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May 13, 2003
May 13, 2004
Hello ladies! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get a “real” entry out, but I hope that the brief update I posted earlier helped a bit. As with all of you, we have been busy, busy, busy and finding the time it takes to write out anything of consequence has been hard to come by.
Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due …
I realized after writing my last entry that although I’ve been chronicling the goings on of our family, I actually haven’t written much Aidan himself. Considering I wouldn’t even HAVE a Mom’s Today Diary if it weren’t for him, it’s high time I put into writing a bit about my little guy.
Where to begin? Suffice it to say we have a little blonde bundle of energy on our hands. On a typical day, Aidan will look at Toby or I and say “I geet you” and take off running, which of course means that he wants US to get HIM. And so off we go, running circles around the house. This happens no less than 3-4 times every day, not counting the times he decides to run laps around the house by himself, which happens on and off throughout the day. To me, this means one of two things: 1) I am a bad Mommy and I need to take him outside more than once a week, or 2) I have a normal toddler on my hands, he needs to blow off a little steam, and I should be thankful for all the calories I’m burning whilst chasing him around like a crazy woman. =)
To give you an idea as to the sheer pleasure Aidan derives from running, today when he and I were walking to the store I let him out of his stroller so that he could get some exercise. I thought he’d walk ahead of me a bit, and maybe check out the sticks and trees along the sidewalk. No way. As soon as I let go of his hand he was off and running (sprinting more like it), all the while calling out, “Fast! Fast! Fast!”and grinning from ear-to-ear. He hasn’t learned to look straight ahead when he’s running yet (he gets distracted by all the cars and busses going by on the street), so it’s not unusual for him to narrowly miss unsuspecting passersby. I find myself apologizing frequently as I walk behind, hoping that his enthusiasm is as cute to them as it is to me, even if they ARE almost tripping over themselves to get out of his way. I know he’s too young to really understand that he needs to watch where he’s going, so I just keep my fingers crossed and hope that no one gets hurt.
“Supercalafragilisticexpialadocious …”
They’re not kidding when they say that a 2 year old can learn up to 50 new words in a day! It would be impossible for me to remember all, or even most, of Aidan’s new words (most of them aren’t very exciting, after all), but the highlights so far have been: “Close da doah” (his first “real” sentence), “seet dahwn, Mama!” (usually said very emphatically, to keep me from standing over him when he’s using the restroom), “it go?” (he says, shrugging his shoulders), “hold ya” (which actually means hold ME), “meet you” (nice to meet you, which he says while he shakes your hand!). And of course, the all-important “I luth you, Mama”. (Insert melting heart here.)
Actually, I have a little ritual with Aidan with this one. When I tell him I love him, we almost always go through and list the names of other family members who also love him. I say it first and Aidan repeats: Nonny luth you, Papa luth you, Gobby luth you, Grandpa Ron, Courty, Jon-Paul, Hannah, and so on and so forth. (O.k., I say it the “right” way … Aidan just hasn’t figured out how to switch the words to say “loves ME”.) It’s terribly sweet, and the big smile on his face when he talks about the people who love him makes it a little less painful that most of these family members live so far away.
There are a bunch of other words and phrases Aidan says with frequency, but these are a few of the “highlights” I can remember off the top of my head at the moment. I definitely think he’s going to take after Toby, who enjoys talking with the best of them (isn’t that a nice way of saying someone talks a lot? LOL).
“I Like To Watch T.V.”
This is a quote from a movie my Dad and I watched when I was very, very young. I think it was about a guy who was developmentally delayed and enjoyed watching the boob tube for hours on end. Anyhow, it’s the only line my Dad and I remember from it, which unfortunately is due to the fact that it describes ME all too well. Yes, I like to watch T.V. (Ouch! That hurts to admit.) I guess I take after my Grandma Pina, who used to watch T.V. from the moment she got up in the morning until she went to bed at night, unless she was out of the house. While I definitely don’t have the T.V. on all day, it’s on waaaay to much, and I HATE it. I HATE this part of my character/personality. It’s a waste of time. It’s killing my brain cells. It’s contributed to my weighing too much, and the very, very worst part is that I know that I’m “teaching” Aidan to be addicted to it as well.
I know most kids will really enjoy watching T.V. if you let them, and I don’t believe Aidan likes it more than any other toddler out there, but the fact that I don’t find it easy to turn off the darn thing definitely doesn’t help matters. I’m trying to be MUCH more purposeful about leaving the T.V. off during the day, turning on peaceful music and setting out his books and toys while I take care of things around the house, rather than letting him watch a show or putting on a video.
“Rubber Ducky, You’re The One …”
Other than running, one of Aidan’s FAVORITE pastimes is taking a bath. I often let him stay in the tub for close to an hour, splashing around with his bath toys. My MIL gave Aidan a small bucket-full of these little foam animals (the kind that stick to the bathroom wall when they’re wet). There are sharks and dolphins and sea horses, and he absolutely LOVES to play with them … especially the sharks and dolphins. I’m sure this is b/c he is head over heels in love with the movie “Finding Nemo”, but that’s another story. Anyhow, our computer is situated right outside of the bathroom, so I often do some catching up around iParenting or work on a new entry while I watch him turn into shriveled prune.
