On His Way to the Big 0-4: The Fourth Year

A year in review. Aiden didn't have a 3rd birthday party. We did a small celebration here at home, but after the loss of Chase in late March we just weren't up for a big party. Thankfully, he was too young to notice that he didn't get one. This year would have been different. He started planning his birthday party in February!

We got him a bike for his 3rd birthday...and it took him a few weeks to get the hang of it:


I think this was the year that I really started to see the Daddy's boy come out in him. He LOVES daddy :-)



We spent most of last summer at a local pool, dubbed by Aiden as "blue slide pool" because of the massive play area (and yes, there is a blue slide involved) at the children's pool. We bought season passes and enjoyed actually sitting down and talking while we kept two sets of eyes on Aiden playing blissfully by himself or with any "friend" he could find in the pool. We didn't have a summer vacation because we had planned on having a baby that summer, so instead we quietly healed from our loss.

On the 4th of July, Mike was introduced to the game cornhole...Our life will never be the same.



Mike made his own set of boards and I became a cornhole widow when I got too pregnant to join the fun. Aiden was utilized to pick up bean bags after each throw--but he soon caught on that picking up the bean bags wasn't as fun as riding his bike--so Mike lost his little lackey after a few weeks.


In September, we joined my side of the family for the annual beach trip. That was a lot of fun. Aiden adores his older cousin, Meghan and she kept him entertained. It was the first year that Mike and I had a pretty restful vacation...until I got violently ill...thanks for sharing Uncle Joel! ;-) And Aiden had his first throw-up experience on the way home from the beach...Yes, I made it 3 years without having a vomitting child, but when it did happen, it was a doozy--and he did it in the car on the way home from the beach when we were still about 2 hours from home. So I guess you could say that fate caught up with us finally.

We bought a tractor (finally--we have a LOT of yard to mow and Mike was using a little push mower to do it until late last year)...and Aiden discovered the joy of riding with daddy (note, his ear is sticking out thanks to a mosquito bite.


Aiden started preschool in the fall:


And in late October we found out that Little Sister was on the way:


We went apple picking--momma was feeling nice and ill by that time, but Aiden enjoyed learning that apples grow on trees BEFORE they come to the grocery store:

The holidays came and went in a blur for me--probably because of the morning sickness and preoccupation with our new pregnancy. We began decorating both kids' rooms. Aiden tried out the new crib to make sure it would be comfy for his little sister:


Preschool was a great thing for Aiden. His classmates were so sweet and he was always so excited to go to "school"...not so excited to come home and take naps. What a mean mommy! They had a Valentine's Day party and Aiden was very excited about the candy. Mommy...Not so much!



We've figured out how to brush our teeth on our own:


And finally had a REAL birthday party!!


Happy Birthday Little Man!!! What a blessed 4 years it has been!

4 years with Aiden: The third year

After two years of colic, the terrible two's weren't terrible at all. Oh, we had our moments, but it was nice to finally know why he was screaming :-)

We had a busy year! We kicked off our summer with Aiden's birthday:


Then we took off for the beach:


And as if that wasn't enough excitement for one summer, we moved to our current home that year just weeks after returning from vacation! Aiden spent the rest of the summer helping us nest in our new home:


We also added in a trip to Ohio that summer. We were all very busy. Maybe that's why the two's weren't so terrible--there was no time for that! I think all in all, once my busy little guy had hit his big milestones the crying diminished. Today we have a helpful, cheerful, silly boy who loves life...But then, that's all part of the fourth year.

4 years with Aiden: The second year

With Aiden, the colic defined our life. I learned what caused his massive bouts of crying:

1. over-stimulation-Stores, radio, television, just about any type of loud, colorful environment set off hours of screaming...

2. over-tired-We kept a strict bedtime routine. If we didn't, we paid for it later with hours and hours of screaming. Even a motorcycle going by outside and waking him up too early was enough to ruin a whole day for us. He always woke up crying--rarely woke up happy and ready to go.

Life was a balancing act and instead of the baby conforming to us, we learned to conform to the baby's needs...After all, we are the adults :-)

On the good days we had a happy little guy:



We were so excited the day we took this picture! It was the first time we'd been able to be away from his crib and have him take his nap. It didn't hurt that we were at the beach and we always had ocean waves playing in his room continuously while he slept as a white noise...


Each milestone made him a little less colicky. Sitting, crawling, standing, walking, and finally talking. The colic lasted until he was 18 months old! It wasn't as bad as it was initially, but we endured a lot of crying that first year and a half...Today he can run and run--he has great lung endurance...I blame that on the first 2 years of crying.

We had fun discovering new foods...He has never been a picky eater!



And he started making himself useful around the house :-)



We moved quickly from walking to running:


To accessorizing all by ourselves!


And after the first two years, the "terrible twos" were not so terrible after all...In fact, every year has been better than the year before...

4 years with Aiden: The first year

I could make this a sappy post and tell how blessed we are to have had Aiden--and we are...but I don't think that would quite encompass what the past 4 years have been like, or who our child is for that matter. You see, God blessed us with what some would have called colicky in the "old" days...today we call them "high needs" babies. In order to really write about the past four years I have to take the bad with the good...because the bad has really shaped me more than the good, I think God just seasoned a bit of our time with sweet smiles and soft coos because I needed some positive feedback in order to make it to year 4. Most days looked like this:


To prep for Aiden's birth I read all kinds of books. I started with Babywise. The flaw with this theory is it doesn't tell you how long a baby should cry-it-out. Aiden has inherited stubborness from someone--I like to claim it's his father's fault, but anyone who knows me would scream liar right about here. And it would be a valid accusation. So then I went for the gentler approach and had a lot of success with swaddling, swings, and slings...but still, I couldn't seem to find one book that had all of the answers for me. I finally stopped reading the books and started observing my son.

