I figured out a way

Duh.  All the outdoor pictures we have of Aidan are in his car seat or stroller.  Then it occurred to me.  Prop him up in his Bebe Pod and snap away!

Big Fat Jinx

Yep.  I jinxed us.  Last night sleep came to Aidan at 7:30 and then he woke up at 11:30 and 3:15.  Not cool Aidan.  Not cool.  On a Wednesday no less.  Wednesdays are the hard days.  Special thanks to my husband for reminding me that "You jinxed it" at 6:00 this morning when Aidan woke up and was raring and ready to go.

Rock Star Photo Shoot

You win some, you lose some

I fear that by my publishing this on the Internet, it will jinx me and never happen again.  But here goes anyway...  Aidan went to bed last night at around 8:00.  At 7:45 I woke him up so we could get Kate to school before she was forced to follow in her Mother's footsteps and get her 1st of many tardy slips.  She made it on time and Aidan came home, nursed, cooed, and now is back asleep beside me.  What happened?  Will it happen again?  Was my Mother right?  Was it that  his socks and pajamas were too small?  Was making it a little warmer the key?  Was he getting over-stimulated and over-tired?  Was it because he ate a little more solids yesterday?  Was it because God knew I needed a break?

Of course I woke up multiple times listening for his grunting and kicking to begin.  I waited for the cries that I could try and pat away, before finally giving in and picking him up.  They never came.  After weeks of nursing in the middle of the night, my boobs, however,  woke up concerned and a bit angry.  They got over it though.  Yes I like to talk about my boobs.  That's what happens after you have a baby.  You too can become obsessed with boobs and poop.  Just have a baby.  It's inevitable.

My husband dared to imply this morning that Aidan's restful night meant I too had a restful night.  Not exactly.  But if this keeps up I'm sure me and my boobs will adjust just fine.  He also dared suggest to make this into a scientific experiment and try not feeding him solids before bed one night and see how he does.  Then another night we can dress him in smaller pajamas and see what happens.  Yea.  Sounds good Mr. science guy.  You could even make charts and graphs.  You have fun with that.  I'll just take my oatmeal cookies and will be in Australia.

Boo to Mondays

We went to Oklahoma this weekend to visit my family, go to a birthday party where my dear husband got to practice his anti-social skills, and get my hair done by the stylist I can't seem to let go of.  It was a good weekend but we discovered Aidan does not travel well in the car after about 7:30.  This obviously is directly related to his desire to be DONE for the day at about 8:00 and there was no consoling the poor kid.  After 2 stops, patting of the head and arms via my contortionist abilities from the front seat he finally gave in and slept the rest of the way.  The return trip was much smoother and we settled in for the night.  Right around midnight is where it got fun and I knew this was going to be the start of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Aidan marveled us all by starting to sleep through the night at an early age.  I kept thinking to myself that he was such an easy baby and that I was so fortunate to have a child like him.  There was no song and dance to get him to sleep, no middle of the night feedings, and no odd bedtime rituals to speak of.   Then he turned 4 months old and it all began to unravel.  He was still easy during the day for the most part, but nighttime became a different story.  I blamed it on teething, hunger, temperature of the room, and most recently sickness.

Now at 5 months I'm getting frustrated.  I've read of this happening more often than I'd like to admit.  It's apparently a phase that's not uncommon during this point in a baby's development.  But geesh kid!  Last night he blessed me with waking up at midnight and 4:00 in the morning.  I can deal with being roused out of a deep sleep once, but twice is not cool.  Some nights he thinks it's fun to wake up 3 times.  I often wake up at around 5:00 and realize in just 2 short hours I have to get up and it makes me panic.

After our lovely night I awoke with a headache and a bad attitude.  The day was not destined to make me feel better.  Here are some things that annoyed me today in a style reminiscent of Alexander.

• Daniel informed me shortly after I got up that he would take Kate to school but that Aidan was awake upstairs and was "happy as a clam."  It's "happy as a lark."  NO Aidan!   Go back to sleep!  I hate waiting to take a nap.
• A yellow jacket tried to sting me while I was trying to put up some outdoor fall decor.  I hate yellow jackets or really anything that flies.  
• Aidan pooped more than should be humanly possible for a baby his age and it got all over his clothes and my arms.  Poop on any other part of your body then that one part where it's supposed to be is just plain gross.  
• I had nothing to drink with caffeine in it and shear laziness prevented me from doing anything about it until after 3:00.  I hate it when I can't shake a case of the lazies.
• Kate managed to spill almost an entire box of gold fish crackers all over the back seat.  I hate having to clean up food mess.
• I had to clean out the litter boxes and sweep up cat litter.  Yuck more cleaning.
• I have far too many loads of clean clothes all over the place and no desire to do anything about it.  I annoy myself.
• I somehow managed to shoot myself and the entire kitchen with the sprayer from the sink.  I hate having to stop what I'm doing to clean up another mess.
• My husband thinks the Cowboys game should take precedence over Dancing with the Stars and I disagree.  He won.  I don't like to lose.  
• I cooked a dinner that I thought was really good.  He said it needed more garlic.  Grrr.  I don't like husbands that don't know when to keep their mouth shut.

But I did bake some oatmeal cookies tonight since this is according to Daniel, "one of only 16 or 17 times I watch pro football and I only watch college football like 12 times" and I needed something to do.  Cookies make everything better.  Aidan went to bed shortly after 8:00 and I'm hoping for a one time wake-up if not a night with no wake-ups.  I fear I may be hoping for too much.  I guess if all else fails I can always move to Australia.

Why Dogs are probably better (to some people)

Last night we were sitting around watching TV and I made a comment about how conniving and manipulative our cats are.  I think I said something along the lines of "That cat is smart."  Kate promptly replied,

"Our cats can't spit.  They can only puke and eat and walk around."

Touche my little funny girl.  Touche.  But I'll have to disagree with you a bit.

Cats can do this

Don't forget this.   But perhaps it should be disqualified due to the fact that it probably ended in puking.

They can give you looks like this

And this

But best of all they can do this...

To be 5 going on 20

As a child I was terribly shy and quiet.  So when Kate went through her shy stage I chalked it up to one more thing she had inherited from me like her skinny feet and hatred of green food.  So imagine my surprise one night when she snapped out of it and began regaling my former co-workers at a group dinner with stories of Barbies and Dora.  The shy streak was over.  But never in my definitions of an outgoing pre-schooler did I include the idea that along with sharing secrets of Princesses and Ice cream cones with the girls, that she would also be chasing boys and kissing them behind the slides.  When I was even a middle school student, the mere thought of talking to a boy that I was crushing on was absolutely out of the question.

I'm not certain I was supposed to know about the kissing part.  Once when my Parents were visiting she let a story slip about her previous day on the playground and that she had kissed two of the boys in her class.  When our shocked voices and dropped jaws registered she quickly retracted her statement and denied the whole thing.  Fast forward to this year and her Pre-K crushes are over; she's moved on.  I may have mentioned she's developed a new boy obsession by the name of Grant.  Grant is adorable and tall and she remembers what he wears everyday.  Just ask.  She thinks his eyes are beautiful and you may recall the story of her tripping him.  Not on purpose of course.  No not at all...

In the car on the way to school today she said, "Yesterday on the big playground Grant was running towards me."  I asked, "Did you talk to him?"  "No!!  I ran away from him.  I'm not ready for that!"  Good to know that maybe a little of my shyness did rub off on her after all.