Glittery Holidays

Glittery Art 
Recently, Mommy and I have been in the holiday spirit by making various Christmas crafts. A couple of days ago, we made construction paper birds and stockings, decorated them with copious amounts of glitter, and hung them on the tree. Yesterday's project was to make a chain out of construction paper. Mommy began this project, but Daddy took over when he got home. Daddy has an odd idea about how to make Christmas chains, he wanted to make Möbius strips for rings. I kind of liked saying "Möbius," and I have to admit they do make nice rings. Mommy thought that this was an odd holiday choice on Daddy's part.


Glittery Bird 

Aidan Not the Engineer

Last night was "guys" night at the house. Mommy went out with a bunch of other Mommies and, amazingly, they decided they wanted to leave their many children at home. So it was just Daddy and I trying to fend for ouurselves. As a special treat, Daddy decided to set up the electric train. Daddy's train is very small and very fussy. We had lots of difficulties getting the tracks together and even more difficulties getting the trains on the track. Eventually, we managed to get everything going and Daddy handed me the controls to run the train. The main thing I was interested in was figuring out how to make the train go fast. I quickly figured this out and ran the train as fast as it would go. Inevitably, some problem would arise and the train would suffer a catastrophe. After driving the train for awhile, Daddy pointed out the I was the engineer of the train. This was unnerving. "Aidan not the engineer," I said---though I liked driving the train regardless.

Another day at the office

Today I got to go to work with Daddy. We drove together in the green car through the "light tunnel" (the Caldecott tunnel for those interested) and spent the day at Daddy's office. Daddy brought a laptop computer for me as well as one for himself. While Daddy did some work, I worked on the Little People game, Reader Rabbit, and Railroad Tycoon. I also got to visit lots of other people around the office, all of whom remarked on how cute I was. I liked working with Daddy.

A Tale of Two Crankys

Cranky the Crane is one of Thomas' friends. He's also a big item on my Christmas list. Since I have to wait all the way until Christmas (and perhaps beyond) to get Cranky from a store, Daddy improvised a "block" version of Cranky. Can you tell which is which?

 

 

What does that mean?

In the past, I've kin of let some phrases that I don't understand go by without comment. I figured I'd figure it out eventually and not to worry. Lately, I've decided to be more proactive in figuring out what certain phrases mean. For instance, every night Mommy and Daddy say they love me very much. They don't really talk about love in many other contexts. Love doesn't seem to be a thing you run across when wandering about--like a tree, a truck, or a bus. It doesn't seem to be an action like running, jumping or hippity-hopping. So last night when Mommy told me she loved me I asked her:

What does that mean?

Mommy had to pause for a little bit to figure out a good answer. (I guess that meant it was a good question.) She told me that love meant the Aidan was a very special person to Mommy and Daddy and we liked him very, very much. ("Like" is a concept I understood a long time ago. Indeed, it's negation is one of my favorite phrases, as in "Aidan no like buttons.")It made me happy to know that Mommy and Daddy loved me.

Up an at 'em Aidan-eer

I've evolved a morning ritual with Daddy. When I'm ready to get up, I call to him, "Daddy, Daaaaddy". He then asks me if it's light outside and we open the shade to check. Next, he greets me with a phrase from one of my favorite books, Chugga chugga choo choo.

Sun's up. Morning's here. Up an at 'em Aidan-eer

I like that greeting a lot. I then need to get all my animals and other stuff out of my bed. I offer a similar greeting as I eject them from my bed: wake up bunny-neer! wake-up bear-neer! wake up pillow-neer! and so on.

After they're all out, it's my turn to get out of bed too. I like to get out of my nighttime diaper and put on fresh clothes to start the day. I ditch the diaper and jammies and Daddy asks me what clothes I want to wear. Usually, I'm initially indecisive. He helpfully offers to put on my Raiders jammies if I have trouble making up my mind. Since I never like to wear Raiders jammies, this is a strong incentive to pick some clothes and underwear out. I put on my clothes and then we're off to the kitchen for breakfast. It's fun to start the day with Daddy.

Turkish Turkey Day

We went to a Thanksgiving party last night hosted by some Turkish people, so it was Turkish turkey day. They had lots of nice cheeses as well as some nice desserts. I especially liked the profiterolles and the persimmon cake. I used Daddy as a napkin after eating part of a profiterolle--he was chocolatey after that. At then end of the party, I gave everyne a high five and said goodbye in my usual cheery way. It was a fun party. Here's a picture of the outfit I wore.

Happy Turkey Day 

Scary Piggy

The last two days, I've not liked having Piggy or Little Piggy too close to me. The reason is that I had a bad dream about Piggy. In the dream, Piggy was moving on his own, and this scared me quite a bit. I told Mommy and Daddy about my dream and even gave Piggy to Daddy as a "gift". Right now, Piggy is living in Mommy and Daddy's bedroom. Bad dreams are scary.

Golf Ball Art

In addition to playing golf, I like to decorate golf balls with markers. Here are pictures of some Aidan original designs. You can click on each image to get a bigger version so you can enjoy all the nuances of my designs.

