Life with Aidan Kai

Zoo Fun

2012-02-16T19:01:00.000-08:00

On Monday we had a zoo trip with our mom and munchkins group. I always love these trips as they are interesting and educational. Each month they have a theme and this months theme was about tails. We always have the same two zoo employees Desiree and Leigh and they always are patient with us ( you kind of have no choice but to be patient when your audience is between 1 and 4 ha!) and do an awesome job! Sometimes they take us on a bus but this month we walked. We walked all around the zoo and compared tails on the different animals and learned the function of their tails. We spent a lot of time looking at the big cats and learned some really interesting facts but I won't bore you. Most of the time the kiddos are doing their own thing and it is the moms that are listening intently on what Desiree and Leigh have to say, so I guess in a way the zoo trips are more for the moms than the kids. lol!

Desiree rounding up the group.
Aidan and his girls. lol!
Learning the difference between a peacock and a peahen ( who knew a girl peacock was called a peahen?- I sure didn't)
stopping to learn about the camels ...

Aidan and Karen being silly.
After the tour we all split up. Aidan wanted to ride the skyfari so we did that with Karen and her mom. They had to leave afterwards so Aidan and I had lunch and I let him play at the zoo playground for awhile. Here he is laying down as he said he needed to "relax". Stinker. He is laying down and eating an apple.

What's the code?

2012-02-15T13:29:00.001-08:00

Aidan and I play a silly game. It's called "What's the code?" We will wrestle around and I will wrap my hand around his leg or arm or get him in a big bear hug. I will pretend that my hands are stuck and that I can't move. While he is giggling his head off he will ask, "what's the code"- meaning "what is the code to unlock your hands/ body?" I will then give him a math riddle. For example- it is the sum of 2 and 3 or it is the number that comes between 27 and 29 or it is the number that comes before 200. He has to answer the question correctly to unlock my hands. If he gets it wrong, I answer "that is incorrect" ( sometimes in a cool robot voice) and he has to anwer it correctly to unlock my hands. Sometimes he "locks me" and he is the one that gives me the riddle and I have to answer it correctly. I know I am a nerd and leave it to a teacher to turn a wrestling game into a math game, lol!

Aidan really struggles with being able to sit. It is a problem at meal time or anytime he has to sit and complete a task or sit and listen. The boy just can not sit! I have experimented with letting him sit on a therapy ball at meal time and doing some heavy sensory imput before meal time. His OT thinks it is sensory related and she is working with him on it too. It was really apparent to me that it is a problem yesterday when I went to his school and helped out with his Valentines party. There were 23 other kids in the class and he was the only one not sitting and enjoying the goodies. He sat for about 5 minutes and then he was up wondering around. It didn't seem to bother the teachers but is sure bothered me! I talked to his teacher and asked her if it was something that he did often at school and she said he did. She said he does fine when she is working with him in a small group but as soon as she moves to another table he is standing up. I think that is going to be a HUGE problem in kindergarten and it is one of the reasons we are still considering transitional kindergarten. On the other hand I don't know if it is something that "giving him the gift of time" will make a difference. It may be something that takes years to change or maybe he is just going to be a kid that stands all the time.

In an effort to help him with this issue I ordered him a "lap pad" this morning. It is a heavy pad that he puts on his lap when he is sitting. The theory is that it will give him the extra sensory input that he is craving and will make him sit longer. At this point I am willing to give anything a shot to help him. Anyone have any suggestions? I really feel that he is more than ready for kindergarten in so many areas and I am afraid he is going to become a behavioral problem in Kindergarten if I send him to transitional kindergarten next year due to boredom.

Here is the lap pad.
and here is the pattern of the material I chose to cover it. I hope he loves it!

T ball

2012-02-12T17:37:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Aidan had his first day of T ball. It was a cold and damp morning but that didn't stop any of our enthusiasm. When we arrived there most of the other kids were already there "warming up" and practicing hitting balls of the tees. I was really surprised at how well some of the kids were doing hitting the ball! They had great form and accuracy. Clinton and I saw this and just kind of looked at each other and told Aidan to go give it a shot. He walked up to the t and wasn't sure what to do (duh! we should have practiced with him earlier). Clinton ran over and helped him out the best that he could ( but remember he grew up in a country where cricket is preferred over baseball). We both (ok maybe just me) thought- oh boy this is going to be a long 8 weeks!

Soon enough the coach called the kids over to the "dugout". They introduced themselves and did some warm up exercises. The coach then told them to go to home plate- Aidan was the leader of the pack and had no idea where he was talking about (doh!) but he figured it out soon enough. :0) The coach then had them walk around all the bases and repeat the name of the bases as they walked around. They then took turns individually running around the bases. Just for the record Aidan did a GREAT job doing this and one of the other kids started with 3rd base. Ha! They then ran to first base, practiced running backwards to second, and "side running" or whatever it is called to third, and then running home. They practiced making "alligator hands" and catching ground balls and practiced throwing. The coach showed Aidan the proper technique to throw the ball by having him put his foot forward, pointing with his left hand where he wanted to throw the ball, and then throwing. It took some practice but he finally got it! His throws weren't that bad!

Next up was batting. Once again the coach showed Aidan the proper technique by showing him how to do "railroad tracks" with his feet, batter up, keep your eye on the ball, and swing. By George my boy got it and made contact with the ball! Yippee!! They practiced this for awhile and he had some decent hits!

They finished by practicing doing a "homerun". They hit the ball and then ran around all the bases- again one of the kids started with third base.

So I was uneasy at the beginning as to how he was going to do. All I had to do was trust my kid and trust the coach and he ended up doing great! I am excited for the next 7 weeks!
sitting in the "dugout"
warming up....

running backwards. I particularly LOVE this exercise as it is good for his toe walking.

Dad attempting to assist him when we first arrived.
practicing "alligator hands" and throwing.
look at that form!

making his "home run"
"Hands in" at the end.

Valentine Exchange

2012-02-10T16:56:00.000-08:00

I hosted a Valentine exchange today for our mom's group at a park close to our house. The kids decorated bags and handed out Valentines- and oh played in the dirt, creek, and ran around making up games with various types of balls. I love this particular park because it has the perfect recipe for kids- dirt, sticks, rocks, and water. There is an open grassy field to play with sporting equipment. I also like it because it changes things up from your typical park around here with sand, a play structure, and a riding path for bikes and trikes. Have I mentioned that I love California because of all the parks (and well maintained at that) they have to offer! LOVE it! I of course also love the park close to my moms house in Tn- it is the best I have ever seen. :0)

It was extemely HOT today but I think everyone had a great time!

getting ready for our friends to get here.
climbing trees....
one of the creative moms brought these cupcakes...
handing out valentines....
see- sticks, water, dirt.

playing some crazy game they made up. :0)

Dentist

2012-02-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

getting xrays...

Yesterday I took Aidan to the dentist. I took him to a pediatric dentist when he was 2 and it was a complete joke. The guy didn't even spend 20 seconds in his mouth and told us everything looked good but he needed to ditch the passie. He didn't even bother counting his teeth. I haven't taken him back since then because I knew I wouldn't be taking him back to the same place. I finally met a dentist back in the fall that I liked. He made me feel at ease and seemed like he would be really good with kids as I watched him interact with Aidan, so last week I finally made an appointment.

I was more worried about how Aidan would do compared to the shape of his teeth. We work hard brushing them. About a year ago he really started letting me get in there and do a decent job.We spend 20 seconds on the top back, bottom back, top back other side, bottom back other side, and the fronts. That is about a minute and 40 seconds I spend brushing them. You are supposed to brush for 2 minutes and we are working towards that amount of time. I was shocked to learn that he had 3 cavities! The dentist said that his teeth looked to be in good shape except for the front top 3. I discussed with her and we finally figured out it was probably from giving him milk when he goes to bed. :0( Aidan still gets milk at bedtime after he brushes his teeth. It is more habit than anything. Drinking milk was always one way of getting calories in the kid whenever he refused to eat so it made me feel like at least he was getting something! I talked to him and let him know that there would be no more milk at bedtime but he could have water. So far he has been great and it hasn't been an issue! He was so good at the dentist getting xrays and while the dental hygienist was cleaning his teeth! I hope he does as well next month when he goes back for his fillings.

Swim Lessons

2012-02-04T09:30:00.001-08:00

This week I decided that it was time to get Aidan back into swim lessons. The last time he had lessons , he was 2 almost 3 years old. It was a really cold June and the water was freezing cold. He did ok in the classes because he has a "pleaser" type nature and wanted to do well for the instructor and me, but has had an aversion to water since that time. It really makes me nervous that he doesn't know how to swim because there are so many pools and not to mention the ocean in Southern California. I want him to learn to love the water and more importantly be able to save himself if he should ever fall in.

Our neighbors recommended a swim school in the area so while Aidan was in school on Thursday I went and signed him up. He had his first lesson yesterday and I was really nervous about how he would react knowing water is not his favorite thing. When he first got introduced to Mr. Matt his swim instructor he reacted how I thought he would, he ran away and hid. I talked to him for a minute and coaxed him back into the pool area. I attempted to get him to sit on the side of the pool but he refused. After a minute he decided that he wanted to sit down by himself. The second he got in the water he was a happy camper. The water is very WARM there and this made him happy! It also helped that he is in class with another little boy who is also 4 years old. The instructor/ student ratio is 1 to 3. Micah's sister was also in the group but she is an independent swimmer and spent a lot of time swimming lengths of the pool. I watched from the observation area and saw lots of smiles coming from him which made me happy. Mr. Matt said he did great. He was a little nervous so he really didn't push him to much but it was a great first day! At the end I asked Aidan if he had fun and he said, "yes, I want to swim every day!" yay!

Spending some time in the play area before class. The entire place is geared towards kids which I love!

checking out the toys...

Getting ready to get in the pool. This was taken before his class actually started.
Hey mom! I like it!
Aidan and Mr. Matt...
Aidan, Mr. Matt, and Micah. I'm not sure why Mr. Matt looks like a sour puss, he certainly didn't come off that way. lol!

Vision Board 2012

2012-02-03T07:30:00.000-08:00

On New Years day Clinton and I had a Vision Board party. We invited friends over and we all thought about our goals for 2012 and went to work cutting out pictures and words that inspired us from magazines and creating our vision boards. For those of you who don't know what a vision board is, it is really a visual representation of your goals and dreams. Clinton has a huge vision board that he created about 5 years ago that literally takes up a couple of walls. It is one that is more about his goals and dreams for the next 20 years. He sometimes puts it up in the training room when he does trainings. It is very inspiring to see. I had never created one before, so I was really excited to do it. We have put them up on the wall beside our bed so it is the first thing we see in the morning and at night.

Clinton and I were looking at our boards the other night and about half of the things I put on there have already come to fruition! It is only the beginning of February! A lot of mine had to do with getting organized. While I still have a way to go, my pantry is so organzied that even Aidan knows where to put things and he helps me put away groceries! Also, we did a big cleanup of our personal belongings in the garage ( the business stuff still needs to be done) and I am very happy how it all turned out. I still need to work on our closets ( for the life of me I can not keep our bedroom closet straight) and Aidans play room. I organized Aidans books, which was a huge job because he must have three to four hundred books! A lot of them were from my teaching days that he inherited. Also on the board were pictures of snow, a new car, and a whales tail. Check, Check, and Check! I still haven't even started with the health and fitness portion and need to get on the ball with it. I think when your 4 year old asks you, "Mommy when are you going back to the gym?" that it is time! I also have a few big projects on there that I will write more about later ;0)

What can I say? Vision Boards rock!

41 and balloon parade

2012-01-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my birthday! To celebrate we did one of my favorite past times - whale watching! The last time we went whale watching Aidan was about 19 months old and it wasn't very successful. This time he enjoyed watching for the whales but spent most of the time hanging out with his dad on the deck upstairs. We got to see a few Fin Whales (which grow to be about 90 feet long), a few humpback whales, and a pod of about 100 rare dolphins. The dolphins were all scarred because they are the type that fight big squid for food. They were bigger than your typical bottle nose dolphin and appeared white because of the scarring. Call me a big nerd because I love whale watching and ocean wildlife but it is true. I got a very special birthday present this year- a new car! It wasn't an expected gift and lets just say the hubby hadn't intended on purchasing one, but my car has been having major problems and it was necessary. I absolutely love, love, love my car. It feels like I am driving a spaceship with the fancy schmancy onboard computer. Thanks Clinto!

Between Christmas and New Years we went to the balloon parade and I forgot to blog about it and post pictures. We drove to a trolley station and then took the trolley into town as an extra treat for Aidan. It was an awesome day!

Mama's birthday- whale watching.
I totally forgot to take pics of the whales. Here is a really bad shot of a couple of the dolphins.
Taking the trolley downtown to watch the parade.
Hanging with dad on the trolley
one of my favorite pics from the day! Watching the parade.
A few of the balloons.

These days Aidan sticks out his tongue anytime you attempt to get a picture of him.

*sigh* look how grown up he looks....
Riding the trolley home.

January Fun

2012-01-21T14:48:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about living in Southern Ca is that we have the sand, surf, beautiful weather AND the mountains and snow! What a blessing to be able to "have it all". Clinton and I hadn't been to the mountains in several years, so we decided to hop in the car last week and drive up for the day. Amazingly it only took us 2 hours from the time we left our house until we were actually on the slopes! Our plan was to put Aidan in ski school and for Clinton and I to ski. Aidan quickly debunked this idea so Aidan and I played in the snow play area and sledded while Clinton skied. A great time was had by all and after watching the snowboarders and skiers all day Aidan was begging to go to snowboard school! Yay!

We have done several things with the moms group we belong to this month. We have had a couple of play dates, a clothing and toy swap, taken the munchkins hiking, and taken a field trip to the zoo. So this month we have enjoyed the warm weather AND the snow!

Last weekend we drove to Orange County and visited our friends Jacob and Suzanne. They are the ones who moved to West Virginia last summer. It was great seeing them and I think they had a great visit! So much they extended their time here! HA! What can I say about California- once it gets in your blood it is really hard to leave. I think they were sad to go back to West Virginia today. I am selfishly still holding out hope that they move back here. :)

The munchkins on our hike....
Aidan holding Ms. Chiyo's (Karens mom) hand on the hike.
All the munchkins....
After we finished the hike the kiddos found a pile of sticks. They played with them for 30 to 45 minutes and would have played longer if we didn't need to go.
see. they all have sticks in their hands.
Aidan and Karen holding hands getting ready to get on the bus at the zoo.

Today we learned about the polar bears. I LOVE these tours because they are so educational and we have our own guide. I was so happy to see the polar bears awake and playing! 9 times out of 10 when you go there they are sleeping, but they had just had their breakfast and were in a playing mood. See him playing with the ball? The polar bears and gorillas are my favorite to watch!
Story time at the zoo. Gotta love it!
playing after lunch.
yay! Aidan finally got to throw some snow balls. He has been asking to throw snow balls all winter. lol.
View from the top of the hill we sledded down. There was a chair lift that took you to the top but it wasn't running that day so we got our exercise for the day. lol.

view from the bottom of the hill.

Taking a lunch break and wearing daddies goggles.

Play time with dad after lunch.
This is a little boy named Nikita that Aidan met who is from Romania. They played and played and played. I saw Aidan with a handful of snow heading towards Nikita as he was bent down building a snowman. I KNEW what Aidan had in mind and I yelled at him to stop. But it was to late and Aidan put the snow down the back of Nikitas jacket.
Silly boy should have listened to me. Pay backs are no fun.
Aidan and Jacob. You can take the boys out of West Virginia but you can't take the West Virginia out of the boys. lol. Suzanne and I were standing there talking and the next thing we knew both boys had climbed into the back of the pick up truck. Luckily it belonged to Suzanne's friend and she was borrowing it for the weekend.
Mischievous little smiles. :)

my boy is growing up.

2012-01-20T08:38:00.000-08:00

It seems like just in the past week Aidan has grown and gotten more mature. I thought I would post a few things he is doing lately so I won't forget....

-He is becoming a big help around the house :) He is doing things like bringing packages inside for me that are left by UPS when my hands are full, gathering his cups from his room, picking up the living room at night, and helping me do laundry.

-He is getting much better and more confident on his bike. It may be time to take the training wheels off soon.

-One of the many things that I love most about Aidan is that he considers others feelings. He doesn't like it when other kids become sad and is always there to help them. He is much more a peacemaker rather than a fighter. He also has a very tender heart and gets his feelings hurt easily.

-Aidan has an outstanding memory! It takes him about 5 minutes to memorize his bible verses for church and he doesn't forget them! EVER! He is always in charge of remembering where we parked the car when we go to an amusement park or the zoo. lol! He kicks my butt in the game Memory! Seriously, he wins 9 out of 10 times. We were playing the other day and I could tell that he was "letting me win". I think it goes back to the above and considering others feelings. lol!

- He is reading at I would estimate ( I haven't tested him) an early 2nd grade level. He blows my mind with the words he is able to read. He will only read when he wants to and won't always read when I ask him. I haven't been pushing this because I don't want him to feel pressure to read and I want him to enjoy it. However, I am worried about this when he starts school. He prefers to read signs and things in his environment rather than reading books.

- Aidan loves for me to read to him. Clinton bought him a set of all the Children's Classics before he was born. I recently started reading these to him at night instead of always reading his other books. We started with Alice in Wonderland and have also read a little of Treasure Island. I think TI was a little much for him because it scared him, so I put it away for later.

-Like every other kid, Aidan gets bumps and bruises throughout the day. His new thing is to tell me "its swallowing" ( it's swelling) when he gets hurt.

- I think he has a pretty high vocabulary for his age and some of the things he says blow me away.

-Aidan is eating much better than he used to. He will actually come to me and say "mom I'm hungry". Music to my ears.

- Aidan is getting stronger. I was helping him with the monkey bars the other day and I could tell a difference in his upper body strength. He wasn't as "loose" in his shoulders.

- Aidan still hates anything to do with coloring or writing. This has been a struggle for us and is another concern I have for when he starts school. He is still going to Occupational Therapy and we are working on his fine motor skills.

-I still can't take Aidan to watch a movie. He has no patience for it and will ask to go home after 45 minutes to an hour. His attention span is not the best unless he is doing something he really enjoys.

-Aidan now pumps his legs on the swings although he much prefers for him mom to push him. :)

-Aidan enjoys reading his bible. :) Some mornings I peek in at him to see if he is awake. Often times he is laying in bed reading his bible.

-I am still on the fence as to whether I am going to send him to transitional Kindergarten ( formerly known as PEPP) or regular Kindergarten next year. In some areas I feel he is more than ready for Kindergarten and other areas I feel he could use the extra year. I will be talking to his preschool teacher and OT about it and getting their opinions. Transitional Kindergarten is half a day while regular Kindergarten is full day. Some days I feel like home schooling him. sigh.

-Aidan makes me smile a hundred times a day. He has such a sweet nature to him and is so funny. He melts my heart and I couldn't be more blessed.

December Catch Up- Christmas performance, Christmas lights, Boat Parade

2012-01-19T10:10:00.000-08:00

I am still playing catch up from December. I was happy that Aidan got to participate in two Christmas performances this year- one at church and one at school. I am going to attempt to post the performance at church so those of you who are not on Facebook can see it. So cute! I don't think there is anything much cuter than preschoolers putting on a performance. It just melts my heart Every. Single. Time!

Since we stayed at home this year for the holidays we were able to explore San Diego a little more and find some hidden treasures of the city! There are so many cool things to see during the holidays around here! The Christmas lights displays around the neighborhoods are unlike anything I have ever seen before! There were a couple of nights that we went to a neighborhood that has named themselves "Christmas Card Lane". Unbelievable! You couldn't just drive around and appreciate all the displays so we parked and walked around the neighborhood. There were probably 4 blocks and only 2 or 3 houses that weren't decorated! Every house had a theme and we saw everything from Disney to "remember our soldiers who are away" themes. Each house had these giant boards in their yards displaying their particular theme. It looks like one artist did every display because they are all similar as far as the quality of work. They had high school students selling hot chocolate and cookies as a fund raiser, horse and carriage rides ( we asked about this because we wanted to do it but it turns out someone was throwing a christmas party in the neighborhood and rented it for their guests!), carolers walking around the neighborhood, and some houses even had their own concerts going on! It really felt surreal being there and felt like we should have been in some Charles Dickens novel. lol!

We also learned about a place called "Santa's Village". This is not advertised and it is only through word of mouth. It is a house in one of the wealthier neighborhoods in our community. The people open up their home and let people tour the bottom floor which is decorated .Mr. and Mrs. Claus are there for pictures, there is free hot chocolate, apple cider, and cookies, and every child who comes is given a gift! Apparently this has been going on for several years because there were several hundred to a thousand people there the night we were there! The line to see Santa was about 1 hour to an hour and a half so we opted just to see him from a distance. I got the inside scoop for next year as to when to go so it wouldn't be as crowded. We inquired about leaving a donation but they wouldn't accept any donations and any money they receive goes to charity! I just love the sense of community here and how people are soooo giving! It is such an amazing place to spend the holidays and to feel the spirit of the season! Even in times of economic recession people go out of their way to spread happiness and cheer.

Another family activity we did during December was to go to the Boat Parade. We did this a couple of years ago and went again this year. People get really creative and use their imaginations to decorate their boats.

Aidan and his dad before his Christmas performance at school....
silly boy!
Aidan at school getting ready to perform.
singing with his classmates.
Christmas Card Lane. I took about 75 pictures but wont bore you with them all! lol! Here are just a couple of the houses. This is the horse and buggy that someone rented out for their Christmas party.

Loved the "Little Bear" theme.
This was by far Aidans favorite display! Someone set up a train track in their entire front yard ( there were about 3 houses with train displays but this was the biggest) He could have stayed here for hours and asked to "see the trains" every night until Christmas!
101 Dalmations...
Finding Nemo....
This one was my fav! The Spiderman was very realistic looking! You can't tell from the picture but the lights were the "webs" coming from his fingers.
Boat Parade...

Fun times!
One of my favorite pics from this holiday season!

Christmas and Disneyland

2012-01-18T16:15:00.000-08:00

Yay! my computers are fixed, well sort of..... I picked the three of them up this morning and already one has crashed on me. Hopefully, the other two will be ok. At least I am able to blog and right now Aidan is playing games on the other one. :)

I am going to play catch up... We had a wonderful Christmas! We were able to spend a lot of time together as a family and had a quiet Christmas day. We did a lot leading up to Christmas which I will talk about in a different post. :)

Aidan got a lot of nice things for Christmas and his biggest gift was a trampoline. I am hoping that it helps to build up his leg muscles and helps to burn some energy. Ha! He is still in Occupational therapy but his Physical Therapy is over. I wish I could say that I think it helped him but honestly I can't see that it did much to help him at all. I really do my best to get him out every day to do some type of physical activity and I think this has helped more than anything. I was at the park with him today and I could tell a difference in his muscle strength as I was working with him on crossing the monkey bars. He has been interested in playing tee ball so I signed him up and he starts next month!

After Christmas I got this brilliant idea that I wanted to see the decorations at Disney before they took them down, so two days before New Years we loaded up the car and drove to Disneyland. What a mistake! It seems EVERYONE in Southern California, China, Japan, etc.... wanted to see Disney at Christmas. It was so crowded that you literally couldn't walk in some areas. I think we got to do 3 or 4 rides, but hey at least it wasn't raining! The parade was really cool as we got to see several of the bands that were in the Rose Bowl Parade and the laser light show was spectacular as always!

On New Years day we invited some friends over and had a Vision Board Party. We sat around and created our vision boards for 2012! It looks like it may be an exciting year! ;0)

Here are some pics from Christmas and Disney......

putting out the reindeer food out on Christmas Eve....

The letter Aidan left for Santa. Instead of milk and cookies he wanted to leave passion fruit juice and cookies. Always marching to the beat of his own drummer.
The letter Santa left for Aidan. Don't ask me why it turned out sideways.
The loot Santa left....
Our stockings....
Christmas morning....

One of Aidans favorite gifts this year was a toy tool box.
Aidan and I jumping on the trampoline. He didn't take his pajamas off the entire day!
Disney...
Downtown Disney....

Playing at Toontown...

watching the parade...

Computer problems

2012-01-12T12:17:00.000-08:00

Sorry so long without a post! I just took 3 of our computers to the computer doctor:( Hopefully he will get them up and running soon. My mom and Clinton went in together to get me this snazzy new iPad (which I love), but it will not allow me to post pictures on my blog or Facebook very easily.

We had a great Christmas. It was lowkey and just the three of us. I will post everything we have been up to once I am able.

Day 14 Seaworld

2011-12-14T15:40:00.000-08:00

Day 14 on the advent calendar was to go to Seaworld. It had been awhile since we have been to Seaworld and we had a blast today! The park was decorated for the holidays and they had "Snowland" there. There was snow there for the kiddos to play in as well as a little hill for sledding. The only thing they didn't have there that they had at Legoland was a snowball throwing area. Aidan was bummed. It was his favorite thing to do so he decided to make them anyway and throw them at a statue thingy until they made an announcement of "no throwing snowballs". Aidan threw a few more and then I reminded him of the rules. Man was he ticked! He ran away to some bleachers near by and pouted for a few minutes but then he was over it. lol.

Aidan had his Christmas performance at church on Sunday and I posted it on facebook. It was so cute! He did a great job! I attempted to post it here but it wouldn't upload for some reason. I got some cute video today too of him sledding and of him and Zoey and Elmo. I will attempt to post those and see if I can, if not I will post them on facebook. Tomorrow night is his performance at school. I can't wait!

John our Elf was involved in an accident the other day. He was hanging out on our chandelier and I forgot he was there. I sat down to wrap some presents and turned on the light. OOPS! I melted his cheek and part of his outfit. I ran to Target and Barnes and Noble after Aidan went to sleep while our neighbor stayed with him but they were all sold out. I put a bandaid on him and Aidan seemed fine with it.

poor John.....
Aidan put on his sunglasses, looked in the mirror and said " I look gooooood". lol. Little ham.

I can't believe this is our first picture ever with Shamu.
At the new Sea Turtle exhibit...

playing in the snow...
getting ready to go down the hill...

just as he finished asking to do it again...
snowballs!

pouting because he couldn't make any more snowballs. lol!

I LOVE the holidays and being Aidan Kai's Mama!

2011-12-10T18:49:00.001-08:00

I just love the Holiday season! I love everything about it- the fresh smell of the Christmas tree and Christmas treats, the lights ( oh my! the lights in our neighborhood- there are more and more going up every day!), the Christmas Cheer, all the decorations, figuring out the perfect gifts to give, the DIY ( do it yourself) projects, the Christmas parties and celebrations, and yes even the busyness at the stores. I go full steam ahead the whole month of December and figure I can just collapse in January. lol! It makes me sad that our families are so far away and even Clinton has been away for the past month (he is due home next week) but having Aidan makes the holidays so much more FUN! I LOVE his little 4 year old cuteness!! I love his curiosity and the questions he asks on a daily basis. I love his innocence and his colorful imagination! I love watching him play and doing things for the first time. I love his funny personality and creativity. I love how when he gets a boo boo it only takes one kiss from Mama to make it all better. I love all of our cuddle time (I am so happy that he still likes for me to hold him!). I love how smart and intuitive he is. I love when he comes to me and tells me these off the wall stories that he has made up. I love that he has an imaginary friend "Michael". I love his passion for trains and cars. I love that he thinks about things that I would never think about in a million years like- What kind of car Barrack Obama drives, what makes the stars shine, and what makes up air. What a true blessing from God this child has been and continues to be! I am blessed.

So here is some of the holiday fun Aidan and I have had this past week.....

Making cookies with Squirt- his classroom turtle.

Some mischief Squirt and John the Elf got into one night. Coloring in one of Aidan's coloring books....
getting a haircut.....
decorating the tree.... I haven't gotten any really good pictures of the completed tree yet, so I will post once I do.
playing with his friends that are in my mom's group. We had our Christmas party at the park...
Swinging with Karen....
working out how to play ring around the rosie......
more mischief from Squirt and John the Elf.... Enjoying a late night snack.
What have you done to our picture John?????
We had a play date with Emily our neighbor at our house. We. made and decorated more Christmas cookies.
getting ready tonight to go to Christmas in the Park. Man I need to get this kid to the dentist!
Christmas in the Park.....
They had face painting there. Out of all the things Aidan could have chosen (all Christmas) he chose a Menorah AND a Rudolph nose! Go figure. Just part of his quirky personality I love!

Advent Calendar

2011-12-04T17:29:00.001-08:00

We are giving the Advent Calendar another go this year. Last year it didn't work out so well. I put some candy and some activities throughout the month. Aidan being 3 and all thought that he could go and get a candy off whenever he felt like it! This year I changed things up and put all activities. These are just normal things that we would do anyways during the Christmas season. I love the advent calendar because it has gotten me organized and Aidan is excited every day to see what he gets to do for the day! I love the fact that he can read the activities on his own this year! He is reading amazingly well these days. His Sunday school teacher was in shock when I picked him up this morning. She said, He can read! I said yes he can.

So far we have made Christmas cookies, gone to Legoland, and tonight we are decorating the Christmas tree. We were supposed to do a special activity at the park yesterday but Aidan was just exhausted and said he didn't feel well I decided to nix it.

Legoland was so much fun! Since we are pass holders they sent us some free passes to use during the month of December. We invited our neighbors to go with us. They have a 4 year old little girl and a baby. The kids had so much fun and Aidan was so excited to have someone to go with him. They had snow there this year! They got to go sledding, make snow balls, and help build a snowman! We had a couple of little incidences while we were there. Emily got a gate slammed on her face as she was walking out of the driving school area. She got a gash on her eye but luckily a little ice took care of it. A few minutes later we were in the little (but big) play area and Aidan just vomited out of the blue. I had NO warning. I was watching him go down the slide and noticed he had a weird look on his face once he got off. I asked him if he was going to throw up and we didn't even make it 3 feet. I got him cleaned up and asked him if he wanted to sit down and take a rest. He said "no I want to go play". He did and was fine for the rest of the day. Aidan has been complaining about his back hurting ( his chief complaint yesterday) so I had Dr. Danny take a look at him today. Aidan raised his shirt and Dr. Danny immediately saw what Aidan was talking about. He pointed to the spot that Aidan said hurt (without me showing him) and had me look at it. Sure enough there was a little indention of his spine. It is in the same spot that Aidan hurt when a babysitter was with him while I was sick. He evidently was horsing around , did a flip, and somehow got a rug burn on his back. He has been complaining of his back hurting off and on since then. I never really connected the two. Dr. Danny gave him an adjustment so hopefully it took care of it ( incidentally the part of the spine that had the indention is the part that has to do with the stomach so I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the vomiting)

Elf on a shelf has also made a reappearance this year. Aidan was terrified of him last year so I just put him away. This year he is kind of into him! He named him "John". For those of you who don't know how Elf on a shelf works- there is a little Elf and a book that comes in the package. The story goes that the elf is a magical Christmas elf. He is there watching everything you do. Each night he flies to the North Pole and gives Santa a report. He comes back in the morning and is always in a different location. Part of the fun is that the child has to locate the elf each morning. Also, that elf can be mischievous! The other night he got one of Aidans coloring books and colored all over one of the pages and one night he ended up in our little bird cage. He is going fishing tonight in the toilet for gold fish! He is also going to make smores, take a ride in one of Aidans toy cars, help himself to a midnight snack, and other fun tricks! This weekend Aidan got to take home his classroom stuffed animal which is a little stuffed turtle named Squirt. He comes with a journal that the child and parent are supposed to write in and post pictures of all of Squirts adventures. Squirt and John the elf have been partners in crime this weekend! I can't wait to write all about it in the journal. I will post pics of Squirt and John later.

Here is a list of our Advent Activities this year.....

- make christmas cookies with mom

- Go to Legoland

- go to Winter Wonderland at the park

- help decorate the Christmas tree

- make a special Christmas card

-go shopping to buy mimi a special gift

-attend a holiday party

-watch a christmas movie and ear popcorn ( aidan doesn't like hot chocolate)

- make various holiday crafts

-attend our community tree lighting

-drive around and look at Christmas lights

- read a new Christmas book

-go to Seaworld

- write a letter to Santa and see him at the mall

- make a christmas alphabet book

- attend Boats on Parade

- play a christmas game (stocking dice)

- got to the zoo

-make reindeer food

- Special Christmas eve with our family and wear new christmas pj's.

Here is our advent calendar. Aidan is holding up one of the little slips of paper that tells the activity for the day.
Legoland.... Here Aidan is holding Squirt.
This is how Southern California kids have fun in the snow!

Emily getting ready to go down the hill.
The snowball area. The kids got to make snowballs and then throw them at targets.

Emily, Avery, and Aidan. I just LOVE little Avery. She really gives me baby fever every time I am around her. She is so sweet and just a really good natured baby!
Who the heck are these guys? Elves that were around the snow area.
Driving the cars. Aidan loves driving them now and they did about 4 times!
Emily....

What happened to November?

2011-12-03T14:51:00.000-08:00

Can someone please tell me what happened to November? It seems it came and went really quickly! I didn't post in November so I will play catch up.

The middle of November Aidan and I flew to Tennessee where we had our annual girls trip to Gatlinburg with my mom, aunt, and cousin. We always have such a good time and I am afraid it is going to be our last year as Aidan will be in Kindergarten next year ( or PEPP we are still debating)! I don't think it is a big deal to miss preschool but it is a totally different story once you enter public school. I am already dreading Aidan having to go to school every day. I don't know what I will do with myself all day! :( I know that he is more than ready and will do great but this mama is NOT ready!

Gatlinburg was great. We did our ususal- went shopping, out to eat, to the Dixie Stampede, and took our annual photos. Aidan and my cousin ended up sick and in urgent care the same day with ear infections, but it was the only little snafu. The antibiotics kicked in and they both felt much better after a day.

After Gatlinburg I went home with my mom and we stayed with her until after Thanksgiving. I planned outings just about every day so the time seemed to fly by! We went to the library a couple of times for story hour, Wallabies ( a local jump house place that is super nice!), the mall, the movies to see Happy Feet 2, Fun Expedition ( kind of like Chuck E. Cheese), the Hands On Museum, the park, and to see the lights at the Bristol Motor Speedway. Mom took Aidan out one day for a "date". I think they both had a good time.

We had a low key Thanksgiving. The three of us had Thanksgiving dinner at the Marriott. It was actually really good and neither mom or I had to cook! After dinner we took Aidan to the park where we all got a little exercise. :)

We came back to California last Sunday. I have been busy this week cleaning this house and getting it in order for Christmas. The houses are CRAZY in this neighborhood. Everyone goes ALL OUT for Christmas! There is even one house 1 street over that has an entire Christmas light show! They play music and the lights perform a show along with it! The traffic is really terrible as I think everyone in San Diego is going to come by to look at our neighborhood lights.

We have lots of fun things planned for December ( we went to Legoland yesterday with our neighbors) and I can't wait to post about them.

Aidan at the rock where we always take our annual pics.

My mom, Aidan, and Aunt Sue being silly.
cousins!
Having dinner at the Partridge and a Pear ( restaurant at the Christmas Place)
This is Aidans dinner- Christmas Pancakes and Candy Cane juice!
Enjoying some Apple Cider at Thanksgiving. The legs crack me up.
He thought he was a really big boy drinking out of the wine glass.
Driving to see the lights at the Bristol Speedway. Mimi let Aidan drive the car and he was in HEAVEN! I can still remember my dad letting me drive the car when I was 4! Of course we were in the middle of the desert and NOT on a race track. lol!

riding the rides at the infield.
I LOVE this picture of Aidan and my mom.

Aidan and I getting ready to roast marshmallows.

The carpet cleaning men are here and said they are on their way to clean the carpets (yay!) so I gotta run. I promise to post more about our December activities. :)

on the mend....

2011-10-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my last post that I was sick. I decided to go to the doctor last Friday and as it turns out I was really sick! He took one listen to my lungs and decided that I needed to be hospitalized. Of course I attempted to negotiate with him so I wouldn't have to be admitted. He agreed to run some tests. He found that my oxygen levels were down in the 60's and that I was really dehydrated. At that point it was "do not pass go" and straight to the hospital I went where I spent the weekend. It turned out I did have pneumonia. I got re hydrated and he worked on clearing my lungs with breathing treatments and put me on an IV antibiotic. I promised to be a good girl at home so he let me go on Sunday. Thankfully as soon as my mom heard I was going to be in the hospital she offered to fly out the next day to help take care of Aidan. What a lifesaver and blessing she has been! I don't know what I would have done without her. Thanks mom! Even though I have been home since Sunday, I have been pretty useless all week. Just walking up the stairs takes my breath away and I have to lay down. The doc said it would take me another month to recover. I pushed it a little on Wednesday and took Aidan to our Moms group "trunk or treat". I was miserable the whole time and we were only able to stay for an hour. I had to come home and take a 2 hour nap afterwards. I think yesterday I turned a corner and started getting my energy back ( and holding down some food! yay!). Today I took Aidan to his Halloween parade at school AND went to Target! BIG day for me. lol! I haven't even had a nap today! I am definitely going to have to adjust my lifestyle for the next couple of weeks and not stay on the go like we normally do.

My mom leaves on Tuesday and I am definitely going to miss her... but not for long because Aidan and I fly to Tennessee a week later for our annual girls trip!

Here are some pics from this weeks activities...

Aidan dressed as an "american boy" ie. Native American for our Moms group Trunk or Treat.

I decided to dress up also (at Aidan's request) but was soon regretting it as I think the costume just made me feel worse.

Putting on a smile for the camera but feeling really really rotten.
Trunk or Treat!
Today at Aidan's "Halloween Parade" at school!
The parade going trick or treating through the principal's office.
Sensory table in one of the other classrooms. It had spaghetti noodles, eyeballs, and spiders in it.
Aidan's teacher- Ms. Lee
He decided to be "Optimus Prime" from the Transformers movie today.
Sensory boxes in another classroom...
Aidan exploring the eyeballs....

oh my poor blog!

2011-10-18T18:09:00.000-07:00

Oh my poor blog- how it has been neglected! I just haven't been in the "blogging groove" lately. I guess I can blame it on facebook. I post almost everything on facebook so it just seems like I am repeating the information twice. However, I am doing this for Aidan so I will continue. :)

So here is what we have been up to..... First off I have been one SICK mama for the past week and a half. Fever up to 105, nasty cough, dizziness, tiredness, etc... I'm not sure what kind of funk I have, but it is kicking my butt. I am about 65 percent better but have a ways to go. I just need to take baby steps. Clinton is thankfully home and has been such a champ! He has been basically taking care of aidan - taking him to therapy, getting his meals, bathing him, taking him to the park, etc... while I have been out of commission.

Our friend Marc from the UK came and visited us the week before last. It was really a work related visit but we still got to go to the pumpkin patch and Disneyland. Marc is really a lot of fun and just one of the nicest guys. He really looked after Aidan and I when we were in London last year and Clinton was busy working.

Dr. Danny is another friend who is staying with us for a little while. He is a chiropractor and is opening a practice in California. Aidan absolutely LOVES Dr. Danny. :) They are huge buddies! He has been adjusting Aidan (and myself) and I can not BELIEVE the difference in Aidan's eating habits. He noticed that Aidan eats like a bird and told me that he could help with it. I was a little skeptical but it really worked! After about a week of adjustments I now have a child who comes to me and says, "mommy I'm hungry!" Music to this Mama's ears! :) He eats a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner and snacks in between. He doesn't always eat a huge meal but at least eats something!

Aidan is doing well in OT and PT. He really has fun in OT and enjoys going. I have noticed that he is more apt to pick up a crayon or marker and draw a picture these days. I'm not sure whether it is the OT that is working or school, but I like it!

Now on to some pics.....

Aidan and Marc at the Pumpkin Farm....

On the hay ride.... This is the face I get a lot of these days when I go to take a picture. NOT a great look.

riding the inflatable slide at the pumpkin farm....
Our WET day at Disney.... We wanted to visit Disney while Marc was still here. The only day we could really do it was a Wednesday. I checked the forecast and it was supposed to start raining at 2pm. Our plan was to get there when the park opened and stay there as long as we could take the rain. It was POURING buckets when we got there when the park opened. We decided to go in thinking that it would rain for a little while and then stop. WRONG! It poured buckets ALL DAY LONG!!! for 7 HOURS we were in the rain! It was actually pretty fun. No one complained and our faces were hurting by the end of day from smiling. Aidan was protected in his bubble and all the rides were EMPTY! However, I have to admit that this may be where I got sick- we went on Wednesday but I didn't get sick until Sunday so I'm not sure.

Aidan in his bubble...
playing in Toon Town
Aidan and Goofy. I learned something on this trip to Disney. Did you know that Goofy is part human and part dog and Pluto is just a dog? Hence, Goofy wears clothes and Pluto does not. Ha! who knew?

Dr. Danny- It was his first trip to Disney EVER! I can't believe he has 3 teenage boys and had never been to Disney. He says it is because he didn't let them watch tv when they were growing up so they were a little clueless about it.
Danny and Marc are both TALL men so they kneeled down so they wouldn't tower over Mickey. except Mickey decided to kneel down also.
The Swaine family looking like drowned rats.

Blessing Bags

2011-09-15T15:54:00.001-07:00

I got this idea from a friend on facebook the other day and I love it. I don't know about you but I always feel conflicted when I see a homeless person begging for money. On the one hand I think "oh do they really need the money or do they have a nicer car than mine parked around the corner" and " what are they going to do with the money I give them?" do they have a drug or alcohol problem? I don't want to be an enabler. On the other hand I know that times are tough right now and God tells us to take care of those less fortunate. There have been a handful of times that I have actually stopped and given people money. My husband often gives them money. Anyway, I thought this idea was a perfect solution to my problem. This is the Blessing Bag. Easy to make and so useful for the receiver! These are ziploc bags full of every day items that could aid a person if they were truly homeless. You make them and keep them in your car. I made 3 and here is what I put in each of mine...

-a kids juice box

-deodorant

-a tooth brush and tooth paste

-soap and a wash cloth (put in a separate ziploc bag inside of the larger one so everything doesn't taste like soap)

-socks

-snacks- peanut butter and crackers, pretzels and cheese, m and m's, applesauce and a spoon

- bandaids

-gum

-hand wipes

-chap stick

-a deck of cards ( for entertainment purposes)

-a pack of kleenex

-four quarters so they can either make a phone call , get a cup of coffee, etc...

-and most importantly an encouraging note with some scripture letting them know that someone cares. :)

I went to the dollar store and made enough to make 3. I figure if someone is really homeless this could help them and if not- no biggie. My goal is to make and hand out 3 a month. If I have any left over at the end of the month I will give them to a homeless shelter.

I gave out my first one today as Aidan and I were coming home from getting him ice cream after school. To be honest the man didn't look "that hard up" but who knows maybe it was his blessing today! :) I also love the fact that Aidan helped me make the bags and now he is helping me hand them out. I want him to understand that you should be a giver in life and that you should do things to help others and be a contributor to society on many different levels. :)

September...

2011-09-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

Can it already be almost September 11th? I have a lot of catching up to do. So here it goes... At the end of August Aidan and I flew to Texas to attend my cousins wedding( by gosh Texas is a hot state- it was over 100 every day we were there). Aidan was the ring bearer and he was soooo handsome! He looked so grown in his little tuxedo! Nearly all of my family was there and it was so great to see them since it is a rare occasion when most of the family is together. It was a gorgeous and really meaningful ceremony. I am so happy for Anna and Brian.

Aidan has gone back to school and I am not very happy with his situation this year. I didn't even consider looking at other schools last spring because he had such a great experience last year. As a matter of fact- Aidan went back to school a few weeks early because he was begging to go back and he missed his friends. There are 25 kids in his class ( with 2 teachers) and I just dont think his teacher is a good fit for him. I am working on getting him moved into the other class. If I can't then I am going to pull him. I really hate to do this because he has friends at his school but I will do what I think is best. I have already scheduled to tour a montessori school in the area in a few weeks. I will keep you posted on the school situation.

Other then school we have been busy doing our usual- going to the park, riding the train, going to Legoland, play dates, and just staying busy in general.

Today we went to a parade. They are having "Poway Days" and always kick it off with the parade. Every year there is a theme to the parade and this year because of the 10 year anniversary of 911 it was "honoring those who have served". It was very touching. There were several floats of "those remembered". There was one that was just a hummer with a picture of a young soldier and his boots on the hood. There were over 100 entrants so we didn't stay for the entire thing. Aidan can only take so much of military floats going by before he has had enough. We went to the library and he looked at books while I watched the end of the parade through the big windows. Now THAT was the way to enjoy the parade. I had a great view AND was in the air conditioning! lol!

Now on to some pics....

My cousin Sabrina (ya ya- funny story- when we were flying to dallas there was a pilot sitting in front of us. After we landed he turned around and said, " are you greek?" I looked at him with great confusion and said "um no". He said "oh I heard you say ya ya and I thought you might be greek". lol!) When Aidan was born my family picked out the craziest names for themselves. lol!
Aidan and his cousin Bruce. This was the first time we got to meet Bruce. Bruce's dad David used to be MY baby when he was little. *sigh*

Gigi (mother of the bride) - see I told you funny names. lol!

The beautiful bride and handsome ring bearer.

My sweet boy!

This is the train Aidan and I ride just about every week. They run it on Wednesdays and Saturdays and it is just around the corner from our house.We went this Wednesday and it was totally empty! The nice engineer took the time to show Aidan the engine and explain how it works.Aidan doesnt get any time with any grandfather figures ( his only one lives in Australia) so he soaks it up whenever an older man pays attention to him. They even let Annabelle ride the train!

The train. They actually have 3 different ones and types and rotate them out.

We always take time to play at the fountain after we are done.

We went to Legoland yesterday and Aidan actually got up the nerve to drive the cars they have there! You would think that he would be all over riding cars since he loves them so much but he was leary of these. We happened to be passing by them and out of the blue he said, "mom I want to drive the cars!" Here he is with his drivers license!

I just thought this was funny. You really cant see it but it is a dog riding a Harley!

We live in a horse community so there were lots of horses in the parade.

Aidan sporting his patriotic attire and his new Star Wars shoes.

Home

2011-08-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

It has been so good to be home. We spent a month in Tennessee at my moms house. It was really great to see friends and family but this time was a little different. We came home early but not because I was tired of being there but because I wanted to come home. This is honestly the first place in 3 years ( since we moved from Orange County) that has really felt like home. Living in West Virginia certainly had a homey feel and I really liked our house and loved being close to friends and family, but it just didn't feel quite right. I longed to be in San Diego most of the time we were there. It is great being together again as a family. Just being able to have dinner together makes a big difference.

I really missed the beach while we were away (although I love the mountains too!). We have been exploring our "north county" beaches- and oh my! I think they are soooo much better than the beaches we used to go to! I have a new favorite beach that has everything you could want from a beach! We have been making up for lost beach time this past week. lol!

Last week we did an overnight trip, stayed with some friends in Los Angeles, and went to Magic Mountain. Honestly, I was not that excited about it because I couldn't remember what they had for little kids and knew I wouldnt be able to ride many adult rides because of the little one. Magic Mountain used to be one of mine and Clintons favorite places to go. We both really love roller coasters and Magic Mountain has some AWESOME ones there!!! There were 9 of us total that went and it ended up being really fun! One of our friends that went didn't really like roller coasters so she entertained Aidan while we waited for an hour and 45 minutes to ride one coaster!!! Ridiculous! However- the kid in me thought it was totally worth it! lol! We then had lunch and then we ALL went on a water ride ( including Aidan). He didnt like the ride but he really loved waiting in line and playing with our friends 2 girls. lol! The rest of the adults then went and did some more big rides while I took Aidan to the kids section for a couple of hours. It wasn't crowded at all there and he pretty much got to ride whatever he wanted as many times as he wanted. Fun! For the last ride we all waited in line again and did a switch off with Aidan with our friends. So I only got to ride 3 rides the entire day but I thought it was fun, Clinton thought it was fun, and Aidan thought it was fun- so the day was a success. Aidan has already asked when we can go back.

Yesterday our Moms group did a playdate at the Zoo. These are my favorite play dates! We get to go in before the park opens, we have our own tour guide, and we get to see parts of the zoo that we normally don't visit. Each month the zoo has a theme. This time it was about reduce, reuse, and recycle. They educate the kids ( and the moms too!) on whatever theme it is for the month and always end with the guide reading the kids a story that goes with the theme. This time we got an added bonus of a free train ride. yippee!! Trains are always good and free is always good so it was a big score!

Now on to some pics....

Yes that is a bird cage Aidan is standing in- Tweeties birdcage to be exact.
riding the kids train at magic mountain...

wascally wabbit....

The kid sized teacups. I think this was one of aidans favorites.

Driving a jeep. Aidan was driving and I was sitting in the back.

THIS is my new favorite beach! Look at the view I have when I push Aidan on the swings! Nice!

They have a playground there with a play structure...

knotty trees to climb....

and even a train that goes by every hour and blows its horn. When we had a playdate there with our moms group all the boys would stop whatever they were doing when the train went by and would just stare the entire time. lol! Boys and trains.....

Its just a short walk down a little hill to get to the beach....

Eating his blue ring pop thing a mijig...

I took this picture because it was actually kind of a big deal. Aidan is going through a stage where he doesn't like the water- ocean, pool, or otherwise. The first time we went to the beach when we got home he wouldn't even get close to it. For him to actually sit in it and play was a major improvement! He was really proud of himself for doing it!

pretending he was surfing on his dads boogie board.

Getting a ride from dad!

At the zoo yesterday. See the meerkats in the background?

The boys checking out the meerkats...

I had no idea that the zoo had its own "nursery" for animal babies that for one reason or another need to be there! Complete with rocking chairs, crib beds, and an isolete.

A pic of the baby marmoset that had been staying there but I think was out when we were there with her mama.

The group of boys that hung together for most of the day. Getting ready for story time.

But first they brought out a special animal guest. That is actually a hawk she is holding. It is the smallest variety of hawk.

Ending the day with a train ride. We went through a little tunnel and all the boys held up their arms when they were going through- like they were on some type of BIG ride. to cute.

The things Aidan says.....

2011-08-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

We have been super busy since we arrived home just over a week ago. We have been to the beach 3 days, been busy with playdates, and spent a day at Magic Mountain. I haven't even had time to upload my pics yet but will post about our adventures as soon as I do. Tonight I just wanted to take a few minutes to document a few of the funny things aidan has said this week before I forget. Have I mentioned that I LOVE his personality and he constantly cracks me up? He is such a character and so creative. It is hard to stay ahead of him sometimes because he is so stinkin' smart.....

- Aidan received some money for his birthday. I was discussing with him this week about the concept of spending a little, saving a little, and giving a little to God. He thought about it for a second and says. " Why don't I just spend it and then pray to God for more money?" Ummmm.... I don't think it works like that. lol! (but good point)

- We went to church this morning. It has been awhile since we have been to our church because we have been away all summer. As I am checking him into his room I hear him tell the teacher. " I'm only in preschool- I'm not in high school yet." To which his teacher replies, "Really? your not in high school?" although you probably have the vocabulary of a high school kid." lol!

- This evening we had our friend Christiana over for dinner who sometimes babysits Aidan. A few months ago she was working one of our events and had a tight Race car girl outfit on as part of her costume. Aidan was TOTALLY checking her out. Tonight he kept giving her kisses- over, and over and over. She said, " well aren't you just mister kissy tonight". He just looked at her and winked ( thanks mom for teaching him how to do this). We all just burst into laughter. I guess Aidan has a new girlfriend and I think I am going to be chasing the girls away when he gets older. Mr. Rico Suave. lol!

The picture above is one of Aidans 4 year old pictures. I LOVE them! Mckmama took them in June . If you haven't ever checked out her blog you should. I started following her blog when her next to youngest son Stellan was fighting for his life ( Praise to God he is fine now). She has 5 kids and she and her husband took all of them AND a cat and 2 kittens on a cross country tour in a small R.V. ( talk about entertaining reading). She went around doing photo shoots and San Diego was one of her locations. I am so happy with the results!

4 years old

2011-08-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

It has taken me a few days (ok a week) to post about Aidans 4th birthday. We are still at my moms in Tennessee so it was a little low key. I decorated my moms kitchen table the night before with balloons and a few gifts. I told Aidan that for his birthday breakfast he could have anything he wanted ( thinking along the lines of a doughnut, pancakes, etc...). He however, decided that he wanted a cupcake for breakfast! So I also ran out the night before his birthday after he went to sleep to get a cupcake for his breakfast.

He woke up and was very excited to see all the little surprises I put out for him- including his cupcake. He opened up a few gifts and took about 2 licks of his cupcake and he was done. We spent the rest of the morning watching Sprout to see if they would air the birthday card I made for him. Sure enough towards the end of the morning they showed his card on t.v.! We were both soooo excited! I'm glad I got it together this year and got it sent in!

I don't know if I have ever mentioned that my neighbor from when I was a little girl lives in the same small town as my mom. She and her sister were my first good friends. I played with them every day and followed them around everywhere! They were more like my 2 older sisters. We moved away when I was 5 but I never forgot them. Through the miracle of facebook, we reconnected a few years ago! I was shocked when I found out she lives in the same town in Tennessee as my mom ( we lived in West Virginia). She has 2 boys and 1 is just a year older than Aidan.

My plan for Aidans birthday was to invite Wendy and her boys to a kid/family oriented place that has food, mini golf, go carts, games, mini bowling etc... We were going to have lunch, let the boys play, and I arranged to get Aidan a "hot wheels" birthday cake. All was well when we arrived there but then they informed me that they would NOT let us take Aidans cake inside! Say what??? I have NEVER heard of a birthday cake NOT being allowed into a restaurant. I was buying their silly food for everyone and they don't even sell cakes there. I had a chat with the manager and she wasn't having it so I decided that we weren't staying there. So we left. Aidan was a little disappointed at first ( he REALLY wanted to play mini golf ), but then I suggested we go to Chuck E. Cheese instead and he immediately perked up. So yes, Aidan had not 1 but TWO parties at Chuck E. Cheese for his fourth birthday! lol! I'm just happy that he was satisfied with going to Chuck E. Cheese AGAIN. In the long run it worked out great. All the boys had a great tine, Chuck E had no issues with bringing a cake in, and it was actually CHEAPER than had we stayed at the other place so it was a Win/ Win for everyone. :0)

We ended the day at Toys R Us. Mom didn't buy him a present this year and decided that she would just take him there and let him pick out something. He had a great time shopping! Out of the 2 million things in that store he finally decided on 2 packs of CARS and a remote control airplane from the Cars 2 movie that also holds cars! He already has 100's of cars! we have them in EVERY room in our house and EVERY room of my moms house. The boy STILL loves his cars! :) I guess he doesn't want to mess with a thing. lol!

I decorated the night before.... opening presents...

The requested birthday breakfast- a cupcake. :)

*sigh* is he really 4 years old????????

Playing at Chuck E. Cheese wearing yet another birthday crown.

His Hot Wheels cake that caused us to leave the first establishment...

blowing out his candles.... it was worth it. :)

me and the birthday boy. I love him so much!

Wendy's boys...

Aidans 4th birthday Montage at OneTrueMedia.com

2011-07-27T17:09:00.001-07:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Boy Toys

2011-07-23T02:58:00.000-07:00

In just one month my boy has gone from wanting to be this cute little mouse for halloween.....

to this gosh awful thing......
How did that happen????? I will tell you- it was innocent.

Let me back up and say that I think in the past 4 years Aidan has gone through a couple of transitions or "phases" when it comes to toys. The first transition was when he was 2 from the cutesy baby toys to everything Thomas. This transition was easy enough. I mean Thomas is cute and they have lots of cool Thomas characters and merchandise. Who doesn't love a cute little train? The second transition was from Thomas to Hot Wheels when he turned 3. Cars I can live with. Afterall, the car section of the toy store is not that bad. I was happy for him to play with his little hot wheels. Also, they have all the cute Disney Cars stuff out right now which isn't bad at all! And then we have that dreaded aisle in the toy store that I have been avoiding since I found out we were going to be parents to a son. The aisle that makes me shudder just looking down, the one with all of the action figures and ugly looking robot looking thingys. YUCK!!! What DO boys see in those things?????

Last week when we went to West Virginia my very good friend Sheri innocently enough introduced Aidan to the world of Transformers. She gave him a present of 2 "fighting transformers". He LOVES them and has played with them every day! *sigh* We received a costume magazine in the mail the other day and "be still his heart", Aidan spied with his little eye "Optimus Prime"- his favorite Transformer. He immediately declared that he would be OPTIMUS PRIME for Halloween! Oh for gosh sakes..... can someone please tell my almost 4 year old that he is still little and to stop growing up so quickly!

So today I went shopping for Aidans birthday and made my first trip down that dreaded aisle.... and got Aidan a real Optimus Prime that actually transforms into a big rig. *sigh*. I know he will love it and it was probably my first of many trips down that awful aisle. At least he STILL plays with his train table everyday ( when we are home) and his beloved little cars. I guess a Transformer here and there won't be that bad.... and I can slowly adjust to the "ugly boy toys". :)

living in a hotel....

2011-07-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

ok not really.....

We went to West Virginia last weekend for a visit. It was GREAT to catch up with old friends and to have a night or 2 of adult time while Aidan stayed with my mom.

One of the things we did was to catch up with our friends Suzanne and Jacob. They have finally moved back to West Virginia from California. We met them at Suzanne's church on Friday evening for Vacation Bible School. It had been going on all week and it was the last day. They had the daily opening session with singing, bible verses, etc... in the sanctuary with all of the parents and children. All of the kids sat up front and everyone participated. One of the things the leader did was to talk about the money they have been raising all week for the homeless. She reminded the kids that not everyone has a home. At which time my child raises his hands and stands up as to not be ignored. When she called on him he proceeds to tell everyone in the church "I live in a hotel" and she repeated (in her microphone) "you live in a hotel?". Aidan replies "yes and it doesn't have a refrigerator". OH MY GOODNESS!!! I was so embarrassed and just hid my face. I thought for sure they were going to hand me the offering on the way out because they thought we were homeless and living in a hotel. lol! Poor child is soooo confused. I guess because we were staying in a hotel for the weekend he thought that is where we were now living. lol! Mom asked me before we checked in on the way up if it had a fridge and I told her I wasn't sure. When we got there I asked the lady at check in if it had one and she said yes but when we got to the room it didn't. Aidan must have picked up on this so he added "and it doesn't have a refrigerator". oh that child of mine.... lol!

I am helping with Vacation Bible School this week at my moms church. I can't wait to see what he tells this group of people. lol!

at mimi's house....

2011-07-07T12:44:00.000-07:00

We finally arrived at my moms house. We were supposed to fly out last Thursday but Aidan started vomiting the night before. I called the airline and we postponed our trip until Saturday. Aidan was still running a fever so the trip was a little hard on him. To make it even worse the shuttle arrived at our house to pick us up at 3:45AM. It was a looonnng day to say the least.

My aunts and uncle were here when we arrived so that was nice! It was great to see them. They stayed through the fourth. Although it wasn't much of a fourth of July because as it turned out everyone around here celebrated it through the weekend and NO ONE had fireworks on the actual fourth of July. I was bummed! :( Independence day has become one of my favorite holidays since Aidan was born. I love the whole family atmosphere and watching Aidan watch the fireworks. I think he would have really enjoyed them this year. It really didn't make much difference anyway because he ended up falling asleep before 7pm . Poor bug just wasn't feeling well.

Aidan is feeling much better now but we noticed the other day that his lymph nodes are really swollen . I took him into Urgent Care yesterday just to get checked out. They checked him for strep throat and they are supposed to call me with the results later today or tomorrow.

Today we went to the mall to go shopping. I am looking for a dress to wear to my cousins wedding next month. While we were there I let Aidan get on the jumper. As you can tell from the viedo he loved it. If you listen carefully you can hear him squeeling. lol!

a conversation with Aidan

2011-06-28T12:37:00.000-07:00

This is a conversation Aidan and I had the other day....

Me- "Aidan what do you think you might want to be for Halloween this year". ( I am a planner)
Aidan- thinks for a second and then answers " a cucumber"
Me- "a cucumber?"
Aidan- " Yes a cucumber."
Me- " actually sweety you were a pumpkin last year so why don't we stay away from the vegetable family this year".
Aidan- " oh ok how about Mickey Mouse"
Me- " Mickey Mouse sounds perfect!"

lol! Where does he get these ideas?????

Birthday Party at Chuck E.

2011-06-27T20:35:00.000-07:00

Aidans party at Chuck E Cheese was so much fun! As a parent it was way easier than hosting it at home!!! This was Aidans first "real party". Up until now we have always had them at the park or at home. I think he was a little overwhelmed at times but he had a GREAT time. To tell you the truth I was a little overwhelmed! It was my first party here as well. I wasn't expecting the show they did with all of the singing and dancing.

I loved that we had our own hostess who handled EVERYTHING including cleaning up the mess. :) We brought in our own balloons and cake. The only thing I had to do was tie the balloons to the chairs and hand over the cake. Amanda was awesome!

Aidan was soooo excited to see his friends from school and our play group! It was a truly special day even if it was a month early. Aidan was a little upset that it was his party day but he was still 3. He had a difficult time wrapping his little mind around the concept. We are leaving in a couple of days to spend the summer on the east coast while Clinton is traveling, so it was either have the party a month early or not have it until September when we get back. I wanted Aidans buddies from school to be there so I opted to have it early. :)

This was when we first arrived before our guests arrived....
The 3 foot Chuck E on the table as the centerpiece. Poor rat didnt make it until the end of the party. Aidan played with it so much that he put a hole in him. :(

For the first hour of the party the kids were able to play. They each had 20 tokens to spend. This is Jo, Ollie and his sister Emma. They are new friends of ours but I have a feeling we will be friends for a long time! ;)

Evan and his papa.

Pretty Tessa....

Cezar and his mama.

Karen and Gennie....

I was walking around taking pictures and making sure everyone was ok and I turned around and saw this. For some reason it really cracked me up. Aidan and his dad having a great time.

Aidan and his buddy Brody going for a spin.

Gabriel...

Aidans cool race car cake. I kind of wanted to go with a Race car theme ( hence Aidan's and Clinton's costumes) since Aidan reminded me for months after last years party that he did not get to have a race car cake.

The pictures really don't do it justice. It really was a cool cake. We got lots of compliments on it. I got it from the same bakery that we used for his West Coast 1 year old party. :) It was cute AND yummy!

Look at Emma's blonde hair! She was ENTHRALLED with Chuck E.!

Eating their pizza and getting ready for the show.

Getting ready to go in the ticket blaster! He found the goggles for it before the show even started. He ended up NOT wearing them in the blaster. In the video I posted yesterday when we are singing "Happy Birthday", Amanda asked him what he wished for. You can see him say "I want to go in there" and pointing to the ticket blaster. :)It really was the best part of the day for him and the entire reason he wanted to have his party at Chuck E. Cheese. Go figure an almost 4 year olds logic. lol!

Aidan and Chuck E. Cheese...

This is Evans little sister and I get baby fever EVERY time I am around her! She always has the BIGGEST smile on her face and I LOVE her little rolls.

Video from the show....

some video....

2011-06-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

Here is some video of Aidans early birthday party today at Chuck E. Cheese . The party was so much fun! I will post pics and more about the party tomorrow.... This tired mama needs to get to bed. :0)

This was the entire reason Aidan wanted to have his party at Chuck E. Cheese. The ticket blaster! I am SO upset that for some reason the video ended up sideways and I don't know how to fix it. If you ask him it was one of his favorite parts of the day. :)

Just busy living life....

2011-06-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

There really hasn't been that much to report here, we are just busy living life. I am enjoying it so much being back in California! I really love our area and neighborhood. It feels like home here. We are in a nice routine- aidan going to school 2 days a week, physical therapy 1 day a week, and usually something with our meet up group 1 or 2 days a week. I am still working out 3 to 5 times a week but my last session with my trainer was last week. He took measurements of me when I went in to workout on Tuesday. I haven't lost any weight ( I think mainly because of the new medication I am on or possibly just because I am 40 ha!) but I HAVE lost inches. yay! The biggest difference was in my triceps. I said REALLY??? my triceps??? I would have rather lost in my waist but whatever I will take the loss wherever I can get it! Aidan and I are off to my moms next week and I have found a gym there where I can work out. I hope I can keep up the momentum this summer and plan on resuming my personal training sessions in the fall.

Aidan is doing really well in physical therapy. His therapist said she has not seen so much improvement in a patient in such a short amount of time! GO AIDAN! She is working on squatting with him and practicing "heel strikes" ( the way we normally move our foot when we are walking - aidan has a difficult time with this because he is on his toes a large amount of the time when he walks). He has really tight hamstrings ( as do I) so she gave me some stretches to do with him at home this summer. I am glad the work we are doing at home is paying off! :) Aidans last day of therapy is next Monday until the fall.

When I went to pick Aidan up from school today his teacher informed me that when she was reading to the students today Aidan started to read the book. She said, "he is reading!". I said "yeah, I know!". I just love his teacher so much and am sad that Tuesday is Aidans last day. He has enjoyed school SO MUCH! I think it was one of the best decisions I have made putting him in preschool! He has really thrived in that setting. I'm sure his 4 year old teacher will be great also but we sure will miss Mrs. Thomas. I am going to continue to work on reading with him this summer as well as handwriting.

Because we are going to be in Tennessee and London for the the summer and are going to be gone for Aidans birthday next month, we are having his birthday party this weekend. I am so excited!!! It will be the first year that he will have actual "friends" there. Some of his class mates are going to be there as well as some of the kids from our meet up group. We have a total of 12 kids that have RSVP'd! A far cry from the kids I had to basically scrape together last year for his 3 year old party! :)

So thats about it for us. Jacob and Suzanne came down last week and we took the boys to Legoland. They are moving back to West Virginia this Saturday and we are so sad. :( I am happy though that we will see them this summer when we visit! :) I also took Aidan to Legoland yesterday to the water park. It was our first time to the waterpark and it was INCREDIBLE just like Legoland! It was MADE for 2 to 6 year olds. The deepest water was 2 feet! They had animals that sprayed water, 3 "waterslides", a water playground, and a lazy river made JUST for the little ones! How Cool! ( there was a section for bigger kids also but the part for the little ones was HUGE!) They also had an "imagination station". Basically it combined legos, ramps, and water. Aidan could have stayed there ALL DAY! I can tell that we are going to be spending A LOT of time there when the weather is really hot this fall!

pics from Legoland.....

getting ready to see "Bob the Builder" in 4D.

riding the jousting horses!

Aidan STILL will not drive these cars, although they are made for 3 to 5 year olds! It blows me away because Aidan LOVES cars so much. Jacob on the other hand- loved it!

The boys and their swords. Look at those faces- so serious! Mr. Tough Guys would weild their swords one minute and then be sucking their thumbs the next. lol!

Jacob and Suzanne riding the helicopters.

Dino Dig. This is right before Jacob got sick at the end of the day. Poor little guy started complaining of a headache and then began throwing up every where.

Aidan yesterday at the water park. This was the imagination station. You had to step on the pedal to get the water to spray.

Aidan had "Pony days" at school last week. They had a man bring in horses for the kids to ride and then got their pictures made. They then had a barbecue. I volunteered that day and ended up cooking hot dogs for the ENTIRE school!

This past week in pictures....

2011-06-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

Here is what we have been up to this past week in pictures....

Saturday we went to see Sesame Street Live! Aidan loved it but I am afraid our Sesame Street days are limited now- it seems Aidan is on to bigger and better things :( :) enjoying a shaved ice....

and an Elmo balloon. Balloons are still this kids favorite. He is playing with it as I write this post.

A fun field trip with our M and M meetup group to Pat and Oscars.

The kids got to make their own pizzas....

and got a lesson on how they take orders and use the cash register....

and got a tour of the kitchen...

Enjoying the pizza he made!

Play date at the park after the tour....

We are having a big case of the "June Glooms" here in San Diego. The weather is gray and chilly. I am NOT complaining since the rest of the country seems to be having a heat wave now. I decided it would be PERFECT weather to enjoy the Wild Animal Park! It was cool and made the day MUCH more enjoyable because it wasn't hot !

Aidan had his last day of soccer last week. Here is the little "medal ceremony"...

Aidan and his "Hoppers" team mates....

receiving his medal from Coach Colleen. She also gave them hand stamps like she does every week, thus Aidan is looking at his hand.

showing off his medal.

The San Diego fair....

still a little chilly especially since the fair is by the beach.

This was a little canoe ride. It simply went around in a little maze type thing. Notice how Aidan was sitting at the beginning of the ride. ALL of the other kids stayed like this for the entire ride. By the time it was time for Aidan to get off he was turned around backwards and laying IN the canoe. Lol! I wish I would have taken a picture! My little monkey.

Throw in Physical Therapy and a birthday party for one of Aidans classmates on Saturday and it made for a very FULL week! Just the way I like it. :)

This week....

2011-06-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

So much to catch up on this week. I need to post pictures from Sesame Street Live, A field trip to a local restaurant with our meet up group, "awards day" at soccer, and The Wild Animal Park. But, for now I am only going to post a view pics and video from the San Diego Fair today. Clinton and I took Aidan and we had so much fun! We saw lots of cars, Aidan rode a few rides, and we ate some B-A-D food (* cough* deep fried Snick*rs and cinnamon rolls). We had a really great family day. It has been really nice having Clinton home since the end of April. He is getting ready to go on a long stretch of work and we won't see much of him for the next four months.

Even though I ate some really bad food today ( ok so we shared it 3 ways so it wasn't THAT bad), I have been really working hard at exercising. I have been working out 3 to 5 times a week with a personal trainer doing some strength training. I am determined to get off some of this medication I am on for my diabetes. It makes me feel so rotten and I am ready to have a healthier life.:). I don't think I have lost weight, but I can definitely tell a difference in my body and I FEEL a lot stronger.

I will be sure to post more pictures from this week later.

Our 9th Anniversary

2011-06-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

Clinton and I celebrated 9 years of marriage this weekend. Since we usually aren't even on the same continent for our anniversary, we decided to make this a special one. I started off with a massage at home. Oh my goodness- It was HEAVEN!

The BIG event of the evening was Hot Air Ballooning. This is something on my bucket list so it was perfect! I am kind of an adrenaline type of girl and really enjoy anything with excitement. We met up with the company we booked the tour with at a grocery store parking lot. They transported us in a passenger van to a "launch location". There were 5 other couples ballooning also. Now I thought that there would be some type of launch pad where they take off every time- NOT the case. When you are ballooning you are totally at the mercy of the wind. We went to the first location (aka- the driver pulled over the side of the road beside a big grassy field). The hot air balloon guys got out and got on their phones ( something about getting weather reports, wind reports, etc...) They looked up at the sky a lot and released a couple of helium balloons. They then looked up at the sky more and put their hands to their chins a lot contemplating. Back on their phones, looking up at the sky, contemplating, etc...They then released a third helium balloon and it went in the totally opposite direction. At this point we had been sitting there about 25 to 30 minutes and I knew we WEREN'T going to be launching from that site. Sure enough the guys got back in the van and let us know that we needed to go to a second location.

We drove and we drove and we drove closer to the ocean. Let me back up and say before we all loaded up in the van we had to sign a release. You know where they tell you that you could die and all those things. Clinton ALWAYS reads any type of contract so he read the whole thing. He kind of laughed when he read it and said " There is a possibility I can go to jail for trespassing?". The guy just chuckled and said , "yes we cover everything in the release". OK so back to driving... We drove closer to the ocean and the driver turned down a road. He then turned down a dirt road and through an open gate with a "No Trespassing" sign on it ( ok I thought- this must be where the jail part comes in. lol!) He continued driving on this (road)- it was more like 4 wheel driving. We turned a corner and then I saw what must of been the "secret launch site" lol! There were already 2 other companies there setting up in a big field. Hurray! at this point I knew we WOULD get to hot air balloon. I really was starting to wonder if we would get to go up or not because they will only go up if they are 100% confident they can do it safely. In that case we would have done it the NEXT evening and we didn't have a sitter for the NEXT evening so I was sweating a little.

The guys immediately hopped out and started unloading and setting up. I think they did it in record time! They got our balloon set up before the guys beside of us who already had their equipment unloaded when we arrived. The balloon was inflated and we all climbed into the basket. There were 11 of us total- 5 couples and the pilot. Clinton and I got in first so we were directly under the flames and beside the pilot. I was a little worried about how we were going to all fit and about the weight. Lets just say there were some extremely LARGE men in our group. However, the basket accommodates more so there was the perfect amount of room.

Soon we were up up and away! What an amazing feeling to be off the ground and floating through the air! Since we launched by the ocean it was an amazing view! We then floated past some BEAUTIFUL homes!! We got to see Bill Gates' San Diego compound, The Kroc family ( founder of Mcdonalds) compound, Janet Jacksons old home, as well as the Nordstrom family home which was under remodel. The pilot gave us a really interesting tour and was really knowledgeable about the area. He cracked open a bottle of champagne so we all got to enjoy some bubbly.

We floated for about 45 minutes to an hour and then the pilot told us about the "landing position" we needed to take when he gave us the signal. Basically it was men in the back, women in the front, and hold on for dear life. He gave us the cue and then I saw the look of concern on the pilots face, which was NOT a good thing but he had been ballooning for 25 years so I wasn't THAT concerned. He told us to hold on tight because it was going to be a "bumpy one". HA! little did I know. I never really thought about the landing. Basically liked I mentioned earlier you are at the mercy of the wind. Landing a balloon is kind of like docking a sailboat with the sails at full mast. If a big gust of wind comes along you are basically screwed. Sure enough that is what happened to us- a big gust of wind came which made for a bumpy landing. We landed, bumped, and drug for a ways. Three of the ground crew jumped on the basket like some type of "hot air balloon cowboys" to attempt to stop it and keep it from tipping over. However, we tipped anyways and then we drug some more. Woo Hoo! ( Did I mention that I LOVE Adrenaline). Everyone was staying very calm but I couldn't help but giggle. Finally they got us stopped about 50 yards from a big cliff. Now THAT would have sucked. At this point I was really laughing and wondering how the heck we were supposed to get out. I did the natural thing and handed one of the cowboys my camera so he could take pictures and attempted to (cough) get out gracefully. lol! I asked the pilot if that was a normal landing and he said no it only happens about 10% of the time. Lucky us!

Man what a trip! I definitely do it again! However, I would not recommend it for young children or the elderly. lol!

We finished the evening at Ruth Chris Steakhouse for a late dinner. I love Ruth Chris. It is one of those places where I TRULY enjoy the food and say "hmmmmm" after every succulent bite.

THIS will be an anniversary that I will ALWAYS remember. Thank you Clinto for the memories! I love you!

unloading the basket at the second launch site. setting up the balloon....

The first balloon already up and our balloon still on the ground.

getting ready for takeoff...

here we go..... You can see the third balloon still on the ground as well as our van.

our shadow...

Just ONE of the AMAZING homes we saw...

woops! crash landing. Clinton was NOT amused but I was enjoying every second.

attempting to get out gracefully. For those of you who know me ,know this is an oxymoron.

Yay! Finally out.

This is NOT what the basket is supposed to look like when you land.

We watched the third balloon to see how they would land. They did the same thing but it was a LITTLE smoother. They tipped at the very end.

Me and our pilot enjoying some well deserved champagne.

Our desserts at Ruth Chris

Just a little update...

2011-05-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

There are so many things that Aidan says and does everyday that I want to remember. He keeps me in stiches all the time. Some I have posted on facebook but I want to post them here too, so I can remember! Here are some of them....

- On Mothers Day I asked Aidan to come upstairs so we could call my mom. His reply was " mom you know I am apprahansive ( apprehensive) about talking on the phone" lol! He really hates talking on the phone.

- yesterday we walked outside to get in the car. He looks up in the sky and said " No clouds, No problem!"

- I told him the other day "Aidan you are my sweet little prince" and he replied " Mom you are my sweet queen". lol!

- yesterday he kept talking about "New Mexican" food ( Mexican food).

- He calls the gym that I have been going to " 42 hour fitness" ( 24 hour fitness)

- He still says ambubalance for ambulance.

- He confuses they and them ie. last night he was playing with some kids and he said " I am going to chase they"

This has been a really busy time of year for us. Aidan is still in school 2 days a week and will be until the end of June. We are taking July and August off to travel and then he will begin again at his current school in September. He absolutely LOVES school and is really thriving there. He would go every day if we would send him. :) He is also still in soccer one day a week. He is enjoying it and finishes up in a couple of weeks.

We start Physical Therapy next week. He was supposed to start a few weeks ago but his therapist had to go on leave. He will go once a week for a month and then we will reevaluate the frequency. I really think soccer is helping him some with his balance and coordination. I have ordered a writing program to start working with him on his fine motor skills. It is one that I used when I was a teacher only the preschool version. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this program. It was developed by an occupational therapist and used by them every where. It really teaches kids how to have nice printing and helps kids with fine motor issues.

Aidan is really becoming a READER! I found a box of high frequency words from my teaching days. These are 250 words on cards that first graders are expected to know by the end of the year- words like my, some, would, could, the, first, etc.. color words and number words are also included. Just for the fun of it I decided to see if Aidan knew any of them. To my surprise he could already read about 90 of them! My goal is to have him reading them all by the time he starts Kindergarten. Next year I am sending him to preschool 2 days a week and then will also be doing a modified homeschooling program with him using the writing program and working on reading as well as some math. I will then have to decide whether to send him to our PEPP program ( 2 year Kindergarten ) or to send him to full time Kindergarten. I keep going back and forth on this issue but I still have a lot of time before I have to figure that one out. :) I have decided for now NOT to go back to work and spend the additional time with Aidan and getting ALL of his skills where they need to be. :)

Lions, coasters, and swords oh my!

2011-05-22T20:26:00.000-07:00

We have had a really busy and fun couple of days. I think it finally caught up with both Aidan and I today. After church today I took a long nap and Aidan slept for 4 1/2 hours! We were both pretty wiped and I think I am fighting off some type of sickness.

On Friday we had a meetup with the Moms and Munchkins group we belong to at the San Diego Zoo. We got to go in before the zoo opened and they took us on a little bus tour. The theme was "Lions are mammals and so am I". We had 2 employees of the zoo all to ourselves! They talked all about mammals on the tour and then took us to see the lions. What a treat! We got to watch them feed the Lions and got a really up close view of them! You would think that they would feed the huge creatures using a stick or something, but nope- they hand feed them and just stick the raw meat right into their mouths! I never had much of an appreciation of the large cats until Friday, but man are the GORGEOUS up close! After watching them feed, the kids got more education about mammals and a story about lions read to them. They then got up and got to "dance their wiggles out". I posted the video on Facebook so if you are friends with me then you will have to check it out. :), What a fun day! Next month they are doing the same thing only they are focusing on Gorillas ( my fav to watch!). I hope we get to go!

Yesterday Aidan, Clinton, and I went to Legoland. I was so glad Clinton got to go this time- we had a ball! Aidan rode his first big rollercoaster and I think it scared him a little. He really wanted to ride it and both Clinton and I attempted to talk him out of it the whole time we were waiting in line. He just met the height minimum requirement (and he was supposed to be 4 but we figured he was close enough since he will be 4 in a couple of months). I was afraid it was going to be to much for him, but he didn't cry. Yesterday he said he liked it but today he said it was to fast. So the jury is still out.

Aidan and his buddy Evan on the bus at the zoo.
The male lion licking the fence clean after his feeding.

The zoo worker feeding the female....

Isnt he gorgeous?

Relaxing after their meal...

This is what the boys were doing while the moms were entranced with the lions. lol! They really weren't that interested and were more interested in climbing. Boys will be boys.

Listening to the story...

One of the things I LOVE about Legoland is they have Legos to entertain the kids while the adults stand in line waiting to get on the rides. GENIUS!!

Aidan at the Dino Dig...

Dad and Aidan working intensely to uncover the fossils. lol!

We didnt get to play IN the water this time because it was to chilly but Aidan did get to shoot some water. :)

Aidans new sword and shield. Doesn't EVERY little boy need one?

Aidans favorite ride of the day- "The jousting horses"

The Roller Coaster Aidan rode! I still can't believe he did it!

Padres game

2011-05-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

We were on our way to dinner last night when we got a phone call from our new friend James asking if we wanted to go to the Padres Game because he had a couple of extra tickets. It was short notice but we decided to go ahead and join him. I have been wanting to to go to a game for awhile now. I wanted to go when my mom was here but she really isn't into doing things like that so I was really happy when James called us. Aidan just happened to already have his Padres jersey on so we knew we had to go . James has a son Gabriel who is a couple of months younger than Aidan and the boys have a ball together! It wasn't the most exciting of games as it was tied up 0 to 0 until the bottom of the 9th when the Padres finally scored a run and won the game! It didn't matter if it was an exciting game or not, the boys had a great time playing together on the bleachers and running around. The adults had a great time too! :0)

Are they not the cutest? I just want to eat them both up.
Holding hands walking to the game. :)

running around before walking into the game. It is VERY hard to get a good pic of these two as they hardly stop moving!

James, Gabriel, Clinto, and Aidan- an AWFUL shot I know.

PETCO park

camping out

2011-05-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

For awhile now we have wanted to take Aidan camping. We are not huge campers ( I think Clinton and I have gone twice in the 9 years we have been married) but I thought it would be something fun for Aidan and make for some good family time. For the longest time we couldn't find our camping gear because it was either in storage or "organized" by an overzealous organizer and we didn't know what happened to it ( I will never let someone else "organize" my personal belongings again- it just makes for lots of lost stuff). When we moved to the new house we found all of our "lost stuff" and our camping gear! We wanted to do a trial run in the backyard just to see how Aidan would do, so that's what we did this weekend.

We grilled hot dogs on our grill and played games in the backyard. We roasted marshmallows on our fire pit and made smores. When it was time to go to bed Aidan told me "no girls allowed mom", so I made my way to the house got his milk and a few books for Clinton to read to him and told him goodnight. I was actually HAPPY to sleep in my own bed and even happier that Aidan and Clinton would have daddy/son time together. It lasted all about 10 minutes. Aidan decided that he was cold and wanted to sleep in his bed. lol! He hands, face, and feet got so dirty in the backyard that I HAD to give him a bath. The whole "get dirty" thing is another reason we haven't been camping more. I am not a big fan of dirt and especially going to bed dirty. I guess maybe Aidan is NOT going to be a camper either and the only camping the Swaines will be doing is in the backyard. lol! Even if we didn't get to actually "camp" our "camping experience" was fun and we will probably do it again. :0)

Minute to Win It playdate

2011-05-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Aidan and I went to a Minute to Win It playdate with our meetup playgroup. So far we have gone to the Easter Egg hunt, flying kites in the park playdate, a playdate at an indoor playarea, and the Minute to Win It playdate with this group. I have to say this is the most fun we have had yet! Aidan found 2 boys to play with and they had so much fun. The kids had a minute to complete different games..... There was the "eat the donut without using your hands game". Aidan lasted about 2.5 seconds before he grabbed it with his hand and popped it in his mouth. lol! He was so fast I didn't even have to time to get a picture. These are his 2 buddies Evan and Keaton.

There was the "Throw the pennies into the fountain" game...

and the unravel the crepe paper game.....

One of my favorites.... "Pick the animal crackers up with your mouth and put them in the cup game". Aidan did pretty well at this one. :)

The "sort the M and M's game". Again, Aidan didn't do so well at this one. He just wanted to eat the M and M's. Patience is not one of his greatest strengths. lol!

The "balance the blocks on your head game"....

Probably Aidans favorite part of the day was AFTER the games were over and the running around and climbing trees part... and...

the collect sticks and throw them in the creek part..... and....

the climb on rocks part... and....

the having fun with the other boys exploring the creek, throwing rocks, and looking at tadpoles part! :) :) :)

I can't wait until the playdate next week! We are meeting at the zoo and get a little tour before the zoo opens! I think one of the things they are showing us is the lion and her new cub. Love it!

You can take the boy out of West Virginia....

2011-04-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

You can take the boy out of West Virginia but you can't take the West Virginia out of the boy! Here are some pics of Aidan and his newest love- his cowboy boots. I bought them last fall when we were in Gatlinburg Tn. He has recently discovered them and has worn them every day since. Here he is in nothing but a pair of sweatpants and his boots. He has also worn them with a pair of shorts this week . lol! Speaking of West Virginia- Aidan STILL misses it. It has been 4 months since we moved and he still talks about it every day! He says "I want to go home to West Virginia" ( actually he JUST said it as I was writing the last sentence. lol!) I don't know what I am going to do with him. I am so surprised that he got so attached to it there! We were only there for a year and for 4 of those months we were in San Diego! I guess he is always going to be a West Virginia boy at heart which is fine by me because I will always be a West Virginia girl at heart! :P

My mom went home yesterday. It was so good to have her here! We are going to really miss her. Luckily, Clinto is on his way home from the airport this very second. :0)

If you are wondering WHAT Aidan is doing in these pics- He is chasing bubbles with a water bottle. A new game that he made up . lol!

Easter 2011

2011-04-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

We had a fun and busy Easter weekend! So many sweet memories were created with my sweet boy. On Friday we had a playdate with our new moms group at the park flying kites. On the way home I told Aidan that we would go home, have lunch, and then make our Easter cake. He said, " I want to put hearts on it". I said, "honey it is for Easter not Valentines day" ( thinking that he was thinking about the one we made on Valentines Day. He said "no mom I want to put a heart on it to say thank you to Jesus for Easter". He blew me away and made me tear up a little! We had talked earlier in the day about the REAL reason we celebrate Easter and in his own 3 year old way I think he GETS it! Love that boy! We went home and made our bunny cake.

Saturday morning we got up and dyed Easter Eggs. What an experience this year! It was like Manic Egg Dying! Aidan was SOOO excited that we would put an egg in and 1 second later he wanted to take it out and put another one in or put 2 in at the same time. lol! He also was into mixing colors this year and putting an egg in multiple colors. We definitely had some interesting looking eggs. lol! After we dyed eggs I made lunch and then we decided to drive to Orange County to go to Saddleback for church. I was soooo glad we did! What an awesome message! Pastor Rick gave a message about rescue and hope. He had one of the Chilean Miners there. What an inspiration! When the accident occurred Jose was the only Christian in the group. He was responsible for leading prayer and actually conducted service twice a day while trapped. You might remember that one of the first things the miners requested were tiny bibles. By the time the miners were saved there were 22 other miners that were "saved" and 22 new Christians! 23 of the 30 miners had given their life to Christ! God is so good!

We got home late from Church on Saturday so we were dragging on Sunday morning. Aidan got his Easter basket and goodies the Easter Bunny left. Aidan is so sweet. My mom is still here visiting and she gave up chocolate for lent. Needless to say she has been craving chocolate all week and was REALLY looking forward to Sunday so she could fulfill her craving. The first thing Aidan pulled out of his basket was his big chocolate bunny. He immediately handed it to mom and said " here Mimi this is for you". So sweet! Of course Mimi gave it back to him but I hope he continues to keep his giving and sharing nature. After the morning goodies we got ready and went to the new church I have been attending close to our house. I signed up to volunteer to assist with the toddlers in Sunday school while mom went to the service.

We had a GREAT Easter weekend!

Our bunny cake we made. I used a Wilton pan this year and wasn't that thrilled with it. I made a pink heart on the bunny with icing after I took this picture for Jesus.
Aidan and his manic egg dyeing. lol! This is the first day that Aidan got dressed by himself without me telling him to do it. He picked out a brown pair of pants and the shirt from my 20 year reunion. He may not be making a fashion statement but I was so proud of him for getting himself dressed!

Easter at Saddleback!

Mimi and her boy

Easter Goodies!

Easter morning. Aidan fell asleep in the car on the way home from church so he I just took off his pants and he slept in his shirt from the night before.

Getting ready to go to church Sunday morning.

Me and my sweet boy!

Easter Egg Hunt and Soccer

2011-04-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a really busy day. We started the day at an Easter Egg hunt with a new moms group that we joined. I think we are really going to enjoy it as they have several activities every week! Tomorrow morning we are meeting up with them at a park to fly kites. There are lots of kids in the group that are around Aidans age.

Yesterday afternoon Aidan had his first soccer practice! He has been looking forward to it since I signed him up last month! He had a GREAT time. It was so cute to watch the 3 and 4 year olds. I LOVE his coach. She was really high energy the entire time and changed activities every couple of minutes. Everything she did was turned into a "game" and the kids loved her. She is just what Aidan needs! She most DEFINITELY already knows Aidan's name as she had to keep saying it every couple of minutes to redirect him. lol! I think he was just so excited to be there and it was a new environment and he just wanted to do his own thing and had a difficult time paying attention. I think if she can get him to pay attention and focus he will be a good little soccer player one day. :0)

Easter Egg Hunt

Coach Colleen.

Legoland

2011-04-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

Mom and I took Aidan to Legoland last week and Oh My Goodness! the child had the BEST time. I can see that it is going to easily be our new favorite hangout. Clinton and I took him last year but a year makes a big difference and it was so much better this time! I realized when we were there this time that Legoland is totally geared towards BOYS! and LITTLE BOYS! I mean of course girls enjoy it too but there was not a princess in sight!! What they DO have is pirate ships, medevil castles, Dinosaur Digs, a room where you can shoot balls through a cannon, CARS for 3 year olds to drive, Ancient Ruins, a GINORMOUS play structure with tunnels, ropes, and caves, and not to mention tons of LEGOS to build whatever the imagination can dream up! I mean what BOY would not LOVE Legoland!! Last year when we went it was in December so the water part was not open. It was a little chilly this time but the water part was open and we had to pull Aidan away after his lips finally started to turn blue. lol! It took him a long time to get into the water. He just ran around the outskirts of it and wouldn't get IN it, but finally he just ran right through it and played the LONGEST time! They also had rides PERFECT for 3 1/2 year olds. They weren't "baby rides" but not "big" rides either. He wasn't tall enough to ride then alone yet so I had to ride with him. They were just the perfect size for them to be REALLY EXCITING for a 3 1/2 year old. It was a great day!!! Probably the only bad part was that he had one huge tantrum when we had to leave, which is totally not like him. I'm so happy that we purchased season passes so we can go again, again, and again! Aidan and Marco ( well not really but we called him Marco)! GO HERD! one of the rides we rode 3 times and I think Aidan would have ridden 20 more times if I let him. :0)

Finally "warming up" to the water

Bidet anyone???

The had a junior driving school for 3 to 5 year olds and a driving school for 6 to 8 year olds. Aidan was VERY EXCITED to do this but chickened out at the last second. Oh well- at least I got a pic. lol!

playing with some of the giant legos!

First Beach Day and New Haircut

2011-04-14T11:35:00.000-07:00

A couple of Fridays ago Aidan and I decided to head to the beach. We haven't been since we moved back in December. It was a gorgeous day and we decided to check out some of the "northern" beaches because those are the ones closer to us since we moved. We decided on Solano Beach and we loved it there. It is really different than the beaches that we normally go to which tend to be more "touristy". There is the added bonus of a playground and nice grassy area right above the beach. We spent an hour there before we even ventured down to the beach. There were 4 other boys there around Aidans age and they had a great time playing together! We ended up spending 4 or 5 hours there. We will definitely go back. My mom got here last week and I don't think we have stopped running since she arrived! It is so great to have her here. :0). Aidan had school pictures this week so one thing we did was take Aidan to get a haircut! It is the first time they have ever used the clippers to cut his hair and the shortest it has ever been . I love that I am able to style it in a cute faux hawk. I'm still not sure about it but it does look cute when I first style it. Since mom got here last Wednesday we have gotten Aidans hair cut, gone back to Solano Beach, visited the Farmers Market, gone shopping for some summer clothes for Aidan and a shirt for his pictures ( we also saw the Easter Bunny while we were there), attended our local Earth Day festival, gone to Chuck E. Cheese and went to Legoland yesterday. I will do another post about Legoland later. I think we will go to La Jolla tomorrow and then we have an Easter Egg Hunt and Art Festival this weekend. Whew...... Tomorrow is Unplugged Friday for us so everyone have a great weekend! Aidan at the beach....

Aidans new hair cut!

unplugged Friday part 3, flower fields, and larvae

2011-03-28T17:12:00.000-07:00

This weeks "unplugged Friday" was the most challenging one yet! It was raining here so not only were we not able to go to the zoo, Seaworld, etc..., but we weren't even able to go out and play. Oh my! Being stuck inside with no t.v. = meltdown city for one 3 year old. I planned lots of fun activities but it just wasn't enough. I eventually just gave in and let Aidan watch some t.v. when it was time for his "rest and quiet time" and before bedtime. After all it is ME giving up the computer and t.v. on Fridays and NOT Aidan. I wanted him to be part of it because I thought it would be a good time to spend some great quality time together. It is also a goal to get the t.v. watching time down to 5 hours a week. Don't get me wrong, Aidan just doesn't sit and watch t.v. for hour upon hour but he watches it more than I prefer. I can't WAIT until the weather finally warms up and we can spend a majority of our day outside playing. It is supposed to be close to 80 later in the week. Yippeee!!!!! Some things we did this week for "unplugged Friday" were playing with water color paint and ice cubes, making mini pizzas for lunch and later cupcakes, playing board games, reading books, playing cars and trains, getting in some physical therapy, and playing some educational games. :) Over all it was a good day minus the meltdowns. :) On Saturday we went to the flower fields in Carlsbad. They were having "kids day". I was back and forth all day about going because the weather was still yucky. Finally at 3oclock I just decided to jump in the car and go. I'm glad we did because it was really fun! Even though it was a tad on the chilly side we still had a good time. I plan on taking mom there next month when she visits. They are having an arts and crafts festival and I just LOVE me a good arts festival. lol! Plus the flowers should be in FULL bloom by then and really beautiful! Today we got our "live butterfly larvae" in the mail aka caterpillars. Aidan and I are going to be growing butterflies over the next month. I am excited to watch them grow and change from caterpillars to butterflies. Right now they are really tiny but it shouldnt be long until they grow much bigger. :) Now for some pics... One thing we did on UF is experiment with mixing water color paint in ice cubes and water.... The end product was of course black.... Aidan then used a slotted spoon to transfer the ice cubes from one container to another...

He then experimented using tongs to transfer the ice... this was a bit more challenging but I wanted him to work on his fine motor skills.

He then used a dropper to add more water color paint to individual ice cubes and we watched the ice melt throughout the day and watched the colors blend.

Making mini pizzas for lunch...

The Flower Fields...

I know this kid SO needs a haircut! I am waiting for my mom to get here next week. Maybe SHE can have better luck than me getting him a good haircut.

Playing at Santas Playground at the flowerfields.

One of the things we did that day was to go on a tractor ride throughout the fields. If you look behind Aidan you can see the bare fields. They should be in FULL BLOOM by next month. The paper Aidan is holding up is his "passport" he received. They had stations throughout the exhibits where you got your passport stamped. He was really into this and was excited to get all of the stamps. Sadly, we did not get the stamp for station 3 as you had to hike to the top of the fields to get it. Aidan had on rain boots and he was cranky from not having a nap. I wasn't about to listen to him whine the whole way up the hill and the whole way down. No way. If you ask Aidan that is the only thing he remembers from the day "we didn't get number 3" ( insert whine and sad face). lol!

This pic was taken on the tractor ride. These were the part of the fields that WERE in bloom. One of the things they had there that I didn't get any pics of was "sluicing" (sp?) basically it is taking a bucket of dirt and gems and washing all of the dirt away until there are only the gems left. This was his favorite part and he has been playing with his gems since we got home. Rocks are one of Aidans favorite things!

Our butterfly larvae we received today~ stay tuned for more pics of our science project!

Going Private?

2011-03-24T20:03:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about taking this blog private. You might have noticed that I added a feedjit bar a couple of months ago to better track our visitors. I am uncomfortable with some of the "hits" we have been getting. I started blogging to chronicle our adoption journey for friends and family. I am just uncomfortable with Aidans pics being so vulnerable for anyone to use in anyway they see fit. If you are a "lurker" and read this blog just because you are interested in reading blogs please "delurk" yourself and post a comment. There are a ton of mommy blogs that I read just because I find them interesting and I very rarely leave comments. Leave me your email address in the comment section and I will be happy to send you an invite. :)

hmmm......

2011-03-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

To work or not to work that is the question..... Since Aidan has started preschool 2 days a week I have been thinking about going back to work. I let my teaching credential expire a couple of years ago and it is going to be a ton of work and huge expense to reinstate it ( about a year and a half of coursework) I have been thinking about something part time. I have applied as a teachers assistant in our new school district and have gone through the first round of interviews. The interview process is really "different" here. They spent two days conducting interviews of everyone that applied. They give you a score and a rank based on the interview. I am happy to say that I scored 99 out of 100 for my interview and a rank of 1 ( I would have been really disappointed had it been anything less since it is a job I am really overqualified for lol!) They then start with the first rank and you are called to interview by individual schools. I have to say if I were a principal or a teacher I would LOVE this system. It seems to really weed out any flakes or incompetent people right away. I got a call today and I have 2 interviews next week with 2 different schools. The problem is I'm not sure I really want to go back to work or if it makes sense for me to go back to work. Part of me is really itching to get back in the classroom and work with children again ( even if it is as the teachers assistant and not the teacher). Part of me worries how this is going to affect Aidan. These 2 positions are for 30 hours a week, which means he would be in school / daycare for 30 hours a week since I get zero help at home with him ( I honestly do love my hubby but he is just unable to help with Aidan in any capacity because of the schedule he creates for himself) . I feel very blessed and very thankful that I have been able to stay at home with him for almost 4 years now. I know many people would LOVE that opportunity and they are all saying don't do it! Honestly, I am not even sure that what I would be making would cover daycare expenses ( if it didnt -I definitely would not do it). Part of me feels like I should be contributing something towards our finances. Even though I would not be bringing home the big bucks, just the fact that these positions provide benefits like insurance would be a HUGE contribution ( considering what we pay each month for health insurance). There is a possibility that if I got one of the positions I am interviewing for ( it is in a preschool class with a mix of typical and autistic kids) that Aidan could attend the same school next year. Our district offers a 2 year kindergarten program for kids with birthdays between June and December called the PEPP program. There is a wait list for it so Im not sure Aidan could even get in ,but I would hope they would factor in the fact that I worked there.

There are a lot of pros and cons to consider and a lot of unknowns right now. I guess I will just get through the interviews, see if I actually get offered a position, see what I can negotiate as far as the pay and go from there. Sorry about the rambling- I just have a lot I am thinking about right now and it helps to get it written down so I just decided to blog about it lol! Also, the picture at top has nothing to do with this post. Its just one I found that I took at the Monster Truck Jam a couple of months ago that I never blogged about. Sorry about the randomness. lol!

Tomorrow is unplugged Friday for us- so everyone have a great weekend! :)

unplugged Friday part 2

2011-03-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

This Friday was our second Friday spending it "unplugged" where we had no t.v. or computers. This is what I decided to give up for lent. This week I decided that we would spend the morning at the zoo. The first thing in the morning is a great time to go to the zoo because most of the animals are usually active and awake and sometimes eating. We only spent a couple of hours there due to the "fallout" from Japan that was due to hit Southern California on Friday. All though all of the experts said that it was harmless, I still wanted to get back home in the indoors. Spending the morning outdoors worked because Aidan came home and had a loooonng nap. Clinton was able to come home early that night ( in our house 7:30 IS early) and we were able to go out and have dinner as a family. Mr. Aidan was so well rested that he didn't go to bed until 10:30 that night. We are walking a fine line with naps these days. If he does nap, he has a tendency to take a 3 hour nap and sleep well into the evening. This makes for a late bedtime. If he doesn't take a nap we are both usually feeling the consequences around 6ish with whining and meltdowns. On these nights he is asleep by 7:45 and I get to have some "me" time. :)

I have to say "unplugged" Fridays have been going pretty well. I think Aidan is having a more difficult time with it than I am. This week I let him watch a few of his shows in the evening. I SO wish I would have stuck with my guns when he was a baby and not let him watch ANY t.v. I think the kid would watch television 10 hours a day if I would let him. My goal is to cut down on the t.v watching more and more each week until he is only watching it 5 to 6 hours a week. I know that t.v. is not good for kids no matter how educational the shows can be and research shows that it shortens their attention span and kids do poorer in school no matter what their I.Q's. Many times the t.v. is just background noise and he is playing with his toys, so I will start with turning OFF the t.v. whenever his attention is diverted. baby steps.

I have to say that unplugged Friday has made me realize HOW MUCH I depend on my computer. I had to get Clinton to pull up directions to the restaurant we went to on Friday because we have no maps. I also had to pull out the phonebook and use it on Friday. It has been YEARS since I have used a phonebook OR an old fashioned map. It just makes me realize what a different world Aidan is growing up in compared to how I grew up. Probably the thing that aggravated me the most was not being able to check my emails. The email and facebook apps on my phone were VERY tempting, but Im proud to say that I stuck it out. lol! What DID we do before the internet? :) I spent some time READING while Aidan was napping and that was really refreshing! I am going to make it a point to spend more time reading and to also spend more time reading my bible. :)

Since Aidan is in school 2 days a week I have decided to get back into doing "crafty" things. I used to enjoy doing crafty things once in awhile and it has been a LONG time since I have created anything remotely crafty. This week I wanted to create a space where Aidan could display his work from school. I thought about how he likes to do things "himself", so I made a "I did it myself" board. I thought it turned out o.k. but I am not happy with the actual writing on the board. However, it will serve its purpose. I hung it in his playroom and he will proudly be able to display his work from school.

Aidan at the zoo.

The hippo where we ALWAYS take a pic...

One of my favorite exhibits- The Gorillas. Apparently it is mating season because there was some "gorilla love" going on. lol!

Sadly, one of my fav gorillas passed away this past month due to old age and natural causes but hopefully there will be some new babies soon. :)

I took these this morning before church...

Happy St. Patricks Day!

2011-03-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patricks Day everyone! May the luck of the Irish be with you today! Im just getting ready to take the wee lil one to school and took a quick photo. Aidan was very upset this morning because he said, "my teacher told me to wear a GREEN shirt". lol! Have a great day everyone!!

unplugged Friday

2011-03-12T14:35:00.000-08:00

This year for Lent I have decided to go unplugged on Fridays, which means no t.v. and no internet on Fridays. I have also decided to perform Random Acts of Kindness throughout the week. Yesterday was our first Friday to go "unplugged". I knew to pull this off I was going to have to get creative and have some activities in mind. Yesterday was a bit of a challenge because Aidan has a nasty cold and just wanted to sit and "veg" all day in front of the t.v. I think he watched about 3 shows yesterday and the rest of the time I was able to keep in engaged in other activities. One thing we did yesterday was to put our new "watercolor paint" to use. Watercolor paint comes in the same containers as your typical tempra paint, only it is the consistency of water. I had to order it online because the people at Michaels looked at me like I had 3 heads when I asked for it there. You use it like you would food coloring in different activities ( only it is nonedible). The advantage of using watercolor paint instead of food coloring is that it cleans up much easier and does not stain like food coloring. So far we have used it to experiment mixing colors in shaving cream, used it to color our homemade playdough, used it to make coffee filter art, and yesterday we used it to color macaroni ( and I have only had it a week- can you tell we are having fun with it and love it! lol). We had fun coloring it yesterday and next week we will use the colored macaroni to do some sorting and fine motor activities :).

Yesterday afternoon Clinton, Aidan, and I went to the lake that is close to our house and had a picnic. After we had our picnic we had a fun time feeding the geese and playing at the playground there. We also took our ball and Aidans bike so he could practice riding. We had a great "family day" and a great time was had by all!

Aidan is loving school! He asks if he can go every day! Although I am not thrilled that it seems like he has been sick since be began last month, I am happy that he loves it so much. :)

Aidan had Occupational Therapy ( OT) and Physical Therapy (PT) evaluations last week and it seems like they are going to recommend services for both. We haven't gotten the official report but we are waiting to hear from the therapists. They both gave us some great activities to do at home to work on various skills. I have created a spread sheet so I can make sure we are getting everything in at home. :0)

This morning we went to the farmers market by our house and rode the train. It is a really cool area/park that is made to look like an old Western town. They give train rides around the park on the weekends. Fun!

Our macaroni project yesterday....

mixing it in the colors.... I got these cool bowls at Target on clearance for .25 each. Bargain!

Letting it dry....

The view of the lake.

Aidan sitting in the grass on the hill. He had such a great time!

feeding the geese...

Check out the feet on this bird!

waiting in line to ride the train

They have 3 trains that they rotate. The engine they normally run is out of commission for a couple of months so it can receive its yearly maintenance. Today they had the trolley car running.

riding the trolley this morning...

Fountain at the park.

Aidan surprised me a couple of weeks ago when he (out of the blue) wrote his name in sidewalk chalk! Writing his name is not a skill we have been working on , so I was pleasantly surprised! Not bad for three!!!!

Jacob came to visit!

2011-02-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Jacob and Suzanne came down. Jacob and I share the same birthday. We were in Vegas so we weren't able to attend Jacob's birthday party, so I decided to throw him a mini birthday party at our house! We got to have a sleepover and the boys had a blast playing together. They were like little streaks of lightening running around and having fun. They were inside and outside, upstairs and downstairs, ALL over the house. I put up Aidans tent in the living room so they could play in it. Leave it to boys to go in the tent and not play but have a wrestling match! They basically wore themselves out playing. Aidan had an early night because by dinner time he was so exhausted that he just couldn't keep it together. He got choked because he started having a fit with a mouth full of broccoli and ended up vomiting everything he had eaten during the day. I gave him a bath and put him in the bed.

After a good nights rest he was ready to go the next morning! The boys spent some time in the morning riding their bikes. I bought Aidan his first bike on Friday. It is an orange Harley Davidson one and he loves it! We also played "Just Dance Kids" on the Wii for a little while. Jacob REALLY seemed to enjoy that! We had lunch and then they had to leave. I guess Aidan was still a little exhausted because he took a 4 hour nap that afternoon!

It was so good to have friends over. I think Aidan and I both needed it!

Happy birthday Jacob!

Playing in the tent...

taking a break from their wrestling match. Poor tent.

Aidan on his new bike! :)

such a big boy~

First day of Preschool

2011-02-20T12:53:00.000-08:00

Last week was Aidans first week of preschool. He absolutely loved it. He went for the "discovery day" the previous week and had such a fun time! On Monday when I told him that he had school the next day he said, "you mean I get to go back!?". lol~ He thought it was a one time deal and was so excited when he realized he gets to go every week. He was sooooo excited as a matter of fact that he decided to walk himself to school the first day! I mentioned to him before that the school was so close that we might walk there occasionally. I guess he took that to heart. I took these pics below right before we were getting ready to leave. I took the pictures and then ran into the house to grab his lunch , his jacket, his nap stuff, extra change of clothes, etc... It was all ready to go so I was in and out in a minute. When I came back out I found Aidan walking down the sidewalk with his backpack on his back. When I yelled out to him he said. " Mom, I can walk to school all by MYSELF". Little Mr. Confidence thought he was going to walk a mile to school all by himself. I couldn't believe it. I have to watch that boy like a hawk!

When I went to pick him up his teacher Mrs. Thomas said that he had a great day.

Here are the pics taken just before he decided to walk to school....

This was him 5 minutes after we arrived. He gets to play outside for the first 20 minutes after he gets there. Aidan loves riding the yellow bike the best~

Our home

2011-02-15T15:00:00.001-08:00

Our house is finally coming together and feeling more and more like a home every day. I can't explain how much I love this area and how happy I am that we moved here! I love this house and hope we stay here for a loooonnnng time. It meets our needs perfectly! While I was taking pictures yesterday of our Valentine fun I shot some of the house to share with you. I took one of the front of the house and blurred out our address to keep the stalkers away ( not that I think in any way we have stalkers but you know this is the Internet and there are crazies out there!) but for some reason it didnt save, so sorry there are no pics of the front. If you REALLY want to see what the front looks like you will have to just come and visit! HA! So let me show you around.....

I took this a couple of weeks ago. This is where we store all of Aidans riding / outside toys. Do you think I could start my OWN preschool with all of those toys????

The living room....

I LOVE all the windows and natural light throughout the house.

view from the front door.

One of my FAV parts of the house. The PANTRY! I have never had one and I LOVE it!

This pic is blurry because I just happened to "catch" Aidan this way and my camera was only a few feet away but I had to be quick! Notice he is standing on paper towels to reach something that he wanted that I put up HIGH so he WOULDNT get to it. My plan backfired. * sigh*

The backyard... On the other side of this fence is a sweet black lab. Aidan likes to "visit" him and then we have to listen to the dog whine the rest of the time we are out there because he wants to play.

another view of the backyard... The small white table beside the fountain is Aidans craft table.

Aidan spends a lot of time playing out there....

When he is not outside you can most likely find him here in his playroom!

This is most of the downstairs- There is also a family room off the kitchen, a bathroom, laundry room , and of course the garage. I didnt take any pics of the upstairs yet. Maybe I will share more later.

Valentines Day edited

2011-02-14T18:10:00.000-08:00

So I told Aidan before I put him down for a nap that he could have a piece of cake when he woke up. He woke up and came to my room and we played and cuddled for a little while. He went downstairs and I blow dried my hair. I came downstairs and checked on him and he was playing in his playroom innocently. I walked into the kitchen and found this..... hmmm...... something seemed a little off. The cake was still there with its cover on but there was a fork laying beside it with pink frosting on it and a juice box. hmmmm........... so I opened the cover and found this - one little bite taken out of the cake. I HAD to laugh! The little booger got a fork out of the drawer, figured out how to take the top off, took one little bite and put the top back. Had he not left the fork laying there it would have taken me awhile longer to discover it. lol! You think I am going to be in trouble when he turns into a teenager???

Happy Valentines Day

2011-02-14T14:11:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentines Day! I have been thinking a lot today about this holiday. I don't think it was as a big of a deal when I was a kid as it is today. Ok- let me rephrase that- I don't think it was as COMMERCIALIZED when I was a kid as it is today. I know that in most other countries Valentines Day is not a big deal and its mostly Americans that fall into the "trap" of this holiday. I can remember fun parties at school and making Valentines bags and boxes. I can remember getting very offended and upset if anyone gave me a valentine with a pig on it. Yes, I was kind of sensitive about my size / height as a kid . I can remember being disappointed when boyfriends didn't meet my expectations and then there was the single years. blah, blah, blah, blah. I think this is kind of a ridiculous holiday that can bring sadness. Valentines day should not be a DAY of the year that we tell those close to us that we love them rather EVERY DAY should be Valentines and we should let those around us know that we love them. With that said I am the typical American who has fallen into the "trap". lol! Of course I gave Clinton a card before he left on his trip and I do love him and he will always be my Valentine but I am having more fun with my lil' Valentine / my lil' LOVE! Although I tell him a HUNDRED times a day I love him, I am enjoying exposing him to this commercialized holiday created by the greeting card companies to make a bajillion dollars. lol!

I set out all of Aidans goodies last night before I went to bed. When he saw them this morning he said, " awwww, maybe the Valentine Girl visited us last night" lol! I showed him the card that I got for him and explained that the goodies were from me and his dad. For breakfast I fixed heart shaped pancakes and strawberries.

Then this afternoon we made a cake....

pouring in the water...

pouring in the eggs...

mixing....

The final product...

Happy Valentines Day everyone! In case I haven't told you lately- I love you!

The big four ohhhhh!!!!

2011-02-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I had my 40th birthday!A month or so before my birthday I debated about what to do for it. I started looking at the calendar and realized that Clinton was going to be out of town. boo! I was determined NOT to sit at home alone on my birthday so I called my bff Cara and we decided to meet in Vegas for the big event. My plan was to take a babysitter with us so I could have some time with Aidan and also some grown up time. Clintons trip ended up getting cancelled so he got to come to Vegas after all! It ended up being perfect! I got to spend the weekend with 3 of my favorite people in the world and Clinton and Aidan got to spend a little bit of "guy" time together.

Cara's flight ended up getting delayed due to weather so she didnt get there until Friday night. We spent the night catching up and laughing until we cried. Clinton and I just finished up unloading the last load of the truck at 5ish AM the day we left and I found all of my yearbooks and pictures from college. I decided to bring those with us and it provided some great entertainment. Unbeknownst to me Cara made me an album of our 20 years together as friends for my birthday and it had some of the very same pictures in it!

Saturday Cara and I went for a pedicure while Clinton and Aidan stayed at the condo. While we were getting our pedicures I looked over at Cara and she had this look of well ...discomfort on her face. I had totally forgotten that Cara HATES to have her feet touched! The pedicurist kept slapping her foot and telling her to relax. This led to another fit of laughter!!! I told her that she could have gotten a manicure instead of pedicure, but she just stuck it out. What a trooper and what a FRIEND! lol! We then picked up to the boys and headed to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Clinton and Aidan then headed to he Harley store and Cara and I headed to the Lion King. The show was AH MAZING! It was so visually stimulating and entertaining! Clinton picked us up after the show and we went home to relax for a little while and I put Aidan to bed. Cara and I then hit the strip for the night and did some gambling and casino hopping.

Sunday we got up and Cara got a massage while I got a facial. We picked up the boys and headed to the Rio for brunch. Wow! that was an experience. I always love the buffet at the Rio and think it is one of the best in Vegas, however, Aidan was tired and cranky and so was everyone else. The 45 minute wait to get seated only added to the hunger and crankiness. However, we left there with full bellies and better attitudes. :) We dropped Clinton off at the condo and then Cara, Aidan and I hit the outlets until closing time. We then went to the strip to run into a couple of stores and to watch the water show at the Bellagio. It was chilly and really windy so I put Aidans wind/rain shield on his stroller. Honestly he looks like a boy in a bubble when I use that thing! We were walking down the strip and of course it was full of people wanting to sell their services/ music/ etc... One guy was pushing his reggae CD. He said "I got Reggae music, I got Reggae music for children in a bubble."- again the laughter ensued. lol! I wasnt that comfortable having Aidan out on the strip after dark so we left right after we watched the water show.

Monday we did a little bit of shopping and dropped off Cara at the airport. It was the PERFECT birthday. :)

On the way to Vegas... Two passed out passengers.
The living room at our condo...

Aidan relaxing in his room at the condo.

Cara enjoying her pedicure. NOT! lol!

lunch at the Hard Rock.

after lunch we saw these two Michael Jackson impersonators and HAD to get our picture taken.

The Lion King....

Gambling the night of my birthday. I am a HUGE gambler!! Ok just kidding. I always quit when I am ahead. I put 5 bucks in the quarter slot machine and got $51.75 back. I thought that was a BIG deal and a pretty good return on my money!

waiting for the show at the Bellagio to start.

see..... boy in a bubble.

watching the water show