HUGE Snow Storm!!!

Last Friday, December 18th...the northeast was hit with a HUGE snow storm.

Lucky for our area, we got out for Christmas Break that day and the snow held off until later that afternoon/evening. By the time the snow was through falling on Sunday, we probably had a total of 7-8 inches at our house. To most places that won't seem like a lot. But, for us in northeast TN in early December...that was a HUGE snow. Our bigger snows, that sometimes may be that much, don't usually happen until February-March.

Everyone keeps saying, "This is going to be a wet winter with lots of snow." Most people think that's great. But as a teacher who works for a school system about 25 miles from where we live and doesn't usually close (bc we don't get as much snow in the "city")...the drive is NOT fun and not something I'm looking forward to.

But anyways.

The snow hung around for a long time, and since I wasn't up to playing in the snow (or really even able)...we didn't quite make it out with Aidyn until Tuesday, December 22nd. By then, the snow had began melting during the days and then freezing at night. It was no longer soft and fun, but frozen and crunchy. Aidyn wasn't a fan. ;)


These are pictures looking up and down our street, from the front porch, almost 5 days after the "big snow". Many trees, power lines, and transformers went down everywhere. We were lucky and only lost power on night from abuot 10pm-2am, so we went to bed. But, friends of ours were without power for several days. Yuck!

Here is our neighbor's snowman. It was 10ft tall, I think. I wanted to take Aidyn and put him next to it, but we didn't. ;) Most of the snow has now been melted for 3-4 days, but the bottom portion of his snowman is still left...and his hat still sits on top.

Aidyn's snowboots we bought him at Wal-mart. There wasn't a snap, zipper, or anything and they were soooo hard to get on him! Not to mention, he hated them because they were heavy and he couldn't walk in them.

Here are several pictures of Aidyn and Ben "playing" in the snow. Ben LOVES snowboarding and cannot wait for the day Aidyn is old enough to go. I doubt we go next year (when Aidyn's 2) but I would be willing to bet that by the time he's 3 yrs old...we're searching for a snowboard. Everytime we go, the littlest kids (about 3-4yrs old) are always running ME over! ha

Did I say he didn't like it? hehe I think if we would've taken him out when it first snowed and was still "soft and fluffy" he may have liked it better. Guess we'll have to do that with our next snow.

This last pictures is one of my favorites. I love the pictures of Ben and Aidyn playing together in the snow, but I love his big blue eyes in this one!

Walking

My baby boy is quickly growing up, right before our eyes!

Aidyn has been "walking" for about 3 weeks now, but has just recently within that past week or two began walking good. He now can walk where ever he wants to go, stop, turn around, and go back the other way without falling.

He sometimes gets in such a rush and/or gets so excited, he gets going too fast (almost like he's running) and if he isn't close to the couch or one of us...he usually ends up crashing. Luckily, he is great at catching himself with his hands and we haven't had any injuries...yet. ;)

I wish I was able to show you a cute video of him walking, but Aidyn also recently managed to brake my camera. After many warning from Ben not to let him play with my camera, he finally managed to throw it down one too many times. So...I no longer am able to snatch quick videos of him while he's playing.

**We do have a video camera that we got for Christmas last year. It's awesome. I've used it a little lately since my other camera isn't working. We just haven't quite figured out how to download the pictures and videos to the comptuer. :( I've tried several times and gave up.

So, I'm sad. Buuut...on a brighter now, due to Aidyn's "destructiveness", I was able to unwrap my Christmas present early! Ben bought me the "fancy sm-ancy" Nikon. I'm not exactly sure which model it is, but it's the one equivalent to the Canon Rebel...and I LOVE it!

I've "only" (hahahahaha) taken like 500 photos since I opened it on Dec.22nd. Ofcourse, Ben's taken probably half of those. :)

Pink Eye

Apparently, we've been passing around pink eye at the babysitter's. Luckily, Aidyn's eye pretty much healed after one dr visit and a day's worth of drops.

His eye began looking red and had green "goop" coming out one evening. He wasn't rubbing it or acting like it was bothering him. Unfortunately (or maybe luckily, before it got worse), it didn't look good at all the next morning. Ben took him to the dr and they gave him eye drops. We had to do the drops 4 times a day for a week.

Like I said, after just one day of drops...his eye looked remarkedly better!


The sad knews is, however, that a few days later Ben decided he was getting it too. Great. So, now Aidyn and Ben were on eye drops. And even worse...somehow Ben's dad managed to catch the pink eye over Christmas. He's had the worse time with it. We gave him what was left of the eye drops and have called in our refill to pick up the at pharmacy tomorrow. Aidyn finished up his week's worth of drops a few days ago...but we thought we better get our refill "just in case".

