Ducks, Cooking, Art Camp

I have no thematic title for this one, sorry. Miscellaneous Aiden Adventures??

Ducks....

We constantly have a surplus of bread in our house - note, I keep it in the fridge so it's good past the expiration date (I assume?? Can anyone assure me of this??) - but eventually it just gets stale because more often than not, my taste buds want something fried and greasy and topped with cheese for lunch.

So when it goes stale, but not moldy, we take it to the duckies!!

Last time we did it, we got rained out! Luckily, we were at Clement Park which is home to the Jeffco Public Library so I decided to take Aiden in there and see if he wanted anything.

He wasn't much interested in the books, mostly I think he was overwhelmed. But he liked the magazine racks in the kid's section.

When it became clear he was never going to pick a book, I suggested a movie. Of course he wanted a Mummy movie!

As we were leaving, I spotted a new book from one of my favorite authors on the staff picks shelf and snapped it up - Aiden scolded me and said, "You don't need a book, you  have lots at home."

But the books at the library are FREE, some day he'll understand my habit.

Speaking of habits, Aiden has taken up cooking this summer!

He started out as a little kitchen helper measuring ingredients and stirring mixtures. He graduated to helping at the oven and stove (with lots of supervision and help of course).

Yesterday morning he made his own scrambled eggs from start to finish!!

Mommy is liking where this is headed!

Besides culinary skills, we have also been feeding Aiden's inner artist this summer. He went to an outer space themed art camp at the Denver Art Museum in July and absolutely loved it!

There were 20 kids total, and only 4 of them were boys, of course Don Juan was in heaven with the ladies...

Showing the girls a thing or two about coloring inside the lines...

He brought home space ships and aliens galore!

And my most favorite art piece...

That's right, my kid spells AND writes his name. Genius. Can not be denied, he's on his way to med school!

I kid, I kid - I'm just so happy to see him flourishing and growing. He loved art camp so much that I decided to send him for one more week before school started. Seeing him with new kids and bringing home all the projects and just really turning into such a well-rounded kid...priceless.

A-B-C, 1-2-3

Hi all!!!

Sorry for the lapse in updates! It's hard to write about Aiden when I spend most of my time chasing after, cleaning up behind and keeping up with him.

He is doing splendidly though! I may or may not have mentioned that he has finished his speech therapy and continues to speak more and more eloquently everyday. I get a lot of flack and funny looks when people hear the way we speak to each other - suggesting that I talk to him like an adult and should speak on his level...but he has grown to very clearly express himself and his emotions in the most beautiful way that I can't see any reason not to speak to him as though our vocabularies are equal.

He starts occupational therapy this week, so hopefully we can put that budding syntax of his to good use once he decides he wants to sit still!

Everything about him seems to be changing and growing so rapidly. After some long thought, I decided that his toddler bed was "dwarfing him" and that he could probably really benefit from a big boy bed - not just a bigger mattress but something that really made him feel like a big kid.

He is now the mayor of his very own twin-loft bed with a tent. And miraculously, he suddenly looks so small in the massive structure. Even just the size of the twin mattress makes him look so little.

Not only is he speaking like a big boy and sleeping like a big boy, he's working hard like a big boy too! As recent at 2 months ago he started counting all by himself to 30 - struggling with some of the teens and not really knowing what they look like, but trying really hard to understand.

So for the last week or so we have been doing the "numbers puzzle" before bed. It's 20 little 3-piece puzzles. Each puzzle has a number piece (i.e. 6), a picture piece (i.e. six puppies), and a word piece (i.e. s-i-x). So he lays them all out numbers first, 1-20.

Then I give him the picture pieces, one at a time and in random order - this way he has to count the pictures and find the matching number.

When we are all done, I read the word piece to him and he has to go back to his line up and find the digit that we are talking about.

Not only is he getting good at it, but he calls this "playing" and he wants to do it every night, uninterrupted by the TV! I freaking love this kid.

He's also getting really good with letters. He wanted to write the "B" on Aunt B's birthday card all by himself - though he got frustrated, he really wants to figure it out.

