Happenings on the Hunt Front

playing catchup

2009-10-26T17:59:00.007-04:00

--since we got back from all our travels this summer, we spent some time getting back into a routine. then we were settling into a new school routine, since aidan goes to school five mornings a week now.
--he loves school. they have music class, spanish class, computer time, and every wednesday they all wear a certain color. they learn a letter, number, and shape each week, and every thursday is show-and-tell with the letter of the week. he has new friends this year, because he and only a few others switched from three afternoons a week to five mornings. within the second week, he told me sophia was his girlfriend and he has to hold her hand. actually sophia told me aidan was her boyfriend. when i asked him about her he said she was his new girlfriend, but jarah, ella, and asha are still his favorite. (he didn’t say favorites…he said favorite. guess it’s an all-inclusive kind of thing!)
--last week we went on a field trip to hunt club farms. we rode on the hayride, the kids played in the massive mountain of hay, and each brought home a pumpkin. it was pretty fun. the weather was absolutely perfect. the next day was the second birthday party we’ve gone to for a classmate. (no longer just birthday parties for mommy’s friends’ kids…) it’s funny to see aidan with his classmates. they act all goofy, and have a blast. plus, he’s half a head taller than all of them!
--sierra’s more than two handfuls these days. when she’s not climbing on something, jumping off of something, or dancing in circles, then she’s taking off her clothes. in addition to enjoying being naked, she must be the one to dress herself in the morning. not just picking out her clothes…and she’ll get all dressed and then change them again…but she has to put them on herself. granted, she doesn’t do that quite right, but it’s a learning process. i let her pick out what she wears for the most part, and just have to ignore the fact that she’s wearing stripes on her shirt, flowers on her pants, and carebears on her socks. she’s still adorable, and it makes her feel good.
--she’s talking up a storm these days too. she tells me exactly what she’s thinking, and it’s rare that i don’t understand. potty training is going pretty well. she wanted to start eight months ago or something, but i wasn’t ready. i let her do it when she wanted to, but i didn’t push it at all until we got back from our long long drives this summer. didn’t want to hear “mommy, i ready to potty” every half hour on a 17hour drive!
--kids make things to send to daddy all the time. it could be a picture drawn on a restaurant placemat, something colored at school, or a craft we do together. we painted new jersey shore sea shells and mailed them. we also made frames to send…though i might be ruining a surprise for dad, since i’m not sure they’ve arrived at the ship yet. they get to talk to him every so often, and sierra usually just sings when it’s her turn. and every day they have a “kiss” from dad: a hershey kiss from daddy’s jar that they get to enjoy every day...sometimes a few a day. :)
--halloween was fun. we carved pumpkins with our neighbors kelley and roger. aidan wanted to supervise. he didn't want to get his hands dirty, but had no problem telling us what to carve...he was quite specific with roger's bat dimensions! :) ours was a spider...but of course i forgot to take a picture of them before they started to rot and fall in on themselves. oh well...next year. trick-or-treating was cool. sierra was minnie mouse and aidan was spiderman. they picked out their costumes themselves and were really excited about it. aidan did great...wasn't scared of anything. though sierra was a bit scared at times. i ended up carrying her for most of our mile-long trek around the block. still they got loads of candy...and we got several comments on their cuteness, but also on their manners. both said thank you to everyone! good babies!!

northern exposure -- aug 2009

2009-09-16T23:17:00.001-04:00

--our trip north was excellent. it was lots of driving, but totally worth it. we started in manasquan, nj, with billy’s mom and stepdad (grammy and poppy). at some point in our week stay there, we had all of their kids there (minus, billy): uncle ryan, uncle greg, aunt alison, uncle jim, aunt leah, and cousins riley and griffin.
--we spent most of our days outside at the beach, or in the back area playing in the sand. there were neighbors, in addition to all the family, to play with too. aidan and sierra loved the beach, though aidan did better with the water than she did. for whatever reason, those waves there could get really big…and the tide changes were more extreme than i’ve ever noticed on the coast. still it was great fun.
--we stayed in the same house that the family used to rent when the kids (as in the aunts and uncles) were small. apparently it hasn’t been updated since…which added to the flavor and nostalgia. it was strange not having billy around, but it wasn’t weird without billy there…if that makes sense. we fit right in, so it was great.
--we went to dinner one night, another night went to pt. pleasant for dinner and to walk the boardwalk with rides and games. we also met aidan’s godfather, steve, and his wife sharon there. it was good to see them, as it had been a while. and one rainy day we went to a farm to feed the animals and out to lunch. one night, leah and i walked six miles up and down the path talking nonstop…eventually had to go in because it was bedtime!
--we left manasquan after a week and headed to long island to see my dad (pawpaw) and joy, and emily. had another great visit there. we went for long walks, on boat rides, fishing off of the boat, and aidan even jumped off the boat into the canal. we went to fire island one night for dinner, and jones beach another day for a relaxing afternoon.
--after long island, we travelled to glen rock, nj, to be with billy’s dad and stepmom (grandma and grandpa) and devlin. we swam a lot in their pool, went to the museum of natural history in manhattan, to the land of make-believe, and a park/zoo. aidan and sierra found some playmates down the street. they played at grandma/grandpa’s pool and even down at their house. they had a son aidan’s age, a daughter sierra’s age, and an older daughter. they had a good time with them.
--devlin and i went to new york one night for dinner and a show. we went to see “rock of ages,” a musical about the making it in the music industry in the 80’s. we laughed and sang the whole way through. dinner was fun (before and after the show), and we got to have some fun conversations.
--after nearly three weeks on the road, with only six days home between down south and up north, we made it home. kids are awesome travelers…couldn’t ask for better. since then we’ve gotten back into a regular routine and aidan has started school. he loves it, of course.
--sorry this is super late, and a little skimpy on the details…

my kids are rockstars!

2009-08-02T22:30:00.010-04:00

--kiddos and i just got back from our trip south. we drove 12 hours from va beach to athens, al, on the 19th. we stayed there with my aunt carroll and uncle larry at their house on the tennessee river. the first day we were pretty spent, at least i was. aidan and sierra were so happy to be out of the car, they ran around for a long time after dinner before i had to drag them to bed.

--the next day we went out on the boat on the river. aidan hadn’t been on a boat since he was 18months old…at least not a “personal” watercraft. he’d been on the touring boats out of the inlet in virginia. he loved going “big fast,” which i took as “really fast.” sierra wasn’t too sure at first of the speed, but ended up loving it so much i was holding on the back of her lifejacket as she leaned over to see the water go by. aidan liked looking at the “wave path” (the wake) that the boat was leaving behind us. :)

--we spent another night there, and the next morning we went to the nasa space center in huntsville. since aidan (still) says he will be an astronaut when he grows up, i thought it’d be a great place to take him. they both really liked it. so did carroll and i too…i hadn’t been there since i was about twelve or something. we toured the outside part with all the rockets, missiles, helicopters, etc. sierra climbed on everything that had a “do not climb” sign on it. i guess i shouldn’t be surprised by that, considering i found her this morning sitting inside her top (four drawer) dresser drawer putting all of her ponytail-holders on her fingers as rings…and no other drawers were open. how does that happen?? she must have pulled it out, done a pull up, and climbed right in. and she’s fast. i pretty much came in there right after i heard movement in their room. crazy girl...guess she's enjoying being back in her room?
--after the outside section, which also had a replica of the moon surface, we went inside. aidan and i did a simulation ride of a rover on the surface of mars. we looked at the different exhibits, many of which the kids didn’t care about…unless there were buttons and switches. they got to play in a replica of the space station, and each got to try their hand a landing the shuttle. after that we went to a 3D imax film “fly me to the moon,” about three flies that pack their suits and get in the helmets of the astronauts that first landed on the moon. pretty cute. it was the first film sierra sat through for the most part. she even let me hold her glasses on her head and she jumped nearly every time something came near her and tried to reach the flies. cute.
--after our film, we had lunch in the café and then took off on our five hour drive down to mobile. got there at dinner time and spent time with my mom and stepdad. we spent most of the rest of the week in mobile hanging out with them, my aunt connie, and going to lucedale to visit my grandparents.

--in lucedale we played inside and out, the kids loved the swing set and the dogs. sierra liked telling the dog “no, dog!” although one of the dogs got that from all of us. deedaddy and aidan played baseball, and they all looked at the cows when they came trekking through the first pasture.
--saturday, we packed up and went to dauphin island…the southern-most part of alabama. there’s a fort on the island (ft gains), with a sister fort (ft morgan) in gulf shores, that guard the entrance to mobile bay from the gulf of mexico. the whole “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” thing was at the battle of mobile bay. anyhow, we had a house on the bay side, and three condos on the gulf side…yes, my family is huge, although we still were missing many of them.

--aidan spent most of his days swimming in the pool or beach at the condos, and fishing (he tried to catch a fish for two days) and playing/wrestling with my cousins at the house. he was younger by at least five years, sometimes more, but he held his own,…minus two busted lips. i was glad that it didn’t seem that they were just accommodating him, but actually wanting to play with him and have him around. one naptime during the week scott and matthew showed up at the condo wanting aidan to come out and play. that was cute.

--sierra spent her days getting in and out of the water at the pool or beach, running around the house on the deck, trying to climb upstairs to the big kids, or playing with my cousins’ boy. that was cute. jackson is seven days older than sierra. after they got over their original shyness, they were following each other around and even competing for deedaddy-lap-space…which as a former competitor myself, is know to be valuable real estate! :)

--i spent the time chasing children, but mostly letting other people chase children while i hung out with my family, helped cook, got sunburned, read three books, and swam occasionally. one morning i went fishing with deedaddy and four of my cousins. we didn’t catch as many white trout as the group the day before, but we held our own. they were yummy the next night for sure!!
--after a week on vacation with the smith family, which i haven’t been able to attend in six years, the kids and i packed ourselves into the stuffed car and drove 950 miles home. it took 16hours to get back, but my kids are troopers. i got the occasional “are we almost there?” from aidan, and we had to stop every couple hours, but never a complaint out of the back seat. sierra cried for about 10minutes at around 9pm that night when she woke up and couldn't understand why she was still strapped in her chair in the car. we had been traveling since 7am (eastern time). so, in all fairness, i guess i understood her frustration!

Dropping off Daddy

2009-07-22T15:19:00.003-04:00

--the kids and i spent a good family day with billy before we took him to the ship. we all got to go onboard and see where daddy will work and live while delpoyed. aidan and sierra enjoyed all the hatches and ladders, twists and turns, helmets, hoses, and lights.
--we helped billy take the last bit of stuff to his stateroom, and got a tour of the spaces he uses day in and day out, and the view off of the deck. then we had our sad good-bye and left daddy to "defeat the bad guys."
--his ship email is: suppo@ddg75.navy.mil; and he can receive mail/packages at:
LT BILLY HUNT
SUPPLY DEPT
USS DONALD COOK, DDG-75
FPO, AE 09566-1294
--will keep everyone posted on any happenings.

June 09

2009-07-09T10:55:00.003-04:00

--short and sweet: with june came LOTS of company. we had a good visit with grandma and grandpa, grammy and poppy, and paw-paw and joy with emily and jordan.
--we had sierra’s 2nd birthday three times, and she opened LOTS of presents, and sang “happy birthday” to herself for over a month…in fact, she’s still singing it these days. “haaa birrrday ah rarah, haaa birrday ah me!” she also got her ears pierced. i always swore i wouldn’t make a baby get her ears pierced, she at least had to ask for it. she has really been into my earrings lately, and said “for me?” so i took her. she did great. she got scared when i had to hold her still…that’s reminiscent of getting shots, which she fights with all her might. she cried at first, but as soon as i got to let go of holding her head, she was fine. she didn’t like me cleaning them at first, but she put up with it. and she looks precious. she called them her “pretties” for a while, and now calls them “earwings.”
--she can say anything she wants these days, and lately all i write down are long and/or interesting phrases she comes up with. some include:
* “dee end. i get a-no one” = the end. i’ll get another one. (book)
* “i see a airpane!” = i saw an airplane!
* (did you have fun outside?) “no. ew, ew. i see a bug. it bite da finger. yuck!”
* “one two free” / “fie sit” / “a nigh ten” = her counting…not in order, but those sequences are right
--aidan is a water boy these days. and he swims now. we went to the pool with asha and yogi early in the month, and he decided he could swim. he jumped off the side and swam!! he swims underwater, but has to stop and rest, so as long as he can reach the bottom he’s good. (next we’ll work on treading water.) after that, at the beach, he barely comes out of the water at all. he goes out to waist/chest deep and rides the waves in or jumps over them. granted, he gets swept away and has to continuously come trotting back to be in front of me so i can watch him…but he’s having a ball, and he just gets better.
--billy joined his ship (uss donald cook) and has officially taken over as the suppo. they were super busy with inspections and are now prepping for a july deployment. i think he’s excited and nervous all at the same time…though he’ll do great, and he seems to thrive at sea with the always-involved-environment, that suits him.

May 2009

2009-06-07T23:08:00.002-04:00

--may was busy, but not. billy was gone pretty much the entire month, until memorial weekend. we did, however, drive down to athens, ga, to see him for a long weekend. it was cool to be back in athens, which is where we got married, and wander the town. it is very walkable, and we love the main drag of shops and restaurants. it was great to see billy, though the kids didn’t understand why we couldn’t go back (another 9hours) to see him the next day after we got back!
--i read a book called outliers, about successful people. it was very interesting, but what i took from it concerned the way americans learn math, versus aisan cultures. because of the counting system used, the typical american four-year-old can only count to 15, while the japanese/chinese/etc four-year-old can count to 40. that basically means that by age four we americans are already behind in math…and it just compounds throughout the rest of the school years. didn’t really like that, so the next day i asked aidan to count as high as he could. he got to 15. who wants to be “average” anyway? so during our long morning walk, we memorized one through 20, using our weird counting verbiage. the next day we went to 30. he did great once he figured out the pattern…and the day after that, he went to 40. so, (after six months of pre-school, where aidan maintained his average-ness,) in three days, we had aidan all caught up with the asian four-year-olds! ;)
--more aidan progress: he used to have trouble singing along with something (tv/radio/me). the words he knew, he’d say at his pace, no matter how far behind the real melody he got. now, he hums the words he misses along with the song, and sings the parts he can with it. it’s pretty funny to listen to…but at least he’s keeping up!
--sierra’s vocabulary is incredible. she talks all the time, and it’s pretty clear what she’s saying most of the time. it’s rare that i have absolutely no idea what she’s saying. her latest sentences include:
* “ha fun, day-dee, otay?” = have fun, aidan, okay? (when we’d take him to school)
* “where day-dee dough?” = where’d aidan go?
* “i go aaaa-go ni-night!!!” = i’m going night-night in my diego (dora) sheets!!!
* “hurry, hurry, ess dough!” = hurry, hurry , let’s go!
* “ahh-mow home, mama!” = almost home, mama! (as soon as we’re on our street)
* “one, free, one, free” = 1, 3, 1, 3 (her counting practice)
--for the past few months, she has been potty-training herself. i’m not pushing it, and i’d actually prefer that she wait, but i’m not deterring it either. i just know in a month or so, we’re going to be doing lots of driving…road trips south and north…and i’m not sure i want to hear “i potty, mommy,” and stop all the time to avoid an accident. so, i’m keeping her in diapers, but taking her when she wants to go. she rarely lets me change her pants without first letting her sit on the potty. she always goes before her bath, and she tells me when she’s already gone, sometimes even before she goes. i’m just letting her do it if she wants to, but there’s no pressure to get out of diapers…i’ll start “training” her after august.
--when billy came home, we had friends (rob and justin) come down again for the long weekend. we went to a pool party, where aidan swam around the pool in a life jacket (cause after a day at the beach, nobody wanted to get in with him), and even jumped off the diving board. we thought he might get scared, cry or something, but he jumped off before anyone was ready with the camera! he obviously did it over and over after that.
--that same weekend, we had our own memorial weekend party. invited nearly everyone we know…cause, yeah, we go all out! started at 2pm and went until nearly 2am…cause, yeah, we go all out!! not everyone came of course, but those that did, i’m pretty sure they had a good time. and as we went nearly 12hours, not everyone was there the whole time or all at once…so it worked out. it was lots of food, friends, and fun.
--the next weekend, as “hotel hunt” had officially opened for the season, more friends (mike and leslie) came down. we had another great weekend at the beach, mini-golfing, a concert on the beach, and with another mini-gathering of our regulars! more food, friends, and fun!!

