Tales of a Newbie Dad

A few new pictures and videos

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 01:37:00 +0000

As most of you know, The past few months has been very busy around our household. That should not have meant that we didn't take enough pictures and videos of Aiden, but unfortunately, it does. I tried to ake up for that a little bit today by taking several videos of him to share with you. So here we are with some Aiden media for you.

The Best Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:03:00 +0000

I just finished reading "Open" the Andre Agassi Autobiography (Thanks mom!). This is a highly recommended book for anyone who watched even a little bit of tennis back in the 90's when Andre, Pete Sampras, and all the hot shot American guys were in their prime. But aside from that, it is a very telling story about what is important in life.

Andre dropped out of school in the 9th grade to focus entirely on tennis. His father actually encouraged this decision. He had driven Andre since he was walking to be the best tennis player in the world. Mike Agassi saw school as interfering in his child's real education which was to be found on the tennis court.

Andre talks late in the book about his joy of reading, and how late in life he discovered it because he dropped out of school. It's a shame, as reading I think is one of the best gifts we can give our children, and Agassi's dad essentially kept that from Andre.

I am quite the opposite, I had a joy of reading instilled in me at a very early age. I have always been a big reader, I remember my dad on the couch with a book in hand, and I took most of my early favorites off of his book case. Without my dad's Joy of reading I might never have discovered Robert Heinlein, Steven King, and countless other authors whose books I have read over the years.

My hope is to instill that same joy of reading in Aiden. I think we are doing pretty well with that so far, as Aiden always wants to hear a story before bed, and most days he falls asleep for his nap holding onto his favorite book. He is very much like daddy in that regard, I can't go to sleep without at least reading a couple of paragraphs of a book. sometimes falling asleep with the book still grasped in my hands.

One of the things that is helping us with encouraging Aiden to read is Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Every month Aiden gets a brand new book in the mail, and will continue to do so until he is five years old. It's a nice way to expand his book collection and give him new pages to explore. Would we have books for Aiden without this wonderful gift? Yes, we would. But there are families out there who wouldn't, and I think organizations like this that inspire our children to learn are phenomenal.

You all know I don't typically use this space to endorse any products or services. Every now and then I do get emails from people who want me to write about this that or the other thing. It is not that I am opposed to the idea of writing about these things, but none of the ones who have contacted me want me to write about anything that has to do with my family and the raising of a child. The Imagination Library has not asked me for any sort of endorsement, but I feel like this organization is worth a mention. If you have a child who is under 5 years old and have not already done so, go to the website and sign your child up for some books. Or, if you feel so compelled, head on over to the website and make a donation to the organization so that more children can enjoy the gift of reading. You can do either at: http://www.dollysimaginationlibrary.com

Thanks as always for reading. Should have some good pictures to share after this weekend with a visit from Mimi and Papaw.

Big Photo update

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:31:00 +0000

It's kind of feast or famine around this blog. Either there are lots and lots of photos and videos to share, or there is essentially nothing. Today it is the former. Aiden and I discovered a new way to spend these long cold winter days. A place called Monkey Joe's full of inflatable play areas and games fit for ages 2-12. Now maybe a Saturday was not the best time to discover this little gem as it was pretty darn crowded, but Aiden had a blast, and daddy got a good work out following him around the place. So below are a bunch of pictures from that excursion. A few others to start out with though. We were folding laundry last week when Aiden grabbed one of my shirts and proceeded to climb into it. That just had to be documented. And a few pictures from the snow last week. we couldn't make a snow man, but we could make snow balls for Aiden to hit off of his tee. He thought that was the funniest thing.

Without further ado, the images of the week!

It's January

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:17:00 +0000

So I was reminded this morning that I haven't posted anything in awhile. Truth be told, Life has kept our household pretty busy over the last few weeks. Putting in a lot of time with some other projects. Aiden is having a great time with school, with visiting with grandparents and uncles/aunts/cousins. The beginning of the new year has been a fun time for him. It has also been a little bit of a tough time. With the weather turning bitterly cold last week his eczema came back with a vengeance. We ran out of the oil we use on him at the same time, so now he is very itchy all the time. Hoping to get in touch with the doctor tomorrow to get a refill sent in on the oil he needs to control his skin so everything can level back out.

