Easter and Such

And now for those Aiden updates I had promised....

First and foremost, a big congrats to my little guy - he is done with speech therapy!!! He still has to have an OT evaluation and potentially some intervention in that area, but language-wise, he is right where he needs to be. He had so much fun catching up with Miss Jo last week, it's almost sad that they won't be hanging out together anymore, but he did phenomenally! He knew and pronounced all the words perfectly and even rambled on about each one for a while. The sounds he still doesn't have down 100% are sounds that most kids don't master until they are 6 and he has trouble with pronouns a bit but again, that comes with another year or two of talking the talk.

So the OT thing (occupational therapy) will just be about helping him concentrate. Some kids require lots of sensory input to focus, others receive too much. With Aiden, we have noticed a sensitivity to sounds. He will hear a neighbor or a car or a thud outside and immediately want to know what it is. He complains when the radio is too loud ("too fast" he says) in the car for him to hear his game boy, etc. So, likely, Aiden is getting to much sensory input and it manifests itself by making him move his body around to compensate for every sensory receptor his body is receiving. He'll do funny things, like run his head along the floor, stomp his feet, crash hard on the ground with his body, etc and it's all a means to solidify all the "noise" he's getting.

In other news:

Aiden had a splendid Easter, hunted eggs with Aunt Dana...

 And because it was such a beautiful day, we went swimming! It was gorgeous, the water was warm, the sun was out - and Aiden took no bribing (well maybe a small amount of "I'm gonna push you!") to jump in. He swam his little self all around the pool, glorious :)

Some other interesting things that have been happening lately...

For the last couple weeks, at bed time, Aiden has been sneaking into his closet and closing the door. The light is on of course, but he sits quietly in there for a couple minutes, sometimes whispering, sometimes silent, then he comes back out and gets back in bed. Peculiar....

His hands and lips have been especially dry over last cold months, so I cover them in A&D ointment before bed and leave the tube on his night stand. The first time the tube went missing, I chalked it up to mishap cleaning and replaced it with another (we have plenty). Last night, it was missing again, so I got a new one upon Aiden's insistence, covered him in the stuff and went to bed.

Not long after I lay down, I could hear the closet door closing and the whispering start. Shortly after, he went into the bathroom and washed something in the sink, then asked to be tucked back in - OK kid, one more time, but then really, bed time. When I snuggled him back in bed, I noticed the A&D missing...the one I just put on the night stand. Peculiar....

When I asked where it was, he said he put it in the closet. So I took a peek...

Everything in Aiden's reach in the closet was covered and smelled of A&D, then in the very back of the closet, sort of hidden, were 4 empty, squished up tubes of the stuff.

Since bed time had long come and gone, I said, "back to bed." Mostly because I was hoping that if I went to  sleep pretending it never happened, it'd take care of itself. This morning, when trying to dress Aiden in something that wasn't covered in goo, I realized how terribly wrong I was.

The Hurdle Facing Us This School Year

In other words: even though I am an opinionated mommy with a do-it-all-by-myself attitude, there are somethings I have no clue about yet - shocker, I know.

Today is Aiden's last day of Summer Camp and even though his schedule will stay the same when school starts, his days go back to much more structure and curriculum oriented activities.

He's been such a chatter-box lately, and a little know-it-all to boot, that I am not worried at all about his academic performance this year. So instead, I have decided to occupy my little mommy-self with things that we need to work on at home.

The big one is bed-wetting. While I take time every day to be grateful that Aiden is potty trained and I am diaper free (for some undetermined but indefinite amount of time), there are all sorts of joys that come with big-boy under pants.

For instance, the need to visit every bathroom in every public location we stop at. Aiden has even verbally admitted to me that he does this quite often just because he wants to know what the new bathroom in the new place looks like.

Surely this is no reason to wish to convert back to diapers, but the point is - each new accomplishment brings a new set of less desirable behaviors to deal with. Now, part of my mommy mantra is to pick battles carefully. Is it worth an overhaul in disciple or routine to keep us from seeing every bathroom in metro Denver? Not really. Is it worth a little change and struggle to end unwanted bed-wetting and sheet washing every day? Absolutely.

Every night, we have a bed time story. Then Mommy rubs Aiden's back while she sings a song. Then he asks for a cup of milk. Then he asks to go potty but really doesn't do much before climbing back in bed with another request that will put off bed time another couple minutes.

I would suspect that any Mommies out there with advice for me might jump directly to saying "No milk at bed time" - or any other drink. But I don't believe this is my solution, because in the morning, he has only had one to three gulps from his cup when I go to get it from his room. Yet, about three times a week he and the bed are soaked by or before morning.

This means I need to do more laundry - not because he doesn't have extra sheets but just because it smells bad. And it means he needs a bath/shower in the morning which we may or may not have time for.

I haven't done much research on this yet, because I just really would rather some veteran mommy advice, but I was comforted by some of the stats on this:

Fortunately I don't have any reason to believe this is caused by some sort of emotional trigger for Aiden but it worries me terribly that it's one of the top 3 fears of young kids to wet the bed.

