Aidan loves weddings

I made the mistake of telling the kids at lunch that we were going to be attending a wedding this evening. Of course as soon as we got home, they had to get dressed up for the wedding. Three hours later I am finished getting ready and looking around the house for Aidan. I get Gretchen dressed and help Reese with her hair and still have not seen Aidan. I yell for him and run around finishing up a few other things and he still is nowhere to be seen. Finally, I go outside fully expecting to find him covered in dirt and needing to change clothes for the wedding. To my surprise, I find him sitting in the car, buckled in and ready to go! It was 90 degrees out and he was wearing pants and a long sleeved dress shirt!

We finally get to the wedding and the kids are ecstatic to find a photo booth. They play around with the costumes for awhile and then I finally allow them to go in and have their pictures taken. Aidan brings me his picture strip and I can't help but crack up. His outfit of choice? A pair of red, sparkly devil horns and a matching pitchfork. And in the other hand he is holding a sign that says, "Ready to mingle". That boy is going to break some hearts someday.

Randy and I decide that we are ready to go and begin packing things up and saying our goodbyes. Aidan rushes up to me and says, "Mommy I got to tell ya something!" I lean over so that he can whisper in my ear and he says, "I didn't even get to dance!" He was absolutely heartbroken because he had so been looking forward to dancing with grammy and I. Seeing how heartbroken he was, I immediately promised that we would have a dance party when we got home. And that we did. Everybody changed into pj's and we danced in the living room until bedtime. After our dance party I took 5 minutes to snuggle with both kids while tucking them into bed.

Things have been so hectic lately with the move, school starting, me going back to classes and just life in general being busy. It was so nice to get to take some time out with both of the kids and just focus on them. And I could tell that the kids appreciated the extra attention today as well. They were the most well-behaved all day today that they have been in over a week!

Siblings

For the most part, the kids all get along very well. Reese and Aidan are usually smothering Gretchen in kisses and hugs causing her to fuss. While I try to remind them that she needs her space and that they wouldn't want somebody in their face all the time, I am so glad that they are so in love with their little sister!

While they get along well, Aidan and Gretchen really know how to push each other's buttons and Gretchen can hold her own against her older brother! She is intrigued by his cars and always trying to take them from him. Aidan gets mad and will try to take them away from her. Gretchen does not give in easily though! I have seen her take a bite at him or even ram her head at him to thwart his attacks.

Gretchen may be able to fight back against her big brother, but she is no match for her older sister! Whenever Gretchen is getting into something that she should not be or is generally annoying her big sister, Reese picks her up and places her in her bumbo seat. Gretchen is then stuck in the seat until somebody lets her out, but that doesn't stop her from trying to get out on her own!

I wanna hold your hand

Last night the kids were helping me to carry branches from the bushes that I trimmed to the backyard to put in the burn pile. As we were returning to the front yard to gather more branches, Aidan stopped and asked, "Can I hold your hand mommy?" I didn't hesitate to grab his outstretched hand as we walked through the backyard, across the driveway and back to the pile of branches in the front yard.  After the next trip, he stopped and grabbed my hand again. Aidan has always been a very tender hearted and sweet little boy and moments like these remind me of the special bond that I share with my little man.

A Day in the Life

Every night during dinner I ask the kids about their day and what they did. Last night Aidan held nothing back, and I was a little surprised!

"We played, and watched tv, had some lunch, got naked and went to bed."

My kids love to be naked and they often strip down as soon as we get home and almost always go to bed naked, so I was not surprised at all that Aidan had stripped down at grammy's before going to bed. I was however, surprised at how nonchalant he was about it and wondered why that little tidbit even made it into his recap of the days events! Gotta love kids and the funny things they say!

