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!   

fingerpainting

Hallelujah! It is possible that I may have fixed the video problem. In all honesty, I was messing around, not really sure what I was doing and then the videos started to work, so who knows really. The main point is that you should be able to watch the videos that I posted a few weeks ago. If you still can't, let me know so I can try to "fix" it again. Ha.

(PS - Isaac says that you don't have to type two spaces between sentences. Apparently, that's so passe. I say you still do. Who is right? )

Okay, on the the main event.

I've been really, really excited about doing arts and crafts with my children, probably since I was a teenager. I love arts and crafts and I would love my kids to grow up loving them as well. As you can see, that's a lot of love/loving action. So, pretty soon after Aaron turned one, I bought him some crayons. Not just any crayons, but these fancy-schmancy crayons that sit in plastic holders specially designed for toddler fingers. The holders are supposed to help toddlers figure out how to color correctly, while also providing a "childproof" way to keep kids from getting the crayons out. I guess so they wouldn't eat them? Who knows. Anyway, I had big plans for these crayons and Aaron's artistic career.

One day, while I was making lunch, I put Aaron in his highchair a few minutes early to give him his first taste of coloring. Well, he took me literally. I turned my back for a minute or two and when I turned back around, the crayons were gone. The plastic "childproof" holders were still there, but no crayons. I asked Aaron where they went and when he smiled, I found out. HE ATE THEM. He ate THE ENTIRE CRAYON. TWICE. Not only that, but he had busted them out of the plastic holders first. I've heard of kids taking a little taste here and there, but one would think that the taste of wax would deter them from actually CONSUMING the crayon. (I really hope the ALL CAPS is conveying to you how astonishing I found this to be.)

You should know that I called my mom to ask if Aaron was going to suffer from Crayola-poisoning only to find out that she enjoys the taste of crayons as well. Maybe they should start a support group together because Aaron CRIED later in the day when I wouldn't give him more crayons to eat during snack time.

Anyway, crayons seemed to be out of our immediate future during arts and crafts time. I was frustrated, but not deterred. Last week, I decided to just bite the bullet and buy Aaron some cheap watercolors and let him have it.

Here's the result:

Obviously, I painted the "A" on the picture first, to show him how. Aaron is OBSESSED with letters right now. He points them out everywhere and loves playing with all the letter toys we have.

As you can see, he still likes to take a taste of his art every now and then, but thankfully water colors aren't as tasty as crayons. I bought some big tubes of fingerpaints that I will be trying out in the next few days. It's going to get pretty messy...so stay tuned.

video blooper reel

Some of my personal favorite videos from a morning in December:



Did you notice that Aaron played the first few notes to Jingle Bells in rhythm? Complete accident, of course, but I'm impressed. Followed directly by finding the YAMAHA letterson the piano. Clearly he's a musical prodigy.



Aaron's favorite word is "hi". We all get several welcomes a day.



And that is part of why I have been blog MIA for the past two months. Grabber McFussypants.



Now this is the real blooper. Do you see what just happened there??
I just about died laughing when I figured out why Aaron was stuck at the piano bench.
Surprisingly, Aaron did not find it as amusing.


PS - Rosa, this is for you to get your video fix. I hope it helps.

christmas 09

I'm going to be straight up with you from the start. I did a woefully insufficient job of taking pictures this Christmas. Not only that, but then I completely forgot to bring a camera to North Carolina when we celebrated Christmas with Isaac's family.

Not like it's even possible to catch Aaron in pictures anymore. He's usually a blur passing through my frame or else it's a lovely picture of his rump as he runs away from me.

Exhibit A:
I'm still mourning the loss of my stationary baby.

But nevertheless, there are a few pictures to share for our diehard fans.

The day we set up our Christmas tree, we started the morning with a few Christmas carols round the piano.



Yes, he sings, dances and plays piano. And he does them all extremely well, as you can see. Unless you couldn't tell that the weird noise he is making is singing. In which case, you obviously can't recognize pure talent.

While Aaron took his first nap of the day, Isaac and I went to get the tree and set it up. Here he is seeing the tree in the living room for the first time.



