Christmas Cookies

'Twas the day before Christmas and one tradition must stand:
Decorating cookies! We chose a gingerbread man.

With Aiden beside Tay, rolling his dough,

Sam cleaned up the mess that rained down on their toes.

The dough was store-bought and as sticky as could be.
Tay cursed every stuck candycane, star and tree.
Ten is good enough! We won't need that many,
Especially since Aiden has the attention span of a flea.
Lined up on pans in neat, tidy rows
Were the christmas cookies, all ready to go:



Shapes for decorating and tiny dough balls
Each sprinkled with sugar - we had it all!



The last confection going into the oven
Was the cookie made by Aiden with his extra lovin'
Actually it was boogers and snot added to his mix
Let's not tell dad - it will be our little trick!
He pounded and rolled the dough with great glee
Then arranged his creation on his pan quite proudly.
Look mom I'm done! He said with a whoop.
A perfect replica of snowy dog poop:



Out of the oven it came when the timer went ding
(Only the coolest mom would bake such a thing!)
"This one's for Santa" said Aiden, "I'll save it for him!"
"That's so sweet, Aiden!" (Thank goodness for Sam...)
I think this year is turning out to be the best
Because holidays with humor totally lower the stress!
So each year when I feel there's just too much to do,
We'll return to the tradition of gingerbread poo.
Who can be grinchy with such a hilarity on their plate?
Especially years from now when we can tell Aiden's dates
Of how, at age 3, a tradition of bathroom humor was made
All because our family was blessed with the hilarious Aiden Kade.

Family Halloween

We had a fun family Halloween with Brian & Aiden dressed up like Vikings and Tay being their kidnapped fair maiden:





The kiddo just looks like a marauder doesn't he? This year he finally got the hang of dressing up for candy. :)

Hitting Mom is a BAD Idea...

Our Toys R Us was having a sale and was stuffed full of clearance items so after Aiden did so well at getting his flu "shot" (nasal spray version), I took him up there to play at the store while I tackled our list of birthday & cousin gifts. An hour later we're in the checkout line when I tell Aiden no, he cannot play with some tiny breakable junk toy by the register. He freaks out, begins screaming and trying to hit me. I wheel us up to the register to pay and he hits my hands, smashing them against the shopping cart bar then strikes me twice more on the arm as I ignore him and unload our cart. When my back is turned, he lands a blow so forcefully under my shoulder blade that it forces an exhale, I wince in pain and I can hear all the moms and grandmothers behind me gasp at the fleshy THUD from his strike. I turn quickly, eyes flashing with anger but controlling my own reactions and hiss that hitting is not allowed, then push our cart forcefully away from me so it rolls to an empty cart area near the door with Aiden still sitting in it. He screams, cries and wails at an enormous volume for the next 2 minutes while I finish my purchase. All eyes are on me. What else is new? I actually have a half-second to note that after hearing everyone gasp, my first thought was for Aiden's future success at school if we don't curtail this hitting and that the first familiar prick of embarrassment was extinguished by my next thought of what I should do to stop this horrible hitting problem. Who has time to care what complete strangers think!

I have Aiden apologize to me before I wipe his eyes, help him blow his nose and remove him from the cart. He walks calmly with me to the car, as if he has never misbehaved in his life. My back is dully aching the entire drive home and the car is silent as I work through in my mind what I should do. Hitting as punishment for hitting is never the right answer so that is out. Time outs, that may work for other children, are not reliable with Aiden because they spawn toy-throwing rages that only allow him more physical expression for his anger. (Even if there are no toys, he will rip the decor off the wall in his room and throw those, simply because he's been put in time out.) Difficult child and time-outs don't really work. I'd looked up several parenting things on LDS.org and all of it said to discipline firmly but with kindness. Okay....how? Another parenting book comes to mind that said discipline should benefit the recipient, giving them opportunity to learn instead of taking away the learning opportunity by putting the child in time-out. Fine. How? I then thought of how truly difficult Aiden can be and how Brian and I pray every night that we will know the right things to do for him that he may learn and grow well. I am nearly beginning to think "why is there so little help for me?" when an idea suddenly pops into my head and my mouth begins saying it before I have even thought it through but it's the best idea I've gotten yet! I tell Aiden that when he gets angry and his hands want to hit that it means they are not getting enough exercise and we need to do things that will help exercise them so they won't want to hit when he feels angry. I actually smile when I get the idea of what his "exercise" should be:



Last night I cooked dinner for a family who just had twins - their 4th and 5th children - so I had to cook for an army and my splattered stovetop showed it. Scrubbing is good exercise for hands that like to hit...



....and so is cleaning the TV...

...and unloading the dishwasher...

...and scrubbing out the sink with Comet...

...Windexing the back door glass...

...and cleaning all the sticky fingerprints off the hope chest.

