What up my peeps

We have been spending a lot of time outside the last few weeks.  It has been a mess at home, Sarah is studying for her Architecture exam, Aidan is running like Carl Lewis, and Ben is busy with work and trying to learn how to play the guitar.  

13 Months...but who's counting?

Today Aidan is 13 months old...otherwise known as "one."

He continues to grow and amaze us each day.  Some of Aidan's new talents include trying to climb on things, especially the dishwasher and dining room chairs.  He has discovered how to open the lid to the toilet, so now we have to keep the bathroom doors closed at all times.  He can eat just about anything we give him, despite his lack of teeth (he still has six total), and wants to eat whatever we have in our hands at the time.

Aidan loves to go outside and enjoys riding in his new wagon.  The wagon is a great new concept to him, because we can give him little containers of food and his sippy cup, and he can eat at a leisurely pace while admiring the goings on around the park.  It's probably his idea of a perfect day.

Aidan has also become a master of napping and sleeping.  He lets us know when he's ready to go to bed by becoming very cuddly, and if we ask him, "Do you want to go night-night?" he will respond by waving as he walks down the hall toward his room.  Most of the time when we lay him down he will go right to sleep without a fuss.  It wasn't always this way, so it's quite an amazing new development!  He's been taking nice long naps lately, and has been sleeping pretty consistently throughout the night.  Occasionally he will wake up and scream for a bit, but he gets himself back to sleep fairly quickly.  He generally sleeps from 7:30 pm until 7:00 am, so we can't complain about that!

Here are some snapshots from the past month.

Escape from Alcatraz.

My first experience with the bubble machine.

I decided I needed to get on the table to color with my crayons.

Aidan loves to read!

He must take after his mom...

The cutest new thing that Aidan does is go grab a book and bring it back over to me, then sit himself down on my lap.  He loves to turn the pages! 

King Kong and the Blocks

What's this, a nice stacking of blocks just sitting here?  

I just want to have a closer look, say what does that say on the side of one of the blocks?

I think it says, knock me over?

Well if you say so.....

I am going to stack them higher then before this time and knock them over again.

Something for Mommy

To celebrate the 1 year anniversary of Sarah giving birth to Aidan (cause lets be honest that is the impressive part), Aidan picked out a new acoustic-electric guitar for mommy.  It is a very nice Takamine G Series guitar.  Daddy will admit that he wanted mommy to get a new guitar so she would be reenergized to play again.....

Our Little Artist

Here is Aidan's first drawing.  I see a lot of potential in this.

Notice the juxtaposition of colors.  He has a keen eye for blending and contrasting.

Aidan Van Gogh, perhaps?

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's very cold here for Valentine's Day, so I had to get bundled up.

This is how old I am!

Some flowers for you on this special day.

Happy 1st Birthday, Aidan!

February 11, 2008, 11:30 am.  That's right, it was one year ago today that Aidan was born!  I remember it like it was yesterday (but I'm glad it wasn't!)  We've gone through so much in the last year, and I really have to say it was the best year of my life.  

In just the last month, Aidan had begun to understand many of the things that we say.  He understands - "Do you want to have a snack?" "Do you want to go to the park/outside?" "Do you want some water?" "Do you want to take a bath?"  When we ask any of these things, he responds by - going over to his high chair, grabbing my shoe and walking to the front door, pointing to his water cup, and going into the bathroom and pointing at the bathtub.  He is getting so smart!  

He isn't really saying any words yet, but he chatters and babbles like crazy.  We have "conversations."  It's so much fun!

Aidan absolutely loves to be outside, and wants t go to the park at least three times a day.  It's rough on all of us when it's raining outside, but luckily there have been breaks in the rain for us to go to the park.  I bought him some sand toys for his birthday, and that is one of his favorite things to do at the park.  He usually heads right for the sand box, especially if there are other kids playing in it.  He also loves to kick his soccer ball around at the park and climb up the stairs of the playground.

I will take some pictures later of Aidan's birthday day and post them.

For now, let's go back and remember day one.

Aidan's Birthday Party!

We held a birthday party for Aidan today, and it couldn't have been a better day.

The day began at the park for a little playtime with all the kids.

Then we came back to the house to destroy the living room.

Then, it was time for cake!

Then, after we got all cleaned up, it was time to open presents.

We had a great time, and we thank everyone for coming and joining us on this special day!

Hope to see you all again soon.

Big Shoes

These actually fit.  

But I can't walk in them