Cheese! Do again!

While washing the dishes tonight, Aidan brought me my camera saying "picture!".

I asked him if he wanted me to take his picture and he promptly put a huge grin on his face and said CHEEEESE!

After I took the picture he said "do again!"

So I took another one:

to which he also responded "do again!"

So a 3rd was taken:

again he exclaimed and giggled "do again!"

How could I deny that sweet face?

We took a 4th:

Finaly after this one was taken and he asked me to "do again" I told him one more and then we were going to be all done.

So he pulled out his best trick yet.

The Zoolander,:

Man, I love my kid!



Monkeys and Monsters

The Monsters

Yesterday we got to hang out with Austen for a few hours, and it was quite entertaining as usual!

They even shared toys a few times without anyone screaming or crying, so I'd say the day was a success.

When Aidan found out Austen and Jess were coming that morning, he kept running to the stairs telling  me "Auten, Jess, open gate!". He was ready for them to get here!

 As per usual, the first thing they did was assume their position as Neighborhood Watch at the window:

On a more random note:

Ever since Aidan was a tiny baby when I'd strip him down for his bath I would exclaim "naked baby!"

The last few nights at bath time he's started yelling it for me, and it's so darn cute!

In fact, he's even started saying it when I change his diaper too, haha......

Breakfast

Mr. Independent decided that he would also like to be the on to hold his banana now. Normally I hold it and let him take bites, but today he insisted "I hold it", so I obliged while watching carefully so that he didn't stuff the whole thing in his mouth.

I went to turn on cartoons in the living room and came back in to get him and noticed his banana was nowhere to be seen. When I asked him what happened to it he told me "grappage". Yup, that's right, he ate 1/3 of it and tossed it in the garbage.

Awesome.

Looks like we need to work on that whole idea of not just tossing something in the trash when you're done with it.

Mama's new ride

When we found out we were having another baby, we knew the Kia Spectra was going to have to go. It's just too tiny.

We had a HELL of a time getting Aidan's baby carrier in the backseat when he was a newborn.

The only way to get it to fit behind the passenger seat was to basically shove the seat up as far as it would go, leaving practically zero legroom for the passenger. If we put it in the middle, then we had to shove BOTH seats up to the dash, so that definitely didn't work

This worked fine with just Aidan because if we had to go somewhere as a family, we would just go in Ryan's truck.

Now that Aidan has been in his forward facing big boy carseat it hasn't been an issue.

But again, with his car seat on one side then the baby carrier and the new baby will have to go on the other, leaving us back in the same no legroom situation as before.

So  we've slowly been looking into new cars for a few months. We were thinking an SUV would be our best option for interior space. We drove a few and I either liked or disliked them (but was mostly uncomfortable driving something so big)......but none of them were brand new. We definitely couldn't swing that. Plus, the thought of all that extra gas money was killing me!

Cue the 2011 Jetta commercial that I saw yesterday that boasted more leg room, as well as the most legroom of any car in its size class. Also the car I have been wanting since oh, say 10th grade?

As a bonus, it's a top safety pick for 2011 (that's for the mom in me).

We decided to test-drive it today, and well, we ended up taking it home.

Go figure. We had no plans of walking out of there with a car today, and I had afternoon plans with Aidan, so even though I told them Aidan had a bday party at 4, and they promised they'd have us out of there by 3:30, we didn't get out of there until 4:30. There was a LOT of paperwork; it was comparable to all the papers we had to sign for our mortgage haha!

But alas, here I sit, watching a movie with my hubby, drinking my shamrock shake, with a brand spankin' new Jetta in my driveway (plus Aidan got to play for some of Wells and Maddox's party that we showed up late for).

How can I complain?

My New Baby

leaps and bounds

The new things that Aidan does and says everyday amaze me.

Today he was standing up on the couch and I kept telling him to sit down so finally I told him I was going to count to three. To which he responded:

"ONE!

TWOOOOOO!

THREE!"

(and as he said three he quickly sat his little butt down)

Seriously, since when do 18 month-olds count to 3 with such attitude??!

Tonight he got a good taste of chocolate pudding after dinner, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Apples

Ryan and I got home at roughly the same time tonight, and while I was filling him in on Aidan's adventures of the day and putting groceries away, I walked around the kitchen island to find Aidan helping himself to an apple; which I had yet to put in the fridge.