Golf Ball Art 

Golf Ball Art 

Golf, What Else?

Looking Out Onto the 18th 
Today is the day after Thanksgiving. Daddy is home today, which is a rare thing for him on a weekday. He asked me what I wanted to do today. I told him I wanted to go to the slide park and the golf course. We had a lot of fun in both places. In the slide park, we rode the bouncy motorcycle and ran races. At the golf course, we did a lot of putting and chipping. I'm getting a lot better at putting. The way I like to do it is with my green plastic driver, which I refer to as the "big dog". Mow most other people do not use drivers to putt with, but I like to innovate. I shared a bunch of pictures Daddy took of me at the golf course here. In some of these pictures I'm looking up interestedly. That's becuase there was a crow in the tree above me and I liked talking to it.

September Visit to Wilkes-Barre

In September, Mommy and I spent some time in Wilkes-Barre visiting friends and relatives. Here is a link to some pics-- which vary widely in quality since the camera batteries were so weak that it couldn't handle low light or movement very well. Included are a few shots from a friend's birthday party, a shot on the Clifford ride-on toy that Auntie Max gave me, photos from a visit to Marguerite, shots from a trip to Steamtown in Scranton, pictures from my much-anticipated gingerbread baking session (a la Maisy Mouse) at Nainnie's house, and pics taken while hanging out with Grammy, Uncle Jack, and Frances & Miranda (Jack's girlfriend Alicia's kids).

BTW, Happy Birthday, Uncle Dave!

Eat it all

Part of the experience of eating for me is proclaiming my intentions. Very often, my intention is to "eat it all." Now, this does not mean that I intend to eat all of what's served to me, it means I intend to eat all of a given item. None for anyone else. Not Mommy. Not Daddy. Of course, I never fulfill this goal. Mommy and Daddy have told me that the "eat it all" strategy is not very nice, but somehow I cannot help it. Here's a sample conversation when Daddy made pancakes yesterday.

Me: Want to eat it all.
Daddy: You can eat all of Aidan's pancakes, but I'm making enough for everyone.
Me: Want to eat the pancakes all.
Daddy: Now, we've talked about this. Is it polite or rude to say you're going to eat it all and not let others have any?
Me: Rude.
Daddy: So Aidan doesn't want to be rude.
Me: Eat it all?
Daddy: Come on.
Me: Want to be rude. Want to eat the pancakes all.
Daddy: Sigh.

Hit It Straight Please

On Saturday, Daddy offered me a chance to go wherever I wanted. At first, I thought about going to the "bumpy slide park" or perhaps the zoo. I eventually settled on going to the golf course We packed up Daddy's clubs (I helped to carry them out to the car) and my clubs and headed off to the golf course. There are lots of fun things to do there. We did some putting. We watched some people at the driving range hittting golf balls with their drivers, which Daddy and I like to call "big dogs." We visited the pro shop, which is filled with all sorts of wonderful clubs. My favorite section of the pro shop is the long line of putters. When I saw them, I smiled broadly and said "oooooh. Putters. Aidan likes putters." The pro shop guy was also impressed at my ability to pick out sand wedges and hybrid clubs.


The highlight of the day was eating Teddy Graham crackers and watching people try to hit the ball to an island green. Many of the people hit the ball into the water. Splash the ball would go. I kind of like it when the balls get wet. Some of the people got the ball to the green and then tried to putt it in the hole. I offered some helpful advice:

Hit it straight please!

Several of the golfers both valued this advice and thought it very funny. Golf is a great sport.

The Great Little People Race

Yesterday, I got to play with the Little People with Daddy for a large part of the day. The Little People had many wnderful adventures including trips to the zoo and to the golf course, but the highlight was the Great Little People Race. This was a game that Daddy invented. He said he played a version of this game with Matchbox cars in the dining room of a house where he grew up. For the great race, there are 9 Little People vehicles of various sorts: an ambulance, a fire engine, two tricycles, an airplane, a tow truck, a taxi, and a couple of ordinary cars each piloted by a selected Little Person. For instance, the taxi was piloted by the "Mommy" little person while a chicken rode in the back of the cab. Occasionally, "Mommy" would fly out of the taxi and the chicken would do the driving.


Dude Eddie 

Conveniently, the hallway in my house is in the shape of a big rectangle, so the race involves making one lap around the house. There are many obstacles for the Little People to avoid such as walls, doors, and carpets. Perhaps the toughest obstacles are the "giant foot" and the "giant bumble bee." You see, what I like to do is to get Daddy to push the Little People while I stand in their path and try to block the way. When I'm wearing socks, it's the giant foot that presents problems. When I'm wearing my bumble bee bedroom slippers, it's the giant bumble bee. Of course, even if the Little People manage to avoid these perils, sometimes the "giant hand" scoops them up and moves them to a different position on the track, which can be either a help or a hindrance to them. I'm happy to report that Mommy and the Chicken won the Little People race with "Dude Eddie" following close in second. Dude Eddie is a version of the Little People character Eddie dressed in a flowered lei and toting a camera on returning from vacation who has a kind of surfer patois (at least when Daddy does his voice).

