Facebook Announcement

We announced to the world that we are expecting baby #2!  I was 12 weeks this past Friday.  This is the picture we used.  Everyone has been really excited and surprised.  And everyone has said that they loved the announcement.

I took quite a few pictures to get this one. 

I kind of liked these two also but decided to use one with the white booties instead.

 

New Words

I'm so excited for Aaden to start talking more.  He is picking up new words here and there - some of his new ones are...

bask-ball
ssshh for fish
wow
oh whoa
ow for cat (like meow)
cckk for truck
shish for shoes
uh-hoe for uh-oh
uck for yuck
aat for hat
car full with Boston accent
Bye and just recently Bye bye

He has also started doing the "sshhh"ing with his finger up to his mouth after we visited Sean and Andrea and we told him to be quiet because Miranda was sleeping.  Right after that trip when we were home, Aaron was taking a nap and Aaden walked in and he starting sshhing.  So cute!  And so amazing how quickly they catch on.

He's also recently started shaking his finger back and forth like a "no, no, no" gesture.  We think maybe he learned this at daycare from Louise since we don't really do that.  It's funny to see him do it - we started joking around with him and doing it while saying, "no, no, no" and now he'll copy us doing that too.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day!  Daddy made us green pancakes this morning!

 
 
 I just love this shirt my mom got for Aaden - two of my favorite things in one...St Patrick's Day and San Francisco Giants!  Not to mention it's being worn by my most favorite little person!  Just a few pictures and then we're off to Emery's birthday party!  In the rain!

  
  
(rubbing his lips together because he just put chapstick on)

 Erin Go Braugh!

Aaden Has A Secret....

He is going to be a big brother! 

 Yep, that's right!

And we don't know if he's...

Excited...

Shocked...

Happy...

Sad...

or Indifferent?

Well - he doesn't really know what's going on. 

Bue we think he's going to make a wonderful older brother! 

He just loves babies!

And we just know he's going to love

this little baby very, very much ♥

It doesn't look quite like a baby yet.  But he or she is measuring right on track.  The heartbeat was a strong 150.  I actually cried when I saw the heartbeat.  It's amazing to see this teeny, tiny thing inside me and know that they will become this living child that you love more than anything you could have imagined.  I am 8 weeks along, Baby #2 is due Oct 19th!

I Love You

Aaden said, "I love you" back to me for the first time today!  We were on our way into the doctor's office and I was carrying him and just randomly told him that I loved him and he immediately said, "I tuoirtb weir"  The last two words were mumble jumble but I know what he was attempting to say.  I immediately said it back to him again and he did it again!  I was so overjoyed - I think I probably got tears in my eyes.

Melt.my.heart.

Mock Branding (Stick Horse Rodeo) 2012

We went to the Annual Mock Branding up at the Sparling Ranch which apparently has officially been changed to the Stick Horse Rodeo- Aaden had so much fun hanging out outside all day.  He was sooo good - he played all day and all night with only a half an hour nap on Aunt Kerry's lap.

Aaden won the Stick Horse Race for the kids division, got a trophy and everything!  (Really, Aaron ran it while holding Aaden)

All the stick horses lined up

Our little cowboy

So tough with his Lovie

 

Bubbles with Aunt Caroline!

Checkin' out the horses

Daddy, Mommy & Aaden - in need of sunglasses

Aaden and Daddy running the barrel race

Aaden hated it~

Poor Buddy!

Recovering after his ride

I think he forgave Aaron

Aaden was one of the winners!

His trophy

Aaden and the other winners of the Stick Horse Rodeo

Aaden's favorite part - playing with the branding iron

(which was not hot)

And picking up cow poop and putting it in his bucket.

Group shot at the end of the day.

Aaden sleeping in Aunt Kerry's arms

Our view on our way out.

Looking forward to next year!!

18 Months!!

A year and a half?!?  How did this happen? 

