Monday, December 27, 2010




Months 36 and 13

Well, I haven't caught up yet, but here's a few Christmas pictures of my boys who just keep getting bigger.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Months 2 and 25

I'm a bit behind. I didn't write about Aidan's second birthday or Duncan's first month, but hopefully I'll get a pass. I've been dealing with a newborn and a two year old and Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's. Please forgive me.

Aidan's learning things by leaps and bounds. Whole sentences leap out of his mouth, new words are learned at an alarming rate and he knows how to work my Mac with the speed and agility that is only rivaled by his father.

Duncan is growing amazingly fast. He is 12 pounds going on 20, I swear he gets bigger every day and most of it is in his cheeks. Two days ago he rolled over from belly to back. 3 TIMES IN A ROW. Clearly, tummy time is not a favorite with this boy. I also don't remember Aidan doing this this early, but lack of sleep has cause some of the memory cells to disintegrate.

Having two this close together is both a delight and a challenge and things are both easier and much much much harder than I imagined they would be. Mainly the lack of sleep is much harder this time. A good friend of mine pointed out that it would be. The first time round you just have to roll with it, but the next time through you've gotten used to sleep again and remember just how very nice it is to sleep 8 hours in a row.

Aidan has been a delight with Duncan, he wants to play with him, hold him, tells him "love you baby Dohnncan" and only demands that I put him down and pay full attention to him 3 or 4 times a day. Considering Aidan's just turned two, that's pretty damn good.

Hopefully, more sleep will be gotten soon and posting will become more frequent. Until then, kindly enjoy the sweetest picture ever.


Who's that?
Originally uploaded by apg

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Well, Duncan Edward decided to beat his big brother by 5 days and came at 36 weeks and 2 days. Weighing in at a lovely 6 lbs 6 oz, 18.5 inches long he showed up at 7:55 PM on November 5th. The day after my sister's birthday and just 5 short hours after my water broke. It would have been earlier had I not eaten that bowl of ice cream around 1 o'clock. They wouldn't operate until a certain amount of time had passed and since every one seemed healthy and cozy there was no hurry. Cozy being a relative term. Contractions were easier this time but not particularly fun either. I was more than happy to go forward once the spinal kicked in.

Aidan's adjusting well to being a big brother, he can't wait to play with Duncan. In fact that's been the hardest part, explaining why the baby is just too little to play catch right now.

Things this time around feel easier, despite juggling two small men's schedules. Some things came right back to me, although lack of sleep is still hard. Still, I'm thrilled to now be a family of 4.



Awake
Originally uploaded by apg

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Last post as a family of 3

I officially have 4 weeks left before surgery. Unofficially, things could go down at any time. 10 days from now will be the point at which Aidan decided to make an appearance. If his little brother decides the same...well, then we have 10 days until we're a family of 4!

Aidan's been doing some phenomenal things lately. Maybe all kids do these things at this point, but they seem pretty awesome to me anyway. He's been singing along with songs for a little while and knows and can sing almost all of Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle Twinkle, the ABCs, and Itsy Bitsy Spider. He just needs a little prompting here and there, but he knows all the words in the right order.

He can also count to 10 and lately has been adding on 11 and 12. Sometimes 4 and 5 get left out, but who needs them anyway, right?

Aidan's also been pretending. This one flabbergasts me. I had no idea it started so young. A few months ago he handed me one of his toy cups and announced "soup!" and wasn't satisfied until I'd taken a sip of it. This progressed into "hot dog" and sitting and pretending to make coffee with Daddy. Yesterday, he was carrying around two of his stuffed animals and suddenly announced "bear, sleep! hedgehog, sleep!" and laid both of them down. Then he looked at me and said "blanket!" and ran back to his room. Seconds later he came back with the arm covers from the rocking chair and laid them over top of each animal. After patting each one and announcing sleep again he grabbed my hand and made me leave the room.

Clearly the life of a stuffed hedgehog and bear is tiring, they needed their rest.

He's done so many other adorable things lately, but I can't post them all. Well, I could but who'd have time to read them? All in all I think he's going to be a wonderful big brother and I can't wait until we all get to meet Duncan.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Holy Crap! Is that an update I see?

I know, I know, it's been forever and nearly 3 months since I've posted anything. A lot has happened, with us, Aidan and the new baby. Here's generally where we're at.

I'm at 25 weeks, a little more than half way and just about to the point where I remember, Oh yeah pregnancy is uncomfortable. So far everything's looking good. We found out that the baby's a boy (YAHOO!!! re-using clothes, toys, blankets, everything!) and overall I'm doing fine.

Aidan has been picking up millions of new words and has started pairing 2 or 3 at a time together to make "sentences." They're usually pretty simple like "Mama come" with a different inflection to mean he wants me or that he's happy to see me. We've also been experimenting with potty training. He's shown an interest repeatedly, so we bought a potty seat that he's managed to use several times. No big push and certainly no big concerted efforts on our parts. No since rushing him to have a relapse when the new baby gets here. But when he asks, we make sure to get him straight there and praise him afterwards. I'm probably breaking all the potty-training rules, but since I haven't bothered to read any, I don't really care. It's working for now, and I'm going to be changing diapers for next few years regardless so what difference is changing two kids worth?