Yep, hitting mom is a BAD IDEA! However when it came to meeting the demands of discipline with kindness in a way that taught him without using harshness, this idea was pure genius and totally inspired. And the more I watched him clean the more thoughts came to my mind about how this same thing can be used when he's not listening and obeying (needs to practice listening to cleaning instructions and following through) and to when he's refusing to do things (needs to practice doing more things, like household tasks, when he is asked to) and as a consequence to defiance, mess making and the general mayhem he creates, this will be a great way to teach through tactile activity that he cannot go through life wreaking havoc or he will be continually presented with such "opportunities for learning at home"! I guess it takes one really good whack in the back during our hundredth temper tantrum to create the scene for me to list out everything I know, confess the things I don't know and think "Okay, HOW?!!" before the moment is ideal for the perfect answer. Our tactile boy needs tactile learning and tactile discipline. It's pretty cool when prayers are answered just when you need it. :)

Favorite Things

We'll take a quick intermission to mention some of Aiden's favorite things while at Nana and Papa Bob's besides all of the fun activities. He has loved playing in the upstairs game room with all of the really cool games, puzzles, and toys.

But most of all he has loved the cats. If ever he disappears, and we don't hear him, we know that he has headed off to see the cats.

Who may not be as thrilled to see him as he is to see them!

Playing In The Creek & Ice Cream

Once we got home from Orr Family Farms Tuesday afternoon, it was time for Papa Bob to get home from work, which meant that it was time for Aiden to get to play in the creek while Mommy and Daddy got to out on a date for the evening.

The creek behind my Dad's house has been his pet project ever since they moved into their house in Oklahoma. Don't let this next picture fool you, even though there are toys in the background, I am sure that Aiden was put to work shoveling dirt for the next project! j/k

After all of their hard work and play, it was off to Braum's for some ice cream. Aiden's favorite color is orange, so I am sure that is why he ended up with orange sherbet. As to why the ice cream is bigger than he is, we'll never know.

Luckily, he doesn't mind sharing. "Here Papa Bob, help me finish this."

Orr Family Farms

So after a mostly uneventful Monday of flying into OKC (Aiden did great on the flight and enjoyed watching the gears and hydraulics moving the flaps on the wing our window looked out at) and just hanging out a Nana and Papa Bob's we decided to fill our Tuesday with some adventures. Nana, Tay, Aiden and I started the day out at Orr Family Farms. It is a working horse training facility outside of OKC which has also added a family/kid friendly farm activity area. It was very clean, not too crowded, and had a lot of fun things for Aiden to do.


He really enjoyed learning how to milk a cow. Can you see the concentration?

The farm also had a section with some very large jump pillows. They were basically an inflated trampoline which we all enjoyed jumping on, including my cute wife!

There were lots of things for Aiden to ride on at the farm. We opted for the fake horse instead of paying for a pony ride, which turned out to be money well saved because he didn't seem very interested in the horses.

He enjoyed riding the big red truck during his lunch break. You may notice the cheeks puffed full of peanut butter sandwich!

He had a lot of fun on the old fashioned Merry-Go-Round.

But, his favorite was definitely the train ride. You can't beat a Thomas look alike and getting to sit with Mommy and Nana.

The conductor even let him get in and blow the whistle!

We ended the day with the "hay ride" which was really just riding in a trailer being pulled by a big tractor out to the pumpkin patch where we all got to pick out a pumpkin.

I was happy that Aiden chose one that I could carry rather than this one.

We had a great time, and then headed home for the rest of the awesome activities for the day.

Oklahoma Trip

Early on in the summer Nana and Papa Bob called us and asked that we come and visit since it had been too long since they had last seen us (read: Aiden). We had a busy summer planned out, and the thought of long days out in the heat didn't sound that fun, so we postponed the trip to this past week. That turned out to be a great idea, because we have had some great weather, and have really enjoyed ourselves.

We've been in Oklahoma since Monday, and will head home early Saturday. The break from work has been wonderful, and Tay and I have been able to have a couple of date nights while being here. It has also been a lot of fun to see Aiden bond with his grandparents.

Anyways, the next couple of posts will be about our trip and the fun activities we have had.

Blue Bell Factory

This past Friday Tay and Aiden joined the Meads on a pilgrimage to one of the most revered places in Texas, The Blue Bell Factory. I, unfortunately, was stuck at work while everyone else got to see where and how the best ice cream in the world is made.

Here is Aiden with Garner III and Julie.

Aiden really enjoyed the tour, because he loves to see big machines and how they work. At the end of the tour, you get a bowl of ice cream.

There is nothing better than sticky ice cream fingers!

Seriously guys, WHY?

