A day full of boys

A friend at work was selling cookie dough as a fundraiser, and when I saw the "playdough cookie dough" I just had to have it. The slogan was "cookies you sculpt before you eat!" Seriously, how could I pass that up?

Well instantly I knew Aidan was too young for this type of fun and adventure, so I called in the big boy cavalry.

Wells and Maddox came to the rescue.

I was also watching Austen that day so I figured even if the little guys couldn't help create the cookies, they could at least enjoy the cooked result, and boy was I right!

The finished product

Wells and Maddox got right to work mixing colors and cutting out some great shapes. And oh, there were sprinkles too of course.

Enjoying their creations

After Wells and Maddox ventured off home, the A-Team resumed their normal activities, such as spying around the neighborhood from the front window, as well as the kitchen window. I don't know what is so exciting out there in the dead of winter, but those two boys love checking it all out.

They are the perfect example of Monkey-See, Monkey-Do, and we all know Monkey gets in trouble too.

During the rare moment that Aidan wasn't screaming  his head off  because he didn't want to share his toys(or even let Austen look at him), they had mischief in their eyes. See for yourself:

"I say when she's not looking we make a break for the pantry...that's where she keeps the cookies!"

It sure is a good thing they are working on mastering doorknobs; they almost got in, but I foiled their cookie heist...

The house looked like a daycare threw up in with the destruction these two lil guys can manage, but they were definitely entertaining! Even after Michele and her boys helped pick up all the blocks before they left...they all managed to find their way across the room and under the furniture all over again!

Toddler Tornado times two!

Happy New Year!

I know this is a little belated, but HAPPY NEW YEAR! Bring on 2011!!

How Daddies Clean Babies

Who needs bathtubs and soap when you have a vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment?

Snow Day!

   Well, it finally happened, it snowed enough for Aidan to be able to go out and play! Sadly, it all came on a day when I had to work. No worries though, because Aidan was at my neighbor Michele's that day and she had it covered!

   Michele watches Aidan a lot for me when I'm at work (he also goes to another sitter once in a while on days when Michele can't watch him), and I must say her house is Aidan's absolute favorite place to be. In fact the other morning after I told him he was going to Michelle's, he kept coming over to me insisting/whining that we go "Bye bye Mit-chele's". Part of the reason being Michele has 2 super kids, who are 5 1/2 and 2 1/2(correct me if I'm wrong, Michele); Wells and Maddox, respectively. There is nothing Aidan loves more than hanging out with the Big Boys!

    Wells (Mr. Big Shot Kindergarten) had a snow day so the boys all got to go out and play together. Thankfully Michele got some awesome pics that I can share with you! I am very grateful and thankful that Michele is our neighbor and that she is able to help me out as much as she does, it'll be a sad day when we don't get to play outside all the time with them.

This one is my absolute favorite...the faces on all 3 are just so silly!!

I feel fine?

I need to rant!!!!

I must say, I know it's a bit ridiculous........ but one of my biggest pet peeves about pregnancy is people asking me constantly "how are you feeling?". I'm pregnant, not dying of some rare, incurable disease, I feel fine. Hell, other than this increasingly large bump I'm rocking, some days I wouldn't even know I was pregnant. So when I get the question at least half a dozen times a day, it gets pretty frustrating.

When I was pregnant with Aidan, Ryan kept telling me I was being ridiculous, that people were genuinely concerned over how I was feeling. I disagreed and told him it's just an annoying thing people are trained to ask a pregnant woman. I'm pretty sure they don't even care what the real answer is! (Ok, well maybe family does....) I even read an article once in a parenting magazine that listed the top 10 things never to ask a pregnant woman....among them: "How are you feeling?".  My point exactly. Also included was "are you having twins?", which I also got a ton. With Aidan my belly was so gigantic people were always asking me that, and one time someone asked me at work and I almost cried I was so upset by it .

So I guess my point is, I know people are asking how I feel, but do they really want the answer for that day? Because depending on the day it might be: "I'm tired, crabby, super emotional, my boobs hurt, nervous, anxious, excited, and overwhelmed." Do you think they could handle the real answer(s)? So when they ask, almost every pregnant woman responds: "I feel fine.", which almost all of the time I do feel fine!!!!!!

Some Favorite Christmas Pictures

Zoomin around on the new Buzz Lightyear Powerwheels

Showing Grandpa his new stocking

Showing Uncle Larry his new Chuck tow truck

Opening presents with Daddy

Sweet!! Auntie got me my very own BUS!!!!!

An Elmo guitar from Grandma!

