art by aiden

It's been awhile since the last edition of art by Aiden.  Here is one of his favorite birthday presents in action, a paint your own car kit.  They all eventually become that lovely greenish brown sludge color don't they?

Aiden carefully collected these leaves on our walk to the library from his school, brought the home to dry (he didn't want to press them so they would be "scrunchy"), and then glued them on as a tail for his turkey handprint.

His pinch pot from school, which makes a cute ring holder (when the pinch pot maker doesn't swipe the rings out of it).

Cow mask from the patty party.  Aiden called his the two eyed, two dotted nice cow, and Daddy's was the Cyclops monster one eyed cow.

Assorted stamping, punching, painting that shows up in his bookbag.

Aiden told me this is the view out the window at his school.

Aiden helped me cut (and gave careful directions on the tricky parts), decorate (aka scribble on), and tape down the pieces.  He has also since become a wicked good tape bubble maker.

daddy went to australia

Guest Post by Dad:

Ms. Healey asked me to speak to Aiden's class about my experiences in Australia.  I'm not sure the kids would have been much enriched by hearing about my visit to the Research School of the Social Sciences at Australian National University.  So, in lieu of relating my actual experiences in Australia ("Goodin made an objection, relying upon Condorcet's Jury Theorem, to my main argument, but I pointed out that he was overlooking systematic error and the problem of statistical dependence...")  So, I decided to talk about animals instead.  Kids like animals, right?

After I asked the kids to identify Australia on a map (these kids are geography whizzes), I showed them a boomerang and a coin.  I explained that boomerangs are for throwing, though not for throwing indoors.  Coins are not for throwing indoors, either.  I also brought Aiden's stuffed platypus, kangaroo, and koala along.  Had Ms. Healey been less attentive, the kangaroo and koala might have found new homes today.

I told them that Australia is unusual, because most of its mammals are marsupials.  Marsupials carry their babies in pouches on their bellies.  I gave each kid her own paper marsupial, complete with a paper pouch.  One-by-one, the kids withdrew from their pouches a picture of an Australian animal.  I showed them pictures and told them facts about each animal.  For instance, they learned that platypuses lay eggs, even though they're mammals, and that Tasmanian devils smell bad and make nasty screeches.  I told them bats eat bugs and fruit, and then asked them if any of them eat bugs.  None did, though a few were fond of fruit.

After we went over each animals, I pulled out cards with pictures of animal habitats.  I then asked the class to match each animal to its home.  They did a great job, remembering that wombats live in burrows, sea lions sleep on the beach, and koalas live in eucalyptus trees.  

Most of them insisted that their daddies had also recently been to Australia.  I suspect that's not true.  Aiden mentioned that when he used to live in Tasmania, he saw many stinky Tasmanian devils.  I'm quite sure that's not true.  Three-year-olds are apparently unreliable about their pasts.  

We ended with questions and answers.  Milo wanted to know why Tasmanian devils smell bad. (Mostly to communicate with one another, but they also release an odor when threatened.)  Ms. Healey asked me what Australians eat.  (Same stuff Americans eat.  However, I forgot to mention that they're fond of meat pies.)  Someone asked how long it took to get to Australia.  When I said "27 hours--more than a day of travel", they groaned sympathetically.  

Ms. Healey liked our matching game and wanted to turn it into a work.  (She's going to make more games of matching animals to their homes.)  However, I had already told the kids they could keep their marsupial pouch, and apparently she had them take them home.  

Aiden was beaming the entire time.  That enough would be reason to do it again.  That I managed to keep eight little kids engaged for half-an-hour is just gravy on the meat pie.

cow patty party

We had a great time at another neighborhood school fundraiser party. This one had a theme: Cows! Aiden was more than excited to play the games and especially to dance and chase the cow around.  He said his favorite part was the man dressed as a cow (he saw the cow take off his costume at one point and it blew his mind). We burned over 2 and a half hours there - a fun Sunday afternoon!

