Fair pics

Some pics from the GA State fair yesterday. Aiden had an ok time, he wasn't nearly as interested in riding the rides as he was at the Cherry Blossom festival back in March. Just goes to show how 6 months is a loooong time in the life of a toddler--he kept saying that all the rides were "just TOO scary!" Lol.

Also, a funny Aiden-ism from this morning. I got him up when he woke up and he said, "I'm looking for my other friends....Daddy and Aunt Lizzie! I know TWO Witherspoons, Mommy--Aunt Lizzie and Granny!" Lol. I had to explain that Grandad is also a Witherspoon, but Aiden insisted that no, he is NOT! What a silly kid!

Pizza & me

Last week Aiden's preschool had a "Pizza & me" party for the parents to get to know each other. One of the moms was nice enough to take a family pic for us:) Not the best pictures, but at least all 4 of us are in them!

Videos

Aiden playing with Ava before he realized I had the video camera out. He can be really sweet to her sometimes (when he thinks no one is looking!)

Aiden singing his ABC's. This video got cut short somehow, but I don't know why! Sorry! It is half the ABC's anyway!

Ava cruising--she literally started doing this overnight last weekend!

The glass is half full...

I am having a rather difficult and trying day with the kids, but rather than dwell on it (like I usually do, forcing my complaints on everyone and wishing I could run away for a week to Hawaii) I am going to do the opposite. So here is a post about all of the good and funny things going on in our lives right now.

We officially opened the hot tub last night and it was awesome and I am SO looking forward to using it all winter and NOT being pregnant, lol.

The weather here is, finally, AMAZING. Blue sunny skies, no humidity, and 80 degrees for the high. The mornings are crisp and wonderful and the evenings are just cool enough to enjoy a walk outside again. Thank God for GA falls and winters, otherwise no one would live here! :) I am soooo happy that summer is OVER!!!

A few Aiden-isms:
Upon seeing the tiki torches and the campfire out on Sunday morning, "Oh, Mommy! We need to get some new batteries! The tiki torches need some new batteries!" I love that he thinks that everything runs on batteries:)

Last night he drank almost a whole cup of water in under a minute. I said, "Wow, Aiden, you were a thirsty monkey weren't you?" Aiden's response? "NO MOMMY! I am NOT a monkey, Mommy. I am a BIG boy, Mommy, NOT a monkey. That is silly Mommy. I am a boy."

Highlights of my day so far:
> Ava going happily down for her morning nap and sleeping from 9:30 to 11am and waking up happy.
> Snuggling on the couch and reading books with Aiden for almost the entire time Ava was napping (he stayed home sick from school today, poor guy).
> Ava trying desperately to eat my engagement ring right off my finger while riding in the cart at Walmart (trust me, it was funny, you just had to be there).
> Aiden spelling out every letter on the dryer lint tray, "C-L-E-A-N B-E-F-O-R-E E-A-C-H- L-O-A-D...Mommy, what does that spell?" He is so smart that it kills me sometimes.
> Taking the kids for a nice, long walk this morning.
> Watching Aiden exclaim, "I did it! Yay for Aiden!" at the park after going down the big slide.
> Hearing Aiden tell another little girl at the park, "I am not very brave," on the big bridge, and then listening to me encourage him to finish going across and seeing the look on his face when I told him, "Yes you are Aiden! You are very brave--you did that bridge all by yourself!" He was so proud:)
> Aiden saying, "Oh, thank you Mommy, thank you for helping me bring my snack inside," when I brought his snack inside from the car.

Ava is getting very brave with her cruising, and has convinced herself that over the course of one weekend she not only learned to cruise, but now can do it one-handed. Sometimes she can and sometimes she can't, lol.

No new pics today--everyone here is all snotty. But hopefully the kids will be better soon and we'll take lots of great pics when Aunt Lizzie comes this weekend! I can't wait!

Cruising and babbling

After months of worrying that Ava would never become mobile and also worrying that she wasn't babbling at ALL--she made a big breakthrough yesterday! She's been taking one or two steps while holding onto furniture, but suddenly she's taken off! She made three trips all the way around the train table today in a matter of minutes. She figured out maneuvering corners and everything--impressive! The only flaw is that since she still can't crawl or pull up on anything herself, she is stuck wherever we put her, lol.

