Samantha's Spring Break & Our Trip to Marquette

Samantha: 82 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 47 Months, Week 4
Owen: 6 Months, Week 2 (Week 28)

Sunday was another family day together with Grandpa and Grandma along for the ride. We went to church in the morning, just going to the second service so we wouldn't have to get everyone out of the house as quickly and so we could give Owen his morning nap. Then we had ham and baked potatoes for lunch before having nap time. Unfortunately, Owen did not sleep for very long again that afternoon, but he was fairly happy just hanging out with the grown-ups after he woke up. We had a fish fry with our small group that evening, and Owen ended up falling asleep in the car on the way there, which was good to get him through the rest of the evening. The fish fry was a lot of fun, just hanging out and talking with the members of our small group and eating lots of delicious food. The kids did really well playing in the basement there, except for Aedan taking apart some of the boy's Legos and making him feel sad and frustrated. Also, Owen was pretty tired by the time we were leaving to go home, so he was a pretty unhappy little boy for our drive back home from Rudyard. He had just not slept enough that day and was ready to go to bed.

Monday, March 26 was Samantha's first day of Spring Break, which was nice because she got to spend some extra time with Grandpa and Grandma. Ben went off to teach like usual, since it wasn't Spring Break for him, and the kids and I hung out with my parents until they left a little before lunch time. Owen ended up taking a really good morning nap that day, so Samantha and Aedan enjoyed time playing games with Grandpa and Grandma. Here they are playing Guess Who together.

They played on teams together and then switched the grandparent they were with. I love this picture of Aedan on my mom's lap and Samantha close to my dad. Even though we don't get to see them as often, these visits where they make the time to come up and stay with us mean a lot to us and the kids.

Owen woke up just in time to see Grandpa and Grandma before they left, and we got these cute pictures of the kids together. It's amazing how many pictures you have to take in order to try and get a decent one, and even still one of the kids is making a funny face. I'm not convinced Aedan really knows how to smile in a natural way for pictures, but that's okay, they're still cute.

Both kids were sad to see Grandpa and Grandma leave that day, particularly Aedan. He loves having people at the house and more people around to play with him. The only thing that made it better was knowing that Sissy was going to be home to play with him every day that week. He loves having her around, and they were really doing a nice job playing together that day. They are siblings, so of course they fight at times, but overall, they really get along pretty well and enjoy their time together.

Here's my little baby bouncing that day after lunch. He loves to stand and kick and bounce, so when he's in a good mood, this is the perfect activity for him.

The forecast for Tuesday was rain most of the day so I invited some friends over to play at our house. Jill and her two younger girls came over to play, getting to our house about 9:30. Ben and I had put the Barbie house in the sauna room downstairs that we never use so it could be out of the way when we had company over, but we pulled it back out that morning because I figured the girls might like to play with it together. And sure enough, that's what they spent most of the morning doing. It took me a little bit of time to get Owen down for a nap that morning because I tried to lay him down too soon, but once he was asleep he took a really good nap for me, sleeping for most of the time our friends were over. Aedan got a little bored of playing with the girls downstairs, so he came upstairs with Jill and me for awhile, but it was nice to be able to just sit and talk and drink our coffee while the kids played and had fun. The only negative from the morning was when Aedan peed his pants at one point when he was downstairs playing. He had never done anything like that before, but I think he was just too excited playing and didn't think to get to the bathroom in time. He started crying right away after it happened. After playing downstairs for awhile, the girls came back upstairs and decided to play and hide and seek for awhile. It was fun to see all the girls playing together so nicely. I know Samantha had a fun time, and I was glad she could have some friends to play with during these days off of school.

We are continuing to try new baby food with Owen, and we hadn't given him any fruit yet, so we decided to try pears as his first fruit. I expected him to really like it since it's so sweet, but as you can tell by this video, he wasn't so sure what he thought of his first taste of pears. Samantha and Aedan thought the faces he made were hilarious. I'm sure they will grow on him, but it was just the initial shock of a different flavor in his mouth. :)

Tuesday night we had small group, and even though Owen had taken two really good naps that day, he was kind of fussy that evening at small group. Nothing we were doing was making him happy, so we were hoping we weren't going to have too rough a night ahead of us. We were wondering if he was maybe teething again, but it's always so hard to tell for sure, especially when he is always chewing on things.

Since we planned on going out of town on Thursday afternoon, I didn't plan too much for our time at home during Samantha's Spring Break. I knew she would enjoy just having down time at home to play with toys and spend time with Aedan. Wednesday morning was one of those days. I loved having her around more because I sure do miss her when she's at school all day, five days a week. Aedan definitely enjoyed having her around, a built-in playmate any time of the day, (even if she does boss him around a little too much sometimes, as you can see at the end of this video). It was fun just watching the two of them play and interact. Owen was having fun hanging out in the room with them as well. Sometimes I get so busy rushing around and trying to do things or go places that I don't take enough time to just stop and enjoy the kids, to just sit and watch them, to etch these moments when they are little in my memory. I've been overcome with emotion lately when I think about how fast time goes by, how quickly the kids are growing up, thinking of Samantha being a second grader and Aedan going off to preschool next year, thinking of my baby getting bigger, getting longer as he lays across my lap to nurse and getting heavier as I hold him up on my shoulder to bounce him to sleep. I don't want to rush away these moments. I want to remember them forever.

