Tickle Tickle

Another AJ post!! I love how he is learning to use his words!

This morning as I was holding Landon on my lap AJ kept coming over to kiss Landon's belly or play with his hands. At one point he came over and grabbed Landon's feet and said, "Tickle tickle!" and then ran off laughing.

I Love You

Aidyn: "Mommy. I love you so much I could happy cry."

And then she did. Loudly. For no other discernible reason.

So I Stopped

Last week I left Aidyn a note on the bathroom door since it became out of service after she already went to bed. Let's just say Donnie tried to fix something :-) I wanted to use words on my note that I was sure she would understand, so I wrote: "Stop. This bathroom is broken. Please use the one downstairs."

The next morning when we woke up I asked Aidyn if she saw my note and she said, "I was walking and I stopped walking because the sign said 'stop.' Then I read it in my head so I wouldn't wake you up and I came down to use the bathroom because the other one is broken." I guess she got it!

They're There

Aidyn: "They're there! They are there. They ARE there. THEY are there. They're there. Just didn't want you to be confused."

How Do Your Hands Get Sick

Last Sunday night we were eating our dinner in the church lobby (yeah...Sundays are insane on a level that should probably be illegal) and Aidyn asked, "Mommy, how do your hands get sick?" I had no idea why she was asking so I tried to get a little more information. She sighed, brushed the crumbs off her hands, climbed down off her chair, walked over to the hand sanitizer station and read out loud, "'Healthy hands start here.' So. If your hands can be healthy, they can be sick. How do your hands get sick?"

Tomato Red

Me: "Here's a purple pixy stick. What flavor do you think it is?"

Aidyn: "Grape!"

Me: "Here's an orange pixy stick. What flavor do you think it is?"

Aidyn: "Orange!"

Me: "Here's a red pixy stick. What flavor do you think it is?"

Aidyn: "Um...tomato?"

Babies

Recently I watched the documentary Babies with Aidyn. She really liked it and I was very impressed by some of her insights and questions. She was especially interested in all the different ways that the mommies took care of their babies. Here are some of her comments:

• "That doesn't look so safe for the baby!" [when Mongolian family gets on a motorcycle while leaving the hospital, baby in mom's arms]
• "Whatever ARE those babies doing?" [when the Namibian babies are playing with rocks at the beginning of the movie]
• "Where is the Mommy?! The Mommy needs to help that baby!" [when the rooster is walking very near the Mongolian baby]
• "What are they speaking?" [the Japanese family--she is so interested in languages these days]

There was also a lot of "Awwwwwwwww..." and "Soooooooooo cute!" I enjoyed sharing this documentary with her!

Born When I Was a Baby

Kassie!! We finally got to see her a couple weeks ago after almost six months of missing her like crazy. She is doing well and looks great!! When she came in the house she and Aidyn just completely embraced like long-lost friends. Cutest thing ever.

When I went to pick her up she told me all about when she went to the dentist and then randomly (as is Kassie's normal) inserted this tidbit: "Did you know I was born when I was a baby?!"

And what could I say but, "Cool, kiddo!"

Sometimes I Sneak

I've already mentioned that Aidyn has learned how to lie, but she has apparently learned something else as well:

Aidyn: "Sometimes I sneak."
Me: "What? Why?"
Aidyn: "Well, because you guys don't let me do what I want, so sometimes I sneak."
Me [completely taken off guard and with NO idea what to say to this sweet little face]: "Well, honey, that's not really a good idea and sneaking is like lying."
Aidyn: "Oh. Well, sometimes I sneak."

Exclamation Points

Aidyn: "Exclamation points mean loud."
Me: "Actually they mean excited and loud is sometimes a part of that."
Aidyn: "No!! They mean loud!! That guy in Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late was NOT excited. You dont even know what they mean and I do!!"

I thought this happened much later?

NBC

Aidyn LOVES Wheel of Fortune. It cracks me up. We haven't been able to watch it for about a month now since we got rid of our cable and switched to Netflix (not sure why they don't offer season 9,863 of Wheel of Fortune, but whatever), but it's obviously made a lasting impression on her.