Happy Birthday Daddy

 Yesterday was a special day---Daddy's birthday. I helped Mommy to make a cake, put the icing on it, and decorate it with candy sprinkles. I used every kind of cancy sprinkle we had in the house. After we finished decorating the cake, we had to sit down to dinner. We had lobster tail, which normally I really like. However, today I was too excited about eating cake. I really just wanted get to the cake course. While the icing and candy sprinkles were delicious as always, I discovered that the cake, a carrot cake, was marred by the presence of raisins and walnuts. Still, it was a fun birthday for Daddy.

World Series of Poker

I've mentioned poker on my blog a couple of times. The last time there was a poker night, which was some time ago, I realized how fascinating poker chips are. I like the way they stack. I like the plinking noise as they land on top of each other. I like the numbers on the playing cards. Anyway, recently Daddy was channel surfing and had on the "World Series of Poker" (or WSOP for aficionados like me). I saw how all the players (except two) had big stacks of chips in front of them, and I immediately wanted to play too. Daddy got out the poker set and gave me all the yellow and green chips (the two best colors). Then he dealt a hand of Texas Hold 'Em (the official game of the WSOP). I like the cards---they have nice big numbers on them and it's fun to count the number of clubs, spades, etc. on each. The game evolved to one where Daddy would turn over a card and then I would stack a number of poker chips on top of the card equal to the card's value.

A bit later, I decided that the poker chips were really checkers, so Daddy got out a checker board. It was a big heavy checkerboard that Daddy got from his grandfather (my great-grandfather). He apparently made this board from an old school desk and a car windshield. The glass makes the "checkers" slide along very nicely. Daddy says that card playing is an important skill and that it's a fun and exciting career being a gambler.

Mine eyes

While I mostly favor the use of the third person to describe myself in common speech, lately I've been experimenting with the first person. Rather than saying "Aidan want to play." I occasionally try out "I want to play." I've also discovered the possessive case of the first person as well; however, I like to use this in a manner akin to the King James Bible. Here are some examples:

Do you want to play with mine toys?

Mine eye is hurting. Wash it out with water.

Daddy's white golf balls. Mine yellow golf balls.

I like the formality of the way this sounds. The first person seems like it might be quite useful.

Nervous about the Bushes

Yesterday evening my tummy was not feeling well. When Mommy asked what was wrong, I offered my usual code for this event.

"A little bit nervous," I said.

"About what?" Mommy asked.

"Nervous about the bushes." I replied.

Now some of you will recall that the last time I was nervous about the bushes was on the ill-fated trip to Santa Cruz. Mommy knew what I meant this time and comforted me.

Ironically, the next morning, when I was feeling better, Daddy said that he was "nervous about the Bushes." Of course, he meant something different. He was referring to the fact that Daddy and Mommy are not at all happy about the victory of George W. Bush last night.

I came with Mommy to vote on November 2 (wearing my Future President tee-shirt, of course!) and Mommy explained that she wanted a nice man named John Kerry to be President and take care of our country. This morning, she told me that while she and Daddy and many other people voted for John Kerry, more people voted for a man named George Bush. I sadly said, "Uh oh!" Mommy said that that was her sentiment exactly. Daddy's too.

En Español

This semester Mommy signed me up for Spanish classes with someone named Señor Tino. I'm still a bit puzzled by Señor Tino since he doesn't seem to know the right word for things. For instance, he sometimes points to a red apple and says, "rojo".

"Red." I offer helpfully.

"Rojo," says Señor Tino.

"Red!" I reply. Señor Tino is obviously a slow learner.

"Rojo," says Señor Tino.

Eventually, I get frustrated. Mommy figured that I wasn't getting much out of Spanish class with this approach; however, over the weekend I started to become interested in the words for things in Spanish. As we drove to the pumpkin patch, I asked what are the Spanish names for things I saw looking out the window of the car. Mommy and Daddy weren't sure of a lot of them, but Mommy looked them up for me.

Yesterday, I got out my number puzzle and my shapes puzzle and asked Daddy to do them a new way---in Spanish. I sort of like Spanish now.

Photo Update

A quick update to the Ofoto album of Daddy pictures. He thought some of these were too dark, so he added some modified versions to the album.

Election

In September, I visited Washington DC. Since the election is tomorrow, I realized I'd better post these photos of my family wearing their political allegiances (at least for the presidential election) on their sleeves-- or more accurately their chests! You'll note that I decided to forgo both major party candidates and run myself. Click here!

Note: While Mommy and Daddy's allegiances have remained with Kerry (since they tell me I need to wait 33 years to run in earnest), Nainnie had moved from Bush-Cheney to the undecided camp last I heard... not sure what ballot she will cast tomorrow.

