33 months!

Dear Aiden,

This has been a big month of transition and the month where friends became important to you.  We made some pretty big life transitions in our family.  I resigned from my full time job so that I will be there more for you.  Rebecca got a "real" job (and no matter how much we would explain that she doesn't leave our house to go to work and that you were her work, you didn't get it) and we were all very happy for her to become an Early Intervention Specialist where she will help other little kids in their homes. She was such a match for our family and  we were so lucky to have her.  She knows you so well since she's helped and comforted you since you were three months old.  I hope that she will always be part of our family.

Last month you would introduce yourself, but this month you genuinely wanted to play and interact. You'd ask ahead of leaving the house for Gymboree if you could be a frog and ask a friend to be a princess to play on the jump pad.  Once we got there you would run up to the first kid you see to try to get them to play frog games or pretend to poof into a princess (you don't really get why some boys say they "can't" be a princess).  I'd say that some times you were a pest, but most of the time the kids liked to go along with your story.  I would just step back and listen, and sometimes if a kid wasn't listening to you anymore, before you got all worked up into a bossy fit, I would gently redirect you to try something else.  Although, you usually ended up making friends with even the bigger kids.  I think you'll be happy starting school in a little over a month and it will really feed your excitement for friends.

We went on a steamy bike ride after work one day and you saw two bigger kids come out of their garage.  You looked at me and asked, "Can I go say hi?"  I said sure and you hopped off that bike quicker than I thought you could.  You bounced up to them, "Hey, I'm Aiden, do you want to...?"  You weren't quite sure what you wanted to do with them.  They were sorta shy big kids and just sorta stared at you.  So you went on, "That is my mom over there, and that is my dad!"  They continued to stare at you.  You then started jabbering about your bike and my heart hurt a little at how your enthusiasm was completely lost on these bigger kids.  They didn't really want to play with a little kid, but they were polite enough to just listen and stare.  I chimed in that it was time to keep riding, and you waved bye and bounced back towards us unaffected by the lack of response.  I explained to you that sometimes bigger kids are shy or just busy with other things... You didn't care that they weren't that interested in playing with you and you just pedaled on... I hope it's always that easy for you.

You're very into sequence or what comes next/after/before/last.  You will explain, "I'm goin to spin around, make a scary face, then fall down."  Then you giggle once you've done it or screech if anyone prevents you from completing your plan.  You've always been good about transitions, so we will ask you, "What is the last thing you want to do before you go?" or "Before we do that, we'll do this."  Usually we will always go potty before something and you are a master of keeping up with full time undie pants now (I promise not to get into details about your swimming poop families).

Sometimes you will say the funniest, sassiest little phrases, like "Mom, I feeling tired of caring..." or

"Man, it's blazing hot!"  I liked your hair a little longer, but you were such a hot mess you needed a haircut.  Now you're just a hot mess with shorter hair.  When you become a shaggy hair sweat monster you are surprisingly not stinky, which you insist on reminding me if I tell you you seem sweaty.  You were excited to get your hair cut and whenever anyone asks you, you act all happy to tell them about it.  You also like to use your kitchen utensils to pretend to cut your hair and mine.  Ug, I hope that "I'm trimming your hair in the back" is never actual trimming.  We have at least a few more weeks of hot summer where you will have sweaty "knee pits" and you'll want to show off your belly button when you are hot.

You did so well riding in the car all the way to gran and pops and back which was over 18 hours total in the car.  We got a new lap desk which you really liked because you could do puzzles and coloring on it.  We stopped at this fun rest stop that I remember stopping at during our trips east when I was a youngin' - There is a bridge over the road with windows.  You loved waving to the trucks from the bridge and getting them to honk.  Your favorite new game in the car is a special edition travel Zingo!  I love travel games that are quick and easy and contain all the pieces.  You also fell in love with these Happy Meal guys we got on our road trip - Abba and Anna the white bat.  Abba is some sort of six legged mystical bison type creature from the Airbender movie and he shoots Anna out of his back (which I hid from you for a while before I figured out it was safe enough to play with in the car). 

When we were in Ohio you went exploring around the house and found your new friend, Todd the giant cheetah.  He's nearly as big as you are!  You have a team of three, Marchy bear, Friend bear, and Todd, who you sleep with every night now and call your "sweetest friends!" You can barely tell that you are under all those animals because you pile them up on your tummy.  When you wake up, you occasionally will heave them all down the stairs and giggle, then you yell, "Here I come!"  You love to wear just a tshirt to sleep and your new Buzz Lightyear jammie top is a favorite.  You like to pretend to be Buzz and your dad in your tiny cowboy hat is Woody.  You say "to infunity and beyond!" - You quickly corrected your kidding dad when he said "to infinity and no further!"