After introducing himself to strangers - not sure where he learned how to do that.... - the first question he asks is what letter their name starts with. Then, he asks for my phone so that he can make note of it:

"A"

"G"

So that's what we have been working on. He has a parent-teacher conference this week and then when May is over he'll start going to school 3 days a week (well, summer camp) and then Pre-K in the fall for 4 days a week.

Certainly growing up.

Curious Curiosities

Last night, Aiden was a bit subdued. After sustaining a small injury at school he was being quiet and just wanted to play LEGO's after dinner, so I left him to his own devices while I read awhile.

Shortly before bath time he asked if we could watch Dora or Diego. This is a new fascination of his, but it is thrilling to me to no end. When I am in the other room putting away laundry or in the kitchen cooking something and I hear him talking to the TV about how old he is, how many animals he sees on the screen or singing in Spanish - I am over joyed. I love the interaction he enjoys with these kid's shows; I am really not sure where it came from but he thinks it is the greatest thing in the world and I think him learning these things (especially the basic Spanish) is pretty neat too.

Anyway, the episode was progressing and Diego was trying to save a baby chinchilla from some snakes when quiet, docile Aiden asked me, "Do we live on the Earff?"

We went around and around until I understood the "Earff" is the "Earth," and I told him, "Yes, we live on Earth, pretty neat huh?"

"Yeah, it's a good idea, I like the Earff," and he went kinda quiet again, watching Diego go on about his business, when he piped up again with, "A rock hits the Earff? A big rock crashes?"

My jaw dropped. "Who told you that? Where did you hear that? No, sweetie, there are no rocks going to crash the Earth." I waited to hear his response.

"We have a moon?"

Ok. Time to get the solar system puzzle out.

Aiden got a big solar system floor puzzle for Christmas that he hasn't played with much since, so we got it out and put it all together.

After we got it together, we started talking about the different things he could see. I asked him about the sun, why is it so big and so yellow? And we talked about why the "Earff" looks so blue, and which one of the green patches we live on (and Grandpa too!). We talked about all the things "floating" around in the Milky Way - which prompted the need for candy...and we talked about why Pluto is on the puzzle but it's name isn't there.

Aiden's a pretty cool kid. A curious kid, who's curiosities make me curious. But, a really cool kid.

Excuse me, but do I know you?

Lately, Aiden has been evolving. Saying some really surprising things, things that I know I say, or probably think often but think better not to say. He is just turning into this little adult with a mega feisty 'tude and darn it if you think he's gonna do anything but what he wants to do.

The majority of the humor started last week when we bought him a spider man mask. From the moment he put it on, in the store, he was climbing shelves, sliding on the floor, shooting spidey webs every where, asking Mommy if she needed to be rescued. It was hysterical. And it has continued ever since.

Since we live on the 2nd floor in our building, we are constantly on his tail about walking softly, no running, no jumping, etc because there's new people downstairs. They moved in about a month ago and feeling bad about Aiden's loud "walking" I decided to bake them some brownies and have him take them downstairs.

When my neighbor opened her door and turned out the be the sweetest lady, I asked Aiden to apologize to her and he said, "I'm sorry I play Spider Man." I didn't prompt this at all...but boy did I laugh.

Another source of enjoyment recently has been the fact that there isn't anything Aiden DOESN'T like, but boy is there a plethora of things he CAN'T like.

"I can't like a bite of spaghetti"
"I can't like bedtime"
"I can't like brushing my teeth"

And when I make him do these things anyway..."Alllllright...."

On Monday, he was giving me the business about not picking up Daddy (because Daddy had to sleep he said). To which I responded, "It's ok, we aren't getting Daddy anyway, he has to work."

"Mom," he says, "Look in my eye," as he uses his pinching fingers to accentuate one of his eyeballs, "I am serious, just look in my eye."

I about died laughing!

Over the last few weeks I have been trying to cut back a bit on the chocolate milk, not that the Ovaltine isn't a good alternative, I just don't like him being "dependent" or "expectant" of it when we go out to eat because restaurants use real sugary chocolate for theirs. So a couple mornings ago, he wanted to take a cup of milk in the car with him on the way to school, but, "please Mommy please chocolate with my milk."

