Wild Child

The church nursery workers swear Aiden is a sweet and fairly quiet, reserved child and I'm convinced they don't know which one is mine. That or whatever posesses him is left outside of the church and sits in the car waiting with 'banket'. Either way, this photo from our family shoot last weekend is my favorite candid EVER!



Notice we BOTH have him by the arm as he squeels and lunges forward with excitement, ready to tackle Kelsey who has just pulled a roll of smarties out of her bag. Smarties are like toddler heroin and yes, I've seen Aiden gnaw all the way through the plastic packaging just to get to them. At 9:30 in the morning. While I check my e-mail and wonder why he's been quiet for three consecutive minutes. (Hold on, while I'm thinking about it I need to go add Smarties to the grocery list...)

Let the Aiden Stories begin!

• I no longer worry about Aiden rushing into the street and being run over by a car because his latest habit has bought me a few more precious seconds for my panicked screams to reach his ears. No mater how fast he has gone barreling towards the road, he now skids to a stop and JUMPS off the curb into the street. Luckily for me he's not Olympic-bound so his longjump is only six inches and most of the time - since he is my son - he looses his balance and has to pause to regain it before bolting into traffic. Or back up the driveway to do it again. This is just one of the many reasons I don't need caffeine; the nearly constant drip of adrenaline provided by such antics keeps me feeling plenty awake. Gray hairs are sprouting up somewhere, I just know it...

• If I was ever disappointed by a husband who wasn't a comedian, I'll learn to be careful what I wish for because my son was born funny. He may be limited to five word sentences but his timing and delivery are flawless. Most of my day is narrated for me in a nasily, finger-up-his-nose toddler voice. He'll ramble past the bathroom and announce "Mommy poops" any time I'm in there loudly blowing my nose. Then, when I get frustrated at the dog (who stands so close to me that I nearly fall and kill us both several times a day), Aiden will shout a string of incoherent scoldings in an oddly familiar tone that typically begin and end with 'Maysher bahd dahg". I'm not complaining about this one because Major is usually so upset at being shouted at by a toddler in a foreign language that he disappears for half an hour. Meanwhile Aiden continues to throw astute observations in with his usual banter. Such as "OW! OW! Mommy hurt! *Mumble Mumble something*" when I (yet again) injure myself and I'm spewing "freaking stupid *mumble, mumble, dont-want-Aiden-to-learn-all-these-words*" in the hallway. Then there was the week I tried DESPERATELY to teach Aiden the color brown. Every time I would put on his brown crocs or brown cargo shorts, I would label the color. One day he said "brown crocs" and I clapped and squeeled like a crazy woman. This was promptly followed by "brown mole" and a sticky little toddler finger pointing out the birthmark on my neck. Okay, next color... Oh, and last but not least is the one that crushes my heart - and he KNOWS IT! If I'm in the office, he'll announce "Mommy Busy" and follow it with a prompt, forceful office door slamming. Nothing pulls me away from my computer faster and lately I've gotten to the point that I'm hardly on the computer during the day at all. It hasn't stopped Aiden from using this trick, though. If my arms are full of toys I'm picking up and I can't get him a juice box that second? SLAM! "Mommy Busy!" Running the vacuum because he decided to color the living room grout lines crayon-style with pretzel sticks? *Rattles the closed-and-baby-locked office doors* "Mommy Busy!" Secretly I think he loves seeing the look on my face and hearing whatever response I give him because it's sure to be chock-full of new vocabulary words (like 'ridiculous', 'pretzel dust everywhere' and 'grout sealant'). He's got character, that's for sure!

• Aiden is honestly good about putting things in the trash and throwing his own trash away half the time without being asked. (I know teens with less compliance rates than that!) Unfortunately he likes throwing things away so much that I'm down a couple hair clips, some chapstick and an entire box of gallon-size ziplock bags. Brian comes to my rescue and pulls the obvious items - like Thomas, Percy and James - out of the garbage but he seems less inclined to rescue my girlie things since they already clutter up the bathroom and he figures Aiden is doing him a favor. It's okay, it probably won't be the last time the boys team up against me! LOL!

