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It's Aiden's version of the Cat in the Hat. It's all about being on top of a box, the cat being mad, making a mess, and telling the truth.

Cat in the Hat! from LB on Vimeo.

before and after

Before photos of the barn room:

The carpet will be cleaned today and then we will officially have our new room. It should be back in order by the end of the weekend and I will try to get some wide angle shots then. J installed both lights and the suspended ceiling fan because he rocks that way... yay, rockstar. And, drrrrum roll, some "after" photos of a very open room that Aiden loves to run around in:


In other excitement, our "new" car just celebrated its two year anniversary - I guess the baby mobile is broken in pretty well by now. Where does the time go? J also won a little gift card from a drawing he was automatically entered in because he gave blood. So I took a picture of both - teehee: Here is a quick "after" shot of the basement - Not including the drum set which will be making a new home down here.

date day

Monday was this random August holiday, which meant I was off from work. After a very full family weekend, complete with another trip to the zoo on Sunday to try to track down the Got Milk Mobile that had left early so we missed it! Big bummer because we were looking forward to the milk mustache photos - ha! - but we still had fun visiting our zoo friends.

J and I wanted to get some errands done before our "new" room is finished. We ended up also taking some time for a little mini date on Monday at Roger Williams Park. We are kicking off the final say-goodbye-to-our-twenties week in our neck of the woods in style - on a swan boat! It was a nice little foot paddle around the lakes (one lake was much cooler than the other). We stopped to watch the reflection under the bridge and gawk at the stalactites forming on the rock.

I whipped out the iphone camera just in time to catch this family with two kids (one on dad's shoulders!) riding towards us. We had just commented on how Aiden would already be swimming since he's such a squirm-meister lately. But don't you think these people are pretty brave taking two little munchkins on a swan boat?!

Then we hit this place for brunch that I'd been hearing about. It's called J. They had cinnamon orange french toast, which was delicious - can't ask for anything much better that that for the impromptu date day menu!
Then we hit the furniture store (which was a lot easier than the trip we took with Aiden the other day where he wanted to run from couch to couch bopping them) and found a great new leather chair for our space in their sale area. They also gave us double chocolate cookies to go! yay! The painters claim they will be done tomorrow... so there will be a big reveal soon ;) Also, a week from tomorrow we are doing something we've never done before... I know the suspense... you'll be surprised. It's a sorta "hello thirties" event.

august boom colors

Last night we headed to Fall River to see some pretty impressive boom colors as Aiden like to call them. I know it's August, what is going on with the huge fireworks display?! I guess they are celebrating America with a Heritage Festival (and this week marks the end of WWII in 1945 and we get Monday off for Victory over Japan Day - which is a debatable holiday). It was pretty fun and we found our way to this great little place to have dinner outside (although I was pretty sure that Aiden was going to ruin it by being fussy because his tummy was bugging him), but it worked out once he was settled. It seems like he can always snap out of it, but oh geesh, I hope it's not a sign of larger fuss widgetness to come in the future.

Anyway, back to the fun stuff, after a pretty yummy dinner of pesto pizza, we quickly found the carousel, which was pretty awesome. It had a great view of the battleships in the cove and the sunset was really pretty. I swear New England does summer time right.... to make up for all those months of cold people really make the most of it. It already felt a little bit like fall last night as it cooled off. Aiden had taken a uber long nearly three hour nap that afternoon, so we were brave enough to try to stay for the 9:30 fireworks. He was a good boy watching the fireworks and getting excited to name the colors. We left just a little bit early to beat the crowds rushing out at the end. It was another perfect New England evening.

Boom colors! from LB on Vimeo.

excitement

The past few days have been full of typical and not-so-typical moments of excitement.

J had some excitement on Wednesday when he cruised to Connecticut to this guitar store where he bought his newest guitar (a while back) to meet the guitar player and bassist from Dreamtheater. It was pretty exciting for all of us to have an excited daddy come home all giddy and happy.

Aiden and I cruised back from Gymboree play on Thursday (I met J there and then he skedattled to get the lawn mowed). As we pulled into the driveway a neighbor pulled up in his car and pointed to our roof. This gigantic hawk was perched up there. Aiden ran around pointing at it, and then our painter said we should be careful because it seemed like the hawk was eyeing him. Uh. Right about in unison with me getting slightly paranoid and saying we should go inside, the hawk swooped off the roof heading pretty low right at J's head! Seriously if he hadn't tucked down he would've hit his head. He hit the yard next of us in his hunt. It made for a little excitement.

