He's Finally Found It

The naughty spot, that is. He's really not a bad child. Really. But there just comes a point when you can no longer yell or say no or "remove and distract" like all the books say. Aaron's very favorite thing to do is splash around in Reagan's water bowl. He doesn't mind the getting wet part such as in this picture:

However, Mommy and Daddy mind it. And Reagan probably a little bit, too. So after catching him playing in her water bowl again and saying NO a hundred times, I decided to give the naughty spot business a try (Stop laughing, Dad). I made him stay there for one minute (supposedly you subject them to the naughty spot one minute for however many years old they are) until the timer went off and then I let him get up. The first time I did it, I think he was a little bit amused. The second time, it was a little harder for him to sit there, even for just 60 seconds. I guess it's working, though, because every time he goes near Reagan's water, I give him one chance and tell him if he does it again, he's going to the naughty spot. And he stops!! We'll see how this goes. I refuse to spank him, so hopefully this works because, honestly, I'm all out of ideas. I've reached the point where I really don't know what to do with him when he does stuff like this. And it works for the Supernanny, so that's a good thing right?

In case you're wondering, this is where the naughty spot is in our house:


By the way, take a look at this picture:


This looks like a pretty good naughty spot too, right? Nope, this is actually Aaron's fun, happy place. He loves crawling back there!

Nice Hair, Dude!

I tried to be ultra cool like the Girls' Moma and put Aaron's hair up into a "shampoo cone" like Coley and Jalyn had in this post, but, alas, my boy STILL doesn't have enough hair to do it. I was able to make a kickin' curly mohawk, though!!

By the way, check out how many teeth this kid has now:

You can't see all of them in this picture (mostly because I can't get him to pose for me. Imagine that!) but trust me when I say that his teeth are coming in perfectly symmetrical; just imagine a mirror image of the side you can see and you've got his whole mouth. Pretty awesome! And, you know, he hasn't really complained at all about those teeth coming in. Not even the huge molars that actually made his gums bleed a little before they finally poked through. Such a trooper, this guy!

Ladies and Gentleman, My Husband

Are any of you familiar with "Ooh, Aah & You" from Playhouse Disney? This is Daddy emulating the "Sit on the Couch Dance." He's pretty good at it, yes?

This is for you, Lis...

Check out the shoes!! I got these in the mail today and was so excited about them that I had to put them on Aaron right away and take a picture. Converse shoes are so rockin'!! Aaron's best friend and future wife, Jalyn, also has a pair of Converse shoes (hers are red) and as soon as I saw them on her, I knew I had to get a boy pair for Aaron. You can see Jalyn in her Converse tennies here.

By the way, just to show you how out of control I am concerning clothing for my boy, check out how many pairs of shoes he now has:

Insane, I tell you! He has more pairs of shoes than me! Another sad thing about me is that I have in my internet bookmarks the direct links to the baby boys' sections of the Old Navy, Gymboree, The Childrens' Place and babyGap websites. I check them all at least once a week to see what new stuff they have. Who knew clothing a boy could be so much fun!

Hold My Calls!!

So sorry, but I will be unavailable from 8:30 to 9:00 PST this evening due to a most important event that I cannot miss even for one second. Here is a preview:

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No, you don't understand. Kids, husbands and pets be damned! I have had only The Office reruns this summer to pacify my Jim obsession and I am dying to find out what happened after THE KISS. I now know what it feels like to physically feel your heart melt. Melt, I tell you! Lisa knows what I'm talking about. Read about it here and here.

Watch Me Eat with a Fork!

Aaron has all of a sudden started to eat using a fork! I say "all of a sudden" because, a couple of days ago, I handed him a fork to keep him busy in a restaurant and he actually started to use it properly! Surprised the heck out of me! He must have learned just by observing us. I hadn't even tried giving him a fork yet to use as a utensil because I honestly didn't think he could and was afraid he would just use it to push his food off his tray. Just goes to show you that you gotta give them some credit every once in a while!

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The Weather Here is Crazy!!

This is what I had Aaron dressed in Tuesday afternoon for our trip to the park:

This is what I had him dressed in today at around the same time:


There is a temperature difference of twenty degrees between when these pictures were taken. It was easily 80 degrees outside when we went to the park on Tuesday but my computer says that it's only 59 degrees outside right now. It's madness!! God, all I ask for is a little warning before you turn the dial to autumn!

I Have Found Heaven...

