First Trip to the River

Sunday we decided to go for a walk by the river in old Folsom, which turned into "hey, what's out Salmon Falls road?", which turned into "Hey, was that the only river access?", which turned into "I guess we are on our way to Coloma."

So, after a rather windy (as in lots of turns, not bad weather) drive we ended up in Lotus. Which is swamped with little hippie kids. Which I think is cool, but reminded me that, yes, I am old. Walking around in my bikini, smoking cigarettes and being all drunk in public is not something I am into anymore. Oh, the sadness in the realization that I am (gasp), more mature now. Anyway, Aiden really dug the hippie kid bongo music and danced accordingly. It was pretty darn cute.

We walked along the river, which was high and fast and we dubbed "death". Between Jeremy and I we have spent many summers at that river and neither one of us have ever seen the river look that dangerous (could be another sign that we are old, or it could be the cold, wet spring this year).

We finally found a calm little beach (along with about 150 other people). 

The water was freezing, and not the kind of freezing that you got used to if you stayed in it. I stuck it out, up to my knees, just so I could get some pictures of Aiden's first experience in the river.

Jeremy put Aiden's little feet in the freezing water, he lasted a couple minutes.

 

Until this.

And then this.

But, once he realized there was sand to throw he sat down at the edge of the water quite happily, throwing rocks and sand. At me.

Then we packed it up, and went on our way home, and we ended up in Placerville, and then at Big 5 to say "hi" to my brother, and then finally, home for dinner. 

Not a bad afternoon, if you ask me.

Saturday Night

Saturday night with a toddler is different than Saturday nights used to be. Jeremy and I haven't had a date night since our anniversary. 2 years ago. Last night we got as close as we can. I call it date night with Aiden.

We had a lovely dinner. At home, made by me, since Aiden + restaurant = nightmare for mom.

Then we went to the batting cages for an hour or so. Jeremy got to hit some balls. Aiden watched and played with a little ball of his own, I think at this point he prefers playing soccer to baseball. Even I hit a couple rounds of balls.

Wait, let me rephrase that, I swung at a couple rounds of balls.

Please excuse the bad photos - they were taken with my phone. FYI, now that I know more about photography, the iPhone uses some really odd settings for taking pictures.

After we were sufficiently tired from chasing Aiden around the sports complex, we went out for ice cream. Cold Stone now has Sinless cheesecake and cake batter flavors.

Yum. 

A tough choice, but I went with my fav - cheesecake with raspberries and graham cracker crumbs. Jeremy went for his usual, chocolate with a brownie and chocolate syrup.

Guess which one Aiden ate?  Of course it was his daddy's chocolate - do you really think I would ever feed Aiden LIGHT ice cream?!?! Ha. Actually, given Aiden's eating habits, we were beyond thrilled to see him eat something cold. With a spoon. By himself. Oh how I wish it was always that easy.

After ice cream we watched a movie on the couch and enjoyed a couple adult beverages. Which since once again, Saturday nights are not like they used to be, just leads to sleep. 

Ahhhh, a nice family night :)

Making it count

Time is going by faster than I can keep track of. Aiden is growing up faster than I want him to. Today I sat watching him sleep for a few minutes and thought of all the things I sometimes complain about and all the things I take for granted today. And I thought about how tomorrow I will wish for all those things to return.

Like how he grabs onto my legs and pushes me away from the kitchen when I am cooking because he wants me to play with him.

Like how he wraps his whole body around my arm to fall asleep and how he has to be touching one of us at all times during the night or he wakes up and moves closer.

Like the persistence in which he points to objects in his books wanting us to name them. And how mad he gets when you don't pay attention to what he is pointing at.

And how even when he is busy watching his show on TV, he still doesn't let me to get anything done. He grabs me, directs me to sit down on the ground and then climbs into my lap and finishes watching his show.

Or how when all the other kids are listening quietly to a story at My Gym, Aiden runs away, happily screaming (disturbing the whole story time) and gives me a huge hug and then falls into my lap in laughter.

Like how he doesn't want me to put him down. Ever. How he would be perfectly content staying on my hip all day. And how he pulls on my hair or hangs onto my shirt for dear life when I try to put him down.

How he wakes us up every morning by pointing to our nose, than his; our ear, then his. Or wakes us up in the middle of the night by singing "keep trying" or "twinkle twinkle" as loud as he can.

Because one day, he is going to grow up. One day he is going to want to play with his friends and not with me. One day he will refuse to hug me in public. One day, not only will he sleep in his own bed, but he will sleep in his own house with his own family.

So, today I made a little vow. All these little things that can some times get in the way of our busy lives, will never go unappreciated again. I am going to play with him instead of cook dinner, I am going to let him sit on my lap anytime he wants to - everything else can wait. There is nothing more important than his childhood and there is nothing more important than making each and every moment we share count.