WHY does it take so long to come up with an idea for a family costume theme that your husband likes and actually agrees to, THEN takes longer to shop for a costume "cool" enough (which really means ridiculous enough to get some laughs), THEN you have to comparison shop that costume over a dozen halloween sites, dig up free shipping coupon codes and FINALLY order it four hours later only to have him say "Meh. Whatever. Halloween is silly" when your 3 year-old can think of nothing else and is crushed by the fact it's still two months away?!! And why is it that said husband never remembers that the cool guys ALWAYS dress up and it's never until AFTER halloween - when he's seen the other wives giggle, applaud & cheer over the other dad's costumes - that he decides he's finally ready to "really" dress up, only to forget it come next year? Luckily Brian is learning to trust me and realize he'll actually have fun!

Despite the round & round on ideas, we finally came up with a combination that meets all our needs where Brian is dressed funny, I am modest & girlie and Aiden's costume is fitting of his personality. This year Brian & Aiden are going as vikings and I am their kidnapped fair maiden. So fitting... Me at the mercy of a pair of marauding barbarians, imagine that! LOL! I'll be in flowy, feminine renaissance-ish dress and the boys will be in rugged nordic garb complete with horned helmets & swords. (I'm making Aiden's costume to resemble Brian's, which is going to be fun, too!) This halloween is going to ROCK!!!

Imaginative Play CAN Be Taught!

Several months ago I found some curved waldorf blocks (Montecarlo Blocks from Grimm's Spiel & Holz - see below) and while I was shopping online, I stumbled across this picture of colorful blocks that Aiden LOVED looking at online:



Inspired by it but not liking the ridiculous price of buying all the block sets shown (about $500), I got the curved blocks, bought some unfinished cut wood shapes off Etsy and picked up some rainbow glass pebbles at Michael's so Aiden could invent his own make believe things.

In July I took Aiden to the library and also let him pick out DVDs from their scant collection. He selected a Tinkerbell movie where she invents things and goes on some ridiculous adventure. Aiden was so enthralled by the way she used sticks, leaves & natural things to make "machines" that he wanted to "make Tinkerbell fairy things". I suggested we start by making Tinkerbell a place to live out of his blocks & things, which spiraled into a whole world of imaginary play for him that I'm loving!

See the rainbow pebble cobblestone walkway? (A "sidewalk" for "driving on") Aiden also decided she needed some mushrooms planted nearby her little gnome house.

I built the blue block wall (first picture above) and let Aiden watch me. Then I began making the above multi-colored wall and got about 3 pieces touching before he completely took over! When we first got the curvy block set he was *PISSED* that they would not line up to make nice, straight sidewalks. (My exact intent - the kid should learn something besides straight lines!) Once I showed him how to stack the blocks, make curvy-edged lagoons for his plastic dinosaurs & how to balance the symetrical arched blocks, he's enjoyed these much more! I have too and am always on the lookout for more creative waldorf playthings I can pick up on Etsy or make myself. :)

Meanwhile, it's also nice to have fun, silly things to pretend play with. I would have loved something like this as a child and would have played for hours on end! (No doubt it's why I'm giving them to Aiden now!) And I'm not worried about the "girlie fairy" things rubbing off.... Not shown is Frank the Combine Tractor plowing down everything in sight and then Chuy the Bulldozer picking up the "what a mess" glass pebbles and putting them into his deep fry basket (a vintage object I found in Granbury that is now a sand & water play toy), shoving the basket into one of the empty cubbys (that doubles as a play oven since I lined it with a metal oven rack) and cooking them into "candy". All of this ended by throwing the glass pebbles & blocks everywhere - Hurricane Aiden style - before he calmly walked out of the playroom, towing star blanket, to go wreak havoc somewhere else! Yep, he's got that fairy play thing down.... LOL!

The Blokus King

Aiden has recently gotten into (sort of) playing preschool games and one day two weeks ago he spied the Blokus box as I was putting away one of his games with the rest of them. He asked for them and I paused, thinking they were nothing but little pentominoes (educational) and they were brightly colored, making them easy to pick up if he decided to throw them. Sure, why not?

What I didn't expect was for Aiden to become so serious and spend a FULL 45 MINUTES IN SILENCE attempting to fill his Blokus board with all the pieces. I was stunned! Why hadn't I thought of that activity sooner? I fetched the camera because I thought no one would believe me and here they are (pics are from August 11 which is why he still has hair!)



He's in deep concentration, sitting nicely, not throwing anything...who is this kid?



Logically testing & turning the pieces to see which way it will fit...

Experimenting with new combinations to see if he can squeeze more pieces in the same area previously occupied by pieces that did not fit together nicely... (That would be Brian's efficiency he's working with! Hopefully combined with mom's spatial intelligence?)

And now that he's done, he's got to drive Filmore on it because he is only 3 and EVERYTHING he builds must be "road tested" this way to determine it's driveability...LOL!

