Introducing: The little sib

The Gingerbread Train

Little Stinker! So the question is always "can I have one gumdrop?" Today I said yes. This is a rare occurrence for me as daddy is much more lenient when it comes to candy. I let him say yes and I say no. It works. Today I said yes. So Aiden heads gleefully to the gingerbread train and chooses a blue candy. He said, "I like blue one" and continued to suck on it making happy grunting noises for the next 10 minutes. Then he tries a new angle "I didn't like that one. I need to pick new one." Huh? Sorry bud...you picked blue and you ate it with relish. Somehow I don't believe you. It scares me to see how quickly he is finding little ways around this. And as I was typing he wanted some Christmas cookies (which are now 3 weeks old and need to be tossed!). I told him no, of course, and he stalks off to his playroom carrying the bag...Ummm...I don't think so. I'm not that dumb yet, son!

Anyway, here are some pictures from our gingerbread decorating fun...

Really, really sick

Aiden has a cough that is interrupting his sleep. Pregnant mommy needs her sleep...as you can see, we have diverging interests in our house.

Two nights ago Aiden's cough was hurting him. He would be fine while I was in the room with him rubbing his back, but not so fine if I tried to leave to go to my own bed. Since he's in a toddler bed, crawling in with him was not an option. So I came up with the bright idea of taking him down with me to the guest room (didn't want to wake up daddy). At first it worked well. The crying stopped and he seemed like he was drifting off. But then pregnant mommy had to pee, which meant disturbing sleeping Aiden. That was the end of the sleep. Next it was "What that noise?" (it was the vents in the room, which are closed and whistle with the heat), then it was "I hear Casey!" (our large cat who has a growth over his nose and breathes like Darth Vader).

2.5 hours later Aiden was wide awake and enjoying hanging out with mommy, but showing no interest in sleep, so I had to take him back to his room. He was NOT happy, but he did eventually fall asleep in his own bed. The next morning he informed me, "I going to sleep with you again in THAT room". And here's the part I never, ever should have said...I replied, "No, that's only for when you're really, really sick and can't sleep." For two days now he's been saying, "I going to be really sick tonight". Of course you are...

Away in a Manger

There are some obvious signs around our house that a child lives here. After specific instructions that he was not to play with the manger pieces, this is what I found:



There have also been joyous refrains of "Happy Birthday to Jesus" echoing through the halls, so maybe he's picking up something of the reason for the season :-).

I've been tagged...

I've been tagged and I'm supposed to show where I blog from...Here I am in all of my blogging glory:

So now I tag...Lisa Perreca :-) (You don't have to be in the picture, I just happened to have this one because Mike had the camera one night)...

Halloween Pictures--Yes, I'm aware that it's December :-)

Updating here has become difficult for a few reasons.

One. It's difficult to get good pictures of Aiden, mainly because he starts to scream, "I want to see Aiden!" as soon as he sees the camera. We're still trying to make him understand that we have to TAKE a picture before he can SEE a picture.

Two. My writing business has taken off so quickly that I find I spend all of my free time writing. And it makes blogging a little less fun because writing is now becoming "work" to me. Not a side-effect I anticipated, but I'll try to deal.

Three. I've been a little fatigued and nauseous lately...with good reason :-). For those of you who don't know already, we are expecting July 8, 2009. 7-8-09...Cool date, huh? Not that very many women ever actually hit the due date, but at least it's easy to remember. A good thing for me and my pregnancy brain (yes, I've been finding frozen stuff in the fridge, refrigerated items in the pantry...pregnancy brain is for real, because that's not a problem I usually have).

Those are my excuses. Take them or leave them. I do have his Halloween pictures up. I was chastised by Mike's cousin's wife at Thankgiving for not bringing pictures of him dressed up for Halloween with me to Thanksgiving. But really, who prints out paper pictures anymore? Not me. I haven't printed out paper copies since he was about 1 and a half. Does anyone else find that the digital cameras have left you with loads of DVDs full of pictures, but no hard copies? Or maybe I'm the only one...Well...these are the best that I could find of my little Thomas train. As you can see, he wasn't really posing--He was too busy saying "I want to GO trick or treat!" Geez mom...who wants to take pictures when there's candy to be had?

Aiden has been busy

I know it has been awhile, but Aiden has been a busy young man this month. With visits to the pumpkin patch, an apple orchard and preschool, his schedule has been full. It is such a fun age! Here are some pictures from the past month or so...

First we've started him on some slave labor:



Then we took a trip to the North Carolina Aquarium. By the end of the museum he complained: "I don't like fish, I don't like sharks, I hungry, I want to eat!"



Then we took him to an apple orchard where he learned that apples come from trees (not the grocery store). He also insisted on carrying this bag even though he could barely walk under the weight.



That's a lot of activity for a 3 year-old.