the words every mama wants to hear first thing in the a.m.

first words out of aidan's mouth this morning when he woke up:

"My Oakleys! My Oakleys!"

i had to assure him for a few minutes that they were safe and sound in the car and he could wear them later when we went out.

sheesh. even paul doesn't do that!

a father and son fourth

nothing says 4th of july like fireworks. this year was aidan's first with fireworks. i don't know about you, but the "snakes" they lit in this picture look like nothing more than turds. coal colored turds that spiral and unfurl when lit. yuck.

luckily, aidan saw other sparkly fireworks. click on the picture to check out our 4th of july album.

our oakley lovin' boy

finally, aidan wants to wear his oakleys! if it's bright outside, he asks for them.

usually, he wears his half-pints which are designed for a kid's little face. in this picture, , he is wearing daddy's bottlecaps. and they stayed on while he ate his afternoon snack of apples in the car.

who said he could change the bedtime routine

once upon a time, we had a bedtime ritual that was like clockwork:

7:30 p.m. - the family watches mickey mouse clubhouse
8:00 p.m. - brush teeth with mama or daddy
8:05 p.m. - put on a fresh diaper and jammies
8:10 p.m. - kiss mama or daddy goodnight (depending on who was tucking him in that night); blow kisses as he goes upstairs. mama or daddy reads him a story. after the story, we turn off the light and aidan crawls into bed.after about five minutes, he's asleep.

8:35 p.m. mama or daddy comes back downstairs and the little tyke is down for the night.

mind you, the nights were not always this smooth. sometimes aidan didn't want to brush his teeth. sometimes the alternating mama/daddy taking turns didn't sit well with aidan. "mama's turn" he would decree, even it was daddy turn. and, sometimes aidan needed to cry it out for 15 seconds before settling down.

well, now it is more than a year later and aidan has decided to change up the routine. sigh.

7:30 p.m. - the family watches mickey mouse clubhouse
8:05 p.m. - mama and daddy tell aidan it's time to brush his teeth. he says, "no way."
8:10 p.m. - finally getting his teeth brushed, but he takes FOREVER. he decides to play with the water instead. when he's done he might dump water all over the sink. he then runs to daddy or mama (whoever isn't helping him) to "show off his shiny, white teeth."
8:20 p.m. - putting on a fresh diaper puts aidan into wrestling mode. he will not stay still. if you try to pin him down, he laughs his head off. if you try to take off his shirt, he either giggles incessantly or gets mad and cries because he doesn't want to take off his shirt. it takes 2 minutes to calm him down.
8:23 p.m. - kiss mama or daddy goodnight (depending on who was tucking him in that night); blow kisses as he goes upstairs. rather than sit on your lap and take in a story, aidan wants to sit in the chair. or play with a toy, ifyou go thru the list of books to find out what he wants to read, he says, "no." he will then take a book andtell you his own story. sometimes he says actual lines from the book. it is cute and makes for a moment
of pride, but when it's almost 9 a.m., it tries your patience!
8:45 p.m. - lights out-- but now he asks for the light to be on. you finally convince him it's night-night time and the light needs to be off. he will lie down, only to sit up in bed and make random announcements like,"boogies. boogies are in the nose." or "daddy at the hockey game. go,go, daddy go!"
8:46 p.m. - sleep time. or a good one minute cry before settling down.


maybe it's the longer summer days and the light nights. we'll ride out the summer and hope some semblance of the old routine makes a comeback.

a gathering of the O.G's

that was the name suggested by john, one of our birth class parents. it stands for "Olive Garden" because we tend to end up there for lunch after we get together. note to parents with a big group of kiddies-- the "O.G." in everett has been the best at getting us seated quickly and they are attentive and kid-friendly. i suggested to "OG" could stand for "Oh, Geez" which is what i think we've all uttered after one of our kids has done something not so cute. 

at this month's "reunion," we met up at the imagine children's museum in everett. we had a reunion there earlier this year, but aidan was sick and we couldn't make it.

this picture shows aidan in the sandcastle exhibit. meant to be a giant sandcastle, the structure is built with sturdy padded vinyl complete with turrets and slides.  his second most favorite exhibit was the cafe picolo-- a pizza restaurant complete with a kitchen, chef's hats, an "oven" full of pizzas and other food. (play, plastic ones of course!) as you'll see in this picture gallery, we had a hard time dragging aidan away from the pizza.

if you've got toddlers, this is a great place to take them. for only $7, you get several elaborate exhibits (a farm, a veterinary clinic, tree house, theatre with stage, and a huge jungle jim and play area on the rooftop.) We ended up purchasing the annual membership-- the museum is close to home and we were not even close to seeing all the exhibits. it will be a great way for aidan to play and explore, rain or shine.