I caught some snippets before my camera died - I caught some of Aiden's serious grooves as he opened up the dance floor:

Cow Patty Party from LB on Vimeo.

The camera missed the fire alarm that brought real fire trucks (which turned out to be burnt popcorn and big excitement for Aiden), the huge bouncy house with slide attached (which I think Aiden did about 10 times), the cow mask construction (Aiden's had two eyes and two spots and Daddy's was a cyclops one-eyed cow), the cake walk (which we never seem to win), the udder ball game over a net (where Aiden would throw all his weight at this blown up pink glove ball), and the live cows in the yard you got to pet (which daddy convinced to moo for you).

santa video

Here is a video of Aiden's reaction to the juggler and his first visit with Santa (His look of disgust when the juggler was messing up and the trying-to-play-it-cool look at 0:29 when Santa first comes out cracks me up) - He plays shy a bit and really wanted to put his finger to his lips to pretend he was thinking about what he wanted, but by the second time he visited they were best buds (I was too busy trying to be sure their camera focused properly to film that time).

Santa's arrival! from LB on Vimeo.

santa's in town!

Santa was welcomed to the mall earlier today by Eggnog the Juggling Elf.  Aiden ooed and aahed at the juggling and bounced on daddy's shoulders.  When Santa came out he was pretty happy to see him.  This Santa was the most enthusiastic Santa you can imagine (I was surprised that the drunken Santa from the past few years isn't around anymore ;)  Aiden literally bounced as he waited for his turn.  He finally trotted right up to Santa with a big smile because, "He wants to be on the nice list!"  I may or may not be throwing out that he needs to do certain things he may not be interested in doing by pulling the santa card, so he has heard about the nice list ;)

He told Santa what he'd like which started with the notoriously large, overpriced, and ugly Dora Dollhouse.  Toys-r-us has this special display for this monstrosity and Aiden was sucked in by the seasons and daytime changer kitschy thing (that will eventually be ignored).  Can you tell I'm not excited about this toy idea? - I think now after some gentle "talking about ideas" he'd rather have Santa bring him Tolee's Treehouse.  I can't believe he's already old enough to have very specific preferences... and I'm already feeling guilty when I don't like his preferences....oh well.

We actually had two visits to Santa because our first picture was pretty blurry (see first photo on the right which looks ok teeny tiny, but if you click on it you'll see what I mean)... The retake was actually even more fun!  Aiden and Santa were like old buddies laughing it up in the fun picture.  I can hear the giggles when I look at this shot.  Santa gave him a coloring book, high five, and fist bumps and we were on our way.  It was a fun way to kick off the season.

weekend-palooza

I've felt uber productive lately getting things ready for the baby.  We have the baby room all cleared out and a great new dresser in there now.  I also cleared out my whole office to be ready for the new hire today.  Let the training begin...  So it was nice to sit back and relax this weekend.  A friend who runs this consulting business called Familytopia organized this fundraiser called Lollipop-a-palooza.  Local bakeries and candy shops volunteered to compete with something on a stick.  They were all delicious: brownies covered in chocolate, cookie dough pops, marshmallow snowman chocolate pops, double choc cookies dipped in choc, and choc sweet teeth with peanut butter chips.  They had Aiden's favorite Toe Jam Puppet Band there for the party to dance off some of the sugar.  The sugar high was only part of the fun, because laughing when J managed to get called up to stage was a definite highlight.  He was the robot with the trash can on his head and a foil tummy.  He made Aiden proud ;)

Lollipop-a-palooza from LB on Vimeo.
Then the next day we cruised over to Craftopia - lotsa -palooza and -topias this weekend, eh?  Aiden was excited to get some beads at the door and groove a bit to the xmas DJ, but not as excited to look at all the booths.  Once he started playing eye spy with daddy he was happy though.  We managed to pick up some more sweet treats and some gifts.