That afternoon there as a special Easter story and craft time at the library that was supposed to go from 1-4 p.m. I called that morning to make sure it was a come and go type thing and that we didn't have to be there right at 1:00 but could show up any time within the three hour timeframe. I was reassured that that would be okay, so I decided it would be best to get nap time for the boys in first and then head to the library after that. Both boys were tired and needed to get down for a good nap. Since I got them down a little earlier, we were able to leave a little after 3:00 for the library. I was thinking that was plenty of time, but when we got there, there were no people to be found doing any kind of Easter craft. We looked in the program room as well, but still nothing. I was disappointed because I knew the kids would have enjoyed it, but there was nothing we could do about it. They took it all in stride and just took advantage of time to play in the library and check out some new books. Samantha never gets to come to the library with us when we come most weeks, so she enjoyed sitting and reading books, picking out a whole stack to check out. I even put the movie "Mary Poppins" on hold for us to check out because Samantha was very interested in watching the movie after seeing the play at her school last week.

After playing at the library and checking out our things, we made one more stop at the Sault Co-op Preschool to drop of Aedan's application for preschool for next year. It was a lower fee if you turned it in before April 1st, so I wanted to make sure I got that done. I figured I should make sure he has a spot because as of right now, I think that's the best option for him. I'm leaning towards the afternoon class right now, simply because I think that would work better for our schedule, allowing Aedan to get out of the house in the afternoons while we would be stuck at home with Owen napping anyways. He will get the same curriculum and instruction as the morning class, but I will have the added benefit of having Aedan around in the mornings, squeezing just a little more out of my time with him before he goes off to kindergarten full-time the following year. (Can you tell that I'm not quite ready to let my little boy go?) I think this preschool will be good for him. It will give him some structure and routine to his days. He will learn to be in a classroom of students and listen to a teacher. He will learn to be okay with being apart from me. (After all, when I talked to him about preschool, he asked me, "Can you come with me to preschool, mama?") He will learn how to play with others his own age, and he will learn some basic skills that will prepare him for kindergarten. My heart feels kind of sad about not having him with me all day, but I know it was good for Samantha, and I know it will be good for him as well.

Aedan has a book in his room called "Growing Vegetable Soup." He loves to have me read it to him, and every time we read it, he always asks if we can try to make vegetable soup sometime. Every time I say we can, but then I forget about it when we make the menu for the week and the shopping list. Aedan then reminds me in the store as we are buying our produce, so this week I made sure to write it down on the menu so I wouldn't forget. We got all the ingredients for the vegetable soup when we got our groceries, and when we got home that afternoon, he was very excited to help me make the soup. I worked on cutting up all the vegetables, which took quite some time, and then the kids helped pour all the ingredients into the pot to cook. He was SO excited to make and eat the soup, which made Ben and I laugh because this boy does not really like to eat vegetables, so we didn't anticipate him liking the soup very much. However, he just walked around the house saying, "This soup is going to be SO good, Sissy!" Once the soup was finally ready, we were anxious to see what the reaction would be. Samantha really liked it, devouring her whole bowl, but she has been a really good eater lately. She loves pretty much everything we give her and will often ask for seconds. (Maybe she is going through a growth spurt?) We ended up putting a little cheese in it, just to make it a thicker consistency. I could tell Aedan didn't think it was the best thing in the world, but he ate it fairly well. I know he tends to eat things better when he is involved in the making process, and I was glad we were finally able to make vegetable soup for him. I told him that we will have to make vegetable soup at Ema's house this summer with fresh vegetables that he can pick right from her garden. He would love that. :)

Since it was Spring Break, there was no AWANA on Wednesday night. We just spent time hanging out, getting baths and showers done, and packing up for our quick trip out of town for a couple days. Ben and I had thrown around the idea of going to Chicago or Detroit so we could do some big city things that we can't do around Sault Ste. Marie. However, with Samantha's Spring Break not aligning with Ben's, and Ben still having to teach his classes, there just wasn't enough time to take a long trip anywhere. Instead, we decided to go west toward Marquette, not exactly your typical Spring Break destination, but the city has more to it and has a small children's museum that was pretty fun for the kids when we visited last year. We booked a two bedroom suite at the Holiday Inn Express in Munising, which is about forty-five minutes away from Marquette, but is the best hotel with the type of room we need, free breakfast, and a fun pool to play in.

Ben planned to teach his classes on Thursday and we were going to leave after he was done with his 12:00 class. We got some things packed up on Wednesday night, and I had a few things left to get done on Thursday morning. However, one of the things on our agenda was to color our Easter eggs. With us getting back sometime on Saturday, I wasn't sure how much time we would have to color eggs when we got back, so Samantha, Aedan, and I dyed the eggs while Owen took his morning nap. We had a neon color kit with a crayon to draw designs, as well as glitter to put on. The kids did a good job of being patient while I got the colors ready. Aedan didn't feel confident enough using the little metal tool to lower the egg into the water without dropping it, so I helped him do that part, but Samantha was able to do it carefully all by herself. Here are my cute kids excited about their Easter eggs. Aedan always has the cheesiest smiles.

