One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish - We Got A Blue Fish

Aiden has a new pet. Despite my best efforts to get him named "Mr. Boogers" or "Viking" -- he name is, of course, Nemo.

We had to get the fanciest fish bowl and coolest rocks, and what would be the point if the decorations didn't glow in the dark.

Since it was Steve's idea (a reward for Aiden doing so well on the potty) I made him set it up. It was actually originally going to live at Steve's house, but somehow ended up at ours :)

The boys had a really good time getting it all set up and when we turned the lights off to see how it looked, Aiden went crazy! He absolutely loved it.

Aiden actually spent most of the evening "watchin feesh" and changing the color of the light.

Now I only pray that Nemo and the bowl are still in one piece when I get home.

Wordless Wednesday - King of the Throne

Look how full the potty chart is!

With a present from his prize basket.

Easter Re-cap

Church did not go well with Aiden at Christmas. He cried all the way there, screamed during the service and ruined my hair. So he didn't go to church on Easter.

But he did spend some good, quality time at Grandma and Grandpa Deiker's.

Instead of a basket this year, I got him a bucket to use at the beach this summer. He is already very excited about going to the beach and keeps putting the bucket by our front door and telling me, "Remember my bucket for beach."

The bucket doubled as his egg collector too! We may have over done it on the eggs - he and Dana had about 5 dozen to find in about 500 square feet of space.

There were so many eggs in so little space, he got really distracted and missed a bunch off the bat!

Good thing Buggey was there to help find them all.

He had to dump the bucket half way through so he could get more!

Oh boy was it exciting when he realized they were filled with money!

We had a no-candy Easter ;)

Here, Daddy is trying to explain the difference between pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters - we've been working on it a lot but Aiden is kinda like, "Whatever dude, hands off my eggs k?"

Aiden's second cousin Truly, who is 5 months old and a whole 7 pounds of adorable was in attendance as well. Aiden was extremely fascinated with the "baby" and all week has been asking, "Mommy, what baby doing?"

He even got caught givin her a couple smooches :)

As I mentioned earlier this week in my Spring Cleaning post - there was a funny poop incident followed by a potty triumph. 

While "mowing" the yard with his lawn-mower-bubble-maker toy, Aiden made a dash over to where I was sitting. Half way across the yard, he slowed to a very dramatic, slow-motion walk and started breathing really heavily. First I thought he was having some sort of asthma attack but when  he got to me I asked, "Do you need to poop?"

He bent over and leaned on his knees with both hands, sort of squatted down and let out a very exasperated, "Yeaaaaaahhhh." Too late.

I was baffled that he would a. do it right in front of me like that and b. in total disbelief that it even happened. It was hysterical.

He's been getting very upset when he has accidents, so I was trying hard to make sure he knew I wasn't making fun of him and took him inside to get changed. About 5 minutes after, he asked if he could go to the potty again, sat right down and did a big boy poop!!

At Grandma Deiker's house he has a basket of "presents" - when he poops in the toilet he gets to pick one. I think between the presents and feeling so bad about having accidents, we may have reached a potty-training-turning-point!! 

Hallelujah and Happy Easter!!

Pillow Talk

"Mommy," said Aiden all snuggled in bed.

"Yes...?" I inquired.

"I like Dave."

"You like Dave?" I repeated.

"Mmmhmm," he thought for a second, "And B. I like B."

"Oh that's good," I said, "I like them too, but I bet they are sleeping, why don't we go to sleep?"

"Okay." And then he got really quiet for a minute before, "Mommy?"

"Yes Aiden."

"I like Grandpa's house," he said matter-of-factly.

"I supposed that's good," I told him, "I like Grandpa's house too."

"Grandpa sleeping?" he asked.

"Yep." I lied.

"Oh," he paused, "Mommy, I like Sam."

"I think Sam likes you too Honey, now close your eyes."

"I like witch," he responded.

"You like the witch?" I asked, puzzled.

"Yep, and I like beach," he replied.

"I'm glad you like the beach, the beach is fun, huh?"

"I like frogs too."

And then he went to sleep.

Spring Cleaning

I don't know if it's the extra time I've been spending on Pinterest recently, or the organization blogging that seems to be off the charts right now, or the fact that we are moving soon and I don't want to deal with all the crap....but Aiden and I have been doing some major spring cleaning.

Every year, Aiden gets a boat load of stuff from an older friend at the lake and in turn donates a bunch of his stuff to a younger boy. We have been sitting with boxes and boxes of clothes for almost a month now...

This is the closet floor here - I keep a few things every year that I just can't part with but this mess is just ridiculous.

I spent two nights working on the project, and it doesn't look like much, but maybe that's the point?

This year I bought all of Aiden's pants big, that way they would last the summer and fall hopefully and wouldn't be a necessary expense at Christmas. However, with the weather so nice, they were in the way all last week and didn't leave enough room for shorts - so I moved all but a few pairs of jeans to a closet shelf and loaded his "bottoms" drawer with shorts.

The jeans are rolled neatly and off to the side, out of the way!

I also decided that Aiden didn't need nice long sleeve shirts hanging any more, so I pulled out his nice t-shirts and organized his "tops" drawer.

Nice, button down t-shirts hanging.

Casual t-shirts on one side, long sleeve t-shirts on the other and tank tops folded for easy access in the front.

Next, I went through his PJs -- he has a bunch, which is good since we are potty training and having more night time accidents, but bad because a lot of the favorites are one piece zip ups - not conducive to mid-night potty-runs.

Stacked by pants vs shorts and on the far side a stack of boxer shorts for when it gets hot out.

Finally, the monster drawer. I keep Aiden's swim trunks, socks, and under pants in one drawer. He has lots of everything - so I used Rachel's/Pinterest's shoe box trick to separate them all out.

 Seeing all those underpants set up so nicely reminds me -- I meant to jump for joy and tell everyone -- Aiden has gone to the potty to poop MULTIPLE times now!!

Funny story about this to follow with my Easter post ;)

Anyway, a big plus to getting everything organized is we know what we have and all the places we are looking at have more than enough room, which of course meant I needed a trip to IKEA. I went looking for desk-related organization things and ended up deciding that I want to decorate our new place with lamps and candles:

And I got to thinking that night - IKEA can really make your mind race - Aiden has put on 13 pounds and 4 inches in the last two months...I don't think the toddler bed is gonna hold him much longer. Instead of moving it, wouldn't it be nice to just store it and have a new bed set delivered - one that's super cute and super organizational???

So that's on my wish list - and I did find a desk related organizer/pin board I loved!

It's amazing that I left that place with just a $4.99 set of tupperware.

Ring Bearer Shiner

Everyone has been asking 1. How cute was Aiden as a ring bearer? 2. What does that shiner look like?

Behold:

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.