A couple moments of downtime

Father's Day weekend pictures to come shortly, I promise. Until then, you have to hear me brag about my son the genius. On Sunday night, we took a load of stuff to Papa's house (as we will soon be staying with him) and had a bite to eat, hung out with Aunt B and just got in a little rest from the weekend.

While we were all lazily lounging on the couch, Aiden started in about wanting to watch Curious George - he was vetoed. And he was not thrilled. But Aunt B and I were determined to find one of our favorites, in case you are wondering, Finding Nemo and Lion King are not on instant Netflix. But guess what is???

Rock-A-Doodle!


We were so excited (we even high-five'd) and we put in on instantly (pardon the pun). I can't believe how old that movie made me feel - everything was kind of fuzzy, old school animation, and of course Aiden was skeptical. But if you have ever seen Rock-A-Doodle you know it is non-stop music, so he warmed up to it pretty quick. I remember watching that movie in pre-school, and I loved it, I still love it. Of course it helps that I am such an Elvis fan and one of the character's is an archetype of Elvis.

Goldie and Chanticleer

And the hero of the story is a pint sized kitten (actually a boy turned into a cartoon kitten by an evil owl):

With the help of his farm animal friends (one is a blood-hound who is narrating) he travels to the city to find Chanticleer and bring him home to the farm so he can crow and bring the sun back (evil owls hate the sun and want to eat all the farm animals). Along the way there is music and a little love story.

I was so into it, so was Aiden for an hour at least, but before long he was interested in other things. Like counting his fingers and toes. Up til now, Aiden has counted to 3 and sometimes forgets the number 2. But I was listening to him and very clearly he counted all the way to 6! I dropped my jaw and nearly cried thinking he might tell me the first ten digits of pi next.

To keep Papa from getting in trouble for his sweet tooth I will  say, to celebrate, we went to Yogurtland, which Aiden thought was pretty neat, especially when Mom gave him candy to put on his frozen yogurt. While we were there, he was very insistent about who should stand where in line and that he would hold his own yogurt cup. He is getting very particular about the way and the order in which he likes things.

This last weekend, he was talking more clearly that he has ever. A couple times he replaced his "Aiden language" with the actual words and I was so impressed! He's gotten so much better at communicating and even a little easier to reason with - it's pretty hard to tell a screaming toddler why they can't have what they want but I am actually able to get his attention and tell or show him why he can't have something. Kinda funny how the tables have turned, I used to ask him to show me things when I didn't understand and now I am taking him by the hand and showing him things that he doesn't understand.

Might I also say, his manners have gotten impeccable. He is the master of saying "thank you." When he's not sure he says it anyway. The other morning in the bathroom we had an interesting conversation when he picked up my brush:

Aiden: "Bwush, peas!"

I bent over so he could brush my hair.
After a couple strokes he said, "Tank you" and put the brush away.
I said, "No, thank YOU!"

Aiden: "Welcome!"

He needs to be reminded about "please" but he never forgets to give gratitude. In fact, last night he was walking around Papa's house just saying, "Tank you" and "Welcome" to himself for picking things up and putting them away.  Unfortunately, he doesn't realize that dogs don't understand "Peas" and gets upset when he asks Boo very nicely for her ball and she won't hand it over, but it's a good lesson I think to learn that not everyone out there uses their manners and responds to the politeness of others. So I just tell him to keep saying "Peas" anyway.