My Cousin Molly

This conversation was started by Aiden yesterday morning completely out of the blue as he was watching cartoons and I was getting ready before school/work:

Aiden: Mommy, my cousin Molly was at Schlitterbahn with us right?
Me: Yes, Aiden she was. We went there for her graduation party.
Aiden: Oh.
Me: Who else was there?
Aiden: I don't know.

**We went to Schlitterbahn water park in Amana, Iowa in May 2008, so it's been a long time. Not sure how this kid's brain works some days or where he comes up with this stuff??!! And, I barely took any pictures that weekend and don't have any of Molly - so sorry!

Aiden enjoying the water park

Aiden and Sammy playing



Aiden & Sophia running around like maniacs!

Bad Dreams

*Yes, it's 4am and I'm awake!

For about a month at least, Aiden has been waking up almost every night from a bad dream. At first it was like clockwork, 3am every morning. He would wake up crying, saying he was scared, having bad dreams, etc. I'll admit, most times I was lazy and either he would crawl in bed with us or I would sleep the rest of the night with him. Sometimes he would remember the dreams or if he was in them or not. Then they tapered off and we would get 2-3 nights with him not waking up, but now for the last week and a half or so, it's back. Now he is scared of the floor - it's too dark?!? And now he is waking up earlier in the night. Tonight (last night I guess), I went to bed at 11pm, Aiden was in our room at 12:40am, awake again at 2am wanting to take a shower??? and here I am at 4am and still awake! This seems to happen every year around Halloween - that damn Halloween isle at Target scares him every year!

Any advice on how to get your kids to quit having bad dreams and/or getting them to go back to sleep in their own bed would be great! This is just a phase right? I need my sleep!!

I got kicked out of my classroom today mommy.

Yes, you read that right. My sweet 3 (almost 4) year old told me as we were "resting and talking" tonight before he drifted off to sleep. Of course I had to figure out what he meant and what he did for that to happen. Apparently Aiden and M (I'll just use initials for sake of anonymity as I don't really know many of his friends too well), were playing I Spy in the classroom, but without the teacher. From what I gathered from Aiden, it is a game they can play with the teacher, but not without the teacher during work time. So, Aiden proceeds to tell me that he and M had to go to the principals office. But, apparently for Aiden, the most important part of the story was that the principal now has soft chairs in her office and they don't have to sit on a hard chair in her office anymore. I guess that was his way of telling me that today was not the first time he has been to the principals office!?

I wasn't completely surprised by the story because today I happened to email his teacher about something, but also asked how Aiden was doing. This is the answer I got: "Aiden is doing fine - he is learning which friends are a benefit to sit near while working and which end up in playing. It's a curve they all go through and he is picking up on it pretty quickly since he had to go to time-out as a reminder. His choices this afternoon are more thoughtful of the consequences BEFORE having an incident."

Time-out must have taken place in the principals office today!

Really, this sweet little boy in the principal's office?

The Swirly Dance

Once again, Aiden is hooked on Dancing with the Stars with me! We love this show!! So this past Monday they either danced the Samba or Rumba - but don't ask me what the difference is! As we are watching it, I'm thinking to myself that the dances and outfits were a little "sexy" as the judges kept calling them and hoping Aiden wouldn't pick up on any of it. About half way through he tells me he is done watching because he doesn't like the "swirly dances"! It was so cute and he was so serious and he left to go play!

Royals Game

This past Saturday night we finally made it out to the new "K" to catch a Royals game. We went with Dan and Jill and it was a beautiful night for a baseball game. They played the Minnesota Twins (and lost), but we still had fun. We were amazed by how many Minnesota people drove down for the game. We had great seats, ate the traditional baseball game hot dog, played in the Kid Zone (where we waited one hour for the Little K experience - well worth it though), checked out the whole stadium, and saw the new Hall of Fame. I was very impressed with the new stadium and the bazillion dollars and my tax dollars that it cost to make the much needed improvements. Maybe the Royals will play better next year, maybe...

Playing at the playground - where Aiden would have been fine staying all night!