Halloween and October Fun

I was a doggie for Halloween. People tell me that I was exceedingly cute. This is good because it means that I can beg more candy from the neighbors than the older kids who live in my neighborhood. During recent weeks, I had refused to wear the hood part of my costume to Halloween events, but when it was explained that people would give me more candy if I wore it, I realized that it was an essential tool in my quest to gather ALL of the candy in a several-block radius. I had my script down well. I would go to each door, wipe my feet on the mat, exclaim, "trick-or-treat!" as soon as the door opened (and sometimes before as well), and then follow up with a sincere "thank you!" The candy-givers were loving it! As soon as the candy was in my bag, I would tell Mommy and Daddy that it was time for "More trick-or-treats!" or "More candy?" I made a killing. Click here for photos from Halloween night. Click here and here for the rest of my October fun. Pumpkin Patches and autumn fun galore!

Decision 2004

With elections coming up, I'll make my prediction: John Kerry. This prediction is based on scientific survey data based on the number of donkey versus elephant stickers on the bathroom wall in celebration of my bathroom accomplishments. About 2 weeks ago, I got a new set of election stickers consisting of little red elephants and blue donkeys. The stickers were part of a CNN advertising campaign for the election. Every time I successfully use the toilet, I get to choose either a donkey or an elephant. Based on my selections, I expect Kerry to win in a landslide. By the way, the Target dog, who perhaps represents the Nader campaign, also had a good showing according to the bathroom poll.

In the pumpkin patch

Here are several pictures that Daddy took of me today on a visit to the pumpkin patch. You can view them here.

Out and About in my Underwear

For about a week and a half now, I have been going out and about in my underwear. I have been doing a very good job of using potties of all sizes and shapes with mommy's help. Three days ago, I even went into the bathroom and decided to poop in the toilet-- a big step since I would only poop in my diaper before then. Now I have done this 3 or 4 days in a row. (I prefer to do this on my own and then go tell mommy so that she can cheer and help me clean myself.) Mommy and Daddy have been rewarding my pottying accomplishments with stickers (as well as other gifts for a certain number of stickers). I'm all in favor of bribery!

I still use my diapers for napping and sleeping overnight as well as for those ambivalent times when I just don't want to give up the wet diaper I've slept in, and I still need some help with my pants sometimes, but I am doing a great job with toilet training!

Please note that this does not make me a "big" boy. I do not want to be a big boy or a man, and I do not want anyone to call me "big." I am me. Aidan is a boy, but not a big one. Aidan is two and good at using the potty.

More Tackling Daddy!

Football is truly the best sport. No other sport features non-stop tackling and doinking action. Of course, whenever football is on, I like to play along too. While my tackling skills are developing, so are my verbal skills at describing various types of tackles. While previously I confined my tackling to "bone jarring" hits. I've now developed a more varied repertoire:

"De-cleater" - A de-cleater occurs when I charge into Daddy and level him so that his feet are in the air. He's been de-cleated.

"Bell-ringer" - This is a tackle up high on the body.

"Pancake" - This happens when Daddy somehow manages to tackle me and then suqashes me like a pancake.

Sometimes, these can be combined as well. For instance, pancakes are often bone-jarring.

Pleasantries

One of life's great discoveries is how useful pleasantries are in conversation. For instance, I've developed a sure fire way to get a happy conversation going with Mommy, even if she's really busy. First, I come up to her to get her attention. Then I say,

How are you doing today Mommy?

She's always delighted at this and usually tells me how she's doing. I sometimes then deliver the coup de grace:

Mommy is a wonderful person.

Sometimes I'll give her a hug while saying this. This always gets a very good reception. Pleasantries sure are a good thing.

Bone-Jarring

One of my favorite games to play with Daddy is tackling. We take turns being the linebacker and the ball carrier. Either way, it's fun to go charging into Daddy and all fall down in a pile with sound effects. My favorite kind of tackle is where Daddy kneels near our love seat and I go charging in. This typically results in a pile of arms and legs and Aidans on top of the love seat. Daddy describes this kind of tackle as "bone-jarring." Since this is my favorite kind of tackle, I sometimes request it:

More bone-jarring Daddy? More bone-jarring tackling?

Sometimes when Daddy is not available for tackling, I'll come charging into the love seat myself. This is also great fun though it's not tackling. Instead, I call it "doinking" since I go "doink" into the love seat when I charge into it. "Doink" is a big word in my vocabulary. "Doink," for those of you who don't know, is a colorful football expression popularized by John Madden. Here is a video featuring the word doink in the title:

The Hundred Acre Wood

I recently decided that I "want to visit Pooh and Tigger and Eeyore and Piglet and Bunny Rabbit outside." In other words, I want to take a trip to the Hundred Acre Wood and meet these friends for real.

This morning, I breakfasted with Piglet, Pooh and Eeyore. Each wore a green bib, and they shared some Life cereal as well as a chair at my snack table. I had oatmeal. I look forward to the day that I can visit them at their houses. Mommy will have to get directions to the Hundred Acre Wood for this to occur, however. As of today, she tells me that she doesn't know how to get there except by reading stories or watching videos.

BTW, my tummy felt much better today.

(Mommy asked me to share this scholarly article about Pooh and friends' various psychological issues. It causes her to question how much time I've been spending with these guys. She asks that you to plant your tongue firmly in your cheek as you read it.

