five

Five years ago, 
      on this day, 
I stood beside a very cute guy,
and spoke vows to seal our hearts 
      and lives together 
for as long as we both shall live.

That cute guy,
could make me laugh,
gave me butterflies with one look,
      and most importantly, 
spoke wise truths to my soul.


He still does.


But now, there's more.


Now, he's a man,

who loves me more than ever, 
      even now that he knows the true depths of my heart.
who loves our child(ren) beyond measure.
who leads our family with grace-filled humility.
who labors without ceasing to provide a home for us.
who laughs at all my jokes,
      and who taught me to laugh at myself.
who holds my hand in times of trial,
      even the imaginary ones.
who listens patiently, 
      to my deepest thoughts and crazy schemes.  
who prays with me, 
      when anxiety creeps in.
who nurses me through sickness.
who cares for our children,       
      even in the latest hours of the night.
who gives me grace when I fall hopelessly short.
who speaks with kindness,
      even when kind words are in short supply.
who serves me with the most selfless heart I've ever known.
who continues to point me back to God, 
      when my heart starts to drift.


Now, he's a man,
whom I never could have envisioned.

He's more than I ever could have asked for, 
or dreamt of, 
or desired.


Five years.
Not so long 
      (I've prayed for seventy more)
But a lifetime is wrapped up in those short years.


Those young kids,
there was no way we could know.


The promises we made,
five years ago today,
the Lord blessed, 
      beyond our imagination.


And my heart is full.


I love you, Isaac!



The only thing more,
I could ever want,
is many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many more
years of this life.





(and that Dyson vacuum)
(just kidding honey)
(you know, half kidding)
(because in every joke is a kernel of truth)
(but mainly I'm kidding)

a tale in which i scar my child...possibly for life

It is with great sorrow/slight amusement that I divulge this story about Aaron.  But mostly sorrow, because I'm almost positive that I caused this minor neurosis by indulging one of my own.  I'll let you be the judge.

Aaron loves to sing Happy Birthday.  It's a big favorite in the rotation of songs we sing daily.  As with most of his songs, we usually end up singing Happy Birthday to whatever favorite letters he has that day.  He's an odd bird.

But anyway, seeing as that he LOVES to sing Happy Birthday, we were completely SHOCKED when we were at a friends' house for their son's birthday and Aaron started bawling during the Happy Birthday and cake time.   At first, I thought it was maybe because of the sheer number of people that were singing at once...or maybe because they turned out the lights to make the candles glow brighter.  All I knew was, I had to take him out of the room because he was screaming and crying "ALL DONE, ALL DONE!"  Once we were in the kitchen, he was gripping onto me, shaking, and saying "I'm otay, I'm otay."  Right, sure you are.  He wouldn't even eat the cupcakes that had been on the platter with the cake!


A few days later, our power went out.  This had happened several times in the last few weeks, due to big thunderstorms that were passing through the area.  It was around dinnertime this particular time, so we put some candles on the table for a little light while we ate.  Aaron started crying again, pointing at the candles and saying "ALL DONE, ALL DONE".  Okay, so he's scared of candles.  Clearly that's the trigger factor.  But WHY?  And these particular candles aren't even real fire, they were the battery ones that just look like real candles.  Why would he be scared of candles?


Then I remembered...the last time the power went out, the storm had come up really suddenly and the sky was really really dark.  Aaron was upstairs napping in his crib and I started wondering/worrying about tornadoes.  We had no power, so we couldn't check any weather forecasts or the TV for tornado warnings.  Better safe than sorry is nearly always my motto, so, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to go up and get him out of his bed and take him into the pitch black basement for "safety".  I took one of those battery operated candles down with us, and my mom, Aaron and I sat crouched on the basement steps, trying to the listen to the storm.  At one point, the storm blew the front door open and set off the burglar alarm.  It was a little freaky, especially for us weenies.  Aaron was in my mom's arms on the steps, crying and shaking, after being woken from a dead sleep and thrust into a terrifying situation.  My bad.  Hmmm.  Apparently, I scarred him for life.  You can keep your judgments to yourself, thank you very much.