And I love how super expressive my sweet Samantha is. (I love having her home, and now I am secretly looking forward to summertime where I get to have her home every day for several months.)

And here are their finished products! They are very pretty colors, very sparkly with glitter, and covered in little stickers.

Owen ended up taking a very short nap that morning, so I had to put him down for another nap before we left for the day, which ended up working better anyways because there's no guarantee that he would nap well in the car either. We only had a couple hour drive to get to our hotel in Munising, so we just let the kids watch a movie while we drove. Owen ended up taking a little cat nap in the car, which helped him make it to bedtime that night. We got ourselves checked into the hotel, found a local restaurant for dinner, and then went back to the hotel to go swimming before bed time. The pool is pretty large at this hotel, and they have a shallower end with a mushroom fountain that the kids find pretty interesting. The water was fairly cool, and I didn't want Owen to get too cold, so I didn't get more than just his feet wet, but he was happy being held, looking around at the water, and watching his big brother and sister play in the water. Ben played with Samantha and Aedan, roughhousing with them, letting them crawl over his back, and pretending like the mushroom fountain was a jail that everyone kept trying to break out of. We were in the water for close to an hour before deciding it was time to get out and start working on bedtime. Our hotel room had two rooms and a living room area. We gave Samantha and Aedan the room with the king size bed to share so that they would have more separation between them in bed. We set up Owen's pack and play in the living room area, and then Ben and I had the other bedroom with the queen size bed and this awesome view of the water. You can see that the snow was starting to go away, and off in the distance you can see some of the Pictured Rocks. It was nice having this beautiful view as we sat in the hotel room that night.

Getting Samantha and Aedan to sleep was a bit of a struggle on Thursday night, which I guess shouldn't be too surprising. Our big kids have a hard enough time sharing a room, let alone a bed. They were being pretty silly in bed together at the beginning, and Ben had to go in there a couple times to tell them to be quiet and go to sleep. Aedan hadn't napped that day, so he should have been tired, but they were both being too silly with each other in bed. Then, Samantha still gets up multiple times a night to go to the bathroom, especially when she is in a new place, which I'm sure wakes Aedan up. Plus, Ben and I knew they wouldn't sleep in any more in the morning, meaning we would most likely be dealing with two cranky kids if they didn't get to sleep at a decent time. Sometimes I feel like trying to do things like this is more work than it's worth with young kids, but I also don't want to avoid getting away and having experiences outside of our own town just because our kids have trouble sleeping in new and exciting places. We just have to know going into it that we aren't going to get as much sleep as usual. Owen also woke up a few times throughout the night screaming pretty loud, which I'm sure woke the big kids up as well. Ben and I did our best to keep him quiet and get him back to sleep as quickly as possible, but I'm sure he also realized we were in a different place than home.

We were all up much earlier than Ben and I would have liked on Friday morning. Aedan was pretty tired from not napping the day before, not going to sleep early on Thursday night, being woken up several times during the night by Samantha, and then getting up too early for the day, so he was having a hard time not melting down that morning. Our plan was to have breakfast at the hotel and then drive the forty-five minutes to Marquette to go to the UP Children's Museum. However, everyone just started out the day so tired. Even though Owen should have been ready for a nap when we started driving, he just would not calm down and fall asleep, screaming and crying in the car for quite awhile, no matter what I did. At one point Ben even stopped on the side of the road to swing the car seat back and forth and see if he could get Owen to fall asleep before continuing driving. Ben and I were a little frustrated that all the kids were overtired and cranky, when we planned this trip for something fun for them to do. We tried to make the best of it though and move on from our somewhat bad start to the morning.

We arrived at the museum a little after 10:00 and the kids vaguely remembered the museum from last year. There are lots of pretend areas like this plane, and ambulance, a car, a music shop, a hair salon, a restaurant, a theater, and a grocery store. Aedan made a beeline for the plane.

There was a local coffee shop a few doors down from the museum, so I went and got Ben and I some coffee to give us some energy to get through the day as tired out parents. Then, we went back to an area with a slide that was designed to look like the digestive system and even had a button you could push to make it "fart" when you went down the slide. Of course the kids liked that a lot. There was this area with a soft, padded floor that we let Owen climb around on. Do you see how much he is getting up on his knees? He will get up on both knees and rock back and forth, or sometimes even push himself backwards. This little boy wants to be on the move so badly, and he certainly is taking every opportunity to practice.

As I mentioned earlier, Aedan was just super tired that morning, making it very hard for him to even play without getting overly emotional and upset about every little thing. Samantha was building with some legos and other toys they had there, and Aedan was just crying about everything. We tried to get him more involved, tried to be calm, tried to help him out, but nothing was working. Eventually we decided that maybe he was just hungry, so we stopped and had a little snack before continuing on to another area to play. There were turtles and fish to look at, a big digger to climb in, a tree house to climb in, and a house that had a toilet slide in it.

