What Do You Say?

Wow. It's come to this already. I'm so unprepared.

I was reading books to Aidan for bedtime and inbetween books, he looks at me and says, "Someday I'll die."

"Um ... hopefully not for a long, long time," was all I could muster.

"Yeah," Aidan replied. "And then you and Mommy won't want me around."

"Oh, that's not true!" I answered. "Mommy and Daddy always want you around." Aidan replied with a shy smile.

"Here, Daddy. Read this book," Aidan said as he gave me "When I Grow Up."

Shooting Stars

There's supposed to be a good meteor shower tonight and around 9 p.m. I mentioned to Aidan that it might be fun to go sit in our hammock and watch the sky. He agreed.

I told him that we could watch the shooting start, stars that look like they're falling from the sky. As we were walking outside, he started to look worried.

"I don't want to be out here," he said. "I don't want them to fall on me."

"Oh," I said. "They won't fall on you; they only look like they're falling. They're shooting stars. They look like little streaks of light that go across the sky. They won't fall on you. You'll be okay."

At that, Aidan covered his ears. "I don't like the sound they make," he said.

"They're not like fireworks ... they're like ... just lines of light in the sky. They're just shooting starts... What do you think they'll sound like?"

Aidan then made a sound like a laser gun ... shooting stars. "They'll come down and shoot me, like my spaceship. I want to go inside."

And thus ended our first real meteor-shower watching party.

Time for a Breath and an Update

It's been a little busy around here, but everything is generally going extremely well. Aidan seems to be quite smitten with Devin; Devin is getting over his mild case of jaundice. Renee is having some issues with getting enough sleep and having much too much milk available for Devin (which, from what I hear, is the better problem to have — better than not having enough milk).

Devin has been the picture-perfect infant: sleeping, eating, and pooping. The only time that he cries is when his diaper is being changed. Other than that, he seems to be one very content little boy.

Aidan has been doting over Devin since he was first introduced to him. The very moment that Devin cries, Aidan wants to help, find out what the matter is, or point out what's amiss. For example, this evening Devin fell asleep in his car seat, so we left him in there. After a while, he started to stir, twisting his face in a grimace and looking generally uncomfortable. Aidan noticed and proudly announced, "my baby doesn't like it there anymore." When I got up to move Devin to a more comfortable location, Aidan jumped up with me and said, "Let my do it!"

Week 37

This is the first doctor's appointment that I've been able to attend since the sonogram appointment back in week 19. The first thing Dr. Love said when he saw me was, "I haven't seen you in a while. Have you been busy?" My answer was, "yes."

My job has kept me very busy recently and finding time for these things has been difficult. However, put into perspective, I have it easy. At least no one's life is at stake if I slack off or put the family first. I don't see how Dr. Love can lavish as much attention as he does on his patients and keep a family life.

"Balance," was his reply to this. "Which is something they don't teach in med school."

Regardless, I'm very appreciative of Dr. Love's skills and attention and can sympathize with his family. But they can have him when we're done.

The visit was very good and Renee checked out fine; her measurements were right on target. It was refreshing to get to see Dr. Love again and reaffirm that he is indeed the right doctor for us. His philosophy of medical practice fits in well with ours and he takes very good care of Renee (and his patients in general — it confounds me as to how me can have anything left when he gets home). His primary goal — outside of a safely delivered baby and healthy mom — is to avoid a cesarean birth at all costs. That's exactly where we are, too.

Ultimately, I'm glad I was able to attend today, and a little regretful that I haven't been able to attend other appointments. Still, arriving at this appointment wasn't particularly easy for me. I had to ask Renee to take Aidan to school for me in the morning so I could wrap up a project at work before I headed to the appointment.

Of course, Aidan wasn't particularly keen on this (Aidan and I have a good thing going in the morning). To help him understand, Renee told him that I had to go to work in order to meet Mommy and the baby at the doctor's office.

Fast forward to later that afternoon. Renee is picking up Aidan from school as she usually does.

"Did you go to the doctor's today?" Aidan asks.

"Yes," replies Renee.

"You were there a long time," Aidan says. "Why wasn't I there?"

And thus is how we learned that Aidan wants to go to the doctor's appointments with us to see how the baby is doing.

