remember

Wow, three weeks ago Aiden finished/quit/forgot how or why he would want to nurse. I remember thinking that this kid would never wean himself and wondering how that was even possible. I can remember when I didn't know if I was going to last three weeks nursing...or even three days. I can remember how dry, cracked, ug... I can remember heading back to work toting my pump and wondering how the heck I was going to manage all that. I can remember having a six month goal that came and went without any of us really noticing. I can remember really being ready to pack away that pump right after he turned one. I can remember thinking that I might have to get that pump back out to relieve the awful engorgement I had two weeks ago. I can remember when the nurse told me that some women continue to produce milk and leak up to a year after they wean. I can remember not being told about any of this reality ;)

tgif video

A train: Wow! Hii! Come back, come back.

visits!

We made the most of our surprise visit to Cleveland. Aiden was a super duper good boy on both of the legs home from Cleveland yesterday. He ended up with his own seat which made the squirm monkey very happy. He loved looking out at the whiiiite cloouds!, zooming his little car all over the seat, and making friends with the guy that sat with us on the final leg home. He was very content to babble away at him. The grandfatherly type guy responded that he just loved little baby "chicken talk" and that it only lasts so long. As he told Aiden that he liked his chicken talk Aiden started flapping his arm and squawking like a chicken. It was pretty funny. Our flight was delayed by about an hour coming home (most of which was spent waiting on the plane), but it was a very bearable duo trip for the little guy and me. It's almost easier now because he can walk on and off the plane on his own (and occasionally he wave hi to friendly faces like a little ham).

Our trip was so, so worth it. We had so much fun celebrating with Auntie Lizzie and visiting with everyone! It's always hard to do justice to all the fun stuff on our whirlwind trips, but the 612 photos/videos (on my new camera!) collect the fun tidbits. Flying kites with Grand Poppie (even in a dead wind), visiting the Metroparks duck pond and the Lake Farmpark were definite highlights. We are so appreciative of all the smiles, food, and fun you always share...thanks especially to GranGran and PopPop. Here are some photo tidbits:
At our fancier dinner for Liz's birthday (at the restaurant company that she works for) Aiden became a sudden and enthusiastic foodie. Here he is pointing out the delicate texture of the oysters:
Liz and David have a rocking swing set in their backyard and Aiden was all over it (in place of missing some Gymboree). He could also climb up the wall to escape his crazy cousin doggie Duke who was mostly busy eating berries. Those berries also made a really cool pattern of juice splurts on Aiden's shorts (which PopPop fixed with an all out laundry assault - thanks!)

We went down to Downtown Willoughby for their annual Cruise-In car show. There were hundreds of cars and Aiden wanted to find all the blue ones. We stopped in at the little ice cream shop, Scooters, I worked at for the summers in high school. It was a flashback to over ten years ago with the same set up. The vintage bumper car from Euclid Beach Park was Aiden's favorite car of the show.
At the car show with Uncle Billy, riding the good ol canon in the park:
Aiden loved riding his little bike and pulling my very old wagon. He'd walk past the bike when we were coming in from the car and say "oh, a bike" and almost always had to hop right on it.
My mom found a Very Hungry Caterpillar book that was given to me the year my sister was born (it has a sweet message in it from our family friends). She also had an old felt set that she used to read to her classes. We had many reading sessions with that book while we visited.
Aiden latched onto this barnyard toy my folks gave him for xmas last year. He was especially attached to these two horses and loved explaining that one was the mama and the other the baby. He was also pretty excited to carry this gigantic teddy and pretend to use him as a chair:
My cousin will be celebrating her graduation with a party next weekend, but we had to get some quick family shots that were missed at her ceremony a couple weeks ago:
Aiden was lucky enough to get a chance to hear the bunny trick from his Grand Poppie, and ooh boy was he excited when he opened his hand and all those little foam bunnies were in there:
Aiden checked out his first lightening bugs:
Riding on PopPop's shoulders at the duck pond (because little ones could just decide to go swimming with the ducks a little too easily):
Playing with Gigi is always a good time:
Liz's wedding shower (all the raw photos are posted at the link below) - My favorite part was making little mini wedding dresses and Liz's favorite was the cake with good wishes from her doggie (When I went to pick up that cake, the cake decorator thought I was crazy - when she asked what occasion the cake was for, I replied that the dog's parents were getting married...she looked at me kinda confused): http://flickr.com/gp/brennans/132o44

horsey says...

