Christmas and Gifts

I haven't posted anything since Aiden's birthday because we've been really busy this month, but I did remember to take some pictures of our own little Christmas morning. It was hard this year because Sean had to work Christmas Eve although he did manage to get Christmas night off. So he came to church with us and then had to run off to work. Aiden woke up on Christmas morning and was shockingly patient. We went downstairs to see if Santa had come, and he had indeed, but we ate breakfast while we waited for Sean to get home from work before we opened any presents.

After presents Sean went to bed and I took Aiden over for Christmas at my mom's house, which was lots of fun as usual. After that I picked up Sean and we headed to my dad's family's Christmas get together. Poor Sean is always overwhelmed at this get together as he was an only child for most of his life and has three cousins who he doesn't get to see much. I, on the other hand, have six aunts and uncles (plus their spouses), there are thirteen of us kids and two great grand children. We are also very noisy and by the time we arrive everyone is usually full of the Christmas "spirit". I'm constantly having to prompt Sean with names and names of spouses and which person does what, and he usually has to explain what he does for a living about five times.
Anyway, we had a lot of fun and Aiden enjoyed hanging out with my cousin Alexandra who is only two months older than him.

Our big exciting gift this Christmas wasn't actually a present, but the fact that we're having another baby. It has been such a long road getting here that I can't believe how different things are from our experience with Aiden. Aiden was a surprise when we were totally unprepared for baby. This time we planned and waited and when we were finally ready...nothing. It's been over a year of trying combined with some health issues on my part and now we're actually pregnant. For a while I was really trying not to get my hopes up or even think about it too much so now that we're starting the second trimester and hopefully in a safe place it seems so odd to finally tell everyone. It still seems surreal and I'm nervous to really wrap my head around it, but hopefully it starts to seem more like reality. It has definitely been the best thing we could've hoped for. Today is also our second anniversary, so here's to two babies and two wonderful years together!

Aiden Is 4!

My baby turns 4 today! This was a special year because he got to have an honest to goodness birthday party with all of his school friends at a local children's museum. This museum is seriously cool. It's two floors of all kinds of hands-on play areas such as a "pond" with lots of stuffed animals, a "bandstand" with sensors that play music when you cover them, and a vet area with real animal x-rays and a trolley right in the middle. That is a tiny sample of what's in this place, and when all the kids got there it was a free-for-all of fun and playing. After an hour and a half of play time the kids all got together and had pizza, ate cupcakes and did some crafts. All of the kids in Aiden's class are so adorable, and one girl even sang him "Happy Birthday" in Swedish! It really is so nice to seem them interact and to get to chat with all the other parents. Aiden had a ton of fun too, which was the whole point after all.









Today he brought some treats to school to celebrate and the teachers had made him a paper crown to wear all day. It was adorable!

Since he's turning another year older I sat down and "interviewed" him so that he could look back and remember what his "favorites" were at this age. I thought it would be impossible to get him to sit still and pay attention but he was very interested in answering all my questions. He's ready for the spotlight apparently.

Aiden at Age 4

His Favorite Book: "Green Eggs and Ham"

His Favorite Song: "The Polar Express theme song and The Dog Song" (that's The Dog Days Are Over by Florence + the Machine, mommy and daddy's favorite singer)

His Favorite Food: "I love shrimp! And pizza, grapes, bananas, donuts..." (this list went on and on. He's not too picky I guess!)

His Favorite Drink: "Chocolate milk and real milk"

His Favorite Toy: "My firetrucks... Oh yeah, my trains!"

His Best Friend: "Rainbow" (awwwwwwwwww)

His Favorite Place: "I really like Disney World, but I also really like Starbucks"

His Favorite Color: "Color...hmmm....purple?"

His Favorite Game: "Playing with my blocks!"

His Favorite Dessert: "CAKE!"

What He Wants to Be When He Grows Up: "An alligator"