The only downside to bath time is Aidan HATES getting water in his eyes. He’s learned to tilt his head back when I’m rinsing his hair, so it doesn’t happen very often, but when it does I have to have a towel handy. “Eyes! Eyes!”, he cries until I wipe his face off. You’d swear I was torturing the kid, the way he carries on. I’ve given up on trying to explain that it’s just WATER and it won’t hurt (his shampoo IS sting-free, for goodness sakes!) and try to rinse his hair as quickly as I can, keeping the torture session as short as possible. ** As a footnote, I happened to get water in my eyes this morning when I was taking a shower, and guess what? It didn’t feel very good! LOL I’m actually going to have our water checked out to make sure there’s nothing in there that shouldn’t be.
“Baaaby Aboooga …”
Any Raffi fans out there? “Baaaby Aboooga, oooh, baaaby abooga” is the current theme-song of our home, and Toby and I have caught the fever. (Case in point, I just caught Toby singing it in the shower. =)) This past summer my parents bought Aidan a Raffi tape/CD, and he was immediately and completely hooked. He likes the whole tape, but is particularly hooked on the song “Baby Beluga”. My parent’s sing it to him when they talk to him on the phone, and I recently found the “Baby Beluga” board book at Barnes and Noble (its part of the Raffi: Songs to Read series). He looks at this book throughout the day, and while I DO get tired of reading the book over and over again, I love, love, love to hear Aidan sing the song. He can’t sing all of the words yet, but he finishes phrases for me, and sings the chorus with gusto. I’m hoping this means he’s following in his Mommy’s footsteps and is going to love music and singing.
Mr. Affectionate
I know I’ve mentioned before how affectionate Aidan is. He has always been a snuggle-bug, and frequently gives Toby and I loooong teeth-shattering kisses. Still, I can’t tell you how much it blesses me to see Aidan show affection to other family members and even friends of ours. We’ve recently had two sets of friends stay with us, and both times Aidan warmed up to them completely. Our first guests were a couple who are good friends of ours from San Diego. It was SO sweet to see Aidan goofing around and wrestling with Nate. When we went into the City with them, Aidan wanted to make sure he could see them at all times, and would fuss if they moved out of his line of sight.
He did the same thing last week when good friends of ours (also from San Diego) came for the week. Whenever we went anywhere, he wanted to make sure he could see them, and by the end of the week, he was doling out hugs and kisses like they were part of the family. I think the best part of all this is how special I think it made our guests feel. There’s something about knowing a little kid has taken a liking to you that can make a person feel really good about themselves, you know?
Looking Back on Wedding Bells and Our Plans for the Summer …
I am SO excited to tell you that my 5-year anniversary is this Saturday!! To say that the past 5 years have been the best 5 years of my life would be the greatest understatement in the world. I actually started crying just now when I thought about what my life would be like without Toby. God has used my husband to show not only me, but my entire family the wonderful, hopeful, exciting, BLESSED world that exists outside of the little bubble we all lived in until he and I were married. My Mom summed it up perfectly in a note she wrote to Toby last month for his 30th birthday, part of which read, “We can say that something good came from ***, and that someone was you and we rejoice daily in being your in-laws.” Toby has literally brought the world to my doorstep, and most importantly, led me to have a deeper relationship with Christ. I love you the whole world, sweetie. *** **
Speaking of anniversaries, Toby’s parents will be celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary on June 7th. To celebrate, they are taking all of us (Toby and his brother and sister, me, my BIL and SIL, Aidan and my niece Hannah) to, get this … St. Croix!! If you’re like me and don’t know where it is (I had to look it up just now), St. Croix is in the US Virgin Islands, next to St. Thomas and St. John. They’ve rented a villa for all of us to stay in together for a week. Although each “family” has their own room, I thoroughly plan on sending Aidan into his grandparent’s room at least a couple of nights! What good is it being in a special place without “celebrating” being there, after all? =)
This is the second time Toby’s parents have done something like this with/for their family, the first time being before Toby and I were married and they took all of us on a cruise to Alaska. I feel incredibly spoiled to be doing something like this, incredibly blessed to be part of this amazing family and incredibly thankful for this opportunity to spend time together as a family, celebrating and honoring Toby’s parents and their beautiful marriage. If you’d like to see where we’ll be staying, the website is www.villadawn.com
As for the rest of the summer, so far we have a church conference we’ll be going to with my parents and brother at the end of the month, and plans to go to California for a couple of weeks at the beginning of July and again at the end of August. Oh … and did I mention that I’m off the Pill, I’ve been looking for a midwife, and we’ll start TTC baby #2 soon?
On that note, I believe this entry has gone on long enough. ;)
Until next time,
Rebekah and Aidan
(WICKED, isn’t it, ending an entry like that?)
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