Big Wings

One of the highlights of my trip to Hawaii was sitting looking out on the wing of the plane and disconvering that the wing becomes bigger and smaller. On takeoff, Daddy pointed out that the pilot extended the wing surface to create more lift. Once we're in the air, the wing gets smaller again. Finally, on landing, the wings are extended to their maximum length. I enjoyed watching all of it. Airplanes are neat!

Blue Hawaii

We're just back from Maui. I had a great time. I got to build sand castles. I also built some sand bridges and sand tunnels for the sand railroad to drive on. I made some sand cakes and sand pancakes too. I got to see a whole bunch of fishies in a submarine and in an aquarium. I liked the sharks and especially the crabs. Crabs were a source of endless fascination (and some trepidation) during the trip since the holes they dig are all over the beach. I also got to swim in a waterfall on the Mommy boat and the Daddy boat. (The Aidan boat is not very seaworthy so far so I rely on others.)

Here are some pictures of my adventures in Blue Hawaii. Here's a better link with more description.

Actually...

I've been sprinkling lots of new and interesting phrases into my conversations. One of my favorites is "Actually..." Actually is a great start to any sentence, but is especially good in trying to move the conversation toward an outcome that I view as better for me. For example:

Mommy: Would you like milk or water with dinner.

Aidan: Actually, I'd like juice.

Mommy: But you've already had enough juice today.

Aidan: Actually, I haven't had that much juice, and I'm thirsty for juice and not milk or water.

You get the idea. Actually, I didn't get any juice as a result of these negotiations but it was worth a shot.

Another good lead-in is "in the meantime" or "in the meanwhile". For example:

Daddy: Do you want French toast for breakfast?

Aidan: Yes! In the meantime, I'd actually like to have a little cereal while the French toast is cooking.

Sky Ride

Mommy and I went to the zoo today. This is always fun, but I added a new adventure by going on the Sky Ride for the first time today. I loved it! We had good views of some animals that can be difficult to see from the ground, and I got to fly like my friends from Dragon Tales! Can't wait 'til I get to do this again!

Aidan the soldier

For two days in a row, I told my mommy that after I was a boy, I was going to be a soldier. This really got mommy wondering since she does not promote soldiering for her son. I was very matter-of-fact about this each time, and today we talked more about it. Mommy asked me where I heard the word "soldier" and asked me to tell her what a soldier is. I replied something to the effect, "After I'm a boy, I will be a soldier and then I will be a man." Now, while this may sound exactly like something a recruiter would say, Mommy quickly deduced the word I actually meant from our past (non-military related)conversations about growing up. I meant "teenager"! I must have heard something about soldiers on TV an gotten mixed up! We have often spoken about how I used to be a baby but now I am a boy and someday I will be a very big boy called a teenager before I am a grown-up man. Mommy told me that soldiers do very dangerous work and fight to protect our country. They can get hurt very badly and some of them die. I think that I'll go back to my original career choice-- dancer!

Graduation

My Daddy went to graduation this past Sunday. The best part about graduation is the costumes! We dressed up for a photo shoot outside. Daddy dressed as "the professor" while I dressed as Pooh. Here are some photos of our dress-up as well as pictures from our adventures in the "tunnel park" earlier in the day. Check them out here.

Day Trip to San Francisco

Yesterday, I went to San Francisco with my Mommy and Daddy. Here are some photos. It was a sunny, clear day and we took a bay cruise. I really liked all the boats. Boats were always pretty good, but since one of my current favorite books is I'm Mighty, about a small but strong tugboat, boats are even more interesting now. (I definitely could have done without the wind and the noisy loudspeaker during our boat ride, however!).

We also rode the Pier 39 double-decker carousel again-- my favorite thing in San Francisco! I named my horse "Tony" after the song "Tony the Pony," a song that was a favorite of my mommy's as a child that she has since taught me. (I am yelling, "Tony!" during the very smiley carousel photo.)

Daddy, Mommy and I also had lunch at Bubba Gump's, where they make excellent Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Afterward, we went to The World's Greatest Chocolate Store, where I investagated all of the chocolate items looking for regular chocolate (no nuts, fillings, etc.) and we bought some yummy chocolate Golden Gate Bridges. I ate one of them as we drove home across the Bay Bridge (also a suspension bridge in part much like my chocolates).

Butterflies

I love butterflies. I have read many butterfly picture books over and over with Mommy and Daddy (i.e.,The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert) as well as Caterpillar Spring, Butterfly Summer. (The butterfly pops out in 3-D at the end of this one!) I also have a butterfly hat that Nainnie bought me at Yosemite Park last July. Anyway, one of my favorite games on the couch is pretending to be a caterpillar building a chrysallis around himself (couch pillows) and then emerging from the chrysallis to dry his wings, fly and search for nectar. Many, many butterflies test their wings in our family room.

I highly recommend any books by Eric Carle or Lois Ehlert. They are great!

I lost my poor meatball

When we go to Kindergym, they always have some sort of children's music playing in the background. I immediately start grooving and have a reputation as a dancer. In fact, there is currently one raised mat area that I use as my "stage." Sometimes, Mommy and I act out the songs. A favorite game of mine at Kindergym is pretending to be the bear from "The Bear Went Over the Mountain." I climb up and over an arch-shaped piece of equipment and then hide under the arch after moving stuff over to make a door for the cave where I hibernate. This week, the song, "On Top of Spaghetti" was playing. Mommy sang along, and then I decided to be the meatball in the song.

