A few new pictures and videos

As most of you know, The past few months has been very busy around our household. That should not have meant that we didn't take enough pictures and videos of Aiden, but unfortunately, it does. I tried to ake up for that a little bit today by taking several videos of him to share with you. So here we are with some Aiden media for you.

The Best Gifts

I just finished reading "Open" the Andre Agassi Autobiography (Thanks mom!). This is a highly recommended book for anyone who watched even a little bit of tennis back in the 90's when Andre, Pete Sampras, and all the hot shot American guys were in their prime. But aside from that, it is a very telling story about what is important in life.

Andre dropped out of school in the 9th grade to focus entirely on tennis. His father actually encouraged this decision. He had driven Andre since he was walking to be the best tennis player in the world. Mike Agassi saw school as interfering in his child's real education which was to be found on the tennis court.

Andre talks late in the book about his joy of reading, and how late in life he discovered it because he dropped out of school. It's a shame, as reading I think is one of the best gifts we can give our children, and Agassi's dad essentially kept that from Andre.

I am quite the opposite, I had a joy of reading instilled in me at a very early age. I have always been a big reader, I remember my dad on the couch with a book in hand, and I took most of my early favorites off of his book case. Without my dad's Joy of reading I might never have discovered Robert Heinlein, Steven King, and countless other authors whose books I have read over the years.

My hope is to instill that same joy of reading in Aiden. I think we are doing pretty well with that so far, as Aiden always wants to hear a story before bed, and most days he falls asleep for his nap holding onto his favorite book. He is very much like daddy in that regard, I can't go to sleep without at least reading a couple of paragraphs of a book. sometimes falling asleep with the book still grasped in my hands.

One of the things that is helping us with encouraging Aiden to read is Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Every month Aiden gets a brand new book in the mail, and will continue to do so until he is five years old. It's a nice way to expand his book collection and give him new pages to explore. Would we have books for Aiden without this wonderful gift? Yes, we would. But there are families out there who wouldn't, and I think organizations like this that inspire our children to learn are phenomenal.

You all know I don't typically use this space to endorse any products or services. Every now and then I do get emails from people who want me to write about this that or the other thing. It is not that I am opposed to the idea of writing about these things, but none of the ones who have contacted me want me to write about anything that has to do with my family and the raising of a child. The Imagination Library has not asked me for any sort of endorsement, but I feel like this organization is worth a mention. If you have a child who is under 5 years old and have not already done so, go to the website and sign your child up for some books. Or, if you feel so compelled, head on over to the website and make a donation to the organization so that more children can enjoy the gift of reading. You can do either at: http://www.dollysimaginationlibrary.com

Thanks as always for reading. Should have some good pictures to share after this weekend with a visit from Mimi and Papaw.

Big Photo update

It's kind of feast or famine around this blog. Either there are lots and lots of photos and videos to share, or there is essentially nothing. Today it is the former. Aiden and I discovered a new way to spend these long cold winter days. A place called Monkey Joe's full of inflatable play areas and games fit for ages 2-12. Now maybe a Saturday was not the best time to discover this little gem as it was pretty darn crowded, but Aiden had a blast, and daddy got a good work out following him around the place. So below are a bunch of pictures from that excursion. A few others to start out with though. We were folding laundry last week when Aiden grabbed one of my shirts and proceeded to climb into it. That just had to be documented. And a few pictures from the snow last week. we couldn't make a snow man, but we could make snow balls for Aiden to hit off of his tee. He thought that was the funniest thing.

Without further ado, the images of the week!

It's January

So I was reminded this morning that I haven't posted anything in awhile. Truth be told, Life has kept our household pretty busy over the last few weeks. Putting in a lot of time with some other projects. Aiden is having a great time with school, with visiting with grandparents and uncles/aunts/cousins. The beginning of the new year has been a fun time for him. It has also been a little bit of a tough time. With the weather turning bitterly cold last week his eczema came back with a vengeance. We ran out of the oil we use on him at the same time, so now he is very itchy all the time. Hoping to get in touch with the doctor tomorrow to get a refill sent in on the oil he needs to control his skin so everything can level back out.