April 2009

2009-05-08T22:49:00.005-04:00

--april’s showers bring may flowers, right?? well, we definitely had some showers, but we just sort of skipped the nice weather and went straight to 90degree temps. granted, that’s cooled down a bit (along with some more rain), but i don’t remember actually having spring. even without the weather, we went ahead with easter and spring school performances. we also drove down to athens, georgia, to see billy. he is down there for five weeks before reporting to his new ship in june. we had a good time touring around athens again…lots of fun shops and restaurants. (and billy is doing well in his class…as expected!)
--aidan’s class had an easter party. they had an easter egg hunt and then bunny-inspired snacks. siblings were invited, and sierra enjoyed being totally overstimulated by the classroom…and of course the cookies. after snack-time, there was a little time left before school let out, so the kids came back to the classroom and sang all the songs they’ve learned this year. aidan really likes going to school…he talks about the things he does, counts and knows his colors in spanish, sings songs (ALL THE TIME), and asks if today is a school day.
--his class also put on a show for all the whole school and parents. it was a prayer service, and the three-year-old class did the singing. it was really cute. some of the kids got really into it…mostly the girls, and some of them were really out of it. one girl was running up and down the stairs of the chapel, and one boy was hitting himself in the head. i got it all on film too, it’s great! after the first song ended, sierra screamed, “YAY!!” all the parents thought that was funny.
--the easter bunny left some goodies for the kiddies, and an indoor egg hunt. both of them were having a ball finding eggs. and they just looked adorable in their easter outfits…got some great pics!
--here are a few of the fun things aidan talks about these days. the second one, we were driving home from athens (a 9hour drive), and he spouted off this crazy story…what an imaginiation! i grabbed my pad and tried to write what i remembered down, then asked him to tell it to me again. he did and (it was exactly the same and) i filled in the gaps in what i wrote down.
* “why does my teacher love me?” (she loves all children.) “but she doesn’t know everybody’s name!”
* “sometimes sun booms into my land at the right spot in the fence, and a door comes in my backyard that takes me to a land with wolves, a unicorn, and trolls, talking sheeps, and tiny indians on my nose. i have a pet komodo dragon that helps me hide from the trolls and i ride on the unicorn. he runs because he doesn’t have wings. the trolls are faster than me, are really bigger than me, but i can defeat them. they won’t be dead, i just push them back under the bridge, but they will come back. all the animals and the tiny indians watch me defeat the trolls.” crazy, huh?
--sierra’s still all over the place. she’s constantly getting on top of a table, climbing stairs, opening doors, climbing out of bed, throwing things in the sink, taking things out of the garbage, picking flowers, singing songs and dancing, calling everything purple, and sitting (or standing) on the arm of the couch.
--latest verbal accomplishments include:
* “um ear, day-dee, ess dough” = come here, aidan, let’s go!
* “i shoe on, mama, ah white” = i want shoes on, mama, alright?
* “ree” = green
* “boo” = blue
* “pup-pul” = purple
* “horry, day-dee” = sorry, aidan
* “rarah” = sierra
* “shoe on, mama, pea” = please put my shoe on, mama
* “i go run” = (what she says as she runs in circles trying to make herself dizzy)
* “ha-huh” = ah-huh (as in ‘yes’)
* “hep me” = help me
* "wah-chow" / "buum" / "pah-chew" = her fighting noises ('buum' = boom)
* “ahh don duice peas, mama” = my juice is all gone, can i have more please, mama :)

March 2009

2009-04-06T16:50:00.003-04:00

--march was pretty full. we had grandma and grandpa visit, then went north and visited grandma and grandpa, and grammy and poppy. billy had his major supply inspection and after passing with flying colors (again), was farewell’d from his shore command (acu2), and is now prepping for his ship tour (uss cook). while we were in yankee-town, i went on a yoga retreat for a few days, and billy and the kids went to the museum of natural history and spent time with grandparents.
--grandma and grandpa enjoyed taking aidan to school and picking him up while they were in town. aidan LOVES school…he asks nearly every day if it’s a school day. he brings home projects he does in school and even sometimes brings home instructions for us to do a project together. (help with homework starts pretty early!) to celebrate dr. seuss’s birthday, we picked out a favorite book and designed a book cover for them to display in the front hall of school. aidan chose the tooth book, and his idea for the cover was “a clown doing juggling balls.” not sure where that came from, but that’s what we made, and aidan said his teacher liked when he talked about his cover.
--aidan has been talking about his dreams lately. he’ll come out of nowhere with these conversations, too, so it’s kinda random, but they’re interesting. “i had dreams about animals and mans. i turned into a butterfly. a man maked me turn.” / “why do i have dreams? (god tells you a story while you sleep.) what does that mean?” / “there were animals and spiders in my room. (did you like your dreams?) yes ma’am, i saw a hippo.”
--billy aced his smc (supply management certification: major supply inspection). each command has one every two years, so since he was at this command for three years, he actually had to go through two of them. last time, he got a 95.5%. his score was the highest on the waterfront that year, and also the highest acu2 had in recorded history. this year he got the same score. he’s somewhat worried about his new ship, which only passed theirs at an 81%, because it means he’ll probably have his work cut out for him, in addition to learning and being in charge of more aspects of the supply department at a command that will be underway at times. i tell him that’s why they selected him to go to that ship…who else could get it done, and have them in “ship-shape”?? :)
--the yoga retreat was interesting. it was at sivananda ahsram in woodbourne, ny, in the catskills mountains. (http://www.sivananda.org/ranch/index.html) it was still a little barren since spring hadn’t really sprung by then, but the views were still awesome. i was supposed to go with leah (billy’s sister) but she had to fly to seattle that week for work, so i had to go by myself. still it was nice. i LOVED the yoga part…we did two hours in the morning and two in the evening. part of it was breathing exercises. and it wasn’t sweaty yoga…more relaxing. and i gained some major flexibility while i was there and even got into poses and headstands i didn’t know i could do…so that was really cool. the food there was good, but it was mostly vegan, though they did have a few “just” vegetarian dishes. now i could never be a vegan, but the veggie meals were creative and surprisingly filling. (we only ate twice a day.) we also meditated and chanted twice a day, once at 6am and once at 8pm. their meditation was something i wasn’t used to. i meditate, and have tried the “real” meditating, but could never get into it. but when i read meditation made easy, i realized i had been meditating for years. i don’t follow the strict protocol of “cross-legged position, eyes closed, no movement, focus on OM, and empty the mind.” i’m all about zoning out with my cup of tea and think or not think. so anyway, this was different…and hard to get into, cause you feel like if you scratch your leg you’re going to disturb someone else. and have you ever noticed how loud swallowing sounds when you’re in a silent room full of other people, or that the urge to move is directly related to the amount of movement you’re supposed to be doing? plus, i’d inevitably get the loud stomach rumble going on. still, it was interesting, a lesson in “control,” and i did get better at it. i was eventually able to sit completely still for thirty minutes (in the dark without falling asleep), though i couldn’t OM that long. the chanting…that was a completely different thing. it wasn’t monotone, which i was grateful for. it was more like singing…singing in a strange language though (sanskrit). the part i didn’t like was that it was a bit too hindu for my taste. invoking deities and the shrine to krishna…not really my thing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna). plus, the most experience i had in saying those kinds of words came from karate kid, when daniel picks up the floor sanders (“sand da floor”) and bangs them together singing “hare krishna, hare krishna.” the hindu part was about the only aspect of the ashram life i didn’t really like. i even liked the karma yoga…selfless work to “help” out. we had kitchen duty after meals, and i spent hours in the garden with paul, the old guy who’s been there for years and years. overall, it was a cool place, and i enjoyed my time there, and met some cool people. i’d like to do another yoga reatreat one day, though i doubt it’ll be at an ashram…maybe more like an intense yoga spa or something. ;)
--sierra…what to say. besides the vocab advances which will come below, here’s what i wrote down this month about her. we’re definitely in the anal stage…she’s all about the potty. wants to sit, tries to go, has gone a few times, and she even tries when she’s not on the potty…to not-fun results. she de-robes when she’s in the bed, stripping down to nothing and then proceeds to pee and/or poop on her pillow. needless to say, they (and the mattress) are waterproofed and sheets are washed much more often than i’d like to! she tells me when her diaper is dirty and tries to take it off herself, so i really have to pay attention to what she’s saying.
--she’s also a dipper lately. in addition to the normal dipping of fries in ketchup, she dips green beans in salad dressing and even dips salmon in ketchup. i would be grossed out a bit, but whatever helps her eat her non-favorite foods i’m all for!
--latest sayings:
* “ah-da man” = spiderman
* “ess dough” = let’s go
* “yay eat!” = yay eat!
* “ha dirday” = happy birthday
* “bom-pah” = grandpa
* “ram-mah” = grandma
* “yay eat nack” = yay eat snack
* “hey dopp!” = hey stop!
* “dough dabba dabby” = yo gabba gabba (still the only show she’ll sit and watch…though she’ll sit longer for whatever’s on if there is a big bowl of popcorn in her lap!)
* “i faw, mommy” = i fall, mommy
* “yuck” = yuck
* “hi, baby…nummy (slurp)” = hi, baby (feeds with bottle)
* “shear, eat” = please share what you’re eating
* “teak-ah” = tickle
* “ear tum” = hear i come (hide and seek)
* “mear, day-dee/dog” = come here, aidan/dog
* “dip” = dip
* “yook, day-dee” = look, aidan
* “i sit” = i’m sitting
* sings songs (constantly) and on command…she sings all songs to the “twinkle twinkle” tune. most words are the same every time she sings it, though she may start with “row row” (for “row row your boat”), and throw in “haaa dirday” (for “happy birthday to you”) and you can even tell when she’s saying “star” and “how i.”

February 2009

2009-03-12T16:23:00.010-04:00

--in february, we actually had several days where it was warm enough to play outside…the kiddies loved their new outside toys we were able to pull out. we also had some friends visit and went visiting ourselves.

--great peoples shannon and jesse with kids jarah, isaac, and baby#3 were in town for a few days, stopping over for jesse’s schooling, on the way to moving to california. we had a few fun days with them, including playing at home, the mall, and at chuck-e-cheese for birthdays. (we met sandra with ella and gabriel at the mall for lunch, time in the playroom, and a ride on the carousel.) it was cute to see the kids together again…they were always such good friends. and really, if i believed in arranged marriages, we could be family one day! :)

--i took the kids with me to my sister’s house in blacksburg (va tech) for a weekend to visit emily, my mom, and my aunt joan. we had a good time catching up and playing and watching movies and eating yummy food.

--by the end of the month, i had sierra back in a crib…the toddler bed didn’t last long! every morning if i didn’t get into their room in time, or at naptime if she didn’t go to sleep right away, she’d destroy the room. she’d take every single baby wipe out of the package and “clean” the floor with it, after dumping all the diapers out. she’d unload all the books off of the bookshelves. she’d empty out every single piece of clothing from their chests. so, instead of dealing with that daily (or even twice daily), i put the rails back up on her bed. i guess she forgot she knew how to climb out, cause she hasn’t tried to get out again.
--sierra likes to keep aidan company during time-out. she runs over and sits by him while he’s in trouble. (she’s been spending some time of her own in time-out…she gets in trouble when she does something on purpose that she knows she’s not supposed to…usually right after being told to stop.) she also likes to “read” these days. she obviously loves to be read to, but she likes to read by herself too. she doesn’t just look at pictures, which she does do while she names what she sees, but she likes to sit and tell the story in sierra-language. it’s really cute.
--speaking of sierra-language:
* “i’m ow” = time out
* “bye-bye, dada” = bye-bye, dada
* “no day-doo, mommeee” = no thank you, mommy
* “wa-wa” = water
* “ett-toe” = echo
* “dough dabba!” = yo gabba gabba (the ONLY show she will sit through)
--aidan is a chatter-box and a half these days. he talks about anything and everything…and he sometimes gets so excited that he can’t get what’s going on in his head out of his mouth, that he usually has to start over a few times. his memory is impressive however (when he WANTS to remember, that is). he’s learned the real names of several dinosaurs…he’s progressed from land before time names like “long neck” to knowing the difference between a brachiosaurus and seismosaurus.
--and he talks about space daily…he’s going to be an astronaut when he grows up. he has stopped saying “when i grow up” and now says “when i’m an astronaut.” he asked me the other day, “are asteroids from the mysterious beyond in outer space? (i guess.) and will people run if they boom to earth? (i assume so.) i will not run fast enough, you will have to hold me, right?” how funny is that!
--he comes home from school with even more to say. several things, we’ve talked about before at home, but it seems he either remembers (or pays attention to) it more coming from a teacher, or he enjoys whatever situations he’s learning in that he really learns it. the hardest topics to answer questions about are the religious ones. for one thing, i’m not totally sure how it’s being explained to him, but i try to get the idea simplified down enough that i hope i’m helping and not confusing him. some things he’s said/asked are:
* “jesus died on the cross, and at easter he will be alive again.”
* “why did jesus die on a cross?”
* “sharing, is serving jesus.”

* “if god came to my house, i would give him a hug.”

January 2009

2009-02-05T20:29:00.004-05:00

--we had a good beginning to the year…had more good times and good company, even a party or two. --threw billy a surprise party for his 30th birthday. a week before his birthday, my brother and his wife (nicholas and stephanie) came to see us. he and i planned their visit as a cover for billy’s party…that way billy couldn’t plan anything else for that week. i invited all of billy’s friends and family from up north, and planned a whale-watching trip for us. granted, our group on the boat ended up being somewhat small and we didn’t see any whales (they see more in february and march), but it was still lots of fun and billy was totally blind-sided. he wasn’t looking forward to the whale trip too much, and i really didn’t expect him to be, but i told him it was already arranged and that nick was looking forward to it. so we bundle up and get on the boat. billy walks in the inside deck and sits down looking around. nick and steph and i are looking around waiting for him to notice somebody familiar. at that point, only his friend alaina and her boyfriend eric were on the boat (from our group at least). at least two minutes go by, and he looked over and went, “oh my god. what??? you come to virginia beach and don’t even call me?!?!” after we gave hugs and did the introductions, his sisters came up behind him. he was so shocked, i really thought he wanted to cry. it was really funny. after a couple hours of cold seascapes and views of va beach, we went back to our house. steph and i had set up a little in preparation for surprise-phase-two. billy’s mom and stepdad were at our house while we were on the boat, setting up the house and cooking. by the time we get there, the house is decorated, they’re hiding in the bathroom, and our local friends were starting to show up. so again, billy was totally surprised…three times…and the party was a hit. he can’t understand how everybody kept it from him, though he was getting annoyed that nobody wanted to commit to coming to see him for his birthday, or anytime around that time. i had everyone say they’d come later in the spring or couldn’t make it until february or something…and he was actually getting upset. of course, later on he can see how it made sense…and other things too, made more sense in hindsight. like why did i make a million and a half cookies when just two people were coming to visit? or why was i making bags and bags of salad…i mean, sure stephanie is a vegetarian, but really, that was a lot of salad? or why was i so adamant about him not staying up so late the night before a whale-watching trip??? good job, everybody…thanks for helping me make a special day for billy! :) --aidan is now four years old. we had a small celebration for him here at home, with cake and gifts and games. when his little friend jarah comes in february, we’re going to go back to chuck-e-cheese. her birthday is about two weeks after aidan’s and we’ve spent the last two birthdays at chuck-e-cheese with her family. aidan thinks that’s where birthdays happen…when he started thinking about having a birthday a few months ago and then going to school, whenever he mentioned either one he’d say, “when i get four on january fourth, at chuck-e-cheese’s, i will go to school.” every single time! --and he did go to school the day after his birthday…he jumped into the spring semester at holy spirit catholic pre-school, in the three-year-old class. he was so excited to go, and to wear his backpack. when we were waiting outside there was a little boy named aden…he heard someone talk to him and said, “i am aidan too…how do you like my backpack…it’s camouflage.” then they talked about riley’s spiderman backpack. when the teacher opened the door, he ran in without saying ‘goodbye.’ never looked back, i thought, ‘so that’s that’ and took sierra home for nap time. (he goes three days a week in the afternoons.) he came back talking a mile a minute. he’s made some little friends and brings home a work of art nearly every day. they even had a pajama and pizza party to celebrate the letter ‘p.’
--besides coming home with colds and/or pink eye, aidan has also started calling people names. they’re not bad names, just names…most of the time they don’t make any sense. i don’t know if it’s from school or if it’s just his age. either way, it’s annoying.
--at aidan’s doctor checkup, he’s now 45” tall and 46pounds…still about 95% in both.
--whenever we go to the grocery store, aidan strikes up a conversation with the friendly lady who checks us out. 99% of the time it’s the same lady, and she usually gives him a quarter for a “prize” from the machines by the doors. and because he talks about the same thing every time, she remembers what he wants to be when he grows up…but i also hear her talking to other people and she seems to have regulars that she remembers. anyhow, he says this nearly every time: “i wanna be an astronaut when i grow up. i will have a rocket and go into outer space to defeat the aliens. i will see asteroids. the sun is the biggest star.” (no, it’s the closest.) “the sun is the closest star.” --i love his conversations lately. one day he was talking about being a grow-up…how he’s “going to be bigger than my dad when i’m a frow-nup. jarah doesn’t know that word.” ha! total stream of consciousness! because last time we saw jarah, like six months ago, they were talking in bed and talking about, well, the same thing actually. jarah couldn’t understand aidan’s pronunciation of grown-up…and he remembered that! another example i wrote down: “mommy, what happened to the dinosaurs to make them into dinosaur bones? was it an asteroid? (maybe) it was lava. lava is from volcanoes a long long time ago. (we still have volcanoes.) but lava is like hot water that makes the dinosaurs into bones.”
--i always thought i had a wonderfully sweet little boy, who obeys and tries to please. i know i still do, but really…four is worse than three, which was worse than the “terrible” twos. at least for us. his deliberate lying and defiance is so much worse than the toddler battle of wills. cause toddlers are little, they have obeying for different reasons. one is they can’t contain that real and true NEED to move around and explore…like sierra’s doing lately. another reason is a legitimate communication barrier…either they don’t understand or they can’t explain. so it’s not really their fault…to me, it’s not willful disobedience. but with aidan i feel like it’s a constant deliberate battle, with major meltdowns, name-calling (granted they don’t make sense, and usually aren’t even real words, but the meaning is clear), arguing, and whining. i’m sure it’s normal and age-appropriate and he’ll grow out of it…but for now it’s so unbelievably frustrating. he flat out lies to my face about things i watch him do or not do…about all kinds of things; whether he washed his hands, whether he pushed sierra down, whatever. and if he thinks he got away with it because i didn’t actually see him, because all i heard was a whack and then a scream, but can tell what happened, he says “but you didn’t see me.” like that makes it okay, or that he didn’t really do it if i didn’t really see it. we’re constantly explaining rules these days, he spends a lot of time in his bed, and he has started taking naps again…until he can act like a big boy, he doesn’t get big-boy-privileges.
--in addition to aidan and billy’s birthdays…we also celebrated our five year anniversary and a trip to the emergency room. sierra had her thumb in the crack of the screen door when billy closed it. she did scream and cry, but billy thought he must have broken her thumb, so we trek it over to the ER for xrays. turns out it wasn’t broken, just the skin, though it looked pretty squished…and i’m sure it hurt cause she wouldn’t use it or let us touch it for a long time. anyhow, we got a cool xray to put in her baby book…and now each of my kids have made the trip, so we’re two for two!