She also started saying "bababababa" and has traded that in for blowing raspberries all day long:) I love it! Mamamama is right around the corner:)

I have tons of video clips (again) to upload--Ava cruising, Aiden singing the ABC's and other songs, the kids playing together, etc. So be on the lookout for new clips this week!
























These pics are after a particularly traumatizing fall--she was holding onto the exersaucer and fell onto the hardwood floor. No joke--she cried HARD for 10 minutes straight. I finally got Pinky Bear and she settled down watching Diego. She is SUCH a Drama Queen!! (I wonder who she gets that from?? ;)

Camping!

Ok, before you think, "Wait--they packed up their two young kids and went CAMPING? Are they nuts??" remember that we practically live in a forest, so....we set up camp in our backyard! After Ava went to bed, we made a fire (Chuck and I built the firepit today while the kids were napping), made smores, and let Aiden play with a flashlight and the tent. It was really fun and Aiden loved it. We're looking forward to doing it again next weekend when Liz comes to celebrate our birthday! Aiden particularly loved the marshmallows and chocolate bars:) He cried when it was time for bed, poor guy.

On a side note, we are all under the weather--the kids are not feeling great and Chuck has a killer cold. Hopefully we get well soon!

(PS--I know that Aiden is wearing the SAME SHIRT in every picture I post lately. That is because he flips his lid if he doesn't get to wear this Lightning McQueen shirt...EVERY SINGLE DAY. Getting him dressed for school (in a polo shirt) is like World War 3, seriously. So I pick my battles on non-school days;)

Super Ava!

First I have to show what Aiden and I discovered on the porch this afternoon--a walking stick! I haven't seen one of these since I was a little kid. Neat!





















Next, Ava in a Superman costume! Too cute for words, pretty much. I bought this costume for Aiden at a consignment sale, but he hates it, lol. We tried enticing him to try it on by putting it on Ava first--she was a very good sport! Poor baby girl went to the Dr. again today and has a double ear infection. She has been just miserable and I'm actually thankful that something is wrong with her--now we have medicine and hopefully she'll start feeling like herself again (not to mention SLEEPING, hopefully!).

Misc. pics

I've definitely been giving my new camera a workout:) Just a few misc. pics from yesterday and this morning.

Aiden's artwork

Anyone that knows me well knows that I am not a "saver." Maybe it's because we moved several times when I was a kid, and my mom forced us to learn to become purgers. Maybe it's because I know that clutter in my life just makes me a mess inside, lol. Anyway, when I had kids, I knew I would have to make difficult decisions about what to toss and what to keep. Obviously, I can't keep every art project that Aiden ever does, or we'd have to buy a second house just to keep it all! Enter: the digital camera. It's not the same, of course, but at least I can take pictures of his beautiful work and save it forever in a much smaller space:)

Here are the projects that Aiden has done at school in the past few weeks. They've introduced all the colors now (which Aiden already knows anyway) and have moved on to doing more involved projects like the tinfoil painting. He seems to be liking school, and when I ask him who he likes the best in his class, he tells me it is a little boy named Kunsh (I think he's Indian? or middle eastern?)--Aiden says he is very nice:) His class has a pizza party yesterday for all of the kids and parents to get aquainted, and that was fun to get to see all of the kids in his class interact with each other.

Ava

Two sets of new pics of Ava. Ava is, to put it mildly, SURPRISED by my new camera, lol. It has a super big flash, so I can never quite catch her actually smiling. Instead I blind her, and then get this really "deer-in-headlights" look from her. We're still working out the kinks, lol.

I got this new bath seat at the Goodwill last week for $3. It's so oldschool and I love it--they're totally discontinued now (not "safe" I guess), but obviously I never leave her alone in the bathtub! She loves being able to play with all of Aiden's animals like a big girl:) Enjoy her awesome bath hair and surprised faces!
























These are some pics I took this morning. I was going for an Anne Geddes-style photo shoot, but it ended up looking like she's trying to row a tiny boat naked, lol. In the first pic, it looks like she's smoking an invisible cigarette;)

Snuggle party

With both kids under the weather, we spent a fair amount of time snuggling in our bed yesterday with blankets:) Both kids were being super cute. Bed head in all it's glory:)