A video tidbit as a placer:

Neigh, Neigh...say it like you mean it... then cat.

2nd Dada's Day!

Happy 2nd Dada's Day J! It's amazing to see how much both we and Aiden have grown over the last year. Thanks for always being sure that our weekends are full of "enriching" activities, and the trash is taken out....from the productive to the mundane, you are a consistent thinker...our philosopher rockstar daddy. I love you for being enthusiastic, proud, and energetic.

Last year's just in case (with new audio because youtube replaced it - oops): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCVFxfMqes0

To my Dad, thank you for always having a smile and a kite to share with us...and thank you for always being sure that we stay positive (because work is called work for a reason, right?). I love ya.

surprise!

Aiden became Lizzie's walking/talking surprise birthday present yesterday! Yep, since I had to change my reservations and I wasn't jet setting to Chicago anymore and I temporarily lost my mind and I was sad to leave Aiden as he napped and I'm just sorta generally crazy...and I could go on, but literally as I was about to leave for the airport I dumped one of Aiden's dresser drawers into my suitcase, his nanny grabbed some favorite toys for me, and J filled up his milk. Rebecca is happy for some extra time off and J is happy to have a weekend of relaxation, loud guitar/drum playing, and mathematical equation churning. We already went to a father's day dinner on Thursday night and we weren't counting this weekend anyway.

So, I called my parents on the way to the airport and told them not to tell anyone else, but to bring the car seat to the airport. Aiden woke up as we arrived at the airport, and oh boy he was excited. He said "ok, bye" to Dada and we were on our way. He was an angel on the flight - thank goodness - so I felt like I'd made the right choice to bring him. We arrived to a happy PopPop and GranGran who had a happy face balloon for Aiden. We cruised home and Lizzie was waiting for us. We drove in and I leaned forward so she couldn't see the car seat. As she approached the car, I popped out and we all yelled surprise! Although Aiden's new word was more like "prise!" Lizzie's present was wrapped in the car seat ;) I was so touched because Lizzie started crying she was so happy to see her little baby buddy. We had a nice dinner downtown at this fancier restaurant (were they have swanky black high chairs - but at least they had high chairs!) for Liz's birthday. Then we came home and surprised Gigi too - I hope it was a good cheer up for her (since she's going through chemo right now and doing really well). The rest of Aiden's fan club were happy to see him and he was go, go, go all evening (having a little trouble with our settle down routine at night, but it'll work out).

This really will be the perfectly timed trip because we will get to see everyone today at Lizzie's shower (let's hope he has something cute enough to wear in that drawer full of clothes I brought along), and his Great Poppie from Florida will arrive tomorrow (we plan to surprise the socks off of him too). I'm happy as a clam to see Aiden so excited to see everyone.

happy birthday lizzie!

Auntie Lizzie is celebrating her birthday today! Yay! It's going to be a big year of all sortsa excitement (including her wedding!) Aiden gets excited whenever I pull out this fun hippo fabric we intend to make little cummerbunds where the hippos will just be part of the pattern, but when you look really close you'll see them scattered around. Oh, hippo lovers can't disguise it ;) I'm also headed to Cleve to celebrate and we're having a fun wedding shower tomorrow. This is my first time away from Aiden, but I know he'll have a good ol time with daddy this weekend.

opposites

Aiden's nanny taught him this fast and slow gig and he decided to teach it to his mom and dad that evening. We love Ba (Aiden's nickname for his nanny).

It's usually the opposite, but I'm getting ready to leave both my boys home alone for the first time! Oh boy, look out, mama's jet setting.

bundle of boy!

Congratulations go out to my good, good friends Erin and Sylvan as they welcome their new bundle of boy, Connor! I'm exceptionally excited for them! I was going to Chicago for her final shower this upcoming Sunday, but I am even more excited to meet the baby and shower him with love. You guys are going to be such great parents.

They are lucky to welcome him on Eat All Your Veggies Day! And the day that the Statue of Liberty arrived in the New York Harbor in 1885. I love those little factoids about days (My friend that was Miss Rhode Island welcomed her baby boy last month on the day that RI became a state - he waited five days past her due date for that ;)

I asked Aiden if he was excited for a new buddy named Connor! And he said "woooah, Con!" no kidding... it was as if they were best buds already. We'll have to see if he'll say the 'er part soon.