--in addition to her being everywhere in her need for mobility and putting fingers where they shouldn’t be, she also started consistently climbing (read, falling) out of her crib. she’d toddle into my room in the early morning (if she got her room door open), which scared me…cause she’s still not great going down stairs, and she’s never on the floor alone upstairs without being contained in a bedroom, so we didn’t have a gate up. so, instead of having her fall and break a bone, i took the side of the crib down converting it into a toddler bed and installed a gate at the top of the stairs. there are days when i have to put her in bed several times for her nap, but for the most part, she’s good at going to bed…just like aidan was. he used to sit in bed after he woke up until i came to get him or told him to get up…for months he did that. not sierra though…she’s banging on the door every morning if she can’t get it open! :)
--she likes to do things she’s not supposed to, but she waits for you to watch her do it…i don’t know, maybe she likes that thrill. either way, she goes right up to whatever she’s not supposed to touch, puts her hand out, and waits for you to see her do it. as soon as you look, she’ll go ahead and reach with this look like, “what are you going to do now?” it’s either that, or she stops before doing it and tells herself, “ahh-uh-uh-uh-uhhhh” or “no no no.” --she has started mothering her babydolls. she got a stroller for christmas, and also a crib/highchair and bottle. she covers her babies with blankets (which she calls “nigh-nights”), usually smothering them, rocks and feeds them, and takes them for rides. she’s a cute little mommy.
--latest vocabulary accomplishments are:
* “air a-dee??” = where’s aidan? (asks every day after dropping him off at school)
* “pitty” = pretty
* “air-pay” = airplane (whenever she sees or hears one)
* “hay-uh” = hair
* “shaw” = shark
* “saw” = soar (dinosaur)
* “aye-dough” = diego
* “yeah” = yeah / yes
* “yay!” = yay!
* “yeah pea” = yes, please
* “opp-orn” = popcorn
* “nigh-night” = night night / blanket
* “yow-yow” = meow / cat
* “shoe” = fish (progression from “if” to “ish,” and now it’s “shoe”??)
* “dop” = stop

Dec 2008

2009-01-01T00:17:00.011-05:00

--lots of goings on this month. lots of packing and driving, and lots of gift-opening…and we had a blast doing it all!
--for several weeks before christmas, aidan was saying, “christmas will never get here.” it actually came early to the hunt house, at least santa did, but aidan had to wait…impatiently. he spent the time helping me decorate, watching christmas shows (dvr rocks!) and singing christmas carols. he learned a few, though he made a few cute mistakes.

--kiddos liked their santa claus…actually all of us did. aidan’s main gifts were “a bike with two wheels, a dinosaur transformer, roller skates, and ‘chutes and ladders’.” (he spouts that out whenever anyone asks him.) sierra's main gifts were a teeter-totter and a baby stroller, and they each got books and a stuffed animal, along with other smaller stuff. billy and i also got beach cruiser bikes from santa, so now we can all ride as a family (with both kids in our bike trailer, or sierra in the kid’s chair and aidan on his new bike.)

--we did our santa early since we went to nj/ny for christmas. we knew we’d have enough trouble getting everything from three sets of grandparents and aunts home in our car, without hauling santa stuff around too. man, were we right too…we had to use the roof rack, and we still had stuff packed under the kids feet and in the back so that i couldn’t even see out the back windshield! craziness!!! and now, i’ve spent days unpacking!

--we did have a good time up north with the yankees. it was a whirlwind though, because we were only up there six days and went to see three sets of family members. we spent christmas eve with billy’s dad and family. had a good (italian) dinner with them and fun with gifts, though i forgot my camera…sorry. we spent christmas day with billy’s mom and family. more food more gifts and more fun. it was even a white christmas too! i’ve only seen two of those in my life…one of which was in hattiesburg, mississippi, of all places! we spent saturday with my dad on long island for, again, more food more gifts and more fun. i know this isn’t very descriptive, sorry. it really became such a blur that i missed the specifics, but had a ball in the process. i do know aidan and sierra loved playing with their cousin riley, and all of us (and my sister) enjoyed finally meeting my dad’s fiance’s son andrew and his girlfriend.

--aidan now knows how to write his name. he knows his letters and he’s been spelling it for a while without reading it. however, getting him to draw anything more than a straight line or a circle was a major process. for whatever reason, one day he figured out how to write a few letters. granted, they’re not perfect, but he drew some from memory and some he copied what we wrote, progressing up to writing his name, mine, and billy’s. the day after that, he wrote his name all by himself, without looking at anything. then he wrote billy’s name from memory! he also improved his ‘n’ with the help of my friend shadra. now every time he writes an ‘n,’ he says, “up, down, up.” how cute is that?
--sierra is growing and changing daily. she adds a word a day it seems…or at least trys out a new word every day, whether or not she uses it again the next day. her latest phrases that she does use consistently include:
* “pee-pee” = pee-pee (or) poo-poo
* “jew” = juice
* “opp-ee” = apple
* “A – D – I “ = (“spells” like she hears aidan saying over and over…usually pointing to her cup with her name on it.)
* “mo” = more
* “tuh-tee” = cookie
* “ buht” = book
* “pay” = pray (as she clasps her hands)
* “mew” = moo
* “sow” = cow
* “ba-pa” = backpack (said over and over, like in “dora the explorer”)
* “eh-mo” = elmo
* “pa-pa” = poppy (or) paw-paw
* “ah-me” = grammy
* “bach” = back
* “jew peas” = juice please
* “mo peas” = more please
* “no, mom-meee” = no, mommy
* “doe tay-too” = no, thank you
--she also likes to sit on her potty. she goes in there whenever anyone else goes, or whenever the door is open, so i try to keep it closed because she also likes to unroll the toilet paper. at least she doesn’t shred it like aidan used to! she also goes to sit on her potty when she’s gone in her diaper, but that’s a step in the right direction for potty training, so that’s good. many times she’ll even scream out “pee-pee” as she runs in there.

--sierra like to “help” mommy. she goes to get her shoes when it’s time to leave. she likes to (try to) dress and undress herself. she puts wet clothes (or dirty clothes from the basket on the floor) into the dryer. she also puts dishes in the sink. she reaches as high as she can and drops her cup or any other dish she finds in the sink…of course we must make sure only non-breakable ones are left in her reach…and sometimes she puts in more things than dishes. one day i found a potato in there that she pulled out of the basket.
--and another thing she does is this fake laugh. she bursts out laughing and gets in your face to make you laugh too. or she plays peek-a-boo and cracks herself up…pretty funny.
--we went to the doctor for sierra’s 18month check-up. she’s 22.5 pounds and 33 inches…which is about 25% and 85% respectively. long and lean!

Nov 08

2008-12-22T10:21:00.003-05:00

--aidan is already trying to decide what costume he’s going to wear for next halloween. he’s gone through ideas such as “black spiderman,” a moose, and has settled (for now) on a “long neck” dinosaur.
--lately, aidan has been saying over and over, “christmas will never come.” he has become a gimme-whiner. he sees stuff on tv, and either says, “maybe santa claus will bring me _____,” or “we’ll get one one day,” or “i wish i had one of those,” or “that looks pretty cool, mommy.”
--aside from the “i want, i want, i want” things going on, we had a good month that was almost arguement-free. he doesn’t always listen to what i’m saying, and he still trys to get what he wants, but it’s not so much of a struggle. he’s not lying so much either, though he will run away when he knows he did something wrong, like knocking over sierra or spilling something. and when he does argue, he’ll (usually) say, “no, i don’t want to,” gets a look and obeys, and then tells me he’s mad at me. “i’m mad at you, mommy,” is something i hear a lot these days. usually i respond with, “that’s okay, you can be mad at me, but you still have to do what i say.” sometimes he tells me, “that makes me sad,” to which i usually say something like, “i’m sorry you’re sad, but you still have to obey.”
--aidan has a cup with his name on it that he uses for meals. he has learned his letters from books and shows, and likes to spell out his name while at the dinner table. one day in the car, he spit out “A-I-D-A-N.” we had to call all the grandparents and let aidan spell his name for them. he was very proud of himself!
--we all flew down to mobile, alabama, for thanksgiving. the plane rides were not bad at all. the kids were super good, read their books, played with some toys, and talked. but still we’d get looks. it really bothered me, cause it wasn’t like they were crying or anything, they weren’t whining (much) or even loud. i’d like to see them contain two kids as well as we did traveling all day. oh well.
--we had a great time in mobile. lots of visiting and relaxing with family. we went to my grandparents’ house one day before thanksgiving so we could spend as much time with them without the chaos of a huge family gathering. we spent most of the day outside, letting the kids play on the swing or with the cats and dog, while we watched and chatted. we went back there for thanksgiving day, but were just a few of nearly 40 people. we had most of my mom’s side of the family there, including all five great-grandchildren (aidan is the oldest it was about 65-70 degrees, so we spent most of the day outside. there was lots of laughing, playing, swinging (young and old), and eating all day long. aidan said the blessing before we ate (and ate and ate…) he was so cute. he had been getting good at it, so i thought it be fun to let him try. he didn’t miss a beat! he remembered every word, and didn’t get nervous at all! (he didn’t get the un-bashfulness from me!)
--one night billy, emily, and i went out with our cousins. it had been YEARS since we’d all been together. granted, we were still missing some of us, (i’m number 4 of 25 grandkids (6 came when one of their parents married into the family)) but we had a good group there. five cousins and three spouses went out one night. had a few drinks and played some pool, but mostly we just talked and caught up. it was really great!
--aidan helped pops walk the dog (“keeper”) every night. they’d be gone for a while, and he felt very important, especially when he got to be dragged by her all by himself! chuck (my stepdad, aka “pops”) came back one night with this: aidan heard a dog howling somewhere nearby, and said he heard a wolf. chuck said it was probably just a dog, there aren’t any wolves around. aidan said, “well, a wolf is a dog. and so is a fox and a coyote!” chuck said he was impressed 1) that he knew that, and 2) that he came back with it so quickly. that’s my animal-lover!! another night, chuck said aidan just burst out with, “i love you, pops.” he does that sometimes…he can’t contain it, and has to tell you at some random time and place how he feels about you. really sweet.
--something else he said while we were down there was, “it’s not in my mouth, it’s in my nose.” i’m not totally sure what that was in reference to…i want to say a straw, but i can’t really remember. i just jotted the phrase down to make sure i got it right. still, pretty funny…whether it was a straw or his finger…
--while we were down south, we also went to see christmas lights. there’s a place like a botanical gardens nearby, and every year they add more and more lights. we went last year when we were down, and aidan remembered specific themes he wanted to see again. (he has a great memory. he can remember what kind of cookies my mom made 11months ago, yet has trouble remembering to turn off the bathroom light…go figure.) anyhow, they both had a ball. sierra was much more into it this year. she rode in the stroller most of the time, and kept saying, “ooooh!” or she’d say something in sierra-language and point all excited. too fun.
--seirra’s goings-on this month are just vocab updates. (she loved playing with her cousins, with the animals, with her grandparents and great-grandparents and great-aunts and uncles, of course, but i don’t really have any specific stories…sorry.
* “ah-do” = bless you (after a sneeze)
* “nack” = snack
* “ma-ow” = mouth
* “bat” = back
* “ hi-eee” = hi (says it to EVERYONE…walking through the parking lot, in church)
* “ha-wo” = hello (will say it all day on the phone, so long as nobody’s there)
* “pee”= please
* “shoe” = shoe
* “num-num-nummy” = please feed me something yummy
* “now” = no
* “bup” = cup
* “up” = up
* “tee-tah” = tick tock (nursery rhyme she LOVES)
* “seat” = sit
* “ah-sah” = outside
* “ha” = hair
* “eye” = eye
* “my-ee” = mine

October 08

2008-11-15T23:51:00.008-05:00

--in october we finally started getting some cooler weather…granted one day we’re wearing layers and the next we’re wearing shorts. i love the crisp cool air of fall, so i’d prefer it to just stay around 60.
--grandma, grandpa, and devlin came to visit the first weekend of october. we went a place called “hunt club farms.” we played in the petting zoo, rode some rides, aidan jumped in the moon-walk, and we went on a hayride. the kids really loved it, and the grandparents loved seeing them having fun. we also went to see “sesame street live.” they were doing shows for military families for free on base. i thought aidan would like it the most, and sierra might be freaked out. aidan did love it, but sierra really got into it. she didn’t know what the creatures on stage were, but she thought they were great! she was dancing and laughing, and couldn’t take her eyes off of them. really fun!
--we had a dentist appointment this month too. it was aidan’s third, and sierra’s first. she screamed her head off when we laid her back in the chair. it was a couple weeks after her visit with the doctor, and the last time she was put in that position she got four shots…so needless to say, she fought us and screamed, thinking she was getting more shots. poor thing.

--we had a great time on halloween…except for billy being sick. so i got the kids all done up and we took a trek around the neighborhood. both of the kiddos racked up in the candy department. (i had to take out all the milk duds first thing, cause everyone knows they’re bad for you, right, but just happen to be my favorite…so i had to be the good mommy and consume all the really bad milk duds!) anyhow, sierra was the cutest little mouse EVER! she charmed tons of candy out of our neighbors…she ended up with more candy than aidan, i think. she thought it was tons of fun grabbing candy out of everyone’s bowls. aidan was the too-cool buzz lightyear. we opted for the cheaper suit from target (with the french pronunciation) rather than the disney store, which had real lights and wings, and i think even a helmet. anyhow, instead i made aidan some wings out of cardboard and clothes hangars. he didn’t know the difference, and even thought they were cooler cause mommy made them. he was a proud buzz, and told everyone who he was. last year aidan freaked out anytime someone was wearing a mask. he didn’t do that this year. he’d look carefully to make sure it was really not a monster, and then he was okay. he did get scared one time though. one guy had his head in a big pumpkin and was sitting on the porch swing like a stuffed scarecrow. the bowl of candy was next to him. aidan went up to get his candy and when he reached into the bowl, the guy moved his hand toward aidan. aidan jumped like crazy! even though it scared him, i couldn’t help but laugh. he skipped candy at that house, because he never got a piece when he got scared, and he wouldn’t go back. even days later when we were walking past that house, he was still trying to figure out why that man had scared him. i tried to explain that that’s part of what halloween is…being scary.

--sierra is a total mimic. she tries to say anything she hears, she’s really trying to communicate now. she understands EVERYTHING we say to her, it’s just up to her whether or not she cooperates with our wishes. she’s all over the place. she’s climbing on tabletops, up bookshelves, everywhere. she doesn’t do it just to do it (which is good), she does it to get something up there…which means we have to watch what we leave lying around. she goes after the bowl of halloween candy on the dining room table, daddy’s keys on the kitchen table, mommy’s blinking clock on the entertainment center, it’s always something. she falls constantly, just running around the house, though rarely cries about it. once at volleyball, she wiped out in front of some people. they all jumped and i could hear the intake of breath. i just watched her get up and move on, and they looked at me, like “wow…she’s tough.” i said, “yeah, she gets tackled by her brother at last fifty time a day, so unless she’s going to fall off a table or down the stairs or something, i don’t really worry about it.” she even climbed out of her crib one morning and dropped down to the floor. normally in the mornings, she wakes up and sings, or talks to aidan, or plays with her babies…she rarely cries. so when i hear a big thud and a scream, i of course go running. she’s on her hands and knees screaming at the carpet. i think she was more scared than hurt, because she was fine as soon as i scooped her up.
--she knows lots of her body parts now. she can point out her eyes, nose, ears, hair, toes, hands, belly button, and when someone says “potty,” she either runs to the potty or pulls on her diaper.
--her latest vocabulary additions include:
* a growl or a quack = any animal sound…bark, ribbit, roar, whatever
* “opp” = up
* “daw” = dog
* “hot” = hot
* “hat” = hat
* “nana” = almost any food…used to be banana, but now it’s just FOOD!
* “opp-ee” = apple
* “ah- may” = amen
* “ah-dah” = all done
* “chew” = shoe
* “ehh-rah” = sierra

--aidan is a talker as well. he must tell me EVERY SINGLE thought that enters his head. i hear, “mom-meeeeeee, …..” ALL DAY LONG. he’s either telling me some random thought, telling me what crazy thing sierra is doing, telling me what i’m supposed to say back to him (“say, ‘good job, aidan!’”), or arguing with me. seems i’m constantly defending my decisions with him. i’m working on different approaches to the arguing and fibbing…we’ll see what works. cause he’s really such a good boy! :)
--some of the things aidan says these days are pretty funny. i can tell he hears a phrase somewhere, and tries it out. some of them are used in the complete wrong places, and some are just impolite. some examples:
* “i’m a little nervous” (going to take a bath)
* “actually” and “otherwise” (used in the wrong context)
* “we’ll never make it” (going down to breakfast)
* “penis breath” (heard it on E.T. (which is one of his new favorite movies) and never said it again)
* “we don’t live on earth. earth is in space. you’re funny, mommy!” (i’ve got nothing to say to that one…it’s just cute, cause that is a hard concept to grasp.)
--he’s super excited about starting school next semester. i’ve been doing lots of research on the pre-schools around here, and we just sent in his registration for january . we’ve been telling him that he can start when he’s four, and he tells everyone that he’s “going to school when i’m four...in january.” i wanted to keep him close as long as possible, but he wants to go to school, and i think it’ll be some good exposure for him. we enrolled him in holy spirit catholic pre-school (the three-year-old class) for three half days a week from january through may. then he’ll do five half days in the four-year-old class starting next september…and be ready for (half day) kindergarten the next year.
--they grow up waaaaaayy to fast!