Half Way to Santa Cruz

This morning, Mommy, Daddy and I set off for Santa Cruz. Daddy was scheduled to give talks at UCSC, and Mommy and I were to visit our friends Clara and Cheryl, who are moving to Connecticut in 2 weeks so Clara's daddy can start a new job. We were also supposed to stay overnight at a hotel due to the generosity of UCSC.

All went as planned until we reached the Mission Blvd/UC Extension Exit, where you switch from 680 to 880. Without warning, my breakfast of oatmeal "spit up from my tummy." This was upsetting since in addition to being an unwelcome surprise, it also made my clothing and carseat wet and awful. We pulled over so Mommy could clean me up, and then reversed course. Mommy and I stayed home while Daddy drove to Santa Cruz himself to fulfill his obligations.

At home, Mommy indulged most of my whims since I was sick, so I got to watch videos, draw with chalk, paint at my easel, use markers, etc. I also had some nifty soup featuring noodles shaped like fishies. By evening, I even had some lasagne and asked for oatmeal again. Happily, no other meals came up out of my tummy today.

BTW, I did drop some hints that something was not quite right with me in advance. I told Mommy several times yesterday evening that I was "feeling a little nervous." When asked what I was nervous about, I replied, "um, the flowers?" I also whined in my sleep around 5AM, and mentioned that I was "feeling a little nervous" this morning as well as in the car. When asked what was making me nervous in the car, I replied, "the bushes?" (intentional question mark). Now Mommy and Daddy know what I was really nervous about-- my upset tummy. I wasn't sure how to tell them. (Mommy had accepted my plantlife answers at face value since most previous conversations about being "nervous" dealt with my dislike of the moon in its "not round and round one" phases and "not like" of large indoor plants in surprising locations.

Smithsonian

One of my favorite places to visit while I was in DC was the Smithsonian Museum of American History. I went there twice. On my second trip, Daddy led me around the place. First, we went down the elevator (yay) to see a big map of the different voting machines used in the US. Daddy showed me where Washington, DC was. We stood on that spot and then walked all the way across the map to Walnut Creek, California, where I live. I quickly spotted my favorite state, Alaska, from our spot in California. What makes Alaska such a great state is that, on the Smithsonian map at least, it's big and it's yellow. Yellow is one of my favorite colors, along with green and orange.

Next, it was off to see the machine exhibit. I quickly found a big wood burning steam locomotive at the start of the exhibit. We went inside and looked at lots of different kinds of plows and tractors. I liked the gears on the tractor wheels. Daddy explained how the engine pushes a piston to turn the gears. After that, it was off to see the trains. There is an enormous green Pacific Class locomotive from Santa Cruz California in that exhibit. I wanted to climb up onto the trains and make them go, but unfortunately, the trains seems stuck in place at the Smithsonian.

We then went to look at the cars. There was a green Studebaker with a "statue" Mommy inside. Since my real Mommy has a green car too, I suggested that we kick the statue Mommy out and that real Mommy and real Aidan go for a ride. Finally, we came to my favorite exhibit in the whole place---a train car from the Chicago El. This is a great exhibit since you can climb inside the train and watch on a TV screen which projects the conductor and the other passengers riding the train. When the train is going, it kind of rumbles a little and lights flash outside the windows. I'd have been quite happy to stay there for the whole day, but Daddy said that the fifth stop was our station.

There were lots of other neat things to see here. We saw lots of engines in one exhibit. Daddy explained how steam engines, kerosene engines, and turbine engines work. I liked the up down motion of the piston and the round and round motion of the flywheel in Daddy's descriptions. We also saw a bunch of clocks. The gears inside the clocks are really neat as well. Finally, it was time to go.

I want to go back there as soon as I can. When we were back in California, I asked if we could go to this museum over the weekend. I was saddened to learn that it is more than 3000 miles away. That's far. I suggested that we drive there given the distance.

Getting around DC

I just got back from a long road trip this past weekend. After visiting all the relatives in "old country", Mommy and I met up with Daddy in the "vacation house" in Washington DC. This is the first time I've ever been to "the District" and I really enjoyed seeing it. In the next few blog entries I'll recount some of the highlights.

One of the best things about DC are the many interesting modes of transportation. The excitement starts right from the vacation house. To get downstairs to the "vacation house restaurant", where breakfast is served, we have to take an elevator. There are two elevators in the vacation house. One of my favorite things to do was to guess which elevator was going to show up to pick us up. I would run to the bank of elevators and point at one of the closed sets of doors. "That one!" I'd say, usually pointing to the rightmost door. More often than by chance (Daddy was keeping track), I'd be right in my prediction. I was very happy with the floor they gave us for our vacation house. We were on the fifth floor and "5" is my favorite number.

When we'd go out to see the sights, Mommy would take us down to Washington Harbor, which is a little "harbor" on the banks of the Potomac. There, we'd wait for the blue bus. I liked riding the bus too. From the blue bus, we'd get onto the "Metro". This is DC's fabulous subway system. I liked to call it the "Newark Train". We would wait for the train to come. The lights on the edge of the platform would blink when the train was about to arrive. Then we'd take the train to all sorts of interesting places.