We found a Mexican restaurant to eat at for lunch that day since there are no Mexican restaurants where we live. The kids devoured their quesadillas, rice, and beans, and it was definitely a place we would go back to if we were ever in Marquette again. Aedan seemed to perk up quite a bit after lunch, so maybe he was just needing more food to give him an energy boost. At one point during the morning, we had thought one of us might have to take him back to the hotel for a nap that afternoon, but we decided he would be okay to go back the museum for a little more play time. I nursed Owen in the car before putting him in the Ergo and bringing him back into the museum. It was nap time for that little guy, and it didn't take too long for him to conk out in the Ergo, as long as I kept his head covered so he wasn't distracted and kept moving back and forth. He probably slept for close to an hour, which was a decent nap for him while we were out and about.

That afternoon Samantha and Aedan had fun pretending together in the theater with this little girl. Aedan was a king, Samantha was the queen, and the little girl was the princess. They put on a show for us, and then Aedan came down from the stage saying we would have a chance to meet him, and he came and shook both of our hands. It was pretty cute to see their imaginations at work.

Aedan found this bunny costume with this giant bunny head that he wanted to put on for a few minutes. He thought it was pretty funny.

Once it got to mid-afternoon and the kids had their fill of playing at the museum, we decided to head out. We stopped at Menards and Lowes to look a little more at vanities for our upstairs bathroom since they don't have either of those stores near us. The kids cooperated pretty well for us while we looked, and then we headed back to the hotel as the snow started coming down.  Both Aedan and Owen fell asleep pretty quickly in the car on the way back to our hotel. Aedan was super tired, and I was really glad he got a nap in to help him feel better. I felt bad that he was so tired and that part of it was Samantha's fault for waking him up so much at night getting up to go to the bathroom. I really wish there was something we could do to help her get over this problem. It has been an issue for a couple years now, and we are frankly tired of dealing with it. There is a difference between getting up once a night and getting up three times a night. We tell her to only get up once, but besides for posting guard outside her door, there's nothing we can do to control it. We tell her that just because she wakes up at night, it doesn't mean she has to go to the bathroom, and that she should first try to just roll over and go back to sleep, and that if she can go back to sleep, she doesn't really have to go to the bathroom. If she really had to go, her body wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. However, she just has it in her head that every time she wakes up, she must need to go to the bathroom, and most of the time she hardly has anything that comes out, which means she didn't really have to go. Ben and I are starting to get concerned about this because it doesn't seem to be getting any better, it's impacting the quality of the sleep that she gets, it's making her more tired during the day because her sleep is constantly interrupted, and it makes it hard for her to share a room with anyone because she wakes them up when she gets up so frequently. When we take her for her 7 year well child visit, we are going to try and have a frank conversation with her pediatrician about it and see if she has any advice for us.

Once we got back to the hotel, we ordered pizza and salad to be delivered to our hotel because we didn't feel like going back out, especially with the snow that started coming down pretty hard outside. We let the kids watch a show as we waited for our food and then went to the lobby to eat. Everyone ate really well, Owen rolled around on the floor on a blanket and played with toys, and then we got ready to go swimming again. With the snow that was forecasted, we wanted to get on the road fairly early the next morning so that we could get back home before the roads got bad as there was 5-8 inches of snow projected for the area we would be driving through. Since we wouldn't have time to swim the next morning, we knew Saturday night would be our last chance. Ben took his turn holding Owen this time, and I played with Samantha and Aedan. We had a fun time swimming around, Samantha pretended to be a mermaid and Aedan pretended to be a whale, we chased each other around the water, and of course tried to lock each other up in the mushroom fountain. The kids always enjoy spending time in the water, even if it is a little cooler than we all would like.

After swimming, we gave the kids a bath and got everyone ready for bed. Friday night went a little better in the hotel room. The older kids didn't take quite as long to settle down to sleep, and I don't think Samantha got up quite as many times to go the bathroom, probably because she was pretty tired out from our long day, too. Ben and I enjoyed having a separate room from Owen where we could hang out and talk some before going to bed ourselves. And we were met with a nice surprise when Owen slept all the way until 5:45, nursed well, and then went back to sleep until a little after 8:00 when we ended up having to wake him up so we could get started with our day and driving back home.

Here is Samantha giving Owen some love after he finished his breakfast that morning. She loves her two little brothers, and Owen definitely loves his big sister. His face lights up when she's around giving him attention. I love these pictures of the two of them.