Cut to now...I've been assuming that he'll forget about this experience and start liking birthdays again sometime.  He still likes to sing Happy Birthday - provided that there are no candles.  I mean, what kid doesn't like knowing they will get a piece of cake?  Then today, Elmo's World was about birthdays.  Darn if that kid didn't start whining and scampered up onto my lap.  He's still afraid of birthday cakes and candles!  Even if they are cartoons and on the TV!  He kept asking for "No more Elmo, no more Elmo".  


Seeing as that he has a birthday coming up in about a month, I'm wondering how I can convince him that birthday cakes with candles are a good thing.  Any suggestions?


And, as my darling husband so kindly pointed out, I can hardly fault the child for having an irrational and unwarranted fear, when it was acting upon my own neuroses that brought it about.  And so, I think we may be resigned to a life of tearful birthday parties.  Unless one of you a toddler whisperer and can solve our dilemma before Aaron's second birthday.  Please.

brag book

In order to catch you up on all things Aaron, this post is going to be mostly bragging listing the new things that Aaron is doing and saying, now at 22 months.  I'm not gonna lie, I'm a proud Mama (except for the incessant nose picking...that has GOT to stop).  Over the past few months, Aaron's vocabulary has exploded.  Looking back at the eighteen month post, he had a few words that were in regular rotation but now we are in the full fledged toddler miscommunication stage.  He wants to tell us everything...and we understand about every fifth word.  It leads to a lot of frustration, but I'm glad that he's trying to use his words.

Some things that he currently says a lot:

-"Hi Mama" or Hi Daddy or Hi Tutu or Hi Phoebe...whoever happens to be around gets greeted VERY often.  Usually, he repeats it until you acknowledge him.  Even if you've been in the same room with him for hours.  He's friendly.  It's decidedly less cute when he's decided to wake up for the day at 3am and he's greeting you in bed with a slap on your cheek until you open your eyes.

-"Otay" Usually as in "Otay, otay, otay" said with exasperation when he's asked to do something.  Or as he's trying to do something that's difficult, he kind of whispers it to himself.  Maybe as encouragement?  Who knows.  This kid is loco.

-"Oh Mama", again with exasperation, when I do something silly.  As though I'm embarrassing him already.  Nice.  No else.  Just mama.

-"Sure"  Sounds more like "suuuuuh" when he says it.  Usually in response to an offer, like "Hey wanna go outside?"  "SUUUUUH, otay"  Or when he asks for a snack, he'll say "Nack pease", so I say, "Oh you want a snack?" and he says "Suuuuh" like it was my idea in the first place.  Tricky bugger.  Also in rotation with "Awright, otay".  Equally adorable.

-"Thank you"  Sounds more like "sank uuuuu" said with a lot of inflection.  This is my fault.  When he started saying it this way, I realized that I have been saying "thank you" to him with a lot of emotion, trying to show him that it's important to be polite.  Unfortunately, he now repeats it with just as much inflection, which only sounds patronizing coming from a one year old.  Lesson number one in toddler repetition.  Duly noted.

-"Aaron Donald Greenslade"  He likes to say his name.  A lot.  It's adorable. Almost as cute is his new way of saying "W".  This video is going to be a classic, I think.  I already love it.

-"EIEIO"  One of his favorite songs.  Only on his farm, Old MacDonald has no animals, just letters.  Woe be fall you if you get tricked into starting at the beginning of the alphabet.  You will be forced to sing all 26 letters on the farm.  Tutu is the only one that still falls for that.  He can smell a sucker a mile away.

-"Have patience"  We have been singing that song to Aaron a LOT recently, when he is being impatient.  Now, if you tell him he has to wait for something, he starts singing "Have patience, have patience" in a really sad, small voice.  Also hilarious.

-"Where are you?"  If he's looking for a toy, he will yell out "Ball, where are you?" and as he keeps looking, he responds to himself, "I dunno know".  Now, imagine all of that said with the Elmer Fudd accent.  It's pretty hilarious. 


