Holidays

So it is the Holidays and the spirit is upon us... which is the excuse for saying, sorry I haven't posted recently. Between all the Christmas Shopping, work, and chasing around a little one, it seems there is hardly time to sit down and type out an entry.

I am putting most of my time into putting together the annual Aiden DVD to get sent off to everyone. No, you won't have it by Christmas this year, but it will be out soon... I promise. Just as soon as I kick Microsoft to the curb and find some decent video edit software.

The problem goes like this. It is hard to go more than about 30 seconds with a baby and not catch something you don't want on the DVD, so rather than a lot of 5-10 minute segments, we have a TON of 5-60 second segments. Well Microsoft's DVD Creator program is cool with that, so long as I don't have more than 99 segments on one DVD. 99 segments got me to about May. OOPS

So how do we solve this dilemma? Well Microsoft Movie Maker will let me combine segments into a scene that only takes up one slot on the DVD maker. That sounds great. Problem is, Movie Maker Freezes if you touch it in the wrong way, which is to say I have about 20 freezes for each viable clip I put together. So it is taking some time to get this thing done.

Otherwise, Aiden is doing well. Going to have some new pictures to load as soon as I get the camera upstairs. Aiden saw Santa, it did not go as well as last year.. He is kind of in one of those little stranger anxiety phases. He has them everyone once in awhile, and he pulled it with Santa, so we have a picture of him looking kinda freaked out in Santa's lap. He also got to go through ICE! which he wasn't really sure about, but it was fun, we think he enjoyed the ice slide (which he had to go down by himself!!)

Anyway. more when I am able. If I don't make it back in the next week, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays!!!

Boy meets Mouse, and Chipmunks

Well, most of you may already know that Aiden went on his first big trip this past weekend. We were invited to go to a friend of mommy's wedding down in Florida. With the state of our pocketbook it was not economically feasible for all of us to go down, but mommy really wanted to go to the wedding, so mommy and Aiden went on a trip to Orlando while daddy stayed home and worked. (A pretty raw deal for daddy if you ask me)

Aiden did as well as can be expected for a 16 month old to do on a plane, and had a lot of fun while he was down there. Mommy came back with a load of pictures and videos that I had to sort through to come up with some highlights for you. Without further ado, 16 pictures and 4 videos that illustrate Aiden's first visit to Florida.

Pictures

Well I am finally posting some pictures for you. It has been a pretty busy week. I've been trying to get my Christmas Shopping done early this year. I have always been Mr. Procrastination, but this year we're going for finished by Thanksgiving. I might actually accomplish it too!

In the meantime, Aiden and I both have some bug, not sure if it is a cold, but it had better not be the Flu since we all got Flu shots. (Daddy has always gotten sick every time he has had a flu shot which is why he has avoided having them, and now he has a flu shot at the pediatricians recommendation and he's sick... go figure).

I'm going to keep this short tonight, and get you right to a couple of new pictures. I am not sure what kind of Face Aiden is making in the first one, I promise he isn't "on anything", Raquel got a free sample size box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the mail, and it seemed the perfect size for Aiden, so there are a couple of pictures of him digging in to those. He's also found a new use for one of his Drums, as a hat. And it is COLD in Tennessee, so we have a picture of Aiden all bundled up for the cold weather. Hat and gloves provided by Aunt Nellie.

Ditching the Binkie

From what I have seen and read, it might be one of the toughest transitions that you have to make with a toddler. The trial of getting rid of the pacifier. We have begun the process, and believe it or not, it has been relatively painless. Over the weekend we started by only giving Aiden his pacifier when we were trying to get him down for a nap, over the past three days the only time he has had a pacifier was at night in his crib. It seems to be going well. He is sticking more other things in his mouth, hand, ball, drumstick, dog toys, etc. But he does not seem to be missing the pacifier too much at all.

So we will continue operation ditch the bink and see how it goes. The goal is, I think, completely pacifier free at 18 months. Not sure if we will make that goal, but surely we will be down to only at night and even then only as needed.

We won't be one of those families where a 3 year old child is running around sucking on a pacifier. That may work for some people, but it is not an option for us.

It is getting cold again, and Aiden gets all bundled up for going outside. He's not sure what to think about mittens, but I am sure he will get used to them. We've taken a few pictures and I will try to get those uploaded tomorrow.

More to come... :-)

Molars

We've been thinking for awhile now that Aiden was just getting cold after cold after cold. Not terribly uncommon in children his age, but pretty uncommon for our little boy who was only sic twice in his first year since he was not exposed to the daycare bugs. But for the most part other than one very significant period of cold symptoms including fever, he really didn't act sick except for the huge amounts of stuffiness and snot coming out of him.