During Aaron's second nap, we decorated the tree and set up this adorable Little People nativity scene that a friend of my mom's gave to Aaron last Christmas. I had a lot of fun setting it all up.


There was an inn, a manger, a well, shepherds, angels, animals and three wise men with matching tents, outfits and camels. I thought they were particularly wise, given their fashion choices.

Unto YOU a child is born!

Mary is inviting you in to check out her baby. Who never stayed long in the manger while Aaron was around. He preferred to put in him the donkey's cart. Baby Jesus' cradle did kind of look like Aaron's old car seat. Maybe we took one too many trips to Target in the baby seat?

Anyway, during Aaron's nap, we had set everything up, anticipating his face when we opened the doors so he could see the splendor.




Don't worry. I had just as much fun watching my adorable Nativity knocked to bits moments as it was to set it up.

Mainly because of THIS face the entire time:

He loved it!


On to Christmas morning...

Where's Waldo?

Aaron got a percussion table.

There was a big part of me that was wondering whether we'd regret that decision, but he loves it and surprisingly, it doesn't make too much noise. Lately, he's been more interested in carrying the table around the living room, but hey, to each his own.

He loved opening presents this year. He really got into tearing the paper off.


But he also had a great time playing with each toy after it was unwrapped.



And finally, a A Christmas Tale.

This is Aaron's cousin, Phoebe.
Stinkin adorable, I know.
But it's no secret that Aaron's not really a fan just yet.
Maybe he can't handle her level of cuteness.


It's been Phoebe's goal to make Aaron like her. It's been my goal to get them to sit together in one picture, both looking at the camera pretending to enjoy it.

I had big hopes for Christmas morning. They were wearing matching pajamas. Who can resist feelin' the love in matching pajamas?

It started out promising.

P: Hey, boy, can I read with you?

After the glow of some opened presents, I was hoping Aaron would feel charitable. It seemed that he was.

A: I guess so. It looks like a good book, huh?

He looked like he was about to read the story to Phoebe.

P: (YOINK!)

She stole it! Look at the look of OUTRAGE on his face.

A: Peace, I'm outta here.

And again, no dice. Maybe next Christmas?

the great snow of 09

We are just going to pretend like it hasn't been two and half MONTHS since I posted last. We are just going to jump right back in with several posts about what we've been up to in the last few months without a long indepth explanation for why I've been MIA. But for the record, it's a lot harder to post while chasing another human being. You should probably write that down. It's a pearl of wisdom.

The weekend before Christmas, we were blessed (afflicted?) with "The Great Snow of '09". Isaac has been predicting a very cold and snowy winter for about 6 months now. Apparently, he reads the Farmers Almanac, so he totally saw this coming. It snowed for about two days straight, and at the end, we were left with about 18 inches of snow. Tragically enough, the snow storm positioned itself perfectly across the weekend, so no work was avoided. Better luck next time, I guess.

My theory about this great snowfall is that it occurred primarily because we didn't own a snowsuit for Aaron. Since the great snow of '09, we've bought one, which pretty much ensures that there will not be snow again until 2013, at which time he will be too large for it. You can thank me later.

And because of the lack of snowsuit, Aaron wasn't completely thrilled with the snow. But he toughed it out (read : was pulled in a wagon by his father) for at least twenty minutes, so we'll call it a success.

Without further ado, Aaron's First Snowfall In Which He Could Participate.*


You can draw your own conclusions about his thoughts here.


Once we stood him up, he started channeling his inner baby model.

And he was even happier once we plopped him in the wagon. I appreciate his love for being pampered. Mush, Daddy, Mush!

There they go, wandering down our street. Bye guys!

And while we're at it, here's your first glimpse of the new house covered in snow.
I know, landscape is a bit bare. I hope we'll be able to plant some trees soon. Ha.





*This is Aaron's Real First Snow.
November 2008. As you can see, he was not a big fan. So I'm taking some creative license with this "first". Especially since I seem to be running short of them. Is this kid seriously almost 1.5 YEARS OLD? How is that POSSIBLE?