One of the few "face on" shots I got!!



The Fam...



Yummy Yummy Hot Dog!!!





Home Run!!!!



Inside the Hall of Fame



Just please don't break it Aiden.

Eva's (Early) 1st Birthday Party

We headed up to Iowa Labor Day weekend. We spent some time with my mom and her new house. On Sunday we headed even further north to Lost Island (Ruthven, Iowa) where my sister-in-law's (Meghan) parents have a cabin Tommy and Meghan had an early birthday party for Eva and we all got to stay all weekend. We had a great time. Aiden became buddies with Meghan's sister Kaitlin who is wonderful and a sophomore at Iowa State. She swam with all the kids in the freezing cold water, took Aiden on several jet ski rides and listened to all his stories. Enjoy the pictures.

Happy 1st Birthday Eva!


The packages are always so much more fun!

Do you think my mom sees me eating this candy?


Sisterly Love


Enjoying the boat ride. Right after Aiden says, "Mom you weren't listening to me! You missed what I wanted to show you because you were too busy looking at the houses!" Oops!
Aiden and his Uncle Tommy


This is Sophia before she decided to make sand angels!


My Sweet Boy!

B-E-A-R-C-A-T-S!!

Last Saturday we went to the NWMSU Bearcats vs. Pitt State Gorillas Fall Classic game at Arrowhead. We met our friends Mark and Ashley and their daughter Lauren there. We were not sure how the kids would do, but they did great! Aiden fell asleep about 15 minutes before we got there, so here he is upon our arrival to Arrowhead:



After he woke up, he was raring to go! He and Lauren played swords, football, and kickball. Here they are "tailgating":






And as usual, I can never get my kid to look at the camera when I'm trying to take pictures of him:




Aiden got to meet Bobby Bearcat - sorry for the bad picture. I think Bobby secretly is Aiden's idol. He LOVES Bobby Bearcat!




Notice the new shirts Shannon and I are wearing! What a saga to get new shirts this year. Thanks first to Ashley for telling us that Kansas Sampler had some, then thanks to Leah for telling me there was one right by Shannon's work. We ended up getting them at the new store on the plaza, before Shannon's crazy idea of driving up to Maryville (2 hours away mind you) on Saturday morning so we could have new shirts for the game!

Going to Iowa...

We are headed for Iowa this weekend! We leave early Saturday morning and should be back Monday evening. I would post something exciting tonight, but hope this is just my allergies acting up and that I'm not getting sick, but I just don't feel so hot. Come back next week!!

Happy (belated) Birthday Poppi Girl!

Poppi's birthday was on 8/22/09 - she turned 12 years old! We were all out of town and couldn't be there to celebrate with her. So last Monday while I was off with Aiden, we took her to 3 Dog Bakery for some special treats and a little walk on the plaza. Poppi gets pretty tired pretty quickly, so the walk was a short walk. That night she got to enjoy a little baseball cupcake for dogs. Enjoy these pics!

Say Cheese!

Poppi, getting hot already.


Poppi, cooling off in the car!

Happy Birthday Dear Poppi!!


Aiden loves his "Poppi Girl".

Scary Dream

Aiden had a bad dream last week and woke up remembering it. This is a first for him, and here is how it happened. He woke up and came into our room at about 1:45am and said he was scared and had a bad dream. He crawled into our bed and Shannon asked him to come with him back to his room/bed. Well, I knew that wasn't going to happen, so Shannon and Poppi went to Aiden's room to sleep while Aiden made himself comfy in our bed (don't worry anyone, this doesn't happen too often). As he lay there with his eyes closed he told me again that he had a bad dream.

Me: It's okay honey, try to think of some happy things.
Him: Like what?
Me: How about rainbows, flowers, Poppi (keep in mind I'm still pretty much asleep).
Him: But mommy, I can't make the bad dream go away, it's still there.

Now, I know I hate it when I'm having a bad nightmare and then try to close my eyes and go back to sleep, but cant' because the dream starts up again. This was one more of those strange firsts that you don't know how to explain or fix it. So, I just rubbed his back and he eventually fell back to sleep.