Sept 2008

2008-10-29T22:01:00.006-04:00

--we had a few visitors in setpember. grammy and poppy came for several days. their visit overlapped with our friends mike and leslie, who came down for the winefest. we had a great (and hot) time at the winefest again this time. the kids came with us and played well. also, in september, i started my fall volleyball season. i play every monday night in a women’s league. we’re really good, and are in first place again this season.

--aidan is still my good boy, but has switched from my “do whatever mommy says” baby boy to a very argumentative little boy. he argues with me a lot, stops listening, acts like he’s deaf, and if he doesn’t get his way he becomes a rag doll…either that or he kicks and screams. he has also started fibbing a little, exaggerating a lot, and playing dumb when i ask him what happened or what he did. i suppose it’s what’s called “age appropriate,” and it's not all the time, however it’s horribly frustrating. i find myself trying to convince him to obey, and that doesn’t work, and that just makes me even more frustrated. vicious cycle, i suppose…and hopefully just a phase he’ll outgrow shortly. i mean, i can’t realistically believe he’ll never argue or lie or disobey me once he’s outgrown it, but at least maybe he’ll start listening to me a bit more.
--he’s also become a little tattle-tail. “sierra ripped it.” “sierra is going up the stairs.” “sierra is taking off her shirt.” “sierra's hands are in the potty.” “sierra is standing on the table.” granted, those are (mostly) things i need to be aware of. however he also tells me when she pulled his hair, or took his toy, or whatever. it’s kinda funny most of the time...though sometimes it sends me running!
--he’s now telling me these days that he wants a son named aidan. a son AND a brother named aidan. i told him if he has a brother one day, he won’t be named aidan, but one day when he’s grown up he can name his son that. “mommy, when i am a fro-nup, i can? i can’t wait.”
--he told me about one of his dreams. he said that god turned him into a butterfly. i said that sounded nice, but he said, “but i don’t want to be a butterfly. i just want to stay a boy.” how sweet.
--sierra had her 15month checkup. she got several shots, which she absolutely hated. she screamed bloody murder, and tried to get away. the nurse said she’s really strong…which i already knew. her height is 32” (85th percentile) and her weight is 21#15oz (back up to 40th percentile.)

--she helps me get her undressed, and sometimes does it herself. i’ll come in her room in the morning, and she has her shirt and/or pants halfway off, or all the way off. once she even got her diaper off! she has continued getting up on everything. she climbs on tables and she climbs up and slides down the slide. she’s started sniffing…flowers and feet (when prompted). she then says, “ahhh…see-eee!” which means, “aw, stinky!”
--she has her own language these days. a bunch of babbles, that must mean something to her. it’s really cute. i remember aidan going through that, though i think it happened later than 16months. some of her current sayings include:
* “day-do” = thank you
* “day-dee” or “a-dee” = aidan
* “ha-dough” = hello
* “pee-boo” = peek-a-boo
* “boo!” = boo!
* “ahh…see-ee!” = aw, stinky!
* “ya-you” = i love you
* “uh-hhh” = up (with arms held up)
* “eeez!” = cheese (with the squishy-face for the camera)
* “chew” = shoe

August 08

2008-09-07T15:34:00.020-04:00

--paragraph one: sierra is a total ham! (i wonder who she got that from???) see exhibits A through F:

--more about sierra…she LOVES shoes. she calls them “ooosh,” and brings them to me when she finds some, brings me the one that fell off, goes to get them when i tell her to go get her shoes. she even tries to wear other people’s shoes. she put on aidan’s shoes and got pretty good getting around in them.

--she is now mommy's little helper. she likes to help me in the kitchen or doing laundry. she carries things for me, and she runs to get her corn-popper to vacuum when i vacuum.
--she’s pretty good at following directions, assuming she wants to obey. she knows exactly what i’m saying, though she may or may not comply. she runs to the door when i say “let’s go” or “wanna go?” she gets her shoes when i ask, and will “put that back” (for the most part) when i tell her to. however, she doesn’t always like to “get down” when i ask. she will slyly look at me, and back and forth between me and whatever she’s trying to climb on. she runs to her chair, and even starts chomping when i ask if she wants to eat. she heads for the stairs and goes to the bathroom when i tell her that it’s bathtime. (i'm right behind her on the stairs, in case anyone's worried...) she waves bye-bye and blows kisses when it’s “time for night-night.” she stops wacking what she’s hitting when i tell her “gentle” and will pet my arm, aidan, herself, the babydoll, whatever. and she knows where her eyes and nose and ears are. of course she prefers to poke or grab mine over hers though.
--her latest vocabulary advances include:
* “ahh-dee” = aidan (progress from “ahh-eee”)
* “uh-oh” = uh-oh (progress from “uh-uh”)
* “if” = fish
* “ack” = quack

* "baw" = ball
* “a-nana” = banana

* "mum-mee" = mommy
* “wa-zum?” = want some?
* “ah-jiz!” = there she is!
* “uh-uh-uh-uhhhh” = nah-uh-uh-uh (and wags her finger at me)
--when she hears the door, she runs to it and yells “da-da!!” billy’s been working on the staircase a lot lately, and one day we came home and i put something on the stairs for billy. sierra pointed to the steps and said, “da-da!!” she’s been a bit clingy lately too. she passed the snuggly baby stage and went into the “i have too much energy and too much to explore to sit still” stage. she’s still in that stage to some degree, but she also likes to sit still and read a book, play with blocks, or just sit in my lap. and she still likes to do whatever it is that aidan does. she follows him around and tries to copy him.

--aidan has been playing a lot of sports lately. we went miniature golfing with our friends mike and kristin. aidan wasn’t quite as good as last time (no holes in one) or as crazy as last time (no balls lost). nearly every day we have to play at least one sport in the backyard. he’s getting really good at several. he now has good form in basketball and makes at least half of his shots…granted they’re on his small goal, and he has his mark that he stands on (better to have him stand still in a spot to work on form,) but he’s doing great! he’s also catching and throwing a football…has a pretty good spiral too! of course, he has to wear his jets helmet whenever he plays football, and runs all over the place. we play catch, and he’s getting good with his glove. he can also hit off a pitch (or tee, though his tee is now too short for him.) and we’ve been working on his throwing form too. his new favorite movie (that we can see on demand) is everyone’s hero about babe ruth’s bat, darlin'. he got some cute sayings from the movie, and watches it in full garb (hat and glove)!!

--we’ve been working on pre-reading and pre-writing skills. he knows the alphabet song, though he’ll mess up occasionally, and i don’t think he ever got “l-m-n-o-p” just right anyway. he also knows 20 of the letters by sight, and can tell me words that start with the letter for many of them. he also knows several of what are called “sight words” (words that don’t really follow the rules, and new readers just have to memorize them.) we have a dvd of them. he knew 4 of about 20 by the end of the dvd, and 9 the next day, before we even watched the show! he can also recognize his numbers, though 7 and 9 give him trouble. i have him read me the digital clock to practice. i also got him some workbooks to work on tracing lines and following a path with his pencil. he concentrates really hard, and gets excited (and stickers) when he does well.

--we went to the beach a couple times this month. one time was with our friends mariah, sameer and their kids (asha and yogi), and carne. aidan and asha had a great time in the sand, sitting in the water, running from the water, and playing in the waves. sierra is fearless at the beach. she goes straight for the water. aidan was always a sand baby, though he’s getting used to the water now that we go often.

--aidan’s latest phrases include:
* “can i watch aidan’s show about animals?” (every morning/afternoon of every day!)
* “i want to go to ella’s house. ella is my best friend.”
* “asha is my girlfriend.”
* “i want a brother.” (daily for about a few weeks after our friend and (not-for-long) neighbor sandra had gabriel. still says it though not contstantly. i told him to ask daddy, and maybe god will give us a brother or sister sometime next year…)
* “i keep my eye on the ball!” (from everyone’s hero)
* “i just keep swinging!” (from everyone’s hero)
* “rock on!” (goes with a high-five when he does something “awesome!”)
* “cut it out, mommy!” (from everyone’s hero…minus the mommy part)
* “this is no time to panic!” (from toy story)
* “this is darlin’, cause i’m babe ruth.” (playing baseball after everyone’s hero)
--we had a few friends travel down from jersey to visit. mike and kristin came down for the weekend. we went to the beach and played miniature golf. at the beach, i actually ran into a former college volleyball teammate that was in a beach volleyball tournament the day we were on the beach. billy’s friends rob and justin came down for labor day weekend. we had a good time with them, and had a pre-labor day bbq while they were in town.
--i went to a brad paisley (country singer…for you non-fans) with my friend shadra. we had great seats, and she had some friends who got us vip passes. one of them was the nephew of brad paisley’s stage manager. so we got to go on the tour bus, and backstage and see all the equipment. it was bad scheduling that we didn’t get to see brad himself after the concert. they had a two week break from touring starting after the va beach concert, so he took off right after the show. usually he’d be up for hanging out…oh well. still the concert was awesome, and we had a great time!

--billy knows where his next job will be. we were told he'd have to do a tour in either iraq or afghanistan before he could get a ship or another shore billet. however that is not the case. he will be going to the u.s.s. cook (http://www.cook.navy.mil/) next summer, as the SUPPO (supply officer). he leaves acu-2 in april, and has several weeks of schools, and then reports to the ship in june. the ship is out of norfolk so we don't have to move, though his commute will be a bit more. and they do deploy a lot, so he'll be gone several months of the year, but at least he's not in the sand with a weapon!! (that's my take, anyhow...)

July 08

2008-07-23T20:45:00.023-04:00

--the first week of july we were in philadelphia. our friends, mike and leslie, (finally) got married. billy was a groomsman and aidan was the ring-bearer. they were too adorable in their tuxes. aidan’s little counterpart was hannah, the (older) flower girl. they just looked too cute together. we took the kids out (from the babysitter) at the reception and let them dance. aidan had a ball dancing with hannah, and sierra didn’t need a partner! :)

--july has been a pretty normal month, not much company and not much traveling. (we do have company coming this weekend so i’ll update the blog with anything that happens and pictures afterward.)
--i got sierra a booster seat, and now she sits at the table with us. she seems to like it a lot, i think she likes being next to her favorite person, aidan, the most. also, i spent nearly three days playing musical-rooms upstairs. i put all our office stuff in billy’s office, separated the bunk beds and put aidan’s bed and dresser in sierra’s room, and put almost all of the toys upstairs in what is now the “U.S.S. Playroom.” they like sharing a room, and it sure does help to keep all the toys off the floor of the downstairs living spaces!

--sierra’s milestones for july are mostly vocabulary. she has several distinguishable words now. though she has also started the gibberish of whatever sounds she can make all jumbled together, which is too cute. her words are:
* “ma-ma” = mama
* “da-da” or “da-deeee” = daddy
* “bobby” = baby
* “uh-hhhh” (uh split into two syllables) = uh-oh
* “hi” = hi
* “ahh-boo” = peek-a-boo
* “ahh-zaah” = what’s that?
* “buh” (bull minus the l’s) = ball
* “nee-nee-nee” = no no no (she tells me that when i do something she doesn’t like, and herself when she’s doing something she’s not supposed to.)

* "shhhh" = shhhh

* "ooosh" = shoe

* "ahh-ee" = aidan

* "oh-oh" = uh-oh

* she's also started shaking her head no...and yes, though that's harder.

--sierra has started the grab-and-run lately. she takes something she isn’t supposed to have and takes off running. she also has started pulling out her hair ties/barrettes anytime she remembers they’re there. she shakes her head ‘no’ when i tell her “no.” and she scoots backwards to go down a step, sometimes starting two feet away and crawling backwards to the step. she’s also become quite a mimic. she repeats sounds she hears, trying to say what we say…even the voice inflections. she also barks at a picture of a dog, makes any other toy animal/dinosaur growl, and growls back at billy when he makes his scary-monster-noises. she really likes to copy aidan. if aidan bangs on the table with a spoon, sierra bangs her spoon on the table. if aidan runs to look out the glass door, sierra sticks her face against the glass too. if aidan (and daddy) hang a toy ring from their noses like a bull, she tries to do it too. if aidan stands up on the big popcorn tin (holding pecans) and jumps off like buzz lightyear, sierra tries to climb up on top of the tin but is quickly taken down…with aidan getting the lecture about what he “teaches” her, and sierra getting her first lessons on AVOIDING peer pressure! :)

--i gave her a little haircut the other day. her hair has grown tons the last couple months, and the longest pieces (from birth that never fell out) were looking a little scraggly. so i trimmed it into a little bob. it’ll be long again in no time, and this time thicker and neater.

--aidan’s update-ables are phrases he’s saying these days. i sent him to vacation bible study for a week. he had a good time. the first day he came back saying he learned about "Jesus and turtle life" (Jesus and eternal life.) the next day he told me that "Jesus gives me power!" how cute is that! when he can’t find something, he says, “i look anywhere,” (no matter that it’s in plain sight right where he left it…must be a man thing.) when it’s time to clean up, one of two things happens. he either tells me, “there’s no mess everywhere,” or sings the clean-up song and puts things away, saying “tah-dah” when he’s (nearly) done. he also tells me “i hear’d you” when i tell him something. i know he gets that from me, but i’m trying to teach him he isn’t supposed to say it when i tell him something once…it’s for when someone says something over and over and over (like he does a lot these days.) his favorite one week was, “paw-paw is coming saturday.” i heard that AT LEAST twice an hour for nearly a week. one concept he's having a bit of trouble with is the past. anything that has happened before, he says he "did that yesterday." i've corrected him so much that if i tell him, "no, you didn't do that yesterday," he then says, "i did it 'before'?" he's also been watching dvd's to help him learn letters/numbers/"sight words." after the second time he watched the sight word dvd, he could look at the words and knew at least eight of the 20+ words. he didn't remember them all later on, but with more practice, we'll get there.

--we had some visitors at the end of the month. aunt emily and jordan came from blacksburg for a weekend when paw-paw and joy came down from new york. we had a good time, though it was a short visit. we went to the beach one day, and aidan and sierra had a blast. sierra went straight for the water, we really had to watch her. she wasn't skittish at all. aidan is more of a sand kid, and likes to dig with daddy. sierra tried to "help" too, and ended up as a mermaid in the sand. (billy fashioned her a tail of sand...really cute.) a few days later, our friends jesse and shannon, with children, jarah and isaac, in tow came to stay on their way to their new duty station in rhode island. kids really enjoyed seeing each other again after a couple months apart. they had a "slumber party" of sorts that night...all four slept in aidan and sierra's room. shannon and i spent nearly an hour eavesdropping on their night-time conversation via the baby monitor. it was interesting listening to their kid-logic, explanations with limited language abilities...all mixed with drowsiness. i should have grabbed the computer right away and got everything they said, but we didn't think it'd last that long, and when it was all over we both tried to remember what they had said. they talked about how they're big kids. "i'm a big girl." "i'm a big boy." it was almost like they were arguing, but more like they wanted to make sure they were both heard and acknowledged. an airplane flew overhead and then they started talking about airplanes. aidan said he went on an airplane to mexico...and jarah said they had to take "a good nap" so they could go on an airplane (to california to visit shannon's parents.) they started planning a camping trip (because aidan was in a sleeping bag on the floor and it reminded jarah of camping...i don't even think aidan knows what camping is.) apparently, they're going camping and will stay in "a sleeping tent" and use a fishing pole. i can't remember how it started, but they were talking about the disney-pixar movie cars. they both love the movie, but i think jarah has the dvd. she said she has "a fast car movie." aidan said he had seen that one, but only has "a slow car movie." (we really cracked up at that point...it was like charlie brown's announcement of "i got a rock...") they talked (again) about how big they are, and that their siblings are smaller...but will grow up. aidan said he "will get big...just like daddy." jarah said "your daddy is as big as the ceiling." aidan then tried to tell her that his daddy was a grown-up, and he will be too. however, he has trouble with the "gr" sound...it's more of an "fr." (any double-consonant sound at the beginning of a word (diphthong??) gives him trouble...gr/tr comes out as fr: grammy is frammy, truck is fruck...which sometimes sounds really bad.) anyway, jarah couldn't figure out what he was saying. he said "i'll be a frow-nup." jarah said, "a donut???" aidan said, "no, frow-nup!!" and jarah said, "i cannot say that word," which ended that conversation...aidan had no response. at some point in the dialogue, jarah yelled out "goodnight!" and all was quiet for a bit, then the airplane came by and started the plane conversation. when they finally did quiet down, it was more like the pauses in between responses got longer and longer...until they finally just stopped talking. it was too cute, and i wish i had it on tape!