Anyway, being a meatball involved stacking big, black tire tubes six high to be the bowl. Then Aidan the Meatball would climb out of the bowl, jump onto Mommy, roll across the floor, and hide under a giant, green pillow-like thing (an item that kids generally land on when they jump off of other things). I liked being a meatball so much that I played this game for most of the time we were at Kindergym. I even played a version for a while at the playground outside before shifting to chef mode and serving spinach souffle and pancakes. After I finished "cooking," Mommy and I played in the sand, where I became a scoop truck (front loader) by positioning a very long shovel between my knees as I walked around. Imagination is a wonderful thing.

Electric guitars in need of a plumber

Mommy and I ate dinner at Taco Bell last night at my request. (Daddy is in Chicago for a short trip.) Anyway, we were grooving to the music playing in the background until a song came on that began with heavy electric guitars. Those electric guitars sounded funny to me. I exclaimed, "Their music player sounds a little bit clogged!" Mommy had to agree in this case!

Mother's Day Photos

I had a lot of fun going to the restaurant and playing chess on Mother's Day. Here are some photos from that day.

Chess

Following our Mother's Day brunch, we visited a couple of stores in the shopping place where the restaurant, the Blackhawk Grill, was. In one of these stores was a table with a large chess set on top of it. Daddy told me it was a game and suggested we play. We had a great time with chess, and I was even more delighted to discover that Daddy had a chess set at home too so we could play there. In the days following, we've played lots of chess. I especially like the pawns, which I like to call "boys" since, compared to the other chess men, they're boy-sized like me. One of my favorite versions of chess is to build a castle consisting of rooks at the four corners and pawns forming the walls of the castle. Daddy opens the doors and then calls for the type of piece that is allowed to go in.

"White knights can now enter!" he says.

I march the white knights up to the gate to gain entry. Sometimes, the chessmen are disobedient and the wrong guys try to enter. It seems that the bishops are the most unruly chessmen.

Floats or sinks

Inspired by the science fair, we decided to run a number of experiments at home this weekend. MY favorite one was "floats or sinks". We got a bucket of water and tried a variety of different items to determine whether they float or not. This was a more systematic extension of our earlier experiments with Little People. First, we ran some replications of our earlier work. Little People do indeed float. We tried a number of other plastic people related to Little People and found that these floated as well. We then tried several other items. Here is the list:

Item: Result
Rubber bands: sink
Koosh balls: sink

which led us to conjecture that rubber items sink. But this is wrong since

Rubber balls: float

Candles: float

which led Mommy to conjecture that wax things float. But this too is wrong since

Crayons: sink

We also thought that plastic floats from our earlier Little People trials. We got some confirmation of this:

Plastic spoons: float

But this "plastic hypothesis" is wrong too since

Tony Hawk: sinks

We thought that heavy things sink and by and large this is true since

Rocks: sink
Golf balls: sink
Metal spoons: sink

Bottom line: The properties of objects that lead to floating or sinking are quite complex. More study is required.

In other experiments, we tested whether big balls or small balls fall faster. We seemed to determine from dropping them at equal heights and then checking which hit the ground first that they fall at about the same rate. Feathers, however, fall more slowly than balls of any size.

I like experiments quite a lot.

Science Fair

Today, we went to a Science Fair in Lafayette. It featured a lot of interesting things like magnetism, how batteries work, "lava" from a volcano and rockets powered by baking soda and vinegar. I loved the fair and even got to take home a new pet---a worm that turned the compost in the school where the fair took place into nice soil. I put the worm into our garden in hopes that he could duplicate that feat.

Later in the afternoon, we went hunting for Mother's Day gifts and cards for Mommy. Initially, I wanted to go to a bunch of stores (notably the Thomas store [Barnes and Noble] and the Apple Store) to play. Daddy noted that we had to "work" first to find Mommy's gift. While that seemed interesting enough intially, I soon tired of "work" and wanted to go right to play. Work is a lot harder than play. I noted that both Mommy and Daddy seemed to work very hard, but that, happily, Aidan didn't have to work much at all. It would be nice if this situation were always the case. Anyway, we picked out some nice things and I nice card for Mommy and came home. We worked efficiently enough that there was some time for playing too.

When we came home, I remembered the "experiments" in the science fair and wanted to run some of my own. Daddy seems to really like experiments. We tried several experiments in whether things float or sink. We determined that corks float and Little People (TM) float. Quarters, however, sink.

Cow Quest

A Map of Our Walk 

Daddy and I went out for a walk in one of the many open space parks near our house. We were on a quest for cows. Since the grass is currently all green from the rains, the cows like to eat in many of the open space areas. This is a fun way to get up close and personal with cows. In fact, you can lay in the pasture with them if they're in the right kind of mood. Anyway, Daddy and I set out yesterday on our cow quest. I've marked the route on the map (which is a lot easier to read if you clikc on it to make it big). We started at the "X" labeled "Car Here" and made a big loop. It was my longest walk ever---covering about 2.5 miles. We finally spotted the cows near Benham Court (which you'll find at the circled "T" on the map about halfway around the loop). Along the way, we saw a swamp (fancifully named "Bullfrog Pond", a whole bunch of birds and squirrels, some hawks, lots of flowers (I like the yellow ones), and some of our neighbors. They were impressed with my strong legs. It was a great walk. At the end of it, I didn't want to go back. I asked Daddy if we could stay outside forever. He pointed out that we lacked a tent, as well as sufficient food and water, so things would not be much fun. That was enough to convince me to come home for lunch.

The Longest Train Layout Ever

For the first time in several weeks, Daddy was home, and we were able to spend the whole day together doing guy things. We went to the tunnel park (twice), vistied the Apple store, visited Barnes and Noble, ate at McDonald's (where have a new favorite sandwich---cheeseburger, hold the burger), and picked some spinach for a salad. (By the way, this is the first time I had a really big taste of a spinach leaf from our garden mixed with salad dressing. I don't really like it.)