Well we ran into some folks the other day who gave us a new clue. Molars. Apparently, when a baby's molars begin to come in this also can be a trigger for congestion and snottiness. So not just the tons and tons of slobber, you also can blame the snot on the new teeth trying to break free.

Aiden had four molars coming in all at once, and sure enough, now that all four have broken through pretty well, his congestion has lessened. He does still have the seasonal allergies, so the snot will never be completely gone, but we're "back to normal". So maybe there is something to the molars thing.

I know I hae been bad about pictures... I need to take some, and it is about time to start working on a Christmas photo/video collection. I'll need to put together more material before I can make that.

Haloween and Check up

So we have a few pictures of our little lion to share with you from Haloween. Overall I think Aiden had a pretty good time, although he was a little overwhelmed by the experience. Our neighbors do a lot of decorating, so there were lots of things for him to look at, as well as the tons and tons of people to check out. We think a few of the decorations that had motion detectors kind of freaked him out a little bit, so that isn't so good. But otherwise a good night. We've experimented a little bit with candy, and he likes anything chocolate, but anything with a colorful coating just ends up with colored slobber all over the place.

Couple of pictures from the night on the bottom... the latter two are him with his grandma and his cousin Dale.

Then today was check up time. Aiden weighed in at 23 pounds 8 ounces, 31 1/2 inches long. This puts him in the 51st percentile on height but only the 30th on weight. They aren't worried about his weight at this point, but if he shows a drop off next time we might have to take a look into that. He's been a finicky eater lately, so that explains a bit. The fact that he isn't speaking any real words yet is a bit of a concern, but the doctor did say that children in bilingual families were usually late language developers, but once they start going they are fluent in both languages, so that works out for the better in the long run.

He got 4 shots today, 3 regular scheduled immunizations and a flue vaccine. Mommy and Daddy have to get flu shots too. Neither of us is very happy about that, as we both have a tendency to get sick after getting the shot and not getting sick when we don't get a shot. But the doctor insists we get it as added protection for Aiden, and we'll do anything for him, so there you have it.

As you would expect we had a bit of a grumpy gus from the shots this evening. We'll have to wait and see if he is up in the middle of the night tonight. Usually he does not sleep through on the night after shots, so we'll have to wait and see. Note to self for future reference, not a real good idea to take the baby to get his shots and then take him to league bowling night 4 hours later. :-)

Still here

Yes, we're still here. It's been a busy couple of weeks so I have had a tough time getting to the blog and posting. Aiden has a never-ending cold. He got over the part where he was running a fever, but he is constantly stuffed up and having a rough time breathing, so we don't have lots of good pictures, or stories to share with you at the moment. I will finally share pictures of him in his Halloween costume since we are just a few days away. He seems to really enjoy being a little lion.

Got a cute video tagged on the end here. Aiden played Karaoke Revolution on our PS2.... must see video.

Hopefully we will have some good pictures from Halloween over the weekend for you, although it is awfully cold here already so we'll have to see if we make it outside or not. As Aiden gets better we should have more pictures and stories to share with everyone. Next week is Aiden's 15 month check up, so I will make sure to post after that and update all of his vitals.

Till then enjoy these couple of pictures and the singing video.

Dancing Machine

We just happened to catch a children's song on Nick jr. as we were finishing one program on the DVR and heading for the next. Aiden took to it immediately, so much so that we had to get the camera, rewind the tv, and capture this video. Thank God for pause and rewind live television. LOL

I think the video speaks for itself.

The Park

We made it to the park on Thursday (after nap time). Aiden had a really good time exploring everything. He loved the swing, and the slide, and the wood chips. Yeah... he had to pick up all the wood chips on the ground and put them somewhere else (especially in other parents' hands).

We spent about an hour and a half at the park, and Aiden enjoyed every minute, climbing all over everything, sliding down the slides, falling down and scaring daddy to death, but just getting up and continuing on. I had to let him keep his pacifier, because if his pacifier wasn't in his mouth he was trying to shove wood chips in.

The pictures and videos probably demonstrate the fun he had out there better than words.

I will say, the park can be a pretty vicious place, parent wise. I witnessed several parents get pretty unhappy with each other. Including one bout where one mom randomly went over and started rummaging through another mom's diaper bag. Then she got all indignant when the owner of the bag was upset about her invasion of the other woman's property.