I certainly don't think it's a HUGE deal when it happens, I don't get mad or frustrated with Aiden - it truly is one of the easier messes to clean, but I have noticed that he gets upset more often than not about it and I'm not sure why. Any ideas on comforting this would be helpful.

It seems like we are stuck somewhere between staying dry and that final stage where bed wetting stops completely but it could take another year or so - as with all milestones, I just need to remember that Aiden is going to do it at his own pace.

I think I am definitely going to have Aiden start helping clean the messes though, not in any negative way, I just don't want to brush it under the rug for him, especially if it's upsetting - if we can clean it up together, we can talk about it together and it's much less frightening.

Other than telling Aiden that he can go potty whenever he wants or needs though, I am not sure how to go about getting him to do so in the middle of the night - Veteran Mommy Advice Wanted Please.

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.

Change is in the Air

We have been a little bit busy.

Grandma and Grandpa Tennant came to town and helped us move over Memorial Day weekend. The whole process went  very smoothly and amazingly fast. Grandma and Grandpa Deiker helped us a whole lot the week before so that was part of it, but boy when my Mama gets a plan in her head she just gets right to it.

We have so much space! Aiden loves having his own room and I love organizing it! More pictures and IKEA greatness to come :)

In the meantime, here are a couple cute pictures of us enjoying at least one day out of the holiday weekend.

Aiden and Daddy enjoying an Otter Pop!

Aiden being about as cool as anyone can get

Me and the Bubs 

It wouldn't be Memorial Day with out a marshmallow! We haven't had s'mores yet but hopefully things will settle down soon and we can get that pushed up on our priority list!

Anyway, besides moving over the long weekend, Randalicious and I kicked my car shopping into high gear hoping to get a new car before my tags expired.

Also, Frank, who I suspect knows he is being replaced, has been a real pain in my ass. One day last week I only had to jump start once, that was considered a good day. On the bright side, jump starting my car everywhere I went like a total bad ass made me feel incredibly awesome.

But not as awesome as I feels sitting high up in my graduation present:

It doesn't have a name yet but it's going to need two - one for the car and one for the bossy b*tch living in the radio!

So we have been working hard putting together all of our fun IKEA stuff and cleaning out boxes and settling in, really just working hard to make our new house a home. It felt awesome this weekend to take a break and take in a Rockies game with my pals.

When I got home on Sunday night - I found a surprise in Aiden's room...

A fort!

It was pretty cute. Steve was watching Aiden so I could go to the game and when I came home, they were camping and fishing in his room!!

Even more fun, we spent a little time in the new pool testing out Aiden's sea legs.

Of course that didn't wear him out enough to go right to bed, and of course he was up late on his last night before going to Summer Camp :)

This is also a big transition for us. He has been doing so well potty training that he will be moving to the older 3's class soon, new kids, new teachers, etc. But before that happens, he has Vacation Bible School in the morning which consists of very different structure and a much smaller group of kids. He really wasn't too sure about it after the first day but low and behold when it was time to go home today, he wanted to stay!

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.

Citizen's Arrest

Aiden has been pushing the limits - a lot - lately, wondering how far he can go. What happens when Mommy gets to 3 (1.....2.....3....)? Will I really get a time out? They won't actually take my fish away if I don't go to sleep right?

Likewise, we have really been sticking to our discipline guns. Every "hit" no matter how playful - gets and apology and a kiss. Every time we get to 3, Aiden re-reads the house rules:

then he sits in time out and thinks about how he can better uphold the rules. This morning he even started getting some privileges taken away for saying "no" to Mommy and Randalicious. The idea is, if you think, "No I don't have to do this, I don't have to cooperate," then Mommy is not at all required to spoil you anymore.

As any parent knows, discipline is the least fun no fun at all! It is exhausting, you feel like the bad guy, and listening to your kids cry in time out makes you a bit of a whiner yourself.

Well, last night I was on the edge. Aiden had been in and out of time out throughout dinner. I took away his milkshake, I told him we would not be playing play-doh, I tried everything. He always met my threats with "I'm sorry, I love you," and a big hug (he sure knows where the chinks in my armor are). Let me please inform you, under any circumstance, when a little boy tells his mommy "I love you" without being prompted - no matter how manipulative he is actually being - you can not stay mad.

But by the end of the night I was sick of going around and around and around, so when I got him somewhat settled down for bed, I retreated to folding laundry - a personal calming technique of mine. Things were settling, I was starting to relax and finally feeling a little less edgy - when the cat knocked an entire bowl of fruity pebbles onto the floor - a bowl of fruity pebbles which I told Aiden to put in the sink about 15 minutes prior.

I nearly came unglued - "Why me?" I thought, I wanted to scream! I tried my "anger inhibitor" and I took 10 deep breaths...then Aiden came over to where I was standing and said "Mommy, clean up yo mess?"

