Busted

Aiden's face. That's what busted. Well, his chin really. The story goes a little something like this....Aiden was in the tub. The kid is always asking to stand up, though it comes out more like a combination of an exclamation and a question - "Stan up?!? Stan up?!?" We told him not to stand up on the slick tub so instead he "kneed up"....basically put his knees on the tub floor. But remember that part where I said it was slick? Right. So his knees slipped and his chin came crashing to the tub floor. For a split second Ryan thought we were just going to have to talk him through the fall (wipe outs happen on a pretty regular basis), but we quickly realized this was a bit messier of situation. Blood was pouring our from my sweet baby's chin onto Ryan's shirt. Aiden was screaming and crying so much he couldn't breath. (I later realized it was likely because of how hard he also bit his tongue.) And I did what any tough, well prepared mother of a boy would do - I cried too.

Hah. I couldn't believe that was my reaction, but I was just not ready for this moment. I mean, I'm sure he'll eventually get stitches, but all I could think was that my 22 month old was not ready for this. Plus, falling in the bathtub and getting busted up when you are too young remember any of it doesn't even make for a good story. I have a story for all my scars and stitches. I remember where they came from. I want Aiden to at least have that.

We decided to butterfly it that night and asked daycare to keep an eye on it the next day. All was going well with it....until Aiden fell outside during play time and bloodied it up again. Naturally. Our daycare director made a good point, that while other kiddos lead with their head when they run (so they bump it when they fall) Aiden leads with his chin. And it is completely true....I can hardly think of a time he bumped his forehead, but every time he falls he bloodies up his mouth.

Anyway, I picked Aiden up from daycare so that we could evaluate getting stitches. Turns out you only have a 24 hour window to get them and we were within a few hours of that. I got him home, got him cleaned up, took off the butterfly stitch and found......it was actually looking pretty good! (see pics below...these are the only pics I got, on the second day. I forgot to take pictures through my tears the night before.) When you see them you'll think I completely exaggerated this entire story, but Ryan and I both saw some white stuff (that's my technical medical description) in Aiden's chin when he first split it open. It was not shallow. But, since it looked pretty decent, we decided to butterfly it for a few more days and call it good.

Hopefully I'm a little more mentally prepared next time around.....because I know it's coming!

Lellow & Pink

Purple too. Those seem to be the only colors that exist in Aiden's world. And usually it's just lellow and pink. I'm generally surprised when I hear purple. The kid thinks everything is yellow and pink. He has a sign in his room. The one in this post. On the plus side, he seems to understand that it's two different colors. On the down side, he seems to think yellow and pink are his only color choices. One day he was standing up pointing to the two different colors on the sign, repeating, "lellow, pink, lellow, pink, lellow, pink."

He's said lellow for awhile now, and I thought it was a strange first color from the beginning. But then when pink came along.....I mentioned it to his daycare lady, to see if they use a lot of pink there. She said the two oldest girls at daycare love pink so I'm blaming it on those sweet gals.

Just in case you don't believe, check out the balloons in this video and what color Aiden says they are.

Feeding the Ducks

We biked to a nearby lake over the weekend to give Aiden his first duck feeding experience. At first, when we told him to throw the bread to the ducks, he thought we were playing "catch" with them. He caught on to what we were doing.....and must have decided it was silly and a waste of good food because this is how the trip ended:

An Ode To Youth

Alright, so ode might be the wrong word. I'm not going to get all poetic on you....that would take a lot more effort than me just doing a brain dump about entering a new decade of life. Somehow, ode sounded better than brain dump, though, so I went with it.

Anyway, I can't keep delaying the inevitable....I am going to turn 30, regardless of how long it takes me to write this post so I might as well get to it.

The title might seem a little tough. My definition of" old" really has changed since I've gotten, well, older. But, I still think 30 is the age when the "youthful" world considers you old. I mean, I'm not there quite yet (still about 21 hours away, if anyone is trying to be exact...), but I feel like it's the age the rest of the world looks at you as a grown up. I'm a little mixed on if that's a good thing or bad thing. I mean, it's somewhat nice to not be seen as a kid anymore, but, it's also a little scary, like I've lost my ticket for making silly decisions. Not that I love making silly decisions, but, well you know, it's always nice to have a given Plan B (i.e. young and dumb) to fall back on. I actually have to create a real Plan B for situations now.

The last decade of life has been a pretty fantastic decade with lots of stuff happening - a couple of college graduations and a marriage to my favorite guy. We bought our first house together, took some fun trips, and made DFW our home. I started my first (and second) career job, and I found my most favorite job in the entire world (that I once thought I never wanted) - being a mother. I made my faith my own and became more comfortable in my own skin. Over the last decade, I've met lots of wonderful people and developed many of my favorite relationships.

When I look back, I feel like it will be difficult to compete with everything that happened in my 20s, and maybe that's why people cling to these "youthful" years. They are full of big, memorable moments. Will I do as many big things in the next decade of my life? I'm guessing not. But, that doesn't mean there's not another fantastic decade ahead. In fact, I'm pretty sure it will be.

Just the other day Ryan and I were talking about how we could hardly remember life before Aiden....and we wouldn't change that. I've spent months (maybe years...) dreading the big 3-0, but strangely, over the last month, I've become excited to see what happens in my 30s. It's less about a number now and more about what life holds. And with the people in my life, I'm certain it's full of good things. I'm excited for relationships with family and friends - to grow them and to see what happens in others' lives. As bittersweet as it will be, I greatly anticipate watching my son grow up. I look forward to spending another ten years with my love and growing in my walk with Christ. Yeah, I think the next ten years are something to look forward to.

I'll end my brain dump there. Thirty, here I come!