We were still on the hunt for some excitement on Friday, so we headed over to the Rehoboth Fair. It is less than 2 miles away, but it seems like our little suburban neighborhood disappears and everything is rural farms. I told Aiden as we drove over that we were going to visit some horses and Aiden asked if we could feed them apples (which is something he did with Rebecca a couple weeks ago at the stable where she used to ride). As we parked in the big open field and headed over to watch the horse competition in the big ring. I realized at this point that I'd forgotten my camera and that iphone camera came to the rescue. Here is the blow-by-blow photo rundown of this funny fair:

The prop comic/juggler caught our attention and Aiden was asking to rush the stage to help. Lucky Bob mocked J that he looked like an IRS agent then threw a hat at him. He asked J to throw a hat at his head and the "hard to throw hat" (according to J) somehow ended up in the dirt in front of the stage ;)

Then I fulfilled one of those bizarre 101 goals that I came up with a while back and I rode a mechanical bull - Yep, I had this crossed off my list before officially turning 30.
Who knew that there is some guy that has control over the bull with a remote control (seriously!) so most of the time I spent on the mat laughing.
J took a turn - You'll notice that 30 something old men like to curl their toes when they ride a mechanical bull. teehee.
J gave Aiden a turn during most of his time, which he loooooved.
Then in a brave moment we let Aiden take his first bounce in a bouncey house! He was a super star in there (most of the time by himself - a big crowded bouncey house would work later) and he looked like such a big boy.
Aiden had this big classic smile on his face during the entire bounce.
We noticed a big crowd formed around "Granny's Racing Pigs" and we jogged over to catch the action. Aiden was really excited to see the pig race over to their food.
I was amused by the guy hawking piggies after the event as the pigs chowed.
We cruised the games concourse wishing we knew how to play these games and actually win. Aiden was in awe of the gigantic gorilla.
We had shared some perogies for dinner which Aiden wanted to "cut" on his own.
Then we couldn't pass up the mini donuts sprinkled with Ghirardelli Chocolate. Aiden liked to eat half and insist on feeding you the rest.
There were plenty of animals begging for food bits, so J was brave enough to give each animal a test drive before helping Aiden feed them himself.
The sheep were Aiden's favorite and they gave him little kisses.
J was brave to allow this chicken to peck at his hand.
I liked watching them puff their feathers instead of risking my skin by feeding them - what a scaredy cat I am...scared of a little chicken pecking off my finger...
Aiden picked out a little purple butterfly tattoo and then wanted to climb this tree (as if there wasn't enough excitement around)
They had mini trick horses (that appeared on the Today Show) there to do little tricks, but Aiden mostly wanted to follow around these little buddies he recognized from Gymboree and ride with them in their wagon.
Then the absolute take-the-cake top moment of the night was the magic show. Aiden was pretty in to watching it on our laps or sitting in his own chair, but we could tell he was getting sleepy, so we were getting ready to skedattle. There was this cute little four year old boy on stage as the magician's assistant. They were perching little birds on him and then all of a sudden he helped a big huge fat rabbit appear out of no where. It seemed like your typical magic show, until all of a sudden it fell off track and the bunny was peeing in the kids face - no kidding - there is no pleasant way of telling the story. This kid was still smiling as they got him a towel and he kept his arms perched just as they asked him. It was just another bizarro moment of excitement at the fair.

This is a long holiday weekend for Rhode Island (something about Victory Day?), so I'm sure we're in for more excitement this weekend.

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Aiden's still our little drummer boy... He likes to make his own little drum sets too (which comes in handy when our room renovation means the drum set is tucked away in our dining room not being used - although chances are it will now be in our fixed up basement instead of back in the first floor room - yay, more space in that room and J can jam late at night and we won't hear him. The room is being painted as we speak and should be done early next week or sooner!)

Drumming... and more drumming... from LB on Vimeo.

catch up video

Rebecca took Aiden to the splash pad at this great little zoo again this week, and I realized that I'd never posted the videos from our trip earlier in July. So, here is my catch up post with both videos from early July.

First Splash! from LB on Vimeo.

Zoo babbles from LB on Vimeo.

mama's work

My boys came by with lunch for me on Monday. Can't beat that, eh? (Rebecca had an online class that meets at the end of the semester that she had to go to in the middle of the day, so it was daddy day!) It made my day to see Aiden prance into my office. In the past, if you ask him where I work, he would reply that I worked in the car. Makes sense right, I say I'm leaving for work and then I go to the car?! I guess he was a little intimidated by my big building with all its long hallways, so he immediately asked J to hold hands. He loved riding up in the elevator. He snuck in so quietly (and believe me I'm not used to this kid being so quiet!) and was playing shy. He would smile and give an occasional high five, but he mostly just wanted to go back and ride the elevator while we were trying to say hi to people.

