getting ready

Craft therapy was in full effect around here yesterday. My mom was the rockstar lion puppet creator, sign letter cutter (you'll see those hanging at the party), original candy car creator (pop and gran made these together and brought them from Ohio), and overall birthday craft wizard. I feel so lucky that she was here to make such fun stuff to celebrate at Aiden's party this afternoon. I can't thank her enough. She is the best crafty retired Gran! I also crafted on the computer to make a few things easier by making name buttons and covers for the little notebooks and crayons.

Aiden's getting in plenty of marching games and playing with new toys that were sent along in the mail. Here is one of his new robotic friends - Monty! Thanks H and S! This dino is amazing:

birthday video

Birthday at Chuck E. Cheese:

Birthday with Mr. C.E. Cheese from LB on Vimeo

So excited for his new Choo Choo from Gran, Pop, and Gigi:

New Choo Choo! from LB on Vimeo.

2nd birthday day

Aiden's birthday on a random Tuesday was pretty fun. The morning started pretty early with a birthday song and big hugs. Then he opened more fun presents! He loved sticking the stickers in the birthday boy book my folks found for him. Then he was so excited for his new Thomas the Train set from Gran, Pop, and Gigi. It's the Trackmaster set that runs on batteries. It's pretty cool and Aiden just loves it. He not only got three trains and the track, but a ferris wheel, helicopter pad, and dinosaur museum for stops on the track. So many fun new things to play with around here! Lotsa thank yous all around and we haven't even had his party yet.

My folks had a good idea to take him to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time. He looooved it! I told him in the car on the way over that we were going to Chuck E. Cheese and he said "oh good, i eat cheese" - ha! We had some of their semi decent bbq chicken pizza and had tons of fun playing on the rides. He was especially excited by the big tall horsey ride and the roller coaster simulator (they used ride video from Cedar Point in Ohio!). He had fun giggling at all the funny photo machines, until we tried to get a shot of him with Gran and Pop and then he turned into a squirm monster. One of his favorite parts was dancing with the big "guinea pig" - aka. Chuck E. Cheese - the mouse. They had these really fun cameras that he liked to play with also. It was a great place to celebrate a second birthday. We're excited for his party this weekend!

ouch doc

We had Aiden's two year old check up this morning. PopPop came along to help us out since I knew I might have to hold him for his shots. He beebopped on the dancing table in his diaper before the doctor popped in. He weighed in on the big boy scale at 30 lbs (74%) and it was so funny to see him standing really still looking up at the scale. They measured him very exactly at 35 3/4 inches (84%) just short of a yard! And he continues to have plenty of room for growing brains at 20.5 inches (98%). He was given another book by the doctor and he said thank you unprompted to impress the doctor. She checked him out just like his bear was checked by the nurses at the teddy bear's picnic. When I asked him what the doctor was going to do to him on the car ride over, he said "give shots!" Yep, there were plenty of shots this time, which was expected since he didn't have any last time. He was quick to say "ouch ouch ouch!" after the first round, then when they gave him a second round he squealed out a cry until I could scoop him up for a cuddle. Then he had another blood draw where the lady pricked him and then asked him to help count the blood drops. The best part was that she gave him a Choo Choo Thomas sticker! I'm hoping that we can stay healthy until his checkup at 2 1/2.

2 years!

Dear My TWO year old little boy,

Well, it might be just another month older when it comes to these letters, but can you believe that you are already two? Two years old. You are not going to believe how quickly these two years have gone by until you have your own little weed of a kid that grows so quickly. I miss my baby, but I'm mostly amazed by the little boy that you've become. We are getting ready to celebrate with a lion party this weekend. I can still hear your little baby lion roar in my head, but that roar sure has changed over the past year.

Your little fall corduroy overalls fit right in with all the orchards and pumpkin patches we visited this month. Twice from strangers I heard how "confident" you seemed. You'd just charge in front of us headed towards whatever interests you, but always holding hands when cars are around. You opted for a booster seat instead of a high chair a few times this month and it worked out pretty well. You had an easy time saying goodbye when I took two nights away to visit my girlfriends. You said "see you later" just like you do when I leave for work and you had a great boys weekend with your super daddy.