hey doc

Aiden had a giddy strut up to the doctor.  He was all excited playing with the germy kitchen/shop coming to collect money from us for our chocolate chip bubble gum pancakes.  Then the nurse called his name and he put his serious game face on.  He peed in a cup, had his blood pressure taken with a cuff, and even read the eye chart (He read all the letters while he was waiting for the nurse to get the picture cards out).  He's 38 inches tall and 34 pounds, which puts him somewhere in the 60-70 percentiles.  He got a shot but no tears just a whimper and an ouch.  Then he was fascinated by the woman squeezing blood from his finger prick - He wouldn't let her distract him with pictures of huge dogs.  He earned a sticker for his shirt and a sticker pop - two stickers on a tongue depressor.  He wore his sticker proudly all day.  Then after dad had to go to a workshop, we headed to get his hair cut at Snipits.  We waited a long time, and there was a diva princess party that put on a red carpet show for us in their glittery gowns.  Aiden was clapping for them ;)  Then we went to spend his gift card at Toys-r-us where he picked out Lincoln Logs (which he calls big legos).  Then it was mommy and me dinner at the Cozy Kitchen, which was a nice treat.  It's so nice that there is still a weekend coming up ;)

school photo

I was pleasantly surprised at how well Aiden's school photo turned out this year.  He looks so grown up to me, but doesn't every mom think that?!

It's been almost two years since Aiden had school photos taken, which is really hard to believe.
Here are the other two "winners" to flashback:

 

 There are actually two classmates from 2008 in his current class (the little boy green on the top second from the left is the same little boy top second from the right / the little girl in brown next to Aiden bottom on the far right is the same little girl on the top far right).

Milo (next to Aiden) gets the prize!

Amy Healey

Aiden, Milo, Ariana, Aidan, Alyssa

Sofiana, Mateo, and June

philosophy

Daddy's home from a trip to a conference and oh boy, we are glad he's home.  It started raining the day he left and rained for three days straight!  My philosophy was to keep my sense of humor no matter what... if that can be a philosophy at all - I think according to this funny clip from Martha Speaks it can be:

It was wet outside, and all our noses were wet on the inside.  I ended up with what I think was an ear infection, which is still lingering a bit.  One of our doors had a knob break and there was a big package blocking the other one from opening, so I was holding a big bag of trash locked in my house.  We ran out of cat food at one point and late at night I gave the whiny cats some rice krispies to hold them over until morning.  The cats just looked at me like I was nuts.  Aiden decided that he wasn't at all interested in shopping for cat food the next morning and tried out his new trick on me for the second time this week - run and giggle until mad mommy catches me.  Yep, I did manage to keep my sense of humor.  In between all the minor annoyances, we had lotsa fun playing card games (go fish and new addition old maid/skunk - where Aiden likes being the skunk), cars, trains, and marble race (which is not ideal with multiple marbles and an ear ache, but I blocked my ears).  I guess we were due for some down time after all the excitement lately, but our withdrawal period was a bit harsh. Yay for daddy being home!

winter

7:54am - Aiden headed out to school.

We woke up to a surprise winter wonderland with some slushy wet snow.  (It seems like we are true to the idea that we tend to get Cleveland's weather a few days after them.)  We pulled out the winter coats, hats, pants, and boots this morning for the first time this season.  Aiden was excited for his new gear.  I'd love to see the kids at school get ready for the playground today.

second at 15 weeks

Dear Second Baby Brennan,

Here I am seven doctor's appointments and ultrasounds later having only written one post about you total.  Be assured this isn't because of lack of excitement or that everything has been the same as it was with your brother (it most assuredly is not the same!) but this time around it has felt incredibly low key (despite a few jarring moments and bouts of sick).  The other keys in my life are playing a big fat symphony, including that full time job that I'm squeezing into psuedo part time hours for another two months and that very active brother of yours.

I'm hoping/dreaming/believing that you will be just as low key once you arrive.  Please?  I have heard from so many people that second babies are "easy," usually I'm skeptical that they are just trying to make me feel more relaxed.  All I ask is that you inherit my sleep genes.  Your dad and brother have a warped sleep gene that makes them the equivalent of a nocturnal monkey.

