Open Door Policy

I've figured out a new and important concept: doorknobs. In my house, our doorknobs have long horizontal handles (so why are they called door-KNOBS, anyway?). Here's my key discovery: If you pull down on the handle, the door opens. This opens vast new possibilities for exploration. For instance, this morning my Daddy was in the office talking with a co-author about a paper he is writing. I wanted to visit and help him with my suggestions for the paper. So I opened the door to the office, let myself in, and started right in having a conversation with him.

Dreading Water

My Mommy put up a new pool for me yesterday. I had a pool last summer, which I sort of liked, but the weather took its toll on it, so we got a new one. This one is big and white and has lots of fishies on the outside of it. I haven't made up my mind about whether I like it or not yet. One fun thing is about it is that I can bring one of my many containers for pouring stuff and put water inside it. While putting water in is fun, dumping the water out is even more fun. I dumped some water on Mommy and Nainnie yesterday. They laughed and laughed at my zany antics. On the other hand, actually getting in the pool is not something I'm keen to do. My Daddy waded into the pool last night and hoisted me up and in. I didn't like the cold water on my feet. It also made walking really difficult, which scared me. I think for now I prefer getting in a nice bathtub (which I did today) rather than going into the scary pool.

Gotta dance

While I've always loved dancing, lately I've been adding new and funkier movements to my inimitable dancing style. When I'm particularly enjoying the beat, I'll bob my head back and forth, jutting my chin out, sort of like a pigeon. I also now like to flap my arms from side to side as I rock back and forth. I'm a dancin' fool as they say.

Lawnmower Lady

My Nainnie came to visit me on Saturday. I hadn't seen her for 4 whole days, so I was really happy to see her. I think she should come to California more often. Anyway, I discovered a great game to play with her---Lawnmower Lady! This game involves hauling my big toy lawnmower over to her and then having her chase me around the house and the yard. The best part comes when we play "lawnmower accident". I inch my toes up to the mower and then she lightly runs over them; thus simulating the accident. Hee hee hee.

I have a new favorite phrase, "Uh ohhhhh". I say this when anything falls on the ground, whether by accident or because I've thrown it there. The best part of this phrase is the "ohhh" part. I like to purse my lips and make the "oh" last really long. I've also found a new expression of happiness. While I used to like to laugh gleefully when pleased (I still do this) now I also like to say "eeeeeeeeee" when I'm really pleased with something. Today we went to a park and I got to play on the jungle gym and slide down the slide. I said "eeeeee" a lot.

Flying Away

Today I'm flying back to the east coast with my Mommy to see all my relatives back in "old country". Mommy's hoping that I do better on the plane ride than I did last night at dinner. Mommy decided that we should all go out to a fancy place, Il Fornaio, for a last dinner before flying off. I was enjoying myself for awhile, but the stately pace of the dinner became too much for me and by the time we got to the main course, I really wanted to go home. I cried and cried until Mommy and Daddy saw the wisdom of a "to go" version of the main course. We went home, I had some milk, and went straight to sleep. I was tired.

Train of Thought

I've notived something interesting about my clothing as well as Daddy's clothing. My clothing often has pictures of various objects on it. For instance, yesterday my shirt was covered with lots of little trains. Since I really like trains, when I notied this I pointed to the images on my clothing and said "Tuh Tuh Tuh." Daddy was wearing his Red Barons sweatshirt over the weekend. This short has a picture of another favorite, a ball, on it. I pointed to it and said "Buh Buh". Of course, these images are so small they're sometimes confusing. This morning my jammies had pictures of firetrucks on them. Firetrucks look awfully similar to trains, so I generalized. "Tuh Tuh Tuh" I said. Mommy and Daddy looked doubtful about this.

Gooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've always loved to play with balls of various sorts. This weekend my Mommy got me a new collection of perfect Aidan-sized balls. One is a baseball, one a basketball, one a soccer ball, and one a little football. All of them are soft so they're easy to grip and won't break anything when I fling them around wildly. Daddy and I played lots of different ball games over the course of the weekend, and I ended up learning a new skill. When Markus came to visit, he started "dribbling" a soccer ball with his feet. It surprised me that you could manipulate balls with your feet as well as by picking them up and throwing them. I made a few tentative attempts to step on the ball with my feet too, but without much luck. Daddy showed me the same thing over the weekend and I finally got it. The key is to kick the ball. I started doing this and it was great fun. Sometimes when you kick the ball hard it goes further and faster than when you throw it. I made one kick that went clear across the room and into Licorice's cage. When I did that, Daddy cried out "Gooooooaaaaaaaalllllllll!!!!!!!" in his best Latin accent. I laughed and laughed. Kicking is great.

Hopping on by with Easter Photos

I have just posted lots of Easter photos here.

If you click through to the photos, you will be able to see me and my friend, Sophia (...One of them, that is. I have at least 2 friends named Sophia!), at the Easter Egg Hunt that took place after church in Oakland as well as Daddy, Mommy, and me in our house and in our yard on Easter. I had 2 Easter Egg Hunts-- one at church and one at home. As you'll see in some of the photos, I not only found lots of eggs, I also found a neat soccer ball!

Zahnrade

For the last two days, a very nice (and very tall) man named Markus has been visiting with us. He's one of my Daddy's co-authors who happened to be in town. He also happens to be German, so he taught me some new words while he played with me. One of my favorite things to play with during his visit was my gear toy. I really love this toy under normal circumstances and liked it even better in German. I've discovered that my gears are called Zahnrade in German. The German actually makes more sense to me since it means "tooth wheel" which perfectly describes my gears. I also learned the word Reißverschluß, which makes a lot less sense to me. Markus tells me it translates to zipper, but it literally means "tear catch". Markus is lots of fun and full of new ideas.