Happy 2nd Birthday, Aiden!!

By Edda Phillips - February 11, 2010

This is a month late, but here goes anyways. For Aiden's birthday (January 5th) we went to Chuck E Cheese's with Rex's parents and little sister Marti. It seems like this kid's been a two-year-old for a while now... but I guess it's official now. :) The pictures speak for themselves, so I'll talk about Aiden and his toddlerness instead.

Aiden has the most enthusiastic "Yeah"'s ever.
Grown-up: Aiden, would you like some raisins?
Aiden: YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grown-up: No, we can't watch the Choo movie (Thomas the Train) right now.
Aiden: YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!
(he only heard the "watch the Choo movie" part)
Grown-up: sigh...

Aiden has learned the phrase "Are you OK?" exceptionally well. So well, in fact, he will purposefully inflict pain on some other human being (usually his brother) and innocently ask, "You 'K?" while patting their head.

Aiden is very independent. If he's hungry, he will find food one way or another. There have been times when I've walked into the kitchen to find him with a chair pulled up to the counter where the fruit bowl is, eating a banana - out of the SIDE - with apples strewn about the floor, all of which have exactly one bite taken out of each.

There's nothing that gives my heart more joy than to see my boys playing and laughing together. While making dinner one night, Aiden and Sam were playing in the front room. Sam was laughing hysterically so I wanted to see what my sweet Aiden Bear was doing to cause his brother so much joy. I walk in to see Aiden standing ON TOP OF SAM'S back. I about had a hernia.

Rex works during the nights. This is great for me because he can get to the kids if they wake up. One night (or morning, I should say... around 3am) Rex heard Aiden's door open followed by some pitter-patters down the hall. Rex walked up the stairs to find Aiden waiting at the top (half asleep) holding his sippy cup out to Rex. As soon as Rex took the cup from him, Aiden walked back to his room and got in bed. Rex dutifully filled the cup with milk and returned it to him. This boy has us trained.

Aiden's taken to head-butting everything lately, like a Spanish bull. When I give him a choice between two books for bedtime, he rams his head into his chosen book. He also likes to ferociously devour food at random times. One afternoon I gave him an apple slice for lunch. Instead of grabbing it, he attacked the apple like some wild hyena on a zebra and ate it right out of my hand. Sound effects included. I swear this kid is part animal.

Spoons give Aiden trouble. He tends to turn them over before they reach his mouth so the concave side touches his tongue. Makes sense, but it presents a problem for liquids. To help him eat his tomato soup the other night, I held the spoon up to his mouth for him to slurp the soup out. After a while I gave him a straw because I wanted to eat. He didn't quite dig that so he went back to the spoon. After a while, Rex and I got caught up in a conversation and I hadn't noticed that Aiden was now spooning soup into Rex's cup. We laughed and continued talking. This went on for a bit until I saw out of the corner of my eye Aiden put down the spoon, picked up the cup, and drank the soup out of the cup. He had planned it all long. Genius.

Aiden loves the word "hello." But it's just not when he says it that's funny, it's how he says it. He uses a deep, raspy voice and says, "hu-LOH!?" Whenever he hears a phone ring (even on a movie) or when someone comes to the door, I can count on hearing him shout, "hu-LOH?!" It's especially funny when we hear him banging on his bedroom door when he's done with his nap. Bang! Bang! Bang! "hu-LOH?!?"

We have a rule, for obviously messy reasons, that food belongs in the kitchen. As soon as Aiden crosses the line where carpet meets tile, we remind him of this rule and either take away his food or carry him back to the table, depending on how often he has violated the rule. Aiden absolutely LOVES this game. He will grab a piece of food, watch us out of the corner of his eye, and tap a toe over the line to see what we'll do. Or he'll very slowly walk into the living room, huddled around his food trying to hide it. As soon as we catch him, he laughs and runs farther into the living room, all the while stuffing as much food into his mouth as he can. I swear he's going to choke to death one day from this rule.

What a kid. We sure love you, Ai-dude!