let me introduce you to my little friend

toddlers are curious creatures. they ask a lot of questions. they like to poke and prod.

now for toddler boys, around the age of 3, they become particularly intrigued with body functions. probably because of the whole potty training process and the parts involved.

so of course, aidan has suddenly become very aware of his penis.

we try to use the anatomically correct term and try to refrain from using euphemisms like "peepee" or "weewee" and such. he pronounces it "pe-nus."

for the past several weeks aidan has been putting his hand down the front or back of his pants. i like to ask him," what are you doing, aidan? is your penis still there? good, now take your hands out of your pants." in the shower, sometimes he slaps at it. now, i thought that was a sensitive area, guys! i mean, what's with all the drama when some dude is dealt a blow in the 'nads? it looks like it hurts to high heaven!

paul says when it's your own penis, it doesn't hurt. really?

aidan has offered up a couple of great lines regarding the ol' "pe-nus:"

[after a bath] aidan says, "look mama! my penus is big! like daddy's! "

(no comment. this is a family blog after all.)

[in the morning] aidan has said, "look mama! my penus is up. because it slept all night!"

car talk

Our best conversations are usually when we are on the way home. We've picked Aidan up from daycare and he's has his afternoon snack while we talk about our day.

[Paul and I are talking about something at work]

Aidan: Stop talking-- I want to talk!

Us: What's that, Aidan?

Aidan: Stop talking guys.

Us: Okay, Aidan. You talk. What do you want to talk about?

[Silence]

Aidan: I can't talk. You help me guys.

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Aidan: Mama! I want more booty!

Me: How do you ask nicely?

Aidan: Booty please!

Me: The whole thing, please! (Lately, I've been able to get away with just giving him "the look" and I don't even have to say anything.)

Aidan: Mama, can I have some Pirate Booty please?

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Us: Did you have fun at school today, Aidan?

AIdan: Uh-huh. (Usually his mouth is full with grapes, oranges, or the aforementioned Booty)

Us: What did you do today?

Aidan: I play with playdough and I pinched [child's name omitted to protect their identity and Aidan's reputation]

Us: Aidan, it's not nice to pinch your friends. You shouldn't pinch your friends.

Aidan: It was funny--- bwaa ha haaa!

Us: That's not funny, Aidan.

Aidan: It's he-larious!

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bombs away and target practice

two weeks ago, aidan started  wearing "big boy" character briefs. we have been lazy in the potty training department. we don't want to push and we know that aidan knows the steps to "the process." he just doesn't care to put all those steps together. 

so, we were surprised when his teacher encouraged us to put him in underwear, saying she'd be happy to help him out and clean him up. 

the first two days were, in a word, gross. pee-wet thin cotton is one thing. thin cotton coated with poop is quite another. paul has been the lucky recipient of the poopy pants.

after those two treacherous days, the rest of the week was great. he stays dry for most of the day and we (as in the parents) have trained ourselves to take him to the potty every 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

as a grown-up, you don't have to think about these things; you just... go. but toddlers haven't learned to listen to that little alarm that goes off in their brains when their bladder/gut is full. it's more fun to keep playing with your lightning mcqueen cars and thomas trains than to stop, drop trou and sit on the potty. think about it-- for the majority of their lives, they've become accustomed to steeping in their goo until the parentals changed their diapers. it's another transition that is going to take some time. and patience. and more underpants-- otherwise, i'm going to be doing laundry every day. 

paul has come up with two ways to get aidan excited about going potty. so far, so good.

target practice:  it's exactly what you think. aim and shoot at the targets floating in the toilet. so far, we've had cheerios (a traditional favorite); mini marshmallows and, in a pinch, little rolled up balls of toilet paper. aidan loves target practice and proudly announces he hit the targets every time.

bombs away.  this is relatively new and is a work in progress. no bombs yet, but we've been able to get aidan to sit at least for a minute. 

yet one more milestone to work towards.

a new song learned

we dropped aidan off at preschool today a little later than usual and the kids were gathered around the teacher, getting ready to listen to a story.

teacher said, "aidan's here! should we sing to aidan?"

this is what they sang:

if aidan's here today, clap your hands [clap, clap]

if aidan'a here today, clap your hands [clap, clap]

if aidan's here today, raise your hands and say "hurray!" [all the kids cheer, "hurray!"]

if aidan's here today, clap your hands [clap,clap]


it made for a smooth, fun dropoff. paul and i joked that we should sing it at our next morning meeting at work.

Omama!

last week, aidan saw barack obama on tv, which spurred this conversation:

aidan: what's obama?

mama: obama is our president.

aidan:  our prezdent?

mama: yes. president obama.

aidan: obama? that's obama?

mama: yes.

aidan:  obama. ooobama. omama!

mama: no, Obama.

aidan:  omama! obama! omama! obama!