Oh yes, and I also vow to take more pictures of those "unimportant" everyday things. Like Aiden eating cheerios ;)

P.S. The title of this post is from a toast in a movie, what movie is it?

Aiden age 2 1/2

Aahyee

I didn't get a Father's day card for Jeremy. Because he thinks it is silly to give someone a card when you live with them. So, instead of a card, here is a HAPPY FATHER'S DAY blog from me and Aiden...

Happy Father's Day "Aahyee"!

Thank you for being Aiden's daddy and thank you for making me a mommy, we love you!

P.S. If you think you get a "day off" today just because it is Father's day, your so wrong, ha ha ;)

A surprise after naptime

About 2 weeks ago I ordered a little wooden play garage for Aiden, it finally showed up this morning - UPS is so slow. Anyway, I put it together while Aiden was taking his nap and set it up with all the cars on the living room floor. When he woke up from his nap and came out to the living room he got a huge smile on his face when he saw his new toy and immediately went to work playing with it :)

 

As you can see, he took his playing very seriously. He seems to really like it, he loves pushing the cars up and down the ramps and as he gets older he will appreciate the little elevator, gas pumps and car wash on it, too. I plan on slowly collecting the whole city and road set made by this company (Plan toys), because it seems like a good keepsake type toy and Aiden is really into anything with wheels - he is such a little boy!

How to save $500 a year

Aiden does not eat well. This is no secret. He will only eat a handful of things, one of them happens to be yogurt with fruit in it. I discovered greek yogurt about a year ago and have bought it for Aiden ever since. He likes the creaminess better and I like that it has more calories, fat and protein than regular yogurt. I buy Aiden the FAGE brand plain whole milk greek yogurt because it has 20 grams of fat and 16 grams of protein per carton. But it costs $2 for a 7 oz. carton, and he eats a carton a day. Do the math - that's $14 a week, almost $60 a month and $728 a year. On yogurt. Seems a little ridiculous.

My mom pointed out that I could make my own, and I went out to search the web for recipes to make my own greek yogurt. I found several recipes and ended up using pieces of all of them to make a recipe that worked for me. All you need is 2 ingredients and a couple tools: a half gallon of milk (fat content of your choice), a carton of pre-made yogurt, cheesecloth and a candy thermometer.

In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of milk and 2 1/2 tablespoons of pre-made yogurt. This is your starter and will give you your yogurt making bacteria. I used Aiden's regular yogurt, but I plan on using some of my homemade batch to start my next batch.

Heat the remainder of the milk in a large pan over medium heat, stirring very often, until it reaches 180 degrees on a candy thermometer. Pour the milk into a large casserole dish and let it sit to cool back down to 110 degrees - it took about a half hour to cool down to the right temperature. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 100 degrees or as low as it will go, then turn off the oven but leave your oven light on to keep your it warm.

Once the milk is cooled to 110 degrees add in your milk/yogurt starter mixture, mix well and put the lid on the casserole dish, wrap it with a dish cloth and place it in the oven, being careful not to touch the oven light with the towel. Leave it in the oven, with the light on for a good 8 hours and check it, mine took about 9 hours to get thick enough.

Place 4 layers of cheesecloth into a strainer and put that into a large bowl (hint: buy good cheesecloth and you can re-use it!). Pour in your yogurt and place in the refrigerator for about 8 hours - I left mine in overnight. Then spoon the yogurt into canning jars or plastic containers. It should keep for 10-12 days in the refrigerator. It made about 44 oz. of yogurt.

 

I did a taste test, while mine did not turn out as thick as the FAGE, it is milder and a lot less sour tasting. In my opinion, my homemade yogurt tastes better. All I do is add mashed fruit and drizzle in a little honey, and it is perfect for Aiden. I might try adding some vanilla bean next time when heating up the milk just for fun.

I can use organic milk with added DHA, which makes me feel like it is even better for him.  But the best part is that it will only cost me the price of a half gallon of milk to make enough to last a week! Which is $3.79, or about $15 a month, and $130 a year! Yay for saving money and making my baby good for you food :-)

I'm dreaming of...

This.

Rolling hills, peace and quiet, and simple living.

I have this urge to move. I know it is not a good time to be selling a house, I know that it would be a pain in the booty and probably cost us a lot of money, but lately, I just can't get stop thinking about a house with space, with our own land, with the 3 P's - less PAVEMENT, fewer PEOPLE and a bit of PROPERTY!