redesigned again

in my first apartment, i used to re-arrange the furniture all-the-frickin' time. it was a tiny studio and i was always trying to find ways to maximize my space. and to make room for more stuff. and, because i was bored.

fast forward to today, where blogs make rearranging so much easier. no moving heavy furnture and dealing with dust bunnies. just browse for cool layouts and make them your own. ahh.

so here's my redesigned mama blog. i wanted to broaden the scope so that i can write future posts about the folks raising this aidan dude (um, that would be mama and daddy). and i also redesigned my other, even more neglected blog. i hope to post more on that, too.

see you online!

just for fun

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

happy father's day!

wake up daddy!

holy crap-- it's been over a month since i last blogged

it's already june?!

i have been too busy to write-- bad for a blog, but great to know that i am spending time with family and friends. work has been busy and it promises to pick up now that i'm in the midst of building an online branch. 

ooh! intriguing!

aidan continues to regale us with his spunk and "where the hell did that come from" phrases. lately, my posts have been clips of video of managed to get on my little cannon s1000 (which, frankly, has enabled me to capture more aidan moments than i can ever remember.) i figured why attempt to describe his latest "thing" when i can just post the video and have you see it for yourself? 

so here's what's been going on with our lil stinker:

• he's sleeping in a toddler bed. a fairly smooth transition. he fusses for about 10-15 seconds when we leave the room and then he sleeps through the night. 
  
• sometimes, he freaks me out. this is related to the sleeping in a toddler bed. he can climb down and walk over to our room. one time, he was standing quietly at the end of the bed and i looked up and saw his little shadowy figure. it kinda freaked me out.  usually, he will wake up around 5:30, pad over to our room, walk over to my face and gently pat my cheek to summon me from my sleep so i can lift him onto our bed. we can usually get another hour of sleep in. ahh...
• he's a talker. "no WAY, mama!" "no WAY, daddy" (with me, he uses a "get outta here" hand gesture. "no problem!" (sometimes used correctly; sometimes not!) "nice shirt, daddy." "pretty, mama!" 
• mr. manners. suddenly, he says "bless you, mama" "bless you, daddy" when you sneeze or even cough. he also says "thank you," after he gets what he asks for (saying "please," of course.) oh, and he finally says "sorry, mama" or "sorry, daddy" when he does something wrong.
• time out! speaking of doing something wrong, he's been in time out a lot recently. little infractions we are trying to nip in the bud now, like putting his feet on the table while we're eating (we lowered his high chair and now it's no longer an issue. only took us 5 days to figure that out. duh) he still likes to throw his food, especially when he is already full and doesn't want to eat anymore. nevermind that WE are still eating and trying to enjoy our meal.
• car games. one of his recent faves is to say, "daddy asleep again?" this is based on jeff, the the blue wiggle that has a penchant for falling asleep anywhere (isn't that narcolepsy?) in any case, he says "daddy asleep again,"  to which paul "falls" asleep. did i mention we are in the car when he plays this game? did i also mention that paul is driving?!? paul pretends to fall asleep and then aidan gets a kick out of yelling, "wake UP daddy!" and then laughs and laughs when daddy sputters awake. he's started to play "mama asleep again" and "aidan asleep again." aidan pretending to sleep is hilarious. he has the heavy breathing and the head to the side down, but he doesn't quite get that  you should close your eyes for the best effect. 

i think this post summarizes the latest happenings over the last of the month-- at least with aidan. this weekend will be busy. besides being father's day weekend (happy dad's day!), we will be going to the tiny tot's teddy bear picnic program at benaroya hall (thanks, storm, for the tickets!) with our friends the gruenders. and on sunday, we will welcome back scott, susan and their brand new baby, milo. aidan will get to play with his little cousin. (paul and i like to refer to milo as "aidan's little brother." :) it will be interesting to see how he interacts with an infant.

lather, rinse, repeat

...can find wonder and joy in the tedious task of washing cars.

sorry seems to be the hardest word

for the longest time, aidan has never been able to say "sorry." the funny thing is that he knows when you say it and why-- he just refused to say it. when prompted by me or paul for him to apologize, he'd instantly cover his eyes with his hands or arms as if to shield himself from the shame. it was his version of a wordless "sorry."

it has just been in the last week or so that he will now say, "sorry!" but, as the elton john song-inspired post title implies, it is still hard for him to say. the other day, aidan pinched me when i didn't pick him up. (you wouldn't think such little fingers would hurt, but he's a little crab, i tell ya!.) so i prompted him, "say sorry, mama." to which he replied:

"sorry daddy!" (paul got a laugh out of that)

prompted again, he then said:

"sorry, mickey!"

prompted again, he then said:

"sorry mower!" (that would be his plastic toy mower in our kitchen)

finally, he said "sorry mama" and then went on his merry way.

at least he now says "bless you" whenever you cough, sneeze or blow your nose. so there's hope yet of raising a well-mannered little boy!

hat trick

aidan went to his first major league baseball game april 19th. it was the mariners vs. the oakland a's. unfortunately we can't say that saw his first major league win since 1) we only stayed until the 3-4th inning and 2) the mariners lost.

he had people watching, eating garlic fries, and he allowed us to see the mariners up to bat while sitting in our seats before getting antsy and wanting to roam around. the nice thing about safeco is that you can wander around. aidan was too young (you have to be at least three years old) for the play area and the line was near epic proportions for the "moose lodge" where you could take pictures with the mariner moose. but, no matter. aidan had fun checking out the sights, learning about baseball (some) and hanging out with mama and daddy. you can see more pictures of aidan's baseball outing here.

below is a video of aidan doing one of his "i'm bored check out what i can do" antics. amazing how entertaining a toddler and a hat can be.

breakfast with aidan

mickey!

Happy Easter!

taking turns and other new things

this was a banner week for a 'what's aidan learned to do/say' lately.

taking turns. aidan is big on taking turns. aidan's turn, daddy's turn, mama's turn. for the first time, aidan exercised the freedom of choice and decided that it was mama's turn to read him a story before bedtime. "are you sure? don't you want daddy to read to you" i would ask him. "no, mama's turn,' he insisted. i have to admit it felt good to be the chosen one. it used to be that paul and i had a separation of duties-- i help him brush his teeth and paul changes his diaper, puts his pjs on and takes him upstairs for a bedtime story and 'night night.' there are drawbacks, like having it be mama's turn 2-3 nights in a row. even when i was out with girlfriends for dinner the other night, it was "mama's turn." sorry, paul.

birthday! aidan turned two on the 12th of march. we had a small get-together for him last weekend with family. there were a couple of presents from me and paul that he hadn't opened a day or two afterwards. after dinner on tuesday, i asked aidan if he wanted to unwrap the presents. he said, 'birthday! birthday presents!" that surprised me because at the actual gift opening at his party, he was a little cranky and wasn't totally into the opening presents thing.

easter eggs! we picked up aidan from school today and apparently they colored easter eggs as an art project because he had pink dots on his face, arms and a blue-green hand. obviously, more than eggs got dyed-- we have a human easter egg. we tried washing it off at home, but the dye is stubborn and we managed to only make it fade a few shades.

daaaddy! maaama! it used to be that aidan would wake up in the middle of the night or would be less than enthusiastic about going to sleep so he would cry it out a bit and then finally go to sleep. since then, his cries have turned into plaintive cries and screams of 'daaaddy!' and 'maaama!" the first time, it just melts your heart. it still pulls at the heart strings, but somehow your own exhaustion helps temper the guilt and you're able to let him cry it out (after about a minute or two, he finally goes to sleep) or you quickly go to his room, assure him it's okay, and rub his back for a bit to soothe him to sleep.

the mutha of all diaper changes

wednesday morning started like most-- at 5:30 a.m., aidan woke up. i went to go get him and was greeted with one of most nasty smells imaginable.

you would think that after two years of dirty diapers, i'd be used to it. but this time, it was B...A...D.

whatever he ate at school did not agree with him. he had so much watery poop his diaper couldn't hold it all. he was sleeping on his stomach, so the poop seeped out of his diaper, soaked his pj's, and he had poop up all over his torso. 

i called for daddy back-up. he peeled off his wet and poopy pjs while i ran a bath. try holding a naked baby, caked with poop, to carry him to the bathtub for a scrubdown. ick.

in the meantime, i had to strip his bed, open the windows, gather all his soiled clothes and put it in the laundry. 

somehow, aidan was in good spirits pretty much the whole time. 

and that was our wednesday morning. good times.

aidan turns two

click on the picture for more...

a seinfeld vocabulary

in the last two weeks, aidan has been picking up phrases, repeating them and using them randomly like mad. something flipped his language switch into overdrive. i have to be careful; he has already been exposed to mommy's litany of swear words. oops.

as responsible parents, paul and i are making sure to teach him 'please,' 'thank you' 'i'm sorry' and all the other polite phrases expected of a well-behaved child. but we're also having a bit of fun with him. hopefully he won't hold it against us.

we started with, "you're kiddin' me!" which sometimes comes out 'you're killin' me,' which is actually funnier.

yesterday, he learned "get out!" ala elaine on seinfeld, complete with the shove. (he doesn't shove very hard; we made it more of a hands on shoulders kind of thing."

perhaps "giddyap" or "salsa" will be next. stay tuned!