Still more pictures

What every toddler wears:



Playing "Beep Beep!"



Swimming at Aunt Kathryn's



Mama's Birthday parties:

Mys and Self!

Aidan has two new favorite words: Mys (pronounced like m-eyes) and self. She uses them regularly. Sometimes she manages to meld them together into MYSELF! This is how she likes to do things, at least until SHE decides to ask for "elp." I have learned to preface everything with "Do you want to do it yourself or would you like help?" This generally makes things go much smoother. Unless, she wants to do something HERSELF but later, not when I want to have it done. Like getting in her car seat. This morning, I gave her the choice and she chose HERSELF, but then she had to inspect the car floor boards for interesting food or toys. (Never know what might be down there.) I gave her the standard "Love and Logic" warning, "Aidan, do you want to get in the car seat by yourself or do you want mommy to help? If you aren't in your seat by the time I count to 10, mommy's going to help you. 1...2...3..." I got to 10 and she was still inspecting old Cheerios, so I picked her up and put her in her seat, with much crying (even real tears), flailing, and back arching. When I gave her empathy (You wanted to do it yourself, didn't you?), she responded with "OK" and tried to get down so she could get back in BY HERSELF. When I wouldn't let this happen (You can try again tonight), it kicked off another round of distress. We finally got things calmed down and we had a little talk about needing to do what mommy asks when mommy asks for it to be done. She gave a little nod of agreement. After a little personal time for everyone involved, we sang 3 rousing choruses of "The Alphabet Song" on the way to school. Aidan is able to sing about 1/3 of the song. She gets "A, b, c", "g", "lmnop" and "y, z". I just counted and that's almost 1/2 of the alphabet. It is amazing to me the things she can sing that I know she couldn't just come out and say yet. Singing is a great language tool. Yesterday, she was watching "Little People" (the episode with the boat) and when she saw the wheels getting put on the boat, she said/sang (somewhere in between) "All through the town."

We are also using choices to the point of being ridiculous sometimes, but it seems to work. For example, last night at bed time, Aidan had the following choices:

Changing diaper on floor or changing table (floor)
Pick out diaper HERSELF or mommy pick the diaper (HERSELF)
Put on pajama pants first or pajama top first (top)
Put arms through first or head through first (head)
Have Mama read books or Mommy read books (Mommy)
Hold orange bear or inchworm (inchworm)

Well, you get the picture.

She currently enjoys playing "Beep, beep" which means she sits in the driver's seat and pretends to drive and pushes all the buttons and moves all the dials. It is best when the keys are left in the ignition and she can play the radio REALLY LOUD - by HERSELF.

She is generally developing a very sweet personality. Yesterday, as she was playing Beep Beep, she found my water bottle and got out of the car to bring it to me as I was taking the dogs out. The other day, she got a sticker from the front office and she took it off and shared it with a friend in her class. She loves to help and be a big girl.

Well, I'm sure there's more to update, but those are the big things at the moment.

No Mas!

So, Sunday, I was giving Aidan a bath and she learned a very important life lesson: When playing with a bar of soap, it behooves one to rinse one's hands before rubbing one's eyes. Poor thing. Unfortunately, the eye rubbing occurred during hair rinsing, so she thought it was my fault. More unfortunately, she decided she was done with hair rinsing while there was still significant product in her hair. She is running up and down the length of the bathtub trying to get away from mommy, aka, "The Rinser." This was not working (as there is limited space to run away in the bathtub), so she lets out this loud "No mas!!!!!" It seems she figured English was not working and she would give Spanish a try. Way to go bilingual girl! Maybe it is time to get those Muzzy tapes so we can all work on our Spanish together. It would be something to watch besides "The Little People: Things that Go" DVD. I've started playing it in Spanish just for something different to listen to!

More pictures!

Our trip to the zoo:



Learning to take pictures (mostly of the floor)



She's learned to open the back door now too!

Insight doesn't always lead to behavior change

Well, I checked with Aidan's teacher this morning and there was no improvement in the running off yesterday, despite Aidan's very confident response to my questioning. Of course, the teacher explained this morning that Aidan will be in the middle of playing and just decide to take off. Originally, she told me that it was when they were in transit from place to place. Leaving a play place is a totally different conversation than walking together with her class. I'm not sure why it is so hard to get a clear message about what's going on a daycare. Oh well. So, now we have to work on staying with the group while playing. I need a short, catchy phrase for that.

Sorry it has been awhile since we've done pictures. Things are busy at night and I haven't had time to upload. I'll work on it.

She does listen!

Aidan's one significant behavior issue at daycare is that she takes off running down the hall (or toward the parking lot) when her class is going from place to place. I've been giving suggestions to the daycare workers (like using time out) and talking to Aidan each morning about my expectation that she WAIT for Miss Lillie and Miss Rachel when they go from place to place. This morning, I asked Aidan what she was going to do for Miss Lillie and Miss Rachel. With no prompting, Aidan immediately replied, "Wait." I praised her for this and then talked about how hard it can be to remember to wait when she is excited, but I wanted her to try really hard to remember all day. Then (to make sure it wasn't a fluke response), I asked her again what she was going to do, this time in front of Miss Lillie. Aidan replied, "Wait." Now, we'll see how well it worked in action. At least she's listening if not always executing. Last night, she started to take off on me and I asked her to wait. She slowed, but kept moving. I asked, "Do you need a time out?" This little, "No." came floating to me. I said, "Well, then you had better come back here." Two very slow feet carrying a sad little face wandered their way back to me. I think we are making progress.

Avocado - its what's for dinner

Aidan was, apparently, starving last night by dinner time. I whipped together a delicious dinner of chicken, black beans, carrots, and tomatoes. Aidan spies an avocado on the counter. I cut one up and bring it over to give her pieces of it. She wants the entire half I'm holding in my hand. So, I give it to her. She eats it in less that 3 mintues - and wants more. I give her another half. Same thing. Gone is 3 minutes and she is handing me the empty shell and saying "More. Please." over and over. I figure that it can't hurt her, so out comes half number 3. She takes longer with this one, but eats the whole thing too. And some chicken, beans, tomatoes and carrots too! She was one green mess by the time it was over.