Our First Christmas Traveling with Three Kids

Samantha: 79 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 44 Months, Week 4
Owen: 3 Months, Week 2 (Week 15)

This blog starts by continuing on with our time visiting family in Upland for Christmas. After a not so great Saturday and finally getting Owen down for the night, he woke up twice overnight, which is not so uncommon lately. I ended up having to wake him up so I could get him ready for church on Christmas Eve morning. There was a breakfast before church that morning, and I tried to get Owen to nurse before we left for church, but he wasn't very interested, really only eating for about five minutes. I hoped that I could nurse him at church once he showed more signs of being hungry, but he was just really pretty fussy that morning. Other people offered to hold him during breakfast so Ben and I could eat, and then when I took him back I noticed that he had pooped out of his diaper. I walked around the MFC for awhile looking for a changing table, which I couldn't find, so I ended up just changing him on the counter in the women's bathroom. Owen was crying hard the whole time because he didn't want me to be changing his clothes and cleaning him off. He was finally ready to nurse. I felt like everyone coming into the bathroom was looking at me, wondering what was wrong with Owen that he was crying so hard and I wasn't doing anything about it. 

When I finally got him redressed, I went out to find the rest of the family, and they had already gone over to the church building. Well, I didn't have Owen's coat or blanket to wrap him up in. I didn't want to take him outside in the cold without something covering him, so I improvised and used the nursing cover, which worked okay. He was still pretty upset, so I went to find a place to nurse him. There is a room attached to the women's restroom right across from the sanctuary that has some wicker furniture to sit in. I started nursing Owen and he finally calmed down to eat, but then the service was played on a speaker system in the nursing room very loudly, and Owen got very distracted and stopped eating so I had to get up and turn the volume down and try to get him settled back to eating. As he nursed he actually fell asleep. He had a long morning, I had a long morning trying to care for him, and I felt bad that I was missing out on being in church with my family on Christmas Eve morning. I put the Ergo on and got him positioned in it, hoping that he would fall back asleep all cuddled up with me, but he was wide awake and alert again. I decided to try and walk around with him to see if that would help him fall asleep, but he fought it for quite a long time, much too distracted by all there was to look at. Even with the cover pulled up over his head, he was trying to peek out the sides and look around. So I kind of heard bits and pieces of the sermon as I walked around outside the sanctuary. Owen ended up falling asleep about five minutes before the church service was over, and it had been a very long and frustrating morning for me.

Before we left church for the day, we took our annual Toll family picture. It turned out pretty well considering the kids were tired and antsy since there was no children's program that morning. And for how hard of a time Owen gave me falling asleep, he was then fast asleep in the Ergo. At least you can kind of see his little head sticking out. :)

Afternoons in Upland are often very quiet and relaxing. Most of the members of the family are introverts, so they go off and do their own things, oftentimes even napping. Alaina wasn't feeling very well, so Aunt Jeni and her went to lay down for awhile. Aedan took a nap downstairs, and Owen had just woken up while we ate lunch, so he was awake for awhile before needing another nap. Samantha and I spent some time coloring together, and Owen hung out on the floor next to us. He even held a marker in his little hand for quite awhile, while he stared at his big sister. She enjoyed having him laying on the floor next to her.

Once Aedan woke up from his nap that afternoon, he was super excited to make his birthday cake for Jesus. He got cake mix, frosting, sprinkles, and candles from his preschool teacher at church, and he wanted to make sure we brought it with us so we could make the cake in Upland. (He is super cute with his bed head, too!)

Here is a cute video that Aunt Jeni took of Owen when playing with him and talking to him one night: https://www.facebook.com/jeni.t.riley/videos/1759705257394257/. He certainly had a lot to say, and he loved to talk to and cuddle with Aunt Jeni. :)

The rest of Christmas Eve was just time hanging out with family. We ate dinner, gave the kids a bath, and got them all to bed, knowing they were all super excited for Christmas morning. Owen went to bed much better that night, woke up twice during the night, and then slept in past 9:00 in the morning. I kept waiting for him to wake up so that our morning could start. The kids were waiting patiently to be able to open their presents, but we didn't want to start without Owen.