"Oh you want to take chocolate milk?" I suppose this was a moot question, I knew what he wanted and I knew his answer, I thought....

"Mommy," then he takes a pause and a deep in thought look crosses his face, "Just imagine."

I was so caught off guard and almost wondered whether he had heard this phrase from all the political ads on TV...nope.

"Just imagine Mommy, like Barney!" Bahahahahaha!

He has been so incredibly witty and instant with his humor that I can't even contain my laughter.

Last night, he was really chasing the cat around and couldn't quite catch him. So Daddy wrangled Dexter and put him right in Aiden's arms. He really does just love that kitty. So of course he began with his public display of physical affection for the cat with hugs and kisses. Dexter was not having it, but Aiden was not about to let go. He just kept hugging and squeezing until he said, "Mommy, the kitty is squeaking."

I couldn't hear the cat over the noise in the kitchen and on the radio but I started laughing and took this to mean of course the cat was royally pissed off, but all I could do was laugh.

Sometimes, the whole Mommy-Adventure is really fun. And sometimes it really isn't. Sometimes it is just plain hard and I actually begin to understand, in Aiden's worst moments, why some species eat their offspring - self preservation. Having only a couple friends my age with kids, who are all inconveniently located far away, I often feel like I have no one to talk to. No one who understands how hard it is. But in these silly moments, when there's a ninja doing somersaults on the carpet, or a bossy pants telling me how serious he is in the back seat, or even reminding me to "just imagine," I come to realize, there is no self-preservation anymore.

There is Aiden-preservation, family-preservation, childhood-preservation. Because this kid is growing up pretty darn quick, I don't even know who I am talking to sometimes. It all just goes by way too quick.

House A Home

Hey all, we have been working really hard making our new house a home. After lots of pinterest-ing and IKEA-ing to get organization and decorating ideas I settled on  the Dinosaur theme. And then I reconsidered. You can see why, with my inherent female indecisiveness, it has taken a month to finish Aiden's room.

We decided to save the dinosaurs for the bathroom - which is also almost done and I will have cutesy photos soon, and I chose a new theme for Aiden's room. That is "Aiden."

The theme "Aiden" includes the many wonderful facets of his growing personality and intelligence: counting/numbers. I really wanted to find a way to incorporate numbers because he is counting so high these days, and this makes me happy because I have always had my own fascination with numbers. I count things, I make up math problems in my head, I have a weird license plate game that I play in the car which I should probably stop doing because I have been pulled over way too often as a result.

Artwork -- I don't fancy myself an artist, but I do believe in fostering creativity, I believe I am creative, I believe Aiden has received that gene, and though he is not an artistic genius (yet) I want to celebrate and cultivate his artistic endeavors.

Family -- no matter what happens, we have family, he has family, family comes first. I am a strong believer in family, family is my religion. Both the family you are born into and the family you choose. Aiden has not begun to choose his family yet, but I want him to know always that he has the family has was born to.

Thomas the Train and Cars -- these are the kinds of things you tell yourself, "My kid is going to be smarter than that, he won't like such silly things..." but what it has come to is, my child is all boy and the trains and the cars are the piece of him that he didn't inherit from anyone, he just came to love them all on his own. I can only hope someday he will love ballet and James Frey maybe just a tiny bit.

In the corner opposite his bed, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I will try as hard as I can with the Lord as my witness, not to be a controlling parent -- but Aiden WILL love Harry Potter. He also has the house rules hanging on the wall and that tall green thing (IKEA find) for all his stuffed animals - less clutter in the toy box. Center of the photo, is the Thomas the train table that Mommy and Daddy built for him.

Alright, toy box to the right, sparsely full right now, but has all the big toys in it with much simpler access for him. Thomas choo-choos up on the wall there, nightstand with fish bowl (minus the fish) and my favorite feature - his overflowing bookshelf!

Cars themed bed! And on the nightstand is a photo of Mommy, Daddy and Buggey.

Alright - here's the numbers! He loves them, and guess where they came from...