I don't have any pictures ready to load tonight, there are a lot out there, just not gathered on this computer. So I will have to get back to you with the new years photo update. But yes, we are still here in the new year, and will keep you updated as news comes in. :-)

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:57:00 +0000

I just wanted to take a moment on this day to send a Christmas greeting from our house to yours. I know I am not the best blogger in the world, and sometimes I have to be reminded to put up a new post, but I greatly appreciate you taking the time to come and visit with us. We come to the close of another year, a year in which Aiden turned 2 and we had so many adventures. Thanks for being a part of it! And we'll see you in 2010.

Just a couple of quick videos of our little guy enjoying his Christmas morning. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas to All

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Wow... a month since our last update. It's been a busy time around the house. What with the holiday season at work and all three of us being sick for an extended amount of time, posting an update has kind of fallen by the wayside.

Aiden had a bit of a stomach virus there for about a week. The first night of it he woke up at around 1:30 and started crying for us. We were going to let him cry for a bit to see if he settled himself back down when he changed from his usual cry for us to come over to "I'm Messy" I went over to see what he was on about to find a bed full of vomit. Uh Oh.

What followed was about 3.5 hours of Aiden throwing up every 5-30 minutes. A very sleepless night all around, and a very tired family on Thursday. We weren't sure what to think of this as Aiden had never been throw up sick before. After the session of throwing up, the next several days Aiden had nearly no appetite whatsoever, drinking tons and eating a lot of ice chips, but not really willing to go for food. That combined with the stomach bug led to some pretty nasty diarrhea for the next 5 days or so. Mix that in with momma having a cold and the stomach bug at the same time and daddy having the worst cough/sinus infection of his life and we had a pretty unhappy household.

Fortunately these things ran their course as they always do and everyone is on the mend. Aiden got to go to his Parent's Day Out Christmas Party on Thursday and had a great time. With the illnesses we haven't made it to see Santa this year, and I am not sure if we will or not.

We're getting acclimated to it being too cold to go outside. Aiden still asks to go outside a time or two a day, but once we tell him it is too cold he is pretty good about finding something else to do. Parents Day Out has helped with that to give him someplace else to play other than just our house. I suppose I need to be looking into other activities I can take him out for so we can get out of the house more often over the winter.

Like everyone else we are busy preparing for Christmas. Lots of fun in store there. Aiden has some pretty awesome toys waiting for him to open, so I am sure there will be good pictures to share from that. In the meantime, Aiden got a much needed haircut today. Momma cut it and I think she did a great job. Here are the before and after pictures for you to check out.

More soon! Merry Christmas!

New pictures and video

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:24:00 +0000

Sorry it has been awhile since I updated. I am posting more often little updates on facebook and not so much taking the time to sit down and write actual blog entries. It seems like Aiden learns so much and is doing so much new every single day and it is difficult to document everything. His vocabulary is getting so big, and he understands what words mean pretty quickly. Still a big sports enthusiast, it's pretty cool how smart and engaged he is.

I have several pictures and a video to share tonight. The video is from awhile ago when Aiden decided to sing me a song after school, I tried to get him to sing for the camera, and he did a little bit. The results are what you see here.

The pictures are from ICE at Gaylord Opryland. This year's theme is Charlie Brown Christmas. I think they have done a wonderful job with the sculptures this year. I liked the Grinch when it was here, but I had trouble with some of the sculpting, as the who's lacked definition and didn't really stand out very well. Of course who's take a lot more definition than the Charlie Brown Characters, so in that sense, the artists had an easier job this year. But there is no question who the different characters are, and the scenes present themselves very well. And here is a little insider's secret. The building ICE is held in has an all new sound system this year, capable of playing different selections in 8 different zones. This lets them play scene appropriate music throughout. If you give it a few minutes (tough to do in the cold I know) you can actually follow the story through the soundtrack.

Enjoy!

this is Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:31:00 +0000

It has taken some doing to get Aiden accustomed to his Halloween costume, but tonight he finally got the whole outfit on. Amazing but the outfit that is supposed to be sized for children 2-4 years old that we expected to be too big is.... too small. We're goign to see if we can get it in a bigger size tomorrow, but otherwise this will do for Saturday. He won't be wearing it next year, or even next month though.

The down side of all this work to get him comfortable with his costume is there is an 80% chance of Rain on Saturday, meaning that we might not even get to trick or treat. Maybe he will just dress up and great anyone hardy enough to be out trick or treating inj the rain. Who knows.

