Boston - 2010

The past weekend was a whirlwind of adventures for us in Boston. Andy was working there, so we decided to meet up with him for the weekend. I'll try to break down our adventures quickly so it doesn't turn into a book!

Friday: We got in late, went to bed.

Saturday: Slept in until Aiden woke up. Then, we headed into town to check it out. We started out at Quincy Market area. We stumbled upon the Holocaust exhibit that Andy and I had a moment at during our first visit there. The actual temperature wasn't necessarily that cold, but the wind was very chilly. Aiden refused to wear his hat and gloves for nearly the entire trip. He was fussy and crying nearly our whole outing that day. I'll skip ahead to dusk. We arrived back in the area after the tree was already lit. But, it was still spectacular. A huge tree!!! There was so much energy around us! Band was playing music, confetti shooting up in the air, lots of people! Then, off to the hotel and bed we went.

Sunday: We met up with Casey and her family! I haven't seen her since 2004! Since then, she's had 3 kids! It was so good to see her and her family. We went to Christopher Columbus Park. But, it was very cold. We let the kids play for a bit in the sand and on the playground. Off to lunch time at Quincy Market. Then, we found a Toys R Us to play at near the T station. Aiden was mesmerized by a Cozy Coupe Box in the store when we walked by it. By now, it is time for the Groders to head back home. After we say our goodbyes, Andy, Aiden, and I go to Harvard Yard. The grassy area is filled with tons and tons of Fall leaves. It was so much fun. We only had about 30 minutes there, but I could have stayed all day and was wishing we had gone there on Saturday too! So, then it is time for us to go to the airport. We got Aiden his first kids meal at Burger King! Then, head through security and on to the gate. EXCEPT-our milk was flagged by security. The milk we bought from Burger King. So, I got a full pat down-head to toe. So humiliating to be in the middle of security with a TSA agent instructing me in detail how she is going to pat me down. Finally, I am cleared and on to the gate we go. Everything is smooth, we get to our seat. We are waiting at the gate watching the instructional video on the plane when...Aiden out of no where throws up on my lap and the seat between the guy next to me and myself. Andy jumps up to get paper towels and he gets yelled at because he took his seat belt off! So, he sits back down and we push the help button. At that point, they finally understood. But, goodness! They told the guy next to us about an empty seat a few rows up. All in all, it was good that Aiden threw up so we got an extra seat, but it made for a long flight!

Overall, the trip was great! It is just difficult to travel to such a different weather climate with a child that refuses to keep the things that will keep him warm on. The trip was much too short as well to get into a good routine there.

Watch your face...

During my class today, I have these two boys that cannot seem to get along. I pull them outside to figure out what all their petty arguments are for. Each wanted to blame the other for the disagreements and the arguing. It was nearly a waste of time out in the hallway. So, I open the door to return to class. I am still out in the hallway, I allow one boy in and then the other. The second boy shuts the door as I start walking through it! What is he thinking??? Am I just going to stay outside while they have class? Such a close call to getting the door really and truly shut in my face!

Life...

Driving to work yesterday, the Christian radio station was talking about prayer. A lady called in and was very upset because she wasn't sure how to recognize God's voice when she was praying. She very much wanted to hear His voice. It made me start thinking about prayer and the fact that I need to prayer much more and I also desire to hear his voice.

Right after thinking about this prayer issue, I started thinking about all the blessings in my life.

• Health
• Great family
• Job-that I actually am enjoying for once in my teaching career!
• good students
• good friends
• nice home
• safe car

Visit to Mia's ~ 2010

So, this past week, Aiden and I went to California to spend some time with my Mom. We had such a great time. I had to adjust to the cold weather after coming from a heat wave in Houston and also to Aiden playing and getting dirty enough for a bath every time we went outside. The first day, we spent inside waiting for my suitcase to arrive. Our flight out of Houston left 30 minutes late, which left us running through the San Francisco airport trying to catch our next flight to Eureka. We barely made it, but our suitcase did not make it. Upon arrival in Eureka just after midnight, we were told that our suitcase would arrive the next morning and be delivered by 9 am. 9 came and went. The suitcase did not arrive until almost 4 pm and two phone calls to United Airlines to complain. I was told that maybe our delivery guy got stuck in traffic, but what they don't realize is that there is NO traffic in the tiny town of Eureka or Fortuna! Once we got a our suitcase, we changed into our warmer clothes and went outside to play.

One of the first things Aiden found was a bucket of dirt! He had great fun throwing it on top of his head. He was covered in dirt and so was the hood of his sweatshirt! One of the other times he played in the dirt, he started eating it! He also loved to eat the blackberries and plums that were growing on Mom's property.

We went for a hike the second day. The hike started by a field full of cows. The cows were very curious about us. The came over to the fence and followed us all the way down the road. After the hike, we went to the beach. Northern Cali beaches and Aiden don't go too well together. The waves are HUGE! He thought he could play in the water like he does in Texas, so we spent a few minutes chasing him before he got wet before we decided to leave.

