Kids Say the Darndest Things

Aidan,

As your vocabulary grows and your thought processes advance, you're becoming downright garrulous. And some of the things you say are priceless, hilarious, touching, sweet and so so smart.

Here's a few that I've managed to remember.

The other day you were holding Julia and just having a lovely time kissing on her.

You say:  "Where Julia comes from?"
I say: "Julia came from Mommy's tummy, remember?"
You just crack up with laughter and laugh and laugh and laugh.
And say: "That SO WEIRD!"

That's gotta be my favorite.

Speaking of favorites, you're really into telling us your favorites lately.

You climbed up on the counter to ask for some challah bread.
"Bread please!"
"Aidan, that's called 'challah bread.'"
"Challah bread. Oh yes. Favorites! Food!"


You sat on the stairs looking at my guitar stand, which is orange.
You: "Red! Red! Red thing!"
Me: "That's orange..."
You: "Red...favorites color!"
Me: "What about yellow?"
You: "Oh yeah!!!!"

You were hanging out with your puppies and just blurted out: "Toby! Favorites dog!"

But I think you secretly love both dogs the same. They provide you with a lot of inspiration.

You know you're not supposed to feed the dogs people food. You also know you're not supposed to eat dog food. These rules get broken regularly.

While sitting at the table, you seemed to be eating your lunch. You picked up a piece of food. Maybe you knew you were tricking me, or maybe I'm just thick as a brick- but either way, you fooled me. You held the food in your hands and said, "Food for boys!"

I said, "Yes! That's food for boys! Go ahead."

And you threw it down to the dogs, who we routinely call "the boys."

But, you are learning the difference between boy and girl too. Mommy taught you well. "Mommy's girl. Julia's girl. Aidan boy."


We took you to a new bounce house called "Going Bonkers." After initial trepidation, you really got comfortable with the place and had SO much fun.

On the drive home you told us your thoughts: "Bounce house. That so fun! Good boy."

You tell us lots of things in the car, and you surprise us too. Two times last weekend on kinda-long car rides, without prompting you looked to Julia and kindly, reassuringly said "Almost there, Julia!" Good boy, indeed.

You also like to talk like a car. All of a sudden you started telling us that "car says 'beep beep honk honk'."

At home, one of your new favorite games is "hide and seek." But all of a sudden you surprised us: "Hide and Seek. You hide first!"

It's not that you're parroting our phrases and words anymore. You truly understand what the word 'first' means and have started using it everywhere. "Read this book first." Now, the rules of hide and seek and who does what when are still a little bit cloudy, but you're really understanding now, and it's really amazing.

Language is such a useful tool for imagination. You've been many different animals lately. When on top of my shoulders, you announced "I am baby elephant!" At the zoo, you climbed on a rock and said "I am lion!" And then...

Language is also such a useful tool for playing with friends and making new ones. After a weekend of play, you told us "Share Brady! Share Luke!"

While wrestling with Brady (good natured wrestling, of course) you said "That Fun!"

After playing at Luke's house you've been telling us "Luke screaming. Fun! Screaming Luke!" I wonder why!

And at the zoo, you asked to get down off my shoulders to see the warthogs. There was a much younger boy-on-a-leash next to you. Both of you stared at the warthogs. The boy started babbling excited to you, standard 17-month-old excited babbling stuff. Nonsense. To us any way.

You let him finish talking to him and replied  "...oh, yes."

And that's the crux of it. Your language is showing your true self. You're growing and figuring stuff out. Sometimes it's a bit...rude. You tell us "Go away!" when you want to get into some sort of trouble that you know we'll object to. 

But mostly, it's funny, informative and often sweet. For instance, yesterday you told your Mommy, "I need kisses."

Either way, it's enlightening. You found your voice a while ago, but it seems that lately it's becoming louder, clearer...and distinctly you!

They say you say the darndest things. I think that some of the material is 'darndest', but all of it is amazing..and really shines the light on the wonderment you see in the world.

Big Weekend for Julia- 15 weeks and growing

Last weekend you may have been 14 weeks or you may have been 15 weeks. I think it was 15. I've kinda lost count. But that's only because there's so much more to keep track of now, like all of your accomplishments.

You're 15 weeks old, and you had a HUGE weekend for awesomeness.


All of a sudden, you're almost rolling over all by yourself! You can get to your hip, but just can't get it to tip over. (almost there!)

You're smiling, positively glowing with happiness.

You're Laughing...like seriously Laughing!

You're Holding Head Up Better than Ever!

But, you're not all grown up yet. You still have time to cuddle and curl up on your Mom and Me for a good long nap. Face-in...

Or Face-out: 

Or on-ward...

You're a beautiful dreamer, that's for sure. You're also a strong gripper. You're grasping things so well now, including my hand!

So, you're really getting a hold on us, and you're really getting a handle on big girl activities. For instance, you napped and spent the night in your big-girl crib for the first time!

