birthday rundown

The Mass Birthday Train Stop picked up 24 adults and 8 kids on a beautiful 70 degree sunny day (thank goodness people could enjoy the patio too!). Lara and Aiden went for a pre-party walk around the neighborhood (which did not lead to the birthday boy nap as expected, but he did squeeze a nap in just in time). He woke up just a bit after the first guests arrived and came downstairs with a look of concern wondering why we let all these people in our house.

Two sets of J's aunts and uncles, his Nana, and his cousin and her family were the first guests to arrive. They had lotsa hugs for the birthday boy when he wasn't running back and forth across the house. He was also excited to see both his teachers and even his teacher that left a while back. I'm hoping they had a nice time and it was just a small way to thank them for being so sweet to Aiden.

Based on my mom's party planning, I upped the menu quite a bit. We had almost the same menu as we did in Ohio and probably just the right amount of food. J originally wanted to get everything catered after he heard how crazy I went inviting people. I'm so glad that we were able to make our own train inspired foods ahead of time and save the trouble (I was happy as long as I had time to make deviled eggs-yum, and a throwback to this time last year when that is all I wanted to eat). Aiden enjoyed a little bit of choo choo wheel pasta salad, but his favorite part was the cake. When everyone sang to him and we brought out the big Thomas cake he literally squealed. I think it was one of my favorite moments (although it's hard to say because I had so many happy moments - I don't care what people say, going crazy for a first birthday is so much fun for moms like me! I openly admit that it was a party for me anyway - but geesh, don't I deserve to party!? All moms deserve a big celebration at the end of the first year especially!).

I thought we might get away with just giving him a cake without frosting to avoid the mess, but J had other ideas that it would be fun to let him smear again. So he went at his little mini pudding cake with less of a look of concern than his cupcake in Ohio. And somehow the mess mat below him shifted just enough to spread the crumbs around the kitchen... oh our boy smelled like cake the rest of the day, but I managed to get the frosting out of his nose and ears.

While he finished up his cake and lounged in his chair, we pulled him off to the side of the kitchen to watch other kids play his party games. We had "pin the one" on the Thomas the Train. It was more of a hit than I expected! (The other big kids had already created their key chain coloring and foamy train sticker card making.) I think it was just enough, but I wished I had more to play because they loved it so much. Aiden was so funny lounging in his high chair chompin down cake while he watched them play. Too funny. I can't wait until he's old enough to play too...

Aiden only had two guests younger than him (both around 8/9months), but the other kids were so sweet to him. There was a hilarious moment when we asked his cousin Daniel to give him a kiss and he ended up pinned down on the floor giving me a look like "what's up mom, can you back me up here, this kid is much bigger than me?!" Daniel was such a sweetie pie and even helped eat all the candies off Aiden's choo choo cake. The other kids were excited that it was such a beautiful day and they could get in a good run around outside to burn off all that sugar.

When it was time for presents Aiden was fascinated by the cards! His auntie said that we could of all just purchased cards for him and he would be happy. He would have one card in each hand and when I'd open another, he'd look at each one and debate with himself on which one to put down. The cards with sparkles on them usually won. He was super excited banging on the boxes too. There was a moment that he started clapping and everyone started clapping with him. He was so thrilled. Luckily, my friend grabbed my camera for capturing a few of those moments. Here he is with his new cool kid hat for the winter from Emily - Thanks!:

We truly hope that those of you that weren't able to join us know how much we appreciate you sending your good cheer (more thanks coming for the fun presents too!) Thanks to everyone for making it such a great year! We love you.
More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/gp/94324507@N00/A6w912

videos

birthday train stop two!

