Dump truck loves you.....What is Mama doing ?

Putting Aiden to sleep at night used to be quite a chore but now he's settled into a nice routine. Don't get me wrong, he still tries every trick in the book and sometimes invents his own to keep from going to bed. I usually get home from work around 6:30 p.m. at which time he's just finishing up his dinner. Around 7 p.m., I always ask him to same question 'Aiden, should we have a bath?' and I always get the same quick answer 'NO?'. I have slowly learnt that rather than force him to do something it's a lot easier to trick him into it. So I will say 'Aiden, what do you think needs a bath today, the Porsche or the big rig (or any other combination of his other gazillion toy vehicles)?' He suddenly feels this big surge of power that I just gave him and picks two toys that he wants to take into the tub. Well, he usually wants to take all of them, but he understands that the tub is only big enough for two. Anyhow, the point is that by now he's forgotten that it's him who's getting a bath and that his nap-time clock has just started to tick. Bath is usually over in 5 minutes but then he'll play in the tub for at least a half hour. He's only supposed to be there until the tub drains which usually takes 10 minutes but while I am playing with my iPhone, he slowly turns the drain off. Remember, this is the same dude who didn't want to get into the bath in the first place.

Then I take him to bed to change and even before I have put him down on the bed, he's say 'Shapes'. It's a game on the iPhone that he loves to play. He knows all kinds of shapes and today at the art class, he made his Mommy's jaw drop by saying 'Baby took my Pentagon' when some kid borrowed his plato creation. After that he runs out to show Mommy how cute he looks in his jammies. Next thing he will say is 'Pictures'. That means Mama has to show him pictures of his handsome self on her laptop. His favorite pictures are those of him playing with his hero, 'Uncle Jonathan'. Around 8pm, Mama takes him to bed to read some stories and nurse.

I walk in around 8:30 to put him to bed to see them happily playing games. This is when he suddenly develops all sorts of needs that will either delay Mommy's departure or necessitate him leaving the bedroom. He will feign pangs of hunger and ask for food, water or to nurse. And when he's exhausted everything, he'll bribe Mommy with all kinds of hugs & kisses. Then I take over and he starts his games all over again. I usually have to sing him a few songs and pretend to be one of his dump trucks. He will go through the entire list of cars that his family and neighbors have. Yes, he knows the car makes, it's a little surreal to hear him say 'Aunty Helena has a Volkswagen'. I eventually pretend to sleep but he will keep jumping all over me or telling me all sorts of stories. And when nothing works he will kiss me and tell me 'Love you Dada'. He knows that this trick of his always works. The other day he tried this and I told him 'Dada loves you, Mama loves you, Quita love you.....Nathan loves you'. I went through every single member of the extended family. After I was done he said 'Dump truck loves you' and I burst out laughing and his sleep got postponed by a few minutes.

Sometimes when I am trying to put him to sleep, he'll hear Mommy doing something outside and he'll say 'What is Mama doing' ? As if to imply 'Does she not know that the king is trying to sleep here ?' It happened again today when Mommy returned from a quick run to the grocery and hence this first post from me in a while :)

This video is of him going up and down the ramp of a church behind our house. It's his favorite thing to do during the day.