Ry totally watched him do it, but I would rather he not choke on the skin, so Daddy got the veggie peeler out and started to peel the whole thing for him.

He was too impatient for that so while Ryan was peeling I caught Aidan taking yet another apple out of the bag and taking a bite. Yikes, we need to peel faster!

Once it was completely peeled he devoured almost the whole thing! Ry says at least he's making healthy choices, haha!

YUM!

Valentine's Weekend

So at the last minute Ryan decided we needed to get away for the weekend. We decided on going to Hershey since there was a few things we could do there to keep us and Aidan entertained.

Our first stop was ZooAmerica, which is a Zoo of North American animals that's open all year round. I will state Aidan was disappointed there were no "elelants".

Checking out the RoadRunners in the Midwest exhibit. Man those little guys were quick!

To help you appreciate this, I am as tall as a black bear...I would not want to meet a Polar Bear.

Aidan enjoyed seeing the "Big Cats", and especially the Ocelots (Ollelots). When he saw the Bison he called them Elephants, and hey they are both huge animals...so we went with it haha.  He also enjoyed the spotted owl who he says has "big eyes", which were eyeing him like he was lunch!

We covered the whole Zoo in about an hour and didn't wait to stick around in the cold for a special chocolate-themed feeding for the Wolves. 

All in all, the Zoo was a success, and Aidan loved the animals.

All that animal-gawking made us hungry so we found our way over to Friendly's where Aidan finished off his lunch with his first ever upside-down clown conehead sundae!

Ok, so maybe all 3 of us enjoyed the Sundae.....

After lunch we headed to the hotel to check in and hit up the pool.

So if it's not our furniture, I can stand on it, right?

So mischievous

Chillen on the King Size bed...probably ordering pay-per-view...

I must say I think swimming in the pool was Aidan's favorite part of the trip.  We all went swimming before heading out to dinner, and then he and Ryan went again later that night when we got home ( I was NOT putting on a cold, wet bathing suit to join them!)  He screamed his face off when we finally had to take him out. We also let him dip his little piggies in the hot tub sitting in the edge with Mama (who can't go in being preggers) for just a minute, and he thought that was great too!

C'mon Dad, the pool's this way

We got up on sunday and headed to the Cocoa Diner for some breakkfast, and Aidan was not very cooperative so instad of heading over to Chocolate World which was our plan, we headed home.

It's good to be home and relaxing and Mr. Aidan sure has some sleep to catch up on seeing as he and Daddy were in the pool until 10:30 pm last night!!

Football

We aren't big football fans in this house at all.

Ryan doesn't have a team, and I've seen him turn a game on maybe once this whole season.

...But we still like a good Super Bowl party!

This year we had an extremely small group here (5ppl) and their little ones.

My football cookies...Laces Out!

The kids ran around and since we didn't have any "hardcore" crazy fans here, everyone was cool with it.

We ate, watched the game and laughed at the crazy things the kids did, and everyone went to bed wayyy past their bedtime!

The Popcorn Cake made another appearance, and this time I used a bigger cake pan...so it just happened to be shaped like a guitar haha

Hives and an Ice Storm

Aidan developed almost a full body covering of hives when we got home from the sitter's on Monday. I like to think I'm not one of those nervous, panicky-type moms, but I have never seen anything like this on my kid. They look like welts and he's got them from his knees all the way up to his neck, concentrating around his waist and hips. Of course with this storm being forecast I knew there was not going to be any way that I was going to be able to get him to the Dr's. In fact they called me yesterday to cancel his 18 month well-visit for this morning.

Ouch, right?

So yesterday I call and explain to them what they look like, etc, and they say just what Dr. Hubby had told me: allergic reaction hives. Awesome. They said to keep Benadryl in him until the hives are gone, and if they last more than a week to call them back. What?!?He can have these for a week? (but as Michele pointed out I will have a calm child doped up on Benadryl for days hahaha)

Anyway the most frustrating part is we have no idea what the reaction is from. There haven't been any new foods, soaps, lotions, or clothes or anything!! Even with the Benadryl he's still covered, although they don't seem to be bothering him at all, they're freaking me out!

We had some snow and freezing rain yesterday which is why we weren't able to make it to the pediatrician.

This morning though, I woke to an ice covered winter wonderland:

I couldn't resist taking a few icicle shots...and yes that is our Christmas garland still on the deck... Ryan insists he's going to take it down soon.

I'll believe it when I see it.