Monday was February 14th, so the kids were celebrating with valentines and a party at school. Here are a couple pictures Samantha's teacher posted of their class. You can see the valentine bags that they decorated. It looks like they might be playing some sort of game, but I'm not sure what it is. It's fun to see Samantha in her classroom.
Monday morning was chaotic for me. Aedan woke up complaining about not feeling well, and it's always hard to tell whether he really isn't feeling well enough to go to school, or whether I should push him to go to school. Worrying about Covid makes that decision even harder these days. I didn't get the trash out in time because I was dealing with Aedan not feeling well and trying to decide if we should sent him to school or not. Then, of course, our little baby wouldn't eat when I tried to feed her a bottle that morning. I felt defeated before the day even began, not getting places on time, and just feeling like I can't keep up with life right now.
That evening, once Ben was home to stay with the kids, I took Aedan to the walk-in clinic because he was complaining of a sore throat. They did a strep test and a Covid test, and both of them came back negative, so he went back to school on Wednesday. His throat was still hurting some, but we figured it must just be from post-nasal drip from the cold that he had.
We also found out late Tuesday night that one of the nursery workers at church tested positive for Covid that day, and she was with our little baby most of the morning at church on Sunday. She was holding her and fed her a bottle. The nursery worker was wearing a mask, but we didn't know how much our little baby could have been exposed to Covid, and this was now the second week in a row that she was potentially exposed by someone at church. Ben and I planned to do an at-home Covid test on her once we got home from work and school. Her test was negative, so it was luckily still okay for my parents to come that weekend. Ben and I were planning to go on a date to see the New York City ballet. He got me these tickets as a surprise gift, so we were excited to be able to get away for a date while they were visiting.
One of my jobs on Monday was to call the OR to ask about how we could have our little baby's mom sign the paperwork for anesthesiology ahead of time for clipping her tongue tie, rather than requiring her to meet us at the hospital super early in the morning. However, they said there was no way around it, because she had to sign the paperwork in front of the anesthesiologist. However, someone from the agency was going to have to give her a ride since she didn't have transportation, and it's hard to make plans for that when we had no idea the exact time we would have to report to the hospital. They were going to call us the day before to let us know, so we didn't really know what to do or how to work around it. I let the caseworker know what was going on, so she could speak with her supervisor and figure out what we should do.
Here is a picture of our little baby that morning after waking up. She is rolling all over the place now, and she is very interested in the bedskirt hanging under her crib, as well as rolling underneath her crib and exploring.
Here are pictures of our little sweetheart before bed that night. She has such a happy smile, and I enjoy cuddling with her for a few minutes after she finishes her bottle, and before putting her in her crib to sleep. She still prefers to fall asleep on her own, so we don't spend much time rocking her to sleep. We are lucky that she is such an easy baby with sleeping on her own and sleeping through the night.
The rest of the week was kind of a blur, and it was largely just a normal week of work, school, and daycare. Many times it feels like the weeks just fly by. Ben and I will remark that it's Monday, and then all of a sudden we blink, and it's Friday.
Here is some of the work the kids brought home from school throughout the week. Samantha got 50/50 on a vocabulary matching quiz, 100% on "Bud, Not Buddy" chapter test, 50/50 on a Ben Franklin letter, and has pages from "Coming to America" Diary.
Here is a sweet little valentine's gift that our little baby got from her teachers at daycare. It had a little Dr. Seuss ABC book, as well as a little flower teething toy that she really enjoyed.
Here is some work that Owen brought home from preschool. He decorated a lacy heart for Valentine's Day, practiced writing his name, and traced capital and lower case letters.
Aedan got a 93% on his weekly spelling test, made a very nice vase with flowers in art (with Luke Skywalker holding a lightsaber drawn on the vase), and got a 100% on his weekly reading test.
AWANA was cancelled again this week due to illness, which makes several weeks in a row now that it has been cancelled. We are glad that they are being smart and not meeting, but it made us wonder what was going on with the volunteers and teachers that they had to cancel it so often.
My parents arrived on Thursday night, driving out to visit from Chicago, so we were getting ready for their visit as well.
On Friday morning, Ben offered to drop off our little baby for her visit so that way I didn't have to leave and drive back and forth with my parents visiting. I did go back to pick her up at the end of the visit, and my mom rode in the car with me while my dad stayed back with Owen at the house.
That afternoon I found out the formula that we have for our little baby was recalled. The two cans that we still had left were on the list of the recalled ones, so once I got kids down for naps, I went to Weis to see if I could get some that's not recalled. I was able to find two big ones to hold us over for a couple weeks, so I was glad for at least a temporary solution.
We continued our tradition of movie night on Friday night, so we watched "Encanto" with Grandpa and Grandma that night. Here are some pictures of everyone enjoying the movie. The kids are definitely enjoying this tradition, and they look forward to it being their turn to choose the movie.
Friday, February 18th was Izzy's 5th birthday, but we forgot to give her her special treat and toys that we bought for her, so we made up for it on Saturday morning instead. The kids were very excited to sing to her, and give her milk bones covered in peanut butter. Izzy is such a pretty dog, and she is a perfect family dog. She loves the kids and is so good with them. She is a protector of our family, and she loves to play fetch, run around our yard, and go on walks. My favorite thing is how she is always nearby, and she makes sure all the kids are tucked into their beds for the night before she retreats to the basement or her bed to go to sleep herself.
The ballet started at 2:00 that afternoon, so Ben and I left Saturday morning for New York City so we could park, walk around for a little while, and get lunch at a Greek restaurant before heading to the ballet. It was really cool going into the Lincoln Center, seeing the gold ceiling, and just feeling like we were in a fancy atmosphere.
Ben and I don't get very many pictures of the two of us together, so I had to take a couple before the show started. Also, even though we had to show our Covid vaccination card before entering the building, they still required everyone to wear masks, which was okay with us, but still a little strange.
The ballet was several dances from different ballets. The first two dances were more contemporary, so they weren't my favorite, but it we had incredible seats, and when the curtains pulled back, it was just breathtaking to see the stage. It almost seemed like it went back forever, and it pulled you into the performance. My favorite part, and the reason Ben got these tickets, was for the dances from Swan Lake. I really had only ever seen the Nutcracker ballet before, so I made a comment about how it would be cool to see a different ballet, like Swan Lake. So Ben, being the sweet, attentive husband that he is, took the initiative to buy tickets for this ballet as a valentine's gift. I wish I could have taken more pictures and videos of the ballet performance, but they didn't allow that, so I just took a few pictures of the curtain call at the end. It was a wonderful experience, and I loved being able to do this with Ben. This is what we looked forward to the most in moving to Pennsylvania and being closer to bigger cities. It was nice that my parents could come out to visit so that they could watch the kids for us, and it was a great day in New York City. I look forward to many more days out like this with Ben, my loving husband and best friend.
(Blog about February 13-19, 2022