0-1 year: I spent my time alternating between threatening to sell our colicky baby on e-bay and knowing in my heart that even on our roughest days I couldn't live without him. Then I'd move on to self-loathing because I couldn't possibly be a good mother if I had thoughts about selling our screamer on e-bay, or just tossing him out of the window. I knew I could never ever hurt my baby, but I could see how shaken baby syndrome could happen. For example, most babies sleep in the car, right? Not mine...I asked our pediatrician at the time if we could take a 10 hour car trip with a newborn, his response was that this was the best time to take such a long trip because he'd sleep the whole way...One hour into the 10 hour trip I was ready to call the pediatrician and let him listen to the heartrending screams I had been listening to for the past hour. By hour 5 I was weeping with him and swearing to my husband that we were never doing this again. The only times he didn't scream were when we stopped to feed him and the last hour of the ride where he finally fell asleep...The ride home was a lot of the same. It has slowly gotten better over the years, but he does not fall asleep in the car very easily--and if I have to stop for a bathroom break those eyes pop right open...so even today I don't have the blissful child passed out in the back seat for long trips--but at least he's learning to entertain himself by waving to cars we pass (it took me awhile to figure out that the truckers weren't honking at me anymore--now they're just honking for my son...ahhh, how times change!)

We were occasionally rewarded with smiles--this is the first one we caught on camera, and these smiles kept us hoping that maybe, just maybe we were doing something right.

Glimpses of May....

The conversation started simply enough. I was in the bathroom when I heard Aiden say: "I'm going to color my knee!" to which I replied "No! Don't color your knee!" Aiden replied "I didn't!" so emphatically that I believed him. I suppose the shin has more coloring than the knee--but yes, I went ahead and sent him off to school looking like this. Why not?



Aiden's birthday presents from Grammy and Grandpa were a hit! (ball, bat, and glove)


Aiden attempted swinging on his own...we'll have to work on that :-)


With a little help from Daddy, Aiden was able to hit the ball. He cracked up every time the ball and bat connected...I guess we're going to have to work on the "running the bases" concept. Otherwise he'll be standing there laughing like a banshee over his success while the first baseman tags him out.



We went to a local farm to pick strawberries and had the priviledge of seeing brand new (only hours old) baby sheep--how do we know this? Momma's afterbirth was still hanging out. Ahhh...life on the farm. It was really symbolic since this was Mother's Day weekend. I think momma sheep and her babies were the highlight of my trip!


Aiden's favorite part was the tractor train. This is the only time we could really get him to look at us, the rest of the time he was intent on steering--and I was surprised to see that he was actually steering the right way and not just willy-nilly. I guess the tractor rides on daddy's lap have really paid off. He'll be driving before I know it...but I mean that hypothetically...hopefully he won't really be driving without me knowing. Yikes!



And of course there was the strawberry picking! Yum!


Aiden and Grammy riding in another tractor. Momma decided to skip this ride so that Aiden's sister wouldn't get shaken baby syndrome in-utero! Notice that he has perfected the Cinderella wave...


And this picture just cracks me up!


Aiden and Daddy's nightly ritual:

And I had to include a picture of him being the ham that he is:

Hope you enjoyed...His 4th birthday is coming this weekend so there should be more pictures coming soon...(unless momma goes into labor early)...

The Bible Junkie

Aiden has many different children's Bibles. I keep searching for just the right one to really explain the faith that we have. I may have finally found what I've been looking for, and I wanted to share it in case anyone else is searching.

It all started a few weeks ago when I contacted someone else in my church who does Classical Christian homeschool. We are beginning to explore our options as we consider what type of schooling God is leading us to for Aiden. We do feel strongly that Classical Education is for us, but we're not sure whether we're being led to a private school or homeschool.

In my search for schooling information, I stumbled across a blog that intrigued me. At first I knew nothing about the writer or the reason for the blog, but as I read more and more I found out that the writer is the wife of one of the singers in Selah and not only that, but she also lost a baby last year--only a few weeks after we lost Chase. Her words resonated with me, and I was hooked.

I've slowly been meandering through her blog in my quiet moments (not that there are many of those these days). But this is how I discovered the Jesus Storybook Bible. Here's an excerpt from the beginning that shows the beauty of this children's Bible:

"Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should and shouldn't do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn't mainly about you and what you should be doing. It's about God and what he has done. Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but (as you'll soon find out) most of the people in the Bible aren't heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose). They get afraid and run away. At times they are downright mean.

No, the Bible isn't a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It's an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It's a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne--everything--to rescue the one he loves. It's like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life!"

This is from the introduction to the Storybook Bible. The rest of it is full of beautiful stories straight from the Bible, but seasoned with explanations that dive into the theology behind the story in a way that a young child can grasp. I'm a bit jealous of the author's writing ability!

I promise I'm not going commercial with Aiden's blog--I get paid nothing to endorse this book, but I wanted to share--especially since it was 50% off at our Family Christian Store, and I've been searching high and low for a book like this to help me share the Bible with Aiden.

That said, today during our reading time we spent more time talking about what a "bud" is (is it like a bug, mommy?) than about the mysteries of God...But I think over time, these stories will become precious memories engrained on his heart--at least that's my prayer for my son and the daughter to come. After all, God is perfectly capable of speaking truth to my son through a discussion of buds and plants--even if I'm a little baffled by it.

So much for April Showers...Someone needs to let the weatherman know that it's May!

Rainy days with a 4 year-old boy are no fun! A rainy series of days is even less fun! This is how Aiden entertained himself the past few days...



Ahh...the little imp!
Needless to say, we were thankful to see the sun today--but also thankful that we have a long, wide hall to sprint down. He literally did this a few dozen times--it was a regular track workout!