But best of all was that Daddy and I made up lots of Thomas adventures. As part of this, we made the longest train layout ever.


The Best Layout Ever! 

We started in the kitchen and then snaked tracks all the way through the living room. At the edge of the living room, the train divided with one line going into the hall and the other into the dining room. Daddy thought up some amusing names for all the landmarks. The station in the kitchen was Enbourne station. Then you have to travel up Gordon's hill. Next it's on to the Misty Mountains and then the foothills.


Climbing over the Misty Mountains and the Foothills 

If you proceed east (through the hall) you come to the main port of the Island of Sodor---Sodor Bay---after passing over the massive Sodor Bay Bridge.


The View from Sodor Bay 

Going west takes you onto the long curving bridge over the River Avon and down into the valley where Ffarquharr station (home of Mavis---and loosely modeled on Bath) is located. Along the way, there are, of course, many obstacles, broken track, snow, landslides, slow trains, and so on. I loved it!

Up up and Away at the Zoo

I went to the zoo with my friend Sophie on Wednesday and decided to pull the bar on the airplane ride and take it up high for the first time. Cool!

I was also happy to see the tiger and the bear briefly wake up. They sure do nap a lot! The camels were giving each other springtime "hugs." For some reason, this caused quite a bit of giggling among the grown-ups...

Thomas and His Many Adventures

Lately, I've been very interested in Thomas. My current favorite Thomas game is "Thomas and his Many Adventures." The usual format of the game is for Thomas to start out at the station with Sir Topham Hatt. Sir Topham then gives Thomas some sort of a mission such as delivering schoolchildren to the zoo, taking coal to the coaling station, or delivering some barrels. Then Thomas sets off. Sometimes these missions are uneventful, but most of the time there is some obstacle to Thomas' completing his work. One time the low lying area between two bridges was flooded. Thomas got stuck and the water doused the fire in his boiler. He needed his friend Mavis, the diesel engine to help push him out. Another time there was a rockslide from the misty mountains that blocked the track. The "rocks" consisted of Lego blocks. Since Thomas is very strong, he was able to push his way through the rocks and complete his deliveries.

Daddy seems to be able to come up with lots of adventures for Thomas but, just in case he is running out, this morning I picked up a whole bunch of adventures in my hand and gave them to him to put in his pocket so there will be plenty of Thomas adventures for the next time we play.

Cubist

Last night, Daddy and I made cubes of various sizes out of my blocks. I really like cubes in general and big cubes most of all. We starte out by making a 2 x 2 x 2 cube, which I correctly pointed out consisted of 8 blocks. Next, we made a 3 x 3 x 3 cube. While I knew there were nine blocks in each layer, the total number of blocks was elusive (and not terribly interesting to me either). Finally, we made a BIG cube: 4 x 4 x 4. Daddy says that it takes 64 blocks to make a cube this big. It is a lot of work, but well worth it to make a really nice, big cube.

Easter with Grammy

Click here for pictures from Easter weekend and then read on!

On the Saturday before Easter, I went to the Eggstravaganza at Oak Hill Park in Danville. This was a much better Easter egg hunt than the one I attended last year in Lafayette since they divided the hunt up into age groups. This was much more fun since older children were not knocking me over to get eggs, and I collected lots of eggs (more than my official allotment of 6, actually) with little prizes inside (like rings, stickers, and a pirate eye patch). Mommy walked around and made sure that the other kids also had a good number of eggs, and we “hid” 2 of mine for another boy, before going off to enjoy my stash. The Eggstravaganza also included balloons, and I got a yellow one, but it had a very slippery, iridescent ribbon that untied as soon as we tied it on my wrist and it flew away. This made me very sad, but happily I we were able to get another one with a more obedient ribbon. There were also fun crafts to make, and a big, white Easter bunny walked around meeting children. I did want to see the bunny, but I did not want to touch him, so mommy took my picture with me at a comfortable distance away from him. (Interestingly, the Easter bunnies at the local malls here were both brown bunnies, much like Peter Rabbit. Mommy tells me that the East Coast malls seem to favor white bunnies. I like them all—from a distance!)

The best part of the Eggstravaganza was that Grammy arrived from the airport in time to see the eggs I’d collected and to play with me at the park! Hooray! Then she stayed with us for a week. She gave me a big, yellow dancing Boobah toy for Easter. (Boobahs are somewhat egg-shaped furry creatures seen on PBS.) In addition to my basket from the Easter Bunny, I also found a soft, furry, talking Easter bunny basket from Nainnie on Easter morning, which I used to collect my backyard Easter eggs. (Thanks, Nainnie! Thanks for the candy too!) Grammy and I repeated Easter egg hunts together all week inside the house. I find that shoes make an excellent place for hiding plastic eggs!

Other fun things we did during Grammy’s visit were going to the park and visiting the Oakland Zoo. At the zoo, I rode lots of the kiddie rides outside the gates. It was really, really crowded that day even though it was a weekday, requiring a major hike from the car (parked on the entrance hill rather than the parking lot!) Even so, I had fun and I decided to ride the airplane ride for the first time. I rode several times, making sure to ride when I could have a plane to myself since I am not yet ready to pull the bar to take the plane up higher and I did not want my co-pilot to do this either! I do like going around and round though!

Grammy, Mommy and I also took the BART train and a cable car to San Francisco’s Pier 39 one day. We did the BART since I am always begging to ride it, and the cable car since neither I nor Grammy had ridden one before. I loved the BART, but I did not care for the wind on the cable car. I did enjoy looking at the boats and the sea lions and the double-decker carousel though. It was a clear, beautiful day. We also rode the “F,” and electric train/bus back to a different BART station.