Now when I need a few minutes of quiet to get something done, Blokus comes to the rescue! Gosh I love this kid and sometimes he sure does impress me with his math-and-logic-based creativity!

Preschool Fever and.....Cereal?

Aiden has suddenly fallen in LOVE with all things preschool. I've been doing "preschool" at home with him for months but he's just now caught on with the whole excitement of back to school.

I'm quietly against child avertising so I only let Aiden watch PBS kids (very, very minimal ads for things like raisins, health food, children's gyms, etc.) and DVDs. He doesn't see hardly any "regular" TV. He has, however, seen the new Frosted Mini Wheats commercials where the cereal squares sit on the children's shoulders as they bound off the school bus, dressed in brand new clothes with coordinating backpacks bursting with brand new school supplies. This obviously has caught the imagination of Aiden because when we were at the store today picking up bread, he spotted the cereal from an impossible distance away. (Ooh, good! He got mom's 20/15 vision!) We then were NOT leaving the store without "preschool cereal". (Hmm... 5 grams of fiber and it's a carb - besides oreos - that he'll eat? DEAL.)

When we got home we were NOT having anything for lunch besides "preschool cereal". I poured him a bowl and watched him happily shovel in a few bites before I noticed him pause, look at the box, glance over his shoulder, look at the box, poke his cereal..... I reminded him to eat cereal with a spoon when he said "I want cereal to sit on my shoulder?" I laughed out loud and had to explain to him what he'd seen on TV was pretend but assured him this was indeed "preschool cereal" and that it helped him do good at preschool things. (Bah! It's not completely untrue. I just doubt the cereal will teach him the proper order of numbers bewteen 12 and 20 and that "forty six" is not one of them....)

With any luck this will help me get some food in him on the mornings he'll have SPARKS (the free mom & tot pre-school our district does to help children learn what is expected of them in a classroom). Now if only they had "preschool chair glue" so I could get the kid to sit still or "preschool pay attention fairy dust" so he would listen to directions longer than a single word! Even better would be a "preschool snare gun" and "preschool tranquilizer darts" but CPS may frown upon those.... For now I'm tempted to load up the yellow backpack Aiden sometimes runs around in with bricks to slow him down a bit but with my luck it would only build up his endurance! :D Ah, the joys of parenting!

Aiden's Haircut: Phase 2

Tay: I couldn't bear to see Aiden's head completely shaved the day he cut his own hair off but after taking him out in public for 5 days and the "stripe" getting funny looks, I decided it might be best for everyone's patience to just buzz him and be done. Yesterday I carefully measured the hair he had left, clipped on a 2 guard and buzzed it clean & even. :) He doesn't even look like my kid! LOL!

The WORST part about it is I was mailed a fun new tub of Got2Be Sculpting Paste to try as part of a product-launch word-of-mouth-advertising campaign THE DAY BEFORE HE CUT HIS HAIR! The product is a cream-to-dry something that goes on, helps you create a gorgeous messy bed-head then dries to a touchable, matte, soft finish that then holds the shape without being crunchy. Aiden looked like a little movie star by the time I was done with his hair and the turd cut it all off the next morning! These next several months will be AGONY while I wait for his hair to grow out. Meanwhile I'm (sort of unintentionally) driving Aiden NUTS by rubbing his fuzzy buzzed head! It's so....fuzzy! LOL! He's told me repeatedly "I cut off all my hair. It's all gone forever" and "I like my hair short or spikey? I like it spikey." Looks like he misses his hair, too! He'll learn. In this house you do not mess with hair!

So Tell Us: Does Aiden look more like Bri or Tay with his hair buzzed?
(Personally I think he looks like Eric's stunt double but that's just me!)

A LITTLE Off The Top, Please.

This past Saturday while I was playing Ultimate, Tay needed to get ready for the baby shower she was co-hosting later that morning. Aiden was contentedly watching his new Curious George movie, so Tay thought that it would be the perfect time to go and start getting ready. When she got out of the shower and went to check on Aiden, this is what she found:

The kiddo had climbed up onto Tay's counter desk in the kitchen, grabbed the scissors out of her pens and pencils jar, and decided to give himself a haircut. In a straight line. Down the middle of his head. To the scalp.

Tay was pretty traumatized. Something about family pictures in a month and a half, and that her baby's cute hair was all gone. I was just happy that Aiden still had ears. So, after hiding all scissors, and a quick buzz cut Tay was off to the baby shower and Aiden and I went to the Children's Museum to meet up with Sheena, Tyler, and Kyler for their last weekend in Houston before Tyler's school semester begins.

The Children's Museum was fun as usual (P.S. the membership has been totally worth it this year). And then, you can't take a trip all the way into to town without stopping in at our favorite candy store next to The Chocolate Bar.

So, don't you just love the new do???