Happy Birthday Dada!

Dada's birthday is just a few days away so I've been trying to get some hints from Baba about what he would like to give Dada as a gift. Every time I ask him he answers the same way. The conversation goes something like this....

Me: Baba, Dada's birthday is coming up...What should we get him?

Baba: A truck!

Me: You think Dada would like a truck?

Baba: Yes!

Me: What kind of truck should we get him?

Baba: A dump truck!

We've had the same conversation a couple of times because I keep thinking I'll get a different answer. No luck. So am I'm ruining the surprise by posting this before Dada's B-day?

Body Talk

There's been a lot of body talk around here lately. Both because Aiden's getting to a stage where he's more curious about his own body (and ours) and because we're trying to prepare him for the baby coming this summer. We've been having where-did-I-come-from conversations and about a month ago I showed him an amazing book about fetal development with photographs of every stage. I showed him pictures of sperm and an egg and told him these were parts of the Mama and Dada that come together to make a baby. Then we didn't talk about it again for a long time.

Last night Baba asked Dada to read him the baby development book. I overhead them from the other room and Baba was explaining to Dada.....This is an egg. It's for making a baby....Not for eating.

Also last night, I went out so Baba and Dada were on their own. Baba was missing me and said, Mama, hold me! Dada said, OK I'll hold you. Baba gave him an I'm-not-stupid look and said "Where's your pepet??" (That's vagina for those of you who are not up to speed on Konkani slang.)

I'm pregnant!

Even though it would have been an accurate statement coming from me, I wasn't the one who shouted "I'm pregnant!" at the dinner table the other night. It was Baba showing off a napkin crumpled under his shirt. He was delighted to finally have a bump on his tummy like mine. Dada and I took turns feeling the "baby" in his tummy kick and admiring how quickly it had grown. At one point I asked him how the baby was going to come out and he said through his popot (penis in Konkani).

It was so funny I ended up taking lame, out of focus pictures instead of the video I wanted. By the time I figured out the error, Aiden was on to us and when we asked him "what's in your tummy?" he said "a napkin!" Duh!

Coming Back Soon

When Lac and I go out on date night, Aiden verifies with us that we're coming back. "Coming back soon?". "Yes, we're coming back soon" we say. "After my nap" he'll say. He'll stand at the window and wave to us as we walk to the car. "After my nap" is sort of a catch-all for anything he wants to happen soon. Often its used when he wants to drink juice and he's already had some (he's only allowed one a day). So, he'll say, "I'll have juice soon, after my nap".

Lately, Quita has been taking Aiden out on weekly dates. They go to Fairyland, the Discovery Museum, the Zoo, the park..... Today, she brought him a Lightning McQueen lunchbox (a.k.a. Litna MaCaKeen) to carry his lunch during their date. As they were leaving I said "Aiden, I'm going to wave to you from the window." I stood there watching my little boy carry his lunch box down the stairs and walk to the car. He didn't look back to wave so I knocked on the window waved to him and signed I love you. Aiden turned around waved back and said, "I'm coming back soon!" "After my nap!" I said.

Here are some pictures from their adventure today....

Birthday - They will have cupcakes

Aiden just loves going to birthday parties and it's not just because there'll be a ton of kids to play with. If you tell him that there's a birthday party coming up, the first thing that he'll say is 'They will have cupcakes'. After all the playing, jumping and running around portion of the party is done, he'll start to ask about the cupcakes. He's got his unique way of eating one. Start with the frosting and then work his way down. Nothing else make him happier than eating cupcakes, except may be dump trucks. Here's a couple of pictures of him enjoying some sugar at Andrew's birthday party.

You are some dog!

Another story about the perils of Aiden's very fertile imagination. A couple of days ago we gathered together for dinner at a really nice Burmese restaurant to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. Which by the way Aiden was quick to remind us was back in January. I guess it was his way of letting us know that we were slackers. We were joined at the dinner by Gideon, a friend of Helena's who Aiden hadn't met before. After a quick up and down look and a couple of questions, he quickly decided that Gideon was cool enough to hang out with him. He spent most of the rest of the evening hanging out with Jonathan & Ashley who are his heroes. Every now and then he'll pull a new trick on us and when we ask him, 'Who taught you that ?' He'll say 'Uncle Jonathan & Aunty Ashely taught me that. Mama and Dada teach me nothing'. We knew he absolutely adores Ashely but we had no idea that his adulation went a little beyond that until we saw Ashley's face turn pink after a little conversation with Aiden. He pulled the famous 'I showed you mine, now show me yours' trick on her. He didn't understand why Ashely couldn't return the favor after he had pulled his shirt up and showed off his nipples.

A little later on he decided that he wanted to be Orio (Cousin Ethan's dog). He then went around the table assigning dog names to everyone else. Mama was Emma, Ashley was Anokie, Jonathan was Marius and Aunty Helena was Eponine. Next in line were Gideon, Grandpa & Dada. Knowing that he had exhausted all the dog names in his vocabulory, I was very curious as to what would happen next and absolutely dreaded the thought of what name would be assigned to me. Remember that I have personal trauma from a previous episode of his imagination going wild (Dada-Under the bottom where the poop comes out). So he thought for a moment, pointed to Gideon and said 'You are some dog'. That was his way of making Gideon comfortable I guess. Then he pointed to Granpa & Dada and said the same thing. You never know what's going to fall out of his mouth next, so I was relieved that he didn't point to me and say 'You are dog poopie'. Phew!

Future grand prix driver in the making ?

Saying that Aiden's obsessed with anything on wheels would be the understatement of his brief life. He's got more wheels than any man his size (or any size for that matter) would possibly need. Every time we go to any store, he's quick to find the section that sells kids toys and picks the wheels that he fancy's on that particular day. He can name most car brands by their logos even when they are zipping past on the freeway and knows more automobile types than most adults would care to bother themselves with. He likes arranging all his wheels end to end forming long trains going from one room to the other. If you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, 'Car doctor' is at the top of the list besides of course garbage man, postman, policeman, fireman... you get the gist of it.

He's also taken to Dada's hobby of following Formula one. Here he is on a recent trip to an arcade in a Philly shopping mall, practicing his skills on both two as well as four wheels. This arcade by the way was his first time ever to such a venue and it totally saved his and our sanity. It was too cold in Philly and the poor kid was going stir crazy being inside the house all day long. He was like 'I am bored to death people, do something about it before I destroy all the expensive things in my cousins house'. When he saw all the cool things at the arcade, he couldn't believe his luck and was running from one game to another.