I'll post fun photos now, and share stories later... But we had a great time at Aiden's birthday train stop here in MA. It was so much fun to share a big thank you with Aiden's friends and family for everything over the past year. I kept saying that I owe my mom especially for all the great parties she's thrown over the past 30 years! You never realize how much goes into a party until you are planning one for your own kid. I love my mom for passing down every ounce of her creativity. I found so much joy in every little crafty moment and I thank her for showing me that sorta fun! My friend Lara came early and stayed late...without even being asked she helped so much - Thanks Lara for everything!

hairdo

In my family, we call this the Billy Henrich hairdo. I just love his fuzzy hair. This does not go away without some coaxing even when you wet it. And yes, we're breaking out the snowman holiday jammies early. If the stores can, we can too. We're off to get ready for Aiden's (uhhmm, Mommy's) party.

flashback a year ago

I've been feeling really sentimental lately. I've been watching old videos, looking at old photos, and I just can't be stopped! I think back to how cruddy my body felt this time last year, and I think I must be crazy, but I see Aiden's teacher at school (who just found out she's having a little boy!) and I miss being pregnant. Yeah, that crazy thing called estrogen is clearly messing with my head!  When I look at this video I just have to cringe and laugh at the same time - that tender, sore belly isn't something that I miss!  Here's a throwback for ya created almost exactly a year ago:

 

advancing science

The Infant Research Lab here at Brown is studying how babies acquire language. They called to see if we'd be willing to participate in their study since Aiden is approaching the one year mark and they need at least 30 one year olds in each sample. They were going to have him listen to the letter 'P' sounds and they would record his eye movements on a video camera. The only trick he had to perform was to sit nicely in my lap for a couple minutes. He screetched when he was getting bored and he really wanted my headphones, but other than that he did really seem to listen at the moments when they wanted to get his attention. I had music playing on my headphones so I couldn't hear, but he definitely payed really close attention at certain points. The screen would flash with a little yellow dot and then a big checkboard pattern would show up while they played the noises. She said they were trying to test whether they could tell the difference between the different letter noises by how long he paid attention to the screen. Aiden was so excited by some of the noises he would point and bounce in my lap. When we were done he was happy to play at their train table while the researcher debriefed us. They then opened this big cabinet full of new toys and he got to pick one out! He ended up helping science and earning a new toy alligator.... I was pretty close to picking out a new tshirt for him only because it said he had earned his "honorary doctorate" from the infant research lab, but I took a photo of it instead. But unfortunately, J's iphone ate it - So here is Aiden's first official honorary doctorate... We'll have to go back another time for our honorary doctorate tshirt or at least a better photo:

cleaning out

I'm cleaning out some of Aiden's old daycare "Infant Daily Activity Report" sheets, and I couldn't bear to throw them away until I recorded some of the "Highlights of My Day" for posterity:
5/13/08
Aiden held his own bottle today! He also explored with confetti pieces.
5/14/08
Aiden enjoyed singing "twinkle twinkle little star" with his friends.
5/15/08
Aiden explored with pompoms today! He also fell asleep on his own - yay!
5/16/08
Aiden enjoyed making puffy clouds out of cotton balls.
6/2/08
Aiden held his own bottle today!
6/3/08
Aiden enjoyed playing outside in the sand today!
6/30/08
Today Aiden waved at us. We read the Splash book.
7/7/08
Aiden made footprints with paint for our bulletin board!
7/9/08
Aiden explored with water and food coloring! He also explored the new sensory wall today!
7/10/08
Aiden was rolling all over the floor today and he foudn his footprints on the floor that he painted.
7/11/08
Aiden explored with mashed potatoes today!
7/14/08
Aiden went for a walk and then played on the playground with his teachers and friends. He also explored with water in the sensory table.
8/13/08
Today Aiden made cats using stamps and brown paint!
8/14/08
Aiden explored with duct tape balls today.
9/29/08
Aiden explored the wooden boat today! He rocked back and forth in it and sang "row, row, row your boat."
10/1/08
Aiden explored with paint and feathers to make a duck. He also practiced making a "quack" sound.
10/6/08
Today Aiden colored with crayons! He also sang the "itsy bitsy spider" with his friends and teachers!
10/7/08
Aiden explored stacking blocks to make a tower and then knocked the tower down.
10/8/08
Aiden held his own bottle at the table today! He also enjoyed pushing the push n'go around the room!
10/9/08
Aiden has lots of fun today playing with the toy truck! He also enjoyed using the push toy to walk around the room.
10/17/08
Aiden explored the tunnel today! He also did lots of walking!
10/20/08
Aiden made a leaf collage today. He enjoyed looking at himself in the mirror!
10/21/08
Aiden danced along and clapped his hands to "If You're Happy and You Know It!"

