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