Aiden Turns A Year And A Half

"Cheese"

Collecting the Dora sticks from the cupcakes

Yum-Yum

Not only did we get a new president on January 20, but Aiden turned a year and a half! I thought that sounded like a good reason to get cupcakes. And I managed to find Dora cupcakes - bonus! Of course when I got to the checkout all of the registers in the store were down. They told me they didn't know when they'd be back up. I told them I didn't care and I wasn't leaving without those cupcakes (and was late to work because of it...sorry mom). As you can see, Aiden thoroughly enjoyed his Dora cupcakes. He yelled, "DAWA" when he saw them!

Our little big boy is really talking and copying everything he sees. He says: Aw Man, Yo Dude, Wipe Out (from a kid's surfing song...we don't talk like that), Please, Thank You (at the appropriate times, too) and all the other words that little ones say (up, down...). Now he reads for 20 minutes in his crib when we put him to bed. He has a night light and loves picking out a book to read at bedtime. He'll tell you if you give him one that he doesn't want that night. He loves stacking, puzzles, books dancing and being constructive. He's still not into playing with the oodles of toys he has. He could put crayons in a container, empty the container, and put the crayons back in it forever (and not in an autistic/scary kind of way). He pays close attention to everything and studies everything. Our daycare provider said she's waiting for him to blurt out a sentence one of these days! He catches on to everything the big kids at daycare are doing (she teaches a preschool curriculum) and sits with them for all of their learning activities.

He constantly wants to watch a kid's singing/dancing DVD and now knows which remote is for the DVD player, turns it on and presses play. He just doesn't know that he needs to change the component setting for DVD. When did he learn that? Obviously when I wasn't looking. That's the kind of stuff he pays attention to. I never saw him watching me do it, but obviously he did. What a smart cookie!

We have been "nukless" for over a month! One night steve said we should see what he does without a nuk. I thought he was crazy! That was the end of that era. He's never wanted it again. One of the things we feared the most turned out to be a piece of cake.