After breakfast Aedan helped put sprinkles on Jesus' birthday cake. :)

Finally, once it got be 9:15, I decided to just wake Owen up. We waited long enough, and he had slept long enough. I fed him and then we were ready to start opening presents. Here are all the kids sitting in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. I love this picture. It is such a great picture of all four of them looking at the camera and smiling.

The kids got spoiled on Christmas Day this year. I'm not going to go into all the details of everything they got, but here are some pictures of our morning. Aedan got some Super Hero magnets, Batman pajamas, a Batman shirt, and a Spider-Man hat from Aunt Jeni and Alaina.

Aedan got a PJ Masks activity book, which he was really excited to look through.

Samantha got some doll clothes for her American Girl doll, Kit. It was a coat, hat, boots, and scarf. She got it out and put it on Kit right away.

Samantha bought Alaina a velvet coloring page for Alaina from her school's Santa Store, and she couldn't wait for her to open it.

Ben got a new zip-up Cubs sweatshirt from Aunt Jeni and Alaina.

Samantha got an art kit where she can paint and design her own place setting. She will love creating that.

Here is Samantha with Kit all dressed up in her new winter clothes.

Aedan got some transformer pajamas that he couldn't wait to wear to bed that night.

Uncle Timmy got Aedan these John Deere tractors.

Samantha was pretty excited about this doll wardrobe for her clothes for Kit. It was all folded up in this box, and we told her we couldn't open it up until we got back home since we had to try and fit all our stuff in the car for the trip back home.

One of Aedan's favorite presents was this tranformer that was Optimus Prime as a car carrier. He couldn't wait for me to get it out of the box so he could play with it, along with his other Rescue Bots.

Samantha got a couple special sewing kits from Ema. One was a beginner kit where she could learn the basics of sewing and make little animals from patterns. The other kit was where she could learn to use a sewing machine and make clothes for Kit. This will be something really fun for me to help Samantha with in the afternoons on the weekends when her brothers are sleeping. She has shown a lot of interest in learning how to sew, so I figured this would be a good way to get her started. (Who knows, maybe I will learn something from it as well!)

Then, last but not least, the best presents of the day, the homemade presents from Papa. He made something special for each kid. Here is Aedan opening up his Griffin Rock Firehouse for his Rescue Bots. It even has a real, working bell in the tower.

Then Samantha opened up her doll bed for Kit, with bedding made by Ema. You can tell she loved it by the look on her face.

Alaina got a special jewelry box and this wall hanging with a butterfly in the middle to hang her necklaces on.

Here are all three kids with their homemade presents from Ema and Papa. They are all so thoughtful. The kids loved them, and the other special thing about them was that each one used some old barn wood from the farm that Ema grew up on. The red looking wood on each project is the barn wood. Papa is definitely talented in his ability to make things, and these will be cherished presents for years to come.

Here is Owen hanging out with Papa after opening presents that morning. Owen had fallen asleep on my shoulder for awhile, taking a nap during the end of present time, so we he was awake and alert after that.

I forget what the kids were watching on TV, but Samantha chose to sit on the couch while Alaina and Aedan cuddled up under a blanket on the floor together. I love seeing the two of them develop a special relationship together, too.

All the kids wanted to wear their new pajamas on Christmas night. Samantha had requested matching pajamas with Alaina, so Ema got them these cute, matching Rapunzel nightgowns. They were proud to pose for a picture before bed that night.

After a fun time celebrating Christmas in Upland, Tuesday came too quickly, especially for Samantha and Aedan. They were sad to spend the morning packing up and saying good-bye, but we had to get on the road to Chicago. Here are some of our last moments in Upland. Samantha reading to Papa, and Ema reading to Aedan.

And of course Alaina wanted to hold Owen one last time. He will be much bigger and probably starting to move around or sit up the next time she sees him.