Riding in his new CAT dumptruck...backwards of course

Playig with his new mini CAT construction vehicles Grandpa got him

Hey Cole, what's that on your face? I'll get it for ya!

Trying on my new coat from Uncle Ama

In my new sled from Nani & Poppy playing with Daddy's new Grinch

Open presents please

Whoa! I love opening presents!

Elmo Doctor playset

Chillin with Grandma

Aidan finally got to see his favorite cousin Bella!! 26 years ago it would have been Jamie and me in this pic, and now it's our kids!! <3

Rolling around on the floor like little monkeys

Cheese!

First Snow Adventure

They were forcasting snow for Christmas here in PA this year, so like any crazy super excited mom I ran out the day before Christmas Eve to make sure Aidan had a pair of snow boots. I certainly didn't want it to snow and then not be able to go play in it because he didn't have boots! I even made sure I got the cutest Lightning McQueen and Mater light-up boots I could find!!

Christmas came and went and there was no snow.

A few days later there was a crazy blizzard being forcast in the Northeast, and I thought, "great we'll have a huge snow storm and get to go play!". Not so much. We got a whopping inch, even though the forcast was ranging from 4-6 inches to 6-10 inches. Double letdown.

We made our trek home to Frankfort for the weekend and Nani & Poppy had snow at their house!! They also just happened to get Aidan the cutest little sled ever! So Daddy and Poppy took Aidan out to play and even though Mommy may have been dying of the plague (yes those are my PJ's you see in the pics) I still had to get out there for a few minutes and pull my favorite little guy around the yard!! Now if only we could get some snow in Allentown.......

Toddler Tornado strikes again

First we have the complete unwrapping of a roll of wrapping paper so he could get to the cardboard tube inside to use as a "duhn dun dun stick"

Then he started picking at the garland on the stairs, something that he has been put in time-out for about half a dozen times. It seems he just can't resist the temptation, can he?

Aidan's First Haircut


Since Aidan was about 6 months old, I've been trimming his hair at home by myself, which was fine when it just needed to be trimmed a little by his ears or to remove the 80's "rat tail" from the back. Now that he's getting older and his hair is getting thicker I decided it was time to stop putting it off and finally get it cut for real. I figured since we had to come home to NY for a NYE wedding tonight anyway that we would get it done while home in NY.

Sooo.....meet John the Barber. Not only has he cut Ryan's hair since he was little, he was also the DJ at our wedding (gotta love small towns). We made it to him just in time today to get Aidan in line for his first cut by Daddy's barber before he closed for the day. Uncle "Ama" even managed to catch up with us and take some pics of the big event !!!

I was a little worried since we had 3 men in front of us in line that he might get fussy during a long wait and refuse to cooperate but he was quite content to play with some cars that John had in a play area, and drive them across the other customer's laps in the waiting area. Oh how my kid loves to make friends!

When it was finally Aidan's turn he sat on my lap and was only slightly squirmy. We made sure he had his hands out from under the cape and was able to still play with the cars, and he did great! Every once in a while he said "down please" and when John would turn the clippers off he would say "all done". But all in all, he was so well-behaved!!! John even filled an envelope with hair clippings for me and told us that the first one is always free.  He was very excited to have been able to cut Aidan's hair since we have such a history with him.

Aidan now looks like a little man, and I love his new big boy haircut!!

New Baby Names

   So with Aidan the name decision was super easy. I mentioned "Aidan James" and Ryan and I both fell in love with it simultaneously. The end. Done. We also knew at 11 weeks we were having a boy because when we had the amnio to have the baby's chromosomes mapped (due to a Down's scare) we also got to find out the gender if we wanted. We never really even had a chance to consider girl's names.

   This time? Ugh what a pain. I had a favorite, Ry shot it down, Ry had a favorite, and I shot it down (I mean really, Piper for a girl? I think not). So at this point we still need to be thinking of names for both genders, and there just aren't any that are jumping right out at us.

I decided to take some advice from a co-worker with how she handled it:

   So in taking her advice I now have pink and blue post-its labeled with our top name choices. They are stuck on the wall in our bedroom next to the closet door where we will have to see them every day. The theory behind this is that the more you look at them, the more you will start to dislike some and you can remove those post-its. Both Ry and I have veto power and can remove any post-it we want whenever we want. When my girlfriend did this, by the time she went into labor she only had 2 post-its left and was finally able to make her decision. Let's hope this goes as well for us! As far as progress on the name decision, I guess you'll all have to wait until June 28 to find out!!!!!!!!