• Last week we couldn't leave Build-a-Bear without the blue & red stroller. The stuffed monkey in his cute swimming trunks is still brand new, unplayed-with in the box. The stroller, however, just turned over 100 miles and is the number one reason both the walls and my toenails will need a new coat of paint this week. The thing gets a five star crash-test rating from me. It has been slammed into every vertical surface in this house - including one sneaky trip into the garage to bang it against the big metal garage door panels - and it still looks brand new. Wish I could say the same for my pedicure...

• I've been buying a few things off Ebay including some Thomas the Train toys & Disney pajamas for Aiden. Today one of my winnings arrived in the mail and Brian had Aiden bring the package to me. I told Aiden it was actually for him as I ripped the top of the package open and handed it back. Like a child who has gotten to many socks for Christmas, he flatly and matter-of-factly said "Aiden's Jammies" as he peered blankly into the package. It made me laugh out loud to hear Brian's cynicism in his little two year-old voice! He's right, though. I let him open all the pajamas when they arrived while I opened most of the trains and hid them so I could dole them out during emergencies. Actually, to Aiden's delight, the package contained a new Wall-E robot toy. (I swear, eBay is the only place you can find Wall-E stuff!) I hope the surprise encourages him to have a positive outlook on life. And things that come in the mail. ;)

• And lastly, when I got Aiden up from his nap today, I barely had laid him down for a diaper change when he rattled off "want pancakes, want yogurt, want pizza, want Taco Bell", listing all his favorite foods as fast as he could. I blinked as he stared back at me expectantly and then I cracked a smile when I realized what he wanted to know. "You're hungry for lunch!" "LUNCH! Want lunch! Hungry lunch! Mommy wears shirt." Say WHAT?!! Since when do I not wear a shirt to lunch?!!

He's right again. While I typically do remain clothed for my meal, he does not since I take off his shirt to avoid doing twice as much laundry. I'm happy to hear he prefers his lunch dates not to be topless. :)

P.S. As I was writing all this I realized why Aiden narrates most of my day. It's because every evening and weekend I repeat everything he says for Brian who isn't as well-trained in translating gibberish. Aiden must believe it is good communication, or at least the foundation of good humor. Let's hope we can come to an arrangement at some point in the future where I'll agree to stop translating if he'll agree to quit labeling every hiccup, sneeze and cough as "mommy poops".

More Activity Pics

Here are a couple quick pics of the things we've been doing instead of writing on the blog!

Aiden playing outside in his inflatable splash pool:

The very first tomatoes we got off the cherry tomato plant last week (the one that wasn't uprooted!):

Aiden LOVING the huge beach-entry shallow end of the new pool at our gym:

Aiden and his favorite girlfriend "Oliviaups" (Olivia) eating cake while Olivia's dad keeps a close eye on them and grills Aiden about his career and retirement plans: (ROFL!)

Next, I found this pic taken at my parent's lake house on Easter morning and thought I would post it. Most of my friends have met my very tan-complexioned, brown hair & brown eyed sister. This picture shows my brother and his wife along with Brian and I:

I know, I know, we don't look anything alike! Courtney - my blonde sister-in-law - and I are CONSTANTLY believed to be sisters because we look much more alike than AJ and I do. AJ, Sheena and I all share the exact same set of parents and we all look very different from one another. Genetics are crazy, aren't they? Oh, and my (younger) brother is 6'4", which should help explain why Aiden is so tall. The guys in my family are HUGE! I am actually the shortest of the Sullivan siblings & in-laws which I LOOOOOVE after years of being one of the tallest in my classes. It's so nice to be labeled "short" for a change!

Caught Blue-Handed

Aiden and I made playdough for the first time today and I let him select colors from the McCormic Neon food colors I bought at Easter. The recipe called for kneading food coloring into the dough. The lime green worked well and rinsed easily off my hands. The blue was a whole different story... the photo below is after ELEVEN hand washings:



I look like a robbed a bank! LOL! Here's the playdough culprit:



And the three we made. I left the third white - we are DONE with food coloring for today!



Of course the playdough held Aiden's interest for maybe four minutes before he realized I could only yell at him from the sink while my hands were covered in blue suds. Then the REAL fun began. He made a bee-line for the open bathroom cabinet and had a delightful time making a baby powder fog storm.

