Merry Christmas!

This was an eventful week! On Monday, I went to the doctor's office for an ultrasound, where we found out that we are going to have a baby girl! When we talked to Aidan about it in the morning, we told Aidan that when the baby was born it would be their birthday. Aidan responded, "When the baby in Mommy's tummy comes out, I'm going to sing her happy birthday!" That night, when we told Aidan that he was going to have a little sister, he said, "when she comes, I'm going to give her a hug!" :)


After an office party on Tuesday night and some late night packing, we all took a plane on Wednesday morning to San Francisco. We are spending Christmas with Uncle Gabe, Aunt Karen, and Cousin Miya this Christmas, and we were all looking forward to the vacation! The plane trip went well: Aidan fell asleep before the plane left the ground and slept for 2 hours, and then was totally happy watching Wonderpets and garbage truck DVDs, reading books, playing with another kid one aisle ahead of us, and hanging out. Uncle Gabe picked us up from the airport, and soon we were over the Golden Gate Bridge and on vacation for real!


We have had a great time chilling out and catching up on some much-needed relaxing. Aidan has been thrilled to play with Cousin Miya, and she has been wonderful with him! Mommy and Aunt Karen, who are both pregnant, have had fun catching up and commiserating, and Daddy and Uncle Gabe have had fun being Daddy jungle-gyms and catching up, too. Aidan has been singing lots of silly songs, our favorite so far being: "Hi, ho, the dairy-oh, I love trains!" He is also picking up on silly things to say, like (thanks to Daddy and Uncle Gabe), "Oh, the humanity!"


On Thursday, Mommy made breakfast streudal and apple pie, and then we all had fun visiting and going to the park with Uncle Chris and Aunt Lauren, who drove in for the afternoon. On Friday we had a simple and delicious Christmas dinner of turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots, spinach dip with sourdough bread, and apple pie. It was wonderful, and everyone chipped in to make it very easy to do. After a mid-afternoon Christmas dinner, we Skyped with the rest of the Ruane clan (Grandma and Grandpa Ruane, Uncle Matt, Aunt Devon, and Cousins Rae and Elsey) in Los Osos. During the conversation, we asked Aidan, "What is the name of the baby in Mommy's belly?" and he said, "Jesus!" We're not going to go with that option, but it definitely made everyone laugh!


We will be here until Friday night, and are glad that we have a chance to keep relaxing for a while. :)

First sledding

This week, we got Aidan a new "big boy" (twin) bed! After jumping on it for a while, he warmed up to it quickly, and has been sleeping on it great! It is amazing to see him off the crib mattress and on a "real" bed.


Mommy and Daddy also managed to succesfully make it though some gigantic work projects, which will make our Christmas vacation next week much more peaceful and joyeous!



On Saturday, Aidan's friend Cira (and her Mommy Mary) came over to our house for a playdate, and Aidan had fun sharing his new toys. Although there were a couple of arguments, the kids for the most part played very nicely together, which was wonderful! Since we don't see Cira and Mary at playschool and so don't see each other as much anymore, it was really nice to catch up.


On Saturday afternoon, it started snowing, and by Sunday morning, we woke up to a winter wonderland. It had snowed about 8 inches! Daddy had checked the forecast, and had bought sleds on Friday night, so we were all prepared. We walked up to a little hill in Fort Tryon park with our sled, and Aidan had his first sled ride! He was a very good sport about going down the first time, but after that he got cold and kept saying, "I want to go home!" We stayed for a little while with our friends Johnny (& Mark & Christa & Oliver) and Jakob (& Dorota & Andy), but then we gave in and went home. It was too cold to make a snowman (the snow wasn't sticking), so we'll have to do that some other time. After we got home, we went up to Jakob's apartment (on the 6th floor), and warmed up with some hot cocoa and some trains. This afternoon, we are going to try to make a snowman in Bennett park, and then go over to a holiday party at our friend Rowan's (& Kimberly and Jarrod) house. This has been a fun holiday weekend!

Early Christmas

This Friday, Aidan got sick and had to stay home from playschool. He woke up, threw up, and was lethargic, with a 100.5 degree fever (poor baby!). Fortunately, after he had an almost 4 hour nap (10AM-1:45PM), he felt much better (still had a cough, but didn't have the fever and was cheerful). Since Mommy and Daddy had rearranged our schedules around him, we were all able to enjoy the weekend starting early on Friday afternoon!


On Friday night, Grandma and Grandpa Ruane drove over and spent all day Saturday doing a first early round of Christmas with us. We ate a delicious Christmas breakfast (Mommy made her family's breakfast streudal and fruit salad with hot chocolate and tea), and somehow managed to mostly keep her family's tradition of opening most of the presents *after* breakfast and cleanup. (Aidan opened a few beforehand, but then didn't mind waiting, incredibly enough!) Aidan was amazed to open his new Aidan-sized kitchen, tool bench, legos and truck set, among his piles of presents, and had to stop regularly to play with different things, before moving on to open the next present.


After presents, we all took the train downtown to Rockefeller Plaza to see the giant Christmas tree and look at the Sach's 5th Avenue Christmas window displays. Aidan fell asleep on the way back and had a nice nap, after which we all played basketball and soccer at the blacktop next door. Finally, we grabbed dinner at Blue Agave (a nice new Mexican place in our neighborhood), and even ran into carolers on our way home. Grandma and Grandpa left after dinner, and after Aidan went to bed, Mommy and Daddy had fun with our new Wii and Wii fit (Thanks, Nana!) We had a very nice, Christmasy day!

First snow

This week went by quickly. The best part was getting our very own Christmas tree on Tuesday (the first time Mommy and Daddy have had our own tree since we grew up) and downloading lots of favorite Christmas music from Itunes. (I was thrilled! I love Christmas!) Aidan continued to entertain us with his language. At bathtime one day, as he watched the water spin down the drain, he said: "the water spins around the tornado, and it goes on a boat, and it goes on a train, and it has dinner!" He also claimed, very emphatically, that: "I am NOT kissable" (though he wasn't very convincing about this, despite his emphasis!).

This weekend, we had a lot of fun. On Saturday, it snowed for the first time this year, and we made gingerbread cookies! We all loved them, and it made the day felt so merry and bright. :) On Sunday, we went to Costco and went back a couple of times to the fudge tasting both, as well as having a good shopping run. Mommy also got some work done and visited with some college friends, and Aidan and Daddy also went on the trains to the Innwood parks.



One of the games which Aidan has liked playing recently is a singing game where we alternate singing parts. So, for example, he'll start singing "A, B, C, D" and then pause, and then we sing "E, F, G" and then he chimes in again "H, I J, K" and so on. He especially likes doing it with songs he knows really welll, like ABC, Twinkle Twinkle, and Old MacDonald. It's fun!