Girly

Today Aidyn wanted something special:
"Can you put a pretty in my hair so I can be girly?"

Then, once it was in:
"I'm so girly!"

Shadow Drawer

I forgot to add that in addition to Never Land, we also have a "shadow drawer" under our television stand. I guess that's where she's keeping Peter Pan's shadow until he comes back looking for it.

Barbie

Tonight Aidyn discovered the cure for all body image problems in America. At dinner she blurted out randomly: "Daddy, we are not Barbies. We are people."

The deep philosophical meaning encapsulated in that statement is overwhelming!!

Potty Fear

This last week we have been trying to potty train Aidyn. Yeah...not so much. We were ok until something about going potty scared her. I'm not sure if it was our excitement party the first time she went on the potty or if something else bothered her during the week. Then she started being really upset when she'd go in her pants, to the point of crying and shaking with fear/embarassment/shame/whatever if she had wet pants. To my knowledge, we never did anything to contribute to her fear, but I still felt so bad for her. So we decided to give it a few weeks before trying again, and at her request, put her diapers back on.

Today she decided ON HER OWN to put on some big girl undies after a diaper change. We brought the potty out into the main room so it would be in her sight all the time, but otherwise did or said nothing about using the potty. A few minutes later she was standing on top of her closed potty and decided to let her bladder go. I don't know if it was the sound of the pee hitting the potty or that fear/embarassment/shame/whatever-thing but she ran screaming (with pee dribbling down her legs) out of the living room and into the kitchen where she stood screaming and crying.
We quickly went to her and kept telling her "It's no big deal! Everything is ok!"
Then she said, "I dripped on my potty!!"
We said, "Did you scare yourself?"
"Yeah," she said.
Then we said, "Do you want dry panties or a diaper on now?"
"A diaper!!" she said without hesitation.

Hopefully she learns soon that going potty is not scary!!

Never Land

We've been letting Aidyn watch Peter Pan lately and it's become one of her favorites. Tonight she wanted to play upstairs and she said, "Come on guys! Let's go to Never Land!" Apparantly Never Land is the guest room where all the toys are kept!

Good Morning Daddy!

A few nights ago I put Aidyn down for bed. After our regular routine of reading a story and all that good stuff, I told her that since she's potty training I'd leave the door open so she could go potty or come get us if she needed help, and that I'd see her in the morning. Aidyn REALLY did not want to go to bed, but she lay there quietly until I left the room.
It wasn't long after I came downstairs before I started hearing little footsteps above me. I went to go upstairs to put her back in bed, only to be met by Aidyn at the bottom of the stairs. In her chirpiest and most cheerful voice she looked brightly at me and said, "Um...good morning Daddy!"
I said, "Nice try. But it's still dark out and we have to go to bed."

Coat Jambones

In our family we have a silly word for pajamas: Jambones.
Since it's getting so much colder lately, we've been putting Aidyn in the one-piece fleece footie-pajamas at night. I guess the pajamas remind her of something else, because tonight she commented that she wanted to wear her "coat jambones."

A-I-D-Y-N

Aidyn learned to spell her name today! And kind of out of the blue. She asked me to write her name for her and I said, "Ok, A-" and she added, "then I-D-Y-N!" She was pretty excited and so was I.

Just One More Time

Lately Aidyn has been saying "I need your tummy" and I finally figured out what she means. This morning I was cuddling on the couch with Aidyn, lying down and holding her on my tummy. How cute is that expression?
Then I asked her what she wanted for breakfast. She said, "Fruit."
Then she sat up like she was ready to get up to go to the table and eat, but hesitated. I could see her thinking. Then she said, "Just one more time."
Before I could even ask "one more time what?" she said: "Just one more time cuddles." Then she snuggled back into me for a few more minutes. And we were both ready to face our day.

Crazies

Out of the blue while Aidyn and I were wrestling she began wiping my face off with her hands in a silly way. I asked her, "What are you doing?"
"I'm getting the crazies off," she said matter-of-factly, as if I should have known all along.

Vanilla Peanut Butter

This morning while Tracy was making "cheesy eggs" as Aidyn calls them (scrambled eggs with cheese), I was buttering the toast. Aidyn asked me, "Ooooh, Daddy. Is that vanilla peanut butter?"

I Smell Snake

Tonight we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner...don't worry--it's in the budget :-) Aidyn was smelling all the wonderful food and kept leaning right down near my steak to smell it. I said,"That's steak!" and she replied, "Mmmmm...I smell the snake."

Perfume

Today we were reading another of the rebus books, The Dress I'll Wear to the Party. One of the pages was about the "perfume that scents the air." Asking for her help I asked Aidyn to repeat the word "perfume." Her (very adorable) mispronunciation: pre-fewm.

Okie-Dokie

We were playing an impromptu repeating game. I was saying, "Okie-dokie," and Aidyn was repeating "Okay dokie-dokie."

Dinner in the Closet

I wonder if sleepwalking is genetic? Because I remember waking up several times as a little boy staring at the blank tv screen in the middle of the night or with my nose an inch from the front door or apparantly knocking on my parents bedroom door.

A couple of nights ago Aidyn woke me up at 3:00am with a terror-sounding cry. So I got up to go see what the problem was. On my way I turned the bathroom light on so it wouldn't be too bright when I opened the door. I went into Aidyn's room and knelt by her bed and asked, "Aidyn, what's wrong?"

In the dark I reached out to her bed to make sure she was covered and comfort her only to feel empty blankets and teddy bears. Knowing she had to be somewhere in her room, I looked around and said, "Aidyn, where are you?"

Then I heard a whimper from the closet in the corner of her room where we keep a bunch of her toys. She loves playing in the closet because the folding door is fun to open and close and it's full of her toys! So I went to the closet and opened the folding door and as soon as I opened it, Aidyn came out of the darkness with her arms outstretched toward me.

Taking her into my arms I asked her, "What are you doing in the closet, Aidyn?"

She replied: "Cause I just needed some dinner."

With a knowing smile I gave her a hug, placed her back under the covers, and she was asleep before I left the room. In the morning we asked her what she was doing in the closet and she replied, "I was just sleeping."

Tell You What

A couple of nights ago it was time for Aidyn to go to bed and she said, "But I want to cuddle with you." How can you refuse your two-year-old asking for a cuddle!? So, we cuddled on the couch with a big cozy blanket. And then Aidyn said, "Tell you what. You lay here and I'll lay here [pointing to where we should lay our heads on the pillow]."

Yikes!

Now this one is definitely NOT us! I know we say a lot of silly little phrases that Aidyn repeats, but this one has never left my mouth:

Aidyn, in the car on the way home, regarding something that frightened her: "Yikes! That scared me!"

Sneeze

Daddy has a cold today, and it's appropriate timing for Aidyn since we've just borrowed a book from the library called I'm Not Feeling Well Today. The book is done in rebus format so Aidyn can "read" along by looking at the pictures. It chronicles a little boy who is too sick to go to school and needs all types of comfort objects: "a box of tissues in case I sneeze, and an extra pillow if you please," until he finds out that last night's snow storm has closed the school--then he's ready to play outside all day!
Daddy was lying on the couch trying to catch a nap and Aidyn was trying to be helpful. She brought him a box of tissues and when he said he really didn't need any right now, she replied:
"I need a tissues because I have a sneeze in my mouth."