...and this is what it looks like:

Aaron is finally drinking out of a big boy sippy cup! In order to transition him from the bottle, we started giving him his juice and some of his milk in this type of sippy cup, the Nuby:


This worked really well for the transition, but as it turns out, the Nuby is not at leak-proof as one would like it to be. I kept stepping in wet spots on the floor and was about to kill a certain little dog I know, but then quickly figured out that it was Aaron pressing the top of the Nuby into the floor. This opens the slits on top of the nipple and lets the liquid flow right out. I had already tried to switch him over to the Playtex sippy cups with the hard plastic tops a few months ago (as I talked about in this post), but he couldn't figure out how to get the liquid out of them and just ended up playing with them like toys. The other day, though, after the umpteenth time of getting my socks wet on the carpet, I bought him a couple of Playtex sippy cups and he figured it out! These sippy cups have some serious leak-proofness so everybody's happy! Yahoo!

I know. It's the little things.

Who Do Ya Love, Baby!!!!

Today was my Rams season opener and they started things off with a win, thank you very much! I have added a new section to my sidebar to your left so you can keep up with their season. 'Cause that's how much I love 'em!

I was able to finally put Aaron in the jersey that I bought about a year and a half ago on the very day I found out I was having a boy. It is the jersey of our most favorite Rams player on the planet - Torry Holt. Love him! I have his jersey too and have proudly worn it to two games now, both here in Seattle at Qwest Field watching the Seahawks play when my Rams come to town. I will wear it a third time when we go home to Missouri for Thanksgiving. It will be good to be back at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis again. I don't like the way I've been treated at Qwest Field! I, of course, had to take several pictures of my sweet boy in his jersey plus a video of him messing with the camera lady.

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Y'all Seen Any Whales 'Round Here?

This past Labor Day Weekend, Bill, Aaron, and I traveled north (way north; like, a county away from Canada north) to Anacortes, WA to go whale watching out in the San Juan Islands. This trip was one of the things on our Washington to-do list and we thought this was probably the last opportunity we would have to do it before the weather started to cool off. We were right about that, because the day that we went, the weather was absolutely perfect. It was sunny with highs in the upper 70's on land which meant the upper 60's on water. The seas were calm as well, which made for great boating and whale watching.

Our boat, the Island Explorer II

I was concerned about taking Aaron out on the boat but I didn't want him to miss the experience, so we decided to chance it. He did great! We made sure he was bundled up and had a hat on so the wind couldn't get to his bald head. He wasn't really interested in the wildlife so much as how his toys would hold up on the boat but I think he had a good time anyway!

He even got his afternoon snooze in! Can you see his little feet?

As for the wildlife, we had some good views. On our way out to where the Orca pods were mainly swimming, we saw a Minke Whale. It happened so quickly, however, that we couldn't get a picture of it. A Harbor Seal also popped its little head out of the water. I got a picture of that! Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them so you can see more detail.

We finally reached where the Orcas were and were rewarded with several views. I wasn't sure what to expect and was a little disappointed that we didn't see more of them breaching as in this picture from Wikipedia:

The views we mostly got were of their dorsal fins and backs when they came up to the surface (these are our pictures):

For a girl who grew up in landlocked Missouri, however, it was all very exciting! To see these animals in their natural habitat and not in some zoo was very, very cool. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to see them. This is yet another reason why I'm going to hate leaving this great state.

Maybe I Could Handle This More-Than-One-Kid Thing!

Last week, Aaron's best friends Coley and Jalyn came over to play while their Moma went to have her hair done. Having all three of them together is always interesting, to say the least, but it was made pretty easy for me since Coley and Jalyn came over in the morning while Aaron was taking his morning snooze. By lunchtime, however, they were all awake and hungry! So I strapped them in, turned on some Little Einsteins to keep them distracted and I made lunch. And look how happy they all seem! Yay! I have learned, though, that dealing with more than one kid definitely involves efficiency and organization, but also being O.K. with that fact that you will be pulled in several directions at once and if one kid is wearing mismatched socks while the other one is playing in the dry bathtub (yeah, I totally found Coley in there at one point), THAT'S ALRIGHT! Thanks for yet another lesson in motherhood, Lis.

Update: I have been told by someone very close to me that this post sounds as if I'm trying to tell people in a roundabout way that I'm pregnant again. Let me just clear that up right now - I'm not! We are planning on having another kid, just not for a couple years. Sorry about that, Dad!!

Daddy Heaven

You're looking at what I'm sure Bill considers his own personal utopia. Kid's asleep, puppy's almost alseep, remote control in his possession and within reach. You just can't get any better than this!