I'm so excited that facebook can keep us so closely connected to folks, and I have to say my "news" feed should be renamed the "baby" feed because I have a new baby pop up from some recent and long ago friends nearly once a week. Sign of the times I guess... good times!

the rest

The rest of this weekend was spent:
- reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar book and pretending to munch the food
- visiting the Children's Museum for the upteenth time and running from exhibit to exhibit (while flexing the muscles of my new camera)
- visiting the animals (goats, cows, pigs, bunnies, donkies, ponies, ducks, and the favorite, chickens) and playground at Slater Park
- cleaning up around the house and vacuuming out the cars - yay!
- making a double recipe of banana bread - double yay!
- and most importantly - not nursing! yep, it's official that Aiden chose to wean last Sunday and it stuck. (I'm still hurting unfortunately, but it seems to be getting better.)

videos

Hungry Caterpillar's 40th Birthday! from LB on Vimeo.

Jamming with EM and Band from LB on Vimeo.

caterpillars and music

We had a perfect day visiting the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA. They were having a big birthday bash for the Very Hungry Caterpillar's 40th birthday and the author Eric Carle's 80th birthday. The event was a perfect blend for us, just enough interactive stuff for Aiden (art, puzzles, story time) and great little galleries for us to peek around. They had a special exhibit of Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton (which is one of Aiden's PopPop's favorites). Aiden asked to search the galleries for horses (just like we did at the Chicago Art Museum - I think he actually remembered that!).

I found out about this event through this kidoinfo website that I really like, and I was looking forward to it all week. I told Aiden that we were going to meet Curious George when we woke up this morning and he was really excited - His direct quote is "woooah!" We were some of the first few people that arrived to the museum this morning and there was a buzz, but no George yet. We were in their "Great Hall" waiting and looking at the illustrator art exhibit. All of a sudden I heard a staff member's radio buzz that "Curious George has entered the building" - oh, he was all of a sudden parading towards us. Aiden's hands went to his mouth and I suddenly realized he was shaking. I couldn't tell if it was excitement or terror. The first verdict was terror, and we were pretty close to just bolting. But Aiden definitely wanted to keep watching what George was up to and a few minutes later he wanted to give him a high five and then he even wanted to hug him - I think he overcame his fear of the santa/easter bunny types at least a little bit...

The part I was most excited about in the event ad was the absolute highlight. It was the performance by kiddo/big kid folk musician Elizabeth Mitchell (one of Aiden's -uhum, maybe mama's - favorite birthday presents was her You Are My Sunshine cd - The P Family rocks.)

She held Aiden's attention and he couldn't stop bouncing and clapping along. He did lose it a bit about half way through because he didn't want to stay in his seat and really just wanted to help play the guitar with her. He eventually came back to dance a bit, and at the end you were allowed to hang out with her on stage. I mentioned to her that he really was most interested in playing her guitar because we let him play at home, and she brought it over to let him play. Wowsers, here is Elizabeth Mitchell helping Aiden play a little diddy on her guitar. She rocks.

AB plays with Elizabeth Mitchell from LB on Vimeo.

I have to say I was a bit star struck (that tends to happen easily to me), but it was easy to talk with her. We listened to her You Are My Little Bird cd the entire trip home.

Here are all the the unedited photos from today: http://flickr.com/gp/brennans/D435ve

baibaaall!

Our Friday evening consisted of me tracking down our UPS guy at Dunkin Donuts because we'd missed his delivery of my new camera (Did you know that if you call them they will let you meet them wherever they take a break! Aiden was excited to try to play in the brown truck, but he was happy enough to just get a new box from the nice driver.) I had it in my hot little hands just under 24 hours after I ordered it from B&H and the shipping was free (and not scheduled originally until Monday)! It is my early 30th birthday present, etc, etc. I could not resist this new Canon EOS which includes HD video! And I had to get it early because there is just too much fun stuff coming up this summer to wait until August. You can see from the photo on the left that I will be traveling lighter with the new camera even though the screen is literally four times the size. Aiden ooh and ahhed at the big crisp screen. We took a wagon ride over to watch the little league baseball games down the street from us. The photos above are some of my first shots on my new toy. I bet I'll be shooting photos of Aiden playing little league with it too. I also recorded Aiden watching some of the action on the 1080 HD:

BaiBaaall from LB on Vimeo.

tastes good

Aiden's loving his big boy cup with water. You'd think he has something really tasty in that cup.