I can't help this feeling of wanting Aiden to grow up more like I did. In the country, looking for lady bugs in a meadow, exploring the creek and the woods, having a pony. Not being yelled at for going on the neighbors yard that is 2 feet from our house and only being able to play at a park. I don't want him being constantly corralled into a small space. I want Aiden to be able to explore more than just the empty lots across the street.

I don't want him growing up concerned about the kind of car his parents drive, or how big his house is. I don't want him trying to compete with the kids in this town. I want him to live farther away from fast food restaurants and warehouse stores. I want him to have less stress, less competition, less worry. I want him to have a simpler life.

I want it for myself, too. I want to be able to let Aiden play in the front yard without worrying about getting hit by a car or falling in a certain storm drain. I want to be able to open up my blinds and not see into the neighbor's house. I want to look at something other than a street and a fence. I want more than a stucco box with little boxes inside of it. I want my nephews to come over and run around more than just my 20 foot lawn. I want to be able to have a big garden and a chicken if I want to!

I am not looking for perfect. I am looking for a place with a lot of room to roam, a house with a little charm that has good space, a big deck for family get togethers and good major stuff (like roof, plumbing, lights, etc.) that just needs a little paint and some creativity that we can make "ours" over time. I am looking for a place for my child to grow up and feel at home.

Now if only I can convince my husband...

Oh, and I don't really want a chicken...or a pony ;)

Inspiration

I blame my sister for my new found addiction to Pintrest. I do. Anyone who has visited her blog knows she does all kinds of crafty things and also has a knack for finding fantastic blogs and internet sites that will inspire you to be crafty like her (or make you feel bad that you don't have a crafty bone in your body). She has turned me, my mom, my sister in law and others into crack Pinterest addicts. The good thing about it is that it has inspired me to do more projects this summer around the house and I have found so many cool projects on there to do for/with Aiden.

I am not the best decorator. My house looks like a bad page out of a Pottery Barn catalog because I don't have the energy to find my own style, so I see a page and I copy it. I am tired of everything being black and tan. I need some pops of color in my house. It needs some individuality. So my first Pintrest inspired project was this...

I took an old frame that I had and spray painted it a bright turquoise color that was in my garage from another project that I never did. Then I went to Home Depot and bought some chicken wire for $4 and stapled it to the back of the frame. I then decided that it needed to be a little vintage looking, so I took some sandpaper to the sides and corners and distressed it a bit. I didn't distress it because I screwed up the frame when I got a little overzealous with the staple gun or anything, no really, I didn't ;) Ha ha.

I bought some small clothes pins to hang pictures, postcards and whatever suits my mood onto the chicken wire. I can change it with the seasons and it only cost about $5 to make. Take that Pottery Barn, I can be creative! I made the little banner to put on it (which I can also change for the seasons), because I loved that scrapbook paper and wanted to use it in my house somewhere. Also, not because I screwed up when I got a little overzealous with the sandpapering and needed to cover a spot up or anything ;)

I was also inspired to make a homemade toy for Mr. Aiden. Who has been really into rolling things across my kitchen floor lately. So, I made this...

I think someone originally made it as an "I spy" game in a tube. I just thought Aiden would like seeing all the colors and shapes pop out as he rolled it across my floor. And it makes a cool noise. It was super easy and only cost because I had to buy a special brand of bottled water to get the bottle (FYI 12 oz. of $2.50 water tastes just like the water out of my tap). Once I had the bottle, I just added rice, some scrapbook chipboard shapes, bright buttons, flowers and whatever else I could find around that house that would fit in the bottle.

 

So, I guess addiction can be good sometimes! Now go check out Pinterest and find some inspiration, too :)

Conquering fears and overcoming insecurities

I have been dreading taking Aiden to one of those toddler gym class/playgroups. His therapists have been wanting me to take him, my mother has been encouraging me to take him, and I really wanted to. I knew it would be good for him to be around other kids his age and to do all the gym exercises. But, I was also really afraid. Seems like a silly thing to be afraid of. But, I was, for two reasons.

Reason number one: I will have to attempt to socialize with the other mothers. This probably sounds bad and anti-social of me. I have a really hard time identifying with and finding things in common other mothers. For over a decade these people were "the enemy". That also sounds bad. But to a woman trying to get pregnant, these are the women with seemingly perfect lives, with perfect families, and perfect children that were easy to get. When you struggle with infertility year after year sooner or later it becomes "us against them" everywhere you go. That feeling was then amplified when, in addition to not being able to conceive naturally, Aiden was born so premature. I feel like I have completely different concerns than other parents of toddlers and completely different things to deal with. I struggle bridging the gap between my experience raising a developmentally delayed preemie and their experience of raising a developmentally on track healthy child. I don't even know how old to tell other mothers he is. I feel like I don't know how to talk to them.

