Who Needs Toys....

...when you have a rocking chair and a door to the world? (otherwise known as the front yard)

Aiden's most favorite place is outside. Anywhere outside. We just sat on the lawn the last few evenings and the kid was happy as can be. Sometimes we'll put his rocking chair in front of the open door and let him be. As you'll notice, he really likes it when cars drive by.

Chores, Round 2

Maybe the focus of this blog should be the chores Aiden likes to do....but then it might be short lived, huh? One of his favorite objects in the house is the dishwasher - whether it's opened or closed. Last month I noted that he likes helping with laundry. These days he's a huge fan of the vacuum. I mentioned this once before, but this time I actually got some footage. In good mother fashion, I was too slow to capture the best part - Aiden actually pushing the vacuum across the floor - so this will have to do.

Confusion

Little bit of misunderstanding going on....Pretty sure he thought I said 'I'm going to feed you some food' not 'I'm going to take a picture of the food your just flung in your hair.' That or he was trying to show me his mouth was empty so that I would give him more food. (We have a small problem with shoveling every piece of everything into our mouth all at once so we've taught Aiden to say 'ahhhhh' and show us that his mouth is empty before giving him more food.) Regardless, I can assure you that Aiden had no concern for the food atop his head.

Walkin' & Talkin'

Aiden started saying understandable words around 10 1/2 months. He may have let a word slip before then, but you really have to listen for those first words....and, like any good mother, I wasn't listening. First words I noticed were "kick" and "up." This was quickly followed by "truck", "duck", and "quack" (do noises count as words? I mean, it's an intentional noise so I put it down...). And then....."that." Yes, Aiden says the word 'that.' It's actually probably his most frequently used word. You can tell we talk in a lot of specifics and promote an extensive vocabulary around our house....
The day after his birthday, Aiden decided to take some steps. My sister managed to have the camera rolling at the exact right moment! Fortunately, no one got very excited so there's no shrieks of background noise...

The doc said Aiden would walk before a year, but we've got a cautious kid on our hands. Even though he's tottering around, it'll be awhile before he actually uses walking as a mode of transportation...which is completely acceptable to me. He's growing up too fast anyway. Plus, I can catch up to a crawling kiddo much faster than I can wrangle down a running toddler.

The Grand Finale....

...of monthly pictures with Buddy, that is. Of course, Buddy will still make his appearance, just maybe a little less frequently.

We took Aiden to the doc on Friday, and the nurse documented that Aiden was 12 and 1/4 months old. So, at 12 and 1/4 months Aiden is able to take down either 7% or 25% of other 12 month olds, depending on if you are using weight or height stats, respectively. He tipped the scales at 19lbs 3oz and measured 29 1/8 inches. I know Ryan and I are not tall people, but we come from fairly tall families...which only means one thing, naturally. My next child will be a girl who hangs out in the 99 percentiles her entire life, while her brother becomes a cyclist because it's the only sport his skinny self can beef up enough for. Love those (unpredictable) genetics.

We couldn't be crazier about our little guy, though. So blessed to have these two fabulous boys in my life!

Yuck.

This is where I found Aiden this morning as we were getting ready:

And not just standing around, observing his surroundings. Nope, he was splish splashing. The kid has developed a strange fascination with the toilet area. He likes the tp holder, the nasty scrubber brush, the flusher...loves toilet paper and seeing it unroll. We are normally good about closing the lid to the toilet, but the one morning we forget, Aiden makes sure to remind us to never do that again.

Par-tay time!

Aiden asked if he could celebrate his first birthday with his sweet friend Lylah, who was born eight days before him up in KS. He asked for all these special decorations and this cute UNO theme, which led me to ask him if I looked like a Pinterest party planner. He said no but Miss Lauren (Lylah's mom) did. I told him it was a long drive for a short party. No matter what I said, he was sure that was what he wanted, and, as parents, we wanted to fulfill all his first birthday dreams, especially since it was a party he would remember for the rest of his life....so we obliged.
We packed our bags and made an evening drive to KS on his birthday. (what could make for a better birthday celebration than an 8 hour drive?!?) (side note - Aiden slept like a champ during the drive....finally. we've told ourselves the last few trips he would sleep if we left at night and it didn't quite work out that way, but now that he's one, he's willing to try new things.).
I am so glad we went. Aiden was healthy (he's been sick, teething, something, most of our trips there) and the happiest I'd seen him. He laughed and laughed and laughed. Every day. He decided to take some shaky steps and to eat with a fork (that I handed him...but still, he knew what to do with it).
Here are a few pics of his party and of the other small celebrations along the way. I thought everything turned out nicely and Aiden didn't complain so I'll take that as him being happy too.

 

birthday morning!



eating a cupcake for birthday breakfast....naturally.

opening gifts from the fam

 

 

playing in his (unexpectedly large) birthday tent



first birthday Longhorns style....hook 'em!



Party! Mallory's friends made these AMAZING cookies. Seriously amazing. Tasted delicious and could not have been cuter.



In lieu of gifts we did a book donation table. Thanks to everyone for making it a successful book gathering and for bettering children's lives! 



Aiden loved the balloons!



I am pretty convinced that all you need for a successful party is balloons and sprinkles (see smash cake for sprinkles).



 

For the cake we made one box of cake mix, put it in four bowl and dyed it different colors. We put a half cup of each color in two bowls and baked it up. The colors didn't run together at all! Couldn't get any easier to make a multi-colored cake. (I attempted a 4-layered cake before discovering this gem. hah! what was I thinking with that idea?!?)



covered the outside of the cake in frosting and then covered it in sprinkles. sprinkles. thank goodness for sprinkles. festive and cover over imperfections....does it get any better?



inside of the cake - post smash - but you can see all the colors



pretty sure Lylah and Aiden thought the cakes were ok.....

 



 

Happy 365th!

I feel better about explaining Aiden's age in days instead of years. How long do we think this will be acceptable? (Side note: I suddenly understand why parents use months instead of years....just seems like you can keep them little longer. Ryan and I used to joke about "months" people....and I fear I'm about to become one of them.)

We decided that since Aiden won't really remember this birthday, we shouldn't get him anything too big....so we settled on a tricycle and swing. :) We are heading up to KS to get our party on with Miss Lylah, so Aiden got to open his gifts a day early. I think he liked them ok.

 

Oh, Happy birthday my Aiden James! It's hard to believe that it's been an entire year (well, technically, you have until 8:55am so a few more minutes...) since we met your precious self. You've brought us more joy than we knew was possible over the last year. Thanks for showing up in our lives - and for turning me into a sap when you did. We love you!