Caught a Germ

Aidan's just getting over being sick; he and Renee have stayed home the last few days. Aidan hasn't had a lot of energy, so they spent some time watching TV and just hanging out. One day, they caught an episode of Reading Rainbow, where there was a story about a little kid who got sick — more specifically, caught a germ.

Thus, if you were to ask Aidan what's been going on lately, he'd tell you, "My caught a germ." If he sees someone on TV (or in general) coughing or sneezing, "they caught a germ."

Love Me Later

Renee related this story to me:

We were sitting down having breakfast and I said to Aidan, "I love you." He looked at me and said: "I'm eating cereal now. Love me later."

The "Wow" Factor

As some of you may know, we recently made a 20-minute long video history of Aidan's first two years. The intro to the video is based on the Star Wars intro, scrolling text and all — including the theme music.

While I was working on that project, I would do occassional screenings to Renee and Aidan to get some feedback. Aidan would occassionally complain that he didn't want to see the "Baby Aidan" movie. But as soon as the opening blast of the Star Wars theme came through the speakers, Aidan would immeadiately stop whatever it was he was doing and run to the couch and watch. It was pretty funny.

It's been a while since I've seen all three of the original Star Wars movies. I was pretty sure that they would be a little scary for Aidan, but I didn't think that they would be too bad for him. And since I just recently received them on DVD for Christmas, I figured why not....

I was right about the first episode (actually, Episode IV). The opening had Aidan completely in awe. The Imperial Star Destroyer zooming in to capture Princess Leia's ship got this reaction from Aidan: "Whoooooa." That was a completely unsolicited whoa, too, by the way.

In fact, any time a spaceship went zipping by, Aidan was pretty sure to say "whoa." After a while he started asking about the characters. "What's his name, Daddy?" or "Who's that, Daddy?" I'm sure I was beaming with pride. A sort of geeky-pride, but pride nonetheless. Quite over Aidan's head in terms of storyline and such, but not too scary and he loved the special effects.

Over the course of the next several weeks we watched the entire series of the original trilogy and Aidan was always most impressed by the flying spaceships. However, the characters got a little darker, the monsters a little more scary and there were plenty of scenes where Aidan would just say "I don't like this part."

Still, Aidan did try his best to follow along with what was happening. After being introduced to Yoda, Aidan would constantly ask where he was and what he was doing. Another favorite question was "Where the guy in the helmet are?" (Referring, of course, to C3P0.)

Aidan would also ask why everyone was running away from Darth Vader, or who Darth Vader was looking for and why. And of course, he wanted to know what they all were saying, which wasn't always an easy thing to explain.

"Daddy, what's he saying?"

"Well ... um ... he's saying that ... um ... well, he's saying that he's Luke's daddy and that ... well, they should get together and do bad things, but Luke doesn't want to do bad things."

"What's he saying now, Daddy?"

"Um ..."

"What's he going to do, Daddy?"

"Um ..."

Yeah. So, anyway, I'm still looking for some answers to some of Aidan's questions; I have a feeling this is just the beginning of such moments, only I didn't expect this to happen so soon.

That Football Player Looks Like You

The whole family was fighting a cold this weekend, so it was kind of nice to have a whole Sunday dedicated to watching some football games, as none of us were really up for anything more taxing than watching some TV.

During one of the games, the camera cut to one of the women sideline reporters (was it Bonnie Bernstein?) and Aidan said, "Mommy, that football player looks like you!"

A little bit later, they cut back to the same sideline reporter and Aidan starts to say it again, but couldn't quite get it out.

"Mommy, that ... Mommy ... that football ... Mommy that football player ..."

By the time he was ready to say "looks like you," the camera cut to one of the real football players (Jerome Bettis, I think).

"Mommy, that football player looks ... oh. Not that one," Aidan said.

Sing-A-Long with Shrek

Aidan is getting in the holiday spirit and is learning some of the traditional christmas songs. It is not unusual to hear him singing:

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells Hey!
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells Hey!

Or the other holiday favorite:

Santa Claus is coming over

In other news, Aidan has taken to some "role playing" recently. He pretends that he is Shrek, I am Donkey, and Renee is Princess Fiona. Aidan will answer to his own name, but only to tell us that he's not Aidan, "I'm Shrek."