(Hasn't even asked for anything other than a cup lately - we're working on over 80 hours! That tastes good to Mama!)

counting

Here's Aiden counting! He should be counting the hours since the last time he nursed, which amazingly was 6/7/09 around 8am. Yep, that's right it's been 59 hours and counting (and yes, I am counting)! My dream come true that he just sort of naturally weaned himself. He still cuddled with me a bit today, but let's just hope I don't jinx it by putting it down in writing. I think he just heard me talking about my upcoming Weaning Vacation (four days away to cleve and chicago for wedding and baby showers), and he figured he'd just beat me to it. yay yay yay!

trucks, oh my!

What a fun day down in Newport at the Fort Adams Family Fun Day (despite the traffic caused by the film fest and chowder cook off). The highlight was "Touch A Truck" - there must have been 20 different types of trucks, but his favorite was the Lolly the Trolley look-a-like that he thought was a choo choo train.

Waving at the big boats going by:

Driving the really tall firetruck:
Peeking at the firefighter gear:
Driving the trolley - just like PopPop:
Sweeping in the little mobile lighthouse playroom:
Giggling at daddy on the "choo choo" (trolley):
Getting a kitty flower balloon:
Watching the dancing robot:
Petting the tortoise:
Coloring on daddy's quahog shell at Anthony's Seafood:

happy 5th!

Today is our fifth wedding anniversary! We like to smile and say that our marriage is like a kindergartner. We look forward to everything else we have to learn (I stole that from J's well-written card). Last weekend we celebrated while my fabulous parents took good care of Aiden (huge thanks!). We were at the ZAGAT Listed The Jacob Hill Inn "Top U.S. Hotels, Resorts & Spas 2009" rated 26-28 Extraordinary to Perfection - Ranking among "the best hosts on the planet", the "hospitable inn-keepers" "make you feel comfortable" at this "getaway", a lavishly decorated B&B where the main building dates back to 1722 ; "set in beautiful, rural surroundings", this "romantic" "retreat is just outside of Providence", but with on-site activities ranging from tennis to billiards to simply "relaxing", you may never want to leave.

Then J found out that legos just recently released the first of their Frank Lloyd Wright series - the Guggenheim. Since we have a running thread of FLW in our relationship (we toured Taliesin before we got engaged) we figured it was a good first family lego set. Falling Waters comes out just in time for my birthday ;) We had fun putting it together last night. J built, I sorted, and Aiden smooshed playdoh.

Here are more photo snapshot memories from our celebrations up to today - more fun this weekend to come: http://flickr.com/gp/brennans/40Pp0Y

grooving with friends

We had a BBQ after the school fair last weekend, and the kids were grooving to the daddy band. Here is your dose of baby grooves:

We sure do miss Gran and Pop - THANKS for everything while you were here!

masto-wha?

This is a Solitary Mastocytoma that Aiden has on his right leg above his knee. It is spontaneously reacting in this photo taken at the aquarium the week before his pediatric dermatologist's appointment. It was the ideal appointment where they were able to identify it and tell us that it will just fade away before he's 3 or 4 years old. This little bugger wasn't there when he was born, and started growing and morphing. It was one of those questions I had for our doctor every time we saw her, and she finally agreed that it should be looked at last time when it was reacting with its bumpy redness. The Hasbro Children's hospital doctor used it as a teaching example for his residents, and asked me to email him the photos. It was funny when he first saw it he said he had to go get a high tech device to test it. Well, this had me a little nervous, but he came back in the room with a flat pencil eraser and started gently erasing it. I thought I was in some crazy Allie McBeal moment, but it turns out that he could get it to react just be gently rubbing on it with something with even texture. It reacted as it should and checked out as a textbook solitary mastocytoma. He started rattling this off very quickly, and luckily wrote it down for us. I'm just so glad that he was able to write something down and know exactly what it is... now we can just watch that little bugger fade away as Aiden gets older.

half year plus one

Dear A,

This has been a month of concentrated concentration. We've packed in a whole lotta spring time fun and concentrated on the important things. Your dad and I were lucky enough to get away to celebrate our fifth anniversary at a little Seekonk bed and breakfast. Your Gran and Pop took such good care of you and you had so much fun that you barely noticed we weren't around. It was my first night away from you in nearly 19 months, and I definitely noticed you weren't around. Thank you for being such a good boy and making it easy to give us a little staycation.