The other thing I noticed, was the desire to tell some people how to parent, and the battle you have to wage to keep your mouth shut. For instance, there was a little girl, probably about four years old, who fell down on the sidewalk. Her mother was (I think) sitting at one of the picnic tables chatting with some other moms while her little girl bawled her eyes out. I don't know if the girl was bleeding or not, but from the look of the fall, I would imagine she at least had some scraped knees. Aiden even walked by and looked at her to try to see if she why she was crying, but the mom didn't come to the girl's rescue, letting her lay there bawling. Who am I to say anything, but geeze.... call me overprotective, but I hope there never comes a time where I am desensitized to Aiden's cries so much that I ignore him when he might be bleeding.

We went back to the park today and took mommy with us. It was a good time once again, although we didn't get to spend as long since we had to go across town for bowling. But we had a good time, and mommy was able to chase Aiden around some so daddy wasn't quite so worn out.

The Best Laid Plans....

Are often foiled by an Afternoon nap.

Yes, with an absolutely picture perfect fall day outside, I had plans all set out to take Aiden for his first visit to the local park/playground and see what kind of trouble he could get into. I was going to leave about 45 minutes earlier than I usually leave to head to work and drop him off to mommy, head to the playground and let him run all over the place, and then drop off an exhausted baby to mommy, hopefully earning a full night's sleep in return.

Unfortunately, a baby's need for an afternoon nap trumped my grand plans. Aiden fell asleep about 30 minutes before I would have needed to start getting ready for our trip to the park, and slept until it was the time I usually start getting ready for work. So we'll have to try the park idea again tomorrow, or maybe Friday if we go somewhere else tomorrow (like the zoo).

Aiden is getting over his second cold. Daddy got strep and prolly passed on something to the little one, and it showed itself as a cold for him. Babies sure can produce a whole heck of a lot of snot. As was the case last time he was sick, his entire sleep cycle has been turned upside down, and mommy and I have not gotten a whole lot of sleep for the past week. He'll have a decent night, but that is followed by a really bad night. Last night he got up at 3am and was wide awake until nearly 5am. *Sigh*

A couple of new fun and exciting things Aiden has picked up.

He now has found the power button on the front of the tv, and the associated red light. He thinks it is loads of fun to go up and hit the button repeatedly and watch the red light (and the TV if the cable box is on) turn on and off. It's funny, so long as he doesn't do it during an Ohio State Football game.

He's the crowd entertainment during out employee bowling league on Monday nights. Of course the bowling alley has loud music playing and since Aiden can dance to anything, he dances for everyone there at the bowling center. It is really tough to bowl when you have to keep passing a baby back and forth, and follow him all around the lanes keeping him out of people's way, but it is funny too, so worth the effort.

It isn't new for Aiden to decide to unroll the toilet paper, but now he has figured out how to take the roll off of the dispenser. In our master bath that means a pretty heavy iron bar, which he has taken to banging everything with. It is making shower time for me very interesting as I try to decipher the sounds of what he is hitting to know if it is something he could break or not. So far so good on that front.

No pictures today, we've not taken any of sick Aiden. As he is getting better we'll get some good ones. And if we head for our first trip to the park this week we'll make sure to get photos of that for you!

Photo Update

Aiden had a really adventurous weekend. Saturday was a couple of parties for him to go to, and he had a blast in the YMCA's inflatable play gym. That was for Aiden's Cousin Dale's 5 year birthday party. Then he and mommy went to another party, where he kept busy running all around the yard.

He's sleeping a little more, but still up in the middle of the night, but just once and back to sleep till 6:30 or 7, so it is getting better.

That's about it for now except to share 8 new pics with you. Enjoy!

Back to the Zoo

Yay! The weather is finally cooperative, and Aiden and daddy went back to the Zoo for the first time in almost 2 months. We have a good time at the zoo and it is a good workout for daddy pushing the stroller around the grounds. Aiden got to walk through the unseen world exhibit, and marched back and forth about 4 times through the building... no idea why he kept turning around, he would just get to a certain point, look around, turn around, and march in the other direction. He gets worn out a little more than 3/4 of the way around the zoo and we kind of bypass the last few animals to get him to the car so he can fall asleep, but I think it is a good trip for him.

Hopefully that adventure will help him sleep tonight. He has started getting up in the middle of the night again, and sometimes being up for 2 hours before settling back down. He is definitely teething again, but it doesn't seem like he had this rough of nights the last time he was teething. We would be concerned he was sick, since daddy is getting over strep, but he is perfectly normal during the day. Hopefully just another phase he will pass through and get back to sleeping his normal routine soon.

