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!