Luckily, I haven't. And I hope I don't. I've had enough "sickness" going on, which will be a post of it's own later on.

Peek-a-Boo!

Aidyn loves playing in our cabinets and pulling out all the baking pans. We try to keep him away from the pots since they can be heavy. However...the other day as he was playing in that cabinet, I ran around to the other side and was able to get his picture.

He couldn't quite figure out how I got "in" the cabinet, haha.

Christmas PJs

Here's the blue ornament I mentioned in my last post. I think, if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll be able to see his glitter-covered face. Ooops...


Here is is "modeling" his new PJs for you...trying to get in that Christmas Spirit.

And for some reason, when we had his infant car seat in the kitchen waiting to be returned to our friends...he kept wanting to climb up in it and play. I finally got his picture, and at the right moment, he stuck out his tongue.

He's so silly!

What's this?

I was working in the kitchen the other day and noticed Aidyn got quiet. When I went into the living room, he was just sitting at the base of the tree staring up at it.

He later realized he could "walk" over to the tree and reach the ornaments perfectly.

His favorite was a blue glitter ornament (you'll see in the next post). Unfortunately, I had to move it out of reach since it was covered in glitter. He kept trying to eat it, like he does everything, and his mouth would be covered in blue glitter. We also had a close call with him trying to put one of the hooks in his mouth (accidently) as he was trying to "taste" the ornament.

We now only have snowflakes, made of yard, hanging on the bottom.

Daddy's Helper

When we got our tree, Aidyn decided he wanted to help Ben set it up. I kept trying to get him away so he wouldn't knock it over or bother Ben...but not until I got a few pictures first.

It was hard, obviously, to get a good picture with either of their faces, haha, but nonetheless...

I love the pics of Aidyn wanting to "help" his daddy.

Look at Me!

Aidyn is now walking, but since I haven't updated my blog in almost a month (as my mom and dad keep reminding me)...I can't post out of order. ;) Right?

So, here's a quick video of him "learning" to walk using his push-behind toy. He scares me on the hardwood floors because he gets to going so quickly, I keep waiting on him to wipe out. Luckily, he hasn't done that yet.

He eventually learned that he could use the toy to walk over to the tree. By doing that, he's just the right height to be able to reach our Christmas ornaments on the tree. Luckily, all our "breakable" ornaments are up high.

Cool Dude

The other night Aidyn had his "Daddy's Helper" pajamas on and was playing with his stroller. While playing, he came across his baseball cap and I decided to help him put it on. He was so cute, I could resist getting his picture...

Ok...maybe a few pictures. :)

Isn't he cute?

No!

has become our new "favorite" word.


Aidyn discovered our steps a few weeks ago when Ben and I were putting our shoes on while sitting at the bottom step. Aidyn decided to try and climb up, so we stood behind him and watched as he carefully maneuvered each step.

Our routine consists of finding ways to entertain and distract him so that he isn't trying to climb up the stairs cosntantly.

Born to be Wild

My parents bought Ben a "Christmas decoration" for the house...a Santa riding a motorcycle. The engine has a button you can push and he sings "Born to be Wild" and rocks back and forth. Well, in the beginning Aidyn was afraid of it. But nooooooot anymore!

Just tonight he figured out how to push the button himself to turn it on and off. As he was doing so, he started dancing. I started laughing sooo hard that I was almost crying. Ben wasn't home, but luckily I recorded him so Ben could watch later.

However, lucky for us, he did it again and again and again later tonight. I thought Ben was going to die laughing as well. I hope you enjoy his video as much as we enjoyed watching...

(you'll need to pause the music from the blog at the bottom of this page before playing the video in order to hear the song)

Aren't his dancing skills the cutest?!? Ha!

Help!

On the same evening that Aidyn was refusing his nap...he decided he wanted the paci on the other side of his table (not the one in his mouth, ofcourse). He somehow managed to get his head lowered down enough to crawl under the table, and then get stuck. He wasn't very happy. But since I had my camera handy, and I was cracking up, I just had to take his picture.

You'll be happy to know that I did help him out and move the table to "set him free".

Sleepy Head

Aidyn was soooo tired yesterday, but he would not lay down for a nap. He just kept rolling around in the floor and laying with his blanket that he loves. We got this blanket at one of our showers before he was born. It's warm and soft on one side and slick and "satin-y" on the back. He sleeps with his blanket EVERY night.