"Aidan, can you pick up your toys?" I'll ask.

"I'm not Aidan, I'm Shrek," he'll reply.

"Oh. Right. Shrek, can you pick up your toys?"

"Okay."

A few minutes later, after the toys are away....

"Are you hungry? Should we get some food?" I'll ask.

"Daddy .... Donkey, I'm not Aidan, I'm Shrek."

"Yes, Shrek, do you want some food."

"No thanks, Donkey."

This has been going on for days now. One day we were in the store and Aidan and I were together with the shopping cart while Renee was off looking for something.

"Where's Princess Fiona?" Aidan asked.

"I'm not sure," I replied. "Maybe we'll need to rescue her from a tower."

"Yeah!" Aidan said. "With a dragon, too!"

This morning, as Aidan ... er, Shrek ... and I were walking out the door to go to school/work, Renee ... um, Princess Fiona ... sent us off with a "Bye! Have a good day!"

Aidan stopped in the doorway, raised his hand and said, "Wait. I ... no. I ... Aidan ... not ..."

He couldn't get the words out, but Renee immeadiately figured it out. "Oh. Right. Good-bye Shrek, have a good day."

Aidan put his hand down and strode through the door as proud as could be.

Some Days

I apologize for the lack of postings lately, but I've been working on a super-secret project and it's been taking up a lot of my time. And Halo 2 came out recently and that's taking up a lot of my time.

I can't realistically shirk any of my normal responsibilities, and I don't spend as much time with Aidan and Renee as I like, so I try not to sacrifice any time there. So, I end up going to bed later and later. It's really quite amazing that I get any sleep.

Yesterday the three of us went out for dinner so we could spend a little more time together without the added chores (i.e., doing dishes). Aidan has become the typical picky two-year old, so we thought if we went to a restaurant for french fries or pizza, he'd eat something. We asked him which he wanted, and he chose pizza.

Once the pizza arrived, he didn't want it. "It's too yucky for me," he'd say. Or, "It has tomatoes on it. I don't like tomatoes."

The way that Aidan says "like" is absolutely hysterical. I don't know how to spell it phonetically, but somehow he makes it into a two-syllable word. I need to find a way to get that recorded.

Later that night, Renee is trying to put Aidan to sleep. He almost drifts off, but then realizes he hasn't eaten anything and now wants to eat his pizza:

"I like tomatoes," Aidan tells me as I put his pizza in front of him.

"Really?" I reply. "Did you like them earlier today?"

"Nooooo," he says. "I not like them at the restaurant. But I like tomatoes now. Silas not like tomatoes. If I ask Silas [and now Aidan switches to a falsetto voice] 'Do you like tomatoes?" [back to Aidan's regular voice] Silas says, 'I not like tomatoes.'"

"Really," I say, completely flabbergasted and trying hard not to laugh.

"No laugh at me, Daddy," Aidan says, which of course makes me laugh out loud.

"I'm sorry. I'm not laughing at you," I reply, knowing that is the lamest excuse in the book.

"I laugh at you," Aidan counters and rolls his head back and makes a wonderful Dr. Evil laugh.

"Ok. I'm sorry. I won't laugh at you. Let's eat your pizza, though. We need to finish it and then go to sleep, okay?"

"After I finish my pizza, I want to eat some yogurt," Aidan says.

"Well, let's finish your pizza first."

"Some days I like yogurt, too. Some days I like tomatoes. I like tomatoes now, Daddy."

"Good," I say with a laugh building up inside.

"And tomorrow I want to ride my horse to school."

"You want to ride your horse to school? We don't have to go to school tomorrow. Tomorrow is Sunday; we don't go to school on Sunday."

"I want to go to school, cuz it's fun. And I want to ride my horse to school like a knight. Silas not like knights. If I ask Silas [switch back to falsetto] 'Do you like knights?' [back to regular voice] Silas say, "I not like knights.'"

"Well, we don't need to ride to school tomorrow, because we don't have to go to school on Sundays. We can go the next day."

"Oh," Aidan says in a sort of resigned manner. That again makes me want to laugh, but I know that I can’t...

"I want to go shopping tomorrow," Aidan says.

"Oh, really? What do you want to get?" I ask.