He's discovered Dora and Diego... we tape the episodes on tv and watch them whenever he seems like he might want to sit for a little bit. the colors and the songs really draw him in.

And now he is up again, so time to go try to get him back down.

Autumn almost upon us

Wow... this year is just slipping by. I looked at the calender this evening and realized that Autumn is almost upon us. Less than two weeks. I look forward to things getting a little cooler, and the leaves starting to change. Aiden and I haven't been to the zoo in quite awhile as it has just been too hot with temperatures over 90 most days for the past two months.

So we'll get out and do more outside stuff through the autumn months, before we get into staying home and snug and warm through the winter.

I keep saying that I am going to be changing the slide show, but this time I really mean it. I was going back through some of the older posts, showing someone the picture of what Aiden wore last Halloween ( as we were discussing what he might be for Halloween this year, which I don't think we know yet) and just looking at a few of the pictures from the past year. I want to change up the slide show to kind of do the year in pictures. Might take some time and some doing, but I'll get it done.

Last week we went bargain shopping at Kohl's. I love shopping the bargain racks, right now all of the summer stuff is on super clearance to make way for the winter clothes. So I can get some really nice stuff really inexpensively. It takes some planning and knowing what you are going to need 8 months from now, and if your weight fluctuates too much it doesn't pan out, but for the most part I have found it to work well for me. We did some bargain shopping for Aiden's gear for next Summer as well. Found some really cute stuff for him and typically a full outfit was about $6, a shirt or pair of shorts around $3. We got an adorable Finding Nemo Swimsuit for him for $3 as well. I highly recommend Kohl's... and if you are shopping for Aiden, next Summer he will be in 24 month or 2T clothes. wink wink nudge nudge.

Revenge of a 13 month old

So I told you yesterday about how daddy scared the heck out of poor little Aiden at the hardware store. Well last night our little man got his just revenge.

He woke up screaming at 2:15am, something he has not done in some time. And he was inconsolable... we decided he probably had a nightmare due to daddy's mummy scare, and decided to bring him in with us. That didn't work... ultimately he was up well past 4am before finally settling back down to sleep.

It was not a good night in our house. A baby's revenge can be pretty viscous. who knew?

Labor Day celebration

We had a fun Labor day here in Aiden Land. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to celebrate with a cook out and all sorts of outdoor activities. Aiden liked the horseshoes, although he prefered to carry them around rather than throw them. Of course Aiden loved the pool and a new water activity he was not sure of at first, but quickly warmed up to and then wore daddy out carrying him up the hill so he could go down again. Yes, Aiden discovered the Slip and Slide. He had a blast with that, and so did his cousin Dale. Biggest issue was that Aiden didn't move fast enough for Dale to play on the slide enough. By the end of the afternoon I think everyone was pooped.

Today Aiden got scared more than I think he has ever been scared before. All my fault I'm afraid. We went to Lowes to look for a bug killer. Well Lowes has been setting up their Halloween stuff. The endcap of the bug isle is a bunch of Halloween stuff, including a motion detecting Mummy. The first time we went by it startled daddy a little bit when it started humming and it's eyes moved back and forth and lit up. Going back out of the isle daddy decided to get a better look, and in turn give Aiden a better look. At first Aiden was kind of interested in what this thing was, reaching out for the "rags", but when it started moving its eyes and humming he just about jumped out of my arms and started bawling. I didn't know what to do... at the same time trying to comfort my baby but at the same time laughing so hard I'm about to cry.

Lesson being, don't let your baby get too close to motion detecting mummies who hum. LOL

Whew.... what a weekend. We went up to Indiana to Aiden's Mimi's house for a visit. We all got our first chance to meet Aiden's cousin Sean. Sean is about 7 months old, he belongs to Daddy's brother. We had 4 generations of my family there With Aiden's parents, aunt, uncle, and cousin, grandparents, and great grand parents.

Aiden pulled a couple of firsts on us along the way. He drank from a water glass as seen in the images below, and he drank from a cup through a straw. He also got some company riding around in his wagon with his cousin.

We had lots of fun and the grown up kids got to go to Holiday World while Mimi and the great grand parents took care of the babies. In all a very enjoyable and exhausting weekend.

So exhausting in fact that I am going to leave the rest of the writing for another day (I'd say tomorrow, but we know how well I have been doing with that of late) and leave you with some images. mommy was behind the camera for all of the pictures we took, so she is absent in this collage, as are Aiden's great grand parents for some reason we didn't get any pictures with them. But Papaw Danny couldn't have been more tickled with the little ones in the wagon this morning. :-)