I was sad to see Grammy go home, and have asked Mommy numerous times if she misses her mommy. I am planning her next trip in my mind as well as a trip on the plane for me. Mommy and Daddy think that it will be a while before my imagined trips actually occur, however. (Daddy returned home on the day that Grammy went back to PA. He had been at a conference in Princeton. At least it was a day of returns as well as leave-taking.)

Go fly a kite

On Saturday, the whole family went out to a nearby park (which I call the "tunnel park" since there is one sliding board in the shape of a tunnel) to fly kites. We brought with us two kites, one with Elmo's picture on it, the other with Grover. While the wind was not quite as nice as it might be, there was still enough of a breeze to get the kites flying. I had a great time running around while holding the kite string and making it fly. Kite flying is great!

How does your garden grow

I really like gardening. Yesterday, we added more plants to the garden and checked on how the ones planted earlier are doing. Here's the status report:

1. The tendrils on the pea plants have successfully curled around the lattice in the graden and are growing up nicely. The first pea blossom has appeared as well. I'm quite fascinated at the notion of tendrils and inquire about which plants have them and which do not at every opportunity.

2. Our onions (grown from seeds) are all coming up quickly. They're still pretty small. I wanted to pick a couple but Daddy suggested that we wait until they're a bit bigger.

3. Our grapvine is thriving. It's go lots of new growth. It still hasn't managed to climb its way onto the lattice set out for it yet.

4. We added a pumpkin plant to a dirt-filled area in the front yard. I'm hoping that we can grow our own Jack-O-Lanterns for Halloween.

5. In the back, we added pole beans (and an interesting pole for them to climb on) as well as fancy lettuce and cucumbers. We're already doing a fine job with the spinach we planted earlier, which is producing delightful leave for salads.

6. Our broccoli is getting very big. I can't wait for it to be ready.

7. All of our tomato plants have blossoms. Tomatoes are coming!

Attack of the Clones: Post-script

Actually, I omitted an Eddie. There are six Eddies: regular, dude, Easter, Christmas, mechanic, and skateboarder. As for the personalities of the Little People, the guys with the edgiest personalities seem to be the two "Bunny guys". They are always very demanding about everything. The Daddy character is also not exactly sweetness and light either. He's constantly either talking on his cell phone, driving to and from work, or busy foreclosing on a property. He's foreclosed Farmer Jed's farm on several occasions leaving poor Jed with only his beat-up blue Ford F-150 pickup truck as an asset.

Apple cookies

Lately I've been really interested in playing with Play Doh. One of my favorite things to do with this stuff is to use my rolling pin to roll it out flat and then use my apple shaped cookie cutter to make apple cookies of various colors. I stakc my apple cookies neatly to the side of the dough rolling area so that they will stay nice. Sometimes, I cut out an apple cookie where the cookie cutter just misses the edge of the dough. This results in an apple cookie with a bit taken out of it.

"Who bitted it?" I ask.

I kind of like the idea of people biting my cookies. The other fun thing to do with these cookies is to count them. I'm getting very good at counting and even did some rudimentary addition yesterday with Daddy. I had three purple cookies and three white cookies. Daddy asked me how many cookies of all types I had. I was able to count them all out together to obtain a figure of six cookies. Yay for Aidan! Daddy was quite pleased with this feat.

First Harvest

We had out first harvest from the garden: Spinach leaves. Our spinach plants have been growing really well, so we picked some last night for salads for all of us. Yay spinach. In other news: We have baby strawberries now growing. I can't wait for them to be ready. Our basil plant, however, is not feeling well.

Little People: Attack of the Clones

It's interesting that there are many duplicates of each of the Little People characters. Often they're dressed a bit differently or are carrying something different, but it's still the same character in multiple outfits. Last night, Daddy (just back from a trip to Atlanta) and I played with the "clone" game with the Little People. This involves both counting and social pleasantries. First, the counting part: Sorting through the little people, we have to pick out all the clones of each type of Little Person.

The largest number of clones are of the Eddie character. They consist of Regular Eddie, Dude Eddie, Christmas Eddie, Easter Eddie, and Mechanic Eddie. Finishing in second is the Sonya Lee character. Her clones consist of: Money Sonya Lee, Apple Sonya Lee, and Zookeeper Sonya Lee. Tied for third is the Mommy character, which consists of two absolutely identical Mommies (Mommy 1 and Mommy 2).

On to the social pleasantries: Once the clones are gathered together, they introduce themselves to one another. A typical conversation goes like this:

Regular Eddie: Pleased to meet you. I'm Eddie
Dude Eddie: Dude! Awesome. I'm Eddie, great to meet you Eddie.
Easter Eddie: Eddie...Eddie
Christmas Eddie: Funny, I'm named Eddie too. Good to meet you Eddie.

And on and on.

Easter Egg Hunts

One of my favorite Easter traditions is the easter egg hunt. I went on a number of "official" egg hunts this season however, I like to improvide my own egg hunts. To do an egg hunt, someone (either Aidan, Mommy, Daddy, or Gammy) has to hide their eyes while another person scatters eggs around the house. Then it's time to open your eyes and go in seach of Easter eggs. When I'm the person hiding the easter eggs, I like to give hints to the person searching so it's not too hard to find the eggs. Some of my most creative hiding spots were putting eggs in Daddy's shoes and putting eggs in the faucet for my bathtub. These were extremely hard to find.

Of course, I like when things are turned around as well and I'm the person searching for the eggs that the other person has hidden. Easter egg hunts are fantastic.

Being Kipper, Part 2

A post script to the Kipper story:

I like the notion of Daddy being Kipper and me being Tiger so much that last nigt when I went to bed, I pretended to be Tiger. Instead of a crib, I pretended to be climbing into my "basket". I also got to sleep with one of my doggy slippers since Kipper always sleeps with a slipper when he goes to bed. It's fun to be Tiger.