June 2008

2008-07-23T15:54:00.015-04:00

--june started out with a bang! we drove to jersey and then flew to cancun, mexico with billy’s mom and stepdad. met his sister leah and stepbrother ryan there. then took a taxi to playa del carmen to the resort. the rooms were nice, the food was awesome, and the scenery was beautiful. we spent the week having a blast. we went swimming in the lagoon and pool, played lots of beach volleyball, got some not-so-fun sunburns, toured an ancient mayan village at talum, went floating down a river at xel-ha, and went to the nature/animal park (i guess that’s what you call it) at xcaret. aidan and sierra had tons of fun. i’d say aidan’s favorite part was either the beach (with iguanas roaming freely) or the animals at xcaret. sierra’s favorite part was definitely the food…and uncle ryan was impressed at how she down’d the refried beans! she ate a ton over that week…i don’t know how she didn’t gain a few pounds! billy and i made some friends playing volleyball, and one night he and i and leah went dancing at the “discoteca,” and had lots of fun.

--after mexico, our next trip was to annapolis to visit my stepbrother and his wife. the kids and i met my mom and sister there for a catch-up weekend. while nick and stephanie worked friday, we all went to d.c. for some sightseeing. we went to the zoo and on a d.c. ducks tour around the city. it was lots of fun, but really hot! aidan loved the animals and was very excited for the boat section of the duck tour. however he was so pooped by that time, that he fell asleep immediately and was REALLY upset that he didn’t go (or remember going) in the water! actually both of them fell asleep on me during the tour, so i really didn’t get to move for about 90 minutes…such is the life of a mommy though, right?? :) anyhow, the next day we walked around downtown annapolis with nick and steph. we toured the naval academy, which was pretty cool. then we went to a festival in the park and let sierra run around in the grass while aidan jumped and slid and tumbled. then went to a yummy dinner.

--we drove home from annapolis on father’s day and met billy and his dad, stepmom, sister devlin, and her boyfriend jeremy at brunch. they stayed for a week and we spent it at the pool and beach mostly. we went miniature golfing one day. aidan managed to lose his ball through the fence, where it rolled into the middle of the street…after first (intentionally) tossing it into the “stream” that acts as an obstacle on the course! however, he did get two holes-in-one that day, so his ability to possibly fund our retirement plan overcame his little delinquencies of the day. tiger woods started golfing at age three, right??? haha! we also went on a dolphin-watch. the boat took us out for about a 90minute tour. we saw lots of dolphins, and aidan absolutely loved it.

--grandma and grandpa stayed for sierra’s birthday. we had a little family party for her. she had a ball. she got to open presents (instructed by aidan, of course), play with new toys, and dig in in her birthday cake!

--accomplishments of the month for sierra include pushing toys around the room, playing the drums, riding the toy car, pointing at what she wants or in response to “where’s mommy?” she also started standing without pulling up, is “running” all over, and has stopped crying at the gym. she was great for a while, then wouldn’t let me go for longer than 40minutes (25minutes being the shortest amount of time i got before the lady came to get me because she was screaming her head off). she still has an internal clock that won’t let me go much past an hour, but hey, it’s an hour now, so i won’t complain!
--some more things she’s started doing are giving hi-fives, dancing alternating between the head-banging motion and the squat-and-bounce. she dances when she hears someone say the word ‘dance’ or hears music. she claps when she hears someone say either ‘clap’ or ‘yea’ or when she hears others clapping. we taught her to throw too. the only interest she had on balls thus far was to try to eat them…as opposed to aidan who LOVED balls (throwing, bouncing, rolling) so much his first word was actually ball. anyway, she now throws the ball and claps for herself after each throw!

--we went to the doctor for sierra’s 12month check up. she was 30inches long, and 18pounds, 14ounces. she’s still up there in height at 75%, but has dropped in weight to 15%. doctor said “she’s getting skinny on us.” she doesn’t actually look skinny, and to see her eat, there’s no way she’s not getting enough calories (she eats as much as aidan these days…seriously.) she’s just thinning out, i guess. she had to get four shots and have blood drawn that day too…BAAAAAAD day. she screamed and cried, and just gives you that look, like “how could you?” terrible! and the guy who drew her blood…you’d think they’d require it to be done by someone less shaky…especially on such tiny veins. she had a nasty bruise after that, poor thing.
--aidan is learning about red lights and green lights. the arrow lights confused him at first…he wondered why we had to stop when there was a green light. he’s also started a lot of pretend play. he wants his animals to talk, which means he wants me (or whoever) to make them make conversation. when he has to do it by himself, it’s fun to listen to the things he says. sometimes he repeats things we’ve said to him: “you understand me” and “wait a second.” and sometimes he comes up with some weird stuff: “of course i want my cheese!” one day when he was eating raisins, he was telling them, “you’re going in the monster…you’re going in the monster too…” he’s started telling me what to say to him. when i’m teaching him appropriate responses, i’ll tell him to “say thank you” or “say yes” or whatever. now he’ll tell me something and then tell me to “say okay,” after asking “you understand me?”

--he and sierra still get along really well. sometimes they play together, sometimes they play against each other…meaning she wants to play with what he’s playing with, and he doesn’t want her to. i taught him that instead of just taking what he wants away from her, he needs to trade her for it. so, even if it’s not something he had first, but it’s something he wants, he’ll bring her some random toy. one time, she had one of his (seven) frogs, and he totally freaked out. he went running to the toy box saying, “here, sierra. here, sierra,” and gave her a jumprope handle. what a good big brother he is, right?? and by the way, she didn’t mind the trade at all!

April & May 2008

2008-05-29T16:29:00.013-04:00

--we’ve had a busy time since our last post. we’ve had visitors, traveled, friends moved away and others moved nearby, and more milestones for both aidan and sierra. aidan’s were more vocabulary-related and concepts he’s trying to grasp. sierra’s were more physical.
--first of all, aidan now LOOKS like the big boy that he is. even older, maybe. i finally gave him a big-boy haircut, and gave up the bowl-cut. he looked instantly two years older. “instantly” might be a strong word though…it took nearly an hour to have him sit still while i got rid of all that (beautiful) hair.

--he still loves to be an animal, although it’s not always a daily occurrence. first question out of his mouth in the morning is usually, “what kind animal i am today??” then we figure out what animal he’ll be for the rest of the day. when i make the mistake of calling him “my big boy,” he’ll instantly correct me with the animal of the day: “no, i’m just a little ostrich/leopard/meerkat/turtle” (see below.) he has a great imagination. the only problem is when he tries to eat his food without using his hand…then we have issues, and he has to be a boy for a while.

--he’s grasping more and more concepts these days. he knows that girls grow into ladies, and boys grow into men. (verbatim per aidan: “i’m a boy. you’re a girl. you’re a big girl. you’re a lady. sierra’s a little girl. daddy’s a man.”) he knows about red and green traffic lights. (“our light is red…now it’s their turn to go. we wait our turn.”) he knows that girls and boys/ladies and men are people, and that he’s a person. he knows both mine and billy’s step-parents. and though he doesn’t know how to count past ten, except throwing out “twenty-six, twenty-eight,” he asks people their age. (“what old you are?”) a concept we don’t really like him to talk about is other people's weight. (“mama, those ladies are fat.” and in the store…horrible!)
--we have started praying at night, in addition to before meals…meaning, aidan is praying. he knows the blessing (before meals)…as long as the tv isn’t distracting him or he’s not embarrassed with company present. at night we pray the politically un-correct version of “now i lay me” and then we bless people. he’ll “god bless” so-and-so and so-and-so. we go through our enormous family, our friends, and then he blesses all his animals. i try to use it as practice naming family members, but many times he has to ask me “who else?” because our family is so big.
--we had a couple visitors and some friends come and go these two months. aunt leah came to visit for a weekend. we had a good time with her, though a short visit, and had a party with some of our friends. grammy (billy’s mom) came for a week. we went to williamsburg for a weekend. we had some great food, did some shopping at the outlets, and went to busch gardens. aidan was tall enough (in his shoes) to make the mark for some of the bigger rides. he rode one rollercoaster, that didn’t go upside down. still it was really fast, and throws you around. we think it kind of freaked him out a bit because he wasn’t too responsive during or just after. though if you ask him if he had fun he gave an enthusiastic “yes!” (we told him we were going to williamsburg and later on we asked where we were going. he said, “daddysburg!” how cute is that??? i didn’t even know he knew billy’s name was william.)
--our great friends shannon and jesse (with jarah and issac) left in may. we had a great time, since july 06, getting to know them and watching our kids grow up soooo much! but as one door closes (we’ll see them again), another opens. two other sets of friends (with kids) we had made in japan are now living in the area. so, now we can get together with them. we have seen mariah and sameer (with asha and yogi) and also ferna and eric (with quinten) a few times, together and separately…and looking forward to more. --aidan’s latest cute phrases i’ve jotted down (besides the ones already quoted) include: “yes!” “awesome!” “that’s cool!” “holy cow!” “awww, man!” “woo-hoo!” and “sometimes i just have to laugh,” a quote from the wonder-pets show.
--on to sierra…she’s gone from taking no steps, to taking two, to reaching and going across from the chair to the couch, to taking six steps, to walking across the room, to navigating around the house. she still falls and she still crawls, but she’s definitely a walker now!! --she plays peek-a-boo a lot these days. she’ll do it with her hands, with her shirt, with furniture. one of her favorite games to play with aidan, where they really get to cackling, is what i call dynamic peek-a-boo. she squats down on the side of the couch and aidan’s on the couch. she stands up and aidan looks down over at her. they both think it’s hilarious…and seeing them laugh like that is hilarious to me! sometimes they’ll both squat down and play with me. though, she likes to peek through the slats on the couch…it’s cute! --her words are: “ma-ma,” “da-da,” and “bye-bye.” sometimes i think i hear “baa” when we’re talking about a bath. and she says “night-night” silently…she moves her lips but no sounds come out, like she’s practicing. when she’s calling me, she says mama over and over, and the tone is pleading.
--she loves to look at books. she’ll still try to eat those made of paper, but the board books are great. she thinks it’s awesome to lift flaps or touch the different textures. she reaches for a book every time we get in the car. --some other things she does now are walk on her knees and brush her hair. she steals aidan’s sippy cups, so that i constantly have to have a cup for her if he has one. she copies sounds she hears. when aidan’s a leopard or lion or whatever and growls at her, she growls right back! if he razzes, she razzes. she will point at what she wants, and also in response to “where’s aidan/mama?” she pushes toy cars around, rides the ride-on car, and plays the toy drum and kazoo. she puts things in buckets/pots/baskets/boxes…takes them out and puts them back in. she “shares.” she’ll hand over something that you ask for…usually. she’ll give you something that she thinks you should have, like a piece of her cracker or something. she’s an awesome climber…i see her on the first step or two, and when i come near her, she goes as fast as she can up the stairs before i can get to her. she has also started climbing bookshelves or into the walker. another thing she loves to do is dance. she rocks back and forth when she hears music or sees someone else dancing. too funny. she'll also sit down on a box or rocking chair, or my knee when i’m on the floor, or the toy drum. --aidan and sierra have started playing well together. most of the time it consists of him tolerating it when she grabs what he’s playing with or knocks down what he’s building, or her tackling him with hugs. but they also play chase and peek-a-boo, or “share” the toys.

--by the way, billy got me the BEST-EST mother’s day gift ever…tickets to james taylor. we had an awesome time. we had lawn seats, packed a picnic and took the kids. they had fun dancing around and listening and clapping and watching everyone. it was a great time!!!

March 08

2008-04-05T10:12:00.014-04:00

here’s all the latest news on the hunt-front:
--well, we started out the month being sick sick sick! sierra got that monster stomach virus and threw up in her sleep on tuesday night…twice. stayed up with her for a couple hours to make sure she didn’t do it again before going back to bed. the next day she was out of it, didn’t want to eat, and every time she nursed, she threw it back up. by thursday, aidan had it, and that afternoon we went to see the doctor…hoping for medicine…but really knowing it was viral and we wouldn’t get any. they both had the nasty bug, and the doctor said i’d probably be next. on the way home…yep, i was next. spent the rest of the day cleaning up after sick kids (both ends), running to the bathroom, and being completely exhausted since i couldn’t keep anything down either. by the weekend, we were better. thankfully (and not thankfully) billy had duty on thursday (the worst day of it all) and missed the whole thing. by the time he got back on friday evening, he never caught it…however, he wasn’t there to help either. i truly think that thursday was one of the worst days ever.
--now on to more pleasant things… :)
--sierra has many new accomplishments these days. for a while she was doing this fake cry thing. i think she thought it would get her more attention, however, it didn’t really work since i knew nothing was wrong, and she’s already stopped that little drama.

--something she started that’s super cute, is what we call the “scrunchy face.” aidan did the same thing when he was her age. i think it’s a face that i make at my kids, cause they both have learned to make it back at me.
--another of her latest feats is dancing. when she hears music, she’ll bounce up and down and nod her head. and she’ll do it kneeling, standing, or even being held. it’s really cute. she also claps, waves, and plays peek-a-boo. she still claps with her head tilted most of the time, which just makes it cuter. she waves with whole arm action, just the hand, and even waves at herself sometimes. for peek-a-boo, she doesn’t use her hands, she hides. she hides behind some piece of furniture, and then looks around and laughs!
--she has started letting go when she’s standing up. she doesn’t go anywhere, but down, though not always right away. she can let go and balance before squatting herself down slowly…she doesn’t fall (always), and she doesn’t have to drop down immediately either (usually.)
--another favorite of hers lately, is emptying things. she likes to empty the diaper bag…over the edge of the shopping cart, onto the floor. she likes to empty the tupperware cabinet in the kitchen…and crawl in, trying to get up on the shelf. she likes to empty drawers of clothes or toys, one piece at a time, (not so) carefully depositing them on the floor, looking at each item as she lets go of it. :)
--her vocabulary is progressing. she makes a lot more sounds…and LOVES to hear herself. she’s started “singing” lately, and she does it loudly. pretty funny. she says, “bye-bye,” “da-da,” and “ma-ma.” when she hears billy come in, she starts calling him…too sweet.
--sierra turned 9months on the 22nd. she has slowed down in her rate of growth a bit…she’s 28.5” long, which is in the 74th %tile, and 18#10oz, which is in the 45th %tile. i think the drop in weight is due to our sicknesses…we all lost a bit of weight in those couple days…and when you weigh less than 20pounds, then any drop is significant. i’d say she would normally be at about 19.5pounds, which is in the 57th %tile, and since she’s eating really well again, i think we’ll be back up for her next appointment.
--easter was really fun this year. besides the fact that they both looked totally and completely adorable in their outfits that weekend, we also had a good time.

--we dyed eggs for the first time this year...we'd skipped it for the past couple years since aidan wasn't old enough to even try it. he loved it. of course we made a little mess, but we were prepared for that...and the eggs ended up looking really nice!
--the day before easter, the kids and i (billy had duty) went to an event sponsored by the base near our house. it was at the base stables (which i didn’t know existed). they had pony rides, a hay ride, picture-taking with the easter bunny, and an easter egg hunt. they both had a good time, but aidan really did. the only thing sierra did was the hay ride and the picture…though she had fun watching everything, and sleeping through the egg hunt.
--aidan rode “da black horse” all by himself…looking very manly in his helmet. the hay ride was pretty fun with lots of bumps!
--they looked too cute on the pink pony with the easter bunny. sierra was either trying to grab the pony’s mane, or grab the easter bunny. we had to take LOTS of pictures just to get
a couple good ones.
--aidan didn’t quite get the fact that the egg hunt was a race. he spent more time crawling on fallen trees and playing with sticks, than looking for eggs. so much so, that he found zero eggs!!! he didn’t seem to mind though…and he wasn’t the only little one who found nothing. they gave him a treat anyway, so he was happy. :)

--on easter sunday we went to church, where again they looked adorable. since billy had duty the day before, the easter bunny didn't come until nap time sunday...he has a flexible schedule, apparently! ;) anyhow, kiddos loved their toys and the easter egg hunt in the back yard. --sierra was content to chew on her toys, leaves, grass, etc, while adian looked for eggs. (he found a few more this time...haha.) one of aidan's toys that the bunny left was a jumprope. he was too cute trying to do it. he'd hold the handles and the rope would be on the ground, and he'd jump back and forth over the rope, without turning it.
--again this month, aidan was helping daddy with the house projects. he helped destroy the bathroom wall for our new tub. he had a ball smashing tile off the wall. and he just looked so cute with his miniature hammer (which used to be billy’s.)

--we had a playdate with our friends at the park one day. we went with málie (molly-AY) and kala’i (ka-LA-ee), and their mom nani. sierra, again, enjoyed trying to eat the grass and wood chips. aidan and kala'i had a blast! they were chasing each other, screaming, and tumbling down the slide together. they even shared a sandwich at the mini picnic table. it was cute.
--aidan is officially potty trained!!! yea!!!!!!!!!!!!! he (usually) will tell me every time he needs to go…either kind. there are times he gets distracted or engrossed in something, and we’ll have an accident…or he’ll wait so long that by the time he tells me he can’t quite make it to the potty in time. but still we’re doing well, so i’m not complaining (too much, that is.)
--aidan and i have been working on different concepts this month. he’s learning about yesterday versus before. if he’s ever done something before, he says he did it “yesterday.” how cute is that? (i had trouble with yesterday/tomorrow for a long time.) another confusing concept is why/why not. at first, he was asking me “why not” when he should say “why.” he’s learned that one, and now says “why, mommy, why???”