When it was time to say our final good-byes, we had two sad kids getting ready to leave. Aedan was crying on the potty. He had huge crocodile tears rolling down his cheeks because he will miss Ema and Papa. Then, Samantha was crying because she will fiercely miss Alaina. Do you see the sweet hugs between these girls? Do you see the sadness and love on Samantha's face? I know I say this a lot, but God definitely knew what he was doing when he planned for these girls to be born so close together. They love each other, love playing together, and even got to sleep in the same room during our time in Upland. I wish these girls could see each other more often. (But we are glad that Aunt Jeni has an iPhone now so the girls can FaceTime with each other whenever they want to talk.)

We drove as far as Lafayette before stopping for lunch. Owen took a decent nap in the car while Samantha and Aedan played on their LeapPads, giving Ben and I a chance to actually talk while we drove. We were going to stop at Chick-fil-A so the kids could play in the play area for awhile, but the parking lot was so packed we couldn't even find a space to park. We didn't want to crowd in the restaurant, so we decided to go back down the street to Chipotle instead. We just beat the lunch rush, and the kids enjoyed their meal. I was able to nurse Owen in the car before going in to eat lunch myself.

From there we had about 2 and a half hours of driving left. We wanted to try not to stop again. Owen had been awake for awhile, so it didn't take long before he fell asleep. However, even though I tried to tuck the blanket in around him like I did on the way down to Upland, he was able to wiggle his arms out and make himself mad, only sleeping about an hour, which was not long enough to keep him happy. Aedan was pretty tired that day, so he had fallen asleep in the car as well. Once Owen woke up I tried to keep him quiet as long as I could so that Aedan could sleep as long as he needed. I tried to get Owen to go back to sleep or take a pacifier, which worked for a little while before he just got angry. At about 3:15 he was just screaming and crying, and I couldn't do anything to calm him down, so we decided to stop at the first oasis we came upon. I nursed him again and changed his diaper while the big kids went in the oasis to walk around for awhile. Ben got us some coffee and then we were back on the road again. Traveling with three kids is a lot of work.

After getting checked into the hotel in Aurora, we worked on getting ourselves unpacked and settled, and getting everything set up for bedtime so that we didn't have to do any of that when we got back to the hotel that evening. Then, after I fed Owen again, we went over to Christy's house for dinner and time to hang out.

At our hotel Samantha and Aedan shared the bunk bed room, and we had Owen out in the big room with us. We decided to start off the night with his pack and play in the bathroom and then move it out when we were ready to go to bed, that way Ben and I had a little bit of time to ourselves to relax and watch TV. It worked pretty well, and he slept fairly well, even though he woke up twice during the night.

Wednesday was a big day, as we celebrated Christmas with my family. Owen slept in quite a bit on Wednesday morning, and we wanted to be at Christy's house by 10:00, so we decided to just leave and have me feed him there. Owen was pretty angry in the car, and I went upstairs to feed him right when I got there, but there was just too much going on for him to nurse, even though he was hungry. I felt bad again because the same thing was happening as it did in Upland. I felt tired and frustrated that I couldn't get him to nurse. However, there were plenty of people around the house to hold and entertain him throughout the morning, so that was good.

The kids and us were again spoiled by all the wonderful presents we got from people in Chicago. Here are some pictures highlighting some of them. Samantha got a doll armoire for her Kit clothes from Grandpa and Grandma.

Here is Grandpa opening up the picture frames we got for them.

Aedan got three different Super Heroes from Aunt Christy and Uncle Matthew, Batman, Iron-Man, and Spider-Man. He loved them and couldn't wait to get them out of the box so he could play with them.

Here is Oliver opening up his bowls and plates that we got for him.

Samantha got TONS of clothes for Kit. This particular outfit is a Cubs outfit, which she was really excited about. (Ben, too. He even started singing "Go, Cubs, Go" and both kids joined in singing with him.) Samantha couldn't wait to get out her doll armoire to start putting away all these new clothes.

That afternoon when it was time for Owen to take a nap, I took him up to Matthew and Christy's room to feed him and put him down. I finally got him to sleep and laid him down fast asleep in the pack and play, but one of their cats starting meowing very loudly, walking back and forth in the room, and Owen woke up, looking around the room, being very distracted by being in a new place. Ben offered to go up to the room to help him go to sleep for me. He got Owen to fall asleep but every time he went to lay him down, he would wake back up, so he decided to just sit and hold him, letting him take a nice long nap all cuddled up on his lap.