I found a midwife that I truly like which seems like a miracle.  She's the perfect blend of easy going and serious and partnered with a great group of doctors.  I am looking forward to taking a different path with your birth which will not include that ridiculous epidural detour I took with your brother.

I've already started feeling you bounce around in what your brother calls "the baby house."  During my last ultrasound we watched you kick off one side and hit your head on the other side, and I could distinctly feel it.  You're going to be a strong kicker I can already tell.  I love it, but thanks for being gentle.  I can't wait until your dad and brother can feel you too.  Enjoy all that space you have in your baby house right now.  I'm so lucky to have friends to send along their maternity gear this time since most of my stuff is summery.  (Thanks!)

My belly button started popping out like a broken turkey timer about a week ago, which I'm not thrilled about.   But you know what, I'll take it, in exchange for a nice low key sleeper.  Heck, you can permanently distort my belly button if you sleep through the night by let's say 2 months?  Deal?  It's definitely interesting going into this for the second time completely aware of the crazy sleep deprivation on its way.

We have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  The next ultrasound is right around then, and I just can't wait to watch your acrobatics again.  Do me a favor and don't be shy, we'd like to get to know you more...and help your brother understand who to expect in April.

Time is flyin and I hope that continues until you are wrapped up in my arms.  You are loved, Mommy

leaves!

More fun photos from PopPop - Playing in the leaves!

octopus

Hot dogs are usually a fair food and reserved for special occasions - Sounds fancy, eh?  J saw this octopus hotdog idea somewhere and made some schnazzy all beef octopuses ;)  (with pumpkin seed eyes)  (These delicious smelling guys tempted mommy, but none for me and the baby brewing)

actual bday

Aiden asked J today, "I get *another* birthday?"  He actually slept in a bit this morning and when he woke me up (by throwing his animals down the stairs), I started singing Happy Birthday to him.  He said from the hall, "Whaat Mommy, myyy birthday?"  I hopped out of bed and made him some birthday mickey pancakes, which he insisted on eating while decked out in his leftover party hats.  He headed to school with a big batch of A cupcakes he'd helped make the day before.  They sang the birthday song about each year of his life (with photos from each year we sent in) and he came out to greet me at pickup with a big smudge face of frosting.  We went out to dinner and he smiled a big broad smile when they sang to him and delivered a sundae.  He already asked me when he gets to have his next birthday.  Just before Aiden headed up to bed, I went out with my mom friends for a second dinner at the Grist Mill.  It's hard to believe that it's been three quick years since I became a mom!

36 months!

Dear Aiden,

You spent most of this month with some sort of frosting or melty bits of candy smeared across your mouth.  Sometimes the napkin would just stick to it, so you learned to ask for "a wet one, please."  It's a good month when you need wet napkins to wipe all the gooey goodness off your face, eh?  We celebrated and celebrated some more.  Cupcakes and candies were devoured.  The best news: the holiday season is just beginning.

You have enjoyed all the big events lately especially at your school.  You are having a special birthday treat at your school today and I think it will cap off a few weeks of excitement.  On grandfriend's day you had fun showing off your works to Gran and Pop, but the following Monday you were thrilled to have your Gran and Pop give a little lesson on their South America trip.  When I picked you up you immediately told me that "MY Gran Gran and Pop Pop told me all about the turtles and the equator!  Then they went home and I want to go see them now."

You've taken to saying "I noticed something..." which I can tell is something that you've picked up from school.  You talked about noticing that the robot fireman who visited your school wore a big hat.  You told me a story about your classmate Milo "making bad choices" - The story went something like this: "All of a sudden I noticed Milo was on me!" Me: "What was on you?" You: "Milo!" Me: "Did he hurt you?"  You: "No, he was ON me!"  Me: ?!? "Did Mrs. Healey help you and tell Milo to get off you?"  You: "Yes, he was making bad choices and had to sit by Mrs. Healey."  