Eye Guy

One of my birthday gifts was a toy called K'Nex (I omit the initial K and call them simply "nex"). With this toy, you join together various eyes, noses, wheels, and wings to make various types of vehicles/people. When we first got this toy, Daddy constructed a K'Nex person that looks like the picture below and called him "eye guy." I have a sort of mixed relationship with eye guy. Every time we take out the K'Nex, I want Daddy (or Mommy) to make eye guy. I've even made some versions of eye guy myself. On the other hand, I sometimes find eye guy to be a bit menacing and don't want him around. Indeed, when we put the K'Nex away, I try to make sure that all of the eye guys are disassembled before going back into the box.


Eye Guy 

Being Kipper

Kipper the Dog 

Lately, I've been fascinated with Kipper the Dog and his friends. I like everything about Kipper, including the funny way that he talks. For instance, in running a race, I would say "ready, set, go." Kipper says,

Ready...steady...go!

Kipper calls flashlights torches and calls lots of other things funny names.

This morning while I was racing Matchbox cars with Daddy, he said, "ready...steady...go!" I asked Daddy if he was Kipper, and he said that he was and that I was Kipper's friend Tiger. We played at being Kipper until Daddy had to go to work. Daddy can even talk in the Kipper way as well. I like playing Kipper.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This weekend, Daddy and I planted a bunch of vegetables in our garden. We went out in the morning to the garden store and I picked out the plants that I wanted. First on the list was of course, tomatoes. We put these in big pots on the side of the house along with a bunch of special potting mixture. I liked putting the potting mixture into the pots. Next, we bought a pepper plant. Naturally, the plant had to produce peppers in my favorite color, yellow, so we picked one that did this. We planted the pepper plant in a pot as well. We also planted a basil plant. I like the fact the Licorice (who has gone to heaven) liked basil a lot.

Over the course of the winter, we improved a section of mostly dirt near the front of the house. Daddy said it's much easier to turn the soil over during rainy season than during the summer, when the ground gets quite hard. In doing this, Daddy would shovel out large hunks of soil, and then I would use a smaller weeder type thing to break up the dirt clods and smooth things down. At last, we were ready to plant in this new garden space. I picked out pea plants, broccoli, spinach, and chives to plant there. I espeically liked that the pea plants have tendrils to climb up a lattice that Daddy had set up. The bad news for the pea plants is that, a mere one day after planting, snails had eaten two out of the six plants. This got Daddy very busy in applying anti-snail stuff around the edge of the garden.

I like gardening lots and lots.

Birthday Cupcakes at Kindergym

Here are some photos from the cake and candles part of the belated 3rd birthday party I had with my friends on January 29. I got to celebrate twice since I had a family party in PA on my actual birthday (12/30) as well as this later one in my home state of CA. My kid party was at one of my favorite places, Kindergym, so my friends and I got to run around, climb, etc. before cupcake time. We have some video of playtime, but our still photos are only of cupcake time (plus one of me with my piggies-- before bedtime of course since they no longer are allowed in bed with me of night-- as those of you in the know are already aware).

Spring Training

Take me out to the ballgame 
Baseball spring training has recently started, so Daddy and I decided to pull out the batting tee and balls and work on honing my swing. I've made great strides since last year. I can now hit the ball quite nicely off of the tee. In fact, I nearly hit one of the balls out of the yard and into the street or "parking lot" as I like to call it. Daddy and Mommy also recently got me a "B" hat that's the perfect size for me, which I'm wore to my "spring training." Previously, I wore one of Daddy's B hats, but this was really too big for me.

Anyway, I've posted some "baseball cards" here. You'll also find some photos of me in my latest dress-up costume---Pooh, as well as some "posed" shots Mommy took of me in the hall. I like making faces for the camera.

Aidan Morgan, Card Shark

A coda to my earlier story about poker playing. Lately, I've taken to saying,

Poker is my favorite game.

Mommy wonders what sort of an impression the other Mommies and kids will have of both her and me with this pronouncement.

The Heffalump Movie

Mommy has offered to take me to a movie called The Heffalump Movie. It features all of my favorite Pooh characters and is in a real movie theater. I'm not sure I like movie theaters. They're dark and sometimes they have loud noises, neither of which appeal to me. As a result, I've been practicing playing movie theater to build up my courage. This past weekend, I built a Lego movie theater with Daddy. It featured a large screen and lots of seats including a balcony section. Soon it was time for people to watch The Heffalump Movie. For the first seating, I would place Lego blocks on each o the seats and I would say who they were. Sometimes I would ask Daddy who was sitting there. Guests for the first show included all the Pooh characters, Maisy, Tullulah (Maisy's bird friend), and Elmo. Guests that Daddy brought to the show included Phil Mickelson (one of my favorite golfers), Lyndon and Ladybird Johnson (my favorite politician), Richard Brevard Russell (I like his picture in the Lyndon Johnson book), Leland Olds (same story), and Tiger Woods.

For the second show, the guests consisted entirely of yellow Lego blocks, which I said were Tallulah. They were 17 Tallulahs at that show and no room for anyone else. Indeed, even the Tallulahs found the theater to be quite crowded.

A key difficulty in watching the movie is that, at random intervals, I lift the screen from its moorings and it flies away.

House of Cards

One of my favorite pastimes is poker. To play poker, of course, you need chips. I like to get out the chips and distribute neatly stacked piles to each of the players: Daddy, Peaches the stuffed bunny, The Bears, and myself. Then it's time to play. I know two poker variations, a game called "which is biggest" and a game called "which is smallest". Somehow, I prefer which is smallest. It's almost time to deal, but first Daddy has to remove the 5s from the deck and give these to me. "5" is my number and I like to have them all. Next, it's time to deal. Each person gets one card turned face up. Daddy then asks me,

Which is smallest?

