Figures

It figures that since I stayed up until almost 1am last night finishing Twilight (the book, not the movie) that Aidan would wake up at 6am and not go back to sleep. I don't do well with less than eight hours of shut eye, so I'm really dragging today. I just couldn't put it down though!! I started it on Monday night, read until midnight, then finished it last night after American Idol. I'm on the list for the next book in the series, but there are 100 people in front of me. Who knows how long it will take. I'm sure it will be worth the wait.

Other figures from my life right now. The figure of $863. Yes, that is how much it cost to fix the brake pads, rotors, and wheel bearing on the Escape. I HATE spending that much money fixing anything. You could take a trip to Mexico (or somewhere here in the states, thank you swine flu) for that amount of money. Ugh. I guess I should be thankful that I found a coupon and that they were offering a rebate, so the total came in under $1,000, but it's hard to be happy when you drop that kind of money on something that you don't want.

Stupid Varmints

We have an infestation of rabbits and squirrels and moles and probably a plethora of other wildlife that I don't even know about. They are eating my vegetation. The same vegetation that I worked so hard last summer to keep alive. Stupid animals! My dwarf lilac bushes are even more "dwarfed". Chewed down to almost nothing with just a few buds left. Same goes for one of my double knockout rose bushes. That's been chewed down to one tiny twig. I might try out some Liquid Fence, but from everything I've read, not much stops hungry rabbits and squirrels.

We had a nice weekend. On Friday night I got to spend some time with my friends, without Aidan. Then on Saturday night, Grandpa and Grandma Finn watched Aidan while Kyle and I went out to dinner. It was a wet weekend though and that makes Aidan an unhappy camper. He wants to go outside every time I let Roxie out, and the deck was just too wet for him to play on. Ooooh boy, did I get an earful each and every time he was denied from slipping out the door after Roxie. Distraction was my middle name this weekend, and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes", and "If You're Happy and You Know It" were sung repeatedly. Thank goodness Aidan is easily distracted. Or, it could just be my awful singing voice. I can just hear Aidan's thoughts, "Please stop singing, Mommy. I'll stop crying, I promise."

Wibble Wobble

Here's a compilation video of our drunken sailor (as Kyle calls him) toddling down the hall toward me and playing with some of his toys.



An update on my post-workout soreness...it's not as bad as I feared. I can lift Aidan and only have minor tightness in my abs, butt, and under my armpits (weird, I know).

My friend and roommate from college, Jamie, started her own business, so I thought I'd give it a shout-out. She's making baby or full-size quilts from your old baby clothes or t-shirts. Here's a link to check it out. She's always been so darn crafty. http://www.jellybeanquilts.com

TRX Suspension Training- Group Exercise Class - Click here for more blooper videos

Oh Lordy

In an effort to kick my workout up another notch (or ten) I decided that I wanted to sign up for a TRX suspension training class at the YMCA. I told Kyle that it could be my Mother's Day present since I had to pay extra money for the class. He agreed that money spent on working out was much more beneficial than money spent on a pedicure. (what I originally wanted, and I think both are equally important)

Today was my first official class and I don't think I will be able to lift Aidan today, tomorrow, or maybe even on Thursday. It is TOUGH! I took a demo class a few weeks ago on a Wednesday, and my butt still hurt the following Sunday. That's what led me to decide the class was something I probably needed to do.

It's hard to explain the class, so I posted a video of how it's done. The TRX room at the YMCA only has 5 suspension units, and there are only 4 of us in my class, so it's nowhere near as big as the class in the video. But, you get the idea.

We Have A Walker!

Aidan has been walking for about a week now, but with his fever and other stuff I forgot to post about it! He walks just about everywhere now, and sometimes he will surprise me by showing up in a doorway when I didn't even hear him coming. I used to know he was on his way to find me by the slap, slap of his hands on the floor when he was crawling. Now he's a little more stealthy. Watch out world. I intend to get some video of him walking, so stay tuned for that.

