Merry Christmas

I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  I'm sure we will have lots of new pics to put up after the Holidays and probably some fun stories too.

Naughty or nice...what do you think?

Leaves

I fell a little behind on blogging again.  I know everyone is really surprised about that. So lets go back a few weeks, before the snow came. Our leaves always seem to take forever to fall.  It seems half the trees in our neighborhood are bare by the end of October but ours never fall until at least mid-November. Once they all fell, we decided we needed to go rake them up. Last year, we gated off the front porch and left Aiden and Porter to play up there while we did it.  This year, we left Porter in the house and Aiden wanted to rake too. Once we got a big pile together, we told Aiden to jump in it.  He was unsure at first but then we showed him how and he loved it.  When we started to bag them again, he was mad because he wanted to keep playing. To be a kid again...

Sleep again

Since the time change, Aiden has been going to bed at his normal bedtime of 8:30 but he has been waking up between 5 and 6 every morning. You could tell he was always still tired, but it didn't matter, he still got up. I know it was because that was the time he always gets up (old time). We went to Grandma Marple's house Friday night and of course he fell alseep on the way there because it was dark and he was exhausted from not enough sleep all week. It took him awhile to wake up once we got there, but once he did, he wanted to play. So he didn't go to be until around 10 that night and he only slept until 6:15. The poor kid had dark circles under his eyes that morning. I left around 8:30 to do some shopping with Erica and Onie, and Andy sends me this picture around 1.

And apparently he didn't wake back up until around 5. He went to bed around 9 SAturday night and slept until about 8. Finally, he slept in a bit. And all of that sleep must have reset him for the new time because he has gone to bed at normal time all week and has slept until after our alarm goes off. This makes us all so much happier in the morning, except maybe Porter who rather enjoyed being fed early.

Frankenmuth

This past weekend, Aiden and I met my parents in Frankenmuth.  Andy had to work but I think he would have stayed home anyway even if he didn't have to work.  Bronners is just not a fun place for him...shopping + tons of people=crabby Andy. We left the house at 7:30 am on Saturday and were back by 3. It was a fun day though.  We got to do some shopping at Bronners before it got too packed. Aiden was amazed by all the Christmas stuff.  He really didn't get excited about any one thing, but his eyes were huge as we strolled him around. Grandpa took him through most of the store so my mom and I could shop. I have to say Aiden was very well behaved.  I was a little concerned about taking a 2 year old there but he didn't try to touch anything. Then we got to Zehnders a little after 11 and didn't have to wait to get seated. I love getting to Frankemuth early and beating the crowds.  It's so much more enjoyable. It was a very yummy lunch as usual and we ate too much as usual. Aiden loved the buttered noodles, but who doesn't? Dad and I went to a couple stores on Main Street while mom and Aiden went downstairs at Zehnders.  After dad and I got the couple of things we wanted, we met back up with mom and Aiden and went to see the horses that pull the carriages. Aiden loves all animals and was very excited to see these BIG horses up close. He even got to pet one which he thought was pretty cool. We thought about taking him for a ride but after the Uncle John's incident with the wagon ride and screaming, we thought it was way too expensive in case he didn't like it. Maybe next time. Aiden was asleep before I made it back to Birch Run to get back on the highway, and he slept the whole way home.

Halloween

I was starting to think that Aiden really hated Halloween until he figured out the whole trick or treating thing. He didn't want to touch the pumpkins when we were carving them. He thought the pumpkin guts were gross. Porter on the other hand enjoyed them very much :) He wouldn't let us put him in a costume. We got him a Mickey Mouse costume and every time we tried to put him on it, he screamed. My co-worker brought me in her son's Buzz Lightyear costume from last year and he did the same thing when we attempted to put it on. My office did trick or treating on Friday and I figured the best we would be able to do was his Halloween shirt. Surprisingly when Andy and Aiden showed up at my office, he had on a costume but not either of the 2 we had for him. His daycare provider had a clown costume that fit him and she got him into it. I swear she is the toddler whisperer :) She can get those kids to do anything. He was a little shy at first but then he figured out if went from desk to desk people would give him candy. It didn't take him long to un-attach himself from my leg and take off running around the office. When we got home, he had to check out what he got piece by piece and ask us what each piece was. He now knows M&M's and loves them.