One of the sweetest moments lately, that went straight to my heart, was when you hugged the sonogram photo of your brand new brother or sister.  You watched so intently and cuddled close to your dad (probably because you were sleepy) as the little black and white blob bounced around on the screen with lines being drawn in every direction.  No one in the room said much of anything, but you seemed to get it.  When the tech congratulated you and handed that photo to you, your eyes closed and you hugged that little photo close.  We talked about baby names, you wanted to name your sister or brother after your favorite friends from school or cartoon characters.

I still day dream about the days when all you wanted to eat were spinach pancakes.  Now you have moved on to much more unhealthy treats.  You told me the other day that you think "meatballs are a type of munchkin!"  You insisted on cheese curls for your party, but at least you picked the baked ones.  I talked you out of the white powdered donuts and what you were describing as "awesomely delicious gummy bears" even though I don't think you'd ever really had any.  I did get you some with your friendly's sundae later that week and you did like them.  As for real food, you would eat only mini wheats and square cheese if I let you.  You love your white milk and understand that flavored milk is a dessert.  You spotted some chocolate milk at the store the other day and were practically begging for it: "I know what I can do to earn the chocolate milk special treat - I can do a dance!"

We went out to dinner the night before my parents left town (which is always a downer for you) and the waitress walked up to our table and asked what we were celebrating.  We mumbled nothing special, but then you chimed it - "It's my actual birthday soon too!"  So the waitress brought you a special birthday sign for the table.  You were excited about that, but even more excited when she arrived at our table with a huge brownie sundae and a big group of singing people.  You grooved and bounced in your seat to the happy birthday song just for you.  The waitress said, "How cute, he's not shy is he?!"

You were dog prince of all for the week your grandparents were here.   The robot king and cat princess love playing pretend with you.  The cat even occasionally goes to use the "kitty litter."  The usual names were expanded a bit this time around.  You would ask if we can go home to the doghouse to see the cat and robot as we walked out of school.  You played with a whole schlew of trains.  You agreed to take a nap one afternoon just to earn a special setup built by gran and pop with a bridge.  You had your first visit to the Ikea Smalland (where you repeated the rules, hopped right through the door, and bounced over to the bathroom forgetting to shut the door).  You just loved it in there, but I missed you a bit when we were wandering through the rest of the store - I kept looking for you!

Earlier in the month we hit the beach, and you were pretty excited to walk in the cool sand and check out the jelly fish.  You cheered, "It's time to wear your toes on the beach!"  Sometimes you say the funniest little phrases, like "Hey, look PopPop I can stand on two feet!"  While troll hunting in the corn maze and chasing daddy as the monster you said, "Where are you, my breakfast!?"

You insisted on wearing your sunglasses at night like a rockstar the other day.  You strolled around with a bounce in your step lookin right at the girls on the street giggling at you.  You have new jammies with records and record players/tapes all over it, which you insist are some sort of amplifier.  You insist on riding your bike to the end of the street to count cars and wait for daddy.  You ask over and over, "What number car do you think daddy will be driving?!"  Luckily, he's usually less than the tenth car or so.

You got a bunch of new toys and books for your birthday.  Thanks are due all around! Your new Alphie robot friend is a favorite and you love to sit with him and complete card after card.  Gran and Pop got you a light show amplifier with microphone.  You eat the microphone while singing into it with the echo on which makes the hello song sound a little heavy ;)  You love this light up disco top which is especially cool in a dark room that your Arizona grandparents sent.  You're still getting into all your new toys - you are one lucky duck!

The running hug tradition continues, but a new favorite is teasing before you give a hug - "no hugs for you mommy..."  Then you run up with the kidding giggle.  Then you love your bedtime stories with daddy, and we miss him when he goes out of town for quick trips.  You and I get to spend so much more time together and you are noticeable more cuddly.  My heart melts when you spontaneously tell me that you love me.