"I want to go shopping for apples, cuz I like apples."

"Oh. Ok. Does Silas like apples?" I ask, trying to get Aidan to do his whole bit about Silas again.

"Yeah." Aidan replies.

"Oh," I reply in a sort of resigned manner.

"Silas likes knights, too. Some days he likes knights and Silas likes knights now," Aidan says. I'm shocked and trying so hard not to laugh.

"If I ask Silas [switch to falsetto] 'Do you like knights?' [back to regular voice] and Silas says "I like knights now.'"

"Oh," I say, stifling my urge to laugh. "Let's eat up, OK?"

"Ok. I like tomatoes."

A few moments pass as he takes a few bites of the pizza.

"I not like pizza, Daddy. It's too yucky for me."

And the Doctor Said...

I usually take Aidan to school in the morning, and this is generally the assumed routine. However, Aidan has been asking for Renee to take him. This is usually a bad idea, if only because the routine is broken, and — despite Aidan's request — he doesn't do well when a routine is broken.

Thus, Aidan asked for his Mommy to take him to school the other day; we were lukewarm to the idea. However, we did have an easy out: Renee had to go to a doctor's appointment.

So we explained to him that Mommy had to go to the doctor's and he seemed to accept that.

While Aidan and I were in the car on the way to school, he suddenly burst out with: "Mommy has to go to the doctor's. She not go to school."

"That's right, Aidan. I have to bring you to school."

"And Mommy has to talk to the doctor," Aidan continued.

"And what did the doctor say?" I asked, wondering what he thought was going on at the doctor's office.

"No more monkeys jumping on the bed."

Beig Plane wit a Kila

We'll be heading out to Connecticut in a few days to attend my cousin Brian's wedding. Aidan has been very excited about the trip and has been talking about it a lot lately.

He's also been talking about time and things that happen in the past and future. However he seems to get easily confused with the words.

For example, he keeps talking about how we went to the Texas Renessaince Festival with Silas and his mom last week. But everything is last week.

We took him for a haircut the other day and offered him a lollipop as a reward for good behavior. He came back with:

"I got my haircut last week and got stickers."

And he's got a lot to say on the wedding:

"My goin to Netikt last week," Aidan would say.

"Yes, we're going to Connecticut next week," I'd answer.

"And I wear a kila and scare Mommy."

"You're what? You're a kilo?" I ask, hoping that I didn't just hear him say "killer."

"No," Aidan says. "I wear a kila."

"Oh. A ... um ... carrot?" I ask again, knowing that it's not a carrot, but not wanting to say "killer."

"No." Aidan makes a deliberate pause. "A kila."

"You ... um ... oh! You're going to wear a tuxedo!"

"Yeaaah. Like you, Daddy. And I scare Mommy," Aidan says as he put his hands up like claws and scowls.

"Why are you going to scare Mommy?"

"And she run away."

"Huh. Really. Why are you scaring Mommy?"

"And we go in a beeeig a-plane to a weddin. And we see Gran-Daddo an Nama Jackie an Auntie Jowie an your mommy."

"Wow. That sounds like fun. What are you going to do there?"

"In a beeeig a-plane, Daddy. An I wear a kila, just like you."

"But," I say again, "what are you going to do there? Are you going to be in charge of the rings?"

"Um. Yeah. I hol 'em," Aidan says. "An we go in a a-plane."

Rinse and repeat three-times daily.

Other recent Aidanisms:

Pretty much any time that Renee and I try to talk to each other and the topic is not about Aidan, he'll put his finger to his mouth and say: "Shhhhh. Baby's sleeping." I'm not too sure where he got this from, but it's regularly said around our house now.

He's also been taking to calling us "Mom" and "Dad" lately. Two-and-a-half years old and we're already Mom and Dad. They sure grow up fast, don't they?

What Happened?

Lately, Aidan's favorite saying is "what happened?" We could be walking down the street, and the sidewalk is cracked ...

"What happened?"

Or maybe some flowers have lost their petals.

"What happened?"

He also likes to say "what's that?" One might think that "what happened" and "what's that" are interchangeable, but you'd be wrong. I honestly have yet to discern the difference, but there apparently is one. Maybe someday Aidan will explain it.

