The sweetest thing...

Last night Aiden woke up at 2am. I tried everything to get him back to sleep and nothing was working - I didn't know what he wanted. Finally, I gave up trying to put him back in his crib, we climbed in bed and I tucked him in under my arm. He cuddled in and so softly in his sweet little voice said "Mama", closed his eyes and went to sleep. He wanted to cuddle. These are the times that I don't mind being awake at 2am.

Celebrating Earth Day

Since it was earth day Aiden and I went down to Home Depot and picked out some plants to add to our backyard. We looked around a bit and I decided to get some berry bushes. Since Aiden has been so into berries lately, I think that it would be really cool to be able to make his food with home grown berries. We got blueberry, raspberry and strawberry plants.

After we got home I put Aiden in his little car and we went outside to plant. He just hung out in the car while I planted. Aiden loves the outdoors - every time I tried to go back inside he started screaming! So we stayed out for a couple hours just wandering around checking things out. I blew bubbles for him and drove him around the patio. He grabbed at all the plants and laughed. Notice his cute little earth day shirt - it is a little earth with all the different seasons on it ;)

Sophie joined us outside and found a tennis ball in the yard...it must belong to the kids next door. She ran around the yard hiding from me, because she knows she is not allowed to have tennis balls, she gets crazy with them....just ask Chris and Lisa's couch. Seriously, look at the crazy look on her face!

We put the bird food into the "trunk" of his car and drove over and filled up the bird feeder.

Aiden helped by sprinkling bird food on the ground :)

So that's it, that was our little way of celebrating earth day. Spending an afternoon outside planting and feeding the little wild birds. And I was so happy to have a day without rain!

By the way, I keep trying to get a picture that shows off Aiden's new teeth - but he keeps hiding them from me...this picture shows one! 2 teeth popped through at the same time about 3 weeks ago, his first teeth were his little sharp ones on the sides. Yep, he has little vampire teeth. He is taking the whole "Twilight" trend a little too seriously if you ask me, and apparently, he is on "Team Edward" ;)

Happy Earth Day!

Milkshakes

The other day I had a craving for a strawberry milkshake, so I went to the store and bought ice cream, ripe strawberries and whipped cream. I got home and realized that my blender broke. 2 years ago. So I got a little creative and made milkshakes in Aiden's babycook. Such a versatile little piece of equipment ;)

I made Jeremy a chocolate shake and then made strawberry for me. I realized that I made waaaay more than I could eat. OK, I made more than could fit in the glass. So I made a little shake for Aiden.


I figured this would be a good opportunity to try (again) to teach Aiden how to drink from a straw. I am determined to get rid of bottles soon. So we had a little dessert and straw lesson.



At first he wasn't sure about it - he liked the milkshake, but was not a fan of the straw. Pretty soon he started to get it, but he still needs to work on it. Oh well...guess that means I will have to make milkshakes more often!!!



P.S. The babycook made really good thick, perfectly smooth milkshakes :)

Easter 2010

Easter this year was at my Grandma Marlys' house. Even though it was cold, rainy and not the lovely spring day we were hoping for, we all still had a good time! We managed to get an egg hunt in before the rain started and had a wonderful meal of grandma's famous "coke" ham, twice baked potatoes, chinese chicken salad & fruit salad (complete with bunny marshmallows)! Aiden played with the toys in his Easter baskets and watched the egg hunt - I am sure he will be racing around with the boys next year competing for all the eggs!

Aiden with Great Mama...

The egg hunt starts!

How many adults does it take to help Chase find his egg ;)

Keeping Aiden out of the wind while the boys look for eggs...

It's a race to get the eggs! There IS money in them ;)

Family picture!

Chase finding his egg!

This little hopping chick was a big hit! All the kids loved it!

So cute!

Aiden was cracking up at it...

Mr. Blue eyes!

Aiden opening his Easter basket

Aiden reading his new book, Chase playing with a farm set (I think he was making the cow and the pig kiss). Chase and Aiden noticed each other much more than usual!

All the boys playing on the couch!

Finally, time for dessert - Great Mama's famous lamb cake and carrot cake cupcakes!

Great Mama with her boys!

Coloring the eggs...

Saturday Aiden and I colored Easter eggs with Aunt Lisa. We had fun getting creative with the eggs, I think we are going to make this a yearly tradition!

Getting started...

Aiden helped pick out which stickers to use on the eggs :)

Excited for his first time dying Easter eggs!

Aunt Lisa making an egg pretty...

The eggs all done!

We made an egg for everyone - notice the baby A and baby B eggs, Aunt Lisa & Uncle Chris are having twins - a boy and a girl! Next year we will have 2 more little ones to help with the egg dying! Yay!