The day before you turned three we visited your classroom for a scheduled observation.  You were giving us a good chance to see the real deal by following directions and pretending we weren't really there (minus the occassional proud smile you'd throw over your shoulder).  You went through 9 different works in the short time that we were there, so you gave us a good overview of your favorites.  You would pick out your work, take it to your work station, arrange it, complete it, put it back, and go back to push in your chair.   My favorite was when you picked out the huge continents map and sang along as you removed and replaced the pieces.

As we take down the spider web full of pipe cleaner spiders and characters and get ready for the next holiday around the corner, I want to freeze this month and pull it back out and thaw it whenever I'd like. You were dancing around as you "helped" set up for your party and you sang "today is my birthday - let's paaarty!" It was a treat moment I'd like to replay.  Two years old was a goody bag of these treats.  I think three will be a big year for you, big brother!   Get ready for some more treats.

Love, Mommy

gran guest post: school visit

Last week my folks got to visit Aiden's classroom for Grandfriend's Day and Aiden showed off his works, but this week it was even more exciting!  My folks were presenting about their South America trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.   Aiden bounced out of school telling me about how "GranGran and PopPop came to talk to all my friends and show them pictures!"

Here is a guest post from my mom:

Jeff and I were guest speakers in Aiden’s Wee Threes Montessori Class. Talk about Halloween season being scary! We came Monday because they were too busy with other excitement last week (firemen and their robots were visiting!) We were told an exact time to come and had to wait in the hall until that time. I felt like we were doing a sample lesson for a job. I tied the talk to prior knowledge (Their Continents’ Song); had an introduction and proposed learning outcome (child will be able to say the word “middle” of the earth to the location of equator and Ecuador; had visual aids (globe, toy top, scrapbook story of photos, and poster of Ecuador photos); and had follow-up questions and visuals to evaluate and reinforce learning (showing t-shirts with turtles and “ Equator Belts” I made from ribbon for the children to wear around their “middles” to take home). I was putting my best foot forward. I think the kids liked it, but mostly they were anxious to talk about their Halloween costumes that our photos reminded them of. The kids were very good, and I couldn’t believe how well they sat and listened. It was good to have 10 pages of colorful animals to share. The only hitch came with the “Equator Belts” which I had measured around Aiden’s waist which Lauren assured me was probably the biggest in the class. Well, Aiden may be the tallest, but he is not the widest. Even with Velcro strips that allowed some variance in width, we had a couple of children with some tight fits. The teacher seemed pleased. We are now professional grandparents who actually can do ok as a grown-up “show-and- tell” team. Anyone else hiring?

Here are photos Mrs. Healey sent us from Grandfriend's Day - It was also Hat Day (or better known as crooked hat day since all the kids put on their own hats):

m&m and wolf

A trick or treat video with Aiden and his neighbor buddy Mada cruising the neighborhood.  Mada was a great little helper and Aiden was excited to follow her around.  She even had friends we ran into that were bargaining with the "happy wolf" for hugs.  Aiden marched four different streets growling like the big bad wolf.  I laughed each time he explained what he was or had a little conversation with a neighbor.  There were a few guesses that he was a fox, koala, and one that he was an owl.

Trick or Treating with Wolfy and a yellow M&M from LB on Vimeo.

pumpkins!

We had our two carefully chosen pumpkins to carve for Halloween.  Aiden was not at all interested in the goopy insides and wanted to wipe his hands after each touch.  We did end up with a huge yummy batch of salty seeds thanks to my mom's diligent seed picking.  Aiden got pretty distracted by the dino my sister sent him for his birthday (thanks Lizo and Woah!), and would wander back and forth to check out the pumpkins.  He was excited to put the lights inside to make them into jack-o-lanterns.

A pumpkin thief that stole J's one eyed poly-whateva pumpkin before Halloween night even started.  He searched around to see if it was smashed up somewhere nearby, but it looks like it was just swiped!  He joked that he was flattered someone wanted his pumpkin ;)  Ha!

Pumpkins from LB on Vimeo.