The amazing puzzler!

Julia,

You never cease to amaze us and surprise us. You're not even 3 years old, yet sometimes you have the patience, smarts, and skills of a kid/grown-up 10 times your age!

The other day, Mommy and you went to Aunt Sham's house. After you were done claiming you treasures from her jewelry box - a shiny ring! a necklace!- you sat down to do some puzzles that Mommy brought for you to play with on a whim.

You see, you have done puzzles many times on the iPad, but never really showed any interest in real terrestrial puzzles.

But, that day at Aunt Sham's you were patient, clever, and resilient enough to finish THREE puzzles by working diligently and calmly and crazily smartly for about an hour!

By the time I finally got to see you do this trick, you were so confident that you could do it, that you needed no help at all! 

But you were super psyched!

"DADDY, I win the puzzle!!" 

Ever since, you've been kinda "into" puzzles pretty hard!

Mommy sent me these pictures! You were so excited! You announced "I win the puzzle!"

Double Thumbs-up

 And, later that night, we were all on the couch in the living room and I heard some scooching noises...then I realized that you were dragging the puzzle into the living room to show me that you had won this mega-big puzzle too! Amazing!

Now, it got a little dinged up in the travel and in some foot traffic. You noticed this and had to fix it immediately. It didn't matter that you noticed it was dinged up and had to fix it while you were literally on your way to the bathtub. You were not deterred by being a tad under-dressed.

And, you saw the whole thing through to completion!

At home or miles away,

Fully dressed, semi-clothed, or nude,

You are the ultimate puzzler-

You WIN the puzzle, dude!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Baking Cookies...

Ornaments...

lights....

...presents gathering under the tree...

look closer...

...shipping boxes starting to gather...

...visiting the big man himself...

High Five!

Aidan asked Santa for Erases and a Bouncing Ball!

Colder weather...

...it's almost that time of year!

Missing Footage

Recently some lost footage of you was found, Aidan. And by lost I mean we never talked about it. But it's too good not to share.

Over the summer, you really started living a rock and roll lifestyle:

The trend of rocking out continued in public over Thanksgiving. We went to the new deck park with Aunt Rebekka, and you got a private concert from a Piano Man. You danced, you spun, you clapped...and you did it all seriously. Here's a snippet of a seated and eated rockin' and rollin':

You also know how to rock and roll in private WITH clothes on.

You also can rock out with your own original covers. You should make a record.

And just like a record, baby, you also got to spin right round, round round.  At a trip to the zoo with Pops, you experienced your first Carousel ride!

It's not often you get to see pure wonder on someone's face. But this was it. You really, really loved the carousel.

Speaking of spinning, on the same trip to the zoo, you also got to experience centrifugal gravity. Or whatever it's called at those museums where you drain your parents of all their loose change in that black hole vortex thing. Whatever you call it, you got a kick out of it, and Pops was your enabler.

But life isn't all fun and games. Sometimes it's donuts!

And sometimes it's being a daredevil:

And sometimes it's chasing your dreams (or a bug):

You have to march to the beat of your own drummer, though, especially if you're a rock star. Maybe not if you're the drummer...but otherwise, you can be independent as a drummer. Or something. I don't really know what I'm saying, but look: here's a video of you playing it safe in Mimi and Pops' backyard.

See? The videos were great! And sometimes great footage just falls through the cracks. But that's why I'm here: to shoehorn it all into one random post that basically just tells you what you already know: Your mother and I think you're amazing and hilarious and a star. We love you.

Nature Boy

Aidan,

You love to say "ow-side"!

You love to be outside.

You just love outside.

And we love that about you!

Whether you're playing naked (that's you on the left),

or chillin' naked,

or swimming naked,

or playing with the hose, or planting rocks, or chasing the dogs, or helping yourself to the vegetables in the garden,

or running around in the rain like a maniac,

 

you just LOVE to be out with mother nature.

Just yesterday, you and your Mommy were out in the garden. She picked a whole bunch of fresh okra, and you ate it up. But, then again, you also eat mulberries..off the ground. At any rate, your mommy turned her back for a second and you had picked two green tomatoes. She was about to ask you for it, so we could let it ripen on the windowsill, but you took a big bite of it...and spit it out.

You're going to have SO much fun harvesting when more okra and red tomatoes and cucumbers and herbs are ready to go. But until then, you can keep gnawing on the leeks.

On Mother's day, after our big family BBQ, I wanted to take you to the park...we got ready to go, opened the door and it was pouring!

But that didn't stop you...You marched to the end of the porch and tested the rain with your hand. Within a minute, you were out there...playing in the rain. You were yelling "raining!" "wet!" "WET!" When you wandered into Luke's yard, I got volunteered to follow you, and follow I did! You were having a blast stomping in deep puddles and shuffling along little streams. "Raining!" Dorothy, our neighbor, saw you and said "Aidan, you look like a wet rat!" You replied, "rat!" "rat!"

No matter the weather, no matter the day, if there's an outside, that's where you'll want to play. "Park!" "Park! "PARK!" you say!

We love it that you want to be outside: it's so primal, so fun, so...childlike! And at a time when you seem to be growing up before our eyes, it's great that in the great outdoors, your sense of wonder is overwhelmed and you can be mother nature's child. We'll call it the 'wilderness of youth'!

I hope when you're all grown up, you'll still remember what it's like to be a nature boy. Though, you might not want to run around naked. That'll be frowned on.

Spring time for Aidan, a story in pictures

Spring is in the air! And you're loving every second of it, and growing older and more adventurous with every day. You're really learning the ropes of this whole two-year-old experience.

This spring so far we've played a lot with Brady, communed with nature and the garden hose...buck naked, become very interested in bugs and garden snakes and other cool stuff in our backyard, and become quite taken with all things art.

You've even learned to say your favorite color and now, when asked, you tell us that your favorite color is "yell!"

So, here's an impromptu awful ode to spring:

The sun sets later, so it's evenings at the park.

The weather's nice, so you're naked in the yard.

The clean up's pretty easy...so it's finger painting if you're able.

And you're becoming a big boy now, so you take your meals at the table.

Nature Boy (or Mud Man)

One day you and I were walking back from the playground when we heard someone yelling from a nearby back yard: "Is that our neighbor?"

It was two of our little neighbor boys in their backyard, looking through the fence, saying hi to you...buck naked.

I thought "well, the weather's nice enough...we should let Aidan play naked in the backyard and see what happens."

So, that night, I stripped you down and let you wander around the backyard. You loved it!

I told Mommy of how much fun you had and then she decided we had to do it again...and again...




Since then you've had 2 or 3 fun, fully nude, muddy, wet, sunny play times outside. And you've totally bonded with nature each time.






You don't care if you get rocks on your tush or sticks on your tush. You've got scraped up legs and a splinter in your finger, but you still LOVE being naked outside. Fun in the sprinkler, fun in the sun, even fun swinging and spinning in and out of the water.

And then, of course, it's bath time!

Your Mommy says that you are just like she was: a mud-pie making, outdoors-loving, muddy, dirty kid.




You're really becoming quite the Nature Boy...and we love it!


Good clean fun for all!

The end!