ben discovered his car wouldn't start, so after dropping Samantha off at preschool, we dropped him off on campus before Aedan and I did our grocery shopping and headed back home to start on our mounds of laundry and catching up from being gone for several days. We were all tired from our time in Chicago, we were all playing catch up, and even though Samantha was tired, she didn't nap that afternoon which was frustrating to me. Ben was behind on grading from being gone and not working much, so he stayed up very late trying to get caught up. It will take us a few days to get things back under control, but it was fun to be able to travel to Chicago together on a mostly free trip. With Samantha entering kindergarten next year and going to school full time, we won't have the liberty to pick up and leave for an extended weekend like this because we won't want her to miss that much school. So, it's nice to take advantage of this while we can. :)

(Blog about April 5-11, 2016)