Meanwhile I discovered that twenty-something hand washings with a scrub sponge, two exfoliating sugar scrubs and a one-minute bleach soak will remove the bluest blue food coloring from your skin. Bonus: My hands have never felt so smooth and soft! I'm sorry my friends missed seeing me with blue hands but I thought you would enjoy the pictures! ;)


"Look Mom, Blue Hands" No-Cook Playdough Recipe:

1 cup flour
3/8 cup salt
3/8 cup hot tap water
food coloring* (optional)

*If using food coloring add hand soap, Scotch Brite sponge, Bath & Body Works sugar scrub and Clorox bleach to the list of required materials.

Combine flour, salt & water in a bowl; mixture will be crumbly. Knead until a dough forms, adding food coloring gradually as you knead if desired. Play! Refrigerate dough in ziplocks for up to one week. Then scrub & bleach hands while making empty threats from the sink.

My Handy Hubby

Brian has done some really nice projects for me lately that deserve some recognition. He does enjoy making the blog and I was really excited about these projects because I got everything on clearance for half-price or less! YAY!

First up is the new white office shelf he hung for me last night. I was thrilled and thought the wall turned out really cute! (Kelsey is selling the pink & green metal frames if you want some, too. They're magnetic so my "naughty" and "xoxoxo" magnets fit perfectly!)



Next is the new kitchen table pendant light Bri installed:



And one of the two matching entry & hallway lights:




He did a great job and got them up pretty quickly! We both liked how they made everything feel more formal. (I got a STEAL when I haggled a poor Lowe's employee to death to discount already-clearance-priced lighting.) I learned that any manager can reduce the price on clearance merchandise - a trick I will be using much more often in the future! :D

Last but not least is the shoe organizer Brian got me for Mother's Day:



I'm always encouraging Bri to "get creative" and "think outside the box" when it comes to gift ideas for me. Apparently my shoes were in his way. Boy, did I learn my lesson! I'll spell out my Mother's Day gift wishes MUCH more clearly next year! ROFL! Meanwhile it is nice to have all my dress shoes organized for easy grabbing and Brian even custom-sized this organizer to fit in the space below the builder-installed shelves. I love that he's so handy!

Brian & Aiden: I'm Outnumbered

Brian has been wanting to make the blog lately. I think he meant that I should post pictures of his most recent projects - and I'll get to that eventually - but for now let me tell you about our most recent discussion: My "spoiling" of Aiden by letting him do "whatever he wants". Brian had to fish three rubber Hot Wheels tires....along with several beads and lime green sequins...to clear his clogged bathroom sink drain. He wasn't happy. Personally I find it hilarious and laugh it off as one of the many inconveniences of living with a toddler. (I still have not found my favorite hairbrush he hid last September...and there's no telling what is down my sink drain.)

In fact, Brian is only aware of about 10% of the antics that go on during any given week. (Read: He only has to clean up 10% of them) For example, here's a story from this week: I usually store our pool bag in Aiden's room since that is where I keep the swim diapers & baby sunblock. It wasn't a big deal until I went to check on him while I thought he was napping and found him sitting in his crib pulling the plastic bristles out of a hairbrush with his teeth. The hairbrush had been in the bottom of the pool bag I'd left several feet away from his crib. Strewn and forcefully thrown about his ENTIRE ROOM were Nemo swim diapers, pool toys, hundreds of bits of shredded wet wipes, our hideous community pool photo ID cards and a half-dozen spit-out hairbrush bristles. I had all evidence of the hairbrush-ruining incident cleaned up and the pool bag put back together and stored in our room before Brian ever saw it. Not a big deal - the hairbrush had been a freebie any ways!

