ChooChoo Backs for a ChooChoo Plane

Aiden's favorite toy is his Duplo train track. He plays with it everyday, but can't quite pronounce it properly and thus walks around talking about his "choochoo backs" in this sing-songy voice. It's so cute, and even though we should be correcting his pronunciation, Sean and I tend to refer to them as the choochoo backs in the very same way.

He also has a train and a plane which will frequently get put together, and it has become the choochoo plane. Again, it's so cute we can't bear to correct him.

Saturday Night's Alright for...Bowling

We took Aiden to the beach yesterday and Steinn came along with us. There was a really bad rip current so we didn't get to swim much, but Aiden met up with another little boy anyway. They were both playing in the sand, which naturally led to someone getting sand thrown in their face (poor Aiden) but he didn't seem to mind and kept right on playing. Usually we have to drag Aiden home from the beach kicking and screaming, but after we sat down for lunch he started to get weepy and kept saying "home now". So we left early and he feel asleep as soon as Sean pulled out of the parking lot. Obviously, he was in need of a serious nap but instead he woke up as soon as we got back to the apartment and said "I'm okay now!" and wouldn't nap the rest of the day.






The real fun, however, was that we decided to go bowling that night! I hadn't been bowling in years but I remembered being really good. Like really really good. So I warned Sean and Steinn that they shouldn't feel bad if I beat them by a huge margin. However, once we started I felt bad and let them win. I was just being nice, you know?

I had been a little worried about bringing Aiden with us because I guess I associate bowling alleys with old guys drining beer and smoking cigars. I don't know why. When we got there it was actually pretty nice and there were a million kids running around. Aiden was in heaven. Everytime Sean stood up to throw the ball Aiden would do a really elaborate dance and cheer. It consisted of punching the air and spinning in a circle while shouting "Go daddy go daddy good job!". He cheered even when Sean sank the ball in the gutter. Even Steinn got a very serious "Go Steinn go" cheer from Aiden. I didn't get a cheer, which was sad, but I don't take it personally. We even let Aiden roll a few balls down the lane, with Sean's help. He was ready to roll every single ball in the building down that lane.

We got home around 8:30 and instead of rushing into bed he curled up in our laps while we watched the tail end of a movie on t.v. We hoped he might sleep in this morning but no, he woke us up by asking "Where'd Steinn go?". Ah, Sunday mornings with a two year old.

Afternoon in the Garden of Good and Evil

It has been a crazy busy week but a very fun weekend, and I finally have some pictures to post!

This past Friday we had a big get together at a barbecue place nearby, and gorged ourselves on ribs and hickory smoked wings while hanging out with some of the other KAPL guys and their families. Aiden spent a good portion of the evening talking to another little girl named Audriana and I'm pretty sure the entire conversation revolved around Curious George. It was a nice night out and always a comfort to know that everyone is going through the same experiences, both good and bad, at this school.

Yesterday we went to visit our friend/Sean's best man Owen, who was in Georgia visiting his family. We drove down to Pooler, GA to meet his parents and extended family and then drove into Savannah. It's a two hour drive, a straight shot down highway 17, and a pretty drive through the country.

When we hit River St. we had to drive along the trolley tracks. Aiden screamed "No train tracks!!!" the whole way. I kept thinking about Bill Murray in "Groundhog's Day" when he goes off about "Never drive on the train tracks!".



When we got into Savannah we headed straight for the Pirate House.

The Pirate House, and Sean's big noggin

This is a conglomerate of old houses all built together and turned into a restaurant. One part of it used to be a saloon where they'd serve the pirates that came up the river into the city. There was a tunnel built from the water and up into the basement, where rumor is that the pirates would kidnap drunk patrons and take them through the tunnel onto the waiting ships. Imagine waking up to find yourself on a pirate ship headed for the Ivory Coast. Yikes.

After that, we walked down river street and looked in some of the shops, and then checked out the old buildings.

Zoltar! from "Big"

Along the river walk

I was determined to find the famous statue of the girl feeding birds from the novel/movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". We walked and walked and even checked in a graveyard, but alas, it could not be found. Turns out it was moved after the movie came out, apparently they weren't too pleased with the image the movie gave them.