These bins have been super helpful. One box for all his LeapFrog toys, one for all his Dinos, one for cars, one for tools, one for cars, one for McDonalds toys, one for trucks and one for extra choo-choo stuff that doesn't fit on the train table. 

On top of the shelf is a birthday card from Great Grandma Dottie. He doesn't see her much but she is absolutely in love with him and I hope he always knows what a cool lady she is. She has significantly influenced his dad (and his mom) and I think Aiden has a lot to learn from her in a short amount of time.

Above the bed is some of his artwork from last year - as a reminder to keep him creative and show him that he should be proud of all of his own work.

This is a shot from the door way, above the dresser is the picture that was hanging in his nursery. It says, "All because two people fell in love." No matter where he goes or what happens, that is a fact and it is why he is here. People are always saying they just want to make their parents proud - I think this is a reminder that I am trying to make Aiden proud.

Baby Book Worm

It is no secret I have a book problem - I buy more books than I buy shoes, purses, clothes and make up combined. I actual have pro-active post-its around the house and work to remind me not to buy anymore books.

Anyway, every time I have to move, this book problem bites me in the ass - half of the boxes in my house are books. Last night I actually went through them all to decide if I could get ride of some (8 actually) and then pack them up. It was a mess.

I have just shy of 350 titles. It's overwhelming to think about how many words I have read, but I digress...while I was doing all this, Aiden asked if he could help, and if he could read Mommy's books.

I told him no, I really need to pack them up...so he went to his book shelf and brought all HIS books out to add to the pile. But they just didn't satisfy his literary appetite, so he perused my books and made a selection:

Oh my little baby book worm.

Reading Buddies

Aiden reads Boo Dog a story...

Feminism Alive

I began reading a book last week called, "Heartburn." Nora Ephron writes the tragedy that is a 7 months pregnant woman who discovers that her husband is having an affair - and the tragedy is bitterly funny.

What makes me chuckle most about this book, is Aiden's fascination with it. I think maybe he really likes the cover art, but I can't be quite sure.

Anyway, he keeps picking it up and telling me that he has to read his book. When I ask if it is a good book he says, "Yes Sir!" When I ask what it's about he says, "hot dogs." I could derail here and tell you my whole schpeel about whether "chick lit" is a genre or not but I think Aiden has already debunked my central argument.

I have also picked up a zombie anthology and for extra income related reasons, I have been reading Vogue and Harper's Bazar cover to cover. Most notably on my current reads list though, is "Sex Tips For Girls" by Cynthia Heimel. This novel contains no sex tips whatsoever, so un-bunch your panties now please.

Instead is is a pretty hard core feminist commentary about "women today" and feminism itself. Frankly, the word "feminism" has a negative connotation in my vernacular so I don't blame you if you run away from the rest of what I have to say about it - burn your bra and yada yada yada...

It's really funny though, and kind of, exactly, sort of, just what I needed. Now, I have 6 things I remind myself to do every morning:

1. Have Adventures. 

2. Give fear exceedingly short shrift.

3. Shun boredom.

4. Cultivate a deviant attitude.

5. No power politics, no backstabbing.

6. Only drink and take drugs if you have to.

On having adventures - Aiden is my ultimate adventure. I follow his driving directions even when he is not in the car - "go that way Mommy!" plays tirelessly in my mind whenever I think of taking a short cut. Aiden reminds me to discover new places and uncover old ones I have overlooked. 

I am working to "go with the flow." My worry and stress are not going to make any more magical-supposed-to-be-moments than will my surrender to what the day holds for me.

On slighting fear - fear is healthy in small amounts, and sometimes when necessary in large amounts it is fear that saves our lives. In fact, I find that I am here simply writing this right now as a direct product of confessing to a confidant how truly fearful I was. Fear saved my life. 

But I can not allow fear to keep me from living it. Doing the harder things, saying "no" even when worried about the reception of the word - in these moments, fear has little value.

On boredom - boredom is some days, what I welcome to my doorstep but never comes. Nights I have wished for the thoughts to stop swirling in my head, for my troubled heart to give way for maybe a little rest...yet even now in the eclipse of it all...I would rather these continuous equations and probabilities and mean-to-bes on my mind over boredom.