While Ben was upstairs with Owen, Christy and I tried to get Brielle and Aedan to take a nap in the same room together, but they would just not settle down. They kept talking, getting out of bed, playing, and not even trying to sleep. Both of us went in there to talk to them and threaten them, we even talked to them through the monitor, but nothing we did worked. They were just not going to nap that day, which was going to make that evening not so fun in dealing with their behavior.

Samantha got some nice time to play by herself that afternoon, and she was perfectly content organizing and arranging all her new clothes for Kit in the doll armoire. Here is a picture of her with her finished product. 

I tried to help Christy as much as I could with preparing food for dinner that night. We had a bigger Christmas dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, corn, and pie for dessert. It was good food, even though it was a bit crazy trying to get everyone taken care of, making sure the older kids ate and Owen wasn't getting too grumpy. Aunt Christy offered to hold Owen for awhile, and he fell asleep in her arms, so she got some nice baby cuddles in that evening before it was time for us to head back to the hotel for the night.

We got back to the hotel later than we would have liked to that night, and then we worked on getting the kids to bed as quickly as we could. It was after 9:00 when I laid Owen down for the night, and we tried to put him in the bathroom again, but it did not work this time. It was a rough beginning of the night trying to get him to stay asleep. He seemed really sensitive to any noise or lights from us, so much so that we decided to just go to sleep when it wasn't even 10:00 yet. I was tired enough that it didn't take me long to fall asleep. However, he was up again at 11:30, and I was up with him for over an hour then nursing him and trying to get him back to sleep. Owen woke up again around 3:45, then sleeping until about 8:45. It's funny how oftentimes his best stretch of sleep is in the morning, and he consistently sleeps in past 8:30 most days.

Thursday morning we had plans to go swimming in the hotel pool before going back to Aunt Christy's house for Oliver's 1st birthday party. We ate breakfast and then went back to the room to get changed into our bathing suits. The Clemons family met us at the pool as well, and we all swam almost forty-five minutes before we had to get out so we could get showered and ready for the party. The water was a little chilly that morning, so I didn't take Owen into the water. I didn't want him to get too cold, especially since he already seemed to have some sniffles and congestion. Samantha and Aedan loved the water, and especially liked jumping in together off the side of the pool. Here is a video of them jumping in, having a blast together. I'm so glad that they have each other.

Everything takes longer with three kids, especially when you are staying in a hotel and are not in your own environment. We did our best to get everyone showered and ready as quickly as we could that morning. Owen was ready for his morning nap and actually ended up falling asleep on my shoulder as we went up to the hotel room. I sat in the office chair and rocked him back and forth, trying to help him continue his nap while the rest of the family got ready and the kids played in their room with their toys.

We got to Christy's house a little after 11:00, and there were a few other people there to help celebrate Oliver's first birthday. Matthew grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. After we had a chance to eat, Owen was hungry and ready for a nap himself, so I took him up to Matthew and Christy's room to put him down, this time making sure there were no cats in the room to make noise and wake him up. He nursed well, I was able to lay him down, and he stayed asleep, for which I was so grateful.

While I was upstairs, I missed Oliver opening his birthday presents and eating his birthday cake, but I got to see the video and the tail end of Oliver enjoying his cake. You can tell he enjoyed it with how much blue frosting he has all over himself. :)

Owen took a pretty good nap for about two hours that afternoon. Christy was nice enough to move Brielle into the room with Oliver for nap time so that Aedan could sleep in Brielle's room, and they could be separated for nap time today. It took a couple reminders for Brielle and Aedan to settle down for a nap, but they finally gave in. Both of them were very tired and needed this time for a nice, restful nap. While the little ones were napping that afternoon, Samantha had more time to play with Kit and her new clothes, as well as play some games like Pop the Pig and Don't Break the Ice. It was nice for her to have this special time on her own with the grown-ups, and I enjoyed being able to spend time just playing and having fun with her. She was laughing so hard while we played Pop the Pig. Samantha has a great laugh and loves to have a good time. It's fun having her growing up and being able to handle things like this more. It's nice having afternoons where she can get some attention herself without the younger kids around.