Just a couple of pictures and quick videos for you to enjoy of our little dragonasaurus.

the pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:01:00 +0000

Many of the pictures speak for themselves, but I will caption them anyway, just to be sure we all know what is going on. Be prepared. This post includes 20 pictures and 4 videos. And doesn't even cover our entire trip. There is still some stuff on the Laptop I need to transfer over as well!

Aiden gets a crack at his first Pool Table. More on this in the video segment.

And he Jams to Guitar Hero. Too bad his guitar wasn't plugged in.

Light Saber action

I'm not really sure. But I think we are celebrating Jeyssa's cooking.

Tram ride at the beginning of our Disney day. Yes that is a "What have I gotten dragged into" expression. Modes of transportation today include, car, tram, ferry, bus, and monorail. Many of those being firsts for Aiden.

Is that a smile or a look of concern? We have no idea what we're getting into do we?

The Ferry ride on the way to MK. To the left of the ferry in the background is the Castle... yeah that little dot back there.

Here we are at the most magical place on earth.

Daddy gets a turn with Aiden in front of the Castle.

Aiden points up at the Dumbo rides. Interested, but skeptical?

Our First ride of the day, Dumbo.

We're all excited to be going up and down in our Dumbo car.

Next up is Philharmagic. We all looked silly in our special 3D glasses.

Aiden was enthralled with Small World. Everything was moving and interesting.

We got to meet Lightning McQueen and Mater in the chrome!

Zonked out at AK. But he woke up in time to see Aunt Nellie in the Good Night show. Even if he didn't have the energy to dance with her.

Still a little sleepy on the bus from AK to Epcot. It's been a long day. 3 more hours to go too.

Waiting for the Fireworks to get started.

Wow. Illuminations is one of Aiden's favorites too. (But he hasn't seen Fantasmic! yet)

Jamming with his new guitar on the car ride home.

Now a couple of videos. First Aiden "plays pool", then he plays guitar. A little live action light saber duel and then a non Aiden taste of Illuminations, because I will have to play it over and over for Aiden so it may as well be conveniently on the blog. :-)

Four WDW Parks, One Day. Good times and exhaustion

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:56:00 +0000

We have just recently arrived back at the apartment we are renting for the week in the Orlando Area. Today we did a 10 hour whirlwind tour of the 4 Disney Theme Parks. Sound crazy? Well maybe a little bit. But mommy and I are both former cast members and we knew what we wanted to do and how to get from point A to point B quickly and efficiently.

Firstly I need to give big props to our friends Andy & Janelle, without whom this day would not have happened. Don't want to spend $300 for two one day park hopper passes to Disney? Spend 10 years becoming good friends with Disney Cast Members and then beg, borrow and steal their comp passes. :-)

Our day started a little late, we slept in and had to do a couple of things before we could head to the park. Arrived at Magic Kingdom (Park #1) right around noon. Decided to take the ferry across from the parking area to the park itself and let Aiden enjoy the boat. Our goal at Magic Kingdom was to do as much of Fantasyland as possible, if time permitted we wanted to get to Pirates of the Caribbean since neither of us has seen it since the "additions". Our first ride was the Dumbo ride. October and a 30 minute wait... who says that Disney attendance is down?? After Dumbo we walked across and right into Philharmagic, which was cute although it scared Aiden (this will turn into a running theme throughout the day with shows). Afterward we went over to Pinnochio's Food Haus or whatever it is called, picked up a little lunch and actually caught a table right next to the windows over looking Small World Boarding. Throughout lunch Aiden waved at all the people riding on the boats out the window. And after lunch we went right into the Small World Line. About 15 minutes for Small World, and it is pushing 2:20. Our goal was to make it over to Hollywood Studio's for the 3pm Parade, so off we go to ground transportation. We missed out on Peter Pan's flight (stating a 45 minute wait) and did not make it over to Pirates. But MK was a success. Favorite part so far for Aiden:Dumbo.

