NEVER leave 2 year old unattended for two minutes...

Well, I left Aidan painting in the high chair in the kitchen while I went 10 feet away to the living room to change Austin's diaper. It turned out to be a messy diaper, so it took a little longer to change, but NOTHING compared to how long it took to clean up this...

I spoke too soon...

Well, I bragged too soon on Aidan napping. He hasn't napped since. He actually does pretty well without taking his nap until around 5:00. Then he's really tired, and the last two hours of the night are pretty rough. With Jared not here, we've been eating dinner around 6:30, so Aidan is getting to spend a lot more time in the bathtub at the end of the night, which helps up both out. He loves to play in there, and it gives me a reprieve from thinking of things to do with him. He is so cute at the end of the night with the recorder we have of Jared reading books and saying prayers. Aidan demands that he get to "hold Daddy" during it, though lately it has become a game where he puts it on his stomach and bounces it up. We may have to change that up a bit because the new game is a bit of a prayer distraction! :-)

Aidan is also getting really great about saying prayers before he eats. The other day, at breakfast, I forgot to have him do them, and after two bites he said, "Ah! We forgot to say prayers", and he put his fork down and started to say them. It was a proud moment for me. :-) He has to make sure that I'm sitting down in MY chair (not one of the other chairs) during prayers. "Mommy, sit in YOUR chair!"

We're getting no where in this potty training thing though. Another step backward yesterday... I left Aidan without a diaper for about five minutes, and he normally does so well. This time he walked up to me and said, "Mommy, I pee peed on the stairs." Sure enough, there was a (large!) wet spot on the stairs. He didn't mind at all. I guess Jared will be able to help out when he gets back; I foolishly thought I would be done by his return!


Austin is pushing himself up off his chest and scooting across the floor to get things. He's eating like a pro now, and he loves his newest food: carrots. He didn't make a face at all when he had his first bite. We'll probably just stick with peas and carrots for a while because I remember that the green beans and sweet potatoes can be gassy. Austin is drooling like a faucet, and it is obvious his teeth are causing him quite a bit of pain lately, so I don't want to add anything to that. He also has "found his voice", so when we're out in public (which isn't often because he still hates the car), he is doing his new squealing thing. I think it's pretty cute, but others around us don't seem to. If they do stop and talk to him though, he wins them over with his HUGE, drooly smile! :-)

Here is a recent picture of the boys. Austin is just in love with Aidan and lights up whenever Aidan does his silly voices to him! :-)

Victory!

Aidan is officially napping after his four day boycott. You think I'd be enjoying the peace and quite and getting things done... enter Austin who decided HE wasn't going to nap today. :-)

Austin is watching a Baby Einstein video. Only the second time in his life because Aidan is the television dictator that only wants to watch his shows. Austin is great at grabbing objects now. He can pick his pacifier up and put it back in his mouth (unless he's in the car!), and he can transfer items from one hand to the other now. He is beginning to scoot across the floor a bit if he sees something he really wants.

Today at gymnastics was an event. Aidan morphed from the sweet boy that Coach Blanca loves to a terrible two that was correcting her accent in the way she was saying words, screaming at her to leave him alone, and running at full speed away from me laughing at me as I ran to catch him. At least he got some exercise though! :-)

Aidan is so great at putting on his little flip flops now. He sits right down and puts them on (not always on the right feet), and he can walk around in them perfectly! His favorite toy right now is my new fitness ball. He runs from across the room and launches himself on it and does a roll/flip off it. It's really pretty neat to watch... and terrifying!

Well, I can't make this too long. I think I hear Austin's video wrapping up, and I still have a few more dishes to put away and a load of laundry to start. Oh yeah, and sheets to change and the house to vacuum and the cat to bathe and the toilet to scrub. Makes me wonder why I'm on the computer...

The deployment has arrived...

Well, we're done anticipating the deployment. Jared is gone, and we're on day 5 here at the house. He's "stuck" in Hawaii for a couple more days before he heads to Japan. So far, I'm doing pretty well. Really no difference that when he's "home" so far. The only difference is now he's in Hawaii going out for nice dinners, and I'm here with my two boys eating leftovers. I wouldn't trade places with him for anything though! :-)

Three of the five days that Jared's been gone, Aidan has refused naps. Not a good start to this doing everything by myself thing! On the brighter side, he's been MUCH easier to put to bed at night!

Well, Austin joined Aidan in the "My mom let me fall off the bed club" today. I'm a horrible mom, and I let him nap in our bed. I had him surrounded by pillows, but he woke up and scooted and scooted until he scooted right off the bed and on to the floor. I don't have any idea how he landed, but he cried and cried. He's fine now; I think it just scared him. The doctor said, This thing happens all the time!" (uh yeah, I know - It happened to my older son too!). I felt terrible, and I feel so grateful that he is ok. Of course I cried with him, and then Aidan told me, "It's ok, Mommy. You don't have to cry." :-)

Well, I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to wrap this up. A few quick notes...

Austin is finally enjoying cereal. I am giving him oatmeal cereal because he doesn't like the rice. He's doing a great job with it. Today he pushed up on his arms and started moving his knees trying to reach a toy. I can't believe we're so close to him crawling!

Aidan is getting much better at dressing himself. He still doesn't like to put his shirt on by himself ("It's too dangerous!"), but he's great at his pants, socks, and shoes. His favorite movie right now is "Two Dogs" (aka Lady and the Tramp).

Good night!

6 weeks later...

Yikes... it's been awhile. I wouldn't even know where to begin...