I also got to ride on an orange "trolley". Mommy told me it was not quite a real trolley since it didn't run on rails, but I liked how it looked. What I didn't like was all the traffic riding on the trolley. Trolley rides are slow. After a little while, I tired of the trolley. I'd suggest (with increasing urgency):

Trolley stop now. All done trolley. Want to get off. Want to get off. All done. No more trolley.

Mommy and Nainnie seemed to want to be done with the trolley too.

Finally, and best of all, I got to ride a canal boat pulled by mules. I even got to pet the mules too. I liked to visit the canal. Daddy told me that this canal was built to rapidly transport stuff from Washington DC to points to the west. Unfortunately, it was built around the same time as the B&O Railroad, so it never really worked out too well. Having ridden one of these boats, the transport on a canal is anything but rapid.

Aidan No Like It

I'e developed a growing list of things I "no like". Here's a "Top 10" list:

1. Shirts with buttons
2. Daddy's shirts with buttons (except the parrot shirt)
3. Jammies that don't have Thomas on them
4. Thomas videos
5. Anyone other than Thomas or Percy on my train tracks
6. Peanut butter in any form
7. The tomato plant in the blue pot
8. Wearing a cowboy hat (though it's great when Daddy wears one)
9. Daddy and Mommy eating dinner when they could be playing with me
10. Sun in my eyes

Working the Ranch

Over the weekend, Daddy invented a new game called "working the ranch". In this game, we each ride one of my big horses. I ride the bouncy horse while Daddy rides the big stuffed horse my Uncle Ted gave to me. Daddy puts on his cowboy hat to work the ranch. Then we line up the "stock" in the pretend valley below us. We have all the usual livestock---cows, sheep, horses, and donkeys (actually all the donkeys are Eeyore)---as well as some unusual stock as well---zebras, bears, rhinos, and mice. Daddy says that our ranch is in the Santa Ynez mountains. He asked me how many acres we have on the ranch. I told him four acres, which seems like a lot of land. Daddy says that on a clear day (and it's always clear at the ranch) we can see the city of Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean. I like to ride my horsie down to Santa Barbara and sometimes take a swim in the ocean. The other animals like to join me there as well. It's fun to work on a ranch.

An August day in Santa Cruz

Here are some pics from the day Mommy and I visited Clara (about 19 mths old) and her mom, Cheryl in Santa Cruz. We enjoyed getting our toes wet and throwing stones into the waves and then went on some rides on the Santa Cruz boardwalk before returning to Clara's house.

You'll notice that there are several odd photos that Mommy took looking down at Cheryl, Clara, and me from the Ferris Wheel. I was very excited at the prospect of riding the Ferris Wheel since Maisy and friends ride one in my book, Maisy Goes to the Fair, but the size of the actual Ferris Wheel was too imposing, so I asked Mommy to go alone while I watched fromm below.

The final two photos were taken by Clara and me, respectively.

Old School Graphs

  Mommy and Daddy (mostly Daddy) were watching the Republican Convention tonight. Since I did not find this amusing, I ran off to the office to get Daddy's math book. I opened it to look at some of the graphs then I got to work at my blackboard. While Mommy and Daddy were busy watching Zell Miller, I fashioned the graph you see above on the blackboard. This is my version of what Daddy calls a sine wave---I call it an "up-down one" [graph]. When Mommy first noticed and asked me what it was, I told her it was an up-down one. She quickly got Daddy to show him too. He was delighted. He told me,

You rock little dude!

As I danced on the couch. The photo above is actually me making some improvements to my up-down graph.

Later that evening, I made an official computer version of the up-down graph. Here it is:

 Daddy says that for those who are interested, the formula for making this picture, which I typed in myself (Daddy told me what letters and numbers to press) is y = 4 sin x + 3 cos 3x.

The Joy of Math

Daddy has some quite interesting books that I like to look at. Recently, I picked up a book about doing mathematics using a computer program called Scientific Workplace. What attracted by were the pretty pictures on the front cover of the book. Daddy read to me the part of the book on making two and three dimensional graphs. We would look at a graph together, and I'd tell him what it reminded me of. We saw graphs of mountains, butterflies, spirals, seashells, and lots of other things. Daddy told me that the formula for each graph is like a kind of instruction manual for how to draw the picture. In some cases the instructions were so simple that I could do them myself. The pictures above were graphs I made with just a little help from Daddy. The one for the ball I made by typing the number "1" on the computer. Then Daddy helped me to guide the mouse to a command called "Plot spherical" and I clicked the mouse. "Yay Aidan!" I cried when the pretty graph of the ball showed up. Then I made the picture of the cup you see on your screen. Here I again typed the number "1" and Daddy helped me to click "plot cylindrical" to make it. I love making pictures on the computer. By the way, for you math nerds out there, Daddy tells me that my pictures have the official math names unit sphere and unit cylinder.