Your favorite new phrase was "o-kay come on." You will normally say this when you want to go play with the shake cars or the sticker sheets. You picked up telling us that things smell like pee-u which you always say with a giggle. Your dad plays his chugga chuggas on the guitar in the basement most of the time lately, and you always want to go down after a few minutes to play with the toys I've stored down there (rotating some in and out so there always are some new ones). You also will sneak in a few minutes on the drum set we moved down there too.

This Halloween month your favorite game was sticking monster and halloween stickers. The monster eyeballs made their way to your forehead and you became the six eyed monster. There were a few bath times were the monster stickers had to come off to wash your face and I would let you try to pull them off by looking in the mirror. You learned how everything was backwards in the mirror. Your favorite book quickly became Where the Wild Things Are because your dad enjoyed reading it to you so much. I love how darn cute it is when you say rumpus. You loved to declare which one is your favorite monster - the one with the horn. "Grrrowl, i like that one"

You loooved dressing up as a tiger for Halloween and using a few other assorted costumes from the dress up pile. The skeleton jammies I found on my trip for Halloween week were a hit and they paired nicely with your bat boy mask which you refused to take off. You colored a really cool elephant mask at the zoo party with your dad. Here is the conversation your dad highlighted: Aiden: "Elephant has big trunk." J: "Do you have a big trunk, Aiden." Aiden: "No, I have a little baby nose." (Squeezes nose.) J: "Does Dadda have a little baby nose?" Aiden: "No, Dadda got a *big* nose."

You enjoyed picking out your own toys like the tiger you picked up at the zoo with your dad. The tiger sure does like to eat everything it sees. You like playing with cookie cutters especially the shark and seagull. You will hum the jaws theme song as the shark eats things. You think it's hysterically funny when your dad pretends that seagull is swooping down over your head. You also cracked up when cookie monster would put a yogurt container on his head and your dad would accidently run him into things. You and your dad definitely like to be crazy boys. It was too bad your dad wasn't at Gymboree the day I took you and they had an extreme gymboree climbing mat skater ramp. It was literally a big drop off a the end that you liked to swing over and smile at me frantically trying to spot you as you easily plunked down.
Second to stickers, which you got pretty good at getting off the sheet with some help, your favorite game was pulling the paper off your crayons. I figure it doesn't really ruin them and it's decent practice for your hand/finger coordination. You loved playing advanced versions of peek-a-boo, which used to be so simple. Now you will say "Where's Aiden?" - then you want us to pretend we can't see you, then say I think he's over there. Then you run over there and says "Oh ya, there's Aiden."

Rebecca uses you for some of her classroom observations, and she says her professor doesn't believe how old you are. You learned to use "that spells" when you read letters. Your favorite is when we approach stop signs in the car you say s-t-o-p that spells stop. Now even when you can't see a stop sign and we ask you how do you spell stop you will tell us s-t-o-p. You found your name on the back of your purple monster painting from gymboree and you said, "a-i-d-e-n that spells monster!" Your dad likes that you are able to remember things well, so he's taught you some science. If we ask you what the sun is made of you reply with "sun is hot gas" - "cloud is waters" - "moon is made biiiig rocks" You loved pointing out the big bright moon around halloween and declaring that it was made of big rocks. You also try to explain that shadows are made from blocking light and you like dancing shadow hands on the wall. Yep, definitely a science fair kid in the making...

There is no shortage of things you do to amaze us. (I'm sure that every parent feels the same way.) I am amazed that I'm your mama. I'm amazed when you roar and it sounds like a big boy roar. I'm amazed that you are two years old. Thank you for amazing me. I love you, Mamma

big 2!

5:40am TWO years ago we welcomed our little hippo lover:HIPPO-Birthday!
What a perfect card - Thanks M, J, n K!

Nana drew the cutest little cupcake drawing on Aiden's card.

giddy up

My folks arrived with the funniest costume for our little horsey fan. We've already had so many giggles from this costume :) Thanks Gran and Pop!

Around this time two years ago, I started the horse race they call real labor :)

Horsey! from LB on Vimeo.

halloween video

Trick or Treat! from LB on Vimeo.

Halloween Parade from LB on Vimeo.