Here are just a few pictures I got of him rolling around in the floor. You can tell by his eyes how tired he is...

...he recently has started watching TV. If Ben were home, I'd say it's probably on ESPN. But since it was just us...I'm not real sure what he's watching, probably Food Network. ;)

And now he's watching it upside down...

He did finally go to sleep after I took him upstairs and rocked him. I think he napped for about 45 min. He had gotten into this habit of taking a 2-3hr nap every day around 5:00pm. Everyone told me to wake him, but he was still going to back to bed around 9-9:30pm and sleeping ALL night.

Well, after the cold and ear infection, he's started waking back at night. So, now we try keeping him up till bedtime. If he does nap, it isn't for long.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, we started our Thanksgiving feasts a day early.

Aidyn, actually, was supposed to start his Thanksgiving celebrations on Monday but was at home with ear infections. His Nonnie (Ben's mom) was going to take him with her to a dinner with her family and friends, but he ended up staying home instead.

On Wednesday, we ate dinner with Ben's family at his parents' house. Aidyn wore his "Little Road Hogs" Harley Davidson shirt. He enjoyed Thanksgiving VERY much! He ate turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans (I think), and a little banana pudding. Yummm-o!

On Thursday, we dropped Aidyn off at Ben's parents' house and Ben and I went to do the Turkey Trot. The Turkey Trot is a 5k road race that takes place every year. Ben runs and I walk. The goal is to get more families in our area to be physically active. So, to encourage this, they award $1,000 to the school with the most participants. Every year the school I teach at (elementary) comes in 2nd place to one of the local high schools. This year they changed the rules and created 2 categories...small schools (less than 800 students) and large schools (more than 800 students). Well, guess what? We won!!!

So, after the Turkey Trot we picked Aidyn up, went home to shower and headed to my parents' house for lunch. Aidyn had a wonderful lunch there as well. He ate turkey, mashed potatoes, and brocolli casserole. Mmmm!

He loves playing by the back door because he can see the dogs. They aren't supposed to be up on the deck, but they just can resist saying hi to Aidyn!

Aidyn also turned 10 months old on Thanksgiving. At our last visit to the dr (on Tuesday) he weighed 19lbs 3oz. We've been battling allergies, a cold, and ear infections. Hopefully he's on the mend now as I try recovering from an upper sespiratory infection. I'm afraid Ben's coming down with the same. Ughhh....tired of illness in this house! I just pray Aidyn doesn't get it too.

Who needs toys?

...when you have cabinets and empty boxes?

Apparently, not us. ;)

Still?

I found a way to keep Aidyn still!

I know, I kept saying how jealous I was that he wasn't crawling when all our other baby friends were. I know after I found a way to keep him still, I was so excited, haha. I texted my dad to tell him and he said I was mean...but I promise, it wasn't. ;)

We no longer can put Aidyn in his stroller and then roll him out the back door and "gently" down the back 3 steps to the driveway. So, a few weeks ago when it was warm and nice out, I decided to take Aidyn for a walk. Since I had to take the stroller out seperately, I sat Aidyn in the grass in the backyard by the door. And would you know, he didn't move.

He would start to crawl, but the grass felt so different to his hands that he'd just sit back and look at me like, "What is this?" It was cute, and funny! But...just so you know, he only sat there maybe 5 minutes. See...that isn't mean.

However, we did have to resort to the backyard and the grass to get him to sit still for his Christmas card photographs. We tried inside first, but he just wouldn't sit still long enough. So, I'll post his Christmas card photos after we get all our cards mailed out.

Aidyn's Photo Album

I remember when I was pregnant with Aidyn, someone gave us a little soft and fuzzy photo album. At the time I thought it was kinda weird and not sure what I'd do with it. Well, I must've been crazy. It's been one of the best gifts ever!

A few months ago when Aidyn and I were in the kitchen, he kept laughing and reaching for the fridge. I wasn't sure what until I turned around and noticed it was Ben's picture. Aidyn was reaching for his daddy...and laughing. How sweet!!!!!!!

From that moment on...I just KNEW that I had to fill up the soft and fuzzy album with picture for Aidyn. And I finally did, months later.

In the album are pictures of Aidyn, Ben and me, our parents, brothers, our grandparents (Aidyn's great-grandparents), his babysitter Ms.Kelly (along with her husband and daughter, Rilee), and lastly...the dogs. Aidyn is around dogs EVERYWHERE he goes, so we couldn't leave them out.

He plays with his album at home and sometimes we'll put it in the diaper bag to take with us. I don't remember who got it for us...but THANK YOU!