I liked math so much that I found another one of Daddy's books, a guide to Mathematica, and plunked the book and myself down on Mommy's lap for story time. While Mommy looked at the pictures with me she didn't know how to make them on the computer. I guess that's a skill for Aidan and Daddy.

Airplane tickets to Wilkes-Barre & Gingerbread

Airplane tickets. Yep. Okay. I want airplane tickets. Brown gingerbread and the ticking clock and the black bowl. Gingerbreads. Maisy eat some too. Maisy's here. Eat cookies. Maisy eat cookies too. And Cyril, And Charlie. Aind Tallulah. And Maisy. And Aidan. And Mommy. And Nainnie. And Grammy. And Nainnie too. And Grammy. Eat gingerbreads now. Go there now? Eat gingerbread! And Daddy. Nainnie make it? And Daddy eat it? And Aidan and Grammy and Mommy. Aidan want the big one. Big, big, have a face one! And the eyes, and the heads, and the foots, and the legs! And the arms too, and the tummy! Eat it now! I want airplane tickets, please? Airplane tickets please! Aidan want airplane tickets!

A Perfect Child

On Saturday we went to visit Daddy's colleague Ernesto and his family. He's got a daughter named Bianca who is almost two. She's got a lot of interesting toys. Anyway, the event was an Argentine style barbecue. While the food selection started off well (artisan bread with brie, mmmmm), the Argentines tend to favor the "cavalcade of meats" style of barbecue. Ernesto cooked chicken, sausages, and Chateaubriand---none of which I found interesting. However, I did find the toys and the yard quite interesting and amused myself as Mommy and Daddy talked and ate for about 3 hours. The other people at this party were amazed at how independent I was and said I was "a perfect child." That was very nice of them to say, and I did have fun.

I'm starting to get the hang of this politeness thing Mommy and Daddy keep talking about. For instance, I've now figured out that I'm much more likely to get what I want when I say please rather than merely barking orders. For instance, yesterday when I asked Daddy to please where his train shirt (a shirt that Auntie Max gave him for Christmas a year or two ago), he happily put it on. This shirt and his aloha shirt with parrots are my two favorites. If I had my way, Daddy would wear these two shirts every day.

By the way, some of you may have noticed the little envelope icon that has now appeared at the bottom of each of my blogs. This lets you send a blog entry that you think is particularly interesting as a e-mail link to someone who does not regularly read the blog (hard as that is to believe).

July 2004 Yosemite Photos, Part 1

Click here to see some of the photos we took near waterfalls during our trip Yosemite National Park in July. (Some uncategorized July shots of yours truly are also included in this link. More Yosemite shots will be posted at a later date.)

I loved the "big, BIG, mountains" and waterfalls. I really wanted to sit up on top of the mountains, or at least try to pick one up, but my parents and Nainnie discouraged me from my mission.

I loved the swimming pool at Yosemite Lodge too. A favorite thing to do in the pool was to ride on my elephant floaty toy and have Mommy steer me so that I could push together all of the "beads" (small buoys on a rope denoting the start of the "deep end") and make them travel back and forth across the pool like a choo-choo. I also enjoyed sitting on the step in the shallow end.

Election Season

I'm really getting into the spirit of the presidential campaign.
Tonight, for instance, I requested stories about my favorite politician, Lyndon Johnson. As Mommy was putting me in jammies and encouraging me to brush my teeth when I proudly announced,

Lyndon Johnson time! Lyndon Johnson!

Of course, Daddy has been reading me books abot Lyndon Johnson since I was about three months old. Here is Daddy's favorite Lyndon Johnson book. I like reading about Lyndon Johnson an his friend Richard Brevard Russell.

I then made up a song (sung to the tune of "Are You Sleeping"):

Lyndon Johnson, Lyndon Johnson.
Here I am. Here I am.
Lyndon Johnson, Lyndon Johnson
Here I am. Here I am.

And then repeat as needed. This is a great song. I sang it all the way through bedtime.

Hanging Around

I learned a new trick when we were at the playground yesterday: hanging around. As you can see in the picture, there's a chinning bar at the top of the sliding board. By hanging off of this, swinging gently back and forth, and then releasing from the bar at the right time, I can zoom down the slide in an even more exciting way.

On the way home, Daddy showed me how to gallop. Initially, I tried to do this and ended up going in circles, but I sort of got the hang of it at the end. Hard to get the timing of the little jumps right though.

Aidan Morgan: Photographer

 I noticed as we were going through the pictures taken this afternoon that there were none of them that contained pictures of Daddy. I thought this wasn't so good, so I suggested that I take some pictures of Daddy and my surroundings. The picture above is one of the results. Daddy taught me the basics of holding the camera and pressing the silver shutter button, but that was about it. The pictures are presented more or less exactly as I shot them. You can find them here.

Sunday in the Park

Today was a happy day with Daddy. We watched a number of Olympic events. Some of my favorite are the wrestling and the judo, which I refer to as the "daddy fall down" games. I like watching the people fall down. Daddy built a really nice Lego airplane that I had my friend Maisy ride on. When I get really excited about an activity with Daddy, I like to say:

Yee haw, Daddy!