"obama-omama" is now aidan's favorite funny thing to say. 

sleep, sweet sleep

i am happy to report that we are now back to our regular sleeping schedule. okay, he wakes up at least once during the night, but goes back to sleep. and, he sleeps until 5-5:30 a.m. that may sound early to you, but it is just fine by us.

no one wins in a standoff with a toddler

here is the winning recipe to ensure you and  your spouse will not get any sleep for two consecutive days:

1. 1 toddler, 2 months shy of his three year birthday
2. same toddler, moved to preschool and shorted the usual transition time between the current and new room due to snow storm. just before the holidays, no less.
3. the holidays. nuff said.
4. two nights with nana and papa
5. getting back to the old routine
6. toddler learns how to turn a door knob and open their bedroom door (natch!)

stir together, simmer and get one ornery toddler who refuses to go to sleep and/or sleep through the night, effectively rendering parents into zombie like state for next day of work.

on tuesday night, aidan sat up in his bed after storytime and announced "i'm not going sleep." eventually, he laid down. but, once mama got up to leave, he stood and screamed and cried for "my mama!" door closes, end of story. oops-- not so fast. where did he learn to turn the door knob? why is he coming out of his room and coming downstairs?! doesn't he know that 9-10 is mama and daddy's time to unwind?!? nooooo!  almost two hours are spent escorting aidan back to his bed, hearing him cry and having him come out. he finally gives up and goes to sleep-- only to wake up at 4 a.m. ugh.

wednesday night. the worst night ever. aidan refuses to go to bed. thus begins a 2-hour stand off where we no longer close the door (which ticks him off.) after telling him it is night-night time and he must go to bed, we spend the next two hours escorting him back to his bed, helping him climb into in, patting his head and leaving (all without saying one word.) he is furious. paul and i sit on our bed and wait for him to come out of his room to begin the entire process again. we tag team and takes turns escorting him back and forth.

after an hour and a half of this, aidan is showing signs of wear. he no longer walks down the hall between our rooms. instead, he walks to a nearby stool a couple of feet from his doorway and rest his head on the stool. we escort him back to bed, he struggles to climb up, he seems to settle for sleep, but yelps when he sees we aren't going to stay by his side all night.

10 minutes later, i've removed the stool. he now walks to the coffee table and rests his head on it. 

at the two hour mark, after paul has escorted him to bed and we hear him scream in protest. he stops suddenly. we peek outside our door to find aidan sound asleep in his doorway. game over. he's safe, sound and we aren't going to attempt to move him to his bed.

two hours later, he awakens. i quickly get him into bed and he falls back to sleep.

one hour later. guess who's up and ready for more? ugh.

paul has me go downstairs to get some sleep. i have to go to the basement because the pitter patter or footsteps, followed by paul's bigger footsteps and the accompanying carrying on are too much. i set my alarm for an hour so i can relieve paul.

the hour goes by too fast. i head upstairs and find that the game continues. it is  5 a.m. paul is inclined to keep this up until our alarm goes off. i say, cut our losses-- let's go to bed and heck, if aidan wants to come to bed with us, so be it. we've been telling him all along he can come to our bed in the morning. when i tell him this, he gleefully says "okay!" and jumps into our bed. 

damn.  that's what he wanted all along.

so, we sleep. i sleep through the alarm and paul has to wake me up. aidan is asleep. we have breakfast. he sleeps. we get ready for work. he continues to sleep. paul gets him dressed and he's half awake. by the time i get dressed, i assume they've gone downstairs. but i look over at our bed and aidan is still asleep, but fully dressed. we finally get out the door to head for preschool and work. coffee is no longer a nicety-- is is a necessity.

it is thursday, 9:57 p.m. the kid is asleep! and instead of catching Z's, i'm blogging. 

good night. sweet dreams!

"that's poops!" and other aidanisms

here is the latest batch of aidanisms to kick off 2009:

poops: used as a filler word to describe a sentiment (usually something he doesn't like or agree with). example: "no! that's poops!" or used as a comedic device. example: "santa poops is coming to town... hahaha!"

that's not  working so much. said when, well, something isn't working.

i don't like that! pretty self explanatory, no?

mama, daddy, can i have a cookie now? pretty much when we get home, before dinner. at least he asks each of us if we want a cookie and he will give us one. he sure knows how to share.

mama, daddy, can we watch movers and mickey now? our after dinner, pre-night time ritual. 

what happened? what's happening? what he says when my dad is trying to figure out how to turn on the tv and cable to find aidan's shows (see previous aidanism)

i don't watch super goo! it's scary! aidan loves watching imagination movers, but for some reason, the episode called "super goo" where mover rich and mover smitty get stuck together with mover's dave's sticky invention didn't sit well with him. it was, well, scary. 