Bat Boy and His Car from LB on Vimeo.

trick or treat

It's bat boy! Aiden ran himself ragged today running around pretending to be a bat. He also put this mask back on when he was finished trick or treating tonight and he was excited to help pass out some candy himself.Earlier today after naptime, we headed to the bookstore my boss owns for their Halloween parade and show. Aiden was making everyone laugh by walking up and introducing himself as a tiger, roaring, then saying hi to whatever costumed friend was there...."i a tiger, roar, hi giraffe" He's not a shy kid. He kept up in the parade around Wayland Square by chasing the giraffe in front of him, sometimes roaring, and then saying "I nice tiger" - good thing he wasn't scaring anyone ;)



We had a quick dinner and then Rebecca and her boyfriend came trick or treating with us. We made it to a bunch more houses than I expected. The weather was perfect, but our neighborhood was not very crowded... no idea why. Aiden's bucket was pretty full but he insisted on carrying it even as it bounced against his leg and skidded along the ground. He did a good job saying thank you every time, but only managed to get trick or treat out a few times - I think he was too distracted by all the excitement of getting up the big stairs, ringing the doorbell or knocking on the door. I have plenty of video too coming soon...

edible cars

Aiden is loving cars lately, but it's hard to believe that cars overflowed into my work life lately. I had quite a week hosting the Food Network's Glutton for Punishment on campus. He was here to compete in our Edible Car Competition. The engineering challenge was to take provided ingredients (that are almost all vegetables) and create a car that has at least three working wheels. The car that goes the farthest and looks the best wins! The winning car rolled nearly 174 feet! That is some serious engineering. Having the film crew there was quite an experience, and they recorded me (minus my expected nervous laughter) at a local farm picking out the produce and being interviewed by the host about the rules. We won't see anything until April, but it will be interesting to see how they narrow nearly 50 hours of coverage into a 22 minutes.

Here are tons and tons of photos from the actual event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brownengin/sets/72157622578504815/

boo-kfast

Halloween Breakfast at Sunnyside this morning! They were playing spooky music, parading around kids in costume, and giving out treats. The best part was free mimosas for adults in costume and free breakfast for kids in costume! Aiden got some green brains (aka. green eggs) and I shared my really yummy pumpkin pancakes. We had him use a costume from the dress up bin so he wouldn't make his tiger all dirty for tonight. He fit right in as a mouse because all the waitresses were cats!


Then we zipped over to the a local bookstore for their Author's Festival and Halloween Party. We ended up with a new book too - The Cat and the Hat Comes Back! Aiden wanted to snuggle this pumpkin guy who was just the right size.

happy halloween!

Hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween!

He's doing a PopPop impression of a witch ;) Spooooky!

Our little tiger is going to continue to growl through a nice Halloween spooktacular today!

tgif video carving!

Aiden and Rebecca carved a pumpkin to get ready for Halloween - R and A go through a calendar with themes each week and this week was pumpkins!  (last week skeletons!)  
Rebecca took these on her cell camera and made my day:

whoosh

Wow, what day is it again? We celebrated at the Gymboree Halloween Bash on Friday, I left for a girl's weekend whirlwind trip (so fun!) on Saturday before dawn, Aiden and J partied it up at the Spooktacular at the Zoo, I arrived home Monday night after Aiden spent part of the day with the Toe Jam Halloween Party with Rebecca and Tyler, I was filmed for two hours by the Food Network show Glutton for Punishment on Tuesday morning, I made it to my RISD class on Wednesday night after finishing my homework right on time, and all the while J is plugging along as the super daddy/professor that he is.

Let's see I will probably catch up slowly with the fun visuals. At the Gymboree Bash we premiered what will become very well loved (or at least well used) costumes - We're a Wizard of Oz Family: Lion, Tiger, and Bear Oh My!- If you get J's pink floyd tshirt reference you get bonus points:
Lara came to town early to fly out early the next morning for our girl's weekend. She was a devil with a tail that Aiden thought was funny.

aiden's guide

I found this funny "guide" I'd written for my folks when they took care of Aiden for the night when we went "away" for our anniversary in June. So here is a synopsis of Aiden's quirks at 19 months (It's interesting to see how much more he communicates just about six months later):

“Stick – ick – st st st”