The next morning I asked Aiden what his dream was about. He said there was a submarine, and a dragon in the garage who made loud noises, "like this, rrrrrraaaaagggghhhh". Where would this have come from? Well, not sure about the submarine part, but a few weeks prior we had been talking about his new school, Border Star and their mascot is the dragon so I guess that's where the dragon came from? Anyway, enjoy some random pics of Aiden.

Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Neighborhood Block Party

Lunch this summer on the plaza with Mommy.

First (and second) Day of School

Yesterday Aiden had his first day of school. I didn't think I would need to say that for another two years, but he started at Border Star Montessori in Brookside and they start at the age of three. Even though he has been going to daycare for the last three years, it was still much harder than I thought it would be. I guess all the newness and changes: new school, new schedule, new neighborhood, new friends, new teachers, new food, new schedule, no nap time - just a "rest period", new clothes (now wears uniforms), new before & after school program, new schedule (did I say that already?). When I picked him up yesterday, he was in a pretty crabby mood which could have been from one or all of the above mentioned "new" parts of his day. Today, though, he is much better and happier.

The day started yesterday with me wanting to take the traditional - stand in front of the front door on the first day of school picture - but Aiden had other plans.

"Mommy, you're wasting time!"

Daddy and Aiden walking up the sidewalk to school.

Then we got to school and brought all of the needed school supplies into his classroom and met the teacher again. (even though I think about 15 of the 20 items on the list were never considered a school supply when I was a kid).

School Supplies

School Supplies???!!??

We met the principal in the hallway, she is very nice. She asked us again who we were and said she was surprised I wasn't crying. I wanted to so bad, but no other moms were crying, so I held them in and got all teary eyed when Shannon and I left, then cried when I got home.

We practiced the new after school program yesterday. I arrived at school at around 4:45pm and the teacher/care person (not sure yet what they are called) says to me that Aiden is ready to go home. I thought something may have been wrong and asked why. She then tells me that Aiden just told her, "I'm ready to go home now, I need a bath". He looked so tired when I got him. We went to get his back pack and he was so excited to show me the picture he made for me that day, except there was no picture, it got left in the classroom, which by now is locked. So I got the picture today, and it is wonderful!

Today was his second day and when I asked if we could take a picture today by the school sign, he says "No mommy, not today. I'll take one next week.". We also practiced the before school program today. It's not anything like Calvary (darycare) where they greet you when you arrive and if your child is a little fussy or clingy, they immediately swoop in to rescue you so you can leave for work. So, Aiden of course didn't want to go and told me several times that he wanted to go back to Calvary. And yes, that definitely broke my heart! But a wonderful teacher/care person came to my rescue and took Aiden and began coloring with him. She told me to go ahead and leave. I did, and waited outside and didn't hear any crying, so he must have been fine. The before and after school part is going to be the hardest as we don't know any of the kids or staff yet and neither does Aiden. It will get easier right?!

"I caught the ball two times!"

So, Aiden had his 3rd t-ball game tonight and he got the ball two times! The first time, he scooped it right up, and threw it to first base just like he was supposed to. The second time, he got the ball, he just held it and froze! All the kids on his team swarmed all around him telling him where to throw it and I think he got confused and a little frustrated. He finally threw it then to first base. He was so proud of himself. He had one of those looks on his face that I hope I can keep in my memory forever!

Tball Team Pictures

Aiden had his tball team pictures tonight, and they turned out so cute! They had hot dogs, chips, etc. and autographs with Slugger while all the kids waited for their teams' turn. Aiden actually went up to Slugger and got his stuffed Slugger and the Slugger card autographed and let Slugger hold him! Quite the change from last year when any sort of larger than life mascot scared him to tears!

Here are a few shots from tonight, and don't worry grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. we spent a small fortune on the professional pictures for everyone!

Hey there Sluggerrr

Will you autograph my stuffed mini you?


I'm okay, I can do this!


Would you hurry up already?



I can't sit still much longer!!


I think my hat's too big.