Mine! I! Nooooooo

These are Aidan new favorite words. Fortunately, she's also learning the concept of sharing, but it takes a little persuading.

Last night, I was attempting to wash her face after dinner. Aidan takes the wash cloth, clutches it to her chest, and says, "Mine!" while patting it as if it was her lovey, Steve. Did I mention she had a death grip on the wash cloth? So, I sit down, look her in the eyes, and ask in my nicest voice, "Aidan, may Mommy please use the wash cloth? Will you share with me, please?" After some consideration, she relented and allowed me to use it.

The other morning, we were in the car, headed down the driveway to go to school. From the backseat I hear, "I go! I go! I gooooooo!"

We are having the floor in our den and kitchen replaced this week. Those of you who have been to our home give a big "Hurrah!" that the nasty carpet is gone. In it's place is some lovely tile. Aidan has decided that it is her job to sweep the floor each night. (I'll have to thank the workers for leaving the broom out.) I tried to shorten this process because of the nasty, rusted staples that are everywhere. Guess which word Aidan used? "No!!!!!" Back to negotiating. "Aidan, may Mommy please see the broom?" "No! Mine!" "Aidan, Mommy needs to use the broom now." "No! Mine!" "Come on Aidan, let's go do something else...."

Christianne wants me to share the story of what happened at the park on Saturday. Christianne took Aidan to the park to get her out of the house and let me rest (I had the flu - thanks for nothing flu shot!). The park is near a place where people can ride horses. 3 horses and riders came through and apparently Aidan saw them and took off running (she runs now) toward the horses and would have ran all the way there (across the street, through the mud, etc.) if Christianne hadn't caught up with her. One of the riders stopped and let Aidan pet the horse. Christianne said was a little unsure about petting its nose, but loved to be up close to the horse and touch its coat. A way cool Mama-Aidan experience.

Aidan is in the process of transitioning to a new room at school, with new teachers. We have started to see our first signs of separation anxiety at school. She's been going there since she was 4 months old and she's now 17.5 months old. I guess we have been blessed. I feel so sad for her when I wave good-bye and she's bawling. I know it only lasts a moment, because by the time I sign her in she's stopped, but I had thought we might just avoid the whole thing - at least at daycare. I guess not. And at the end of the day, I can't get her to leave.

I'll try to post more pictures tonight or tomorrow.

No no no no no

Imagine this said with a vigorous head shake and a cute hi voice. It is hard not to smile even when Aidan is using her new favorite word over and over again in response to a request (usually from me, hummmm...). It goes like this:

Me: Aidan, let's change your diaper.

Aidan: No, no, no, noooooo.

Me: Aidan, can mommy put you to sleep tonight?

Aidan: Nooooo.

Me: Can mama put your to sleep tonight?

Aidan: Doesn't protest.

Me: Aidan, it is time to clean up.

Aidan: No, no, no.

You get the picture. At least she isn't whiney about it. Even with the extra "o" on the end of no. It is more of an elongation of the sound than a whine.

Mine you, she's only 17 months.

I've started saying "Yes, yes, yes" around her as much as possible in the hopes that she'll pick up that habit and discard the no habit. Anyone think that will work for me?

Cute story of the day

Aidan was going after something that she shouldn't have. Christianne offered her something else. Aidan said (quite clearly), "I don't want that."

Ok....

TONS of pictures

Here are a few of Aidan's adventures. She sure is creative!

One of her latest interests is taking every blanket out of her cubby, spreading them on her rug, and then lying down and rolling around on them. Fortunately, she's pretty good about helping pick up, her her folding skills need some work.



Just to prove she really is better at eating with a spoon...



Proving that will do anything to hear Aidan's great laugh, here we are putting Aidan's sock on our noses and then pretending to sneeze so the sock goes flying off and hits her in the face. We probably spent 20 minutes with this activity after dinner one night.



This will only make sense to those of you in Oregon, but Aidan's contemplating being part of the Granger calendar next year...



We figure it is never too early for Aidan to learn how to help around the house. Here she is learning to cook:



And helping with the laundry:



I'm not sure what sort "helping" it is to run down the hall with the toilet paper, but she sure had a plan!



Some days, getting out of the house is a challenge...



And just to prove she really does sleep:



Speaking of sleep, Aidan is doing much better with sleeping through the night. She's woken up briefly every night this week, but put herself back to sleep without my help. Now, if she just wouldn't cry when she wakes up.

Aidan cute story of the week. Aidan and I are going through the drive-thru at Boston Market. (I know, bad mommy.) I order her a kid's meal, but don't need a drink for her, so I get the kid's drink as a mommy treat of a diet coke. The worker hands me the cup and here is the dialogue (and actual conversation) that occurs between Aidan and myself:

Aidan: "Wha is at?"

Mommy: "What is this? It is a drink."

Aidan: "I wa."

Mommy: "No, you can't have it. Mommy's drink."

Aidan: "Uh..."

Mommy: "Sorry sweetie..."

Aidan: "Whaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

That's all for now!

A few cute pictures

Some pictures to share:

Painting


Currently, she loves to put socks on her hands - even better if she's just pulled them off her feet!


She also loves going for rides in the laundry basket with all her books piled in with her.


Eating with a spoon is much less messy than it used to be - not that you can tell from this picture! (Her fork skills are pretty good too.)


Using her rocking chair.

Ov ooo

I know I need to put pictures up and I am a total blog slacker, but still, I had to share this.

This morning, Aidan was hugging my leg and I was hugging her back and said, "I love you." Aidan said back, "Ov ooo."

Pretty cool, huh?

She's doing a lot of mimicking sounds/words lately. It is so darn cute. And Christianne has been working with her on animal sounds. She knows lion, dog, sheep, and cat. You should hear her roar. Too cute.

Back to work, but I had to share.

I'm a big girl now!

Aidan has decided that she is now a big girl and I wanted to share some recent examples of her big girl endeavors.

• She is occasionally using 2-3 word phrases such as "I go now" and "I want that."
• She is developing definite opinions about articles of clothing she wants to wear and voicing those opinions strongly.
• Yesterday, she climbed up into a chair at the table, reached for a napkin, put it in her lap, and ate her cheese sitting at the table (with one attempt to run off with a handful of cheese).
• She is eating with a fork and prefers her food in a bowl rather than on her tray.
• She can climb into the car and into her carseat by herself.
• She is beginning to pretend using objects in novel ways (e.g.,pretending the remote is a phone).

I'm sure there are some other things, but those are the highlights. Oh, and she's learning to put things away after she gets them out (with direction from me, but she knows where things go) and likes to help put laundry in the dryer and take it out again. It is amazing to see her just take off developmentally. She really is her own person! And (most of the time) quite delightful!