Usually, I offer a random guess which we must then verify by counting backwards. Daddy starts at 10 and we count backwards together. Each time we hit a number where someone has a card of that number on the table, we turn it face down. When there's only one card left face-up, we know who the winner is. The losers then have to pay the winner one chip each.

We continue like this for a few rounds and then it's time for a building break. During this phase of the poker game, Daddy and I build a house of cards. Daddy sets up the basic structure and then I add to it. Daddy says I'm really good at adding on cards in building the house. After a little while a "breeze" kicks up. The breeze is really me blowing on the cards. It doesn't take much of a breeze---a zephyr really---for the house of cards to fall down and force us to rebuild.

Poker is fun!

Selective hearing

Sometimes Mommy and Daddy ask me to do things that I don't want to do. For instance, when I want to play with toys, Mommy and Daddy wil insist that I get dressed or take a bathroom break. Fortunately, I've learned a new tactic to deal with these unpleasant situations. As long as I don't "hear" what they're saying, I clearly don't have to follow their requests. The trick is to selectively "hear" stuff. If they offer something good like "do you want to play with toys with Mommy and Daddy" my hearing is very keen. Offering something bad like "it's time to get dressed" calls for the selective hearing function.

Somehow, Mommy and Daddy don't like this strategy.

Expanding on the restroom art

Today I expanded on the Daddy's restroom sign art (mentioned in the last post). I added lots of doorknobs so people can go in. Then I added a second figure next to the lady in the circle and the man in the circle because I really like the bathrooms that are shared by both sexes. (These usually have URINALS, which I do not get to use in Mommy-only bathrooms.) Finally, I added out of order signs on top of the bathroom symbols. (I was strongly effected by some out of order bathrooms at the park recently.)

Comments

You will notice I've gone to a new commenting program. The earlier one had many problems and recently decided to stop saving old comments from past posts. That was enough to get me to switch.

Shapes and Their Meanings

The other day, Daddy and I were painting together at my easel. Daddy decided to paint some shapes and asked what shape I'd like to see. I said, "Triangle." So Daddy painted the outline large blue triangle. I immediately connected this with another example of a big blue triangle---the official sign for the Daddy bathroom in stores and restaurants. I asked Daddy to paint the little person who stands in the center of this sign.

Next, I asked for a circle. This, of course, is the symbol for the Mommy bathroom, so I asked Daddy to draw the stick lady who lives in the center of this symbol as well.

Hugs: A Taxonomy

I really like hugs, especially at night. Hugs come in several varieties so I thought I would clue you in about the differences:

1. Straight hug: A straight hug is when Mommy or Daddy picks me up and holds me to his or her chest while standing straight up. I put my arms around their shoulders and rest my head there as well.

2. Sandwich: A sandwich is a straight hug where both parents squish me in the middle so that I am the "cheese" in the hug sandwich. Mommy and Daddy are the bread.

3. Regular hug: This is a hug where both I and the hugger remain seated.

4. Hug guys: This is a Daddy thing where I'm squirming around and the "hug guys" come and scoop me up for a quick hug.

5. Pancake: This is a hug where I'm lying on the floor and (typically) Daddy semi-squishes me.

I like hugs. I'm less of a big fan of kisses however.

Aidan Morgan, Oenophile Part 2

I went to an art class today and produced all manner of master works. Below is a picture I'm quite proud of. I chose the "J" and "m" at random, but Mommy thought that it produced a nice effect of pairing Daddy's initials with the wine corks.
 

Froggytime Theatre

One of my most popular Christmas gifts came from Auntie Max. She gave me a theater with a couple of hand puppets consiting of a king an queen froggy. I have adapted this arrangement into the entertainment extravaganza called "Froggytime Theatre". Here's what I like to do:

I set up the stage and the actors first. The usual acting troupe consists of the two froggies, Piggy, and Kasey the Kinderbot. Next, I set up the audience. Sometimes the audience consists of Thomas the Train and all his friends. Other times, the stuffed animals come to watch the show. When the audience is all seated, the curtain goes up and the show begins. I like to roll up the curtain onto a wooden dowel in a way that I saw was done at a theatre in Chuck E. Cheese. I like to request various performances. There are certain regular parts of the show and then some ad-libbing as well.

One of the regular features is a theatrical rendering of the sone "James Morrison". King Froggy plays the role of James, Queen Froggy is his mother, while Piggy plays the role of King John in the song. King Froggy is a real ham---when Daddy does this song, King Froggy sings with a deep bass voice, tones of vibrato, trilled "r's" and a kind of over the top English accent. Queen Froggy is an alto also with tons of vibrato. Piggy uses his usual singing voice.

Another regular feature is a solo act by Kasey the Kinderbot. Kasey knows how to sing "Hokey Pokey" all by himself. The audience likes to dance as Kasey sings.

Finally, the whole audience, including master of ceremonies Aidan, like to sing a medley of Mozart consisting of "Twinkle, twinkle" and "The ABC Song."

The show closes with an old Bugs Bunny number performed by the entire troupe. They sing:

O we're the boys of the chorus
We hope you liked the show
We know you're rooting for us
But now we have to go!

Fore!

One of the best things about our vacation house is that our room literally had a golf course as its back yard. I could see three bunkers from outside the big windows in the room. Naturally, being surrounded by golf, I had to get out and play some myself. Daddy and I putted, hit some shots at the driving range, and, best of all, hit some sand shots out of a bunker. I like blasting the sand in the air as I try to get a ball out of the bunker. Below are three photos of some of my outstanding putting.

