Just American

Aiden has always loved being read to. Either Mama or Dada usually read him a story before it's time to hit the sack. And we turn off the lights after reading a story or two. He tries all sorts of tricks to extend his uptime. One day after I had read him a couple of stories and turned off the lights, he asked for more stories. When I wouldn't turn on the lights again he threw a fit. So I decided to make up a story on my own. It went 'Once upon a time, there was a little boy.....' It would be a story about one of the more exciting things that happened in his life during that week. And it would end with 'Do you know the name of this boy?' And with all the excitement of a toddler, he'd say, 'BABA !!!'. He really took to it and now it's a regular feature of the night time routine. One day just to make it more interesting I decided to try it with different accents. First I tried a strong Indian accent. He didn't like that at all and said 'regular'. I said, you don't like Indian ? And he said 'No Indian, regular'. So then I tried my version of a British accent and he did the same thing. 'Regular'. I said 'Oh you mean American' and he said 'American'. And from then on everytime I try any other accents, he says 'No Indian, No British, Just American'.

Here's an illustration with 'Runaway Bunny'

Baby Band

Aiden's BFF Hope came over to the house the other day and the two of them decided to start a band. They're both accomplished singers but they're still working out the whole teamwork thing....

Here Hope has started singing and just needs a little cooperation from Aiden. I love the very slight look of frustration on her face as she tries to sing through Aiden's ruckus.

They are finally in agreement about the song but maybe not the tempo....

Artistic differences are such a drag. Aiden's feeling very Old McDonald and Hope is a little BaaBaa Blacksheep. What will they do?

Bear Wearing

Take away the crib (OK we never had one) and I would survive. Same goes for the changing table....our guest bedroom desk worked just fine. One day we had guests and moved it to our bedroom floor. We're still parked there. The beautiful bassinet that held all Stoddard babies as we slept and was painstakingly refurbished by Quita... we used it once. The stroller which was a bone of contention with Grandpa because on his first try he didn't get the exact one we had researched ....we barely used it. But, don't even think about taking away my Ergo baby carrier. I would flip. You might be able to raise a baby without one but I'm not in line to try that experiment. I love it that much. I used it when Aiden was 5 months and I'm still using it now that he's 2 years 3 months and 27.5 pounds. It's a dream. When I see the Bjorn, I cringe remembering all those sore shoulders even when Aiden was a lightweight. BTW, we still have our Bjorn and it needs a new home....anyone interested????

Aiden's jumped on the baby-carrying bandwagon and he's a very good Daddy to his bear Corduroy (pronounced "Corduroid"). Here you see him changing bear's diaper. Just how many diapers can a little bear wear? Then, my favorite.... taking Corduroy for a jaunt around the house. The bear-in-the-shirt idea is all his. Aiden loves carrying Corduroy as much as I love carrying him.

Our little Handful

Today during bath time I had an "oooh noooo" moment. First it was the art and then it was the teeth but I'll start with the art.

Art is Aiden's new obsession. He didn't get it from Mama and he didn't get it from Dada but Baba can spend hours drawing. We signed him up for an art class this summer and he didn't want to go. He was in the middle of a phase right after he had the chicken pox were he didn't want to leave the house or try anything new. I normally respect his limits but staying inside was driving me batty so I took him anyway, protesting the whole way. I told him we didn't have to stay, we were just going to have a look. We walked through the door, Baba trying to wiggle away; me with an iron grip when suddenly I spotted the letter "L" cookie cutter on the playdough table. Aiden loves letters and it was worth a try....

Baba, I see the letter "L" over there. He froze. He reconsidered. He never ever complained about art class again. Now he begs me to go. Art class has 6 tables each with a different project. The projects change every week but there's always a playdough table. We spent 5 consecutive weeks playing at the playdough table for a whole hour before he had the heart to explore.

Now our home is fully stocked with markers, crayons, playdough, a million cookie cutters, paint, stamps, and bathtub paint. So back to our story.

Today Aiden asked me to paint a bulldozer on the side of the tub. Did I mention I'm not artistic? I can pick a bull dozer out in a line up...I think...but I'm not sure I know what one *really* looks like. Anyhow, I did my best. Baba admired my effort but then he started complaining. I drew wheels on my bulldozer and they have crawlers. He made me change the wheels to crawlers. Then there was no dirt in the bulldozer. I added dirt. Wait, the bulldozer should be dumping dirt into a dumptruck. I drew a dump truck. I was so relieved when Dada came in to take over. This was getting complicated.

Later I heard from Dada about the tooth brushing episode. The toothbrush was in and out of Baba's mouth in a flash. What happened to brushing your teeth Dada asked. Aiden answered....Baba fast!

Chelsea's Wedding

We just got back from Spokane Washington where we celebrated Chelsea and Rob's beautiful wedding. Aiden has a blast and spent more time dancing at the rehearsal dinner than we did. It was there that Aiden found Chelsea, the bride, and proceeded to follow her around everywhere treating her to the splits and other dance moves. He was smitten.

When we finally turned in for the night he said "More party" softly between yawns. He was in luck, the wedding was right around the corner. I don't think Aiden had as much fun at the wedding....he had to wait way too long to see Chelsea. When he did, DadA said, "look there's Chelsea. She's wearing a beautiful white dress." "Take it off" Baba said.

OK, at this point I have to admit that my adorable little boy has a bit of a bossy side. I have no idea where he gets that. He's not fond of glasses, sweaters, hats and apparently wedding dresses....even on other people.

Back to our story. We explained that only Rob gets to take off Chelsea's wedding dress and whisked him away before the wedding got scandalized.

That was last weekend.

Today over dinner, Dada was reminiscing with Baba about the wedding and laughing about how Baba had wanted to take off Chelsea's dress. Baba came right back at him with "Rob do it".

I guess he got the message.

Over here Joy, dance with me!

Playing with Dada

Who taught Aiden to make that funny face?

Oops!

Playing at the Spokane children's museum.

Guitar

Quita got this mini guitar for Baba and he loves that its just his size. Now he and Dada can play together.

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.