Here is Aunt Lisa 19 weeks preggers with the kiddos (sorry Lisa but, I think this picture is cute and had to post it)!!!

Aiden trying to grab and throw the eggs. He is into throwing things nowadays...

After we were done Jeremy came home and Uncle Chris came over we ordered a pizza and watched a movie :)

OK one more...aren't the eggs just too cute???

I will post pictures of Easter soon, get ready for lots of pics - we got a new camera and Jeremy took 283 pictures!

A birthday and an anniversary - part two

And now for the anniversary...

Today is the 1 year anniversary of Aiden's arrival home from the hospital.

The car ride home was tense, we had never taken him outside the NICU. We were so scared that his oxygen levels would go down and that we would have to go back. When I look back at these pictures I think "oh my gosh, they let us take that little baby home...with all that stuff on him". He still doesn't look well to me in these pictures, but we were so happy to take him home finally - "stuff" and all!

Daddy taking Aiden out of the car to our house for the first time. Aiden was not a big fan of the daylight back then! Now he LOVES the outdoors! So much has changed.

We spent Aiden's first few days holding him, 24/7. I'm not kidding. We took turns sleeping while the other person rocked him. We literally NEVER put him down. We were exhausted and happy, learning how to take care of him. I remember thinking he would never come off the oxygen, the feeding tube, the special formula and thickener, all the different medications that we had to put in every bottle - now he is down to just one medication a day and no "stuff".

He has come so far, I am so proud of his strong little spirit and determination to do the things that we were told he would not do. I am proud of us, too, for getting through all of it...with smiles on our faces most of the time :)

We will never forget the day he came home, happy anniversary to us!

A birthday and an anniversary - part one

First things first, it is little Tanner J's 5th birthday today. He is my sisters middle son. He is quiet and sweet and loves animals and I feel a connection to him because we are both middle children, even though he is so shy around me :)

Visiting Tanner in the hospital the day he was born - 5 years ago today!

Here is a few months ago holding Aiden for the first time. He is so sweet and gentle with Aiden.

Happy Birthday Tanner!
We love you!

An anxious day

Waiting anxiously in hospital waiting rooms sucks.

Today was the day we went back to Shriners to get Aiden's cast removed or changed. When we got there we were told that it may be a cast change or if the hip is still unstable, they may open him up again and that he may have to stay overnight. We were caught off guard to say the least, we were told this was either a cast change or removal and were never aware of the possibility that he would have to have another surgery and were totally unprepared to stay overnight - I only brought one bottle, not to mention I HAVE to be at work tomorrow! The doctor pretty much nixed all our hopes of him getting his cast removed, saying it was very unlikely so we went to wait nervously in the waiting room wondering if we would be scrambling to figure out how to stay overnight at the hospital or if we would get lucky and just get a new cast and get to go home.

About 45 minutes later they came to get me (just one person allowed in the recovery area...ugh) and when I walked into recovery I was shocked to see his legs moving under his blanket! I'm sure the nurses thought I was a terrible parent because instead of comforting and kissing him I lifted the blanket to see his little legs that have been hidden for 6 weeks! Then I gave him lots of loves and kisses :)

The doctor said his hip is very stable and a little too stiff, so they did not want to recast. While that was good news, she also said she can't see the ball of his femur on the x-ray, which was concerning. So, Aiden is now kickin' it (literally) in a brace which keeps his hip in the right position but allows him to move his legs around. He will be in it full time for at least the next month, but the good news is we can take it off for diaper and clothing changes and to give him baths! We are just so glad to get him out of the cast! It was so weird to see his legs again, they are longer and so skinny. His skin was in pretty good shape except very dry and flaky - but no red spots or rashes.

So now, we just have to hope that his hip stays in place and that his bones grow and we will get another x-ray at the end of April to see if he can come out of the brace for a little bit each day or altogether, of course there is a possibility that it will slip out and we will have to do the surgery and cast all over again....so we are really hoping that does not happen!

Here are his skinny little legs, still in the "spica cast" position!

This is his new brace, it was so funny he reached down to feel his legs and realized he could move them and started laughing. He just sat there kicking his leg and laughing for a few minutes...ah the things you appreciate when coming out of a spica cast, sweet little legs and regular diaper changes!

He must have learned how to roll over...

The other day Aiden woke up from his nap, crying like crazy. When I put him down for his nap he was on his tummy, when I came in to get him I found him like this. His foot was up on the crib bumper and he could not figure out how to get it down. Of course as soon as I saw him and laughed he stopped crying and burst into his cute little Aiden laugh :) He must have figured out how to roll over in his cast!