Reason number two: I was afraid that he would act different from all the other kids. I was afraid he would scream at the other children, steal their toys, and freak out over the loud sounds. I was afraid that he wouldn't be able to keep up with the other kids. I do everything I can to help him developmentally at home, but I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do it in a group setting with Aiden's peers. I was afraid that his sensory issues would prevent him from being able to participate or have any fun. I was afraid that he would have no social skills and he would not be able to connect at all with the other kids.

Great, after taking years to overcome all my own insecurities, I am now insecure for my child. And I don't want to be, because I don't want him to be insecure about being who he is.

So, I took him to his first class at "My Gym" today. It was time to deal with all those fears. It went better and worse than I thought it would. There were a lot of toddlers there. A lot. It was loud and chaotic. There were some snotty women there. And that kid uncontrollably screaming, freaking out during circle time? He was mine. He couldn't do everything that the other kids could. But, he had a GREAT time wandering around and climbing on the play mats and playing with all the balls and toys. He laughed and smiled when I pushed him on the little dolphin swings. He went into the little circus tent to play puppets with the other kids. He was also the only kid trying to knock the tent down. But, that is actually really funny now that I think about it. At the end of the class, he sat with me about 5 feet outside the circle and clapped along with the "good-bye" song that he recognized from babyTV. And he smiled.

I talked to a couple of the other mom's, it wasn't so scary, I told them the truth. I told them his real age. I told them how early he was. I told them developmentally he was still catching up. They were amazed at Aiden's start and impressed at how far he had come. One mother overheard me talking and asked me what I did to cause him to be born so early. Boo on her. She was a snot to all the "new" mothers anyway.

Am I dreading taking him back there? Um, yeah. Am I going to? Absolutely, because how can I expect Aiden to overcome his fears if I can't overcome mine? I don't want him to think for a second that he can't do something or think for a second that he is not normal. I don't want him always sitting on the sidelines. So I have to. I want to. And I will.

Adventure walks

Aiden and I have been going on lots of walks lately, I am commited to taking advantage of the outdoors before the summer heat hits and it's A/C city for us. I stumbled across the idea of adventure walks from this blog and thought it was a great way for Aiden to tire himself out and work up an appetite for dinner. He walks through the neighborhood and I follow, letting him stop and play when he wants to. I try not to tell him no unless he wants to do something dangerous. I love that it gives him a little bit of freedom to decide where to go and explore the world around him "on his own". So far, he prefers to stick close to home and just walk up and down the street. Over and over. And over.

He is so proud that he can walk on the sidewalk all by himself and likes to stop and pick up the occasional rock, leaf or dandelion. He especially loves to stop and jingle the keys on the mailbox. It all makes him feel like such a big boy.

 Every so often he looks back to make sure I am still there. Which of course, I always am. 

A short bloom

Because they are so pretty,

And they just don't last long enough,

I felt the need to take a lot of pictures of my beautiful pink and yellow peonies this year.

I love them. And it is not fair that they only bloom for 10 days out of the year!

(Aiden thinks they are pretty fascinating, too)

The world according to Aiden (well, inside the house anyway)

(hint: click on collage to make it bigger)

1. Books are much cooler when they are balanced upright on the coffee table, hey I wonder how many of them I can fit on the table at once?
2. My toes are cool. Time to sing "head, shoulders, knees and toes", but my version is "head, nose and toes".
3. All pirate ships belong in water. No matter how small the water bowl may be. Sophie doesn't need to drink anyway. All pirate ships need a captain. If the pirate captain can't be found, he can be replaced by a Lego mechanic guy.
4. Saggy pants that show your undies (or diapers in my case) are awesome. I see all the the teenage boys do it. And Uncle Buck does it, too. It's the style, yo.
5. Little animals like to be lined up across the shower door. They must be facing toward the shower so they can watch my mom and dad while in the shower, animals are little pervs.
6. Lego houses that my mom makes me are fun to carry around. For hours. The little tree she made is a great thing to put in the middle of the dark hallway for my mom and dad to step on.
7. Zebras (or eenyas as I call them) like to sit in the shower and read, also with the book upright.
8. Hey, this upright book thing works on the carpet, too? That is rad.
9. Listening to music and clapping my hands is awesome! I love to watch "yo gabba gabba" and sing along. My favorite gabba song is "keep trying". I have added it to my repertoire and sing it to my mom and dad.

And last but not least, 10. My bottle is cool. I don't care what you say. I'm not givin' it up. Get those sippy cups outta my face.

this one wouldn't fit into the collage ;)

Peek-a-boo

Aiden has been really into playing in the front of the house lately. His favorite thing? Hiding behind the rock pillars and going from one side to the next playing peek-a-boo. He just cracks himself up. Just another way to stay entertained while we are confined to the house!