Saturday,we had a few friends over. Erica came and she wanted to carve a pumpkin so her and Aiden did that.  We had some food, a little to drink, played Rock Band and just had fun. We caught up with old friends and made some new ones! All in all a fun day!


Aiden even had a couple friends to play with.  Laura brought her boys Colson and Ryan. It was fun watching Aiden with a baby and how he would have no problem sharing with Ryan but when it came to another 2 year old, neither wanted to share, they just wanted what the other one had. Right before they left Aiden and Colson both sat nice together and had some peaches.


Then yesterday we weren't sure if we were going to be able to get him in a costume to go trick or treating. Our friends Larry and Lisa called and wanted to know if we wanted to walk around with them and their daughters.So at about 5:30 I made the first attempt.  I had hidden his costumes in the changing table so he couldn't see them. I changed his diaper, put a sweatshirt over his shirt and Attempt #1: grabbed the Buzz costume and put one foot in.  He realized what I was trying to do and threw a fit.  He was kicking and screaming so I took it off. I let him go back in the living room and I grabbed Mickey. Attempt # 2...I laid him on the couch and was able to get both feet and 1 arm in the costume before he was kicking and screaming so hard that I just let him go. Then I rocked him and he had his blanket. Attempt # 3 I covered him with his blanket and gut the clown costume on both of his feet. He knew I was doing something and he moved his blanket. He saw the costume and again screaming. This time we gave him M&M's to help distract him and it worked.  I was able to get both arms in (there was still screaming) and then asked him if he wanted to go wait for Cambree and Hadley outside.  That made him happy.  The screaming stopped. Why it was so difficult, I don't know.We went for about a half hour and then came home and passed out candy.




It was a very fun weekend and I think Aiden had a lot of fun trick or treating even with the hard time we had getting him dressed up. He loves playing with his pumpkin and the candy. I think everyone slept good last night after the busy weekend.  I know Porter did.

Busy Weekend

I started this post last week and then forgot about it...it's a little late but better late than not at all.

It's Monday again...already....how is that possible???? The weekends never seem to last long enough, especially if we have stuff going on. Aiden and I went to Ubly to stay with my parents and see my brother who came up there as well. We had not been up there since mid-August so we were overdue. I left work early on Friday so we could beat traffic, have daylight to drive in and make it in time to get all you can eat fish at the Verona Bar...yummm. Of course Aiden would wake up with a cold on Friday morning but he stayed in a pretty good mood all weekend even with being sick. He didn't even try to fight nap time or night night time all weekend which was nice. We went for dinner Friday and then just stayed at mom and dads the rest of the time. Saturday Aiden got a haircut, which he still doesn't like getting, we went to Bad Axe, met some family friends for lunch and did the grocery shopping. When we got back, Aiden took his nap and then we attempted to take him trick or treating to a few places but he screamed when we tried to put the costume on him. I'm not really sure why he doesn't like the costume, but he's 2 so who knows. Sunday, we went to great grandmas for breakfast and to visit and we headed for home when Aiden was ready for his afternoon nap. Above are some pictures from the weekend.

Uncle John's Cider Mill

Yesterday, we went to Uncle John's Cider Mill with Aiden, Grandma Marple, Busha & Grandpa Bezemek and Uncle Eric. We were there for about 3 hours and had a blast. Aiden was amazed watching the cider being made. He enjoyed the donuts and hot dogs. We were unsure what he would do in the big corn maze, but he loved it. We let him lead the way through and he kept saying "runnin' runnin'". And running he did. He was so excited. Occasionally he would stop to pick up corn or the husk and throw it but then back to runnin' runnin'. They had some Alpacas there this weekend, and Aiden loved them. We could have stayed and watched them all day and he would have been perfectly happy.


After the corn maze, we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin for him to carve. We let him run through the patch and pick out the one he wanted. He proceeded to pick up any pumpkin small enough for him to carry and put them in the wagon. He would load the wagon and grandpa would have to take them out. We kept the first one he picked out. We attempted to get a wagon ride from the pumpkin patch back to the truck but Aiden screamed bloody murder so me and him got off at the next stop and walked back to the truck.