There is a bus station right outside of the Magic Kingdom and we expected to hop a bus and run right over to Studios. But No! the bus terminal at the Kingdom is only Resort buses. So we have to get back on the Ferry, cross over to the Transportation Center, then catch a bus from there to Studios. No way we make it by 3pm, we barely made it on a bus for Studios by 3. So we walk into Hollywood Studios (park #2) about 3:20 and figure the parade is over. There is a lot of music going on but we figure it is just general park music. Walking back toward the hat we saw a big Monster's Inc float. The Parade was still going on! We managed to find a decent spot and there are 4-5 songs left in the show stop. Aiden was jamming a little bit in his stroller, but was not interested in getting out. (He had fallen asleep on the bus ride to Studios and the noise of the parade woke him back up.) After the Parade we wandered back looking for the Cars display. They have a full size Lightning and a full size Mater out for people to come up and have a picture with. Aiden and Daddy got our picture taken with the cars. Aiden was a bit skeptical, but he kept pointing and yelling out "Mater" and "Light Queen". We made our way from Cars over to Playhouse Disney where Handy Manny was out doing photo ops. Aiden waffled back and forth about taking a picture with Manny, and eventually the answer was "no" until we got into the Playhouse Disney theatre for the show, at which point all he wanted was Handy Manny. We watched the Playhouse Disney show which Aiden alternated between clapping for and being scared of. Afterward, mommy wanted to go see the High School Musical 3 show by the hat. We we went out to that and Aiden grooved a little to the music. That finished off our list of things to do at Studios. next stop, Animal Kingdom.

We had really wanted to see the new Finding Nemo show at Animal Kingdom (Park #3) but the High School Musical show was at 4:30 and the last Finding Nemo of the day was 4:45. So obviously timing wise that didn't work out. Still we could make it over to see the last
Festival of the Lion King show at 5:45. We made it to AK about 5:15, plenty of time to make it to Festival. But Aiden had other plans. Like falling asleep. Bless him he did good to stay awake as long as he did, but he was tuckered out. So we just found a place to sit and hang out for a bit and let him sleep. Timing wise we COULD have done the show, but didn't happen. We were in the park though, so it counts. Our friend was going to be in the little park closing show at 6:15, so we stuck around for that, by which time Aiden had woken up and was grooving along in his stroller, again unwilling to get out and dance. After the Park closing celebration at AK it was time to move on to Epcot.

We made it to Epcot (Park #4) a bit before 7pm. Our goal here, quite simple, Illuminations, the finale firework display. We had time to do a few other things, so in looking over our options decided to head for the Living Sea and the new Finding Nemo adventure. They have taken the living Sea ride and transposed video of the Finding Nemo characters over the existing Tanks, which is pretty cool. After the ride we headed over to Turtle Talk with Crush. This was a neat little interactive, just as cool as the little videos of it you see on TV. Pretty fantastic first hand interaction. Aiden, once again, was scared. But he made it through with his face buried in daddy's shoulder. After Turtle Talk we needed to grab a bite to eat, which we did at the Electric Umbrella with some decent bacon Cheeseburger and fries (we deserved it with the walking we did). After dinner we had just enough time to check out the newly retooled Spaceship Earth (mostly the same ride with a neat little personal interaction thing added in) and then find a spot for Illuminations. Mommy and I have always loved Illuminations, although if there had been a Fantasmic! show at Studios tonight we would have gone there instead as that is where we both worked and met each other. Aiden was a little scared by the noise, but he liked the fireworks and applauded sporadically throughout. He alternated between being held by one of us and sitting in his stroller, mostly preferring his stroller actually. After Illum it was the long walk back to the exit and Aiden's first ride on the monorail. We left the parks right around 9:30.

So all told we did just under 10 hours to scoot through all four Disney Parks. Yeah we didn't do a ton of stuff in any single one park, but we got to get a lot of highlights in and really don't think we missed anything we truly wanted to do other than Pirates and Fantasmic! and Fant was not on today so that was never an option to begin with. We could have spent a lot more time in MK with all the things there are to do there, and maybe next visit we can devote a whole day there. But like I said at the top, we knew what we wanted to see and we had a plan to get it done. Now it is time for a night of rest. There are a ton of pictures, but since I am on a Internet connection that is barely saving my progress on the typing I won't be able to upload photos until we get home on Monday. Till then you will just have to use your imagination.

Late Update

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:56:00 +0000

Well it has been a while since I was able to get a post put together. We have not gotten many pictures of late, everyone in the house has been ill at one point or another over the past couple of weeks. So I will just update a few developmental things Aiden has accomplished since last time.

His vocabulary is leaping forward every day. A lot of the time it seems like he is just mimicking what we say, but later on he will use a lot of the words he was "mimicking" correctly.

He is suddenly very good at identifying himself in pictures and video. Whereas until recently he would point to a picture of himself and say "Baby" now he knows he name and uses it often. He will see a picture and say "Aiden". He had my cell phone the other day which has a picture of him on it, when he flipped the phone open his picture came up and he shouted Aiden Aiden. Then after a few minutes the screen went back to black and he got confused "Where Aiden Go?!"