--one concept that’s particularly tough in our family is our actual family. both billy and i have step parents and step siblings. try explaining to a three year-old how grammy is daddy’s mommy, but grammy’s husband (poppy) isn’t daddy’s daddy…it’s grandpa…who lives with grandma. wow…gets confusing even for adults to figure out. he does understand who our sisters are, that he has a sister, that he’s a brother, that i’m a wife…though he thinks daddy is a wife too. any kids he sees on a playground are “aidan’s friends,” and any of our friends that we see, he calls his friends too!
--the thing i’m having trouble with the most this month is the arguing. he argues with me about nearly everything i say. i can ask him to do something, and he’ll whine and argue that he doesn’t want to. i’ll ask him to stop doing something that he’s doing, and he’ll whine and argue that he’s not actually doing it. not that he doesn’t want to stop, that he’s not doing what he’s doing!!! in the three year-old mind, if he says it, it must be true…he’s not actually lying, he’s trying to please me (cause inevitably, i get the “mommy’s happy???” question, just to make sure), he says he’s not doing the annoying thing, so that means he’s not doing the annoying thing…right?????? ;)
--just a bit more…aidan’s latest sayings include: “i don’t think so, mommy,” “what’s going on here?” “you love to help me /to give me juice/ to do it,” “put on these her” (put these on her), “you’re not will” (you will not), “aidan’s upset,” and “i’m not a monster.”

february 2008

2008-03-02T13:31:00.014-05:00

--lots of accomplishments by sierra this month, and lots of cute phrases from aidan.
--sierra is all over the place these days…whether it be in her walker or on the floor. she steers her walker, navigating all over the kitchen, going forward, backward, turning, and even running. her favorite thing to play with while i’m cooking is the garbage can…can’t get enough of it, it seems. and it always seems to occur when i have my hands full, of course. one day she grabbed a box of cereal off the table and dumped it onto her tray. she made a big mess, but she had a great time eating it up, and depositting it all over the room.

--she has dropped the sniper-creep and progressed to crawling. she’s a bit more efficient that way, and gets around really well. she also cruises around the room, walking holding onto furniture. she’s been pulling up for a while now, and at first just got stuck in that position. she’d have to lean over on her toy to hold on and play…and she’d have to be let down when she was done or tired of standing. now, however, she carefully leans over until she’s back in her crawling position. she’ll also let go, hover a second, and then plop down to her butt, roll over and off she goes. she can even hold onto whatever with one hand and play or wave with the other. i foresee walking pretty soon.
--she turned 8months old last week. (next doctor appointment isn’t until 9months.) she’s eating really really well these days. however, she has decided she’d prefer to not have babyfood anymore. she used to devour it, and one day she just stopped. she wants to eat whatever i have on my plate. so she’s moved on to table food, granted, it’s cut into tiny pieces for her to gum to bits, but she’s doing it. she eats cheerios, yogurt, cottage cheese, crackers, bread, and fruit during the day…and eats whatever we eat for dinner for her dinner; meat veggies, potatoes, rice. she does like the babyfood fruit though, she still eats that. she has gotten much much better with her finger dexterity too…she can pick up single pieces of food and (most of the time) get it in her mouth straight away. she’s now down to nursing four times a day, and i plan to drop one feeding a month until her birthday.

--her top two teeth are getting close. maybe next month? she started clapping on her 8month birthday. she does it vertically though, instead of horizontally. and she’ll tilt her head to the side and smile. it’s just too cute. she also waves sometimes. most of the time though, she just looks at you like your insane to ask her to do it. --we went to the aquarium with jarah and isaac and had a great time. we saw lots of fishies and sharks, and got to touch the rays and even an alligator. when we came home and aidan described his day to daddy, he said he spent the day with “fishes, rays, sharks, alligators, and popcorn!” we saw a 3D imax movie on sea monsters (prehistoric sea creatures) and had popcorn. aidan loved it! then we went to lunch at chick-fil-a and played on the playground with our friends.
--aidan is making headway with the manners. when he bumps into me, he says, “sorry mama. he already said “please” and “thank you,” but now he’s added “excuse me.”

--he has started memorizing books. when we read some of his favorites, he tells me what’s going to happen before i read it. he can also look at a picture of three elephants (or whatever) and tell me that there are three of them, without touching and actually counting them. he knows his way around town too some now. when we go by the gym, he tells me, “that’s the shimm, mama. the green slide and aidan’s friends.” he knows where my friend michele works, and gets sad and pouts when we don’t stop to pick her up for lunch that day. and one time when we were leaving walmart, he told me “there’s the depot, mama.” i didn’t know what he was talking about, and he was pointing to home depot and said, “it’s daddy’s favorite.” when we get to our neighborhood, he tells me “almost home!”
--potty training has been (mostly) successful. he will go when i tell him, and also when he needs to go. sometimes i have to interrupt the potty dance and make him go if he’s distracted or wanting to finish something first. we still have accidents occasionally, and going number two on the potty isn’t always in his agenda for the day, but for the most part, we’re in the clear!
--some mornings aidan will “work out wiff mama” in the garage. he’s also started seeing some commercials interrupt his shows. we usually only watch pbs, but now that he’s gotten a diego ball pit from my aunt, and a dvd from grammy about diego, “go, diego, go!” is his favorite show. i record it for him, and he has to wait through commercials at the beginning. he’s not one to ask for every toy he sees on tv, instead he tells me, “i don’t like commercials.”

--also, we’ve been doing a lot of house projects lately. billy ripped up the carpet in our sunken living room to tile it, aidan said that the “house is too broken. get a new one!” how funny is that?!?! and my all time favorite saying of the month comes when he doesn’t get is way…”don’t make aidan sad,” pout pout pout. :)

january 08

2008-02-13T22:37:00.004-05:00

happy new year to all,
--our trip home from mobile was a good trip, just like the trip down. it took two days this time though, because we took a detour to visit my dad’s sister in athens, alabama. we had fun with aunt carroll and uncle larry. aidan loved trying to find eddie the cat, playing the piano, riding on the golf cart, crawling all over carroll, strolling on the treadmill, and playing with cat toys. sierra had fun just being cute.
--our trip went through blacksburg, and so we stopped for dinner with my sister, and got back to billy after two weeks away. the next day we met my cousin lisa for breakfast since she was in town for a conference.
--sierra turned seven months this month, and her accomplishments for the month include: the high-speed-creep (she’s all over the place), she pulls up on anything that stands still…or anything that she thinks stands still (like the rocking chair or a toy that tips over) until she falls down, she sits really well (though she’ll forget and throw herself backwards), sits on her knees, reaches up when she wants you to pick her up, “walks” in her walker, says “da-da-da,” and gives kisses. also, her first tooth cut through on the 31st!
--aidan turned three this month…hard to believe. he had two birthday parties. we had a small family birthday party for him in mobile. i drew a dinosaur on his cake, he opened presents, and played with my little cousin matthew. at other times during our visit south, he played with some of my other younger cousins. he called matthew “maff-few,” scott was “spot” and then “stott,” and joseph was “dough-sef.” he had to blow out his candles twice. he was so excited about blowing them out that they were doused even before we could sing the first word!!
--grammy and poppy came to visit us, and while they were here we had aidan’s second birthday party. we did a combo party with his friends jarah (3) and isaac (1) at chuck e. cheese. everyone had a good time. we played games, watched the shows, ate pizza and cupcakes, and opened presents. aidan had fun with his friends ella, málie (molly-AY), and kala’i (ka-LA-ee), and jarah and isaac, and some friends of theirs. and we enjoyed the grown up company (nani, sandra, jesse and shannon and their friends.)
--some of aidan’s accomplishments of the month include: dressing himself (granted, everything ended up on backwards), going “stand pee-pee” by himself, lots of pretend-play (usually as some sort of animal), getting two shots in the arm at the doctor’s office like a big boy (and getting a milkshake afterwards for being so good and brave), and falling down the stairs (while was trying to be an monkey on all fours, on the way DOWN the stairs…yeah, that didn’t quite work!)
--his imagination is going wild these days. and he’s pretty creative. he wants to be some kind of animal most of the day. over the last few weeks, some of animals that he’s told us he was include: a buffalo, a wildebeest, a monkey, a lion, an elephant, and a dinosaur. when he’s in character, he gets mad when we call him by name. he’ll correct us, saying, “no, i’m a dinosaur (or whatever).” he also gets pretty involved with it. he makes us talk to the animal, so i ask him questions about how old he is, what color he is, and what his name is. he gives me different information according to what animal he is. he was a wildebeest named “snee,” who was white with orange hair, blue eyes and gray tail, was three years old, and ate dinosaurs. it’s fun to see him play like that, but it also gets kind-of annoying having a four-legged son running around the house. he runs into things because he has his head down, (falls down the stairs,) flips around, and refuses to answer to “aidan’ when he’s an animal. so, we have to limit his time as animals, and tell him we want our boy back.
--also this month, aidan discovered the differences in the anatomy of girls and boys. he told me that my penis was broken. so we had the discussion that you have to be a boy to have a penis. so he says, “mommy has no penis…daddy has a penis…aidan has a penis… sierra has no penis.”
--aidan is speaking really well these days. he can always get his point across, though his pronunciation isn’t perfect. he answers questions, and repeats EVERYTHING. some of the phrases that came out this month are: “mommy, where are you?” “awww, pleeeease,” “it’s my favorite,” “i love it,” “mommy, what you doing?” “let me in,” “put me down,” “i not aidan. i’m a wildebeest,” “lion sleepy,” “stop please,” “sierra has a hiney,” and my all-time favorite: “mommy, i love you. i love you too,” (he answered himself for me!)
--at the doctor, aside from his shots he had to get, he was pronounced a healthy (large) three-year-old. he is 40.5” tall (97th percentile) and 40pounds (95th percentile). when i went to put his info in his babybook, i wrote down his past measurements to compare to sierra. here are the comparisons:
___________height_____________weight
_________aidan__sierra______aidan_____sierra
birth______21”___20.5”_______8# 13oz__8# 15oz
2weeks____22”___21.5”_______9# 2oz___9# 4.5oz
2months___24”___23.5”______12# 8oz___12# 11oz
4months___26”___26.25”_____15# 8oz___15# 2.5oz
6months___28”___27.5”______17# 9oz___16# 14oz

december 07

2008-02-13T22:35:00.002-05:00

--we’ve had a good month. lots of visiting with friends and family, celebrating. aidan’s most special times involved present-opening.
--we had three different “christmases” (with one more to go). my dad and sister could arrange a visit to va beach for the weekend of the 14th. we had billy’s dad, stepmom, and sister in town for the week of christmas. and the kids and i drove down to alabama to visit with my family a few days after christmas. we’re still down south, and will head north again on the 8th. (billy’s mom and stepdad will be coming to see us all in va beach later in january.) with each family group, and each christmas, aidan got tons of stuff. he loved it all, but has become a bit greedy. he has trouble sharing his new toys with his sister, but has no trouble using her new toys!
--christmas day was great. aidan understood that santa had come to give him “lots o presents.” if the gifts were clothes, he moved on pretty quickly, but really enjoyed the toys. sierra enjoyed all the paper on the floor, and the ornaments on the tree. we had a good time with dinner as well. our friends stu, sandra and ella, and shadra and jody came over to join us and billy’s dad, andrea, and devlin. it was good times with good people!
--our 16hour trip to mobile went very well. apart from taking a long time, we had no issues (other than weather…it was storming in virginia and foggy in alabama…the carolinas were clear (but had the worst roads!)) my plan…that worked out well…was to stop for a potty break, change her diaper and nurse her, every time i stopped for gas. i packed food and drinks in the car, toys and books for aidan, and books on cd for me. in general, it worked well. sierra would play-nap-play before we’d stop. only once did aidan wake her up early…so we had about 40minutes of fussiness, but not crying. aidan had a little more trouble staying content. he’d play and read, but got bored being stuck in the car. he kept asking for “li-li’s house” and “let me out.” i was prepared to have to stop overnight should the trip have gotten too hard. either due to traffic, weather, or crying and having to stop too often that we weren’t making good time. but they were great, i wasn’t tired, and traffic was pretty smooth. so that we could just go straight through. i was very proud of my little travelers.
--aidan has a bunch of new phrases. some of them are: “wait for me,” “not for you,” “stop that,” “christmas presents,” “ho ho ho, merry christmas,” “mommy, where are you?” “mommy, what you doing?” “let me in,” “put me down.”
--another milestones is pretend-play (which has been going on a while) getting more involved and creative. he LOVES to be an animal or fish. i get, “mommy, look at aidan” and then, “i’m a wallrus.” then he crawls and flips around making sounds. when he’s ready for a nap, he tells me “lion sleepy.”
--i would say that aidan is pretty much potty trained now. he still has accidents occasionally, and sometimes doesn’t really want to go #2, but we’re doing much much better! yea!
--sierra’s accomplishments are a bit more physical. she’s totally mobile now. she has progressed from rocking back and forth and launching forward an inch or two, to what i call the ‘sniper creep.’ she pulls with her hands and elbows, and pushes with her knees and feet, and can get ANYWHERE. she tries to climb over my legs when i’m on the floor, or whatever might be in her way. she of course goes straight for toys aidan is playing with…much to his annoyance. she even tries to pull up to higher toys. although she most likely pulls them down onto her instead. :) either way, she's moving along pretty quickly (litteraly and figuratively). aidan never crawled, he just did the sniper creep until he was nine months, then took off running. he's never actually stopped, really.
--she’s eating more foods too. in addition to the cereal i started at 4months, she’s eating pureed veggies (has had green beans, peas, and carrots so far), and trying stuff off of my plate. she seems to want my food more than hers, so she’s tried a lot of other things as well. she’s eaten mashed potatoes, sucked the potato out of a french fry, and really likes applesauce and mashed bananas. she even tried a bit of ice cream from my birthday, and a sucked on a little piece of a hershey bar.
--she’s babbling a lot more as well, and i think she’s teething. she chews on (and has been a while) anything she can. however, the best teether that i’ve found is a baby tylenol medicine dropper. she can hold the bottle and chew on the stopper/dropper. works great!
--she turned 6months, and had her checkup. doctor, again, says she’s doing great. she now weighs 16#15oz, and is 27.5” long. that’s 62nd percentile and 92nd percentile, respectively.
--whenever i’m on the computer, aidan asks to “push one time” since i sometimes let him push a button for me. so, this is from aidan:
FHFFX JHFEDWESD K, SAKJ Tvb;89 dffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffnlkjhujynk
wqqrftyjmkl;’;’’,.’\85125241
[pkobhgfxdssw

november 07

2008-02-13T22:32:00.003-05:00

happy holidays to all,
--i’m a bit behind for this update…sorry. we’ve been busy with holidays, travel, company, and recoveries. since october, we’ve had company twice, were out of town for about ten days for thanksgiving, billy had his eye surgery, and we’ve all passed around at least one cold for several weeks. billy’s doing well, and his vision is getting better daily. we’re down to one small cough (aidan), and just lost the last runny nose (sierra).
--billy had to get PRK surgery instead of lasik. his cornea was too thin for lasik. it was still just as quick of an operation, but he had/has more recovery than lasik. his cornea was “shaved” and so the skin has to grow back and heal as his vision improves. he was pretty blind and had some pain for several days, but is doing well and no longer needs the glasses he’s had to wear for years!! :)
--we went up north for thanksgiving. we saw billy’s parents (jersey), my dad (long island), billy’s grandmother (pennsyslvania), and lots of friends (jersey). we had a good time with all, and got to introduce sierra to her other great-grandmother. at first, aidan was a little scared of her (he hasn’t seen her since last christmas). when she saw him, she said she was going to eat him up. he said, “noooo!” and wouldn’t go near her for about an hour. he got over it though, and we all had a good visit.
--aidan’s latest and greatest accomplishments are mostly about vocabulary and the potty. he speaks much more clearly and in longer sentences, and repeats EVERYTHING he hears. there are still times when i don’t know what he’s saying, but they’re fewer these days, and he can usually get his point across eventually…or i eventually guess what he’s trying to say. most of his new words/phrases revolve around him. things like “me next,” “i’m first,” “aidan do it,” “it’s mine,” “i’m tired/hungry/eating/watching.” other things he says are “holy cow,” “yes or no,” and “just like daddy.” i don’t think he knows just what ‘yes or no’ means, because he doesn’t use it correctly. he uses it more like “say yes.”
--with the potty situation, halloween really helped us out. he was very encouraged to get trick-or-treats as rewards! he’s become much more consistent and cooperative since then. and now he likes to “stand pee-pee,” and that helps to get him to go. we used to ask if he needed to go. he’d most likely say he didn’t and we’d have to just take him anyway and make him try. now we ask him if he wants to sit or stand. that way his only options are to go potty…he just gets to pick how. however, he has also started notifying me of when he has to go. he will even hold it if we can’t get there right away…which is great. cause we got him out of pull-ups except for at night…really saves money every month!! :)
--sierra is coming a long way these days. she’s always been strong, but she’s getting her coordination down. her movements aren’t quite so jerky and she has more control. she’s really trying to crawl right now. she’s gone from just being on her belly and pushing up her head and shoulders, to pushing up to her elbows and knees, to hands and knees, to rocking back and forth. she now pushes up and tries to go forward, rocking back and forth, and gets really frustrated when she doesn’t go anywhere. she’ll reach for something and fall down. but she’ll also rock back and forth, and then launch herself onto her belly, moving forward an inch, get back up and do it again. however, it’s painfully slow (and painful??)
--she’s also gone from rolling over accidentally, to on purpose (belly to back), to both ways (belly to back and back to belly) in both directions. it’s cute, but makes changing diapers and giving baths a bit more difficult. she flips right over on the changing table and in the bath tub. i’m hoping she masters sitting up soon, so i can get her out of the baby tub and into the big tub (without trying to hold a slippery baby upright from over the edge or getting in myself!)
--i pulled the walker out of the attic this month, and now she has another outlet for her kicking and jumping and pushing off. she can go forward a little, but doesn’t ‘walk’ yet. she does push backwards and turn it around a bit…mostly going after the recycle garbage can or her reflection in the glass door or dishwasher door.
--she’s gotten much much better at sitting. she still topples over, but she can sit unaided, and will even brace herself up when she accidentally puts her hand down and it holds her up. she still doesn’t do it on purpose, and still flings herself backwards to get her back straight…she should have great posture one of these days! she does correct when she gets slightly off balance though, so we’re making progress.
--i don’t quite remember when aidan did everything, i’ll have to go back and look. but i think she’s starting verbally sooner than he did. she’s starting babbling a lot more lately, and combining sounds. she knows her name already and she now says “umm-ba” and “uh-ma.” i don’t think they have any meaning to her though, it’s probably just her practicing new sounds. she’s also found her tongue. she sticks it out a lot and likes to razz and blow bubbles, and almost all of her smiles now incorporate her newly discovered tongue.