Once Owen woke up that afternoon, he was in a good mood and happy to just hang out with people. My Grandma asked to hold him, so she got some baby cuddles in for awhile as he happily sat on her lap and looked around.

Oliver showed quite a bit of interest in Owen, especially when he laid down to play on the floor gym. In this picture he was trying to take the flashing star off of the floor gym, and Grandma was trying to prevent Oliver from tipping on top of Owen. Owen will love chasing all these kids around when he is old enough to crawl or walk.

By Thursday evening we were all very tired. The kids were kind of stir crazy and were fighting and causing trouble. Just before 6:00 Owen was wanting to nurse again, so I went upstairs to feed him, and he was falling asleep, almost like he was wanting to put himself to sleep for the night. I actually ended up laying him down and letting him sleep for a little while, until we were ready to head back to the hotel. I  had to wake him up when it was time to go. He was so sleepy when I brought him downstairs, but it was time for us to say our good-byes.

When we got back to the hotel and got the big kids in bed, Owen was wide awake after having a later evening nap. He was all smiles and was just talking up a storm, so we just let him hang out with Ben and me until he was showing more signs of being tired. (When we first put Aedan to bed we could hear him singing the Moana song. It was cute, and it didn't last for too long, so we decided to not say anything.) I was able to put Owen down in the bathroom again, and it worked much better than the night before, giving Ben and I some time to ourselves before we went to bed.

Even though Owen went to bed later than usual, he still woke up twice that night, around 1:45 and 5:45, then waking up for the day around 7:00. I felt pretty tired when I was up for the day, and we had a full day ahead of us. Originally, we had plans to go downtown Chicago to meet some of our friends from Oxford, but they texted us the day before saying they were sick and didn't want to pass their germs along to us. Since we didn't have plans anymore, we decided to meet up with Aunt Christy, Brielle, and Oliver at the DuPage Children's Museum since she had a membership there and could get everyone in except for one adult.

Once at the museum, the kids had a fun time playing and exploring. It's the perfect museum to spend a few hours at. I had nursed Owen at the hotel right after he woke up that morning around 8:00, so I expected him to get hungry once we got to the museum. I tried taking him into the nursing room they had, but being in a new place was just far too distracting. He was too distracted to nurse then, so I just stopped trying and decided to carry him around in the Ergo so I could play with Samantha and Aedan better.

Once we got back to this area with balls and ramps and building materials, Owen fell asleep in the Ergo and took a nice little nap for awhile. I was glad he fell asleep and was hopeful that he would nurse better once he woke up. Samantha and Aedan had a great time building things and watching how the balls rolled through various ramps and tunnels. It was fun to watch them use their creativity to build and change things to make the balls go a certain direction.

As we were playing in this area, Aedan was starting to lose his ability to think and make good decisions, so we decided to stop and go downstairs for lunch. Aunt Christy was nice enough to make sandwiches and bring lunch for us. Owen stayed asleep for a little while longer in the Ergo, getting a pretty good nap in, and waking up pretty happy. After we got the kids to eat enough food, we went to the top floor to let the kids play while I found another nursing room to try and feed Owen. It had now been over four hours since he'd eaten, but for some reason he just couldn't block out the distractions that day. There was nothing to look at in the room, but it was not an enclosed room so we could hear all the noise from the kids playing on the musical instruments right outside. I felt so frustrated and bad that he wasn't eating. I knew he must be hungry, but there was only so much I could do to try and feed him. There was just way too much to look at in the museum. However, I was feeling really emotional about it, and it was hard for me not to get upset. Sometimes it's difficult enough when he only nurses for five minutes each time, but he's never completely refused to nurse like he had that day.

It was getting close to mid-afternoon and the kids were starting to get tired, so we decided to make one more stop before heading back for nap time. We went to the water section and all the kids were playing so well and were having such a good time that I almost hated to stop them. Samantha made a friend with another girl that was there playing. Aedan was having fun driving a wheel toy back and forth through the water, and it was fun to just watch them play. It was a great morning at the museum. I really wish we had something like this near our home that we could visit, but I'm glad we could at least go to this museum while we were visiting family.