Today he has been pretty funny. One of our neighbors was having their roof replaced today and with all the noise he wanted to know what was going on. So we went outside and took a look around at what they were doing, and I taught him "They are fixing the roof" now every time he hears a pounding he says "They fixin the roof!".... I've heard it about 200 times this afternoon. But it's still cute. :-)

We'll work on some pictures and videos soon!

Updates and Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:41:00 +0000

Where to start. So much has been going on over the last 10 days. I guess chronological order is best. Last Thursday was Aiden's first day at Parent's Day Out (They call it Mother's Day out, but since I am the one at home with Aiden I will call it what I like) all indications are that he had a great time with his first day, he even did well during nap time. We are able to walk to the school from home, it probably takes less time to walk over there with him than it does to get him packed into his car seat, drive over, get him out of the car seat and then inside. So as long as the weather cooperates walking will be the norm. Mommy took the day off so she could go drop Aiden off and pick him up with me for his first day. During the hours he was in school we got a lot of clean up done around the house. Lots to do with the school time. Long list of things that have been "neglected".

On Friday Aiden went up to Indiana to spend a couple of nights with his grand parents. Mommy and Daddy had a date with the local theatre Friday night, so Aiden's mimi and papaw agreed to watch the little one. He had a good time and I will try to post a couple of the videos from mimi's collection at some point.

When Aiden came home on Sunday he found his room rearranged. His crib wasn't there anymore. The book case now sits where his crib was, the desk has moved and in the corner there is a big boy bed. Mommy went out and bought a new bed for him on Friday and we got it put together and ready for him to come home to. Tonight is night 3 on the regular bed and so far so good. He's good at getting up into the bed using his little stairs, but so far seems a bit scared of getting down on his own. Doesn't seem like much of a problem to me, as that means that he won't be wandering around his room at 4am just yet.

Unfortunately, yesterday the little guy came down with a fever. He was not showing any other symptoms of illness, and Tylenol reduced the fever, but it stuck with him throughout yesterday and into this morning. The fever finally broke for good sometime this morning, but since he had been feverish all day yesterday we kept him out of school today. We really didn't want him to miss the second day, but it was safer for everyone, and he was a grumpus anyway most of the morning till he got his energy back this afternoon.

So that's a quick overview of what has been going on. Should have a few new pictures to add soon.

Videos and news

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 04:03:00 +0000

So we have some video to share with you tonight. I hope that blogger lets me load it all fairly quickly as we have several really cute videos to share.

But first... a bit of news! Tonight before bath time, Aiden peed in his potty for the firs time!! We're so proud! It was kind of unexpected, as we always have him sit on the potty when he is getting ready for a bath but he never does anything. tonight he just let it go. WooHoo for progress!

Now for some video entertainment!

Kicking the ball! We were watching pre-season Football, and Aiden decided kicking the ball looked like a lot of fun.

What's a Dinosaur Say?

This may take a parent to understand. But the Book we are looking at is "The Little Engine that Could" The first page of the book goes something like this "Chug Chug Puff Puff Ding Dong. The little train rolled down the track. She was a happy train." Now listen carefully.

New Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:46:00 +0000

Alright.. It is past time for some new pictures, so here we go. A few captured moments from the last couple of weeks.

We start with Aiden showing off his shiny new Lightning McQueen jammies. Yes he is Still obsessed with cars. We have managed thus far to get through the weekend without watching it (quick everyone knock on wood)

This picture was taken Approximately 30 seconds before Aiden ripped one of the sides right off the frame, permanently making a mess of daddy's glasses. I will say for him that he put them on by himself, and did so correctly. If only we had skipped the breaking things part.

Aiden loves the water. The first picture is from a pool party held at a friends house a couple of weekends ago. Aiden had a blast! Then we go to the pool at mommy's work and the pool party they had this week. Aiden was a bit skeptical of the water at first, but once he warmed up to it, he didn't want to leave!

This weekend work through a appreciation party, with all kinds of inflatables and bouncy things, games, food, and prizes. Again Aiden wasn't real sure about things at first, in fact we almost didn't stay because he was scared and crying. But eventually he found the balls. Basketballs and Footballs, and he LOVES anything that looks like a ball, so we spent a lot of time keeping other employees from being able to play basketball or football while Aiden monopolized the balls. Then we found the slide and obstacle course and Aiden had a good old time with those, daddy got worn out trying to keep up. But it was all a whole lot of fun!