Brian, however, finds it incredibly difficult to believe that Aiden can get into so much trouble in such a short period of time and surely I'm not watching him. This is sometimes true. Sometimes I am on the phone, sending an e-mail, getting an aspirin for my Aiden-induced headache, scrubbing down the high chair tray for the fourth time, searching for blanket, removing Chuck E. Cheese tokens from the printer's SD card slots, picking up freshly-strewn DVDs, removing Yogos from Aiden's nostrils with tweezers, mopping up newly-spilled mystery sticky stuff, coaxing Aiden that he can color as much as he wants with orange crayons on paper and not on the walls, stain treating his third? fourth? t-shirt that day, wrestling to keep Mater, Thomas the Train and a sippy cup out of the filling washer long enough for me to get his sheets in, plucking him off the top of the table/counter/toilet for at least the tenth time that hour or - heaven forbid - going to the bathroom or letting Brian's stupid doberman outside so it can go to the bathroom. Most of the time I'm well aware of the mess Aiden is making and I pause, make a decision about whether I want to fight this battle or not, and if it's not too distructive I let him continue. Pulling tires off Hot Wheels cars using his Guido forklift character? Fine. Throwing them in the sink where they roll down the drain so fast I barely have the time to identify them as tires and not raisins? Not okay but we'll give Brian the heads up that his liquid Drano isn't going to to the trick. ;)

And that's what got me in trouble: Three tires and a few "pirate treasure" beads town his drain. PLEASE. You should have seen what he did with the orange silly putty on Friday...after he bopped your dog with your Xbox controller, rearranged several of your do-not-touch-daddy's-books on the bookshelf, pressed the buttons on your alarm clock, threw froot loops in your hamper, pulled out all your boyscout troop books to find the one with the fish in it (he's earned that merit badge by they way, if for no other reason than I've had to read it twice) and threw several pieces of your dry-clean-only clothing on the ground to dance on top of. Aiden you owe me. I cleaned up all the other evidence (while you had moved on to make the next mess) and I'm sorry I missed the tires in the sink. Brian, congrats on making the blog.

In case you were wondering why there are so freaking many syrafoam peanuts shoved behind every piece of living room furniture, here's the photographic evidence:

(I got a delivery, opened the box to check the order, pulled the items out and got all of seventeen seconds to myself before there was yet another mess to clean up! I insisted Aiden get his little green OXO dust pan to help with these ridiculous packing peanuts that were literally running down the hall and behind the TV stand on the tiniest AC air current. )

Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere....

Clean up, Clea- aw, forget it. This is boring!

If I spent my entire day on the computer, Aiden would have accidentally killed himself ten times over. And that would have been in just his first six months of life! :) Instead I am watching him - with the camera ready - and we have hundreds of funny pictures of the delightfully endearing things he does in these fast-fleeting years to enjoy for the rest of our years together. In the end, it really is worth living with the extra messes. I love you both so much! Sink tire wars and all. ;)

Grilled BBQ Chicken Recipe

My dad grilled a WICKED BBQ chicken growing up and when I asked him a couple years ago what the secret was he said "cheap Kraft BBQ sauce!" LOL! So I plunked Aiden in his kiddie pool, threw some BBQ chicken on the grill and had a delicious dinner last night that brought back memories of summer cook-outs with dad. I slightly altered my dad's original recipe to compensate for cooking them on a gas grill instead of slow roasting over briquettes & wood chips like he always did. They were AWESOME! Here's the recipe:

Tay's Melt-A-Man Hickory BBQ Chicken
(adapted from Tay's Dad's B*tchin' BBQ Chicken recipe!)

1 bottle Kraft Hickory BBQ sauce (99¢)
1 packet McCormick Grill Mates™ Hickory BBQ Marinade (50¢)
3 tablespoons Colgin brand Liquid Smoke - Hickory flavor (99¢)
Pack of chicken drumsticks (figure 4 drumsticks per adult/2 per child)
Basting brush & small cup to hold basting sauce
Rectangle pyrex pan


Open BBQ sauce and pour 1/3 of the bottle into a small cup. Set aside for later grill basting. Place rinsed chicken drumsticks in a glass pyrex pan. Pour the remaining BBQ sauce over the drumsticks, fill the BBQ sauce bottle with roughly 1/2 cup of water, shake to loosten remaining sauce and pour that mixture into the bottom of the pan. (Don't rinse BBQ off chicken with it) Open the marinate pouch and pour 1/3 of the pouch into the basting cup on top of the BBQ sauce. Sprinkle the remaining spices generously over the chicken. (Ignore marinade recipe on back, we just need the spices.) Pour 1 tablespoon of liquid smoke into the basting cup and drizzle 2 tablespoons over the chicken in the pan. Cover the chicken pan and basting cup with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Chicken will need to marinate 1-6 hours.