oopsie! his version of oops. he's usually dropped or spilled something when he says this.

no, daddy, no-- stop dancing! what aidan always says when paul starts bustin' a move to the theme song of imagination movers.

that makes me mad...  GRRRR!  aidan scowls and growls. his eyebrows furl. he reminds me of my dad when he's pissed. :)

that makes you happy!  what he says after he pinches/kicks/hits you and you say you're sad. he then gives you a kiss and says "i'm sorry!"

i want hangerber and stir fries!  translation: "hamburger and french fries"

the christmas that kept going, and going, and going

merry christmas!

sure, it's january 8, 2009, but we have a belated, rescheduled christmas eve gathering to go this sunday due to the white christmas of 2008. so, for now, it is still kinda christmas.

we had planned to begin our own little family traditions of waking up christmas morning in our house instead of at a grandparents' house. we had planned to have breakfast, open our christmas stockings and ooh and aah over the gifts to each other.

but that blasted snow cancelled all our eve gatherings and we ended up spending the night at one grandparents' home and then another. but it was a low key, relaxing christmas and 2008 marked the year that aidan finally "got" christmas. he learned all the names of santa's reindeer. he learned to sing "jingle bells" and "santa claus is coming to town." (he still sings it and we're well into january.) he"got" that santa brings presents to good boys and girls and puts them under the tree. every day. (we had to tell him it was only one day a year.)

aidan still has to learn about opening presents-- that is, that you keep going until all the presents are opened. of course, the kid got tons of toys from adoring uncles, aunts, and grandparents. but, once he opened one present, he had to be strongly encouraged to keep going. as far as he was concerned, he already had a toy to play with-- why were we interrupting him with this opening present stuff?

he still has another present at my parent's house to open. a little something from a surrogate lola and lolo who are good friends with my folks.

aidan's new toys are still in the box we put them in when we finally returned home. the tree is still up, as well as the lights on the house. we got some work  to do this weekend.

we celebrated a "new york new year's eve" at the gruender's house. we celebrated 2009 with a countdown john found on cable tv. it was a nice way to ring in the new year with friends. usually, we stay home and watch movies. correction-- paul watches movies and i fall asleep around mid-way into the 2nd movie. aidan and kohl had a great time putting on their hats and tooting their horns. they also had fun playing with kohl's trains and wrestling and running. my baby has turned into a boy.

i'm hoping for a happy, healthy and hopeful 2009 and wish the same for you and all of your loved ones.

seeing santa and talking about santa are two different things

for the past few weeks, aidan "gets" the idea that santa is a happy man that says "ho, ho,ho"; dresses in red, and will be bringing aidan presents under the tree because "he's a good boy."

fast forward to sunday, when we attended "breakfast with santa" with our birth class friends. in addition to breakfast, the kids get to visit with mrs. and mr claus, as well as get a goody bag and story time.

remember last year's santa picture?  let me remind you:

this year:




no tears and faces of horror, but the kid wasn't in the mood. sit on this guy's lap? no way, no how.

naughty or nice?

check out this video, courtesy of disney family. a little holiday fun at aidan's expense.

that's a big bow!

aidan and i went christmas shopping at target last saturday to pick up a few odds and ends. we found this in the gift wrap section. target has everything! so, if you're giving your sweetie a new car for christmas, go to target for your BIG bow.

i'm a good boy!

it appears that this will be the year that aidan "gets" christmas.

last year, he enjoyed ripping paper off presents. he was introduced to santa, which resulted in this adorable image of horror:



this year, he is already talking about being a "good boy so santa brings me presents under the tree. every day."

we are emphasizing the "good boy" aspect, pointing out that throwing his food, making raspberries with a full mouth of food and talking back are not "good boy" behaviours and santa "doesn't like that."

don't even think of praising good behavior with anything other than, "you're a good boy, aidan!" i forgot what "good" thing he did, but i praised him with a "you're awesome, aidan!" to which he replied, "no! i'm not awesome. i'm a good boy!"

he said wha?!?

the last two months have been a flurry of new aidanisms-- paul and i continue to be surprised by the words coming out of our son's mouth. there are some phrases i still don't get (like "mikojojoboyo"-- i've tried to repeat it back hoping to figure it out, but he just laughs. like it was a joke he made up with his day care buddies to see who could get their parents to say it first. 

here are the some of aidan's key aidanisms; at least the ones i can remember off the top of my head:

"i don't like that." or "i don't like it."

emphasis on the word "like." the first time he said it, he wasn't a fan of the freshly baked banana bread i had made. what made this funny was the fact that aidan didn't like that he didn't like it. he likes everything! eventually, he went back to the kitchen counter where he put the "offending" banana bread pieces, tried another taste, and triumphantly exclaimed, "i like it mama! i like it!"