I don't have any pictures ready to load tonight, there are a lot out there, just not gathered on this computer. So I will have to get back to you with the new years photo update. But yes, we are still here in the new year, and will keep you updated as news comes in. :-)

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to take a moment on this day to send a Christmas greeting from our house to yours. I know I am not the best blogger in the world, and sometimes I have to be reminded to put up a new post, but I greatly appreciate you taking the time to come and visit with us. We come to the close of another year, a year in which Aiden turned 2 and we had so many adventures. Thanks for being a part of it! And we'll see you in 2010.

Just a couple of quick videos of our little guy enjoying his Christmas morning. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas to All

Wow... a month since our last update. It's been a busy time around the house. What with the holiday season at work and all three of us being sick for an extended amount of time, posting an update has kind of fallen by the wayside.

Aiden had a bit of a stomach virus there for about a week. The first night of it he woke up at around 1:30 and started crying for us. We were going to let him cry for a bit to see if he settled himself back down when he changed from his usual cry for us to come over to "I'm Messy" I went over to see what he was on about to find a bed full of vomit. Uh Oh.

What followed was about 3.5 hours of Aiden throwing up every 5-30 minutes. A very sleepless night all around, and a very tired family on Thursday. We weren't sure what to think of this as Aiden had never been throw up sick before. After the session of throwing up, the next several days Aiden had nearly no appetite whatsoever, drinking tons and eating a lot of ice chips, but not really willing to go for food. That combined with the stomach bug led to some pretty nasty diarrhea for the next 5 days or so. Mix that in with momma having a cold and the stomach bug at the same time and daddy having the worst cough/sinus infection of his life and we had a pretty unhappy household.

Fortunately these things ran their course as they always do and everyone is on the mend. Aiden got to go to his Parent's Day Out Christmas Party on Thursday and had a great time. With the illnesses we haven't made it to see Santa this year, and I am not sure if we will or not.

We're getting acclimated to it being too cold to go outside. Aiden still asks to go outside a time or two a day, but once we tell him it is too cold he is pretty good about finding something else to do. Parents Day Out has helped with that to give him someplace else to play other than just our house. I suppose I need to be looking into other activities I can take him out for so we can get out of the house more often over the winter.

Like everyone else we are busy preparing for Christmas. Lots of fun in store there. Aiden has some pretty awesome toys waiting for him to open, so I am sure there will be good pictures to share from that. In the meantime, Aiden got a much needed haircut today. Momma cut it and I think she did a great job. Here are the before and after pictures for you to check out.

More soon! Merry Christmas!

New pictures and video

Sorry it has been awhile since I updated. I am posting more often little updates on facebook and not so much taking the time to sit down and write actual blog entries. It seems like Aiden learns so much and is doing so much new every single day and it is difficult to document everything. His vocabulary is getting so big, and he understands what words mean pretty quickly. Still a big sports enthusiast, it's pretty cool how smart and engaged he is.

I have several pictures and a video to share tonight. The video is from awhile ago when Aiden decided to sing me a song after school, I tried to get him to sing for the camera, and he did a little bit. The results are what you see here.

The pictures are from ICE at Gaylord Opryland. This year's theme is Charlie Brown Christmas. I think they have done a wonderful job with the sculptures this year. I liked the Grinch when it was here, but I had trouble with some of the sculpting, as the who's lacked definition and didn't really stand out very well. Of course who's take a lot more definition than the Charlie Brown Characters, so in that sense, the artists had an easier job this year. But there is no question who the different characters are, and the scenes present themselves very well. And here is a little insider's secret. The building ICE is held in has an all new sound system this year, capable of playing different selections in 8 different zones. This lets them play scene appropriate music throughout. If you give it a few minutes (tough to do in the cold I know) you can actually follow the story through the soundtrack.

Enjoy!

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this is Halloween

It has taken some doing to get Aiden accustomed to his Halloween costume, but tonight he finally got the whole outfit on. Amazing but the outfit that is supposed to be sized for children 2-4 years old that we expected to be too big is.... too small. We're goign to see if we can get it in a bigger size tomorrow, but otherwise this will do for Saturday. He won't be wearing it next year, or even next month though.

The down side of all this work to get him comfortable with his costume is there is an 80% chance of Rain on Saturday, meaning that we might not even get to trick or treat. Maybe he will just dress up and great anyone hardy enough to be out trick or treating inj the rain. Who knows.

Just a couple of pictures and quick videos for you to enjoy of our little dragonasaurus.