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!

It's what's for dinner

The other night Aidan found the grill smoking as I prepared to start cooking dinner and asked, "So mommy, what are we burning for dinner tonight?"

Side note: It is usually daddy that cooks on the grill, not me, so he was obviously commenting that his father regularly burns dinner on the grill!

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!

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!

Change of character

Generally, Reese's personality and character traits are more similiar to Randy's. She is very outgoing and athletic and hands on. Aidan on the other hand tends to be more like me, he is very tender hearted and caring and definitely a clutz. So I was thrown for a loop when the following took place: This morning while Randy and I were working on the house, I overheard the kids playing. Aidan had built a fort in the couch we moved to the center of the room and was playing in it. Reese came and asked if she could play, to which Aidan replied, "Yes, for five dollars!" Now Aidan usually takes after me, so this showed a little of his entrepreneurial spirit, which would definitely come from his father! Reese upon hearing Aidan's request, made her way to the dining room table and immediately began cutting out and creating her own money with which to pay Aidan. This definitely showed off her more crafty side, and therefore a little bit of my personality. When Reese had finished making a few dollars she returned to the basement and "paid" Aidan her entrance fee and asked to play. Without missing a beat, Aidan immediately asked for more money, specifically he said, "Reesey, make me money all the way to the stars!"

Ladies Man

While out shopping with Aidan and Gretchen the other day, Aidan told me very sincerely, "Mommy, let me know if you see any pretty ladies." We are going to have our hands full with this one someday!

Awkward Conversations

During lunch Reese asked if the fruit salad we were eating would make her big and strong? I immediately answered, "Yes!" but was not prepared for her response! She said, "When I am big and strong, I can finally lift daddy's boners!" I about chocked on my fruit salad and then calmly asked her what she meant by "daddy's boners". It turns out that she was referencing a few dumbbells or hand weights that we have in the basement. I clarified what they were actually called, as speaking of the alternative (especially in public) could be a bit awkward! While discussing a magic show that Reese was planning, I overheard Aidan ask, "Are you going to make my balls disappear?" Though I knew that he was not referring to any part of his anatomy, that was all I could think of! I guess working with junior high aged kids is rubbing off on me and making me a bit immature!

Teddy Bear

While watching "Cars" last night, Aidan came up to me crying because Lightning McQueen had left without saying goodbye to Mater. Part of his reaction was from being overtired from a long and event filled weekend, but his reaction also showed how soft hearted Aidan is. He is definitely my little teddy bear!

Scary swim trunks

Getting ready for the beach the other day, Aidan asked to wear his "scary" swim trunks. I wasn't sure what scary swim trunks were, so I showed him the ones we brought. He chose his trunks with a skull and crossbones on the butt and exclaimed, "These will scare the fishies away!"

A Pirate's Life for Me!

I bought each of the kids a roll of pictures and markers to color on our vacation. Aidan immediately unrolled the pictures and revealed the cardboard tube inside. He decorated it with his markers and then decided it needed a little something extra to make it a spyglass. He went into the bathroom while I was preoccupied organizing some stuff in the room. Next thing I know Randy is screaming at Aidan to stop and get out of the bathroom. I run in to see what is going on and find Aidan with a pile of toilet paper on the floor in front of him. He decided that he needed another tube for his spyglass and knew exactly where to find one! Though I was mad at him for wasting the roll of toilet paper, I was pretty impressed that he had figured out a way to make his spyglass all on his own.

The next day as he was playing with his new spyglass, he said, "Mommy, I only need one more thing."

Me: "Oh yeah, what's that?"

Aidan: "A parrot!"

This kid is going to be in heaven when we make it to Peg Leg Pete's (a pirate themed restaurant) for dinner one night during our vacation!

Aidanisms

One of Aidan's favorite expressions is, "Are you serious me kid?!" It is a mix of "Are you kidding me?" and "Seriously?", two of my favorite expressions when I am exasperated with something that the kids have done. Not only is it funny how he says it, but also the situations in which he uses it.

I purchased a train calendar and hung it in Aidan's room. Recently, he has been carrying his "calister" around and writing in it. When he goes to bed at night, he always asks where his "calister" is before getting tucked into bed.

Aidan's has been having trouble sleeping some nights. He wakes up 1-2 nights a week because of something scary that he has seen or heard during the night. One night it was really windy and a branch was rubbing against his window. I let him and Reese sleep downstairs on the pullout sofa that night because the wind was not going to let up and the noise would have continued to keep him up. Another night he saw "scaries" in his room. I laid in bed with him until he calmed down and before leaving, I picked all of the scaries up and kicked them out of the house. Finally, last night, he got upset because of a noise. I believe that he heard noises from Randy and I moving around downstairs, but never really determined what it was. The incidences are all so different, that I'm not sure what to do to help him feel safe. Hopefully, it is just a phase and he will grow out of it soon.