One of the other fun things we did was go to the zoo in Eureka. It was very tiny, but they also had a petting zoo full of sheep and goats. At this point in Aiden's life, he says "guh" for dog. He says it everytime he sees a dog. At the petting zoo, each 4 legged creature quickly became a "guh". He would start saying, "Guh, guh, guh" and run to the nearest sheep or goat. Then repeat and say, "Guh, guh, guh" and run to the next sheep or goat. He liked the zoo, but he was most interested in the goats and sheep. Oh, and the only water puddle in the zoo, he decided would be fun to play in!

Overall, it was a very fun week that went by pretty quick. I think the most fun we had was playing out in the backyard in the dirt! Oh yeah, Mom had 2 small Agapanthus flower shoots in the front yard. Aiden decided one day to grab both of them and start swinging them back and forth! Then, he grabbed the flower head on one and started pulling. The flower head finally pulled off and then he brought it to me. One thing you have to know is that in the front yard, Mom only had the 2 single Agapanthus flowers. It wasn't that she had a full bed of flowers. She graciously allowed Aiden to single handedly destroy those flowers for this season. I'll leave you with a video of him pulling the flower off.

Awww Summer!!!

Being home this summer is giving me a very good idea of what it will be like to finally stay home with my baby. There are SO many things that happen throughout the day that I miss by working. He is at such a fun age right now. He is imitating everything I do. Everything-big or little-catches his attention. Some of these small things are:

• attempting to put my sock on his foot
• handing me the pillows as I make the bed
• rubbing the refridgerator door with his hand as I rub it with a cloth to clean it
• wiping his own hand over a spot where milk spilt just after I wipe it
• combing his hair with his hairbrush
• moving his lips in the same way that I am moving mine
• closing the drawer after he is done playing in it and after he sees me close it
• Having to put the megablocks away before we walk away

Right now, I can't think of anymore things that he does. I'm sure that even if I listed out every little thing he did, tomorrow he would do something new.

Aiden's first mess in the kitchen

So, today I was making some fudge to give to one of Andy's coworkers. (This coworker has given us a lot of clothes, so I was trying to say thank you). I had to make this fudge in two batches. Well, I knew it was getting close to nap time, but I was being daring anyhow. I successfully made the first batch and was getting started on the second one. I had everything measured out and ready to pour in-the cherries, the cocoa powder the butter, the evaporated milk. Just as I was trying to melt the butter in the microwave and pull it out, here comes Aiden. Now, he hasn't pulled anything off the counters yet, but he has tried to touch everything. So I know to put all the items a bit back from the edge on the counters. Today, I thought I had. But, boy was I wrong! The measuring cup with the cocoa powder was just close enough for Aiden to pull it down on top of him. 1/2 cup of cocoa powder EVERYWHERE! I haven't had much experience with small disasters like this, so I was torn between trying to take a picture for memory sake and helping him and cleaning him up. I decided I had to have at least one picture! Then, I would start cleaning it up. Here is the picture:

Aiden is ONE!!!

These pictures are from Aiden's first birthday party. They are actually posted up in the reverse order. The bottom picture is Aiden playing in the ice bucket. The picture above that is showing just how much Aiden enjoyed his cake! The picture above that is Aiden getting ready for his birthday cake. The first picture is actually Aiden taking a much needed nap after all the birthday festivities.

Cheerios!!!!!

Aiden LOVES to play in our pantry. One day he discovered the cheerios and fruit loop boxes are within his reach. He pulled down the box and went ahead and helped himself to the cheerios! I guess he was hungry...

Sleeping Time

For the past year, our method of putting Aiden to sleep at night has been to nurse him to sleep. Since we have hit the year mark, I decided it was time to break that habit and thought he needed to fall asleep on his own. I was kind of waiting until summer break came though in case this change provided us with a few sleepless nights. Two nights ago, Aiden decided that he didn't want to go to sleep so we decided to let him "cry it out". Keep in mind that we are very much against this idea. Well, Aiden cried for a miserable 5 minutes and was alseep! To top it off, he slept and stayed in his bed until 6 the next morning. So, tonight when he was fighting us to sleep we just put him in his bed after a few struggles nursing and rocking. He was fighting sleep again tonight. Once down in his bed though, he put his head down and was totally ready to sleep. After about 5 minutes of rubbing his back, he was fast asleep. We'll see if he once again stays in there until morning, but at least the bedtime process was much better!

Countdown has begun

There are only 42 more days of school! I am very ready for summer to be hre so I can spend each and every day with my sweet angel. I have big plans of relaxing and going to the pool and the beach. Probably a trip to mia's house in there somewhere too. Bring on the warm summer weather!!!

IPhone

So today we got new phones-iPhones. They are so much neater than I ever imagined! There are so many interesting apps than I ever thought! I can even blog from my phone like I am right now. I certainly hope I continue to get a lot of use out of this phone!

Pantry Playing

He loves to climb completely into the cupboard and pull everything out.

Getting into trouble already

Aiden trying to escape through the doggy door-someday he will go through it.

Looking back...

So tonight I was finally downloading pictures to my computer, facebook, and shutterfly. As I was doing this, I kept looking back at some of the older pictures of both Aiden and me. What a difference! He was so tiny just a few months ago and I was so much bigger just a few months ago! I know that Aiden was a cute baby, but he just keeps getting cuter to me. Time really does fly and Aiden will be starting kindergarten just around the corner!