Once we got home, Aiden took a nice nap and then we let him carve his pumpkin while the grandparents were still here. He thought it was pretty fun and when we put a candle in it at night, he really thought it was "cool beans".




After the busy day we had yesterday, we have relaxed some today. We did our grocery shopping, watched a movie while Aiden took his 3 hour nap and made lasagna for dinner. Now it is time to give Aiden a bath with his Spiderman bubble bath he got today, put him down and watch Desperate Housewives. The only thing that would have made this weekend better is if Dad could have been here to share it with us. Happy Birthday Dad! We miss you!

Weekend

I can't believe it's Monday already. Where did the weekend go? Andy had to work Saturday so after he left, I started doing laundry and got ready to take Aiden for his flu shot. His pediatrician's office did a flu shot clinic from 8-noon. We got there, filled out the form and were in the room within 5 minutes. Aiden saw the nurse and of course wanted me to pick him up. I put him on the table and he started crying before she even held his feet down. Once he felt the poke, it turned into a blood curdling scream. Poor baby. I always feel so bad. He didn't cry too long though. We got home and I cuddled him while we watched Sesame Street. He was pretty mellow and happy to just sit on the chair watching Elmo, so I started in on some more laundry and other cleaning. He fell asleep on the chair. (picture is from my phone - not the best quality)





I tried moving him to his bed, but was unsuccessful. He woke up and wanted to "rockie mama" so that's what we did. It was 1:00pm before I realized I never gave the poor kid any Motrin before his shot. I gave him some and a half hour later he was running around like our normal crazy Boo. I felt so bad, but at least I got some work done around the house. He did however have a breakdown every time we changed his diaper and he saw the band-aid. I guess it made him remember the horrible horrible little poke.

Grandma came over Saturday afternoon to watch Aiden for us that evening. We got to go out and socialize with just adults. It was Andy's co-workers birthday. We got to drink beer, not sensor our conversations because of little ears and just have a nice evening out. We went bowling which we haven't done (besides for Wii bowling) in years. I still stink but Andy did pretty good. We were home by 11:30. Wow, are we ever crazy :)

Yesterday, we went shopping and found Aiden's Halloween costume. He's going to be Mickey Mouse. We'll have to wait and see if he keeps the ears on. After Grandma went home, we all took a nice long nap. All in all...a very nice weekend. Next weekend we get to go to Uncle John's Cider Mill. Grandma, Busha, Grandpa and Uncle Eric are coming so it should be pretty fun. Aiden will get to pick out his pumpkin and then we can carve it when we get home. I am excited to get a bottle of their wine. The last time we went (which has been a few years), I bought a bottle of their dessert wine and before I had a chance to drink it, I found out I was pregnant with Aiden. It ended up being given to a friend. I will be sure to take lots of pictures and post them on here when I get a chance.

Funny Little Man

Aiden is talking more and more these days and there are more things that come out of his mouth that make us crack up. The other night, I was outside with him and Porter. Porter went to the door and barked to go in. Aiden opened the door to let him in but Porter didn't budge. Aiden proceeds to go behind Porter, push his butt and say "go in Porter, go in Porter". The dog still doesn't move, so Aiden says "Stupid dog". I was laughing so hard that I was almost crying. Obviously he has heard Andy or myself call Porter a stupid dog and has picked up on it. I guess it's time to be a little more careful with what we are saying. You have to love two year olds!



Oh...I can't forget to tell you about the other night as well. I think he is learning too much from the dog. Andy took Porter for a walk the other night and when they got back, Porter got a drink and went and laid down. The next thing I know, Aiden is in the kitchen, on all fours with his head in Porter's water bowl. I think I stopped him before he actually put his tongue in the water, but his tongue was out. I then explained to him that people drink out of cups, not doggy bowls.



I think it is time that we start having the video camera on us and ready to go at all times so we can catch these things.