Sometimes you'll notice new things and get so excited about them. When we were visitin Gran and Pop's house, you noticed the cuckoo clock and you'd shout at it, "it's cucoking, that clock! it's coouking!"   You would try so hard to get the pronunciation right.  You don't even seem to notice when you have sand encrusted all over you.  You did tell me that you had "crunchies in your undies" which turned out to be sand.  You love playing with "Talking Carl" on the iphone or even better the live version with your dad.  The gist of it is that it repeats whatever you say in a higher pitched voice, which you think it just hysterical.

Your favorite game is a version of freeze tag without any actual tagging.  It's essentially a chase around the house game, then when you yell freeze the person chasing starts getting chased... and so on...  I tried to actually tag you once when I caught up with your fast feet, and that did not go over well.  You know how you want the game played and we are working on a little more two year old flexibility.  I think that is where your montessori school will be especially helpful.  But in the meantime, to avoid meltdowns at the store I've been known to let you blow on every pinwheel in the bin because you know what you want... and besides it's fun to blow on 100 pinwheels?!  But you have been more agreeable to a certain number of things at a time as long as we lay out the expectations ahead of time... so I plan ahead if I see a bin of pinwheels now.

There are so many little phrases that I want to remember.  Looking for your milk cup, "Where's my milky-saur?!" You will get on a kick where you like turning everything into a "saur!"   You will ask me to "be a good t-rex and snarl."  You will explain to me that you are a super hero guy and all "savey - to da rescue!"  You call the GPS an EMS instead and then you laugh.  You love to say "wowo" in a hushed voice which helps prevent you from screaming when you get excited.  We can't easily sub things and trick you anymore.  You'll say specific things like "that hat is too squishy to be a cowboy hat!"  You've started getting better about using a quiet voice.  You'll even tell me "shhh, really quietly mom..."

You started getting more creative with some of your go-to games.  The laundry basket has always been pretty fun to sit in, but now you've started hiding under the laundry basket and shimmying around pretending to be Yertle the Turtle and standing on top of it.  You played a fun skype game with Gran and Pop where they would hold  up an animal and peek parts of it onto the camera and you would try to figure out what they were showing you one part at a time.  You still like playing under the couch cushions, which have now transformed from walls into the side of an egg.  You will "break the egg" pushing away the couch cushions and you will pop out tweeting like a chick.

You have plenty of little bumps from random falls, especially now that you can really cruise on both your big and little bike. One time I asked you to show me where you bumped your head, and instead of pointing at your head you pointed to the spot you fell against.  You wanted me to scold that wall or something.  We love to ask you what we do for work and see what you come up with....You usually say something about Brown Uno-versity.  We then thought to ask you the other day what your job is - You quickly replied, "I work at the doctor's office and I'm good at working to get shots...poke poke"  You love playing with you doctor kit, and telling us that we are "all ok!"  While listening to daddy's heart he asked you what hearts are for, and you answered, "for loving you!"

You're not being a huge fan of sweet flavors.  Gran made you some jello, but you were mostly playing with your first jello jiggler squirrel instead of actually eating him.  You explained to me the other day that "fruit is slimy and sometimes crunchy, but that's ok."   You are not shy to declare your love for all types of ice cream. You still love scooping your own with your craft buddy Chelsea at the Creamery.  You like to serve yourself water from the fridge door.  Your enthusiasm led to first time use of the lock feature since you wouldn't stop shooting ice cubes around the kitchen.

Over the 4th of July you were excited to watch us play ping pong and badminton.  So excited that you ran in circles cheering and getting all giddy when you'd catch the birdie for us.  Despite my mild resistance to it, you've really picked up on the Fresh Beat Band - "Let's be the Beats!  Break it Down!"  I'm happy to dance along with you, but even happier when you decide that you'd rather read books on the computer.  There is this cool site where you can click through the books yourself, and even though you don't really realize, you are giving a book to a charity for every book you read.  You have read some of them so many times that you have the pages fully memorized.

Thanks to your Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too? Eric Carle book you learned baby animal names this month.  It also has special names for moms and dads in the back of the book too.  You are hooked and have remember them better than I do.   You like to remind me that a Mama Kangaroo is a Fly-er!  At some point J was explaining to you that Sophy used to be a baby kitten.  He showed you some photos of her as a tiny kitty and you asked to look at them for days (mostly because you are hooked on using scrolling through things on the computer with the arrow keys).  

It gives me a big smile whenever you run up to a new friend and say, "Hi, I'm Aiden and this is my mom Warren!"  I'm glad that you are excited to introduce me and I realize that won't last forever.  But for now, it warms my heart that I am lucky enough to spend more time with you. 

Love, Your Lucky Mama