He even collected little goodies from their offices - an old octopus from one professor and a carved elephant with a "baby inside" that he wanted to show everyone. The best part was when he wanted to sit in mommy's ball chair and play on the computer. It was pretty darn cute (and luckily he didn't answer the call from media relations that came in while he was sitting there - eek!). I was on the photo beat earlier that day so I grabbed the camera. (You'll see next to the phone a paper bag full of goodies from a recent employee recognition deal - It says "you are a 'key' part of our success! :)")

21 months!

Dear Aiden,

Here is an interaction that sums up this month for me: You'd spent the day with your buddy Tyler and you just finished babbling about digging at the beach. Dada says, "Isn't it great that you are just a little baby and you have a friend?" You reply, "I'm not a baby, I'm little boy." Whaa, a little boy!? Where did you get this idea that you aren't a baby anymore?! You're my baby AB. The ladies at work say that you will always be my baby... Your reply is "are you kiddin me?" (in the funny british accent sing song voice you picked up someplace).
Somewhere this month you morphed your chicken babble into parrot talk - repeating everything! Although, you liked repeating things on your own accord. It is harder to get you to repeat things we ask, but you did catch on to "happy burthdaaa dada" aaannnd poppop! You wear your little green hooded towel and walk away from the bath like an independent boy instead of a bundle of towel now. You ran over to me the other day and said "I'm a green nonster" (instead of monster).
Your dad discovered that you were motivated when he would call something big. You were more likely to want to go in the big truck car to the big store. You would eat the last biiiig bite. Your dad also likes to tease you about what your toes smell like. You giggle every time he claims that your left foot smells like cookies and your right foot smells like cake. If your dada points at your foot and ask what it smells like you will tell us cookies or cake ;)
You've never looked back when it came to your idea to wean yourself. You do have a strange new transitional object this month though. You want to play with my hair as you wind down in the evening. You used to just casually pat it while we read stories, but now you literally will ask for mama's hair. It seems like it's a comfort for you, and if you're a little grumpy I know it because you will try to tug. I love when you say "Mama up" and you just want me to hold you and giggle at fishy lips or dance around. Those cuddle moments are my favorite parts of the day. When I go to leave for work in the morning and you are awake, you will usually say "bye Aiden bye Mama" and the same goes when you leave with Rebecca. You literally have cried a few times when it's time for Rebecca to go home in the evening. To me that is a good sign that you two have a good time together.
This month your hands were always full of little animals toys. You would try to take them with you everywhere. When you are quietly playing by yourself (especially in the car) we can hear you tell them they are upside down or on top... "rooooster on top of uurtle" You also began making letters and shapes out of your fingers, food, straws, you name it. Your favorite letter is A. Rebecca started showing you letter names and some of them have stuck! Your favorite is N says naaa.
I have really fond memories of having picnics with all my stuffed animal friends (although according to photos I was always dressed in a tutu for these picnic parties, so yours aren't quite as festive). You do seem to like throwing down a sheet and lining up all your animal friends. You will nicely pass out bowls for everyone and give them something fun to eat, but pretty soon after they are all settled and have made all the cute num num num noises.... you suddenly start your godzilla-destroy-everything-by-swinging-arms around like a crazy little boy. Reminds me that we aren't getting you any china tea sets any time soon.
If you ever get fussy or you just aren't that interested in coming back inside from playing I can usually get you motivated by asking if you want to go inside to help dad play the guitar. If I really need to motivate you I will start waddlin like a penguin and you will get your "happy feet" on and waddle right along with me.
You were into assigning sizes to things this month. "iiittle book, biiiig book" You were really excited to get small versions of your bigger stuffed friends. Your favorites were baby horsey, mama horsey, and dada horsey. You would even pretend to ride your animal friends and tuck the little baby penguin under the big penguin while they waddle around.