Around May he was napping with dad in the morning around 8:30/9am, again at 12ish, and again at 3sh. He would have a 3 oz. bottle around 9:30ish, cereal/veggie or fruit at 11, another bottle at 1ish, and another at 3:30ish - He liked small doses of milk because he was easily distracted by all the fun stuff going on around him. In August, we added another veggie or fruit at 3ish. Most of the summer his naps last about 30 minutes tops... but closer to an hour every once in a while. I remember a time period where he would come home from school on Mondays especially completely exhausted and ready for a looong nap right after he got home.

I always liked checking out his sheet right when I came in to pick him up and getting more details from the teachers. Sometimes I would ask Aiden would show me what he made or what he was excited about. He really babbles at me when he gets excited like that. I know these memories will fade quickly and be replaced by other fun memories, so it's fun to have these little snippets recorded here.

first winter coat

Today turned out to be a beautiful 60 degree day, but this morning it wasn't breaking out of the 30 degree range. So it was time to break out Aiden's new winter coat. When I bought it I remember thinking that it would probably be way too big on him, but somehow he has grown into all those big boy clothes I had a hard time believing would ever fit him. He's not a huge fan of his coat because he can't quite balance out his big puffy arms. He had some moments like the little brother on the Christmas Story movie where he took a tumble and couldn't get back up, but I think he'll get used to it...and by then it will be time to add the snow pants to the mix. teehee.

impromptu

We had some impromtu fun this weekend after I had to work our big open house event on Saturday. The fall colors are in full effect around here, so we went down to the Grist Mill pond (that restaurant that everyone loves right down the way from us) with the camera. My friend and her family were with us so that we could juggle the babies and the camera to get shots of each other's families. It was pretty chilly, but the lighting and leaf colors were out in full effect. Here's one of my favorites of Aiden studying the duckies, but I'll post more later... Can't you tell that we look like we're hungry for a good breakfast out with cinnamon crisp and eggy french toast - yum!? We headed there right afterward.

We then ended up having an impromtu Red Sox party to watch them lose game seven since we are the only suckers that currently have cable TV. J stayed up with the party, but Baby AB and I had to turn in before it ended. What a party, eh? Eighteen more years without a full night's sleep means you don't stay up late unless you absolutely have to, right?

a okay

Aiden's teacher pointed out that he seems to respond by saying O-K when you ask him a question. It is usually in response to do you want more cheerios? Or sometimes even when he's squirming away he'll say ok if you ask him to stay still. We got one of those calls from daycare on Wednesday that doesn't make you feel okay. You'll have to come pick up Aiden and he'll need a doctor's note to come back to school... He had a little viral rash on his leg which checked out okay at the doctor on Thursday morning. It looked like hives, but wasn't going away but instead seemed to be popping up in different spots (even on his face). He was totally okay with it and it didn't seem to bother him.

The teething this week was not okay however and he was up most of the night with the head shaking tooth pain he doesn't think is okay. We try to cuddle him and tell him it will be okay. We give him grape tylenol which he thinks is pretty okay and will usually ask for more. He will usually shake it off and be okay soon after, but then he thinks it is okay to play. Uh, not ok little buddy... sleep was at a premium after our little mini vacation.

We had cool early birthday present waiting for Aiden today, which he thought was pretty okay! It was a handmade, crocheted Tazmanian Devil from his Great Aunt Mary. Here are some snippets of the little devil playin with his new devil - even tried to imitate our Taz noises:

ohio fall visit

Tons of photos from our visit (note: You can click on the link to see the album on flickr - You won't see psychadellic train overalls in those photos on flickr - no idea why they are showing up like that on the slideshow)

Ohio visit videos!