-A really new one is yelling "Pee pee POTTY!" whenever someone goes into the bathroom.  He might be embarrassed by this information in years to come (although, when you consider the bunny ears photos, this is nothing) I'm so glad to hear him yell those words, since potty training will begin next week.  It's a step in the right direction, right?  I can't promise there won't be posts on potty training...I'm keepin' it real.

-ABCs or as he calls them the "Alpapet"  He chants these.  At random times.  He knows the whole song and REALLY likes to sing it.  A lot.  Have I mentioned that he likes letters?  Because he DOES. 

-"No."  A perennial toddler favorite, it is VERY much in use in our home.  Almost everything is answered with a "No" unless you are asking if he is allowed to do whatever bad behavior he just exhibited.  He also has started telling us "No want"  or "No eggs" or "No sank uuu"  What a useful little word, eh?  A common refrain around here right now is "You may not tell Mama no."  Alas, it doesn't seem to be making a difference.


Some things he does:

-In addition to letters, he also likes counting a lot.  He can count to 20 (although some of the teen numbers sound VERY alike and kind of fuzzy)  When we taught him how to climb up the stairs, we encouraged him by letting him count each step - sometimes, more than once.  He's only recently started climbing down the stairs, and so he's started counting backwards.  He now can count backwards from 10 and at the end, he yells "BLAST OFF".  Which is usually funny.  Unless you aren't at the bottom of the stairs yet, and your mommy-heart starts pounding, wondering whether he's going to jump.  But he doesn't.  Mainly because he's a weenie.

-He's a pretty good repeater.  He will now try to say whatever you ask him to say.  It doesn't always come out well, but at least he's trying.  It also leads to a lot of mysteries.  There are a lot of times when he is trying to tell me something and I have absolutely no clue what he is saying.  For example, whenever he throws a toy, or a ball, or himself, he yells "Abiya!"  Seriously, NO CLUE where that came from or what it means.  Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

-Speaking of repeating, he will sometimes repeat after me when I call for Isaac.  As a result, if you ask him Daddy's name, he says "Isaac".  He will run through the house yelling "Isaac, Isaac".  He doesn't know my name though...hmmm.  

-Seeing as that we have about four letter puzzles and NUMEROUS toys that teach the letters, you can imagine that my house is overrun by letters.  But the good side of it is that he is starting to learn the sounds that each letter makes and he can usually identify what letter a word starts with.  One of his current favorites is wandering around the house saying "Wuh, wuh, wuh WATER.  Dub-u-ya.  Water."  He's a smart cookie.


-He can spell a few words - Hi, Stop and Aaron are the main ones.  He has magnetic letters that he uses on his MagnaDoodle to spell things out, which is a big help for us because he used to press us into transcription service.  We were VERY grateful the day we realized those letters would imprint on the magnetic surface.  Have you ever spent three hours a day writing letters for a demanding one year old??  It's exhausting.


-Using the magnetic number set, he also really likes to make the teen numbers.  He gets his one and then puts it with another number, for example, eight and yells "EIGHTEEN".  He is VERY proud of himself for that.  Which also causes a lot of drama in our house when the precious number one magnet goes missing.  A lot of drama.


-His favorite books right now are Dr. Seuss's ABC and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  He has started reciting along with whoever is reading.  Again, just a warning, don't get sucked into the ABC book, unless you want to read it 47 times in a row.  This kid requires a seriously firm hand when it comes to repetition and some of us (ehem, MOM) are not as good as others at drawing the line.  It could be because she's his grandma, but family legend has it, that Joshua also was a book pusher at an early age.  Something tells me she just can't resist a cute face.  We love her for it.

-His favorite TV shows are Sesame Street and Little Einsteins.  Anytime he sees a remote control (a "mote") he asks for "More Einstein"  or "More Ses Street".  He loves to sing along to the Little Einsteins theme song, which is truly a catchy tune.  His favorite parts of Sesame Street are the letters and number segments (shocking) but he also is a big fan of Ernie ("Oinie"), Cookie Monster ("Tookie MoNster") and the Count.  Isaac thinks that Aaron might have a future as the next Sesame Street Count, should the current Count ever choose to retire.  He even does the "Ah, ah, ah" laugh when he's counting.  Goon.