Mother's Day 2013

My Mother's Day started bright and early with Aidan waking me up at 5:45 because he had an itchy butt. I helped him to clean up and then we went down to the basement to play so that we would not wake the rest of the house. While playing Aidan approached me and said that he wanted to make daddy a card because he was probably sore from roofing the day before. I'm not going to lie I was a little miffed that it was my day, he had come to me to take care of his personal hygiene and he was worried about making his dad a card! Soon after Gretchen woke up soaking wet! So I was wiping another butt, just 2 hours into my Mother's Day. About that time Reese woke up. After giving me a kiss and telling me Happy Mother's Day, she showered me with gifts that she had made at school. My favorite was a recipe book that her teacher made. She had asked the kids and moms to submit their favorite recipes that they enjoyed making together. Reese had chosen the Ariel birthday cake that we made for her 4th birthday, while I chose my mom's egg noodles for homemade chicken noodle soup. After reading through the recipe book and getting a few good laughs, I got the kids fed and then showered and got ready for the day. We left for Dubuque around 9am and met up with my mom and sister to do some shopping. A few hours later, we were not quite ready to leave, but the kids were finished shopping, so we went to Dairy Queen for a little treat. Afterwards we said our goodbyes and headed back home. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing at home and ordering in dinner so that I did not have to cook. After putting the kids to bed, I even got a chance to play with my brand new tablet! All in all, it was a perfect Mother's Day!

Days of the week

Recently while at grammys the kids found some old legos. They were dirty so grammy promised them that they could play with them tomorrow after she had a chance to clean them. The next morning Aidan asked me: "Mommy, what day is it?"
Me: "Thursday."
Aidan: "Awww when is it going to be tomorrow?"
Me: 'Well, actually it is tomorrow, but the day is called Thursday."

A few days later we celebrated Mother's Day. The next day as we drove to grammys' the days of the week came up again.
Aidan: "Mommy, what day is it?"
Me: "It's Monday."
Aidan: "So it's not still Mother's Day?"
Me: "Every day is Mother's Day because I get to be your mom every day."
Aidan: "But nobody buys you presents?"
Me: "No, but the best present is for you and Reese to get along and be my big helpers."

Taking donations

While shopping with my family this weekend, Aidan was adamant that we buy him a new wallet. My sister took him looking for a wallet and they had the following conversation: Courtney: So Aidan, why do you need a wallet? Aidan: So that I have a place to put my money if anybody wants to give me some. He found a men's wallet but we convinced him to get a coin carrier instead, never mentioning that it was indeed called a coin purse. With a locking top, the coin purse will hopefully contain all this money that people are going to give him.

Welcoming Spring

On Friday I was dropping the kids off as I usually do before going to work. It was a beautiful spring day, already pretty warm and the birds were chirping. One person was not so enthusiastic about the start of spring. Aidan stood at the bottom of the tree and screamed up into the branches, "SHUTUP! SHUTUP! SHUTUP!

No Fear

We recently got a four wheeler for the kids and it has been so funny to see their differences come out in how they drive. Aidan is very tentative, which reminds me a lot of me. He was actually content to sit atop the four wheeler without moving and watch the traffic in front of our house. When he is driving he is very slow to react. He will run into the garage door or the fence and continue to push the pedal to the floor. Though I am yelling at him to take his foot off of the pedal and back up, he just does not yet understand that he needs to change his action to get unstuck.

Reese on the other hand has almost completely mastered driving in just 2 days! Not only has she mastered driving skills (pulling her foot off of the pedal when she is about to run into something, knowing when to reverse or move forward, turning the handlebars to avoid running into things) she also found that she enjoys going fast! At first she pushed her foot down as hard as she could on the accelerator while saying, "Come on, come on!" Eventually she learned that by simply turning the grip on the handlebar the four wheeler goes faster. She usually does this in the middle of a turn. While I am worrying that she is going to be thrown off of the four wheeler, she screams in delight! I love that she is not afraid to try new things and to take a risk, sometimes I wish that I could be more like her!

School aged kid

While shopping this weekend, Randy found a cars backpack that he just had to buy for Aidan. It was on clearance and Aidan will start preschool in the fall so it was an excellent purchase. The only problem is that now Aidan believes that he should be starting school. Today he laid the backpack in the middle of the room and announced, "I'm putting this here until I turn 4 and can start school!" He turns 4 in just over a month and then I'm sure the question of when he can go to preschool will become a daily occurence! I think that he is even more excited to go to school than Reese was, which is saying alot! It definitely helps to have an older sibling to look up to and copy. Aidan has learned how to spell his name and loves to do "homework" like Reese does. I can't believe that in a few short months, I will have 2 kids in school!