Birthday Invitation Front and Back:

We made good use of our long weekend to take our little squirmy bug on a plane ride for his first Birthday Train stop in Ohio! He slept 3/4 of the time on the first plane ride and played nicely (and quietly) the entire second plane ride... I feel like we were lucky, but he gets an "A" for both trips (even though I thought the he was going to crank the whole ride plane home because he was a major fussy widget in the car seat on the way to the airport). I think plane rides over 90 minutes aren't in our future soon...sorry Arizona folks ;(

The videos are quicker to create than download the hundreds of photos my sister and I took. So here is a video rundown of our fun trip!

We owe a huge thanks for my parents for throwing a great early birthday party for Aiden!

Ohio Party Creative Gran! from LB on Vimeo.
Aiden had a great time with his first cupcake:

Ohio Party Cake Time from LB on Vimeo.
First trip to the apple farm! Even though I got stung by a bee, we also hit the pumpkin patch with all its hokey photo ops...

Ohio Apple Farm from LB on Vimeo.
Playtime in Ohio:

Ohio Playtime from LB on Vimeo.
Aiden's new choo choo from Gran and Pop:

Aiden's New ChooChoo from LB on Vimeo.

happy hb bee!

They finally released the set of photos taken with the happygreenbee outfits a couple weeks ago. I was sorta crazy and didn't realize until my sister pointed it out that he was dressed in my high school colors! So here is a fun photo where he happened to be waving his HB flag. HB-woo-woo...hey Hathaway Brown ladies! You can also check out the rest of the happygreenbee photos here: http://www.pictage.com/541248

certified

I've been thinking about this for a while, but after I sliced my foot with the food processor and heard my friend talk about her little girl swallowing a rock (that story ended ok, but only after weeks of poo inspection and xrays), I decided that I needed to get first aid/cpr certified.  Lucky for me my work offers free Red Cross certification classes.  I took some vacation time for the class, and I'm glad that I did.  I was certified a long time ago, but it's good to have a refresher.  They've also changed some of their recommendations.  Like for a bloody nose, you lean forward and pinch the nostrils (whereas before you leaned back and pinched the top ridge of the nose)...   It's good to feel more prepared.

blog tag

How fun! Other blogger friends of mine are playing a game of top 'eight' tag and we got tagged to fill out some favorite lists as a family...

8 T.V. Shows We Love to Watch:
1. Amazing Race (Lauren and sometimes J)
2. Project Runway (Lauren)
3. Jeopardy (All of us cozy in bed)
4. Top Design (Lauren)
5. Dexter (J)
6. Today Show (Lauren)
7. The Office (J and Lauren)
8. Ellen (Lauren)

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Mixing Table - not really a restaurant?
2. Grist Mill (Lauren and J)
3. Ruby Tuesday Garden Fresh Bar (Lauren)
4. Mills Tavern Fancy Phil Dinners (J)
5. Smoky Bones (Lauren and J)
6. Bob Evans (Lauren)
7. Gracies Fancy Dinners (J)
8. Nordstroms Cafe (Lauren and J)

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:
1. Went to dinner at Chilis for some queso (Family)
2. Worked from home (Lauren)
3. Got the new October calendar at Aiden's school
4. Introduced to veggie beef pilaf (Aiden)
5. Pet the kitty until she drooled (Lauren and J)
6. Cut out some new felting ideas from the Anthropologie catalog (Lauren)
7. Signed up for the Brown craft fair in December (Lauren)
8. Read comments on his bloggingheads tv production (J)

8 Things We Look Forward To:
1. 1st birthday celebrations!
2. Watching Aiden taste his first cake
3. Seeing the happygreenbee photos
4. Hearing back on publications (J)
5. Trip to Ohio
6. The next time J's folks can visit
7. Our accreditation at work complete (Lauren)
8. Whole Milk? (Aiden) aka. Being done pumping at work! (Lauren)