We've also been doing some needed work around the house. Some, ok who am I kidding, all unpleasant but definitely necessary. The next big goal is to clean up the spare bedroom to turn into Aidan's room. It'll all be wonderful when we're finished, just wish we were already finished.

I know there's been a lot more going on, but that's all for now folks. Meanwhile, enjoy a recent picture of me and Aidan hamming it up in front of the computer.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

A bottle a day

I've been working on phasing out the bottles from Aidan's routine. A few "easy" goals before the next one gets here. Get Baby 1 off pacifiers, bottles, and out of the crib. We got rid of the pacifiers months ago, and I've got Aidan down to just one bottle a day now at bedtime.

I could probably get rid of that one too, but I have noticed that it's harder to get him down for a nap now that he drinks his milk from sippy cups. So for another week or so we'll keep that last bottle.

Next step? Introduction to toddler bed. Yipes!

Thursday, June 04, 2009

18 Months - A Year and a Half!

We've been trying to figure out how many words Aidan can say, so I thought I make a list here. The one's with a star are those he also signs.
In no particular order...
  1. Arrow
  2. Mama
  3. Dada
  4. up*
  5. down*
  6. blanket
  7. bear
  8. lovey
  9. star
  10. moon
  11. book
  12. door
  13. diaper
  14. chair
  15. light*
  16. fan
  17. car
  18. fish*
  19. ball
  20. window
  21. outside
  22. truck
  23. bird*
  24. geese
  25. coffee
  26. bean
  27. cup
  28. stir
  29. sugar
  30. food*
  31. hungry*
  32. eat
  33. cookie*
  34. apple*
  35. more*
  36. spoon
  37. bib
  38. off
  39. nose
  40. ear
  41. eye
  42. toes
  43. knee
  44. arm
  45. shoes
  46. ride
  47. keys
  48. snap
  49. no/nope
  50. "copter," ie. helicopter*
  51. soft
  52. hole
  53. hide
  54. music
  55. milk*
  56. dog
  57. hurt*
  58. trash
  59. tv
  60. Elmo (heaven help me)
  61. cold
  62. hot
  63. water*
  64. bath
  65. wash
  66. watch
  67. hat
  68. glasses
  69. grass
  70. dirt
  71. sheep
  72. knob
  73. help*
  74. nice
  75. dip
  76. please*
  77. banana*
  78. mess
  79. bee
  80. ni-ni
  81. hi*
  82. bye*
  83. juice
  84. love*
Some he's been saying for quite a while and others are newly picked up, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some. He claps when a song or tv show is over, brushes his teeth reasonably well on his own, will bring me something when I ask, and can point out his head, eyes, ears, nose, chin, cheeks, mouth, teeth, elbows, arms, hands, feet, toes, and knees. Even though he can't say all of the words for them yet. Aidan loves watching me sign the alphabet while we sing, and has started recognizing some of the letters and some of his numbers. We're still working on colors. I got him to say yellow once but haven't been able to repeat it or have him consistently point it out. Aidan also says lots of sounds that things make, like 'honk' for geese or beeping his nose. He also knows dogs say "woof" cats say "meow," and when Arrow licks him "eww." Elephants say "pphhtb" cars go "vrroom", and any unknown motor sound in the distance is a helicopter.

Aidan also just had his 18 month checkup this morning and is average for weight and above average for height. Only one shot today (hooray!) and the doctor said he's doing great.

I guess that's about it for this month, more on the new baby in the next few days.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

The Adventure Continues

Who needs full nights of sleep? Who needs spit-up-free clothing? Who needs both hands free?
Clearly, not us.


Our newest arrival will be making an appearance late November/early December.

Happy Mother's Day!

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Month 17


Heading out to plow the back 40
Originally uploaded by apg


This has been another full and exciting month! As witnessed by the lack of posts. Aidan's still picking up tons of new words and gestures, running all over the place, and generally getting bigger by the second. He's also started showing signs of getting ready for potty training, so that new adventure is ahead of us. We've also been debating about the move to a toddler bed, but until he shows signs of climbing out of the crib, I'm happy to keep the hallways baby-free for a few more months.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Month 16

This month Aidan's language skills have exploded. He's definitely in the mimicking stage. All of a sudden he can both say and sign 'more' as well as banana, apple, please, milk, down, and others that I'm sure I'm forgetting right now. He's started saying mama, dada, hi, car, toast, up, and just about anything else that I spend just a few minutes coaching him on. He'll shake hands with you, blow you a kiss, likes to bounce on the beds, and in general has become a TODDLER. How did this happen?

Everything is suddenly fair game, and a whole new set of limits has to be created. It's not okay for him to play with the door on the vcr anymore, because he knows now that it has an 'in' and things can go in that 'in.' Aidan's discovered under as well, and lots of toys wind up under the coach, or the runner in the hall, or some mysterious hidey-hole he has in the basement which I have yet to be able to find. I looked for a wooden block for three days, he toddled over to a corner somewhere and magically produced it last night, and I was all "KID, where did you get that from??"

This has to have been the most fun month so far, and the most tiring, and challenging. And just when things hit a stride, suddenly he's going to learn that there's an out instead of in and shouldn't we all be out? No, mama not in. OUT. And toys don't go under mama, they go on top.

See you all in another month!