And, you've started taking your baths with some company!

This next one isn't so awesome, but it was a first: you got sick for the first time. We went to the doctor and found out that you- at week 15- almost way 14 pounds ! (13 lbs, 15 ounces).

We also found out that you were fooling all of us- you weren't sick at all! Maybe you just weren't feeling good. But, no medicines, no ear infection, no nothing. So, by that point you were all smiles again, and back to your regular 15-week routine of smiling, eating, playing and sleeping.

Life's good when you're a gorgeous 15 week old princess.

And we're so proud of you and in love with you...even if we can't totally remember how many weeks old you are!

Episode IV. Charting a Course: Potty Training, a New Hope

Aidan,

It might seem like it's been a while since I've talked about our potty training efforts and successes. Well, it has been a while, but that doesn't mean the successes aren't flowing. But, they're not exactly a royal flush either.

We've rewarded with Reece's Pieces, Whoppers, M&Ms, Marshmallows, Episodes. We've read countless books on the potty (your favorites for potty time are "Give a Mouse a Cookie," "I can read with my eyes shut," and "Everyone poops." We've sung countless songs ("Drip drip Drop it's an April shower"). And we've created memorable characters, like Little Bunny Poo Poo, The Flower that grows in the window, Thunder and Lightning Pee Pee Guy. And we'll keep on keeping on with all of that too.

But, we're still not ready for prime time.

You're such a busy boy, and a bit stubborn too, and with Julia's birth we've taken a few steps backward (just make sure you don't step in anything). You're a big boy, and we're super proud of you for all you do, and all you doo-doo.

So, there's been a disconnect between our desire for you to go potty and for your desire to go potty.

Things have been moving in the right direction recently though.

I developed a sticker chart system: one sticker for pee, one for poo, one for dry diaper and one for telling us you need to go. When you fill up a chart, you get to go see a BIG movie!

Here's the first chart! And you'll notice, I might have gotten a bit too excited about making the chart. Even before one sticker was put on the chart, it was very full already. But, you got the idea, and you filled it up (and filled the potty too!)

And we went to go see "Frankenweenie!" You, me, Julia and Mommy! The ticket taker was very pleased to see that you've been earning so many stickers! You loved the movie and even yelled "night night Sparky" when Sparky, the dog, died. Good stuff!

You were in awe of the movie. We were in Awe of you. 25 stickers

So, we started charting a second chart (and you can tell, I chose a simpler design this time). And guess what?

You pee-peed, you poo-pooed (this might be slightly embarrassing by the time you read this) and filled another chart to the brim! So don't wipe that smile off your face...you got to go see another movie! This one was "Hotel Transylvania!"

You, me, Mommy and Julia. The (same) ticket taker was not as amused to see us again telling him the storied success of your bowels and urinary tract. But we were impressed, and so glad to reward you for your fine work!

I think you were very proud too.

Your review of the film was pretty substantive:

So, we did another potty chart!

And guess what? Give me poo, give me pee, Aidan gets to see another BIG MOVIE!

Way to go! This time it was just you, Julia and Mommy and you went to see a good one: Monster's Inc!

note: Julia slept through all three films.

You love going to the movie theater, and request it: "Big Movie and Pop! Pop! Popcorn!" So, the reward system is working.

But, we still have a lot of resistance, and you tell us 'no' more often than not when it comes to potty. We don't want to force the issue, and give you anxiety about the porcelain throne, so we've decided to alter the tactic a bit, based on a book we read.

We're going to be getting a LOT MORE STICKERS! We're going to get stickers for all of the good big boy things we do, not just potty stuff. So, hopefully, by taking the spotlight off the potty it will feel like the pressure is off. The last thing you need on the potty is too much pressure...you just gotta relax and let it all go.

So, your Mommy drew and developed a whole new sticker system for you. Her drawings are so adorable and informative.

You really seemed to like them too. You already got 3 stickers before you went to school this morning!

Now we just have so much more to celebrate!

Before you know it, this chart will be loaded to the brim with stickers too and we'll be off to see a BIG MOVIE yet again.

I know it'll be a while until we can close the lid on this whole potty training business and I really don't believe Mimi when she says I was potty trained in one day. But, it doesn't matter how long it takes or how it all comes out, what does matter Aidan is that we love you and we are very proud of you.

Here's to stickers and big movies and songs and books. I hope that our new reward system really continues to click with you, but we know you'll figure it out eventually. And that day may be very sad, though. One day I won't get to spend 20 minutes reading to you and doing silly voices and songs to convince you to stay on the potty long enough to let nature happen.

So, just getting to spend an extra twenty minutes with you, sitting on the edge of a cold porcelain tub is reward enough for me.

But I may steal one of your M&Ms from time to time anyway.

We may be on the scenic route to getting there, but we still think that you're Number 1 when it comes to Number 1 (and 2) (on the potty).