one last story

i took aidan to a park a couple of weeks ago that has an enormously high play/slide structure. it's caged in all the way up to the top and when you get up there you have the choice of three different slides. they are all enclosed tube-like slides all the way to the bottom. the first one he went down was easy, no problem. the second time he picked the blue one. the blue one was the highest, steepest slide. from my vantage point on the ground it didn't seem like a problem. he seemed hesitant, i encouraged him. i stood at the bottom of the tunnel and called up to him "come on down aidan, i'll be right here waiting for you", "okay mommy, i come down" which was followed (seriously) by "thud, thudthud, thud, thudthudthud"--not another sound. the slide was so long that i had time to actually contemplate what was going to pop out of the bottom before aidan actually arrived there. what greeted me was a look of horror & contempt and then a whole lot of tears. fortunately no broken bones and hopefully no therapy in the future.

epilogue: i thought it was important to show aidan that he really could do the slide, he just needed to approach it slower, lay flatter, etc.--the whole "get back on the horse" thing. so i lumbered my way to the top with him (past the sign that read 'these slides not meant for children in the laps of parents') and we went down the blue slide. it was really, really steep and high. we went down it with the soles of my shoes flat on the slide to keep our speed down. when the sign indicates a play structure is for 5 year olds, make sure your child is at least 3.

aidan's pee pee

so as not to be outdone by jack's head, aidan would like to share that he thinks he has a really big pee pee. as he puts it every time we change his diaper "that's a really big pee pee mommy" (this is said in a deeper voice than his normal one). i wonder which man in his life taught him to say that? the potential list is very, very long.

jack's head again

the doctor ordered an ultrasound for jack's head. she was worried that it's rate of growth was a bit too fast and she wanted to make sure he didn't have any extra fluid in there. good news, he just has a big head. in other jack news he finally figured out how to get that head around and roll over onto his stomach. phew.

boy 1

boy 2

jack-a-mo

john has been playing that "my grandma and your grandma sitting by the fire, my grandma says to your grandma 'I'm gonna set your flag on fire' ... talkin' 'bout hey now, hey now, iko iko an nay, jockomo feena ah na nay, jockomo feena nay" (lyrics sites rock). anyway, aidan has taken to calling jack jack-a-mo, which is what i think john was trying to do in the first place by playing the song over and over and over. i broke every rule i had in child naming when we chose jack. a name that does not easily morph into other forms (jack in the box, jack o lantern, crackerjack, hijack, the list goes on and on and on) was one of my big no no's. whoops. and thank you to john for encouraging our first son to use one of these variations.

setting:
aidan supposed to be napping, but awake.
jack supposed to be napping, but apparently hungry and fussing.
aidan loudly from behind his closed bedroom door, "MOMMY! MOMMY, WHERE ARE YOU? jack-a-mo is crying, jack-a-mo is hungry, jack-a-mo needs a bottle. JACK-A-MO! WHERE IS JACK-A-MO? JACK-A-MO! JACK-A-MO! JACK-A-MO!"

baby+toddler=less blog

aidan's new trick is this puzzle of united states. he has west of the mississipi and the southeast down perfectly. that whole northeast thing is a bit of a quandary. for those of you that live in arkansas, utah, pennsylvania and missouri i've made sure he knows those states belong to you. as we're approaching three (uh, nine months away) he seems to be able to focus on one task for a longer period of time. this is generally helpful to me and generally very helpful to the teachers at school, gymnastics, etc. it is not helpful when he decides to focus that attention on torturing cats (we had an incident with a rock yesterday), throwing tantrums or painting the wall.

here is an attempt to get both kids to pose for a picture. about two of the twenty i took came out. in most of the pictures aidan is trying to accost jack and jack just has that silly grin on his face. we have some version of leapfrog going on in some, excessive hugging in most and he still likes to squeeze jack's nose. odd.

and here's jack. still the easiest little thing ever created. certainly based on the stories i've heard of my childhood, i don't deserve to have this child. clearly, he should have been jeff's. i'm extremely grateful at my good fortune though. he's sitting up pretty well, not rolling over (the doctor says his head is probably too heavy for him. yes, she really said that), he babbles a ton and has started doing a very high pitched scream. oh, and he's none too pleased when everyone walks out of the room on him.

day one: breathing room

some people call it preschool, daycare, babysitting...whatever. it's really time for mommy to take a breath and aidan to have different faces to see and voices to hear. so far so good.

conversation in the car after i picked him up (after first ignoring me on the playground, then throwing a tantrum that he had to leave day one of preschool):
-did you play? yes.
-what did you play? with the toys.
-did you play with the kids? yes.
-did you get to have a snack? yes!
-what did you have? orange juice mommy. i drank it really, really fast.
-oh, yeah? did you have anything else? ummmm. beer.
-really, you had beer for a snack? yes (then falls into hysterics when he realizes i think his answer is humorous)

this says way too much about our home life. i told john he needs to stop having aidan fetch his beers out of the mini-fridge.

obligitory "first day of school photo taken on the front stoop" ... i think this photo is really meant for the first day of kindergarten, but we did it anyway ...