Later, we went to the park and played on the swings and the slide. Here is a picture of me on the swings.

Here is a picture of me peeking out through the slats in the slide. I love peeking out.
 

And another one.


 

I've posted a photo album with some of my best shots for you to enjoy. You can find it here. It's on Ofoto rather than Shutterfly since Daddy tells me there is a good coupon available that lets you get prints quite cheaply (19c/photo) right now.

Yee haw!

Aidan Says Yes

I've noticed that saying something, like no or yes, is strongly correlated with whether I get to do what I want to do or not. For instance, if I say, "Aidan have a cookie?" and Mommy says "Yes" then I get a cookie. If she says no, I don't. Since yes is the magic word, I recently came across a solution that ensures I get what I want when I request something. Here's how it goes: First, I make a request for something. "Aidan have x?" and listen for Mommy's response. If it's yes then all is well and I can proceed. If it's no, then I offer the following, "Aidan says yes." This invokes the magic word, "yes", and should ensure that I get what I want. While this seems like it has to work, so far it hasn't proven as good a strategy in practice as in theory. Mommy somehow does not like "Aidan says yes." Somehow my yeses don't mean the same as hers. Well, just have to keep trying.

Daddy helped me make this nice flowchart.
 

Current Song Lineup

After story time, it's songs time before I go to sleep. Songs time is one of the nicest times. Mommy turns the lights down low. I jump up on Mommy's lap and nestle my head underneath hers and then we sing songs. Usually, I make requests; however the requests come in more or less a standard order which is as follows:

Hushabye
Brahms' Lullabye
Raindrops on Roses
Baa baa black sheep

---Intermission----
At the intermission, I'll go out an fetch Daddy for Act II.

Twinkle twinkle
She sells seashells

And the finale, Wimoweh

Mommy and Daddy have evolved the words to the finale. The last verse now goes:

In the bedroom, the quiet bedroom, the Aidan sleeps tonight
In the bedroom, the quiet bedroom, the Aidan sleeps tonight

Then Mommy and Daddy vamp the Wimoweh part as they carry me to my crib. Mommy grabs the top part of me ("Mommy body") while Daddy takes the lower half ("Daddy legs") They put me into my crib and then do a slow fadeout of the Wimowehs as they wish me a good night.

Lift the Flaps

Lately, some of my favorite bedtime stories are something called "lift the flap" books. These books typically contain many flaps hiding lots of wonderful secrets underneath. I especially like "Go, Maisy, Go!" which features "over forty flaps." Daddy always seems to groan when he reads that line in the book. One of the nicest things about flap books is that I can really use my imagination to work out all sorts of scenarios with the characters and the flaps. Of course, these scenarios take time both to formulate and to tell Mommy and Daddy about. As a result, bedtime reading the flap books can sometimes last a long time (which is fine with me). Yesterday, for example, story time lasted for more than an hour. Flap books are the best!

Summer Visitors

This summer, I had visits from both of my grandmothers. My Grammy visited in late May/early June and the two of us were partners in crime while my parents went to England. Few pictures exist of our adventures since my Mommy & Daddy had the digital camera in England-- and because we want to keep our activities a secret! Grammy has leaked a few photos from her camera though, so we'll have to scan some of them soon.

My Nainnie visited in late June/early July, and this visit is well-documented with digital photos. Among other things, we went to the Oakland Zoo, attended the Danville 4th of July parade, visited Yosemite National Park, and played with my friends. Here is a link to some of the photos from Nainnie's visit. More will come later.

Croutons

Yesterday, Mommy made a very nice meal consisting of salmon, broccoli trees, and salad. She put out the salad first, and I immediately spotted the best part of the mean---the croutons. I asked Daddy for one, and he gave it to me. Then, when Mommy and Daddy put their salads on their plates, I noticed they had extra croutons, so I asked for some of these too so they wouldn't be burdened with too many croutons.

For dessert, we had a sunshine cake that I helped Mommy pick out at the store. It was a vanilla cake with a smiling sun on top. I really liked the cake, but cautioned Mommy not to cut or eat any part of the smiling sun. This was difficult because the rays of the sun extend almost to the edges of the cake.

Underwear

I've been asking for a long while about the mysterious pairs of underwear that appeared in my shirt drawer a month or two ago. Today, I finally succeeded in persuading Mommy that it was time for "big" Aidan to wear underwear. She made me promise to tell her whenever I had to go to the bathroom. I kept my promise (mostly), though I did run through two pairs of underwear today (onewith Thomas and one with the finding Nemo fishies). I'm really a big boy wearing underwear just like Mommy and Daddy (actually, my underwear resembles Daddy's much more than Mommy's).

Aidan Morgan: Architect, Daddy: General Contractor

Today, we made a really nice building. In addition to having room underneath, it has special chairs for some of my favorite stuffed animals. I especially like that Henry the Octopus' feet hang down below. Percy the engine would go back and forth to tickle Henry's feet.