A selection of photos of all kinds can be found here.


 


 


 

Mommy's Massage

When we were at the vacation house, Daddy and I went out to play golf while Mommy got something called a massage. Daddy told me about this, so I wondered if Mommy was getting a beard too. I asked Daddy and he explained that Mommy was getting a massage and not a beard. Since beards often go with massages, I persisted in wondering if she would get one of these too. I think Mommy would look quite funny with a massage and a beard. Eventually, Daddy figured out that I thought a massage was a moustache, but that these two things are very different. Mommy's massage featured lots of hot and cold rocks on her. She seemed to like being rubbed with rocks quite a bit. I can understand that since I like to play in piles of rocks myself.

Aidan Morgan, Oenophile

Perhaps inspired by their recent viewing of the film Sideways, the family went to a vacation house in wine country for a mini vacation. When we first arrived, we stopped in Trefethen Winery, always a favorite, and sampled many of their wines. Trefethen is an interesting place in that it has a lovely garden area where I can run around. In addition, it's got lots of old pieces of farm equipment. I liked to pretend to be a horsie pulling the many pieces of equipment. I pulled two types of harrows and two types of plows as well. I'm not a very obedient horsie however. Daddy would tell me he wanted to plow his field going one way and I would inevitably go in the other direction. Eventually Daddy caught on and started to tell me to go the opposite way from where he really wanted to go.

I also got to sniff lots of different wines. Of course, my favorite are the "yellow" wines---riesling and chardonnay. I also liked to sniff lots of different types of red wines too. Daddy would ask me what the wines smelled like. He told me there were cards that indicated that they had scents like blackberry, currant, or cassis (whatever that is). When I smelled, I told him what they smelled like to me:

They smell like wine!

I offered after each sniff. Still, I liked being part of the whole wine tasting process. After our visit, we went on to the vacation house for more adventures, which I'll tell you about in the next installment.

Happy Birthday

One of my favorite pleasantries that work well in any conversation is "happy birthday." For instance,

Aidan: Time to wake up.
Daddy: Good morning.
Aidan: It's morning time. Let's check if the sun is out.
Daddy (opening the shade): It is.
Aidan: How are you doing today?
Daddy: I'm doing well. How are you doing Aidan?
Aidan: Um. Happy Birthday!

This past Saturday Mommy invited many of my friends to Kindergym to celebrate my third birthday. We baked cupcakes together the day before (chocolate ones, of course) so that my friends and I could enjoy that essential birthday ingredient, cake. The theme of my birthday party was Pooh and his friends. Since I'm a bouncy guy, bouncing featured prominently in our "advertisements" for the party. The birthday cupcakes also had the Pooh theme as well. Each was decorated with a candy version of Pooh's face. While I liked the Pooh face, I indicated to Mommy ahead of time that I would not be eating it (although I happily ate the cupcakes) since I don't like to eat my friends. I think, in general, not eating one's friends is a good rule.

We got to Kindergym and set up the party area. Mommy made a big banner saying "Happy Birthday Aidan!" featuring Pooh characters. Daddy blew up a bunch of balloons using a helium balloon machine. Unlike the balloon machines in stores, which are loud, this balloon machine was quiet, so it made me a lot less nervous.

Next, we all went over to the Kindergym for a session of bouncing. It was nice to bounce around with my friends. While they all liked bouncing, doinking, which I find to be really fun, is, apparently, an acquired taste for some of them. For example, there is a little sliding board in the Kindergym. I liked to slide down the slide and "doink" into people at the foot of the slide. I also like to wait at the bottom and be doinked by others coming down. I asked my friend Brandon if he liked to be doinked. He said, politely, "No thank you." He also didn't want to doink me either.

Another highlight for me is spinning. There is a tire swing in the Kindergym. I liked to lie across the big rubbery tire on my tummy while Daddy spun me round and round. This is fun, but leaves me very dizzy. Of course, dizzy is fun too. Lots of my friends like spinning also and, at times, I had to wait my turn to spin on the swing.

After that, we went to the party room and ate sandwiches and cake. We also got to drink lemonade, one of my favorite drinks, from little juice boxes. I had three candles on my cupcake and, after a couple of tries, I blew them all out.

"Happy birthday" everyone said.

I enjoyed my party "lots and lots" and, at the end, I asked Mommy if we could go back to Kindergym the next day to have another birthday party for me.

Aidan Court: Abstracts from Recent Decisions

Case No. 2005-02
People v. Elmo

The People's case was twofold. First, the people contended that Elmo was not an animal. Second, the people contended that Elmo could make a reasonable individual "a little bit nervous." Therefore, it was argued, Elmo should be banished.

The defense stipulated to the fact that Elmo is not an animal. However, in rebuttal the defense pointed out that Elmo, being a monster, was not a person either and, in view of People v. Ernie and People v. Dapper Dan the case should be dismissed. On the second charge, the defense offered expert witness testimony from Mommy showing that Elmo was a "sweetheart" and that his high, squeaky voice could not reasonably make anyone nervous. The defense suggested that the people are confusing Elmo with more "nerve-inducing" creatures such as Nordy.

After hearing the testimony, Judge Aidan pointed out that Elmo's animal-ness was imaterial citing the recent decisions of People v. Piggy and People v. Little Piggy and hence not, per se, grounds for dismissal. Despite expert witness testimony to the contrary, The court, citing personal experience, was persuaded by the arguments of the prosecution pointing out that high squeaky voices can make reasonably people nervous again (In re: People v. Piggy) where the court found that Piggy had a high voice and that his voice was also occasionally squeaky.