Even though we got on the road early, snow had already started to fall that morning, so we had to drive a little bit slower on our way back home. Luckily, it was only a two hour drive, so we were home around 11:30. I hadn't expected us to get back so early because we had thrown around the idea of doing something else on our way back, but the weather threw a wrench in those plans. There was an Easter Egg Hunt over at the Norris Center that day, one at 12:00 and one at 2:00. I figured we could eat some quick sandwiches for lunch and then head over to the gym to do the hunt before getting the boys down for naps. However, as we were trying to eat, Aedan wasn't eating and started complaining of his tummy hurting. He hadn't gone to the bathroom all morning, so I suggested that he try to go to the bathroom because sometimes he doesn't eat much when that happens. He went to the bathroom and pooped, saying he felt a little better, but then he got back to the table, tried to take a few more bites of his sandwich and then threw up all over his plate a few minutes later. We just let him get it all out before we tried to pick him up and take him to the bathroom. I know this is gross, but it's just something you have to deal with as a parent, and luckily, most of it got on his plate and placemat, so it was fairly easy to clean up. I felt so bad for the little guy. If I knew he was feeling so crummy, I wouldn't have tried to get him to eat anything. We tucked him into bed for nap time once his stomach was settled enough. However, he got sick a few more times in his bed, one requiring a sheet change. Eventually he got better at realizing what it felt like right before he had to throw up, and he was able to get it in the trash can next to his bed instead. He was in his bed all afternoon, finally falling asleep at some point, once he was no longer coughing and getting sick.

Since Samantha was feeling fine and was looking forward to going to the Easter Egg Hunt, Ben said I could still take her once I got Owen down for his nap. We just decided to go to the 2:00 egg hunt. She was amazed when she saw how many eggs were spread out around the floor. Every kid got a plastic bag and some raffle tickets when they came in, and Samantha, being the great big sister that she is, didn't use all her raffle tickets just for things for herself, she also put them in to win things for her brothers, like a baby basket, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bike, and a Spider-Man toy. She didn't quite understand how a raffle works, so she was disappointed when our numbers weren't getting called at all. However, to our surprise, our number got picked for one of the baby baskets, and Samantha was so excited to go up and pick one that she thought Owen would like. She picked one that had Mickey Mouse Clubhouse blocks, a toy robot, and sunglasses for Aedan to wear. Here is Samantha waiting and then collecting eggs during the hunt. She even went back and collected another bag's worth of eggs to give to Aedan since he was sick and couldn't go. She had a good time.

Je

After waiting for all the raffle tickets to be drawn, we stopped over at another building on campus to get Aedan registered for tee-ball this summer. We figured he would enjoy trying it out, just like Samantha enjoyed trying it out last summer. It's only one night a week, so we figured it would be worth letting him do it since he is actually old enough to participate.

Even though it was March 31 and Easter weekend, the snowstorm brought quite a few inches of new snow. Before this snow came, we actually could see some grass in our front and back yards, and our roof was actually clear of snow. It kind of made me sad to see it snowing again. I am tired of winter and so ready for Spring. I am ready to not see snow everywhere and to start seeing grass again. I am ready for it to not be so cold so we can take Izzy on walks around campus and spend more time outside without being afraid that it's too cold for Owen to handle. It is hard for me to live in the U.P. during this time of the year when I see friends and family in other places posting pictures with grass and flowers and trips to the zoo and other outside activities.

Once Aedan got up from his nap that evening, he was acting much more like himself. He was wanting to play like normal and kept asking for food. We tried to contain him and make him rest and make him take it easy on eating a lot of food so we could make sure his stomach could keep it down. I hoped that maybe he was just overtired and something bothered his stomach, or maybe he picked up some germs from playing at the museum. I didn't know what caused him to be sick, but I was hoping that whatever it was, it wouldn't spread to anyone else in the family and that he would continue to get better. It's always difficult to see your kids sick.

(Blog about March 25-31, 2018)

Winter Activities & A Visit from Chicago Grandpa and Grandma

Samantha: 82 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 47 Months, Week 3
Owen: 6 Months, Week 1 (Week 27)

After a busy, but fun weekend in Upland seeing family and going on a really fun date with Ben, our family was all pretty tired on Sunday morning, especially since Ben and I didn't get back to the house until close to 1:00 a.m. We let the kids play with Aunt Jeni, Alaina, Ema, and Papa for awhile longer Sunday morning as we packed up the car, and then we hit the road a little after 10:00 to make the long drive back home. There are many times I wish we could just teleport ourselves back and forth, but the good thing is that this should be the hardest it will ever be with Owen being so little. As he gets older he will become happier in the car and easier to entertain, and of course, I won't have to stop and nurse him either. Traveling with three kids, one being a baby, definitely makes it a little more challenging.

We made it to Lansing for lunch, where we like to stop at a Chipotle at the Lansing Mall, then let the kids run around on this little play area, followed by a coffee stop for the adults. We stopped for about an hour, getting back on the road around 2:15. Owen was pretty tired and fell asleep right away while I was reading a book to the big kids before telling them to close their eyes for awhile. Everyone needed the rest for the kids stayed up much later than they are used to. Samantha fought napping for awhile, but eventually fell asleep for a little while herself. Owen only napped fore 30 minutes, unfortunately. I was hoping he would take a longer nap in the car, but it seems like he doesn't really nap for very long in the car. I did my best to keep him quiet by playing with him and giving him toys, letting Aedan get some more sleep. Aedan slept for about an hour. Here are some cute pictures of all the kids sleeping peacefully. (I think it's so cute that Samantha and Aedan still sleep with their blankies from when they were babies.)