Swim lessons

I signed both Reese and Aidan up for swim lessons this fall. I was not sure which level to sign them up for since they had both advanced significantly in their abilities over the summer. Reese had completed the introductory level last year, so I signed them up for level 1. The first week, Aidan was totally soaking up all of the attention and allowed the instructors to help him float around the pool. Despite Randy and I trying to get him to show off his ability to hold his breath under water or swim, he refused. The second week he finally showed off some of his abilities and after the lesson, the head instructor approached me and asked if I would be willing to allow them to move up to level 2 since Reese seemed to show a higher ability and she thought Aidan would not want to be separated from his sister. We consented and began the following week. The kids enjoyed the new lessons and the instructor was suprised at their ability. At one point Aidan went underwater as he waited for the instructor who was working with another student. When she turned around, she grabbed out to pull him up as if he had been drowning, and just then he popped his head out of the water and grabbed onto the side of the pool. She breathed a sigh of relief and from then on trusted more in his abilities. They learned how to do several different strokes and swimming skills over the following weeks. During one of the last lessons, the instructor tested them on their ability to hold their breath underwater. Most of the older kids went, holding their breath to the count of 11 or 12. When it was Aidan's turn, she counted to 12 and looked impressed, she got to 15 and she looked kind of nervous, and when he finally came up at the count of 25 she was incredulous. Though they did not completely pass the level 2 requirements, I was very impressed with the skills they learned. We will continue to work on their swimming and I hope to get them both involved in a swim team next year.

Only Brother

Yesterday I took the day off work for Randy's surgery. Since Reese was not sick and did not have any reason to miss school, I took her to school while Aidan and Gretchen stayed home. I cleaned most of the morning while Aidan played and Gretchen cooed. They kept themselves entertained and I was not constantly breaking up fights! We headed into town about 10 and dropped Randy off and then ran a few errands while we waited. While at HyVee, our first stop, Aidan commented how it was nice without "Reesey" and I kind of had to agree. We got a kids shopping cart and Aidan was driving by himself and I did not have to yell at anyone to quit fighting or keep their hands to themselves. After getting a few supplies for cookie making, we decided to go get lunch. We went to the McDonalds play place and there happened to be another little boy about Aidan's age. They were playing very well together when I overheard Aidan tell the other little boy, "I wish that my sister was here." Again, I had to agree.
Recently, Reese began referring to Aidan as her "little bother", just like Nickelodeon's Olivia does to her little brother. As she has started school, their relationship seems to be even more difficult. Reese is growing and wants her privacy and time alone, while Aidan is so intrigued by all the things that she is learning and doing and wants to be involved in it. Although they fight the majority of the time that they spend together, I do believe that they really do love each other. It's things like their time apart yesterday that reveal their true feelings and the special bond they share.
As the only boy between 2 girls, I think that Aidan is going to have a lot of skills in dealing with women when he gets to the age to start dating. In another instance yesterday as we were walking through the mall, another shopper said, "Oh look, he is playing with her hair!" I had put Aidan in the back of the double stroller as he requested, so Gretchen was in front of him. He had leaned forward in his seat, with his arm resting on the seat back and rubbing his sister's head and playing with her hair. He has done this often since she was born and it always melts my heart because I know that he truly loves and cares for his little sister. I just feel sorry for any of her potential boyfriends, because I think that he is going to be pretty protective of his little sister.

Halloween 2012

Since I had a lamb costume for Gretchen, I decided that it would be fun to dress Reese up as Little Bo Peep. I started looking for costumes and was disappointed to find that most costumes were around $30 or more and were not the best quality. Though Reese was on board with the costume idea originally, she decided after watching the "Aristocats" that she wanted to be a white cat like "Marie". Wouldn't you know that a white cat costume would be impossible to find. Everywhere I looked, I found balck and leopard tails, ears and costumes, but never anything in white. Since I couldn't find a costume, I decided to try to make one. I just needed a white sweatsuit, which also turned out to be impossible to find. Eventually we found a white sweatshirt and leggings the Saturday before Halloween and day before trick-or-treat. I had some leftover fur from a Christmas project and used it to fashion some ears and a tail for her to wear with the sweatsuit. Though it was a fairly simple costume, Reese was ecstatic. She even thought that she should crawl on her hands and knees like a cat for trick or treat and drink milk from a bowl for her meals.

