botanical

Living in this area feels like such a charm, especially this time of year and despite the traffic and crowds. When we hit the National Botanical Garden Season's Greetings train and natural sculptures exhibit at just the right time on Sunday - easy free parking, no line and not too many people - I was expecting little choo choos looping between pretty plants. But boy oh boy, it is so much cooler with the adorable elaborate little houses made out of twigs and leaves.  They had cute names like critter condo, peacock palace, giraffe garage, porcupine place, monkey mansion, many fairy flats, and many many more. They even had some inside scenes that were housed in this little tunnel right at Aiden's level.  There were bridges overhead with trains running and waterfalls near the loopy track. Then the historic scale models of homes and monuments was just as impressive. The rest of the garden had festive decorations with natural ornaments. There was bright sun warming up the cool day, so we scurried across the street to the Capitol building Xmas tree. Aiden's sun glasses and KC's little fuzzy suit kicky legs were making a bunch of tourists giggle and take their picture. The kids were almost as much of an attraction as the Peep car. J asked Aiden what law he thought was most important on the capitol steps and he said his law was to always go potty in the potty.  Here are some snaps from my iphone camera, some with this new kitschy little fisheye lens J got me as an early xmas present.

heritage farm

The cold set in a bit this weekend after spoiling us and we found this great museum in Sterling out towards my friend (who is moving this week and we will miss them). Best part was how low key and empty the place was so we had free run. They had a little Santa surprise shop set up so Aiden picked out some surprises for his grandparents (always funny to see what he picks)! The highlight was the racing horses (Aiden named his horse Busty). Then the farmhouse and general store held their attention for a nearly three hour marathon. Aiden became Farmer Gill who was constantly racing across the museum to the store to get more food for his family. KC was inadvertently dressed like a little farmer and kept those suede fuzzy booties kicking most of the time (looking huge in the bjorn, since we forgot to bring the ergo by accident). A nice visit to a new Wegmans topped off the day...

flashback friday

This was recorded on the last day this little bud was three years old, November 2, 2011.  Then four year-dom hit and the crazy got older ;)

TGIF recipe

Some weeks start with a visit to the doctor where she tells you she is glad you brought him in... Add in a lot of these sweet eyes looking up from your tired arms... Spike it with a pop of an electrical box at the end of your street complete with scary red fire and a power outage... Towards the end you mix in a little singing goofball who has a broken volume button when sleepy babies are around... Top it off with two late night meetings for daddy and you have one big fat TGIF to enjoy!

brothers

Here are my little devil dudes shortly before poor KC started coughing and ended up with his first ear infection this week.  He tried his best to giggle at the doctor to make me look like a crazy mom bringing in her perfectly healthy giggly guy, but the doctor found what was causing problems at 3:00am.  Poor guy is on the up swing!

Look at Aiden's face above - he'd swiped a piece from the huge puzzle and was hiding it behind his back... which KC thought was hilarious... I'm in big trouble with these two!

santa

The National Santa (officially the fourth santa we've visited) is chilling out in his shack on the ellipse with his jammies on and a picture of himself riding a motorcycle on the shack's mantle?!  

Aiden quotes:

 Well, Santa, I'm not sure what I want given that you construct toys made out of wood, and I prefer to ask for the biggest plastic monstrosity my mom cringes at ;)

Aw, mom, KC is going all poltergeist on us again and I wonder if Santa's shack has a nice potty?

Santa thinks daddy is funny too and KC wonders how he can grow a beard like that to match his vest suit.

national

The National Christmas Tree opened on the ellipse next door to the White House yesterday. So we headed over during a balmy December day to find our favorite state trees and visit Santa. Ohio had a bunch of random ornaments I couldn't quite figure out... Arizona was rocking the southwest motif. Santa has a whole workshop setup which is quite nice, and Aiden said the choo choo trains were his favorite.

tea

We signed up for a good manners program at the Gtown Safe way of all places and it was so much fun! It was an etiquette tea party with this funny Mrs B (who was much younger than expected)... She gave the kids pointers on how to be polite, shake hands so your thumbs are hugging, and look everyone in the eye. It's Yes, not yea... It's one item in your hand at a time... No elbows on the table... or you will turn into a frog when you get older!  It was fun to share sweet treats with our little mini professor AB and extra mini banker KC (who was even more adorable trying to pull up his sleeves). They even created a little mini flower arrangement we got to take home.

interview with ab

With all the excitement around here between the holiday and school birthday parties, etc, etc, I completely forgot about Aiden's four year checkup... He was weighing in at 39 pounds, just about 40 inches tall.  He was such a big boy reading the adult eye chart, raising his hand for the hearing check, answering all the doctor's questions himself (although he didn't want to admit to her that mac and cheese was his favorite food).  He had a big round of four uggggy shots to deal with and he was such a brave guy with the huge needles.  Geesh, you'd think they could do something to make it a little less scary for little dudes.
 

One word to describe you would be: Happy 

Why do you like being a kid? Because it's just so funny! 

If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? Alligator because it's funny they can become mummies like the one we saw at the museum! 

Tell about a funny time in your life. Hiro's birthday was fun because she had a huge cake! 

What is your favorite thing to do? Why? Play with my zoo vet clinic and pretend the tree lights up 

What do you love most about your sibling? That he is so funny when he grabs me and my toys except my legos which I'm especially glad about 

What was the nicest thing you did for someone? Helping you and Gran find the right pieces to put together my zoo pet playmobil house 

What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now? Teaching little kids - I don't know what... 

What is the grossest thing you can think of? Not saying please and thank you is yicky! 