Fire up grill and leave it on medium-high to high heat. Using tongs, turn the drumsticks over in the pan twice to coat with BBQ sauce and place on the TOP rack of your grill. Close the lid and let cook for about 20 minutes. Open the lid, fip the chicken, heavily baste it and let it cook for 15 minutes more. During the last 10 minutes of cooking, move the chicken to the lowest grill surface, baste heavily again and close the lid to allow the BBQ sauce to caramelize and the chicken skin to slightly darken if desired. Chicken drumsticks should be done after about 45-50 minutes of grilling. Allow an hour and fifteen minutes or more for chicken breasts or full leg pieces.

Serve with baked beans, grilled corn on the cobb and/or any of your favorite summer side dishes. Enjoy and watch your man MELT!

Thanks for the memories daddy. I love you!

Aiden Stories

Sometimes my blog entries need no other title than that. I have a fun new routine of telling Brian about all the hilarious things Aiden said or crazy things he did during the day and let me tell you, it's a riot! My sister-in-law has a column running down her blog of the latest things her little girl Molly has said. I am really going to have to start doing that....

Aiden Discovers Love Bugs

On Saturday I took some "me" time and went to HomeGoods just for fun. I ended up buying Aiden a cute little outdoor bug catching kit for our afternoon play time on the font porch. He's wanted me to catch love bugs in the jar so he can look at them through the magnifying glass lid so today I plucked a flower cluster from a bush where a pair was eating and tossed it in the jar so he could observe the bugs drinking nectar. He gazed at the pair for a moment and then said "Bugs stuck!" I stifled a giggle. He peered even more intently into the jar and then I saw his forehead crease as his eyebrows lowered and he said "Bugs stuck.....NAUGHTY!" This time I about fell off my camp chair! Yes, indeed, the bugs are "stuck" in a naughty way. :)
(Nevermind that he was referring to the way the female of this particular bug couple was dragging the poor male around by his nether parts, going wherever she pleased and leaving the other bug flapping to keep his balance as if he's being dragged. Aiden has been learning at toddler social gatherings that pushing, shoving and dragging others is impolite behavior and apparently he thought the bugs needed a scolding! )

Lately I've decided that I wanted a lot more family time and that I needed to get better about taking pictures of the silly little moments. Last week we enjoyed making ice cream cones or going and getting snow cones to eat out on the front porch at sunset. It has made for a delightful and relaxing end to the day and it is something I hope we continue to do several nights per week. Here are some photos of other things we have been up to:



Here is the tent Aiden and I made the day it was raining cats & dogs and there wasn't much to do besides curl up and watch a movie!



He loved the tent. He especially loved laying sideways and watching the blanket overhead move as he kicked the chairs. (I had to re-make the tent about six times)



A quick pic of me & 80 one evening after finishing our ice cream cones on the porch!



Big bear hug for Bri!



He sure does love his daddy!



Ah, yes, the counter pic. This was the only way to get Aiden to understand that a frozen eggo waffle has to cook in the toaster BEFORE he can eat it. The previous three mornings he had screamed the entire five minutes it took the waffle to go from frozen to syruped & set in front of him. This particular morning I was too tired to fight him so I put him in charge of watching for toaster fires. I caught him lying down on the job...

And then we finger painted....



He was having fun with it until I wanted him to quit flinging paint and hold still for a picture! I'm sensing some attitude... In reality, he was bored with finger painting after six minutes. Clean up took over thirty five minutes so I don't think we'll be finger painting a whole lot but this was his first time ever so it was worth it!



Okay, okay, THIS was HILARIOUS! First, the back story: for Aiden's two year old photo shoot I bought him a skateboard and covered it in bright-colored, boyish vinyl decals. The problem is wall vinyl doesn't stick to the sandpaper-like surface of a skateboard very well so Aiden has been able to easily peel them off. Last friday Aiden smeared his clothes up with yogurt and the majority of his lunch so I stripped him down and sent him to go play. NO LIE, he wandered into the living room not ten minutes later with this biohazard decal placed on his arm tatoo-style! He'd done it completely on his own! I just about died laughing - it is so HIM!!!! (Not shown: the orange skateboard decal stuck to his butt!)

And there you have it. The most recent Aiden stories. :) Gosh I love this little boy!