- pointing at freezer = wants fish stick – usually two – micro for 30 seconds, then cut up in half inch bites and give him a fork to eat them

- pointing at cabinet to left of sink = wants veggie stick chips – sometimes wants a specific color – if he throws them when you take them out of the chair you have him clean them up and put them in the trash

“aaal-al” – with fingers squiggle under chin

- wants cereal – usually munchies like the jumbo rice krispies or flakes

- at night he may want oatmeal with a little bit of milk

pumping fingers into a fist like he's milking a cow - saying “malk”

- wants some milk in the rockstar straw insulated cup

- likes it nice a cold

“unny” and thumb and finger bouncing up and down

- wants to look out the window to see if there are any bunnies

- will look out the front door as a good distraction or the windows by the couches

“dough” “elmooo”

- wants to play with playdoh in his high chair

- make elmo finger puppets with the molds out of the colors he asks for

“blue” and touching his lips

- wants his blue water bottle for a drink

- he sometimes also wants you to drink from the big red one at the same time

- he will start dumping this all over the floor if you get distracted

“Kaa” or smacks his lips like a fish

- wants some fishy crackers – can put them in snack trap to carry around or on his tray

“Baar”

- wants a fruit bar – which is usually best to eat in his chair because they are sticky

- do not break the bar up in pieces – he wants to hold the whole bar in tact and bite off it – otherwise he may fuss and throw it

“Waa Waaf”

- wants a frozen waffle - we toast them up normally

- he eats them just plain without syrup or anything

“Yo Yo”

- wants some yogurt – try to be sure he has a bib on or a shirt you can change him out of because he will want to feed himself

“Cheese”

- wants a cheese stick – don’t break it up he will take bites from it

- it feels good on his teeth nice and cold

Other words are pretty self explantory or he will point at obvious things.

good list

Sock monkey big boy jammies with buttons! I just can't get over how adorable these jammies are and that they actually fit Aiden now - I remember receiving them from my aunt, uncle, and cousins (thanks!) thinking that they were so big he'd wear them when he was entering kindergarten because they must be mislabeled...but they fit just right now.
It's a sticker safari! That foamy safari hat comes in handy for an early morning sticker fest.
This booklet of monster stickers was a huge hit! He can't quite pull them off the paper himself everytime, but he's patient with them and he likes to tell you which sticker is next. Then he matches them up with their "buddies" on the paper and proclaims they are "da same!" He occasionally asks us to draw a monster around the eyes, but most of them were matched up in a big pile on the white sheet. He was also into flipping the paper over to use both sides.
Homemade banana bread with banana and peanut butter- a double banana treat for mom and Aiden!
It was Monster week not too long ago, and Aiden couldn't get enough of this funny wooden mask he found to scribble on at Michael's. It lost an antennae but it's still a hit. He especially wants Dad to be the monster.
Spider Web Mantle! There is a spider hiding in the web and even a black crow. It's getting spooky just in time for Halloween.

New Green Mini Gloves - Aiden picked those green gloves out at the store the other day - The first time putting them on was tricky but then he got the hang of it... one finger at a time.

Then the good list this month must include the 30th birthday edition of Girl's Weekend with all my high school friends this weekend in DC! woohoo, can't wait! Aiden and Dad will be having a fun boys weekend hopefully making it over to the Zoo Spooktacular.

apple pie!

I just pulled the apple pie of the season out of the oven. I usually make about one a season because I'm so busy making pumpkin muffins ;) This will be the first pie Aiden tries, so let's hope it's a good one :) The verdict will have to wait until tomorrow. I also hope that it will cheer up Rebecca (since her poor doggie Rex was bitten multiple times by another dog).

We picked up the apples for the pie at the farm the other day, and ooh boy they are delicious. Even more delicious sliced, doused in sugary goodness, and baked in a pie! (The Joy of Baking recipe asked you to "Let the apples macerate at room temperature for about two hours." Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/ApplePie.html#ixzz0UVl2xvbC - I'd never "macerated" before but I think it's worth it because then it calls for less sugar!)

I've always had a "thing" about pesticides. I think it was that Independent Study I did for Zenith in middle school about Rachel Carson and Silent Spring that caused it. As the winter sets in, here is a list of the best foods to aim for organic options: