Happy Fathers Day Clinto! I will love and honor you always for being Aidan's dad!

Love,
Kelley

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Today was Aidan Day!

This morning my mom declared that it was "Aidan Day". Which meant we did stuff all day long for him ( which is different from any other day I have no idea! LOL!) We started the morning off at the waterpark. Aidan can take or leave the water but he did have a good time. He spent most of the time walking around the blacktop and pointing out letters in signs. We did go down the minature water slide twice and he really liked it. I noticed today that there are A LOT of rednecks here in Tenessee ( Attention man who blew snot on the ground two feet from where we had our towels- that was NOT COOL and YES I did see you!). After the waterpark we headed to McDonalds ( Donalds as Aidan calls it) for lunch. After lunch we went home for a much needed nap, and when I say we I mean mom, myself, and Aidan.

This afternoon we took Aidan to the park at Warriors Path . This is by far my favorite park in the area and maybe even my favorite park period. There is a lot to do there and plenty of shade! Aidan met a very nice grandfather there who was there with his grandson who appeared to be around 3. Aidan played and played with the grandfather. It was a blessing for him to be able to have some time with a grandfather type. I keep teasing my mom and saying that Aidan needs a grandfather around so she needs to get remarried. She did NOT think this was funny! LOL!

We then headed to Chick Fil A for dinner. Aidan ate a great dinner! I have had problems with Aidan since he started on solid food getting him to eat well. It is a meal few and far between that he actually EATS and today was one of those days. I guess we wore him out today and the boy was starving. After he ate he got to play in the play area. We met a really nice family in there with 2 kids. The boy Jake was 1 day younger than Aidan and the big sister Gracie was great with Aidan. He played and played with those two sweet kids.

As soon as we got home tonight Aidan ate some ice cream ( cream as he calls it), took a bath, and passed out in the bed. AHHHH what a great ending to a great day!

Going down the slide.

Aidan kept running over to my mom and crawling all over her while he was soaking wet. He cracked me up.

I rented an innertube and it lasted about 5 minutes. They had a lazy river there and the current was so strong I just did not feel it was safe. Aidan actually slipped away from me once. After that I just carried him around in the water, which he LOVED!

Signs of the Twos?

Aidan has been really good at showing his wants and needs lately. What I mean by this is that he is starting to really test me by throwing tantrums when he is upset. This usually occurs when there are cars or trains involved and ALWAYS happens in public! When I was a teacher I considered Behavior Management one of my strengths. But boy is it different when it is your own child! I do the best that I can by 1. Letting him know the rules and expectations before entering a "problematic" area where I can see there might be an issue. 2. Giving as little attention and energy to the tantrum as possible ( if he had a tantrum at home I would simply tell him to cry it out and walk away until he was done). 3. attempting to distract him with something else. 4. Talking to him about what the issue is and helping him to use his words.

Here is a prime example of what I am talking about. I will preface this by saying that I know I was setting myself up for failure last night because it was 6 oclock and WAY to late to be attempting to eating out at a restaurant because Aidan was 1. Starving 2. Sleepy and ready for bed. But anyways mom and I decided to do some shopping and time got away from us and it was what it was... So after heming and hawing about where to eat last night we decided to go to the Cracker Barrel. There was a 5 to 10 minute wait which wasnt really a big deal except they had CARS in their toy section. Aidan KNOWS that they have cars there and he made a beeline for them as soon as we entered the fine establishment. Now these are not just cars in boxes that are just fun to look at, but cars that are just loose in baskets and are fun to PLAY with. I let Aidan know that we could only stay a couple of minutes because it would be time to eat soon. When I heard them call the people that were ahead of us I began to set him up by telling him he had 1 more minute. They then called our name sooner than expected and it was time to go to the hostess stand. This is when melt down city happened. There was Aidan LAYING in the floor screaming and crying. I picked him up and told him that I knew he was really upset because he wanted to play with the cars but it was time to eat. This only made him cry louder. By the time we got to the hostess stand he had calmed down a little. By the time we got to the table he was crying again saying "cars, cars". At this point it was late and I didnt have the energy to deal with him during the entire meal . I do not believe in exposing other diners to bad toddler behavior, so I told mom to "lets just forget it and get it to go". I took Aidan to the car and 20 minutes later we were driving away with our food. Once at home he happily ate and was fine. The lesson learned in this scenerio was NEVER EVER EVER attempt to eat at a restuarant with Aidan if it is past 5:00.- at least until he turns 3!

Fun at the Library

The weather has been really rainy here all summer so we have been looking for indoor activities. One of the things I found is "two time" at the local library. There is a really nice library here that has a little ampitheatre. They have story hour just for "two's". Aidan really enjoys it! Every week there is a theme. This weeks theme was "hats". The librarian read a couple of stories about hats, sang songs about hats, and some finger plays. The kids got to each wear a hat. Aidans was a cowboy hat! They then got to make a hat at the end. Aidan didnt do this because he was to interested in the train table they had set up in the library. LOL! That boy just looves his trains.

We also found that Barnes and Nobles has a really nice train table set up. We went there last night and Aidan played for close to an hour! I now know that I can go to Barnes and Noble get a good book and he will play independently for a long time! Sweet!



I posted some pictures of our time in Huntington

summertime

Summertime is here and I have just not been in the mood to blog. So here is a catchup blog of what we have been doing the past couple of months while at my moms house in Tennessee.

First off I helped my mom move to a new townhouse. It is much bigger and roomier. It is really nice and we are enjoying it. While the movers were here Aidan and I took a little vacation to visit Mikie in Roanoke Va. It was great to see her and Cameron and Jared! It was also nice to meet her husband Ryan. Mikie is expecting a baby girl in the fall.

Memorial Day my aunt and cousin came to visit us. We had a blast playing with the Wii , shopping, and eating Krispy Kreme doughnuts. YUM! I love being around family!

The week before last Aidan, Annabelle, and I drove to West Virginia to visit Cara and Sheri. We had a great time there and I realized just how much I miss being around good friends and West Virginia itself. So much so I am contemplating going back to Grad School at Marshall next year.

Saturday mom and I drove 2 hours to Blowing Rock NC where we took Aidan to see Thomas the Train. He is soooo into trains these days. Trains and Matchbox cars are his favs! His favorite train is "Duncan" and we were lucky enough to find him at Tweetsie Railroad.

In other news.... Aidan has decided to potty train himself. I havent really wanted to do it until we got back to Cali but he has other plans. This morning he took off his pajama bottoms and diaper and went pee pee in the potty all by himself! He has done this twice today so far. He is now wearing big boy underwear. We did this a couple of days ago and it did not go so well, so I put him back in a diaper. I thought I would wait until after he turned two. I guess he has shown me today that he is ready! We will see how it goes.

Now for some pics....

Chillin and watching Dora. His favorite show at the moment. Mothers Day

My new glasses. I finally got new ones after Aidan broke my old ones several months ago.

Watering the neigbors roses. Arent they beautiful!

Getting ready to go to the Iris Festival.


Sporting his new ride at the Iris Festival.

In Roanoke with his new friend "Captain". What a gentle and patient dog!

Aidan and Cameron

Memorial Day

Playing with Jacob in Huntington. Suzanne is visiting her mom also in West Virginia so the boys got to play together several days!

Sitting in a big boy booster seat. By the end of the meal he was in a high chair because it just didnt work out!

Playing at the train tables at the Tweetsie Railroad. He spent at least 2 hours playing with the trains!

Here comes Thomas! Poor Aidan was soooo sleepy that day. We thought he would nap on the way to see Thomas but he didnt. He wasnt able to take his nap until we were on the way home at 5:00! He normally naps at 11.

Playing in the Teepee at Tweetsie Railroad.

Playing with "Harold"- part of the Train Table set up.

Waiting in line to ride Thomas.

Dora Cake

For the longest time Aidan kept asking for "cake". I had no idea why he wanted cake because he hasn't even had cake that often. When I asked him " What kind of cake do you want?" he promptly answered "Dora!". Sooooo..... we made a Dora Cake!


Check out our finished product. Decorated by Aidan! Putting on his apron getting ready to decorate his cake.

Putting on the sprinkles.

Decorating the cake.

and finally eating the cake while decorating it!

Catch Up ( Legoland)

Just before Aidan and I came to the east coast, we went to Legoland with Clinton. It was a great day. We hadn't been to Legoland before so it was something new and different. Aidan especially enjoyed his time out of the stroller when we just let him run around.

We saw the Bob the Builder 4 D show. Aidan loved it!

Aidan's new hero Thomas. Every morning he asks to watch Thomas. He is reaally into trains these days!