Easter festivities

Last time around Aiden was too little to partake in any of the Easter festivities and hence the celebrations were limited to doing things around the house. This year though things are a bit different. He gets overly excited by any animal costumes and so we were sure he'd be pretty psyched to see Easter bunnies running around the place. We went to a couple of different places where he had a chance to indulge in Easter related activities. First up was a picnic at a Mom's club in our neighborhood. They had a few activities lined up to keep the kids interested including an entertainer but as you can see Aiden was more interested in checking out the various wheels in the house. He eventually warmed up the celebrations when the entertainer started singing his favorite songs.




Things started getting more interesting for him when we moved outdoors to start the Easter egg hunt. It took him a little while to get used to the concept of collecting eggs in his basket and at first had to be coached by Mommy. Eventually he got the hang of things and collected a few eggs. All the kids were around the same age as him so there was very little competition. It was nothing like the next hunt that we went to, more on that a little later.

The next event was a big party was over the weekend in downtown San Mateo. Having never been to it before we had no idea about the scale of the event. They had lots of different types of activities planned to keep the kids busy. Things like puppet show, sack races, wagon parade, egg hunt etc. Thanks to Aunty Helena who too the initiative to start decorating Aiden's wagon while baby sitting him on Friday night, we managed to put something together very quickly to take part in the parade the next day. Again Aiden was more interested in checking out all the other wheels at the parade instead of getting in his own wagon. It was only when his dear friend and super cute kid 'Hope' got into the wagon did he show any interest. The Easter egg hunt at this place was a complete riot and a bit overwhelming. They didn't separate the kids into different age groups, so we had over 100 kids from the ages 2-10 all competing for the same eggs. There was no chance Aiden was going to get a single egg at this event so Daddy had to get a little creative and grab a few for him. We even had some kids steal these when we tried to enact our own little egg hunt for Aiden. That's how bad it was and the Parents weren't very helpful either. It was just a quick preview of how competitive it's going to get when we start little league :)

We also had another celebration at Quita's house where Aiden has no one competing for his eggs which he enjoyed a lot. More on that in a latter post when I am able to load the pictures on my laptop.

Sour!

Aiden is showing he's a direct descendant of Quita. He loves munching on lemons! Really. I guess we should be happy that he's willing to try almost anything. It's not a perfect world though, if Aiden doesn't like the food presented, it takes less than a second for him to spit it out so it ends up dribbling down his chin onto the floor. Yummm!

That's exactly what I thought would happen the first time I gave him a lemon. He made a lemon face, proclaimed it "sour" but then after a thoughtful pause, went back for more. The face he made after each bite looked like torture but he was clearly enjoying the taste.

In this next picture he's doing the sour face so Mommy can catch it on camera.

Quirky Talking

OK...I admit it.  I'm a huge, huge fan of my baby and think almost everything he does is cute.  What mama in her right mind doesn't?  This post is dedicated to honoring Aiden's quirky habit of talking out of the corner of his mouth.  He does it mostly when learning new words so I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts.  I was looking through pictures from last month and realized that this phenomenon has been captured.  I can't believe I almost missed it!

PS:  While we're talking about this picture, the dump truck shirt is a big favorite right now as is anything and everything remotely resembling a truck. 

From Sunscreen to Sandscreen

He may be only 20 months young, but he's already way too cunning for us and has a lot of tricks up his sleeves. Check out this sequence on a recent bike trip on a bay trail near our place. We stopped at a beach to let him play for a little bit. But it was a hot & sunny day so we had to bring out the sunscreen which he absolutely hates.

Act all cute when Mama pulls out the sunscreen so she has no clue about what you are scheming.


Somehow convince Mama to lend you the tube so that you can apply it yourself.


Wait for Mama to turn around for a nanosecond, then dunk the tube in the sand.


Apply some sand on your face and get a little taste as well.

If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face

That theme is from a popular ad for Carl's Jr from a few years ago. Aiden has taken that theme to heart and like to really dig into his food with his hands. We've been very fortunate that he's been a good eater since the beginning. He likes to feed himself and pretty much eats anything although he does have a few favorites like the spinach & potato pancakes. But he won't put up with the same menu for too long and Mama has to constantly keep up to his tastes. Lately he's taken to stating his preferences very verbally. Today I picked up some Horchatha from a neighborhood Taqueria and he kept on saying the word a million times.

Go Giants!!!

Baseball season in underway and our hometown team, the San Francisco Giants won our home opener today beating the Brewers 10-6. These pictures are from last season when Aunty Chichi & Uncle Adam were visiting, but I am hoping that this season brings better luck to the Giants. Last season didn't go too well for us, but we have 'The Big Unit' this year, so I am keeping my fingers crossed. Aiden really loved it the first time we took him to a ball game. He had never seen that many people gathered at one place since the KFOG KABOOM concert last year and was really amused by it all. We hope to take him out to some more ball games this year. I am sure his favorite part would be taking the choo choo train to the ball park.

Hair

Will someone please cut my hair so everyone will stop calling me a girl?