What does mama say?

During the last few weeks Aiden has a new trick. When you ask him, "What does mama say?", he answers, "NO" or "SIT DOWN". I guess I know what's always coming out of my mouth! His continuous personal mission is to find the remotes...either the DVD one to watch Ralph's World or the TV remote to watch Dora. I started putting them on the top of the couch. Guess who climbed up the couch by himself this week? Steve peeked in the living room to check on Aiden and he was sitting on the couch smiling, remote in hand! We have big, cushy furniture (I don't even come close to touching the ground when I'm sitting down) so he was pretty desperate.

Our daycare provider told us something interesting this week. She said he takes a book, reads it, then lifts it up and turns it out towards the kids like he's showing them the pictures. He's playing teacher! She said she usually starts seeing that at age 3 and she's never seen a boy do that, it's always the girls. Mr. James, the teacher, perhaps?

We're leaving for the Kalahari in the Dells this weekend. I can't wait! Aiden's going to the love the waterpark! I'm packing some toys, but I don't think I should bother. I have a feeling we won't be in our room very much. You can't cage the Aidenator in a hotel room!

We started Gymboree class again this week. It's so funny to watch the little ones running around! As usual, Aiden's off doing his own thing during class. We're happy to be in class with Aiden's cousin, Brooklynn!

Reaching for candy

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.

Playing Downstairs

Cute Aiden Photos

Welcome to Aiden's Official Site

This is officially Aiden's new site. Steve has been maintaining it for almost a year, but I haven't been on it until recently. Between the two of us, we should be able to update it more often than the other site.

Something has changed in Aiden during the Christmas season. Our baby is gone. He is now a little boy. He's been talking a lot...babble and real words. Today he was standing on the couch and I pointed down and told him to sit down. For the next 15 minutes, in a very stearn voice, he pointed at the couch cushion and said, "sit down." Steve said now I know what I sound like! He's starting to say "I love you" and "thank you," mixed in with a bunch of other things. He's my shadow and follows me everywhere. He saw my mom clap and call her dog over to her, so now he claps and yells, "Mama" or "Dada" when he wants us to come by him! It's crazy what they understand at this age. Although they can't talk, they understand what you're saying. He signs when he's hungry/wants more and when he's thirsty. It's makes it so much easier!

We put my jukebox from when I was a kid in our basement and made a play area for Aiden down there (complete with a Dora tent and a slide!). We can't say the word 'downstairs' without him dropping what he's doing, running to the basement door and dancing! He LOVES playing the jukebox and dancing down there!

Aiden has all of his teeth, except his 2-year molars. It's been a rough 1+ months. He wouldn't eat for us, except for cookies, crackers, cheerios and mandarin oranges. He ate at daycare Monday - Thursday, so I wasn't too worried about the weekends. But with the 2 holiday weeks, he was only at daycare a total of 4 days. That's a lot of not eating and frustrating meal times. This week got him back into routine (thank goodness for routine) and eating a little better for us. I actually got him to eat a fish stick. You have no idea what an improvement that is. I think he sees the kids at school eat, so that makes him eat.

Christmas was fun. He did a good job handing out the presents...he's an elf! It wasn't until his 4th or 5th christmas that he realized he could open presents. He got so many gifts (thank you!). He's not really into playing with toys too much right now. More than anything, he just wants to play with us - dancing, reading, building forts, chasing, singing, etc. The crazy new thing he does is he puts 2 rings from that fisher price stacking toy (http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-71050-Rock-A-Stack/dp/B00000IZQP) on his feet and he walks around the house like that. I call them his high-heels! It's funny! Strange, but funny.

Aiden and his Duck