8 Things We Love About Fall:
1. Crunchy leaves~ (Lauren and Aiden even though he doesn't know it yet)
2. Steamy marshmallowy hot chocolate (Lauren and J)
3. Homemade pumpkin muffins (Lauren and J with extra choc chips)
4. Fuzzy warm blankets on the bed (Lauren, not Aiden)
5. Long cozy socks (Lauren, not J or Aiden)
6. Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (Lauren and Aiden)
7. First snow (Lauren, not J)
8. Fresh veggies (Aiden)

8 Things on Our Wish List:
1. Good health for us and loved ones esp during flu season
2. Toes strong enough to climb the baby gate (Aiden)
3. More family photos (Lauren, not J)
4. A good new teacher at Aiden's school
5. Wallpaper removed, a new bathroom mirror, and livingroom mantle (Our House)
6. No more weeds in the grass
7. An easy weather winter
8. More family time

basket beebopping

Baby AB loves to ride around in his laundry basket. He can't get enough, but our arms and backs can get enough. Here are some video snippets:

pumpkin patch

We visited the pumpkin farm with our friends today in the misty rain. It was fun to have three little happy pumpkins brighten up the day.

crafts!

Today was the Pumpkin Somethin Fair at one of the local schools. The highlight was that two friends and I went in on a craft spot to sell my old stock of knit hats (the leftovers that didn't sell at the last fair I did in 2006), jewelry (under my friend's "Chic Unique" label), and my new favorite craft, ribbon clips. My friend came up with this clip for her little girl who has tons of hair and it has a little foamy pad so it won't slip. I was super excited by her idea to call them Clippopotamus clips and she even created a little hippo wearing bows as the logo. The clips sold well, but the rest of the stuff had a lot of competition. There was tons of cute knit hats for sale and most were really good deals, so even though I was selling hats I had to buy some too. Aiden especially liked the lady that was selling this very european looking silly hat. She used to work at Hasbro toys on the My Little Ponies and had all sorts of fun stories to tell. We also had to get a pumpkin hat with a little curly stem to wear to the pumpkin patch tomorrow!
Here is a little video from the flip:

1st costume

You are all good guessers!  Aiden's first halloween costume is a happy surfer hippo!  He's going to match his Hank the Surfer Hippo friend (see blue hippo to the right - he even giggles when you press his belly...just like Aiden).  After giving it a dry run, I'm going to finish the head so that it is a separate hat instead of attach it to the hood so this poor kid's chubby chin doesn't get smooshed by the snug hood.  I think we are going to be lucky if he's willing to keep the hippo hat on (although I'm going to try pretty hard!), so when he doesn't have it on, he'll just be a cool kid surfer.  The flip program didn't do a great job auto editing these video snippets, but here is a preview of the first part of the head.  I'm going to need to start stitching some hippo stuffed animal friends now that I have an idea of how to do it.  

11 months!

Dear Aiden,

The biggest change this month wasn't how sharp your teeth got or how many more popped out, but how M-O-B-I-L-E you've become. It's amazing really and I'm not sure over the next few months how we're going to keep up. You walk in increments and you usually want to hold one hand as you walk. Your crawl is so lightening speed I can barely keep up with my video camera angles especially when we're trying to talk over the skype video call. You even give a high five to the screen when your grandparents put up their hand on the skype video. We pulled up photos with your hand open and you did the same thing. We're going to be lucky if that laptop screen survives your first year.