-He likes to talk on the phone, or at least pretends to.  Anytime he steals picks up one of our cell phones, he always say "Lo, Dee Dee?"  That's Isaac's mom.  Then he starts chanting the ABCs.  I guess that's what he thinks we do on the phone all the time?  Of course, when we actually call Dee Dee, he clams right up.  Goon.


A funny story from recently:


-We use time out as our primary form of discipline, so Aaron is well accustomed to being told to "Sit" after he disobeys.  The other day, he got put in time out several times in a row for sticking his (precious) letter magnets into the space between the pocket door and the wall.  Later that afternoon, I saw him sitting close to the door, with a letter in his hand and I was wondering if we were going to be headed into another time out marathon.  Then I heard this.  "No, no, no. (Pause)  Aaron Donald...you sit."  And then he got up, walked over to the time out spot and sat down.  Self imposed discipline!  Hooray!  We're making an impression!  I carry this memory close to my heart, to pull out and mull over when I'm repeating "NO THROWING" for the 800th time that day.  He gets it, he really gets it...at least sometimes.  Me thinks it's selective hearing/understanding though.


-Another funny story happened last week in the Target.  I was trying to help Aaron drink some water out of a cup with a straw, instead of his sippy cup.  I said to him "Here, like this" as I straightened the straw into the cup.  He said "No, mama, how 'bout dis?" as he ripped the straw out of the cup, spilling water all over himself.  Not only was he repeating something Tutu says all the time, "How about this?", but he was having a conversation with complete sentences!  I was completely shocked.  Who is this kid and where is my baby??

I'm sure there are a ton more.  I wish I could video tape everything he says and does, because it's hilarious.  We just giggle at him all day.  

Although, I'm not giggling now, seeing as that he's standing on a chair in the living room, trying to climb over onto the couch, meanwhile chanting the ABCs all the whilst picking his nose.  Okay, maybe I'm giggling in my heart, but clearly, I need to go!  The days of long blog posts may have come to an end!

aaron in may

Another saving grace for my poor memory - the video camera!  Here are a few videos of Aaron's tricks from May.  

Sorry about the poor camera quality.  Apparently my digital camera from 2004 isn't equipped for night recording.  Ha.

Note:  He was watching these videos with me as I uploaded them and started playing along.  He thought Isaac was talking to him now!  And he got kind of annoyed when littler Aaron was getting things wrong.  Clearly, two months makes all the difference between a baby and a big boy!

eighteen months

Edit:  I wrote this post on March 19th.  I meant to come back and continue it...I'm sure I had a lot more to say.  (Stop laughing)  But now, a mere four months later, I honestly don't remember the things that I wrote!  It kind of makes me realize how great this blog is...all the funny little things I capture about this crazy kid that I never would remember if I wasn't writing them down.  So, I hereby commit myself to trying to write more about Aaron (and new baby), if only for the sole purpose of supplementing my ever increasingly poor memory.  Oh, and for your enjoyment as well.  You're welcome.


Aaron is one and a half years old. Ridiculous.  He's a straight up toddler nowadays.  Can you believe it??

Since it's been forever since I've posted, I thought I'd do a throwback post, like the monthly posts I used to do during his first year (ish).

So, at 18 months, here is what Aaron is up to.

-At his dr appt this month, he weighed 26 lbs 8oz and was 32.5 inches long.  Good growing buddy!

-He LOVES letters.  I mean, completely and utterly OBSESSED with the alphabet.  It started out, innocently, with the letter "A".  He liked to point at it whenever he saw an "A" in one of his books or on a toy.  Then he started seeing "A"s everywhere.  Then, came "O".  Now, his favorite is the letter "I".  (In fact, he just picked up his "I" magnet and brought it to me as I typed that...proof!)  We recently spent about three hours in IKEA picking out my mom's new kitchen cabinets.  Can you imagine how many "I"s there are in IKEA?  Aaron was pretty sure he died and went to letter heaven.  He ran around the store pointing and yelling "I" at anyone who would listen.  Cute...if you weren't the one expected to do the chasing.