That afternoon we decided to just go back to our hotel for nap time so that we didn't have to mess with everyone sleeping in different spaces at Christy's house again.  Plus, we wanted Samantha to nap too because she was tired, and we wanted her to have enough energy to be able to go out for dinner that night and then go swimming at the hotel. We got back to the hotel, Ben put Samantha and Aedan down for their naps, and I finally got Owen to nurse for about 20 minutes on one side before he finally fell asleep. He had gone from 7:00 that morning until 2:25 that afternoon without nursing more than two minutes. I was so glad he finally ate and still had no clue why he wasn't interested the entire time we were out at the museum. By 2:50 all kids were asleep, and it was nice for Ben and I to have an afternoon of downtime for ourselves as well.

Samantha napped for about an hour and a half that afternoon, and then she came out to hang out with us for awhile and play her new games that we put on their LeapPads. We got the boys up around 5:00 so that we could get ready, I could feed Owen, and we could get on the road to Chuy's for dinner. As we drove to the museum that morning we drove by a Chuy's and thought that would be a great place to eat, since it's one of our favorite places to eat, and the kids love to eat Mexican food. It started to snow throughout the afternoon and evening though, making the roads not the greatest to drive on. Although it was funny to us, experiencing our second winter in the U.P. now because snow on the road doesn't phase us as much. We just know to drive slower and leave more space when stopping and turning. I made several comments of feeling surprised at how bad some people were at driving in the snow.

Grandpa and Grandma and the Clemons family met us at the restaurant, so we had quite the large group. It was a bit difficult for Ben and I to enjoy our food or really be able to talk to many people because we had to deal with our three kids. Aedan was being disrespectful with his food, and Owen was starting to get fussy while we were there because he had been awake for awhile and was ready for a nap. He was also acting a little hungry, so I took him out to the car to try and feed him since he hadn't nursed much that day, but he was again too distracted to nurse, even in the quiet car. Nevertheless, our food was delicious, and the creamy jalapeno dip is to die for!

After we were done with dinner, we drove back to the hotel and got our bathing suits on to go swimming one last time before we had to check out the next morning. Even though it was almost 8:00, and we should have just been getting the kids ready for bed, we decided to have a fun evening and let them go swimming anyways. The water was much warmer than it was the other day we went, so everyone had a great time in the water. I even felt comfortable enough getting Owen all the way in and letting him have the sensation of the water flowing around him. He even splashed his arms around a little bit. It was a late night, but it was so fun. After we got our fill of time in the pool, we gave everyone a quick shower/bath and tucked the kids in bed. It was 9:45 before I started nursing Owen to put him to bed.

We had another night of interrupted sleep in the hotel that night. I hoped that since he was going to bed so late, that might help him sleep longer, but with how little he ate during the day on Friday, he woke up more during that night, really waking up like every three hours, at 12:30, 3:30, and again at just before 7:00. After having so many nights of Owen waking up so frequently, combined with sleeping in a hotel and having busy days, I was exhausted by the time Saturday came. I have to admit that I was looking forward to being back home, and I hoped this behavior was just because of all of our traveling and that he would soon be back to normal.

Back a couple weeks ago, we decided to stay an extra night in Chicago so that we could see our friends (which ended up falling through) and see my cousin, Melissa, and her kids. Our original plan was to go see the zoo lights, but it was way too cold to spend any time outside, so Ben and I found an indoor play place we could meet up at on Saturday. Ben and I were both tired that morning, and we had to get all of our stuff packed up and loaded in the car so we could check out of our hotel. This hotel was already booked when we decided to add an extra day, so we had to go to a different hotel for our last night in the Chicago area. By the time we had everything taken care of and I fed Owen, it was almost 11:00.