Okay, tell me if this is normal or weird. Lately Aidan has been taking the food out of his mouth in order to take a drink of milk/juice. It doesn't matter if he just put it in there or if he's been chewing for 5 minutes and could have just as easily swallowed it. While it's kind of amusing to watch, I definitely don't want him making a habit of taking chewed up food out of his mouth. Not very polite. He simply takes the food out of his mouth, holds it in his hand while he takes a drink from his sippy cup, then puts the food back in his mouth and continues to chew/swallow. Sometimes he also does this if he sees something else on his tray that he'd rather be eating (ie: a piece of fruit, but already has bread in his mouth) Any suggestions?

Back In Action

Aidan has returned to the land of the healthy with no side effects from his fever. He woke up yesterday raring to go. Must have just been a bug.

We've been outside every day this week. I got the front yard raked and fertilized, my flower beds cleared off, and Aidan's swing has been precariously hung from the tree. I need to figure out how to hang it safely...I think that will be a weekend problem.

Here are some pictures of Aidan on his new slide.

You Give Me Fever

That line from the song keeps running through my head. Aidan woke up from his afternoon nap yesterday one hot little tamale. I assumed it was because it was warm outside and he was wearing a thermal onesie, fleece pants, and had been under a blanket. I changed him into shorts and a t-shirt then took him for a long walk. When we got back I noticed he was still really warm. His temp was 101.2. Obviously it hadn't been what he was wearing. To make matters worse, Charlotte, Maggie, and Jackson had come over that morning for a play date. I had unknowingly let Aidan expose the babies and Charlotte to his sick germs. Crossing my fingers no one else gets sick. I would feel awful.

Aidan had a fever when he went to bed, when he got up at 6am, and before his afternoon nap today. He can't tell me what hurts, but he's eating and drinking okay (not great, but okay) and isn't tugging on his ears. I'm guessing it's just a virus, but if the fever hasn't gone away when he gets up from his afternoon nap today I'm going to give the dr.'s office a call to see what they have to say. It's no fun having a sick baby.

Happy Easter!

We had an Easter-filled weekend. On Saturday I colored eggs while Aidan watched/ate a snack. He shouted out orders at me (which sounded like ga! ga! ga!) and I would say "Oh, you want a blue egg? Okay, let's try that." I love coloring eggs, so I had fun. It was also nice outside on Saturday so we went on a walk, played at the local park, cleaned off some of my flower beds, and tried out his new slide. Aidan was a tired guy by the time bedtime rolled around.

The Easter Bunny visited our house while Aidan was sleeping and brought sippy cups, utensils, and summer pajamas. Aidan enjoyed pulling the new stuff out of his Easter basket. Both set of grandparents showered him with gifts too. He got swim trunks, a summer hat, a Minnesota ABC's book, and a cute little Easter bunny to play with.

After morning nap we attended Mass with Grandpa and Grandma Finn then went back to their house for lunch. Is there anything better than ham, cheesy potatoes, and a whipped cream fruit salad? I can't think of anything. Yum, it was delicious. We were all stuffed and Aidan needed a nap (as did I) so we headed home about 3pm and slept until 5pm. It was still sunny and warm so we took a walk to burn off some of the calories we consumed at lunch. The Zooper is back in commission. Kyle asked me again which stroller I plan to sell. Um, neither.

Aidan showing off Mommy's creativeness

What did the Easter Bunny bring?

Cups and utensils!

New pajamas!

A hat and swim trunks!

The bags are fun too

Eating graham crackers in the middle of the floor. Why? I don't know.

Decided to join the group and eat his snack at the table

Easter Bunny cake that Grandma Michele made

Licking frosting off of Grandma's fingers

Memories

Memories can be a tricky thing, especially years down the road when you can't quite remember exactly what happened (or when, or where). I've been busy this week putting all of Aidan's pictures in order in his photo albums and writing captions and dates so that years from now we'll know who's in the pictures and what's going on. We were definitely camera-happy the first month of Aidan's life. I think those pictures filled up half of an album! Things slowed down months nine through eleven, but I still had to start a second photo album for Aidan. That's a lot of pictures!

I've also started making a book out of my blog posts using Blurb.com. Basically, Blurb copies all of your posts and pictures into it's software (free) and then gives you options on layouts for the pages. An 80 page book costs $30. I'm not sure if I'll just do a book for Aidan's first year of life, or continue adding posts to the book and print it out at some later date. I just wanted to make sure that my posts were saved somewhere other than Blogger. What if something happened and they magically disappeared? Not the end of the world, but I would be super disappointed. Anyway, I'm having a great time editing my new book. It's fun reading back through the old posts and figuring out how to arrange the pages. I may end up with a novel instead of a coffee table book. : )

1 Year Check-Up

Well, I'm glad that's over. I knew going in that the MMR shot was going to be painful, but I didn't know the finger prick was going to be so traumatizing for poor Aidan! He got through his three shots (MMR, Hepatitis A, and Chicken Pox) like he always does...screaming during the shots but calming down fairly quickly right after they were done. But whoa, you'd think they had chopped off his middle finger to get the blood with the way he screamed and wouldn't stop. It didn't help that they needed two vials and it was just coming out in little drops. It took a little while to get both of the vials full. Those blood samples were for lead and anemia checks.

Besides the trauma of being poked 4 times, everything else went well. The doctor said he won't be concerned with walking (or the lack thereof) until the 15 month check-up. It's time to start drinking more whole milk and less formula. I've already started the bottle-weaning process. We're down to 2 bottles of formula; one before morning nap and one before bedtime. The rest of the day Aidan drinks whole milk out of a sippy cup. Somehow I'm going to have to try getting more milk into Aidan. He should be drinking 20-25 oz of milk/formula a day. Right now he's drinking 18 oz max. Not for lack of trying on my part, he just doesn't drink very much whole milk out of his sippy cup. Maybe a funnel directly into his mouth so I can pour the milk down his throat? Just kidding. : )

1 Year Stats:

Height: 30 inches 56th %-ile
(poor kid dropped dramatically in the height department since he was born. He was in the 97th %-ile then. Destined to be on the short side like his mom and dad)

Weight: 20 lbs 11 oz 18th %-ile
(doing MUCH better in the weight department. He has gained exactly 12 lbs since he was born...one for each month he has been alive)

Head Circumference: 18 3/4 inches 82nd %-ile
(Krista, you were right. Aidan DOES have a big head!!) : )

Aidan's Birthday Party (part deux)

Whew! We made it. The weekend is over and we are all still sane. It was busy, busy, busy. Kali's fiance, Kyle, came in on Thursday evening, Grandpa, Nana, and Aunt Kali got here on Friday afternoon, and Aidan's party was Saturday afternoon. I took two naps on Sunday...that's how tired I was.

Aidan had a fantastic birthday party and got lots of wonderful gifts that he is already playing with. Favorites right now include his new Radio Flyer wagon, Little People tractor, and Little Tikes mini car (that he pushed around saying "vrrrrm, vrrrrm") We sent a whole garbage bag full of old toys back with Nana and Grandpa to make room for Aidan's new toys.

The weather was kind of iffy on Sunday morning, so Nana and Grandpa decided to stay an extra day and take off on Monday morning instead. (really had to twist their arm, right?) ;) That meant that Grandpa got put to work fixing everything that has broken since the last time he was here. Improvements include: a new valve in the downstairs toilet so it doesn't run constantly, new light fixtures in the kitchen, Aidan's growth chart is finally hung, and the wagon got put together. Gotta love a handy Grandpa!!!

Here is a slide show of Aidan's party. There are some great pictures that get cut off. If you would like to see them, just click on the slide show while it is playing and it will take you to my webshots page and you will be able to see the whole picture.




Aidan’s Birthday Party

Aidan's Birthday Party

Here's a little taste of Aidan's birthday party. Pictures coming soon (when I have time to go through the 111 that we took and just find the good ones) : )