"that's not funny."

he is now the judge of what is funny. what i say or what daddy says in conversation is "not funny."

"stop talking!"

this is accompanied by his little hand clamping down on your mouth while your lips are flapping.

"that's funny! HA!HA!HAAA!" (his toddler evil laugh)

usually, it's not funny. and he's doing something he's not supposed to.

"i'm sorry!"

he has gotten really good at apologizing when he's done ya wrong. but today, he was running into things with his little motorcycle and he ran into my bag, toppling over my daytimer. "i'm sorry. i made a little mess!" it was the cutest thing i'd ever heard.

he sings! he sings all the time. today, he started singing one of the imagination movers songs. here is a video of him singing happy birthday to his tito. so cute!

let me hear your body talk

for the past month or so, aidan's daycare has been helping him transition into the older toddler room. he would spend the mornings in the waddler room (read "not potty training") and spend the afternoons with the toddlers. three of the girls in that room were with aidan in the waddler room until about 5 months ago. (that whole girls potty train faster than boys thing, I suppose.)

today was his first entire day in the toddler room. it was touch and go for a minute there-- "i want to go upstairs!" he said, clinging to paul. (he wanted to go to the waddler room where he would see miss gerilynn (our favorite filipina) and get his morning hugs and kisses.) luckily aidan's little homeboy, CM., transitioned along with him. CM was sitting on the floor playing with toys and he was excited to see aidan when he arrived. actually, it was CM that offered a toy car to aidan, who then said "Hmm!" and let go of paul long enough to set him down next to CM for a little playtime.

we walked out of daycare with a conspiratorial "whew!"

picking him up after work, he was outside playing with the girls. he had a great day. apparently, all three girls brushed his hair. and, there was the following comment on his daily report card made by his teacher:

"i was standing with aidan while he was on the potty. while we were waiting, he said, 'come on pee-pee. it's time to come out!" his communication skills are awesome! LOL."

i think he's on to us

it is saturday morning in the mcjannet household. aidan is feasting on a morning's breakfast of strawberry yogurt and peanut butter toast. he is also checking out little einstein's on the t.v.

daddy walks over to mama and gives her a kiss: "good morning my sweetheart." smootches ensue.

"excuse me. mama and daddy!"

was that aidan?

"excuse me, mama and daddy. get back. get back!"

huh?

daddy: "aidan do you want daddy to back away from mama?"

aidan:" get back! get back!"

we test this by smooching again.

"no, mama daddy. nooo!"


apparently, SOMEONE is gunning for only- childdom.

the boy and the sea

here is a video clip of aidan dipping his toes in the pacific upon our arrival in cannon beach. the kid has no fear of the water. 

i better get him swimming lessons. and fast!

and we're back

it is now week two after taking two whole weeks for our family vacation. it took that long to get back to normal. we've still have some kinks to work out. more on that later.

our annual trek to the oregon coast was extended to just shy of a two weeks, ending with a couple of days in portland, and ending with a visit to the oregon zoo and my long-awaited purchase of the iphone 3g. sigh.

i've posted a sampling of picture highlights here, but the main highlights of our trip were:

1. vacationing with your in-laws can be fun and a win-win. they get to spend time with their grandson and you and your hubby get to have time to yourselves. my in-laws are the best!
2. yes, you are on a vacation from work-- but vacationing with a toddler is, as my hubby put it, "a whole kind of different work!"
3. toddlers don't know about the whole sleeping in thing. 
4. cannon beach is beautiful. the sea air can do wonders for your peace of mind.
5. i went to cannon beach spa and had a volcanic spa treatment. now that's the way to start a vacation.
6. we discovered hug point and ventured out of cannon beach to visit manzanita (my new fave little sea town, especially for shopping!), nahalem, and other little towns i can't remember the names for.
7. oregon has the cleanest public bathrooms i've ever seen in a state park
8. we had one rainy day during our entire stay in cannon beach. it was a great opportunity to take a drive, check out the shops for tax free shopping and end up at tillamook for ice cream.
9. cannon beach bakery cinnamon bread makes the best french toast.
10. the only time i eat bacon more than two days in a row is during vacation and it accompanies the aforementioned french toast.
11. i read two books in seven days.
12. i turned off my blackberry. i brought my laptop to upload pics, but couldn't find free wifi anywhere in cannon beach. this was totally different in portland where you can find free wifi anywhere. i am wired 24/7 and the break from technology was a welcome break. 
13. i had close to 700 emails in my inbox while i was away. 
14. scott, susan and baby milo (as aidan refers to his little cousin) came down for a weekend and we spent some time as a big ole mcjannet family!

i could go on, but it's late. i'll let these pix speak for themselves.

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.