Towards the beginning of the month, you figured out how to unlatch the door and slide the door open. You are also lightening fast about it, so we got that door replace with one that latches. There will be no quick escapes to the car or the sand box. Instead we can stay inside and play some indoor teeball with your awesome blow up set from Nana and Grampa. This has been the best game for those sweltering humid days. You will play hit and catch for quite a while.
Your other favorite indoor game lately is trying to squirm up on the couch (which gives you some trouble sometimes) and then throw all the big pillows on the ground. Then you have a nice big pillow pile up to jump around in. You also like to play the hats game on skype especially. You will dig out all your hats and then prompt pop, gran, lizzy, and the whole cousin crew to wear a different hat (and you better believe gran has plenty of fun hats on reserve)
You've expanded your favorite book selections. The top request is Cat in the Hat lately. I feel like we've been reading Corduroy so often I do dream that little animals come alive and hide in our new renovated barn room (especially your favorite baby horse). You have a fondness for your Cactus Soup book, a more modern version of that good ol stone soup story, and you want to just say "cact-us oup" over and over again. Sometimes you have a fondness for books that can be pretty strange like this Caldecott award winning book called "When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry" I guess it's teaching you how to deal with frustration by running into the woods and climbing trees (!), but I think you just like the part where you "roar a red, red roar" right along with Sophie.
Your favorite little foamy pudgy Elmo shaped book somehow made it into the car where you want me to read it to you over and over again. I think it's called What Makes Elmo Happy or something like that.... but your favorite part is the last page where it says, "Do you know what makes Elmo happiest of all?" "Yoooouuu do!" If we ask you, "What makes you happiest of all, Aiden?" You reply with "Youuu do" - It's a good pick me up for any one ;) You make us happiest of all and I can't wait for more celebrating this month (where your mom joins your dad in the land of thirty). xoxo, Mama

carousel

We were headed past Roger Williams Park to run some errands yesterday and we ended up at the "blue and purple playground" near the carousel village. Aiden was at first terrified by the big dragon chair on the carousel (his arm was shaking as he pointed to it and asked "what is that?", but eventually he wanted to head back to ride on the "ion roar"...

swim lessons

It's been a year since Aiden's first official swim lesson. I found it hard to believe how much changes in a year watching him splash around. J took him the whole time because I was worried that he'd be a squirmy or he would seem a lot heavier than last year. It was the same level class as last year, but whereas last year there was a bunch of little babies and one big kid, this year there was a bunch of big kids and one little baby. So they got to do some bigger kid stuff and wear these floaties on their backs. They were even teaching them how to squirm out of the pool on their own - elbow, elbow, tummy, knee, knee... Aiden kept saying "I'm a swim!"

Swim Lesson from LB on Vimeo.

Excuse my misspelled lession - I guess I was thinking a sophisticated french spelling would be nice... It takes too darn long to redo it...

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More bouncing around at the zoo (because I couldn't decide which to post you get both!)

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This is from the zoo a couple weeks ago after he was playing in the splash pad (which is why his hair is all wet). He danced all over the place in that zoo - that's when you know he's having fun ;)

carousel

Can't forget the impromptu carousel ride before heading over to Daddy's birthday lunch... Aiden sang out, "A-nen Go!" most of the ride. Anyone think that Aiden got a good deal on Dada's birthday?! Maybe for Aiden's birthday we should play guitar all day.

J shares a birthday with his Nana, so they snuck in some celebrating Sunday too - whoops, sorry no photos - we'll definitely get some next time.

videos

Here's Aiden getting excited to tromp up and down in this race car truck bed. He did this too many times to count:


This is from the Illuminations Afloat event last night where Joe's Backyard Band was playing. We met up with some friends to hang out, dance, and play. It was honestly the perfect New England summer evening. At the beginning and end there are two quick camera grabs in the car when Aiden was singing and saying funny things. I wish I had a camera on this kid all the time lately since he says such funny things (but luckily he usually likes to repeat himself over and over).

Band and Baseball from LB on Vimeo.

bye bye 20

J and I headed over to the glorified Chuckie Cheese for adults, Dave and Busters, last night to "say goodbye to J's twenties" (as quoted by the funny server that brought over the big group to embarrass and sing to him). It was pretty darn fun and eating out without Aiden was a little spoiling treat for both of us. His babysitter rocks so much that he was asleep when we came home too! I can't think of a better way to say good bye to your twenties than beating your wife at some serious games of air hockey and skee ball...right?!

Today Aiden and I skedattled out of the house to give J some extra time to relax in the morning (we visited the paint store to try to start picking a paint color). Then we headed over to the March of Dimes Touch a Truck and watched Aiden giggle as he tromped around all the trucks. We ate lunch out (our standby poor excuse for Mexican), and now we are home relaxing. I came up with another reason I adore my husband: I had to beg him to mow the lawn for him as a gift. Seriously, I had to beg. It was bloody hot out, but it went quicker than I expected. I'm glad that J appreciated it. Now we're on to some more baby wearing out fun...and now that we're getting old I bet it will wear us out too!