RIP Charlie Tuna

This post is definitely the hardest one I have written so far. I type this with tears pouring down. On Saturday Sept. 4th the world lost a wonderful man. Eric Marple passed away after a fight with Myelofibrosis. He is going to be missed dearly and I am so glad that I was blessed to become part of his family. It is amazing to me the amount of lives dad has touched throughout his life. The amount of people who have come forward to give our family condolences and share stories really accounts to the person he was. He truly was an amazing man, but as difficult as it is with him gone, I am so glad he is no longer in pain! I know time will help heal the hurt, and we will get through this, but it is hard. It just doesn't seem fair. I'm glad that Aiden got to spend the time he did with his grandpa. I am glad they got to race with their v-tech cars and give each other lots of hugs and knucks. I am glad they got to play swords and just be silly together. It makes me sad that he won't be able to go fishing with grandpa or take another Saturday afternoon nap with grandpa. It makes me sad that grandpa can't read him another book or tell him all the stories he was known for telling. I guess we never know what life has in store for us and all we can do is live each day to the fullest. We will be sure to tell Aiden all the great stories and memories we have to help him remember his grandpa. RIP Charlie Tuna! You will be missed but we know you are watching over us and your little Goober. Until we meet again...

Sprinkler

The other night we were outside and Aiden was running around like crazy (like normal). It was pretty warm so I got Porter some fresh water from the hose. Everytime I turn on the hose, Aiden comes running to see. So of course, I spray his feet and he laughs. So I thought it would be a good idea to get the sprinkler out for him. He was so excited, running and screaming (happy screams) all around the yard while the water fell on him. So after a bit, he would just stand on one side and let the water fall on him and then when it moved to the other side he would go up to it and stick his head in it. It was pretty funny. I couldn't get him to run through it though. I decided it was time to join him and surprisingly it was still pretty fun at 31. Maybe it was because I was warm and the cold water felt good or maybe because I loved seeing Aiden so happy and excited. Either way, we both had a good time. After it started going and Porter started getting soaked is when I realized that this was going to be a messy clean up. It was worth it but Porter thought he was being so neglected having to stay in the kitchen the rest of the night until he dried off.

That night, he did use the puppy potty again and he sat on it last night but with no results. I am hoping when I am on vacation the week of the 16th, that I can really work with him and see what happens. No diapers would be wonderful...someday!

2 Year Appt.

We had Aiden's 2 year doctor appointment yesterday and it went very well. He is 36 1/4 inches tall and 30 pounds 10 ounces. The doctor confirmed that he will be over 6 feet tall when he he is done growing. We have assumed that since he is larger than a lot of 3 year olds we know, but we now have confirmation that he will be eating us out of house and home soon enough! The only concern we had going in is his eating or lack there of and we found that this is normal. She said we will now know for sure when he is growing because he will eat like crazy at those times and then go back to not eating so much. She said he was such a good boy, so laid back and easy going. We get told this all the time but it makes you feel good when the doctor makes the comment. He got 2 shots which he did pretty good for. He didn't scream too long at all. He did however start crying at home later when I changed his diaper and he saw the bandaids on his leg. I took those off and he was fine again.

And as an update to the puppy potty post...he did pee in the puppy potty last night before bed. We'll keep trying and see what happens.

Happy Birthday

Wow...I can hardly remember Aiden being this small and at the same time it seems like just a few months ago. On July 30, 2008 at 8:50 P.M. our lives changed forever. Now 2 years later, we couldn't imagine it any other way. We are truly blessed to have such a great kid!

The pictures below are going to be most recent first because of the way I uploaded them.


Tonight, Andy was picking up Porter land mines. Aiden decided to pick up another shovel and help. He could barely hold the shovel but he was dragging it all around the yard. It was quite funny.


Saturday, my mom and dad stopped by and brought us some cupcakes my grandma had made. Aiden enjoyed the frosting.




Friday after we got out of work, we had dinner, let Aiden open his present and then we took him to Dairy Queen for ice cream. He has had bites of ours before but never his own ice cream cone. Since it was his birthday (and bath night) we got him his own cone. He loved it (at least the ice cream part...he didn't want any part of the cone). Then we took him to the park so he could play on the slide. He had lots of fun.




He got a Mickey Mouse golf set for his birthday from us. He had fun trying to watch hit the balls. Porter on the other hand wasn't having fun getting hit with the club. He wanted to chase the ball but kept getting hit. He'll learn eventually.


He loves to watch daddy cut the grass. One night, Andy got the lawn mower out to cut and Aiden started trying to push it around. It was too cute.


