Oh and one other important thing that happened....

Three Years Old

Aiden has been asking a lot about painting recently, so for his birthday, Steve and I took him to The Painted Platter.

He picked out a huge mug and painted it.

And painted it and painted it some more.

After Picasso was done with his mug, we met Randalicious, Aunt B, Grandma and Grandpa Deiker and Aunt Dana for dinner at Gunther Toody's. 

Randalicious ordered his regular vanilla malt and as per usual, Aiden stole it.

He started drinking it, and didn't come up for a breath until it was half gone!

While we waited for our food, Aiden got to work on his massive pile of presents.

He has gotten so good at unwrapping that he whipped right through them. He paused momentarily on each one to say, "Oh wow! A book/Lion King/clothes/blocks"

Then it was on to the next package.

It was so much fun to see him do the Birthday Twist with the waitresses - here's to another silly year with my best guy :)

A Present Predicament

This year was the first time Aiden was really taking note about presents under the tree at Christmas and asking about them. And even a couple times trying to open them when my back was turned. He had a lot of fun opening everything on Christmas and probably felt very relieved to know what was in them all.

However, a funny thing happened the day after Christmas...he went over to the tree, put his hands up and asked, "Presents gone?" It was pretty funny, and also a little sad - like he was realizing...oh man I have to wait another year.

Lucky for him, his birthday is 3 days after Christmas so he gets a double dose of presents, but unfortunately for me, they just kinda keep rolling in so Aiden gets a bit confused and doesn't really know why he's getting them.

Anyway, the night before his birthday, he knew something was up and he was really asking about presents. Since I am such a sucker, I decided that he could have one and told him, "this is for your birthday which is tomorrow."

He ripped it right open and started playing with it.

Since we get totally bombarded with gifts this time of year, there is no telling how many movies and toys we will end up with, so I always try to get a few that are more geared toward learning.

The refrigerator magnets are a hit!

And they kept him busy for a whole 15 minutes before he remembered his other, more fun toys from Christmas.

LeapFrog Love

Because of the usual influx of toys this time of year, we asked that everyone buy clothes and learning toys for Aiden.

He got so many clothes (I bought a ton) from everyone, which is awesome - when I put everything away last night after his birthday, it felt sooo good to put all of the "hand-me-downs" in the Good Will box and as a Mommy, I can not express how awesome it feels to have NO pants in his dresser with any holes in them.

Other than the clothes, he got a lot of LeapFrog stuff, which I have always loved.

From Aunt Rachel he got at LeapFrog Text & Learn for Christmas.

It looks a lot like a black berry - only bigger, and it's all about letter, pronouncing them, and the sounds they make. Aiden tested, Aiden approved.

Then for Christmas from Santa, he got the LeapFrog Tag Junior.

 This thing Rocks! It encourages him to read independently and is super portable as well as easy for him to hold. The best part is, I control which books he uses by downloading material through my "parent station" online and I get to track his progress there as well as see which activities he likes the most.

We never really plugged it in to the computer when we first got it, but Aiden has the LeapFrog My Pal Scout also which has been a favorite of his for 2 years now - it sings bedtime music, plays guessing games, etc.

These toys are super durable, high quality, engaging and tons of fun for Aiden because they can all be personalized with his name.

So, Santa also brought him the LeapFrog Letter Discoveries toy.

I was feeling great about these toys, they definitely out weighed all the movies I bought for Aiden and as far as he is concerned they out weighed all the clothes Mom got haha.

Then, to our joyous surprise, Aunt KiKi got another LeapFrog toy for us to add to our collection - the Scribble and Write.

Thanks to everyone for the Tag Jr Books and LeapFrog toys - we are on our way to a highly educational year :)

Christmas Day

It was an early Christmas morning for us, since we had plans to make breakfast and open presents with Randalicious, I wanted to make sure Aiden got to open some stuff at home (so I didn't have to drag as many packages back and forth) and so he could see that Santa came.

Something tells me this will be the last Christmas morning when I am awake before he is.

This is what was left of Santa's cookies and milk, and the heavy stockings in the back ground there - they weighed too much for the stocking hangers!

Dexter was very curious about Aiden's stocking and helping him empty it.

Look at all that candy -- after he ate a pound of it, I put the rest away to use as potty training ammo.

He opened mostly clothes at home, plus his presents from the North Pole (pretty gold paper) and when he saw How to Train Your Dragon, he had to turn on the tv and watch it immediately.

And he was of course, extremely excited to open this one from Santa...

After we got through everything at home, we went over to Randalicious' house where Aiden helped Dave and I make biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

While we waited for the biscuits to bake we opened stockings - MORE candy!

And after breakfast Aunt B used Aiden to get us all going on the presents under the tree :)

It was a lot of running around, and a lot of food for one day.

Finally, Aiden crashed.

And to all a good night.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Aiden was such a trooper this year, with all the confusing goings on I was worried he'd get a bit over whelmed for the holidays but he did great helping me get ready.

Of course it helped that he got to open some early presents - thanks to Aunt Rachel...

He got new, Christmas pajamas and of course hung them on the tree - he is so decorative!

And he was great about getting bundled up and bopping around town to help me shop too.

A couple days before Christmas, Steve and I took him to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops - which I highly recommend. The photo is free, they give you a "line up reservation" so that you don't have to stand there for 4 hours...you get to walk around the store, see the fish tanks, and they have a billion free, Santa's Workshop themed activities for the kids to do.

While we waiting in line, we rehearsed with Aiden what he would ask Santa for - How to Train Your Dragon, Race Cars, Books, etc. So of course when he sat in Santa's lap and asked for Rocket Man - I panicked. I didn't ever buy it and it was the one thing he had to ask Santa for...so the hunt was on for a Christmas miracle.

He also go to go see "Arthur Christmas" at the movie theater and LOVED it, it got him right in the mood for Santa and presents and it really helped him kinda piece together all the craziness that's been going on in the name of Holiday Spirit.

On Christmas Eve morning we had Choo-Choo, Airplane, and Christmas Tree shaped pancakes and considered ourselves ready for the big day!