Yesterday as she was reading the cereal box (!!) she saw the advertisement for "The Biggest Loser on NBC" and the little NBC symbol. She said, "Oh! Isn't that the channel where they spin the wheel and clap!?"

Yummy Temperature

Aidyn: "This dinner is so good! I know what temperature the oven must have been set on: yummy temperature!!"

AJ's First Post!!!

I was wondering how long it would be before I could do an AJ post since Aidyn was already using short sentences by the time she was his age, but the day has arrived!! And, I'm pleased to report, it was a nice and sweet thing he said!

AJ can say about 15 words: ball, hi, bye, daddy, mama, aidyn, abbey, all done, more, bites, cup, baby, and a couple others that I can't think of right now.

The other day he was sitting in his high chair and I was making him some lunch but Landon was having a meltdown and wanted to be held. right. now. As Landon screamed and I tried to hurry I heard AJ softly saying, "It's ok, baby. It's ok. It's ok, baby. It's ok."

Daddy Believed Me

We have reached the point where little Miss Aidyn has learned to lie. I am not sure when it started, but it's been a while now and has mostly revolved around playing in the water after using the bathroom. We have a rule that she can't play in the water without permission (enacted after she used an entire container of hand soap in just two days) which is clearly not her favorite rule since I was regularly finding Polly Pocket swimming in a rinsing cup bubble bath on the sink or multiple towels soaking wet on the floor and noticing that Aidyn had a tendency to be wet up to her shoulders after "just washing my hands!"

Recently we've been working on remodeling a large closet into a playroom for the kids and we needed to remove some old peeling paint before painting the door. The paint was coming off in long strips and, I admit, it was quite fun to peel it. However, for obvious reasons, that was an adult-only job and Aidyn was well aware of this rule.

One evening Donnie thought that more paint was peeled from the last time he had seen the door and asked Aidyn if she had been peeling the paint. She said she hadn't and Donnie just reminded her that she shouldn't be and that was that. The next morning I actually caught Aidyn in the act of peeling paint off the door and stopped her.

Me: "Aidyn! Daddy already told you not to be peeling that paint, honey. It's not a safe thing for kids to do. Were you peeling the paint last night when Daddy asked you? Did you lie?"

Aidyn: "Well, yes...but Daddy believed me!!"

Explain

Aidyn's newest phrase when she thinks she isn't being understood is, "Hmm...how can I explain this to you?" Wonder where she's heard that one! :-)

Junk Stuff

Riding past a cemetery with her Daddy: "Daddy, what is all that junk stuff over there?"

French, Too?

Aidyn is very interested in languages and always has been. Her Daddy speaks to her (and teaches her to speak) Afrikaans. Recently since she's been able to read she goes to the set-up menu of her DVDs all on her own and turns them on Spanish or French to watch the movie that way. And then she watches it as if nothing is strange or different!!

We found a school near our house that does a dual-language immersion program for Spanish and English and thought this may be a good way of keeping her with her peers but still providing her a challenge in school (for those of you who don't know, Aidyn's IQ testing is complete and she is definitely above average...the psychologist recommended keeping her with her age group, though). So, we sat with Aidyn and asked her opinion on school that will be 90% in Spanish this fall and she was very excited. Then she asked, "And when can I learn that French one too so I can watch Toy Story 3 in French!?"

Parent-Year-Old

Aidyn was telling me all about something that happened at church last week and it went something like this:

"Well, there was this boy who was like a 3-year-old and this girl who was like...um...well, like a parent-year-old and they..."

Happy Cry

I've mentioned before that Aidyn notices the difference between sad cry and happy cry (although I don't do much of either and she does a fair amount of both!) and the most recent was when we got her a piano for her birthday from Craigslist. As soon as we got it into the house she sat at the bench and lightly touched the keys and the top and then just sat quietly for a moment before crawling into my lap and saying, "Oh Mama!! This is the best present EVER! I think I am going to happy cry." And then she did :-)