Oppositional Behavior

That's what the doctor said Aiden was exhibiting when we took him to his 2 year appointment last Friday. Oppositional behavior. The doctor spent no more than 15 minutes with Aiden, and he could already see the defiance that set in when my little guy turned two. He tried to reassure us by saying that it would pass and this doesn't last forever....but he also did not indicate how long it would last.

(Stat flash: Aiden weighted in at 26lbs, 13 oz, which is a solid weight gain of 7.5lbs over the last year! Guess it helps you gain weight when you aren't spitting up your food all the time....He also measured 34.5 inches, but I'm pretty sure his head was not at the top of the measuring stick. When we measured him the other week after his birthday, he was a mere 32.5 inches.)

On a positive note, Aiden is currently sleeping in his bed, for the fourth night in a row. I'm not getting my hopes up, but maybe the bedtime oppositional behavior is subsiding?

It's been suggested that Aiden's opposition springs from this:


in case you can't read it, his hat and shirt say 'big bro'

We are expecting baby #2 to show up in October (EDD 10/05/14....but as we all know, that's just a rough estimate). Aiden's excitement over this upcoming arrival in 24-ish weeks isn't too contagious. We haven't gotten much more of a reaction from Aiden than we see in this picture. When we tried to take the big bro pictures, Aiden had little (okay, maybe no) interest. We ended the photo shoot by doing what he'd wanted all along...moving the tripod around.

 

Every time I ask Aiden if he wants a brother/sister or boy/girl (and we phrase it both ways, so as not to invoke a response either way....), he generally responds with a 'no'. So, yeah. It doesn't seem like he's too excited for another member of the family, even though I'm pretty sure he really doesn't have a clue what's happening. (Just ignore the awesome hairdo he's sporting in the second video....Mommy may have had a pony and Aiden wanted one too.)

They say kids are smart and they sense things so maybe Aiden senses baby.....or maybe he's just being an oppositional two year old. :)

My Little Smurf

On Monday I got this email from daycare:

We have had a lot of fun dying/decorating eggs today.  But Aiden accidentally turned a small bowl of blue egg dye into his lap.  I’ve tried to clean him up but he’s a little ‘smurf’ from the waist down.

What she actually meant by the waist down, was....everywhere. To be honest, I'm surprised this is the first time it happened. Whenever Aiden comes home with paintings from daycare, I'm amazed I couldn't tell him his outfit that he'd painted that day.

So, back to Monday....Ryan asked if Aiden needed a bath, and I said no, he'd taken one the day before and should be fine. And then I undressed him. And realized that the blue egg dye had seeped through his clothes and he really was a little smurf. So, to the bath we went.

(Keep in mind....daycare had already given Aiden a good wipe down.....)

 

What the hey happened?!?

That's (somewhat) the question we've been asking around here. Aiden turned 2 on a Thursday. On Friday, he quit sleeping in his crib. It was just no longer an option. My always cautious kid (who loved - past tense - to sleep) starting climbing out of his crib. Ryan dropped the crib to it's lowest level on Saturday....to which Aiden responded by literally throwing himself out of the crib and bonking his head a few times on the way down. We tried to put him back in twice with the same results. And that was the end of Aiden's crib days. 

We weren't quite ready for this....so we got to ordering a bed. We took off the front of his crib in the meantime, but that didn't matter. We spent an entire week taking turns sleeping on the floor of his room, trying to get him to sleep in the dang bed. It basically resulted in cranky everyone and not the sleep results anyone wanted.

His real big boy bed showed up on Friday, but it was more like we ordered a trampoline. Definitely not something for sleeping on. Aiden has decided the only place he should sleep in this house is his rocking chair. Every nap, every night. Ryan and I have decided that since he's sleeping (after running around the room for a bit, like an hour bit) and not crying (too much...like the same hour-ish that he's running around), we would take this as a victory.

Sleeping with buddy in front of the chair one night.....

So excited the day we took the front off his crib......

...yet, somehow, this is what the morning looked like.

A little hard to see, but I'm not going in there to get a good picture! His head is resting on the arm of the chair. And that's where he slept...all.night.long.

Turnin' TWO!

It happened. My itty bitty 7lb, 12 oz baby turned two crazy years old. (literally crazy....but that's for another post....we'll keep this one upbeat and sappy) Our recent trip to the doc for croup had Aiden weighing in a little over 26lbs and our at home measuring stick said he's 32.5 inches. According to Baby Center's, I'm sure super accurate, height predictor, sweet Aiden will be a towering 5'7 when he turns 18. Here's to hoping that calculation is very wrong....but not being surprised if it ends up being true.

