Aidan's dedication!

Our sweet family!

For our educators...

My Mom wrote a great letter to the editor that made it into the paper this week. Please take a moment to read it and be thankful for our educators!

Here

It must be something about me...

If you've read my blogs for a while, you'll remember that people like to say random, weird, and sometimes not so kind things to me! Here's some to jog your memory...
Here & Here

Well I've been comment free for a while now and I was thinking maybe it was just another symptom of pregnancy for me! That is until a few weeks ago...

I've recently been going lap swimming with a good friend of mine once a week at a local gym. We happen to go Thursday mornings @ 8 am, during the aquasizers class. We enjoy watching the cute old ladies dancing to the oldies in the pool; I imagine it will be me some day too. Well in the locker room after class one of the ladies was chatting with me about the importance of exercise, blah blah. So as small talk goes, I commented on exercising to lose that baby weight! I shouldn't have...
Me: Yes, exercise is really helpful to lose that baby weight (or something!!).
Lady: Oh, let me see your stomach!! (MIND YOU, I am NAKED at this point.) She walks over to me and comes in close for a good look.
Lady: OH Honey! You do not have anything to worry about, you look great!
Me: Thanks....

(great compliment... LITTLE awkward!!)

Then, 2 weeks later, I ran into the same little lady again...of course, I too was naked again. :) Although in the process of dressing...
Lady: Oh, you have those panties!!! (seriously, just plain low rise briefs!) I just don't know how you get them to stay up! Let me see those!! She walks over to me (MIND YOU, they are the ONLY article of clothing I have on), proceeds to grab the waistband of my undies and tug on them to see how they stay up! WHHHHAAAT!
Me: Well, I don't know, they just stay up for me....

Oy... We'll see what this week brings!

Randoms...

Woo! Has life been busy! Here's what's up with us...

Potty training is still going well...rarely an accident. This pooping business is something else though. I'm trying to "catch" her before she is about to go and put her on the pot, but it's a SERIOUSLY big deal. I'm not worried about it, I'm just sick of cleaning poopy panties. :)

Olivia's 3 is so different than 2. She is much less oppositional than she was. Her opposition has turned into more dramatic emotion, but it's so much easier to deal with! And so much more enjoyable. She loves to have conversations with you about anything. Our new thing she likes to do is each night before bed we tell each other what we did while we were apart from each other (i.e. at daycare & work).

Aidan is a man on the go. He is developed such a spunky little personality!! His face is always full of expression...as are the "utterings" that come out of him! My favorite story of last week was when we quickly grabbed dinner at (insert fatty fast food restaurant here) and were seated at a table next to an older woman, and what appeared to be her daughter, who had Downs Syndrome. Aidan quickly took to the two of them and spent the whole meal saying "Hi" in his sweetest voice and waving. The daughter loved when he would take a french fry and open his mouth as wide as he could, put the end of it in and "chomp" the bite off. Hilarious! I wish you could see the expression on his face!

Aidan is also talking up a storm! He definately uses words more than any other form of communication anymore. His new favorites are: No, mine (really, can you imagine!), tractor (tac-tor), airplane (a-peen), bus, and strawberry (ta-bee). He's become quite the little imitator of new sounds and words which is very fun for Olivia. They both love it when we drive around and Olivia will say "Look Aidan, there's a ___!" "Say ____!" He tries his hardest!!

We HAD been enjoying the spring weather, being out and about as much as we could. The last few days have been quite miserable not being able to be outside as much as we would like, but we're making do! Hopefully soon it will be spring again.

T-31 days until we head on our trip to Sweden for Ryan's brother's (Aaron) wedding! We are so excited!! All in all, our trip will be 12 days. The first 8 will be in Sweden, then the final 4 in Rome. As thrilled as I am, I am also getting apprehensive about leaving the kids for such a long time. I know they will have a blast with Grammi & Grampa, and I will probably miss them more than they miss me!! :) OH, and we found out our tickets on the flight over got bumped up to Business Class. Score! Probably due to my Mom giving us some frequent flier miles for the tickets and her high-flying status. Thanks Mom!

Aidan's 1st birthday!

Yes, his 1st birthday happened in January. (January 6th to be exact)
Yes, I forgot my camera for the birthday party with Ryan's family.
Yes, I now have the pictures!!
Yes, I think it's really annoying when I forget to switch around the order of my pictures so the last is first. :)

He looks less than thrilled!

Aidan's Minivan cake... I mean RACECAR. :)

Race car or station wagon, you decide...

Not my finest cake work!! :)

Pottylicious

Once again it's been too long since I've updated! :)

I made a swift decision 2 weeks and 1 day ago. This potty training business has got to go...not stop it, but get in gear. I had put her in pull-ups for a couple of months, initially thinking that would a) be a motivator and b) be what you were supposed to do! In retrospect, I hate pull-ups and I won't use them with Aidan (except for sleeping). I had been getting so frustrated because even though Olivia was using the potty more, she was still peeing in her pull-ups all the time. After a great discussion at ECFE, I just decided no more pull-ups: panties only.

And you know what? I wish I would have done it 2 months ago! She's done soo awesome! Most days are 0-1 accident, and if there's more accidents it's usually because of the neglect of the adults! Pooping is another thing... any tips on getting this going???

Productive.

It's 9:06 AM as I start this post. My day started at 6:40. This is what I've done so far:
Fed 2 kids homemade pancakes.
Threw in a load of laundry.
Ate said pancakes.
Dressed 2 kids.
Washed the floor freaky-fast while Olivia watched a 20 min. signing video and tried to prevent Aidan from slipping on the floor. (He ended up in the high chair)
Got the kids set up playing downstairs.
Washed all the windows on the first floor of the house...inside and out. (only to find out that we are having our lawn mowed and leaves blown today....sigh...Jill, make sure your hubby keeps my windows clean!) Made faces and sang songs to Aidan through the open windows as I cleaned the outside.
Vaccummed the living room carpet.
Threw in another load of laundry.
Removed the spots from my living room carpet. (Oxyclean really is amazing.)
Put Aidan up in crib for a little quiet time.
Dusted with the help of Olivia.
12 min. of Clifford as a reward.
Facebook. Blog. Need to rescue Aidan.

What's next? Fold lots of laundry, vaccum the rest of the house, pick up the basement, get guest bedroom ready for company. Lunch, naps, doctor appt. for A, grocery shop, and the Twins game tonight!

Maybe at some point I'll get dressed.

It's now 9:12. Happy Friday!

Easter Weekend

Cuddling & reading books with Great Grammy Mac

Easter morning!

Reading books & eatin' cupcakes with Uncle Bill & Auntie Lynn

My Easter creations! :)

Send me your blogs...

I lost my favorites doing an update on my compter!! If I've commented on your blog or you know I follow it, please send me the link!
(If I'm a follower on your blog, I already have it...)

Thank you!

BBQ

We have been loving being able to eat dinner outside during this beautiful spring! Not only does being able to use the grill add some spice to our menu options, but the kids are happy and distracted during dinner and they eat great! I love this time of year!!

Oh, crazy eye boy!

Check out Aidan's grin in this picture! Classic!!