I'll start at Austin's baptism. It was a great weekend with a lot of family in town for the celebration. Austin shared his special day with Guka, who joined the church, too! Nana was thrilled to say the least. Uncle Mark flew in to perform the ceremony, and Father Peak helped. It was a beautiful, private ceremony just for the family. Both Nana and Grandma did readings, and they both did great. Just ask Aidan. When Nana walked up to the altar, Aidan said (VERY loudly!), "What are you doing, Nana?" When she finished, he announced in a loud voice, "Good job, Nana!" It was great! Later in the ceremony, someone's cell phone rang, and instead of ignoring it, Aidan kept looking up at the ceiling and asking everyone around him (again - loud voice, so everyone would be sure to hear), "Where's that phone coming from? Who's phone is that?" I'm sure the person who's phone it was wanted to crawl out of there! :-) Austin behaved beautifully throughout, and he did not cry at all. It was amazing because he got quite a bit of water poured on his head. Here's a picture of Austin in his gown.




Austin can officially roll over now. Jared, Nana, and me all got to witness his first time doing it completely on his own. He did it on February 17. Now he's a pro, and every time you put him on his back, he flips over immediately. Including today when he flipped right off the couch and landed on his feet right as I caught him. It was actually pretty graceful looking... thank goodness I got to him right when I did. You think I would have learned my lesson after that, but about an hour later, I laid him on the couch to walk 10 feet away to grab the camera and come back to take a picture of him, and he flipped to his stomach and then rolled off the side. Again, I caught him. So far, we've managed not to drop Austin. (Guess we learned our lesson after we carried Aidan on the pillow when he was a little baby.)

Aidan is embracing the "Terrible Twos" to the fullest. It has been a tough couple of weeks. I'm hoping that he is just sensing the tension with Jared leaving this weekend, and that is why he is having such a rough spell. Even with the tantrums that he's been throwing, there have been MANY great things to come out of his mouth. I'll try to think of a few...

Horndog = Corndog

Mom: "Aidan, can you put your shirt on by yourself?"
Aidan: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, it's too dan-ger-ous."

Mom: "Aidan, don't throw that chalk on the ground. It will break."
Aidan: Throws chalk in the grass - "Look Mommy! It didn't break."

Also, anything that Aidan doesn't want to do now, he will tell us that he will do it tomorrow. "I not take a nap today. I take a nap tomorrow." "I not take a bath. I take a bath tomorrow."



Well, I guess I'll wrap this up for now. Austin put himself to sleep tonight, which was great. He cuddled up with his pacifier and his lovie and went to sleep. Jared is up putting Aidan to sleep right now. He is taping their prayers and stories so we can listen to them while he is deployed. We're at the five day mark now. I'm in the denial stage, so I'll end here.

It's been a while since I've written anything. So many funny things have happened too, and then at the end of the night when I try to remember, my brain fails me. I really need to just walk around with a piece of paper and pencil.

I'll start with some phrases that Aidan has been using lately...

What's wrong sweetie?
What's wrong babe?
Aw, forget it!
Ridicalus (exactly as he says it!)
Hold a second


Today, the boys and I ventured to Savannah to get pictures done. Austin started crying as soon as we got in the car, and didn't really stop until we were about 10 minutes away. It was a very hard drive, but I was inspired by Aidan's patience. My sweet little Aidan was able to just tune the crying out and tune in his movie Toy Story. Every once in a while, he would say, "It's ok Austin." "It's ok sweet baby." Mommy could learn a little about patience from him!

Austin is wanting to be held a lot more lately. I'll have to film him someday soon. He will be 100% fine and starting to fall asleep, and I'll go to lay him down, and he'll immediately start crying. I pick him up, and he is completely fine and smiling again. It's easy to spoil him; he has such a contagious smile! He is doing great at reaching out and grabbing things now. He's also definitely teething. Lately, he's been rivaling Maddux for who can drool more! :-)

Well, that's all for now. I'll have to add more of Aidan's phrases as I think of them.

"It's time to partay!"

Aidan held up a baton today that I bought for him at the dollar store when I was placing orders for the balloons for his birthday party. He said, "My get this for my party." I was so amazed that he could remember something from nearly six months ago like that! Then he said, "Mommy, it's time to parrrtay!" I thank goodness that I didn't have anything in my mouth because I surely would have died from choking to death. I laughed and laughed. He's such a ham that he just danced around the room repeating himself.

On another note... two HUGE temper tantrums today from Aidan. One at Target and one on the stairs - his time out spot. He was crying and crying on the stairs, and I told him he couldn't get off the stairs until he was done crying. I tried to encourage him to stop by asking, "Are you done crying?" He replied, "NO MOMMY!" Well, at least he's honest... :-)

We rode bikes outside today for almost an hour. Aidan is getting SO good on his. I am so grateful that we started therapy for him. It has made such a huge difference in such a short amount of time. While we were outside today, he was telling me something, and I could understand him. What I did understand was when he said, "Forget it!" Where or where do they get these things???

Austin had a big sleeping day today. He is so great at putting himself to sleep. He actually prefers it. When he gets sleepy, he'll get fussy until I lay him down and give him his pacifier. It's so cute... and such a change from Aidan! :-)

Austin had some great tummy time today. He was pushing his head and tummy completely off the floor and even trying to scoot a little bit. When he's on his back, he can turn his body 180 degrees by sliding around. I'm struggling a little bit with ways to entertain him. He is beginning to sit in his swing and bouncer seats for very short periods of time. He prefers to lay on his back and "talk". He is drooling up a storm, so the teething process has begun! He will wake me up at night from how loud he is when he sucks on his hands. He claps them together and then sucks on them. It's really cute! :-)

Tomorrow is gymnastics for Aidan in the morning and then a birthday party in the afternoon. We have a busy Saturday... good thing because Daddy is working, so it will help pass the time!