While we were uncertain about Reese's costume until the last possible minute, we had been working on Aidan's costume much longer. I brought a copy paper box home from work and taped off some boxes and the number one. Then I spray painted it blue. After removing the tape, I painted those areas red. I painted a face on a paper plate and spray painted several paper plates black and attached them to the box with hot glue. Finally, I added a striped piece of scrapbook paper on top and some black buffers to the front and back. I added some straps and Aidan's Thomas the Train costume was finished. Just like Reese he was so excited to wear his costume. I put him in it and he immediately began running around the house bashing into things.

Though Gretchen's costume was not homemade, she still looked adorable!

I hope that the kids will continue to allow me to help them create costumes in the future. It was so much fun to be able to work together to create something that they truly loved and was different from anything else that the other kids were wearing.

Hawkeyes

Since football season has started we have had several opportunities to sport our hawks gear. The first time was during an open practice at Kinnick. Randy and I were very excited to take the kids to the stadium and see their reactions. Unfortunately, they were not nearly as excited as we would have hoped.

I snapped these pictures of the kids in their black and gold before the first home game. Gretchen is actually wearing one of Aidan's old outfits, so I threw the bow on to be sure people knew she is a girl!

Whatever the season brings, the kids will definitely be cute cheering on our favorite team!

Swimming lessons

Both kids attended their final swim lesson for the fall last week. During the lesson, the instructor asked the kids to dunk their heads under the water while she counted to see how long they could hold their breath. The first few kids went and she counted to anywhere from 10 to 15 for each one. Finally, she got to Aidan, the youngest in the class. She started counting immediately after his head went underwater. When she got to 10 she kept going to 15. At 15 she looked impressed and continued counting to 20. At 20 she got a little worried and continued on to 25 when he finally lifted his head up out of the water. Needless to say, both kids passed the level 1 that I originally signed them up for and accomplished all but 2-3 skills from the level 2 class. I am so proud of my little fish!

Let me show you what I can do!

While riding home from swim lessons the other day, Reese started showing me how she could make each of the letter sounds. Apparently Aidan felt left out because he interrupted with, "Mommy, I know things too! A, B, C, D, E, F, G!" and he continued to sing the alphabet. They both have a little bit of a competitive side!

Butterfly Stroke

While swimming in grammy's pool recently, Aidan exclaimed that he was going to do "his balifics (3 year old for olympics)", jumped into the pool and began doing what looked like the Butterfly stroke. I can't believe what he has picked up from watching the Olympics all summer!

Family of Five

Every time that we get into the car, I look back into the full back seat and I can't believe we have three kids!

Reese and Aidan both love Gretchen so much. Whenever anyone asks if they can take the baby home with them, both kids immediately respond that she is "their baby" or "our baby", not just my baby. I love it when they ask me to hold her but that is not the only time they interact with her. They talk to her while I change her at the changing table and play with her while she sits in her chair.

One of Reese's favorite things about having a little sister is dressing alike. I have convinced her that wearing the same color is dressing alike for everyday, but she would much rather have all of their clothes be exactly the same as they were for a wedding we recently attended.

No, I still can't believe that we have three children! Though I can't believe it, it is like Gretchen has always been a part of our family and I can't imagine life without her.

Baby Crap

I recently set up a pack and play in the living room for the baby. Both kids were very curious about it and I explained that it was where the baby would sleep, like a baby crib. They both responded: "Oh, a baby crib" but crib actually sounded more like "crap". Tonight, Aidan was running around the living room and ran into the crib, hitting his knee. He came to me and asked me to kiss his knee because, "I hit it on the baby crap(crib)!" I counldn't help but to laugh!

2011 in pictures

I have been wanting to make a video compilation of all of my favorite pictures from the past year and was so excited when I found out that I had an application for doing just that! I hope you enjoy my first photo video! Be on the lookout for videos from previous years and years to come!