No Pictures Please, I'm busy having fun!

innocent wonder and the breaking of stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 05:06:00 +0000

Yesterday I took Aiden to the park. We spent a good hour wandering around and playing. For whatever reason I started thinking about the innocent wonder with which this child looks at everything around him. How much delight he takes in just pointing to a hole and shouting out "A HOOLE" over and over again. Everything is new, fun, and delightful. Then I started considering how early we lose that sense of wonder... 10? 13? Surely by our middle teens we have come to see things in a cynical fashion and that innocent wonder has burned away. For however long it lasts, I am going to cherish every moment of wonder I can with Aiden. It opens a daddy's eyes to think about how all of this is new and amazing to this little person. The mundane becomes incredibly interesting and must be explored.

Of course then there are the things that SHOULDN'T be explored. Like Daddy's glasses. He has always liked to grab them and play with them if he can. I got out of the shower today and came out to the bedroom to see what he was into, he had my glasses on (correctly) and was playing with the computer mouse. I snapped a quick picture (which I will upload soon) and went to finish up in the bathroom. 30 seconds later when I came back out the glasses were no longer on his head. He has taken them off and somehow managed to break off one of the earpieces at the frame. Like REALLY broken, twisted metal broken, no repair. No idea how this happened, but there you go. this is what happens when you leave a inquisitive child unattended for two seconds. On the upside, these glasses lasted me probably 7 years, so they were probably due for retirement. And insurance will pay for most of the new frames & lenses, so while there will be an expense, it won't be horrible. Just an "ungh" experience, and trying to superglue the old glasses back together enough to use until I can get some new ones.

Aiden tells a story

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:51:00 +0000

So. Aiden's favorite story at the moment is Cars. We watch the movie, read the book, and he has several Cars toys. Tonight instead of us reading the story, he read it for us. Here's a little video of Cars, as told by Aiden.

2nd Birthday Party

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:53:00 +0000

So they are a little late, but here are the pictures and a video from Aiden's 2 year birthday party. Thanks to everyone who was here, and those who couldn't be here but sent birthday wishes along to the little man. He had a great time, and the party was a bigger success than last year, since everyone got their nap and had more energy this time around. Not to mention the whole being a year older and having a better understanding of what was going on. All of the presents have been a big hit, the t-ball set quite literally a big hit. He took to baseball immediately. Looks like we have a lot of sports to keep up with in our future.

Aiden was a little under the weather yesterday, running a little fever, but his mood was much improved today. We went to the Zoo and he had a blast pointing at all the birds and fish.

We're working on left and right, amazingly. I don't know if kids at 2 are supposed to get left and right yet, but when I ask him to give me a certain foot to put his shoe on he has a better than 50% chance of giving me the correct foot, and it is improving with each time we repeat the exercise. Also working on having him repeat the alphabet to us, with admittedly limited success.

More soon!

2 year Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:09:00 +0000

Today was the day of Aiden's 2 year photo shoot. Mommy scheduled the appointment for 1:30 this afternoon. Aiden, of course, fell asleep on the way to the studio, and was a massive grump when we arrived. It took all we could do to get him to be interested in golfing (his favorite thing and thus the theme for the first round of pictures. Once we changed his shirt for the second outfit, he LOST IT. There was no way he was going to get photos taken. Fortunately, the studio was having a slowish day, so we were able to leave for a little bit and come knack and try again. After getting some Chick-Fil-A into him he seemed to cheer up, and the second round of photos went much smoother.

Thankfully Dan, our Photographer was very patient with us. I am sure they get bad kids all the time, but it just sucks when it is your kid who is bawling. All of the Staff at Portrait Innovations were really nice about it, and at least outwardly smiling, though they may have been inwardly gritting their teeth. The second time out when it was time to pick out the pictures we wanted, he thought that was high time to be running all over the place, which was probably almost as bad for the staff, as they watch a 2 year old zooming around everything, but again, all smiles.

Once again we purchased enough pictures to give one to the entire world. And we got the CD with all of the "proofs", so I can share some of those with you now. They are in reverse order as to when they were taken. Fortunately, even though he was upset in the beginning, the photos in the orange outfit came out just fine!

ENJOY!