My mess? My mess! This kid is driving me crazy...before I could speak he said, "Mommy go time out."

I was totally stunned. And grateful. Mommy did in fact need a time out.

So I went to the time out spot, I read the house rules, and I calmed down.

After a minute, Aiden said, "Done whining?" (That's what we ask him when he is in time out) and I said, "Yep."

"Done time out Mommy?"

"Yes Aiden, thank you."

Aiden made a citizen's arrest and it worked. Even Mommy's need time outs sometimes.

Call this a Whirl Wind

I have thought a great deal about what to title this post in order to describe the last two weeks - Jury duty, modeling gig, new apartment, Aiden updates, and fiery red hair - but there's just no way to be clever about it.

Jury duty was super intense, not only could I not talk about it, but I didn't really want to. And now that it's over, I still feel so burnt out on it that I still don't wanna talk about it, but I learned a lot met some really cool people and walked away from the experience feeling really good about my decisions.

I also had a modeling job which was a lot of fun, but super exhausting, and since it was for a hair company I had to get my hair done (by them obviously) so now I have copper-red hair...my hair has balls now they said!

Aiden got to spend half of this last week at Grandma and Grandpa Tennant's house so I could start packing and cleaning for our big move this month, but that meant he had to miss Aunt B's birthday which both parties were bummed about. We had a good time though, having family dinner and cake at home.

I am super excited to take Bre to use her Charming Charlie gift card and even more excited to go get a massage with her - it's about that time of year for us :)

After Bre's birthday I spent the next couple days cleaning and dropping things off at Goodwill, then I headed up the mountains to get Aiden and see Mom and Chris' new place.

It is beautiful!!

I am really looking forward to basking in the sun on this patio in the summer.

Aiden loves that there is water everywhere and tons of rocks to throw into it!

To the right of this bridge is their own private fishing pond complete with a canoe - Aiden is in heaven!

Watching him throw sticks and pine cones into the water reminded me a lot of Pooh Bear and Piglet playing Pooh Sticks.

Sadie is clearly enjoying her new boundless space, both the grass and the water.

I took Kane with me to get him some exercise -- he's hard to see out there in all that wide open-ness.

Aiden also got some play time with his pal Bella. She's about 2 years old and they had a great time, throwing sticks, playing in the mud and fighting over who's toy is whose. There was some serious nap-needing happening at the same time as a couple major bouts of only-child-syndrome.

For all the whining and crying happening on Sunday though, I have no complaints - Aiden spent the whole weekend in big-boy underwear with only one accident (which we kinda suspect was on purpose/out of curiosity) and we started the week out splendidly by wearing big boy underwear to school today!

Oh, I Sowwy

Aiden's communication has improved dramatically over the last six months. And with his new found love of chit chat has also come a blossoming, spunky personality.

When we got home Friday evening, we came home to a crime scene. Dexter had knocked Nemo's bowl off the night stand and on to Aiden's bed. Miraculously, the fish survived with about half a bowl of water but it smelled so bad in our house.

When Aiden walked in and saw what had happened, he pointed his finger at Dexter (a la Michelle Tanner's famous "shame shame double shame") and said, "Bad kitty! Clean up yo mess! Jus look at yo mess."

Of course, shortly after I cleaned it all up and got Nemo back to his rightful place, Dexter re appeared, clearly feeling no shame at all:

Later that evening I was wrapping a birthday present and Aiden approached me to ask, "Mommy, what doing?"

I told him, "It's Aunt KiKi's birthday, so I am wrapping her present." 

At this he gasped and said, "Presents?!"

"Yep."

Then, he gave me his new favorite phrase, "Oh, I sowwy."

Aiden says this in response to almost everything these days - "Grandpa, what doing?" >trimming trees< "Oh, I sowwy."

"Mommy, what doing?" >cleaning the house< "Oh, I sowwy."

Anyway, when he realized it was Aunt KiKi's birthday, he was suddenly very concerned that she may not have had a birthday cake. So he had to call her to find out, then he worked on a birthday card for her - very thoughtful young man.

On Saturday, at the birthday party, he was the only kiddo by a long shot, but that didn't stop him from hamming it up and making new friends. He hugged every single person there good-bye at the end of the night  - some that I never even met before!

He even had a wonderful time playing with the dogs and their toys.

Good thing he had such a good nap Saturday afternoon, because he was really running around all night!

On Sunday, we spent most of the day taking care of our errands and doing all sorts of run-around.

While at the grocery store, he did the honor of holding the list and telling every person we encountered what was on it, "More food."

He even tried very hard to retrieve and carry a carton of eggs for me. He really makes friends everywhere he goes - he announced to the entire cereal aisle that he had to poop his pants and when a friend of mine who works at the store asked what he was shopping for, Aiden's response was, "poop."

Aiden often asks about Aunt B and Dave - this weekend was no exception. He took it a step further though, when he picked up the phone and *pretended* to call them:

And of course, what weekend would be complete without a little song and dance?

Oh, I sowwy - Happy Monday.