Life with a one and a half year old is, well, busy.
Here's the things going on around our house lately:

• Loves helping with laundry and picking up. 
• Climbing.  Oh lordy, the climbing.  He's climbing on everything - we are in the process of strapping furniture as we speak.  Not only is he climbing, he's now jumping off of things now too.  Not from very high and usually he'll only jump off onto a pile of pillows or blankets but I'm going to have to keep a close eye on this dare devil.
• He is now starting to run from us when we try to take something away from him.  Great.
• Loves his big duplo legos and LOVES to stack things.  He is really good at it too - it is pretty impressive actually.  His hand-eye coordination is really good.  He gets really excited when he gets a high stack going - he yells in excitement after he stacks another thing on top and then turns his head to the side to "inspect" it.
• He's absolutely obsessed with balls. 
• He LOVES to go outside.  He'll spend hours outside with Aaron.
• He loves to hop and dance around his room naked after he gets out of the bath.  He also dances pretty much anytime he hears music.
• He knows how to "blow his nose" - and does it often if he pulls the wipes out on his own.  He is also starting to  blow on his food if it's hot.
• He starting to use utensils more consistently.  So far it seems he favors his right hand.
• He is saying and babbling more - we think he's right on the verge of a word explosion.  So far he can say: hi, bye, mama, dada, hi dada, bubba, bubble, ball, papa. go, no, apple, up, eye, ahba for bath, ilk for milk, ckk for truck, out for outside, aahh (with a scrunched up face) for hot.  Starting to say thank you and I love you but it's not very consistent.
• He says "eye, eye, eye" when I sing Old McDonald and "boom boom" when I sing The Ants Go Marching
• Understands pretty well what we say to him and is starting to be able to express what he wants.  Signs "more" all the time.  I love the way he does it - he takes his thumb from right hand and hits it to the palm of his left hand rather than hitting closing his fingers and hitting them together.  And he uses the sign as a "Yes, I want this/that" sign as well as using it for "more".  He has started shaking his head "no" for just about everything and also saying "Noo, noo, nooo" in a cute little voice.  Right now it's cute - I'm sure it won't be later when he's yelling it!  
• He is still in the crib - and I think he will be for a while.  He rolls around sooo much in the middle of the night that I'm afraid he'd fall out of bed nightly if we move him to a big boy bed.  He does well in his crib still and he sleeps well in there so I don't want to disrupt that sooner than we have to.  And he hasn't figured out how to crawl out of it yet...so, fingers crossed! 
• We haven't really started potty training with him.  I don't think he's anywhere near ready.  We did buy him a little potty seat that we just sit him on right before his bath just to get him used to it. 
• Our next thing to work on is getting rid of the pacifier!  Yikes.  I'm dreading it.

At his 18 month check-up the doctor wasn't concerned about anything and thinks Aaden is doing well.  He was 27 lbs - 70th percentile,  31 3/4" - 50th percentile, and his head circumference was only in the 10th percentile!  I think he's going to have a small head like his Daddy.

Stacker
(taken before his haircut)

Messer

 Cheeser

Reader

Cutie

Piggy

Rody

First Trip to ER

Poor guy was sick all weekend while we were up in the snow - he had fevers off and on, decreased appetite, stuffy nose, congested chest, a cough and he did not sleep well at all.  So Monday night after we got back from the trip, we were looking forward to getting back into our normal routine and having Aaden (and us!) get some better sleep. 

So we give him his bottle and put him to bed at about 830pm.  Well an hour later he woke up screaming.  I thought maybe he wanted more milk since he hadn't finished his bottle but he refused it.  So I got him up and we went out into the living room.  He was screaming, crying, batting at his right ear and sticking his thumb in his ear canal.  As soon as I saw that, I just knew that he had developed an ear infection after being sick.  We were able to force some Tylenol in him and decided to go to the ER.

We pulled up to the hospital and the Tylenol must have kicked in because Aaden had fallen asleep.  Aaron and I sat outside in the parking lot debating on whether or not to go in.  Would they think we were silly bringing a sleeping/calm baby in?  How much is this trip going to cost us if it ends up being nothing?  But if it is an ear infection it's better we get seen now.  Lots of deliberating and after a few minutes, we decided to go in.  We figured we were there now, better to go in and get it checked out than to have Aaden wake up in a few hours and have to come back.

I'm glad we decided to go in because sure enough - he has his first ear infection.  I am actually surprised (and thankful!) that he's gone almost 18 months without getting one.  I had horrible ear infections when I was a kid and had to get tubes put in twice - I've always been worried about my child(ren) having ear problems.

The new ER at Hazel Hawkins is really nice and the staff was great.  They had us in and out of there within an hour and a half.  Aaden was a really good boy while we were there - despite peeing all over me, the bed and the floor!  They gave him his first dose of antibiotics and told us to give him some ibuprofen when we got home.

By the time we got home, he was crying again - I think the Tylenol was starting to wear off plus he was just exhausted.  We dosed him with ibuprofen and he slept all night.  He woke up today and was already seeming to feel better!