On a deviant attitude - Cynthia says, some friends will notice and like a change in you - other's will be repulsed by it and say, "you used to be so easy to please." Do not be hard to please, but do not allow people to walk beside you who are overjoyed by your complacency. 

On backstabbing - I find with age, that the women I know are guilty of backstabbing themselves more than they are each other. We are all so concerned with how someone might feel or what they maybe said. We forget to just ask, "hey, did I do something wrong?" or to tell, "You really hurt my feelings." Instead we become exactly what men hate about us - manipulative, plotting, suspicious, jealous, and hateful - a bag full of PMS. 

Life is too short to not value your friends even when they have angered you. And as all women know, we carry with us our own secrets - so why not appreciate that there are so many more like you who feel the same as you do? Perhaps your very best friend needs your help and can't ask. Perhaps you are too busy or scared to offer. Can we please follow our intuitions? 

On intoxication - margaritas are for bad days, anti depressants are for the depressed, pain medication is for when you are hurt, champagne is for celebration, etc. 

My point is this - feminism is only negative when we are fighting our battles alone.

And when you can't see your way out, can't pick up the phone, don't want to get out of bed....pick up a hilarious book.

You will survive.

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 :)

It all started when...

I said I didn't want to be home alone on Friday night, and wouldn't you know, my weekend filled up quicker than the line at Khol's on a Khol's Cash weekend (and that's fast!)

I had a hair appointment Friday evening which always takes a good chunk of time but it's nice to just sit and chat/catch up with Kaitlin when I see her, and it's relaxing...call me crazy but that feeling when the foil is being pulled out of my hair - it nearly puts me to sleep!

Anyway, by the time my hair was done and I was on my way to a dinner date with Randalicious, it was nearly 9 and Bre and Dave were meeting us at the Morrison Inn. Also on the way was my uncle Brian who was being a bachelor for the weekend, and by the time Dad and I got there, everyone was working on margaritas already.

Excited about finishing up all my homework and being done with school I jumped right in.

I know this looks gross, but I have never tried raspberry before and I was a little worried when it came out brown but it tastes like they use raspberry iced tea to make it --- sooo good!

We spent the evening laughing and telling funny jokes - mostly at the expense of the men at the table and the waitress even brought a sparkler to the table with my sopapillas as a "Congratulations!" on graduation - I think she overheard a toast we all shared on the subject.

After her second margarita, Bre informed the table what time it was...

So we named as many presidents as we could and called it a night.

On Saturday, I spent the morning having a much delayed book club discussion over "Gone with the Wind" and then went shopping with one of my best friends. Can I just say, I love Khol's. Between their reusable coupons, every day sales and Khol's Cash, I finished up my shopping this weekend and came in under budget. Including something for myself which I skipped on last year.

When I got home with all my goodies it was time to start wrapping. For a while it seemed like Bre might have more presents under the tree than anyone - only because I forgot all the stuff I have been stock piling for Aiden. Now there's hardly any room for the presents from the North Pole!

It took all day, but everything I have is wrapped, so as long as I can wrap things as they come in the mail I will be stress free Christmas Eve!

For dinner on Saturday night I met Bre, Dave and Dalton for dinner -- Bre and I have been competing for check in points on FourSquare and had to clue Dave in so we could get free chips and salsa...this is becoming my favorite app very quickly - second free appetizer in less that 5 days.

Then we headed over to the Denver Botanical Gardens Trail of Lights at Chatfield.

First, it was very pretty and some of the displays were highly impressive.

Secondly, it was freeeeezing!

All in all, really pretty lights but for $9.50 a person you can probably enjoy hot chocolate in your warm car and much funnier displays in your neighborhood. But I was really happy to get out of the house and spend more time with my sister - if you had told me 5 years ago I would think she was one of my best friends - I would have laughed at you. But I couldn't be more grateful, especially at this time of year and at this point in my life, that I have her so close to me.

I am also really glad to have Aiden so close and cuddly these days too!

Here's to keeping ahead at the holidays!