The rest of our trip went pretty well. We had no weather concerns, and the roads were easy to travel. We picked up Izzy on our way back home, had pizza delivered to the house for dinner, and then started to process of unpacking and getting everything put away. It's fun to go away for a weekend, but it also means we have to play catch up some when we get back.

Monday morning I took the boys shopping at Meijer again. Ben and I decided we would try having me shop there for a month or so, and we will keep our receipts to compare prices and see if we are spending more there than we did at Walmart. I loaded some coupons on to our Mperks account, and Owen fell asleep in his car seat like he did last week, staying asleep for part of our shopping trip, and then just looking around the store for awhile. Aedan always does so well for me at the store. He looked at the toy section for a little while while I shopped in that area, and he loves to help me pick out fruit and vegetables. He even helped load up the cart with baby food this time, which was a huge help. Shopping isn't my favorite part of every week, but I'm glad that the boys cooperate for me pretty well.

On Tuesday morning Owen had his 6 month check-up with Dr. Newhouse. Since I knew that was coming, I contacted my friend from around the corner to see if she wanted to do a kid swap with me that week, so Aedan could go play at her house rather than come with me to sit at the doctor's office. That worked for her, so I dropped Aedan off with his snow gear before going to the doctor with Owen. I really didn't have any questions about Owen for this check-up. We have started baby food with him, and so far he's had squash and sweet potatoes, and he's starting to get the hang of swallowing it and not pushing the food out with his tongue. His pooping has changed since introducing solids, which is to be expected. After several days of not going, he finally went the day before his doctor's appointment, so I didn't feel like I needed to bring that up at all. His head circumference was 17.75 inches which was in the 84th percentile. His length was 26.75 inches which was in the 63rd percentile, and his weight was 20 pounds which was in the 87.7th percentile. His weight for length put him in the 94th percentile. Everything else checked out just fine and the doctor said he was looking great. He got two shots in each leg, one being a flu shot since there is still some of that going around. He cried when he got poked, of course, but he stopped only a few seconds after that. He cries much less than the other two after getting shots. Here he is laying on the table with his animal he got from the doctor after getting his shots. You can see the little band-aids on his chunky little thighs.

Owen was due for a nap pretty much right when we got to the doctor, so it didn't take long for him to fall asleep in the car on the way home. Since I didn't have Aedan, I just put Owen downstairs in his room to keep napping and took advantage of some time to myself to get things done around the house. We were supposed to have small group at our house that night, and I noticed Izzy had gotten a lot of hair around on the floor and couches, so one of my jobs was to brush her and give her bath before vacuuming the floors and cleaning off the couches. It was kind of strange being in the house without Aedan being around, but it was kind of nice just having this time to get things done.

Aedan was brought back home around 11:40 because they were heading over to campus to watch the Snowman Burning event that was to take place at 12:00. I had thought about taking the boys, but I didn't know how Owen would be feeling after getting his shots, or how early Aedan would get back home. The timing worked out pretty well, and Aedan expressed interest in going, so we got bundled up and drove over to campus. We had plenty of time to park and walk up to the area where they were doing the Snowman Burning. Here is what it looked like beforehand.

A local news station was covering the event, so the president of LSSU had to kill some time before they could officially light the snowman on fire. This is a tradition LSSU does every year on the first day of spring, as a way to say good-bye to winter and hello to spring. Aedan thought it was pretty cool watching the snowman go up in flames, but he was also concerned about how it would be put out.

I ran into a friend from my Bible study there, and she offered to take a picture of us, so here are my boys and me. :)

And just to be safe, the firefighters made sure to extinguish any lingering flames.

They had hot dogs, chips, and lemonade or water for people at the snowman burning, so Aedan and I were able to eat lunch there as well, saving me from having to figure out what to eat at home. We sat inside the Cisler Center, where it was a bit warmer, to enjoy the rest of our lunch before heading back home for nap time. Owen has been doing better lately with sleeping. He has been waking up once a night at home and has been napping pretty well, too. I felt like he was finally getting into a good, more predictable rhythm. Here is another shot of my little guy's band-aids on his legs before I took them off before nap time.

Owen seems to handle his shots pretty well, not seeming to have any fever or side effects like that. The biggest thing we notice is being a little fussier and clingier the night he has them. He wants to be held more and not just left on the floor to play as much. We were supposed to have small group that evening, but more and more people were unable to come, so we ended up just canceling it, which worked out better for Owen's sake.

Wednesday was wacky hair day at Samantha's school, so I did four different ponytails in her hair that day. 

I think she liked it. What do you think? She is such a happy, silly kid. She enjoyed keeping her eye on the Reading Month calendar and making sure she was prepared for as many of the days as she could.