Another favorite Aidanism is usually heard around bedtime, or bathtime. Basically, whenever we have to take his clothes off. Once the last piece of clothing has come off, he'll raise his arms, probably start jumping or running in place and yell, "naked baby!" Next, he'll run to our bed, all the time squealing "naked baby, naked baby," and then start jumping on the bed....

Rinse it Off

We were trying to get ready to go swimming after work the other day, but neither Renee or I wanted to make dinner. We proposed going to a restaurant, but Aidan was dragging his feet and we felt that we wouldn't be able to get to a restaurant and then the pool in time. So we made something at home quickly, ate, and then prepared for the pool.

But Aidan was still dragging his feet. He didn't seem to want to go. Once we finally got him to accept the plan of going to the pool, we then had to try to convince him to put his swimsuit on. He was holding his swimsuit and being rather difficult about the proceedure.

"No! Rinse iod!" Aidan cried.

"Rinse it off?" I asked, not sure what Aidan wanted nor, if I was correct, what we were supposed to rinse off.

"No!" Aidan cried back, obviously frustrated with my in ability to understand. "Rinse riod!"

"I, um ... I don't know. Do you want to rinse off your swimsuit? Renee? Do you understand?"

"Do you want to take it off?" Renee suggested.

"Noooo! Rinseriut!" By now Aidan was crying enough were it was difficult to understand him anyway, but we still had no clue.

"Aidan, calm down. We'll figure it out. What is it that you want. Don't cry, because we can't understand you when you cry."

After a couple of deep breaths, he tried again, "rinse-ee-want, mommy."

Ah. Restaurant. Right. He doesn't want to "rinse it off." Now that we've finished dinner, he wants to go to the restaurant. Of course.

No Talking

Aidan has recently been concerned about who is talking to who. When the three of us are present and I start a conversation with Renee (or vice versa), Aidan will tell me, "no talk to my mommy." Sometimes he'll add "me talking to Mommy."

Today, he added a new wrinkle. He was talking to his mommy, and I added something to the conversation. He corrected me, as usual, "no talking to Mommy, me talking. Say micki (excuse me) to talk."

What Not to Wallow

Aidan has been introduced to bubble gum. Well, chewing gum, really. But he calls it bubble gum. Actually, I think he calls it "wubb'l yum."

But the idea of bubble gum, or wubb'l yum, has been a relatively good one for us, as it's now become a bit easier to coax him into the car, or out of his clothes, or into the bath, or other places that sometimes require a little coaxing. Of course, trying to teach a two-year-old how to chew and not swallow is a bit of an adventure.

The exchange of acquiring the gum (on Aidan's part) and us trying to teach him that it's for chewing and not swallowing is complicated not only by the idea (why would I put something in my mouth to chew, and that I ultimately can't eat?) but by pure issues of two-year-old enunciation. Talking with a two-year-old in general is a bit like living in Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" routine, and ours goes a little like this:

Aidan: My want wubb'l yum.

Renee: What do you want?

Aidan: My want wubb'l yum.

Renee: I don't think I understand, sweetie. You want waffles?

Aidan: No. My want wubb'l yum.

Renee: Um... you want ... daddy's keys?

Aidan: Noooo. My want wubb'l yum.

Renee: Oh! Right. Here ...

Aidan: My eat it.

Renee: No, don't eat it. You chew it. Don't swallow it, only chew. Did you swallow it? Let me see ... good. That's right, just chew it.

[Five minutes later]

Aidan: My want more, Mommy.

Renee: You want more what?

Aidan: My want more wubb'l yum.

Renee: Why do you ... where's your gum?

Aidan: My wallow it. [Aidan opens his mouth wide to show that the wubb'l yum is not present.]

Renee: Aidan, you're not supposed to eat it. It's for chewing. Okay? Only chew.

Aidan: My want more, Mommy.

Renee: I know, but you can't have more. You're only supposed to chew it.

Aidan. Only chew it. My no wallow it.

Renee: You won't swallow it?

Aidan: My want more, Mommy.

Renee: But you won't swallow it?

Aidan: Only chew. My no wallow it.

Renee: Okay, but don't swallow ....

[Five minutes later]

Aidan: My wallow it.

Renee: You want what?

Aidan: My wallow it.