Owen took a nap in the car on the way to Monkey Island, which was nice, and we arrived at about 11:45. As we were thinking about traveling back home, we kept our eyes on the weather forecast and there looked to be some pretty bad lake effect snow throughout the night on Saturday and most of the day on Sunday. We really did not want to drive through bad weather where the road conditions were dangerous or make us have to drive 20 miles an hour when our trip was already going to be long enough, so we decided to leave early to head back home. We were able to cancel our hotel in Chicago and get a different one booked near Lansing. We planned to hang out with my cousin and her kids until about 3:00, so we figured we could leave after that and get a good four hour head start on our trip, getting around the lake before all the snow started. We had plans to see Grandpa and Grandma one last time that evening for dinner and to hang out at our hotel, so it was sad to not be able to do that and say good-bye, but we knew they would understand that driving safely was our top priority.

This Monkey Island place we went to was huge. I had no idea it would be so large and spread out. It was basically a big warehouse converted into a play area for kids. It really was the perfect place to go because it had stuff for our younger kids, plus it wasn't too small or babyish for Melissa's almost high schooler to be able to enjoy some, too. Here is a video of Samantha, Aedan, and Brielle going down the slide together: 

https://www.facebook.com/christy.kappel/videos/10212697983943621/. They were having such a fun time. This place had so many bounce houses and slides in addition to a huge climbing structure, lots of fun to keep the kids busy and active that afternoon.

I feel like it was a bit difficult for me to talk much with Melissa and Christy between feeling totally exhausted, trying to keep an eye on Samantha and Aedan, and trying to keep Owen happy. However, I was glad that it worked out for us to get together and for our kids to play with each other. It was a great way to end our time visiting family, and we had some sad kids as we got in the car to drive back home. When I asked Samantha why she was so sad, she said it was because she really loves to spend time with family. It made my heart sad to hear her say that out loud. I so wish we could live closer so that seeing family wasn't something we had to drive seven hours to do. However, I am so very grateful that we can have these extended days with family over holidays or during the summer.

Owen gave me a hard time nursing again on that Saturday. He ate at the hotel before we left, but then refused to eat again the entire time we were out that day. I tried sitting in a chair off by myself with a nursing cover, I tried taking him to the car, and nothing worked, he would just not eat, even though it had been almost five hours since he last ate. I was just so frustrated and confused as to why he started doing that the last couple days. In fact, I was so desperate and so tired and just wanted him to eat for his sake and mine, that I actually ended up just feeding him in the car as we drove that afternoon. He nursed for almost half an hour and was very satisfied afterwards. I don't like taking him out of his car seat while we are driving because it's so unsafe. If we were to get in an accident and something bad happened to Owen because I had him out of his car seat, I could never live with myself. However, with him not eating all day, I just had to try, I didn't know what else to do. I was so glad we were heading home, and I hoped that he would go back to normal once we got back to our normal routine. I felt like I was failing at my one job, which is to take care of Owen, to feed him.

Samantha and Aedan were both really tired from our long trip and the several hours of running and jumping they did at Monkey Island. Samantha didn't nap for too long, but long enough to help her feel better, so she just sat and read quietly while Aedan and Owen napped longer. Owen was not the happiest in the car that evening. He was just done with everything, with traveling, with being stuck in his car seat, with sleeping in a hotel, everything. Traveling with a baby is not very enjoyable sometimes. Ben drove that afternoon/evening because we knew we would drive through some snow getting out of Illinois, and he is better at driving and staying calm. We decided to go the long way, going straight on 80/90 and then up 69 to avoid some lake effect snow that had already started. We went through about 40 miles of snow, low visibility, and slippery roads, but that was much better than traveling the whole way in weather like that. We stopped at an oasis once for a bathroom break and then again at a Culver's for dinner, before reaching our hotel near Lansing. We ended up using a free night we had saved up, plus paying for a room, so that we could get adjoining rooms. Samantha and Aedan were excited to sleep in their own big beds, and Ben and I were able to leave Owen's pack and play in the bathroom for the night, making for a restful night for all involved. Even though we got everyone to bed late, Owen ended up sleeping from 10:20 when I put him down all the way until 4:50. I was so glad for that much needed sleep when I was up so many times each night the few nights before that. We had another four hours to drive the next morning and were in the clear for snow, so we were very glad we chose to leave early. We were finally on our way home after a week and a half of travels.

(Blog about December 24-30, 2017)