And finally, last week we had our first batch of sweet corn. It was really good. Aiden thought so too. He surprisingly didn't even make too much of a mess with it. Porter did manage to get one of the eaten cobs that evening and ate it. He then threw it up in the middle of the night. Luckily I heard him and got him outside.

Well as there is probably more to write, I am being paged for bed time so maybe I will try to write more details during the week on my lunches.

Swearing

Aiden has managed to say his first swear word. We can thank his father for that one :) He's usually really good at watching his mouth around Aiden but one night we got home and Andy was trying to get Aiden in his room to change his diaper. Aiden kept running around and away from Andy. Andy said "come here you little shit" and Aiden says "little shit, little shit, little shit" and of course Andy and I are laughing. I wasn't in sight of Aiden but I told Andy to stop laughing and change the subject quick. Laughing will just encourage him to keep saying it. He said it a couple more times but we got him talking about something else and luckily he hasn't repeated it since. And we all thought his first swear word would be "god damn dog".

Puppy Potty

A few months back, we decided it was time to at least start looking at potty's so when he was ready for potty training we would have it. It's really amazing how many there are out there. Is there really a need for a potty to play music when the child goes? We debated on getting a potty or just getting a little kid toilet seat to put on the big potty. We asked his daycare provider what she used and said she has a little potty so that is the route we went with so it would be consistent when he started potty training. We definitely did not want one that played music, talked etc. I have friends who have these and the kids just play with them to make them make noise. That narrowed it down quite a bit. It was down to a plain blue potty or the potty that looks like a puppy. I pulled both off the shelf and let Aiden choose. If you know anything about him, he loves dogs, so of course he chose the puppy potty. He didn't want anything to do with it. So I put it in the bathroom and that's where it sat for a few weeks. Then he started sitting on it while brushing his teeth. At least he was touching it now. I tried one time to get him on it. I brought it in the living room, took off his diaper and proceded to put him on it. He screamed, stood back up, turned around to shut the lid and that's when I felt a wet plop on my foot. Well apparently he was already in the process of going when I took his diaper off. Might have explained the screaming. So now I have a turd on my foot and Porter is looking at me like why is he not getting yelled at? I'm not allowed to do that in the house. I cleaned evrything up and the potty went back in the bathroom. We this past Saturday I was getting him ready for bed and I asked him if he wanted to use the puppy potty like a big boy. He said "yeah". So I was taking off his clothes and of course he had done his stinky business in his diaper already so I had to clean then up. So after I got him cleaned up, I asked him again if he wanted to pee in the puppy potty and he again said "yeah". I put him on it and he sat there for a few minutes while we read some books (I brought the potty into his room by his bookcase). He did pee and I told him what a big boy he was and made a big deal about it. He was so proud. Ten the next morning he wanted nothing to do with it again. At least it was a start. He did make pee in it one time on Sunday as well but that was it. Now I ask him and he says "no". I try to just put him on when I change his diaper but he screams. I don't want to force him. He'll do it when he's ready and everyone says with a boy, 3 is norrmal for being potty trained. We'll keep trying and see what happens.

Pictures

Here are the pictures I promised I would upload when I had time at home. The most recent are on top.

Today he decided he did not want the tray on his high chair...I think it is going to be time to put it away soon. He rarely eats in it anymore.

Thursday, July 15th, Aiden got to go to his first concert. Common Ground in Lansing was this week and Bret Michaels was there. I really wanted to go and since Common ground is a family event, all 3 of us went (not Andy's favorite but he enjoyed himself and made me very happy) and had a good time. You can tell by his big eyes, he was a little unsure at first but he did well and even some how managed to fall asleep (notice the cute little wrist band I saved for his baby book).

Not a great picture because we were way back but this is the stage before the show.
Here is one of Bret's buses..

This is where Aiden eats more often then not or at his little table.


Sword fighting with Grandpa...well one of them has an actual sword anyway.


He liked to hold the sword the wrong way.

Having his first pear not out of a can and he loved it.



He likes to sit at his table and write, draw, scribble...whatever you want to call it.


We may have another Star Wars fan on our hands...




Today we are at home getting some stuff done around the house. Tomorrow we are going to Grandma and Grandpa Marple's for the day. Should be a good time. I'll try to post again soon! Until then...