Renee: I'm sorry. I don't understand. What do you want?

Aidan: No chew it, my wallow it.

And so it goes ....

Oh, Micki

There has been a slight change in our bedtime ritual lately. Aidan used to need us to stay in the room with him in order to fall asleep. Now, we just tell him that we'll be back in a few minutes to check on him, leave the room, come back a few minutes later (he is usually still awake), leave the room again, and he usually falls asleep on his own.

This has been quite liberating for Renee and myself, as we now have the evening to accomplish things that we weren't able to under the old bedtime paradigm (and we take advantage of this by doing fun stuff like balance the checkbook or doing the dishes).

Last night, Aidan put himself to sleep in our bed and he ended up on my side of the bed. Renee took her usual side and I ended up in the middle. At some point in the night, Aidan woke up and probably didn't like the sleeping configuration (he's quite particular about where things — and people — should be). Wanting the middle of the bed, he tried waking me up so we could swap places.

In a soft and sleepy voice, Aidan awoke me by saying, "Micki, Daddy. Micki." Which, of course, means "Excuse me, Daddy. Excuse me."

Missing Mommy (and Daddy too)

The three of us went to a restaurant. At one point, Renee got up to use the restroom and Aidan and I were left at the table by ourselves. Aidan decided to chat me up, and this is what he said:

"Aidan cry at school, Daddy," he started.

"Oh, sweetie. I'm sorry. When do you cry?"

"Afer nap."

"Oh. Why do you cry?"

"Afer nap."

"Oh. Um ... do you cry because you miss Mommy?"

"An Daddy, too."

"I love you, Aidan."

"Thanks, Daddy."

Bob Mato

Aidan doesn't watch a lot of broadcast television; he does watch his fair share of TV in general, however most of the shows that he watches are on VHS or DVD.

One of his favorite shows is Veggie Tales, which is mostly a Christian morality show hosted and acted out by vegetables. It is really terribly clever and usually well done. Bob the Tomato hosts the show with his friend Larry Cucumber.

While on our trip to Florida, Aidan would lament that he couldn't watch Veggie Tales and would do his best to sing the theme song, which he is actually quite good at. So, while we were on the road, Aidan saw a logo on a restaurant that consisted mainly of a tomato. Aidan excitedly pointed to it and exclaimed, "Bob Mato!"

This has now extended to the kitchen, where if Aidan sees a tomato (even a chopped up tomato), it is Bob Mato. For some reason (perhaps because of Mr. Mato's tasty nature), Aidan doesn't seem to feel any remorse for eating Bob Mato.

I am what I am

I didn't realize Aidan was such a philosopher already....
Here's a sampling of some of our conversations:

Me: Aidan, are you tired?
Aidan: No Aidan tired, Aidan! (meaning: I'm not tired, I'm Aidan)

This is pretty much his new standard reply.

Aidan, are you hungry?
No Aidan hungry, Aidan!

Aidan, are you being silly?
No Aidan silly, Aidan!

This morning Aidan did something (I can't remember what) and I told him he was very nice to do that...

Aidan, you are a nice person.
No Aidan nice person, boy!

Let Go!

Aidan loves to help around the house. Renee was just lamenting about how difficult it is for her to keep the windows clean on one of our glass doors because, as she is cleaning it, Aidan is following right behind her mimicking her behavior, which really doesn't clean anything ...

Besides cleaning windows, Aidan also loves to help clean the floors. We had to buy him a little broom, so he could help Daddy sweep. Yet he also likes to mop and vacuum. So, we got him a vacuum (one that really works!). Yesterday was his first day with it, and it's been running non-stop since then (it runs on batteries, which I predict will run out by the end of today).

But Aidan doesn't really like to vacuum alone. While vacuuming, he'll say "Dadda ba-tu?"

The vacuum cleaner also comes with the full range of attachments, which are a little complicated for him to put on and take off.

This leads into another one of Aidan's current favorite sayings:"Let go." However, it usually isn't in terms of "get your hands off of me," or "let go of my toy." He says it when he's playing on the computer with the mouse, and he wants to take the mouse with him. Of course, the mouse is plugged into the computer. But Aidan wants the computer to "let go."

Thus, when one of the attachments is attached to the hose, and he can't get it off ... "Let go, ba-tu."