You're my little engineer/toy maker that is always flipping over toys to examine them. Now I know why they keep the batteries behind a screw. You find a little screw spot on the padded wall at school and you poke and poke and poke...Until some other kid comes over to explore it and then you start babbling to tell them all about it. I imagine that you're telling them how useless it is because you've been pressing it all day and it hasn't done anything.... yet.
Your teachers help you work on your gross motor skills... which aren't really "gross" except for when your dummy mom decides to hand you a delicate sand dollar your nice great aunt sent you and your arms wave with excitement... then smash... and we're exploring gross sand dollar dust. But seriously, we know that your gross motor skills are improving as you learn to mount your horsey and pat his mane with your hand. You can even get on and off your horsey without help. I think that you're also working on what they call "fine" motor skills (according to your four page long progress report from school!). You love to point at things and if we give you a book and ask you to point at the cat, you'll point right at it...assuming it's the only thing on the page. I joke, but you do like to point and prompt us to tell you what things are. I think you're storing all this info for later (when you will start rattling off the difference between a jaguar and a tiger like your two year old friend), so I try to be as accurate as possible. I better brush up on my baby animal names ;)

We've started letting you play with your spoon since you were so curious to grab at it. You will scoop and sometimes even manage to get the spoon back in your mouth before flopping it around. Your little teeth will munch at that rubbery coating as we spoon the yummies for you. I think it helps soothe that back gummy layer and those side teeth that are creeping out. You have the classic Oviatt gap between the front baby teethers, but if you're lucky like your mom it will close up on it's own. Regardless, it's so cute to sing little songs to you about jack-o-lantern teeth.


Sometimes I arrive to pick you up from school and you have two rings hanging out both sides of your mouth and a ring in each hand as you lunge towards me. You do a good job at helping them fill up that "from the mouth" cleaning bucket each day, but that's because you're a baby that needs to suck, chew, and munch. Unfortunately, this has now translated to biting mommy while nursing. You will giggle as I pry your chin loose gently. Then I will promptly put you down which you seem to understand means to not nibble your mom, but regardless, I think you've started self-weaning a bit because sometimes you are happy to crawl off and play instead of continue to eat.
At the beginning of the month, you were using the car cart at school like a little old lady with a walker. You'd zip over to the toys walking behind it, plop down to play, then bounce back up, and zoom over to the books. Even the other kids, that have sturdier legs than you do, like to do this and sometimes there is more than one kid pushing at a time. You are just fascinated by the other kids and you will even copy their dance moves. They love to dance at school and when you see them beebopping you stare at them fascinated and then you imitate with a smile.

Towards the end of this month, you started expanding on what we joked looked like the yoga
"warrior pose" (standing on one leg while kicking the other out in front of you) You then started positioning that little kick start leg against your piano like you wanted to climb over it. You've even started hooking one of your toes onto the baby pen gate like you're getting ready to climb. It's looking like we're going to have a climber on our hands.

You love to climb up the wall and sometimes you will even give it a good kiss. We even had to temporarily take down the frames on the wall because we were afraid you'd sneak in a good wack and they'd tumble off their nail. Your favorite wall to climb is the big glass sliding door. You get so excited to see the rain hit that glass you will scream, crawl over there, and stand there staring at the drops the splurt onto the window. It makes even the rainiest day fun to play with you.

We've noticed that when you are really tired you are prone to sleep "sitting". Instead of sleep walking, we've noticed you in your bed rolling over, then popping up to sitting while your eyes are still shut. You sorta wave in the breeze, sometimes whimper, and then slump back down with your sweet sleepy head on the bed. It's hard for us to resist tussling your hair or rubbing your back. You daddy loves to tussle your hair and he says that that is what daddy's do when they are happy. I think it's like one big hallmark commerical ad and it just gives me a sweet little lump in my throat when I see you and your dad smiling.All month you've been clicking and smacking your lips usually to mimic your crazy mom and dad. Just the other day you started quacking. You quacked all the way home from school after showing me the yellow duck with feathers you created while singing songs about ducks at school. Your teacher says you were really into it and I could see your little fingernails still had some yellow paint. I can't wait for some more craft time as you get bigger (I'm already cataloging the good ideas so get ready!).
This month will bring some birthday and halloween fun! Save up those smiles to share... and thanks for letting me chase you around with the camera. And big thanks for agreeing to start wearing shoes... occassionally.

Love, Your Photographer, Baby Shoe Loving Mom