This month you learned to wash yourself when we name a body part, but you will usually only do it when you have two huge fists full of soap. You also figured out what the shower is and you usually want the "rain" instead of the splashy tubby time. You've become so enthusiastic to "help" you started throwing your play food in the trash. But we are glad when you decide to pick up after yourself and even put your laundry in the shoot.

Our little big boy that takes a shower, goes to the potty (usually just to sit - but with some success!), buckles (and even unbuckles occasionally while riding in the wagon!) his own belt, and eats with a fork - oh where, oh where did my little baby go? Good thing you can still wear little hippo jammies - Here you are saying, "waait, i didn't agree to photos"

You have a new little doctor's kit to pretend with and when you look through the ear scope daddy teases you and asks, "what do you see?" You will giggle when daddy answers, "ants eating cheese? chocolate chip cookies?" The ants eating cheese story comes from your recent encounter with ants at a family bbq. You were excited to feed bits of cheese to a big group of ants. To your delight, one even got on your hand, as it crawled around on your hand you suddenly poked at it and shouted "pop" - who knows where you learn these things?!

Your newest favorite is play doh! We found these little molds that make elmo finger puppets, which you usually pull the eyes off of immediately. You love to stamp out shapes and your favorite is the blue moon.

Your sleeping habits are pretty unpredictable in general, but you have been a fairly good sleeper lately. Even when you started waking up in the middle of the night and asking to eat, you would still fall right back to sleep. You like your big boy bed, but you are mostly excited to bring your beach shovels and buckets onto it and pretend it is a big sand box. You like playing in your room and especially playing ball before bed. You were especially excited when Gran and Pop were here visiting this month to play catch. You will announce "caaatch" and tell us who to throw the ball to back and forth - Pop's turn, Mama's turn, A's turn, Dada's turn, Gran's turn! At bedtime we eventually we can get you to slow down with this fun animal cd that sings the alphabet and has a matching book. Our favorite is when Ollie the Ostrich plays the oboe, which you mistake for elbow and giggle as you try to toot your elbow. You will listen closely and sometimes sing along and eventually fall right to sleep.

You are a playground guru and you've extended your climbing skills to try to climb up on the tables in the house. You're learning to keep both feet on the floor. You will sometimes intentionally slide your little legs apart into the splits and get "stuck."

Your preferences are very clear lately and you tend to stick with the same favorites. You love to read in the car and your favorite pick (even if I bring other books to the car) is the starfish shiny things search book (which sounds about as exciting as it is especially after a bijillion times reading it). You continue to like playing with shoes and especially trying to tromp around in dad's big foamy sandals.

Gran taught you a new game where we will hide something and then you will go on a hunt for it. We will ask "is it under" and you will search there and answer "nooo" in that cute little soft voice. You learned that little cute word (which I hope stay cute as long as possible) from your Sandra Boynton "What's Wrong Little Pookie" book. You just love to read about what might be wrong with little Pookie and say "aat's illy" and then at the end say "um, I fooough-get"

Your flap books are by far your favorites this month. You are usually really good with them, except those circle shape flaps that you find hard to resist yanking off. When looking at the unique animals book, you immediately started asking "whaaat is thaaat?" When we visit the zoo you like to declare which animal is your favorite - usually the giraffe wins that prize (especially now that there is a baby giraffe). You love animal noises and you like to quiz us on the animal noises. You will say the noise and you want us to say the animal, then you shake your head or say yes, yes, yessss.

We took you to a mostly adult party earlier this month with J's colleagues. You were a charmer and even shook people's hands although some people got more of a "low" five instead. You were really good about trotting around not causing too much trouble. The most trouble was trying to interrupt your dad as he talked with some leg cuddles and insisting on sipping orange juice from a little glass mug (which you must have thought was just sophisticated enough for this wine party). You spent most of your time kissing their new kitten and playing with their dog Tommy. You wandered around mumbling Tom-eee and squealing every time he gave you a little lick kiss. You are so darn cute when you say Tom-eee that if I was having another baby soon (which I'm not) I would name him Thomas just to hear you say your brother's name in such a cute way.

You really concentrate on things lately, and sometimes so much so that your little tongue comes out. We look forward to more careful concentration as summer starts.

Love you little buddy, Mama