The New Swingset

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:42:00 +0000

Gallons of water, liters of sweat, eight hours and two exhausted guys later a swing set emerges in Aiden's back yard for him to play on. Saturday was rough as the temperature topped 95 degrees. Humidity was stupid. I started inventorying parts at about 7am, and just taking the parts out of the boxes and checking them off on the parts list I was sweating. At 3pm when the swing set was finally finished, Aiden was ready to have a blast, daddy and papaw Danny were ready for some Air Conditioning and a nap.

But the smile on Aiden's face when he tested out his new slide and swing were well worth all the effort. Word to the wise, if you are going to build your kids a swing set, do it in March or September when the temperature isn't quite so bad. Sheesh.

Ultimately we are well pleased with the swing set, it looks great, and Aiden seems to love it. Thank you to all of the family who have contributed to Aiden's birthday money so we could purchase this for him, it will provide years of entertainment for all of us!

Couple of pictures and a video tonight. The first picture is from Father's Day, with all the kiddos. Aiden was having a really hard time sitting still for pictures, but this big giggle was worth sharing. Then of course on to the exploration of the swing set! And of course proud daddy when the little man grabs his Ohio State ball cap and puts it on his head! Woohoo!

Crusher of Eggs

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:35:00 +0000

So A couple of funny (in hindsight anyway) things Aiden did today.

This morning when mommy was getting ready to make her breakfast, she got the eggs out and set them on the counter. Aiden wanted the egg carton, so he reached up on tip toes and was able to just get a finger on the carton. This was enough encouragement for him to start pulling. I saw this from across the room and took off running to stop him. But too late.... I ALMOST caught the carton on it's tumble down, but almost doesn't count when the eggs hit the ground. 3 eggs smashed outright, 4 cracked but were intact enough for us to get into a bowl to scramble, and 2 made it out unscathed. Clean up, on aisle 3.

Later in the day somehow Aiden decided it would be a good idea to start a yelling contest with daddy. He yelled at me and waited expectantly, I made a noise back at him and he cracked up, then yelled again. So we yelled back and forth for probably ten solid minutes to Aiden's infinite delight. Hope none of our neighbors were around hearing all the screaming and wondering what was going on.

Tomorrow mimi and papaw are coming for a weekend visit, should be lots of fun, and lots of work, as Papaw and Daddy are going to spend Saturday assembling a new swing set for the back yard! Good times, and pictures to come!

Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:55:00 +0000

Yes, I know they are a long time in coming, but we finally have some new pictures for you.

And A video of Aiden on the drum. He's getting really good at drumming.

Mommy and Daddy did a lot of housework today, so we're pretty tired, and I am going to just let the pictures and video speak for themselves. The "Parents" musical set we got for Aiden's 1st Birthday really has been a huge hit, along with many of the other gifts from his first birthday. That was 11 months ago already. Our little man is almost 2, it's crazy!

keeping up

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:47:00 +0000

Trying to keep up with Aiden becomes more challenging as each day progresses. He's mastered terms like "Come" "Go" "outside" etc. So he is becoming more adept at letting us know what he wants, and less willing to take No for an answer.

One of his new tricks is to come up and literally try to force us off the couch if we do not immediately get up to follow him when he asks us to "come". Typically this either means he wants us to go outside, or run in circles around the kitchen in a "race".

The golf clubs are still the greatest thing ever. He has gotten pretty adept at taking a full golf swing, he still slams the balls from time to time, but most of the time he uses a half way decent golf swing. Leftie. I dunno how I am going to teach him to golf as a leftie, since daddy is rightie, but we'll figure that out later.

Another new game is the desire to climb into mommy & daddy's bed to watch tv. He will ask us to pick him up and put him in bed, where he begins to play with the bed covers and get his legs tucked in and then ask for either Dora or Elmo.

Trying to work on him not always getting his way, the wails that come out of this child when he doesn't get what he wants are awful, but we need to get him learning that he doesn't always get what he wants, so we have to deal with the decibel level.

We've been bad and haven't taken any pictures this week, so I don't have any to share, but will work on making sure I have some for next time.

Till then!

Baby Growth Tracking on the iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:59:00 +0000

Every once in awhile I will get an email from someone representing a company, charity, or what have you wanting me to post a blurb in the blog about their product or service. For the most part these are things I have never heard of or used, and I pass on giving a mention of something I really can't vouch for. But I do want to take a moment to mention one product that I can vouch for, because my brother created it.