What is your happiest memory? Playing my memory games and that big dino puzzle that is taller than me!

gtown

Daddy's university was hosting a children's party with Santa right before the annual tree lighting. We actually hadn't been to J's new office which I thought was nice and Aiden decided to decorate by spilling hot cocoa around various parts of the room. He also did a number on his fresh shirt and pants just in time to go meet the university president and santa. Oh well, we delivered our books for the needy, and Aiden wondered what made someone needy. Then it was on to the extravagant kids party with a huge candy bar, carolers singing, and a spot to decorate your photo with Santa. I laughed at the shot of KC eyeing Aiden's lollipop from Santa. Then we went out on the nice mild evening for the tree lighting where Aiden was staring at the manger scene the whole time trying to figure it out (while I explained and accidentally called it a menorah - way to confuse). We danced as Santa arrived to join the acapella group and then headed down the road to home with our tired guys.

santa

Hmmm, how can I get that treat!?

8 months

Hey Keat,

Your brother likes to grab your shoulders and put his forehead against yours and say "Oh Keat, Keat Keat - on!"  It's usually when you're grabbing his jumbo puzzle pieces or pulling at his shirt to get his attention.  You are so interested in everything he does and I try to let you join in the fun as much as possible.  But, oh boy, when you are fully mobile we are in big trouble.  I'm stock piling toys that are safe for you and slowly filtering out the too small stuff... This is like baby proofing to the extreme the second time around.

You are more and more aware of those around you.  You had your first serious case of the daddy clingies around the middle of the month.  Right when you heard him come home you would call for him and keep calling until he scooped you up.  You love to say Dadadadadadaaaa and you say it more often when you see your dad.  You love being a daddy hat with your little hands gripping tightly to dad's hair.

You are a slobber monster. The panda tongue is out full force which is such a cute stage but it just generates more sloppy slobbers.  You love giving raspberries and it is sometimes so well timed in a conversation it makes us laugh. Tssssbbb, that's what I think about that!  Aiden says that your zurberts sound like you are "a puddle monster singing the puddle making song!"  They certainly generate puddles of the slobbery product you like to try to smear in my hair.

You've started one of Aiden's former favorite baby games were you try to feed us slobbery play food or your sock.  Your hands are always grabbing at something.  You even grab at the circles printed on our sheets thinking they are rings.  I thought you might have an ear infection this month because you really liked grabbing at your little ears.  Around that same time, you spent an entire night just wanting to play and fussing at us for not turning on the lights.  Whoosh, glad that idea only lasted one long night.

Your fun building toy became even more fun when I realized you could put batteries in it and it will spin.  You like to sit with you legs tucked under like a lap desk.  You will accidentally scoot a toy under it and then a few minutes later you are bending down to look if it's still under there. With stuffed animal friends you are usually looking for tails to pull and naturally you pull it right into your mouth. The fluffier the better...

At carpool, one of the teachers at Aiden's school came out to help get Aiden in, and he made Aiden laugh by saying that it looked like you had "your office" all set up.  Your band of toys seem to do the trick to keep you busy working in the car most days.  You were doing better with the car and I thought you were reformed.  Now if you see me sitting in the chair behind you, you are angry I won't pick you up.  You look at me with your pouty lip pointed, and oh man that is tough.

You've just started standing and bouncing at your leap table a bit.  You will lean in with your knees bent for a while to get at the fun spinner.  There is some swaying up on your haunches but no real crawling.  You prefer to be sitting or on your back.  When you are lying on your back you like to kick and slide across the floor shimmying on your back.  But for the most part if I put you in one spot you stay there, and I know my days are numbered before you are bouncing off the walls around here.

You started clapping your hands together at your grandparents this month.  I believe that you'd just entered a sensitive period  (a la Maria Montessori) when the robot puppy and enthusiastic grandparents came into to seal the deal.  I love your surprised face when you get your hands together in a real clap.  It is the same kind of surprise when you make a loud noise by dropping something.  You will look at me with concern as if you are saying, "Hey mom where did that come from?!"

Bath time is brother bonding time.  We've taught your big brother that he can swap toys with you but only if he convinces you to trade.  No nabbing toys out of your hand.  So it's funny to see him try to make a deal with you.  You somehow manage to protect your original toy.  Getting out of the bath is not your favorite... but we can usually get you to quiet down with a quick chant like "drip dry the little guy" while bouncing you around in front of the mirror.  All bets are off again when it's time to get jammies on tho...

Thanks to all the mirrors in this house you understand that if you see me in the mirror that you can look over your shoulder to find me.  A good look in the mirror can calm you or get you really worked up because you want to play with that baby in the mirror.  If your brother starts googooing at you in the mirror you will reach out to grab him.  The giggles that you two create with each other is my reward after building a tall tower to knock down or after a long night of cuddling a sniffles guy while the other wakes up at 4am hungry.  Oh, those giggles make me feel so grateful.  That and when your brother bounces out the door to school and says "Cya later tiny alligator!"  Reason #588999 to have siblings ;)  This upcoming month will be another month filled with reasons to be grateful.
Love, Your Grateful Mama

discover

We took an after Thanksgiving trip to the National History Museum mainly because Aiden wanted to see the mummies.  He's been really into the Jack and Annie book (The Magic Tree House) about mummies, so he had lotsa questions.  It also is a coincidence that the museum just opened a new section of mummies this past month including a bull and a crocodile mummy.

Touching the bug from Madagascar - Thanks to PopPop for these photos (I was safely away from the jumping/hissing insects) 

I think Aiden's favorite was the Discover Zone which he spotted and knew was right up his alley.

"I want to go in here to discover stuff!"   

"Now I'm done discovering and ready to see more fantastic animals!"