Bike, helmet.......Off

If we have learnt anything about Aiden since he came into existence it's that he likes the least amount of clothes on him. It could be freezing outside but he will fight his darnedest to get away with not wearing a jacket. It's the same thing when the sun is out in full force. He absolutely hates wearing a cap. We have tried many ways of convincing him, but he won't fall for any of the tricks. His preference is to wear the minimum amount of clothing that is necessary to survive. In fact if we let him, he'd be perfectly happy to run around naked all day regardless of the weather outside. About the only time he makes an exception is when he wants to go for a bike ride. We recently got the iBert for him and he absolutely loves it. I think it's because he feels like he's in control since he's in front. He likes checking out all that passes by and will call out the different car types and colors. He also loves to ring his little bell. Initially he tried to resist wearing the helmet or jacket but was easily convinced that it was a case of either or. He understood very quickly that if he wanted to go for a ride, his noggin had to be protected. He will keep asking for more every time I try to pull back into the garage after a ride. And when he knows that the ride's really over for the day, the first thing he'll say even before the bike's been parked is 'Off'. That's to tell us that the helmet and jacket need to come off ASAP. The spring weather is here now and we should have a lot more fun bike rides in store for him. Fortunately there are a lots of beautiful trails all along the San Francisco bay and we can reach some of them without getting into a car.

Payback time ?

Aiden got a lot of presents this past holiday season while we were in India. One of them was this drum set that he received from Aunty Baizin. While there's a part of me that would like to give her the benefit of the doubt and think that she had all the noble intentions of uncovering any hidden musical talent that Aiden might possess, something tells me that there might be an ulterior motive behind it. You'll see what I mean by that when you watch the video below. Aiden just loves to bang on it as hard as he possibly can and create an absolute ruckus. Sometimes he feels like starting his day with a good shall we say, drum roll. While growing up in Goa, Aunty Baizin had to put up with a lot of rubbish from her brother and this may just be her way of saying, "It's payback time brother'. I'll tell you what though, if you are looking to annoy the heck out of your next door neighbor, you couldn't pick a better plan that this.

Aiden's New Game

Aiden is already aware that Mama and Dada have some important anatomical differences and he likes to talk about it. He likes to talk about his own body too. Recently he extended the discussion to his entire extended family and he has a really large extended family. The game consists of running through parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and wondering or proclaiming if they have a penis. It sounds something like this.....Baba popot. Dada popot. Papa popot. Unca Ik popot. Mama Pepet. And the list goes on and on.

I should mention at this point that popot and pepet are actual Konkanni words and happen to be the only ones he knows in his dad's first language. These aren't necessarily textbook worthy words but they still manage to get the message across.

Fascination with all things water

Most babies have this favorite toy that they cuddle up with when they are ready for bed, usually a stuffed animal. Aiden also has one toy that he absolutely must have along with him when we put him to bed. But contrary to what you might believe, it's not a stuffed animal, rather it's his water bottle. He will absolutely not go to sleep without it. In fact there are nights when he will fall asleep while still holding on very tightly to his beloved water bottle. Not sure how this came about but it could have something to do with the fact that his Dad has a paranoia about running out of drinking water. On any trip, be it road, biking or hiking, I always have to have twice as much water on me as the regular person. I can't for the life of me understand how my wife can drive a car that never has any drinking water in it.

This obsession with water has led him to be fascinated by all things water. In fact his favorite word is 'Ocean'. He somehow manages to direct every conversation to the Ocean. Any body of open water, even if it's a lake or just a pond is deemed an ocean, he will remind you ever day that the water in his bathtub ends up in the ocean, the rain water drains into the ocean etc. All this is because when he had once inquired about a drain along the sidewalk, we had casually mentioned to him that the drains help empty the runoff water into the ocean. Little did we realize that this thought would get stuck in his head. Now anytime he sees a drain, he stops dead in his tracks and proceeds to do a thorough inspection of it. Here he is stealing a ride on a friend's brand new little red bike for the very first time but then along comes a drain.

Stretching

He's at the age where he watches everything that we do very closely and wants to imitate anything that we say or do. This includes the stretching exercises recommended by my doctor for my knees. Of course he does not believe that there's any medical reason for Dada's stretching. As far as he's concerned, I am just messing around on the floor and wants to join in the fun. Sometimes he will try to stretch with me but more often than not he'll sit on top of me and play horsey which of course signals the end of my exercise routine.

Sleep

All babies sleep like this. I slept like this. Remind me again why this is such a comfortable position?

Party Trick

Aiden is in the middle of a verbal explosion.  Everyday he picks up new words and he loves trying to pronounce the ones that are way out of his league.  He's even tried "Checkoslovakia" which started because his Dada was teasing him.  Aiden, not to be outdone took him up on the challenge.  It's really cute to see him sign "more", "more" asking us to repeat a word over and over again when he hears one he wants to learn.  It's even cuter to see him so proud of himself.  

This weekend we set up a mini play ground for him in the backyard and once he finally got to climb on it, he exclaimed something with joy.  I had no idea what he was saying at first but I knew it was a real word because he was staring at me so intently and kept repeating it.  I finally figured out he was saying "awesome!".  A California boy at heart!

Anyhow, here's Aiden's party trick.....he can say his name!

Red Purse

This week was hard because we had a lot of rain (very needed, I'm not complaining) which kept us indoors too much. Anyhow, we were able to entertain ourselves for the most part. At one desperate moment Aiden grabbed my purse signally it was really time to leave now. Wise beyond his years, Aiden answers that age-old question of how to keep the bag from falling off your shoulder. The answer is so obvious, you have to wonder why we ladies didn't think of it before.

Higher Up - Move over Bollywood

It took me so long to recover from our trip to India that I didn't end up posting much about it so you might find old posts from December popping up randomly.  

This one is about Aiden and Mahduri grooving to some catchy Indian rock music.  Mahduri is Granny's (a.k.a Maizine's) maid and was very enamoured with Aiden but didn't really know how to show it.  She did, however, teach Aiden some Indian gems that I never would have thought to teach him like how to shake his bangles, call in the chickens, and blow his nose country style (first into your hand but then quickly flick it out - thanks Mahduri).  On our family trip to the Spice Plantation, she also taught him his first Bollywood moves.

In this first video you see Mahduri teach Baba the dance moves to a song called Higher Up (the words are in Hindi but the chorus is all English and in a nut shell is just the repetition of the phrase Higher Up over and over and over again).
  

These second two are Baba doing the move and I had to post both because I just can't pick between them.  In one he tries to sing the song at the end, so cute, and in the other he dances with Dada as the whole family watches.  

Karmic Revenge

                    
Remember the last post?  I think Aiden read it because this week, he dished out some karmic revenge.  I went out for the day leaving Dada and Baba to hang out together for some father-son bonding time.  At one point Lac went down to the garage to toss out a diaper, a task that takes less than two full minutes, and Aiden pulled a trick out of his hat that we had never seen.  He locked the door leading down to the garage.  So, Aiden was in the house by himself and Lac was in the garage below unable to get in.  The front door was locked too.  

Did you lock the door, Baba? - Lac called from the other side.  He heard our little angle giggle and run off to play with his toys.  Aiden was fully aware of what was happening.  

The stage was set for a pretty bad situation buuuuut Lac luckily had his house keys in his pocket and was able to let himself in through the front door.  

 The moral of the story is that you have to be careful around those toddlers.  They are the biggest wild card of all because they grow and change so fast it's hard to keep up with what they are capable of doing....