Next time you see Aiden you should ask him how old he is. I believe he thinks you are trying to ask him how he's doing. I attempted to phrase it multiple ways, but those questions didn't even get a response. So, for now, Aiden is "good" old.

We bought the kid a basketball goal for his birthday, and he didn't give it a look. He went straight for the other gifts we had for him, and naturally, the smallest gift with a few toy trains was his favorite. I should have known. I felt like we had to get him something big and fun, but he's happy with the small stuff. I should probably enjoy that now...I guessing one day that won't be so true.

Aiden enjoyed his first banana split on his second birthday....as well as the tradition breakfast cupcake. (no such thing as too much sugar on your birthday, right?) I'm a little sad we didn't capture him blowing out his candles. He just took one breath and blew them out, like he'd done it a million times. Last year we had to save him from burning himself cause he didn't have a clue what a candle was year....this year he knew exactly what was happening. Oh, how a year changes things.

He got an adorable orange birthday shirt that says "I'm this many" and shows two fingers. But that whole toddler photo thing? Yeah, the front of the shirt didn't really manage to make it in any pictures. I'm sure you'll see it in future photos though.

I also included a video that's about a week and a half before Aiden's birthday, of him singing a bit of the happy birthday song to his gal pal Lylah...cause I think it's fun to hear his sweet little voice. I figured it's birthday themed so it fits in with the post.

Thanks for hanging out with us for the last two years Aiden! Our lives have been made better, just by having you around!

Moments in March

Since someone may have fallen slightly behind on the blog, we'll do a nice little recap of last month's excitement.

Highlights included a visit from Grandma and Peacock (I've mentioned that's what Aiden calls Grandpa, right? He refuses to call him anything else...), tear duct surgery for Aiden (worked like a charm...woo hoo!), a visit from my college roomie and her hubby and sweet son, and animal month at daycare. We naturally ended the month on the high note by coming down with croup.

Aiden is a little chatter box and attempts to talk in sentences now, though it's really just a bunch of randomness strung together. Sometimes he'll say a bunch of his words at one time: "Bird.Truck.Choo-choo train.Turtle.Rosco (name of the neighbor's cat)." He also regularly tries to pronounce multi-syllable words, and it never fails to crack me up. For example - helicopter = hel-i-ca-lop-ter.

He also cracks me up with his inability to do certain things like hold up 2 fingers (been trying to practice for when people ask how old he is). He typically gives a fist or hi-five for '2'....or occasionally he'll cross his pointer and middle finger. He also cannot answer the question 'how old are you?' Just give it two days (TWO days....can you believe it....TWO days until my baby turns 2!), but I'll post a video that explains this a little more. It's hilarious. I mean, at least Ryan and I find it hilarious, but we are easily entertained by our child.

He's learned a few songs this month so that's fun - Happy Birthday (sung without a name....happy (pause) to you). Occasionally he adds "Jesus" in there, like he's singing happy birthday to Jesus. I think he's just ready for Christmas. He also learned Row, Row Your Boat, after discovering the baby bath tub under his bed, calling it a boat, and sitting in it.

And now time for the real highlights....pictures.

Aiden adores his Buddy, and I constantly find him sitting here. Buddy is also his favorite "hiding" place.

Ryan spent a weekend backpacking and hiked 30 miles, carrying this thing the entire way!

Because this just makes me laugh....

Aiden had a big blow out at church during aforementioned camping weekend. I don't always carry clothes with me anymore and didn't have any this day. So we left church looking like this - sweatshirt and boots. Well, boots that are actually house slippers (it was pajama day at church because of daylight savings). And then we had to stop at the grocery store on the way home, pants free. I should also mention it was only about 40 degree. Mother of the year award.

My college roomie came to visit. We took pics of our hubbies and our sons...but none of us. Go figure.

Aiden had to learn how to dunk.....

...After he saw these tall people doing it. :)

I once mentioned that it was hard to take pictures of toddlers. Try getting a good picture of two toddlers. Yeah, you pretty much take what you can get and this was it. The boys took a day to warm up, but they were wrestling each other by the end of the second day. So fun together!

We ended the month with 80 degree weather. Which was naturally the day Aiden wanted to put on his hat and gloves. This was also the day Aiden was home sick with croup. Maybe the croup made him cold.....

They had animal month at daycare and saw a turtle, hamster, chicken, puppy and rabbit. This is how Aiden reacted the first week to the hamster...pretty sure daycare said he felt the same way about the turtle. It's ok if you laugh. Daycare warned me that he didn't like it much when the animals crawled told him, but this was not the face I expected to see. I laughed so hard I nearly cried when I first saw this. Again, mother of the year award.

By the end of the month, Aiden had warmed up to the animals, though. Bunny kisses!