We did get an opportunity to see a revolutionary war cemetery. They say both Savannah and Charleston are haunted, and I imagine they would be after 300+ years of history. However, I really believe it after going into the cemetary. Aiden is too young to understand death or burial or graveyards, but the minute we walked through the stone archway into this area, he was totally spooked. He kept whipping around, looking side to side, clinging to Sean. He refused to step off the brick pathway and finally Sean had to carry him. Very spooky.

Keep walking mom!

Aiden did not care to touch the tree, thank you very much!

By the time we got back to Pooler, Owen's two cousins and their family had arrived and Aiden was ready to lay right down and spend the night there. We loaded him back into the car and drove through two hours of high winds and torrential downpours. Overall, it was wonderful to see Owen and we had a great time doing something a little out of the ordinary.

Schroeder

Weekend With Nai Nai, Pt.2

Sean's mom came to stay with us this past Sunday. Sean had to study all day so she and I took Aiden to the aquarium, where he had all kinds of fun and came home with all kinds of prizes. He's really into Finding Nemo, and fish in general, so he loved loved loved getting to see them all up close. He even got to touch a starfish and a turtle, in addition to seeing penguins, sharks, jellyfish and the big attraction: an albino alligator. Aiden had tons of fun and has some new reptile toys from the aquarium that he loves to play with now.

The big tank

Pretzels!

His two new lizards

Eels

Boy's Best Friend

Aiden loves bear. Loves, loves, love bear. He would squeeze and hug her to death if we didn't stop him. Here he is, trying to communicate in her own language:



Now he's trying a slightly different dialect, and apparently, it worked:

After Aiden went to bed this very same evening, a really bad thunderstorm started. Every time I passed Aiden's room I would notice that his door was suddenly wide open. I was a little annoyed because we've been having trouble getting him to stay in bed after bedtime, and I assumed he'd been getting up out of bed. However, when I checked on him he was totally asleep. Turns out Bear had been nudging the door open and going in to lay next to him whenever the thunder picked up.

Just Sit Back and Laugh

Packing peanut catastrophe. Peanuts provided by Great Grandpa Evanoff.

That's what I've been doing for the past couple of days. We've been having a lot of fun, despite Aiden's continued wacky sleeping, because the weather has been a lot cooler. Everyone's in a better mood now that it's not 120 and smoggy. Even today, where everything has, so far, completely fallen apart, I'm just kind of scratching my head and laughing.

Today was/is supposed to be the best day yet, as it's Story Time day (Aiden's fav) and Sean's supposed to come home from work early so that we can go out for lunch together before he leaves to go study.

However, it hasn't quite worked out so far. At story time, while the kids were playing at the train table, more and more moms and kids were coming in and they were....crazy. Aiden was playing quietly with one boy, taking the trains apart and putting them together again, until his mom came over and asked her son "Why are you giving him trains? Put them over by us". Um, hello? Our children were sharing nicely and you felt the need to put a stop to it? WHAT?

The next mom came in and her son had brought two trains from home. She like watched him like a hawk and anytime another child would ask to see his trains she'd hop up and say "No no no, don't let anyone see them. They're ours and we're not letting anyone have them". Again....WHAT?

The third mom didn't let her son play with the trains because apparently it was book time, not play time. Except everytime he brought a story over to have her read she'd veto his choice because she didn't like the characters or there wasn't a solid enough plot. Her child was three. Seriously? Finally her child came to play trains and elbowed Aiden out of the way so he couldn't play. Apparently the mom didn't feel the need to speak up, so Aiden just walked away.

By this time Aiden was afraid to approach any of the other kids. After Story Time we headed home, and Aiden broke down in the parking lot. As I was trying to open the car door he dashed out between two cars. I yanked him to a stop by the back of his shirt, which furthered the tantrum.

He calmed down in the car and I pulled up to the exit. We had a green light but the women in front of us was stopped. I couldn't figure out what was going on until she took her foot off the brake and nearly rolled back into us. There were four cars behind me and I couldn't back up. Twice more she nearly hit us. I was honking like a true New Yorker at this point, making some less than PG13 hand gestures in her direction. Seriosuly, I looked like an old Italian man waving my hands around. Finally the cars behind me all backed up and she had enough room to awkwardly gun it out of the intersection.

By the time we got home my heart was in overdrive from everything. Also, Sean is now an hour late for our lunch date.

But honestly, I'm not even upset. I think we've had too much excitement for one day, and I'm perfectly happy to lay on the floor with Aiden.

Aiden, with shoes on the wrong feet and no pants, who walked out of his room at nap time and demanded to be let out of the apartment.