-Within the last week, we've become aware of the fact that he now can recognize every letter of the alphabet and most numbers when prompted.  He's also started to make the sounds for most of the letters too.  He's probably a genius.  (If I can't brag here, where can I?)  But really, it's pretty wild.  He gets so excited when he sees the letters or numbers anywhere.  We have a big dumpster in our driveway (joys of construction) and everytime we go out to the car, he likes to visit the two foot tall "9" on the side.  And, not surprisingly, he's just as excited each time he sees it.  He has a lot of joy to share. 

-Aaron also loves to sing.  He's pretty particular about what song he'd like to hear at any given time.  ABC is usually a big hit.  So is the theme song to the "Little Einsteins".  He really prefers to sing it himself and then he requires that you clap at the end.  The clapping is key.  His version of the ABC song still mostly consists of "A, O, A, O" with an occasional "I" thrown in there. 

-New words keep cropping up everyday.  "NO" is our very favorite word right now.  Aaron adds different volumes and levels of inflection to spice it up a bit, but it definitely is the predominate factor in all conversations.  A few other favorites : "yeah", "wow", "uh oh", "more", "da" and "hi".  He throws in a few surprises every now and again, like "ah do" (all done), "eh mo" (elmo), "ni ni" (night night), "bye",

-Aaron is EXTREMELY proficient in making animal noises, of all types.  He is particularly partial to the lion (ROAR) and the elephant.  His duck and chicken both make a rather loud "MAH MAH" sound.  Cows tend to growl more than moo.

-With a week of beautiful weather, we've found that Aaron LOVES to play outside.  We went to a park near our house yesterday and Aaron tried out the swings and slide for the first time.  He really loved the slide.  Let's just say he was a reluctant swinger, but with practice, he'll probably learn to love it too.

Some funny Aaron stories:

Last week, Tutu (my mom) came into the kitchen and asked Aaron what he was having for breakfast.  He said "Eggs".  At that time, he had never said "eggs" before, nor had he really participated in a conversation before.  We all stopped and just stared at him.  He continued on, eating his eggs, like it was no big deal.  Silly baby. 

Later that same day, Aaron was yelling loudly and she said, "Who are you yelling at?!"  He said, "YOU!" with a finger point.  Okay, message received.

With the construction going on, I was very relieved to find out that the pounding and banging doesn't seem to keep Aaron awake.  What does bother him, though, is hearing men's voices talking during the day.  He seems to think Isaac is in another room and just not coming out to play with him.  So he wanders through the house, shouting "DA!".  It's a little sad actually.

Aaron has started letting me know when he's ready to go down for a nap by waving "night night" to all his toys.  He really likes to greet them each personally when he gets up and then say goodnight to each one too.  He also is a big fan of waking Isaac and I up by waving a hand right in our face and chirping "Hi!" until we respond.  I can think of a lot of WORSE ways to wake up.

Abrupt ending due to good intentions but bad memory...at least we got a small glimpse into the world of Aaron at 18 months!

we're back!

Back by popular demand (and some light threatening)!

First things first, I'd like to excuse my absence with this fact:

but the reality is that I haven't posted since February, and I'm only 15 weeks pregnant.  But, here's to hoping none of you are that good at math!  Really, the first trimester of this pregnancy exhausted me to the point of narcolepsy but since the past week or so, I've been feeling SO much better.  I thank God for the second trimester! 

So, Aaron is going to be a big brother!  Not that he gets the concept or is very excited about it.  Most often than not, when you ask him if he's getting a new baby to live at his house, he says "No."  Sometimes "No, thank you.".  Or in rare occasions when he agrees to having a new baby, he thinks we should name it "Aaron Donald Greenslade".  As you might recall, that name is currently being used by someone in this house...so I think we'll be trying to brainstorm some other options.  

As far as catching you up on the last six months...I think I'm going to do separate posts on each layer of his goofy personality and our family adventures, instead of writing one epic novel sized post.  Oh and bonus!  I found a post I had started from when he was 18 months.  So we'll start there.  You lucky dogs.

Thanks for sticking around during our long and somewhat excusable hiatus.  For those of you that requested my return to posting, these next few are for you!