october 07

2008-02-13T22:30:00.001-05:00

here’s the latest news from our little world:
--quick update on billy. he was promoted this month. four years since ocs, and he’s now officially a lieutenant. his ceremony was a small one, but it was nice. i saw him get commissioned (two weeks AFTER me…so i still consider myself as “out-ranking” him, haha), but i missed his first promotion. i think they were in thailand at the time. anyhow, i got to see him reaffirm his original oath to fight and defend…from all enemies foreign and domestic…, and i was able to pin on his new insignia as an O-3. very nice, and we’re very proud!
--aidan’s vocabulary is booming. he comes up with a new phrase daily. some he gets from us, some from his shows, and some we’re not sure where he gets. he told me to “shut-up” the other day…he didn’t like the response he got, and hasn’t said it much since. we can’t figure out where he picked it up, because it’s not something we say, and we’ve been trying to watch out for things he might hear while we’re watching a sitcom or something. guess we have to be even more limiting…and make sure he knows there are some things you just don’t say.
--he’s speaking in several-word sentences now, and is working on conjugation. language is so complex, it’s amazing how we ever learn it at all!
--some other things he’s learning are shapes and letters. he doesn’t draw them himself, but can recognize some. on halloween, one of our pumpkins said “boo.” aidan went up to the pumpkin and read from right to left: “O, O, R.” i was pretty stunned. i haven’t sat down with him yet to teach letters, but he does watch a show on pbs called “super why” that’s all about letters and reading. i had noticed that he’s responding and reacting to his shows more lately. he answers questions (“and what’s your name?”) and dances and claps, etc. he also laughs at the funny parts! so, he's taking in a lot more, and understanding a lot more too.
--potty training is going well. he still doesn’t always tell me when he needs to go, but halloween candy as potty-treats has improved training the last week or so.
--we went to lots of fun places this month. we went to an animal farm, on a hay ride to the pumpkin patch, to the zoo with our neighbors, to busch gardens, and trick-or-treating. we had a blast!
--aidan loves animals and had fun petting the goats, ponies, pigs, etc. he liked picking out a little pumpkin for himself. at the zoo, he liked seeing the more exotic animals and also being with his friend ella.
--busch gardens was great. billy’s friend alaina came down from connecticut and we met our friends jesse and shannon, with their little ones jarah and isaac. while we were there, we found some friends of theirs, mike and maria, from church. it worked out great. we had enough parents to take turns keeping the kids so everybody could ride. the adults went on a few rides, and the kids got to do their thing too! we switched up strollers and and kids were all over. it was fun.
--halloween was great. when i pulled down the decorations, and the empty candy holder, aidan remembered what it was for and asked me, “where candy???” pretty cool. he also helped me clean out the pumpkins and carve them. that night, he said he was a dinosaur and sierra was a uconn cheerleader. (aunt devlin goes there.) he got lots of comments on his costume (though different people thought he was a dinosaur, an alligator, or a dragon…either way, he had fun.) he had been practicing “frick-or-freat” for about a month, getting ready for the big day. that night we were out at least two hours going around the neighborhood. a couple kids we saw a few times freaked him out every time. one was a skeleton jester and the other was a warewolf. aidan cried and hid from them every time we saw them. he’s still asking where the scary boys are. the worst/best (depending on how your sense of humor) was when a guy answered the door dressed up. billy was taking him to the doors and i was on the sidewalk. when the guy answered, aidan dropped his bag and just turned and ran to the street screaming. i don’t know what he was dressed as, but the “scary man” really got to him. i got the last part of his reaction on video…but the initial part was priceless.
--sierra adores her big brother. she watches him whenever she can, and does everything in her power to keep him in view. she also looks like she’s ready to get moving and is trying so hard to follow him around. and aidan loves to make sierra laugh. most of the time to make her laugh, we have to nearly tickle her or get in her face and be goofy. he, though, can make her laugh just by talking to her and laughing with her. it’s awesome to watch.
--sierra turned 4months on the 22nd and we went to the pediatrician for her checkup. she weighs 15pounds 2.5ounces, and is 26.5inches long. she’s in the 80th percentile in weight and 97th percentile in height. so she’s long and lean…just like her brother! the doctor said she’s doing great, developing and learning on time or ahead of schedule. she had to get four shots, which was NOT fun! she was overtired already before we got there…very ready for a nap. she was pretty good for her appointment, but cried whenever i wasn’t holding her. but when it was time for her shots, i had to hold her hands and watch her scream and cry…so awful!
--she has now figured out how to roll over. she can go from her tummy to her back. since she sleeps on her belly, most mornings she’s on her back “singing” (one of her FAVORITE things to do) when i go get her! she can almost turn over from her back to her belly. her arm gets in the way, but she’s almost there.
--sierra has started reaching out to anything in view. if she can reach it, it goes straight to the mouth. now she passes things from one hand to the other, and still puts them to her mouth! she also likes to touch your face when you look at or talk to her. and she thinks it’s funny when hair tickles her face.
--she tires to pull herself up now. whenever she’s lying down on the changing table, she grabs the side and tries to sit up. if she’s lying down without something to grab, she does a crunch and tries to sit up. however, when she’s sitting up, she tries to stand up. she prefers to be upright, with her back straight, whether she’s in your lap or in a chair. since she can’t sit unsupported her highchair is reclined, and she grabs the tray and pulls herself so she’s sitting up straight. when she sits on my lap, she arches her back until she’s standing.
--i started helping her practice sitting. she of course, falls right over. mostly, though, it’s because she pushes back to try to stand. oh well.
--so, one of her new favorite places to play is in her jumper. she’s big enough that she can reach the ground, and that she isn’t so far down that her arms get stuck and she can’t use. once she figured out that it bounces, she went nuts. she jumps up and down and laughs. it’s really funny. and now that she’s reaching for things, she can investigate and play with all the toys on the jumper.
--we started sierra on cereal this month…we tried right at 4months. she wasn’t quite ready, and her tongue reflex pushed everything out. she also made one crazy face…like “what in the world is this in my mouth!” i’m not sure if it was a texture thing or a taste thing. either way, she wasn’t sure she liked it. we tried every couple days, knowing the reflex disappears around 4months old, and she’d be “ready” to try solids. about a week later, it all clicked. we still get the face as she gets used to the texture and taste, but she opens her mouth for the spoon, and swallows (most of) the cereal now. it’s really cute!

september 07

2008-02-13T22:29:00.002-05:00

--sierra has accomplished a lot this month it seems. first of all, she was baptized. that was a special weekend and we had lots of family and friends in town for it. we enjoyed the wine fest on the beach, a bbq at our house, and cake after the ceremony. she was adorable in her elegant dress and bonnet that her god mother devlin gave her. and she was wearing two crosses and a bracelet. the bracelet was from devlin, and grandma and grandpa hunt got her one necklace and her god father, mike, got her the other one. she was so good during the whole thing too. she didn’t cry at all, and just sat still and smiled. even when she had the water poured on her.
--other things that she does now include: laugh out loud, squeal with delight, chew her fingers, and roll from her tummy to her back. she’ll also pull her own hair, pull up her dress to suck on it, “sing,” and whine until somebody talks to her if she doesn’t want to be alone. she will also try to sit up when she’s propped up on a pillow or something. and she’s pretty strong, so she just might do it one day! she’s been “standing” almost since she was born, so that’s not new.
--she turned 3months old on the 22nd, and already she’s filling out some of her 3-6month clothes. she also went to the pool and the zoo for the first time. she didn’t much care about the zoo…she either slept and/or was in the stroller the whole time. the pool, though, she loved. she smiled and kicked like crazy!
--big-boy aidan is doing well too. he is almost potty trained now, and we’re hoping we’ll be done with that sometime soon! his vocabulary has improved a lot too. he speaks in sentences, and he has a lot of new words. sometimes it takes a couple tries or guessing on my part, but he gets his point across. he sometimes switches from“no thank you” to “no thanks,” and from “thank you” to “thanks”; so he’s definitely listening to things we say! he actually told me to “calm down” the other day…
--he’s a real book lover, and will sit for a long time in a pile of books reading quietly. however, if you’re reading to him and pause too long, he says “talking” or “reeeeeead” to make you start reading again. he has fixed his counting problem, at least when it comes to the number 2. he doesn’t skip over it anymore, but he’ll still skip 5 occasionally.
--as for the zoo, aidan loved it. he had a great time there looking at all the animals and walking with grammy and poppy. he also loves the pool, though he doesn’t want to let go if he’s in the big pool. we’re working on it, getting him warmed up to it, and we’re making progress…we just have to take it slow for the most part. he loves the baby pool, and walks around, even walks on his hands like he’s “swimming.” and sometimes he puts his face in the water…on purpose! J
--he’s started this thing where he likes to push out his belly and say “aidan’s bigger.” it’s funny. he knows about size differences. he calls any toy that’s smaller than another toy the “baby” and the bigger one the “mommy.” if there are two bigger ones, then it’s a “mommy and daddy” toy. it can be dinosaurs or even blocks…(big) mommy and daddy cardboard blocks and (small) baby wooden bocks. billy sometimes tries to make him say it’s a daddy toy when there’s only one big one. but aidan, says “noooooooo, it’s the mama.” he doesn’t get mad, he just refuses to be talked out of it. pretty funny.
--he’s started pretending a lot more too. he likes to be different animals. his favorites to imitate are lions and mammoths. then he tells me that the lion is playing the drums or the mammoth is marching in circles or something like that. it’s pretty random, but creative! J
--another thing he does now, is to name different animals, then imitate their sounds and movements, and will even tell you what color they are…totally unsolicited. he also says “excuse me,” “sorry,” “you’re welcome,” and “love you” without prompting. he’s turning into such a little man! except that he’s not little at all. he won’t be three until january, and he’s already wearing 4T clothes. the shirts and shorts fit him perfectly, but the pants still have length for him to grow a bit. in the past year, he’s gone from clothes size 18months/2T to 4T everything. and seems he needs new shoes all the time. we just bought him size 8’s in april. he’s now in a 9.5!!! crazy! i looked up growth charts online the other day. for a 33month old male, at 40pounds and 40inches, he’s in the 97th percentile in weight and 96th percentile in height. he’s huge!

august 07

2008-02-13T22:27:00.002-05:00

--we're still not sure what color sierra's eyes are. sometimes they look green, sometimes light brown. others, a mix...hazel, i guess. not sure if they'll stay this in-between color or go one way or the other sometime. i heard they're usually stable after four months? we'll see.
--she's super strong. can sit up straight (being held of course), can lift her head and chest up when on her belly. she even tries to pull her head up when she's on her back, like she's doing an abdominal crunch. she laughs and smiles a lot. she really likes it when somebody talks to her. she even "talks" back. her little coos are too cute. she has started "talking" to her toys too. i had her on the mat/gym the other day with the toys that dangle down over her while i was fixing my breakfast. i heard her start cooing and laughing, and so i started watching her. she was talking to the bumble bee and even trying to bat at it and make it swing. you can just see the little wheels in her head spinning trying to move her hands the way she wants them to go. at first it was just her understanding that she had control over that hand she was looking at, could ball it up, and put it in her mouth. now she likes to reach for things. she tries to hit her toys, she holds my finger while she nurses, she holds my shirt when i hold her up on my chest. it's sweet.
--she's a scooter just like aidan was. she scoots across the crib or bassinet. usually it's when she's slightly awake...either in between sleep cycles, when she's waking up, or when she's putting herself to sleep, but fighting it. (she's pretty good about that too. she'll definitely fall asleep nursing, but she'll also lie down and go to sleep by herself. granted, it doesn't always work out that way and we have a screaming fit, but most of the time it's fine.) anyway, she'll scoot across to the other side and get stuck in the corner, sometimes she'll even turn herself all the way around until she's facing the other end of the crib. i'm just picturing her ending up head down in the bed years later, like we used to find my little sister sometimes. ;)
--we took both kids to the beach for a few hours one weekend. it was a lot of work, seems there was tons of stuff we had to have. might have to think about simplifying that somewhat...especially if i ever want to take them during a weekday alone. she seemed to like it. i think she liked the breeze and the sounds. the tent we had for her was a little hot, she didn't get any airflow, but guarding her from flying sand (via the hand of aidan) was the hardest part if she was out of the tent! aidan's favorite part is the sand, of course. he asks every other day to go to the "sand with the toys." this time, billy buried aidan up to his chin. he didn't seem to mind. we got some good pictures of it too. he's still a bit scared of the water. he did much better. he went all the way down to the edge...even asked to go. he stood in it and washed his hands off. billy took him in, but he didn't like it. last year it took him all summer to get used to it and enjoy it. this year, we haven't been nearly as often with having a new little one, so he's still adjusting. but since the weather's nice for a while longer and we're more settled, we should really try getting there more often.
--we went with our playgroup to the creek leading to the inlet for a little cruise. we were hoping to see some frogs, fish, (snakes), etc, but all we saw were birds. still aidan had a good time on the boat and looking at the water. he was looking for dolphins though, apparently. he kept asking where they were.
--billy had his command picnic this month too. it was pretty fun. aidan played on the playground most of the time, and sierra slept in the stroller. (she wore her sailor outfit...it was too cute. i wanted to save it for billy's promotion in october, but she'll be too big, so this was perfect.) at one time, her friend isaac (jarah's little bro) was in there with her. billy had to be in the dunking booth...and he got dunked a bunch of times. it was pretty funny! :)
--in the course of a month, sierra’s gone from sleeping four and a half hours max to over eight hours at a time. and i’m so glad those hours are at night...from 9 to 5!! good sleeper. aidan was like that too, though i’m not sure just when he went through the night. she's also gone from staying awake a max of two hours to nearly four. mostly, she gets up at five, nurses, then naps while i run before billy leaves in the morning. then she gets up and we have some time together before aidan gets up. then we all walk with our neighbor sandra and ella, her daughter, and magic, their dog. (starting this month, we'll be heading to the gym after our walk and another snack for sierra...yea! can't wait to be back in shape!!) the rest of the day is playtime, lunch, nap for aidan...and sierra's nap usually corresponds with his, which is great, cause then i can get things done, or sometimes even take a nap myself! :) when aidan gets up, and before time to cook dinner, it's aidan's whiney cuddle time, where he just HAS to be in my lap. sierra's usually still asleep, so it all works out! can't ask for better than that! good sleepers at night, coordinated nap times, and individual time with mommy for both child, and a way for me to work out...and even a nap for me occasionally!
--sierra celebrated her two month birthday on the 22nd. we went to the doctor for her check up the next day. she was 12pounds 11ounces, and 23.5inches long, the 90th percentile in height and weight. but only 60th in head circumference. doctor was impressed with her milestones, she’s strong, holds up her head and pushes up, and even tries to stand. he (and my book) said that that’s usually a 4month achievement. she likes to do it all the time though. so did aidan and he walked early…maybe that’s related???
--aidan has been my big helper lately. he helps change diapers, brings blankets, bounces sierra in her bouncy chair, holds her, and plays with her. she watches him in the car. she's facing backwards and they have a perfect view of each other. he tries to make her laugh. it's pretty funny. when he talks to her, his voice goes up an octave or so, and he switches to sounds instead of words. i guess he's seen us talk to her, and he imitates us. but she loves the attention. we've even had to break out the highchair early for that reason. she doesn't like to be ignored when she's in a mood to be social. (she'll sit an look out the window or play by herself, but also likes attention.) so, we put her at the table with us so she doesn't feel ignored (and cry) while we're eating without her. sometimes she's not crying, just making noise, like "look at me, come get me." all you have to do is walk over to her, and she stops. nothing's wrong with her except that she doesn't want to be alone!
--speaking of imitating us, it's too funny listening to aidan learn to talk! some of the things he now says to me are "come back here," "hold still," and "ah-ah-ah-aaah!" isn't that hilarious!? he hears things and applies them to his own situations. not that this is much of a problem, but we really need to be careful now of what he hears... he's creative too. even though his vocabulary has improved and increased greatly, sometimes we still have problems understanding him. many of his words sound similar and i get them wrong occasionally. if i don't understand him, he adds sound effects or hand movements until i get what he's saying. we didn't teach him that, but somehow he knows that that might help me understand. his "elephant" and "wonder pets" (a dvd) sound similar. to make sure i know he's talking about elephants, he'll the make his elephant sound. of course i can't think of any examples, but he'll act like he's putting food in his mouth and say, "num, num, num" if he's talking about food and i don't know what he wants. normally i try to expound on what he's saying or asking for, or vocalize his feelings for him. it usually helps. one time after his nap, when he was particularly whiney, i was really having a hard time understanding what he was saying. it just made him even more whiney and upset that i didn't get him so i said, "it's hard to talk, isn't it?" he gave me a very tearful "ye-esssssss." it can be irreverently funny listening to him too. last night, he wanted to "piss daddy" instead of kiss him good night. in another unfortunate instance of use of "k," it was replaced with a "d" when he wanted to "kick da ball."
--and, he's such a boy! he's covered with scratches, bumps, bruises, bug bites, stitches, blisters, you name it! in addition to his rambunctious, ball throwing, tearing through the house at full speed, zooming trucks into doors sweet self, we've had two "issues" this month. he sliced his toe on some tile in the garage and needed stitches. he only had a couple, but it was a nightmare getting them done. the anesthetic was the worst part...screamed and kicked...took me and the nurse to hold him down. the stitches were on a numb toe, but still he screamed and cried and thrashed around. after 9days of showers, he was finally able to take his beloved bath on thursday. friday i went to the gym to sign up. they let him go in the playroom while i did everything. when i went to get him, he was playing and laughing. when he saw me, he smiled and started my way, sticking his bottom lip out and trying to cry. his face was covered in scratches. some little girl had evidently scratched him and two other little kids that day. (and i was only gone 20 minutes!) of course they say it never happens, and it probably doesn't...but the mom had to come get her, and the kid was kicked out of the playroom for two weeks. anyway, they have a slide set-up like mcdonald's. those tubes-and-slides-configuration. they were in there when it happened. later when i asked aidan about it, this is what i got from him: "aidan mad. aidan's turn. green slide. girl hurt aidan. other boys. aidan hurt. aidan cry. aidan mad." apparently, and according to aidan: she was cutting in line for the green slide...she hurt aidan and the other boys...aidan cried and is mad. first reaction is obviously hurt for your child's hurt, then anger for someone allowing your child to get hurt, then guilt for bringing him there so someone could allow him to get hurt, then realization that you can't guard him forever, that he has to interact (and you have to work out), and at his age, he'll probably come home with bite-marks on his arms or ear infections soon enough...or he'll be the one biting or hitting next time and we'll be sent home for two weeks. but, such is life.