The court sided with the plaintiff and sentenced Elmo to banishment. Elmo was remanded Elmo to the custody of the Sergeant at Arms, Daddy.

Banishment

As you may know, I banished Piggy from my bedroom about two months ago. His offense: I had a dream about him in which he moved. Therefore, while I still like Piggy very much in the daytime, he's not welcome at night. More recently, I've banished several other guys from being in my bedroom. They are: Nordy, Ernie, and Dapper Dan. Nordy's offense was that he had too much personality, that he was too human in a way. Ernie and Dapper Dan are representations of humans, as opposed to animals, so they are not welcome.

The current priority rules for sleeping in my crib are: (1) You're a bear---even better is you're a big fluffy bear; (2) You're a bunny--even better if you are owned by Mommy; (3) You are a Pooh character; (4) You are an anonymous stuffed animal without a distinctive voice or personality.

This car is ready to go

One of my favorite Daddy activities is to drive my (mainly) Hot Wheels cars along the floor of one of the hallways in our house. This activity has actually evolved somewhat from when we first started doing this. A few months ago, I used to like to organize my cars in a parking lot in the hall. There they would sit and Daddy would occasionally request that one of the car was ready to go for a drive down the hall. Often, I would tell him that the car was tired and needed to rest inthe parking lot. Sometimes, I would drive the car myself down the hall by pushing it---holding on all the way as it went down the hall. Still, I would occasionally let Daddy push one of the cars and it would go zipping down the hall, hopefully avoiding a "catastrophe."

Now, I'm more interested in zipping the cars down the hall myself. They spend a lot less time in the parking lot and more time on the road. I'm getting to be quite good at this. Some of the cars made it to the end of the hall, bounced off the wall, and managed to be turned in the right direction to go around the corner of the hall. I also like to put my cars on a big green car transporter turck that I got for Christmas. Daddy will sometimes make protesting noises on behalf of the cars since inevitably they fall off the truck when it jackknifes during his ride. I like driving my cars.

Aidan & Morgan

While Daddy was randomly searching my name in Google, he came across this interesting connection between the names Aidan, Morgan, and the Arthurian legend. Apparently, some sources suggest that a King Aidan was the father of the historic King Arthur (who apparently wasn't acutally a king). Arthur's sister was, of course, Morgan (Le Fey). Hence, an unexpected Aidan & Morgan connection. For those interested in reading the "research" underlying these findings, click here.

Faults and Fixes

One of my favorite Christmas presents was not actually given to me, but rather given to Daddy. It's a book by David Leadbetter called 80 Faults and Fixes. It's about all the different things that can go wrong in hitting a golf ball and tips on how to fix those things. What I like about it are the pictures, which feature golfers in brightly colored clothing being advised by a seemingly all-knowing coach.

One page that is particularly interesting is where a golfer is trying to hit a short shot onto the green. Instead, he hits a line drive that breaks a nearby window. The picture shows the window breaking and the "coach" character looking distressed. On the next page, the "coach" shows the golfer how to hit a nice rainbow shot. I wonder what happens to to the golf ball that went through the window. Do the people in the house give it back? Does the golf ball end up in their "movie room"? Do they keep the golf ball and play with it themselves?

The page that merits revisiting shows a skeleton wearing golf shoes, a golf hat, and holding a club. The skeleton is stuck inside a deep sand trap, which Daddy calls a bunker. The point of the picture is that this unlucky golfer could never get out of the bunker so he ended up just being bones. On the next page, the apparently reanimated golfer is being shown by the coach character (who is wearing a quite interesting white hat) how to get out of the bunker. When Daddy and I went to the golf course yesterday, I checked out several of the bunkers I came across to see if there are any bones in them. Happily, there weren't. Faults and Fixes is my top read for 2005.

Doctor Visit

Yesterday, I went for my annual checkup. The doctor was very silly. She told me that I had kitty cats in my ears and that I had eaten an elephant and a zebra for lunch. She also pronounced me in tip-top condition. Here are some vital statistics about me: I'm now 36 1/2" tall. That's not very tall relative to other boys my age (25th percentile), but it does shoot me over the three foot barrier. I weigh 32 1/2 pounds, which makes me exactly average (50th percentile) among boys my age. Somehow, they stopped measuring my head, which was the one physical characteristic where I was in the upper percentiles. Because of my vegetarian tendencies, they decided to give me a blood test to see if I have enough iron. I was very brave. In fact, when they pricked my finger, I said it tickled. (I also got 2 stickers for being brave.) The report back said that I have plenty of iron. While I don't like going to the doctor due to dislike of shots I did like some of the toys in the "well" waiting area, so I played with those for a bit before and afterward. Happily, I did not need shots this time, and I won't need any more until just before kindergarten. Mommy always worries when she takes me to the doctor since there are lots of sick people there, so we're hoping I don't come down with anything as a result of my "well" visit. Last year, I came down with my second bout of stomach flu not long after my "well" visit.

Plows

After having visited the snow (twice) during my trip back east, I've decided that it is winter in the Island of Sodor (where Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends live). Winter is a tricky time if you're a train becuase snow can easily block the tracks or you can get hit by the random avalanche as well. On Saturday, faced with increasing number of snow related "cathatrophes" on the line, Daddy and I got together to build some plows for my engines so they could mke it through the snow. Daddy found some construction paper in colors to match each engine and then drew a plow pattern for me to cut out. With a little help, I cut out a plow for Thomas and a plow for Percy and Daddy fastened the plows on with scotch tape. Next, I made my own plow design for Henry. It was a bit jagged on the bottom to really push the snow out of the way. We taped that plow on too. Soon, the trains were busy shuttling freight around Brendam Bay. Occasionally they would run into snow drifts, but the plows enabled them to push through.

Hooray for plows.

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.