Since my friend took Aedan for me on Tuesday, I took her daughter for her on Wednesday. She did great at our house without her mom and gave me no trouble at all. She and Aedan did a great job playing together and enjoyed building with magna-tiles and legos before having a snack and watching a show. I decided to take them to the library for story time, and just as a way to get Aedan out of the house. Plus, he usually really likes story time. They did a great job sitting down and listening to the stories before making a totem pole craft and then playing with puzzles and other toys. However, even though I gave Aedan plenty of warnings before it was time to leave, he had a meltdown leaving the library. He refused to come with me to check out our books, so I gave the library card to the little girl since she was listening to me. However, that made Aedan mad and jealous, so he decided to run away from me, and he took off across the library, running as far away from me as possible. After we checked out, we went to find him and were able to leave the library without too much trouble, but I was kind of frustrated that he gave me such a hard time when we had his friend with us.

We dropped his friend off at her house before going back home ourselves for lunch and nap time. The kid swap worked well, and we will definitely have to do that again sometime. For how well Owen has normally been napping, Wednesday was not a good napping day. He had woken up earlier than usual that morning which always throws off his schedule for the rest of the day and makes him much more tired. After getting him to sleep, he woke up crying but I was able to get him back to sleep after he did a big burp. Aedan also went to sleep well for me that afternoon, and Owen ended up sleeping for awhile after I got him back to sleep. It was nice to have some time to myself before Samantha got home from school.

Owen has definitely mastered rolling back and forth, and he desperately wants to be able to sit up. He will lay on the floor and lift his head and feet off the floor like he is trying to bring his body up to a sitting position. I try to encourage his sitting as much as I can when I can sit next to him and make sure he doesn't topple over. These aren't the greatest pictures, but you can tell how well he is sitting up without support, giving him a new perspective on the world around him, and giving him easier access to toys that he wants to play with.

Every once in awhile I go through stacks of paper on our counter from the kids and from school. I can't keep everything, but I like to take pictures of things though to remember what art they have done and be able to see how it changes over time. (I tried to get this picture to turn but it kept flipping up and down for some reason.) However, this is a picture Samantha drew after reading the book "The Day the Crayons Quit" because the book ends with a picture of many things all different colors than you would typically see them. I love her creativity and the time she spends on her drawing. I also love that she uses books as inspiration for her drawings.

This is a crown Aedan made at AWANA one night. He had fun sticking all the sparkly jewels on his crown.

This is a picture Samantha drew of Sherman Park. I think she is daydreaming of summer just as much as I am.

On Thursday morning, after playing at home for awhile and giving Owen a morning nap, I took the boys to McDonald's for a MOPS play date. We hadn't been to one in awhile, and Aedan was looking forward to playing and having a Happy Meal. This was the first time we'd gone to McDonald's that Owen was eating food, so it was kind of fun being able to sit him up in the high chair and feed him some baby food. He was pretty happy just sitting up and looking around and playing with his toys, making it much easier for me to eat my messy pico guacamole chicken sandwich. Towards the end of our time there, one of Aedan's friends, Gavin, came too, and they got busy playing right away. He was having such a good time running around and playing that I hated to break it up to go back home. I let him play as long as I could before I knew Owen would start being grumpy.

Even though Owen fell asleep in the car for a few minutes on our way home from McDonald's, I was able to get him down in his crib fairly easily. However, after about forty-five minutes of him sleeping, Izzy wanted to go outside, but she started barking at our neighbor right outside the window of Owen's room. Then, a few seconds later, he started crying because he got woken up. I was so mad at Izzy for waking him up when he was actually taking a good nap. Then, Aedan was in his room banging around in his bed. I heard a loud thud, and he said it was because he fell out of bed on to his head. I went down to Owen's room three times trying to get him to go back to sleep, but every time I laid him down, he just woke up crying, starting the whole process all over again. I felt so done with him that afternoon. He only napped 30 minutes that morning and was very tired, but I just could not get him to stay asleep. I felt overwhelmed, and I felt frustrated that I didn't have any time to get anything done. I wanted to use nap time to get some cleaning done, but instead I spent the whole time just trying to get him to stay asleep.

Ben could sense that I needed a break from Owen, so when Samantha showed interest in wanting to go back to her school to watch the Middle Schoolers put on the play "Mary Poppins," he told me that I should take the older kids while he stayed at home with Owen. Samantha was really excited for me to see the play, and Aedan was glad to be included on this big kid date with me. It's not very often that I get to take the two of them out without Owen coming along as well. We found some seats in the second row and tried to wait patiently for the show to begin. The play was actually pretty good for middle schoolers. They projected their voices well, making it easier to hear what they were saying and singing. In fact, sometimes it was difficult trying to get Samantha to not sing along loudly with the songs.

Friday, March 23rd we had my parents arriving that afternoon to visit for the weekend, and Samantha had a half day of school, so the boys and I just hung out around the house that morning. We had done something every other morning that week and just needed some time to relax and get our house ready for guests. I had gotten the cleaning done throughout that week and just had a few random things to finish up that morning.

Izzy is always very interested when I sit on the floor to change Owen's diaper. Owen is now equally as interested in Izzy and will reach for her and try to grab her hair. I had to take some pictures of Owen and Izzy because they were being so cute together. Izzy was laying on Owen's stomach and she didn't mind when Owen started rolling over onto her head.