More Walking Videos

I know, I'm like a crazy person with all the videos of Aaron walking, but I'm so proud of him! He is walking everywhere now and all the time! He's still not all that great at it; he looks like he's tipped back a few too many most of the time. What's different is that he is actually trying. He acts like he doesn't even want to crawl anymore. It's so awesome! Check it out!

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What Happens When You Leave a Toddler Alone for TWO Seconds

What's Aaron trying to feed Reagan? Yeah, that would be the pregnancy test that let me know he was coming (Yes, I kept it! Didn't you?). Ironic, don't ya think?

Check Out My Mad Cake-Decorating Skillz

Yesterday was Daddy's birthday (Happy Birthday, Bill!) so Mommy decided to go all crazy and make him his own cake instead of heading down to the Fred Meyer to buy one. I realized after I was finished that I had done the same color scheme as Aaron's Peter Rabbit birthday cake, but that's O.K. I really like these two colors together. Daddy also got a bonus birthday present because this cake probably cost a quarter of one that I would have purchased at the store! Go me!

Meet My ADHD Boy...

...who can't sit still long enough to drink his juice like a normal human being. Don't they have medication for this kind of thing?

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Our Little Helper

The title to this post has just a tiny hint of sarcasm to it in case you weren't able to catch it. Aaron has moved into the phase that I've seen every little kid go through (and which I have been dreading just a teeny, tiny bit) where they must be in the middle of EVERYTHING that you're trying to accomplish. I have lamented to my dad before about how it now takes twice as long to complete any task, be it showering, loading the dishwasher, reading a book, etc., etc., etc., because you have this thing that also wants to participate and can't understand why I won't let him "help" or, at the very least, satisfy his own curiosity. Here are some examples.

Aaron climbing into the laundry basket and "helping" Mommy fold the laundry by chewing on Daddy's socks.

Daddy was so grateful to have Aaron's help trying to figure out our new vacuum cleaner - not!

While trying to get our stuff packed for our trip to Texas, I came into the living room and found this in our suitcase. Oh, yeah, and of course there were folded clothes in the bottom of the suitcase that he was trampling all over. Do you remember the part about everything taking twice as long to accomplish? Yeah, I wasn't kidding!

Aaron supervising Daddy grilling our dinner. I think Daddy did a pretty good job!

Watch Me Stand Up and Walk!

I finally got a decent little movie of Aaron standing up on his own and walking towards me! So exciting! He has been attempting to walk a lot more during the past couple days; however, we have noticed that he isn't walking to get somewhere, just walking to show himself and us that he can. He still thinks that crawling is the best way to travel. He crawls incredibly fast, especially when he has something he wants to get into in his sights, i.e. an open fridge or dishwasher.

FYI, there is an ear-piercing scream at the beginning of this video. Just thought I'd warn ya!

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Daddy's Little Pep Squad

Aaron and I went to his first softball game recently to cheer his daddy on along with the rest of his squadron's team. They lost but it was still fun! Aaron clapped when everyone else cheered - although he ended up clapping for the wrong team most of the time! He also got to wear one of his very first baseball caps because it's all about the fashion for me, you know. Can you even stand the cuteness? I know, me neither. He looks like such a little man!

Of course, we also had to have snacks while we watched the game. Not exactly hot dogs and beer (even though Aaron tried to snag a few swigs from his daddy's beer after the game) but I think Gerber Puffies suited him just fine!

New Skills

Aaron has developed several new skills; sometimes, it seems like he learns new things overnight! Maybe that's the reason why he hasn't been sleeping so well! He's too busy coming up with new things to impress us with!

Talking on the Telephone

Apparently Aaron has watched Mommy gab on the telephone enough that he now knows that you're supposed to put said object up to your ear and "talk" into it. The only thing is that everything has become a telephone - my curling iron, the remote controls, my hair brush, etc.

Climbing

Aaron has become more inquisitive about his surroundings lately and is becoming more adventurous everyday trying to figure things out. This, of course, causes Mommy to have several mini-heart attacks during the course of a day. Everything's fair game, particularly the bathroom cabinets and the laundry basket.

Walking!

Aaron has officially taken more than one step on his own! He is also doing great at balancing on his two feet and has even stood still and turned 180 degrees without falling onto his butt! As you can see from the video, however, it's hard for him to giggle and walk at the same time. Unfortunately, he gets the giggles a lot when we're working on his walking skills!

Happy Anniversary to Us

Thank you for eight great years. I love you.