He is also just starting to say his name. For the longest time, if you asked him his name, he'd say "me." Sometimes, we'd try something like this:

"Aidan, whose that," I'd ask.
"Momma," he'd answer.
"Whose this?"
"Dadda."
"Whose this?"
"Me."

But recently, he has been trying to say his name, which usually comes out something like "Aithen." (Try to say Aidan, but with your tounge hanging out; don't try to move your tounge, and you'll have an idea of how he's saying it — visual and all.) Yet, he still doesn't like to say it too often. Usually, it's a once-a-day thing. However, yesterday in the car, Uncle Jeffrey asked him his name.

"Aithen," he answered. "Aithen, Aithen, Aithen." He paused, and then as fast as he could said, "Aithenthenthenaithenaiaiaithenthenthenthenaithenaithenaithenthenthenthen."

An Alright Entry

Aidan hasn't said the word "yes" yet, but "no" seems to be one of his favorites. The closest he comes to saying "yes" is "alright."

"Aidan," I'd say. "Are you hungry?"
"Alright," he'd answer.

"Is it cold outside?"
"Alright."

And so it goes. The other day, I was desperately trying to get out the door, to get him to school, and get to work on time. He didn't want to go. He wanted to watch TV. And I couldn't get him dressed because he was squirming so much.

"TV! TV!" he cried (actually, it's more like "T-T! T-T!").

I capitulated and turned on the TV, which did calm him down enough for me to dress him. But he didn't want to watch the show that was on at the time, Jo Jo's Circus, which is normally one of his favorites.

"No Jo Jo," he whimpered. "T-T?"
"Aidan, Jo Jo's the only thing on right now."
"No Jo Jo," he pouted.

This, I thought, was a good thing for me, because I needed to go, go go, and if he got too into the show, it might be difficult to leave. Not wanting to watch Jo Jo may be a benefit, in that he might be more willing to leave with me. So, I got him dressed, got my stuff together, put it in the car, came back for him, turned off the TV and tried to walk out.

"T-T! T-T!"
"Aidan, it's time to go. Don't you want to go to school to play with Kaylin and Alex?"
"No kool," Aidan cried back. "T-T?"
"No, baby. We need to go for a ride in daddy's car."
"T-T?"
"Jo Jo is all done. She has to go to school now."
"No Jo Jo!"
"Ok. Good. Let's go."

So, I picked up Aidan, set the alarm, walked out the door and tried to lock up.

Aidan held onto the door. "Alright," he said. "Alright, Jo Jo."

Spoken Word Update

I decided to update Aidan's spoken word list. Seeing the words on paper really enable me to see the progress he has made in the last three months.

Total number of words: 45

B
baby; ball; bird; blue; bubbles; buckle; bump; bye-bye

C
cat

D
da-da; dog

E
Elmo; eyes

F
five

G
go

J
Jo-jo

K
kitty

L
love you

H
help; hi; hop; hot

M
ma-ma; me; me-ma; milk; more; mouth

N
night-night; no; nose

O
olive

P
papa; pickle; please; pop;

S
stop

T
thank you; two

U
uncle; up

W
walk; water; Wiggles; white

Walking with Mama and Dada

We took Aidan out for some pizza today. Upon our arrival, we asked him if he wanted to walk and he indicated that he did. From the car all the way to the doors of the restaurant, Aidan was saying, "wok, wok, wok."

After we were seated, we were asking Aidan to sign some words for us (he seems to like to be quizzed), and while signing "daddy," he clearly said "DA-da." We asked him to then sign "mommy," which was accompanied with him saying, "ma-MA."

He then got into a nice rythm and started yelling, quite loudly, "da-DA! DA-DA! da-DA!" and "MOMOMOMOMOMA!"

As loud (and embarassing) as this was, we were still quite proud....

From the Mouth of Babes...

Total number of words: 10
B
ball; bubbles; bump; bye-bye

D
dog

G
go

H
hi; hop

N
no

P
pickle; pop

S
stop

W
water

Aidan Speaks

Every day is something new! Today, Aidan pretty much said, as clear as a bell, "bye-bye." He also waves while he says it. Although, he won't say it while you are there.... there's no reason to say good-bye to someone if they're still there, right? :)