visits!

We made the most of our surprise visit to Cleveland. Aiden was a super duper good boy on both of the legs home from Cleveland yesterday. He ended up with his own seat which made the squirm monkey very happy. He loved looking out at the whiiiite cloouds!, zooming his little car all over the seat, and making friends with the guy that sat with us on the final leg home. He was very content to babble away at him. The grandfatherly type guy responded that he just loved little baby "chicken talk" and that it only lasts so long. As he told Aiden that he liked his chicken talk Aiden started flapping his arm and squawking like a chicken. It was pretty funny. Our flight was delayed by about an hour coming home (most of which was spent waiting on the plane), but it was a very bearable duo trip for the little guy and me. It's almost easier now because he can walk on and off the plane on his own (and occasionally he wave hi to friendly faces like a little ham).

Our trip was so, so worth it. We had so much fun celebrating with Auntie Lizzie and visiting with everyone! It's always hard to do justice to all the fun stuff on our whirlwind trips, but the 612 photos/videos (on my new camera!) collect the fun tidbits. Flying kites with Grand Poppie (even in a dead wind), visiting the Metroparks duck pond and the Lake Farmpark were definite highlights. We are so appreciative of all the smiles, food, and fun you always share...thanks especially to GranGran and PopPop. Here are some photo tidbits:
At our fancier dinner for Liz's birthday (at the restaurant company that she works for) Aiden became a sudden and enthusiastic foodie. Here he is pointing out the delicate texture of the oysters:
Liz and David have a rocking swing set in their backyard and Aiden was all over it (in place of missing some Gymboree). He could also climb up the wall to escape his crazy cousin doggie Duke who was mostly busy eating berries. Those berries also made a really cool pattern of juice splurts on Aiden's shorts (which PopPop fixed with an all out laundry assault - thanks!)

We went down to Downtown Willoughby for their annual Cruise-In car show. There were hundreds of cars and Aiden wanted to find all the blue ones. We stopped in at the little ice cream shop, Scooters, I worked at for the summers in high school. It was a flashback to over ten years ago with the same set up. The vintage bumper car from Euclid Beach Park was Aiden's favorite car of the show.
At the car show with Uncle Billy, riding the good ol canon in the park:
Aiden loved riding his little bike and pulling my very old wagon. He'd walk past the bike when we were coming in from the car and say "oh, a bike" and almost always had to hop right on it.
My mom found a Very Hungry Caterpillar book that was given to me the year my sister was born (it has a sweet message in it from our family friends). She also had an old felt set that she used to read to her classes. We had many reading sessions with that book while we visited.
Aiden latched onto this barnyard toy my folks gave him for xmas last year. He was especially attached to these two horses and loved explaining that one was the mama and the other the baby. He was also pretty excited to carry this gigantic teddy and pretend to use him as a chair:
My cousin will be celebrating her graduation with a party next weekend, but we had to get some quick family shots that were missed at her ceremony a couple weeks ago:
Aiden was lucky enough to get a chance to hear the bunny trick from his Grand Poppie, and ooh boy was he excited when he opened his hand and all those little foam bunnies were in there:
Aiden checked out his first lightening bugs:
Riding on PopPop's shoulders at the duck pond (because little ones could just decide to go swimming with the ducks a little too easily):
Playing with Gigi is always a good time:
Liz's wedding shower (all the raw photos are posted at the link below) - My favorite part was making little mini wedding dresses and Liz's favorite was the cake with good wishes from her doggie (When I went to pick up that cake, the cake decorator thought I was crazy - when she asked what occasion the cake was for, I replied that the dog's parents were getting married...she looked at me kinda confused): http://flickr.com/gp/brennans/132o44