On days that Samantha gets home from school early, Aedan very rarely naps because he is just too excited to have her home so I decided to not even bother trying to make him nap that day. Instead, I decided to be a nice mom and let them spend the afternoon watching a movie together. After all, it was the start of Samantha's Spring Break. They were super excited to watch a movie together and after going back and forth about what movie they would choose, they finally settled on Tarzan 2. Here they are sitting next to each other on the couch watching the movie. Aedan always has to sit on the middle cushion with a pillow propped up behind his back. I love how much they love each other. We have plenty of other places for them to sit, but they always choose to sit right next to each other, often cuddled up and touching each other.

There was a "scary" part of the movie so they had to cuddle up with each other. Man, I just love them and how much they love each other. They are so cute together.

As I mentioned earlier, I am trying to let Owen get practice sitting up. This little light-up musical toy is the perfect toy to use to practice sitting up because he can kind of lean on it, and it gives him something to hold on to and balance with. I was sitting right by him to make sure he didn't tip over, but he was doing a really good job sitting up all by himself.

Friday evening, just before dinner time, Chicago Grandpa and Grandma arrived. Ben was gone at an event over in Canada, so I tried my best to keep Izzy calm when they arrived. She still barked at them, even with her bark collar on, but she didn't continue on for as long as she has in the past. Hopefully she is starting to be better about visitors coming in to our house, but at least we know that she will protect us if we ever needed it.

The kids love to have visitors come stay at our house, and they couldn't wait to play with them. Samantha took Grandma into her room to show her Kit and her new desk. Aedan was glad to get some one-on-one attention from Grandpa. I tried to get Owen down for an evening nap before dinner, but he woke up when I laid him down. Ben arrived home shortly after that and went down to try to get him back to sleep, but at that point it was already past 5:30 and a little too late to take an evening nap. I decided I could just put him to bed a little earlier that night.

We had potato soup, homemade bread, and sides for dinner that night and the kids gobbled it all up, and then we spent the evening giving the kids baths, playing, and getting ready for bed. My mom commented about how much Owen likes to bounce and mentioned we should get a jumper toy for him. I had forgotten we had this bouncy seat that hangs for the doorway. He hadn't tried it for him yet, but I was excited to see what he thought of it. At first he didn't quite know what to do with it and it seemed like his feet didn't quite touch the floor enough, but once I showed him how he could bounce, he was very eager to try bouncing as well. We will definitely have to use this more often. He especially liked the vantage point it gave him because he could see all around in the kitchen and living room, so he was able to see his brother and sister playing, wherever they were.

Saturday was a little bit of a crazy day for me because Ben got asked to be part of a snow softball tournament so he left the house a little before 9:00 to get to the field and start warming up since he hadn't thrown a ball in almost two years. The rest of us didn't have any plans until later that afternoon, so we spent the morning just hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma around the house. Samantha had some attitude that morning and was giving me a hard time with being respectful. At one point I let them watch a show and they chose Super Why. Aedan was dressed up as Wyatt and Samantha was dressed up like Princess Presto. It was cute watching them dance to the music and pretend to be the characters at the end of the show.

Here's a cute picture my dad took of Owen that afternoon when he didn't nap for very long and was up playing on the floor. I love the perspective of the picture, looking at the world from his angle.

Ben got back from his softball tournament after lunch and helped put Aedan down for his nap while I put Owen down. Of course Aedan was too excited having Grandpa and Grandma at the house to nap, so once Owen was up, we decided to go on our outing for the day to walk on the blue ice down by the Mackinac Bridge. In our travels back and forth this month we saw people walking on the ice but were never able to stop because the timing just wasn't right or we just wanted to get home. The weather was warmer that day, in the lower 30s, and we wanted to go walk on the ice before it melted too much and wasn't safe to walk on anymore. Here are some pictures from our time out on the ice. Samantha and Aedan were really excited to go out on the ice. Grandma stayed back on the shore with Owen, and Grandpa came out a little ways but didn't have the best shoes or coat to be climbing around on the ice. Ben, Samantha, Aedan, and I climbed all the way out to the tall peaks of the ice. It was amazing how big the chunks were and how they were all stacked up on top of each other. We got a cool view of the Mackinac Bridge as well and even saw a small ice cave that formed between some of the ice chunks. Here are some pictures of our time climbing around and sliding on the blue ice.

After climbing around for awhile, it was time to go get some dinner. I had thought about going to a Mexican restaurant in St. Ignace, but it is only open seasonally, so we settled on Big Boy instead. We hadn't been to Big Boy since living in Oxford, so the kids were really excited. The kids did a good job waiting patiently for their food, and they ate really well. Owen got lots of attention from the waitress, giving her many smiles in return. It's nice being able to put him in a high chair now for him to eat his food and just to sit and play while we eat. He reaches and grabs for things too much now for him to sit on our laps while we eat. After we finished our food, we hit the road to get back home for bed time and some time for the adults to relax. It was a fun evening out experiencing some local scenery, even if it is still cold, snowy, and icy here, at least we are surrounded by beautiful things.

(Blog about March 18-24, 2018)