Aiden's Uncle works with Apps for the iphone/Ipod Touch. Mostly he is scripting something the company he works for is creating for the market, but he is also allowed to work on some of his own stuff and release it. He has released a product that I think will be wonderful for parents who own Ipod Touch or Iphones, Unfortunately, I don't have either, so I really can't test it out for you, but you can see a pretty good demo on the website http://apps.yellowpop.com/BabyGrow.html

Since I can't test it and tell you what it does, I am just going to copy the description from the website. And maybe Aiden's Uncle will stop in and make some additional comments. There is a banner link for the site at the top of the blog, so you can find it anytime.

"Track your baby's weight, length, and head circumference as he (or she!) grows. Charts for the measurements help you visualize your child's progress. Keep an eye on your baby's percentile rankings using data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the World Heath Organization (WHO).

Monitor the progress of an unlimited number of children, from birth to 36 months.
Produce growth charts for Weight for Age, Length for Age, Head Circumference for Age and Weight for Length.
Understand your child's growth patterns with accurate percentile information from the CDC and WHO.
Instantly obtain percentiles for measurements for babies of any age from birth to 36 months.

If you would like any additional information, there is a really good little demo on the website, and I am sure if you post questions in the comments section on this posting that the author himself may be able to come by and help out!

Here's the Website link again: http://apps.yellowpop.com/BabyGrow.html

The Great Computer Crash

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:04:00 +0000

So things have been quiet here at the Newbie Daddy sight. I've been fighting a non-stop drag out fight with my computer for the past week. I've had a Compaq desktop for a couple of years now, and last week it started to get some Stop Errors (the Blue Screen of Death). For a couple of days it was an annoyance but once the computer restarted I was okay. But over the course of the week things got progressively worse, and the errors were always different. I used to Supervise a computer Upgrade Center, so I kinda know my way around a computer. But when the BSOD is different every time it is a tough glitch ti figure out. Everything was pointing to hardware problems, so I progressively replaced every component of the computer to eliminate each in turn. nothing solved the error, I finally came to the conclusion that the errors were coming from the mother board. So it was time to either find a motherboard that was compatible with all of my other components and hope it all worked, or upgrade to a new computer.

I found a little eMachines box that will do everything I need the desktop to do at a reasonable price at Best Buy, so we went ahead and did the upgrade. This means I will have my picture storing computer back and can get my posts in. LOL

in the meantime, on Wednesday, Aiden's new cousin came into the world. His new Cousin Desmond was born Wednesday night. Aiden got to meet him yesterday and the results were about what you would expect. He was a little hesitant and anxious about daddy holding this little tiny baby in his lap. A lap that belongs to Aiden. hehe.

Here are the pictures from that encounter to tide you over until I have the new computer all set up and ready to go.

Down with the Sickness

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 24 May 2009 03:33:00 +0000

So it has been a rough week around the household. First Aiden, then Daddy and finally Mommy all came down with a bit of a spring cold. We're actually going on two weeks since the symptoms started for Aiden and myself. Mommy has been sick for about a week. It hasn't been much fun, although none of us has been well and truly put out of commission.

Aiden being an active 22 month old shook it off during the day for the most part, playing and running around like his normal self, occasionally stopping to sneeze up huge gobs of yuckiness. At night though it was a different matter, with Aiden not being able to breathe very well he often woke up with coughing fits in the middle of the night. Fortunately he is pretty cleared up now and is sleeping peacefully once more (knock on wood).

All this illness was unable to put a damper on a little trip we had planned for Aiden and Daddy to go up and visit mimi and papaw Danny. It was looking like Aiden was not going to be well enough to head up on Monday night, with a planned departure for Tuesday morning. But after a full night sleep on Monday night, Aiden was up and acting much better Tuesday morning, so we made the decision to hit the road and go for our visit.

Aiden had a very nice visit with his grand parents, got to visit lots of places in the small town, and spent a load of time playing in the back yard and helping papaw put up his new shed.

The biggest drawback of the illness, aside from everyone just feeling crummy, is that Aiden had to miss the last two weeks of his ZooBabies class. While I think that Aiden was really too young to fully enjoy and appreciate these classes anyway, I think the animal interactions were a great experience for him, and it is unfortunate we were unable to attend, but we didn't want to expose a sick Aiden (or daddy for that matter) to a dozen other little boys and girls.

Haven't gotten many pictures through the illness, now that Aiden is on the mend, we will break out the camera and make sure we have some pictures for you for next time!