july 07

2008-02-13T22:25:00.002-05:00

**update on us:
--apart from sleep deprivation, the "recovery" associated with childbirth was pretty much accomplished in about 8 days. (if you don't know that that recovery entails, you probably don't want to...) had my six week checkup yesterday, and all is fine. feeling good and i've started working out again. i have been walking since about the first week, but have now begun running and a little bit of body-weight strength training. and since that body weight is much higher than i really want it to be, i'm getting even more of a workout...so it's somewhat of a good thing, if i choose to look at it that way.
--billy's doing great with a newborn. it's fun to watch him learn. he missed most of it with aidan. he was there for aidan's first three weeks, came back after three months, and then was in and out until we left a year and a half later. this time, he's knee deep, so to speak. he still kinda gets stressed when he can't make her stop crying immediately. i keep trying to tell him that he has to do more than just keep doing whatever he's doing...sometimes you gotta get creative and dance with her or something. but still, he's doing great. he's not so grossed out with the possibility of spit-ups, so that's progress too! :)
**update on aidan:
--aidan is doing great. he loves his sister, and constantly wants to hold her. i have to guard her from him most of the time though, cause he doesn't think about how his jumping around and flailing limbs could easily hit her. he also doesn't understand that she doesn't need a blanket over her face and/or can't catch a ball...but we're working on that. he likes to watch her "drinking" (nursing), he likes to play with her, and show her toys. he also likes to get in her face to make her smile, saying "hey, you!"
--he was almost potty trained the week before she was born. we've backtracked a bit in that department, but i was expecting it. then we either had company or were company out of town for nearly five weeks, breaking our routine, so we've just had to deal with it for a while, and can now jump back on it. hopefully we'll get all the kinks worked out soon and we can have only one baby in diapers.
--as for jealousy or aggression, we haven't had too many instances. he's hit her occasionally, but he hits us, so i don't know if it's related, or if it's just that she's there, or if he wants to see what we'll do. she's only cared/cried once. of course i wasn't there to guard her then...that's how it works, i guess. when i asked him why she was crying, he said "hit baby." i put him in time-out and asked why he hit her. he said, "shoes." (he hit her with his shoe. good answer, huh?) then he said, "crying." we had to have an explanation on why we don't hit people, especially babies.
--he has tons of new phrases...too many to list, but we hear a new all the time, and they get longer and more recognizable every day. He now knows his colors and can count from 3 to 9. he can count from 1 to 3 too, but he always forgets 2. since this is a july update, i can't tell you that he added 2 to his sequence on august 1st... ;) he still doesn't string those two sequences together unless he's prompted with a 4, but still it's pretty cool. on our trip to jersey he just started counting and billy and i smiled and laughed at the first couple numbers, then looked at each other as he just kept going. he amazes us all the time. --he's also grasped the concept of plural and possessive. and he calls himself by name and says "aidan's."
**update on sierra:
--sierra's doing great, aside from being hit with shoes. ;) she's super strong. she's been holding her head up since she was born. she's been able to hold it up longer and longer and now she can keep it up. her legs are really strong too. if she doesn't want her diaper changed, good luck!
--but she's really sweet. she smiles when she's contnet. and she laughs in her sleep. it's pretty funny. she eats really well, and sleeps really well. during the day she's awake about an hour at a time, has to eat every 2.5 to 3 hours. at night she sleeps 3 to 4.5 hours at a time, and only wakes up to eat. really easy, i can't complain. so basically i'm up at 3am to nurse, and that's it.
**comparisons:
--they're very much alike in personality...both really content and easy going. both eat well and sleep well. they have some cute differences though...aside from the obvious (gender and) color differences, she being darker all around, hair and skin. aidan had the hiccups nearly every day while i was pregnant, and has had them maybe twice since he was born. sierra had hiccups once while i was pregnant, and has them every other day now. aidan never spit up, and she does a little. guess she has issues with gas/air bubbles or something.
--she's also pretty vocal, already. she sighs as she nurses, she hums when she's content, she grunts as she wakes up; never has to cry though unless she's left too long. mostly she will just let out a little squeal every so often when she feels she's being ignored. but when she does cry, sometimes she has to cry a bit longer than aidan had to because i have more to deal with than i did with him (meaning him), and i can't just drop it all the time to get to her.
--we think her eyes are changing colors...and they don't look blue so much anymore. personally, i was hoping for another blue-eyed baby, but oh well. today i noticed they were not the slate blue/gray she was born with. they look closer to hazel or green...but then she is wearing a tourquoise dress today. maybe that has something to do with it? they still have time to change some more, so we'll see.
--all in all, everything is wonderful...wonderful baby, wonderful big brother, wonderful having daddy around, and having a wonderful time.

june 07

2008-02-13T22:20:00.002-05:00

--we have a new member of the family to introduce. sierra rose hunt was born on friday, june 22nd. i had had contractions off and on since tuesday, but they never got painful though they did get regular. went to bed thursday night with the same situation. woke up at 1am with contractions that were real. woke everybody up at 2 after timing them, and we got to the hospital at 3am. they had to "observe" me and monitor the contractions and her heartbeat, while they checked me into the computer. i was 4-5cm dilated and they were 3.5minutes apart at that time.
--when i finally got to go to my room, they were hurting much more and coming much faster. almost immediately (seems to me now) that i felt like pushing. so at 4:45am, my midwife checked me again and i was fully dilated and ready to push. sierra was born at 5:08am. pretty fast...not counting the days of warmup contractions. aidan's total labor was 9hours...her's was about 4. sounds great, right??? only problem was that i never really had time to adjust and get "comfortable" with each pain level before they got stronger...each contraction was worse than the previous. oh well. we made it through...and without meds!!! and we have a healthy little girl now, so we're happy! :)
--she was full term, weighed 8pounds 15ounces, and was 20.5inches long. (aidan was two weeks early, 8pounds 13ounces, 21inches long.)
--personally, i think she looks EXACTLY like aidan did when he was born, she just has darker hair...besides the obvious gender differences! ;)
--i've had a lot of help lately, we've had company basically every day since the 15th of june. i had one day alone a couple weeks ago, and i have today. tomorrow, we're driving to new jersey/new york for about 10 days. then things will probably settle into more of a routine when we get back. --sierra's great. she's already growing and learning. at two weeks she weighed 9pounds, 4.5ounces, and was 21.5inches long. (fyi: she went down to about 8pounds 5ounces by the time we left the hospital, and she was 20.5inches long.) she was holding her head up almost immediately, but can do it much better and longer these days. her eyes are open a lot more lately, she's staying awake during the day for longer periods of time. she's a great sleeper, she only wakes up around 2am and 5 or 6 am to eat, going to bed around 11:30. she's a really easy baby, and super sweet. we're having lots of fun with her around.
--aidan has regressed a bit with the potty training, and at first was upset to have to share mommy and daddy with someone new, acting out a bit. that's gone down now, though it still happens, and we're getting back to our potty routine. mostly he wants to "help" (which means hold her.) he's also a good real helper...he'll go get things for me or take diapers to the trashcan. and he likes to rock her in her seat and kiss her on the head.

may 07

2008-02-13T22:14:00.001-05:00

-- due date is 23 june, and we'll see what comes of that! i'm hoping to go earlier than later, but i don't have much choice in the matter. however, the doctor wants to do another ultrasound next week (i'm going every week now) to see how big sierra is right now. aidan was nearly nine pounds two weeks early, and though i'm sure i could handle it being on the larger side myself, i don't know if they want to wait on an already big baby. i'll keep you posted on th at.
--aidan update: feats of the month include naming colors (red, blue, green, yellow, and brown) and climbing UP the slide. however, he couldn't make it with the collection of sticks he had in his hands the first time. (he's a collector like his dad was, i'm told) but once i convinced him he'd make it to the top if he put them down, he did it just fine. now he goes up the stairs only a few times, but climbs up and slides back down (sometimes backwards or upside-down) most of the time...all the while telling himself to "ho wand" ("hold on").
--we got together with his friend jarah a few times this month. jarah is the precious blonde younger woman...by 10 whole days, but you wouldn't know it to look at them together. aidan's almost a head taller and outweighs her by nearly 20pounds. i guess they're both at the extreme ends of the growth chart for their age. jarah jus t had a new baby brother in february (isaac), and aidan enjoyed holding a real baby for the first time. thought it'd be good practice for him...and he looked so proud. we also got him a little baby doll (much to the dismay of his father) that he can practice being gentle with. he cuddles her and feeds her and puts her to night-night. but then, he'll hold her upside down and say "fall down??" of course i tell him, no, that we must be gentle with babies...that we can't cover their faces with blankets, or make them fall off tables, or "take bath" in the potty.
--potty training is going well...but it is a process. he will sometimes tell me when he needs to go, but that's better than never. and when i take him cause it's been a while, he'll go if he has to or won't if he doesn't. he's also much better at staying dry for long periods of time. however, sometimes he'll pee t hree whole minutes after he just went to the potty in lowe's or somewhere, and i have to clean the store floor. so it's still a bit frustrating.
--vocab is coming along as well. he speaks in sentences, but you have to catch the few main words and deduce what he's saying. however he knows exactly what he's saying and will repeat it nonstop! prepositions are tough for him. he'll come to me with arms raised and tell me "down" to get him to pick him "up." he tells me he wants "out" of the potty, instead of "off." but that's a tough concept, so no worries. his new big words are: "dinosaur," "animals," and "downstairs/upstairs." dinosaurs comes from "the land before time" movie that is his current favorite...that and "toy story." buzz is his favorite character right now. his shoes are buzz, which he loves, and he has started this thing where he stands on something puts his fists in the air, says "fee and beyonnnn" ("to infinity and beyond"), and jumps! i think he'll have to be buzz for halloween or something. he also calls all leaves "tree stars" now. pretty cute. buzz and dinosaurs have beaten out nemo and madagascar right now, though we still watch them a lot.

march - april 07

2008-02-13T22:12:00.001-05:00

--started potty training more officially. have made progress, but we're still working on it. he will go whenever i take him to the toilet, usually without much fuss, but still won't tell me when he needs to go, and/or sometimes even when he's already gone. our other potty training issue is aiming...gotta be ready for it! :)
--aidan and i went to blacksburg in march to visit my sister at va tech. my mom and grandparents drove up too. it was great to see them all and spend some time with them.
--easter was pretty fun. we had grammy (billy's mom) down for the week. i cut his hair before then, a change from the 80's bowl cut he was sporting. at first we went with the original bowl cut...but it looked a little too something, so a couple days later i ended up tapering the back a bit...looked much better. he totally looks like a little boy these days. he's so grown up, it's funny.
--he repeats everything he hears, whether he understands what's going on or not, so now's the time to really make sure what he hears is appropriate!! he has some new phrases of his own too. sayings he's picked up and even uses at the right times. things like, "come on," "oh no," "let's go," "fall down," "in the potty," "where'd it go," "one, two, three, five, four," it's pretty fun to watch him learn.
--we were in jersey the last part of april, first part of may. billy's mom threw us a baby shower. it was really great. we had a good time at a great restaurant, and got an absolute ton of gifts. i don't think i have to buy anything but diapers for a year!! good stuff! my sister drove up for the shower, which was nice. emily got to meet billy's side of the family and it was fun to have here there for the shower. my dad drove "over" (he tells me it's not down, but over, from his part of long island) the next day and we all went to lunch before emily had to drive back to school.
--things are great with sierra. still no issues, just getting bigger. we have (officially) six weeks left...but i'm thinking (hoping) that we go early again this time. but we'll see. seems i've been blessed with good pregnancies...nothing bad to report...however, i have gained more weight this time (after starting out heavier already...yuck)! oh well. soon enough, i'll be running again.

december 06 - january 07

2008-02-13T22:08:00.001-05:00

--we spent xmas in jersey with billy's family. went back and forth between his mom's and his dad's houses. and my dad came for xmas dinner at his mom's house. after that, we had a quiet new year at home, and tried to get unpacked and cleaned up and ALL THE GIFTS organized!! and goodness, did aidan get some gifts! you should have seen my car trying to get back home. packed every inch and on the roof!--my dad and my sister came to va beach for a weekend visit, and we got word that my grandfather (my dad's dad) passed away. as sad as that was, we were together for the travel, and were able to extend our visit somewhat instead of meeting up in mississippi, and we were able to visit with family that can't always get together. --however, before we left for missi, we celebrated aidan's second birthday! wow...time files! he got to open MORE gifts, and enjoyed every minute. we took him to chuck e. cheese to play with his friend jarah, who will be two this week. --my cousin lisa came in from minnesota to va beach a week or so ago for a conference for her work. we met up one evening and spent hours remembering, talking, and catching up. seems like whenever we started college, visits were fewer and farther between, and short! so it was great!
--an update on aidan's progress:
--aidan has many many more words in his vocab now. i won't list them all, though i am trying to keep track of them. his favorites are "more, drum, tree,slide, baby, fish, Elmo, bath, watch, poo-poo, and choo-choo." he's even starting to put words together into small sentences (mostly two-worders), like "up please", "out please", "no, mama", and my favorite: "more please juice". he knows all his body parts, but can only name a few. his favorites being "eye, knee, elbow, back, hiney, and toes." he also tells me when things are "hot" and to "shhhh." and when my dad was here, if i didn't let aidan do what he wanted to do, he'd call for "paw-paw!"--we had his two-year check up yesterday. he's now 36.5 inches tall and 34 pounds. he's still 95th percentile in height, but about 80th in weight. he got a flu shot, and didn't like it a bit. other than that, all is well. --i've signed us up for a playgroup. we're going to the first playdate next monday. and we're also starting story time at the library. should be fun!
--an update on billy:
--things are good at work, just busy. he has a major inspection coming up in april, and he' has some slackers working for him. so he's trying to get them into shape. plus about half are pregnant and due in march, so that doesn't help at all!--as for the new "plan" by gw...we don't think it'll effect billy, but i guess it's always a possibility. the way we see it, if they were to take him away from his post here, they'd just have to replace him. however, we're almost expecting him to have to go somewhere when our three years here are up. either on a ship patrolling the gulf (that's what i'm hoping for), or on an IA (individual augmentation of duty) to the ground in either iraq or afganistan.
--an update on baby number 2:
--we are now almost 18 weeks along. i had our first appt with our midwife at the obgyn office last week. i got to hear the heartbeat and had some bloodwork done. tests came out fine, and the heartbeat was a strong 145bpm. our ultrasound is scheduled for feb 8, and billy (and aidan) will be coming to the rest of the appointments with me. we'll keep you posted...