High five!

Until this week, Aidan hasn't been too into the idea of touching Mama's tummy. He's given Kiana kisses through the tummy (which is extremely sweet!), but hasn't wanted to feel for kicks. However, this week, he finally tried it out, and it was amazing! I was lying on the couch feeling a lot of kick-boxing going on inside of me, and I told Alex and Aidan about it. So, I asked Aidan if he wanted Kiana to give him a high five. He came over, put his hand on my tummy, and then she gave a giant kick! "Did you feel her give you a high five?" I asked him. He said he definitely did! It was very exciting.


Here is another cute thing that happened this week: one night, when I was giving Aidan a backrub, Daddy asked Aidan if mommy had "magic hands?" He responded very sweetly: "Mama, you're MAGICAL!" Of course, I melted: "Awe, thanks Aidan!" He responded, "No smiling! Be sad!" (You never know what you're going to get with a toddler!) That cracked me up. :)


We had some fun playdates this week. We visited Olivia at her house twice (Aidan now wants to see her and Rowan every day after playschool, if he can help it!), and Olivia and Rowan came over on Friday to our house as well, which was fun. On Saturday, Mommy and Aidan went to Johnny's house for the afternoon, and on Sunday, Mary and Cira came over to our house for dinner. It was fun to have so much time with friends!


On Saturday, we also all took a family trip down to the NYC Transit Museum in Brooklyn. Aidan LOVES the transit museum, and Mama hadn't gone there before, and he wanted to take me. He has been anticipating this for two weeks! Every morning, he has been waking up and telling me that he dreamed about going on a train with his polar bear (who he has named "Polar Bear Kainoa Ruane") to the Transit Museum. And every night, he goes to sleep talking about going. Daddy even came up with a lullaby at night time about it ("Tomorrow we're going to the Transit Museum" to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair"). We all had a good time! It's nice to be able to spend weekends together again.

"Too many trips"

Aidan was feeling much better, this week, which was great. But Daddy was gone all week: he had a conference in Arizona Saturday through Saturday (March 13-20), and then had to go to Maryland on Sunday through late Monday for a workshop. So, Mommy and Aidan spent both weekends in the Catskills (the first one with Grandma Ruane, second with Grandpa and Grandma Ruane). We told Aidan that Daddy would be gone until Tuesday morning (March 23rd), so that he wouldn't be frustrated with seeing him for a few hours on Saturday, and then having him leave again.


We had kind of a tough week. Aidan had spent all the previous week on vacation from playschool (even if he was sick, he was at home), and he didn't want to go back! & We both missed Daddy. However, we still had fun playing with Jacob, Olivia, and Rowan, and enjoying some nice warm spring weather. & We were both thrilled to see Grandma and Grandpa again in the Catskills. Tomorrow morning, we are finally going to see Daddy again, so today has already started off to be a better day for both of us!


Here is a note of something Aidan said a few weeks ago that we never posted:


"My feet are down there
My pants are on my legs
My shirt is on my tummy
That's why I'm a rectangle!"

So sick

Aidan was miserably sick all week this week. Last Saturday night he came down with a really high temperature and vomited twice. Then, he spent three days with a continuingly high temperature, before visiting the doctor with a slightly lower one (102). He was lethargic and spent days where he hardly ate anything (a few bites of ice cream sandwich one day, a couple of crackers and cheese another - we were just grateful that he kept drinking milk). On Thursday, a combination of Motrin and Tylenol started being more effective in regulating his temperature. Friday, he started being more cheerful, and interested in food (some goldfish for breakfast, a few bites of crunchy Ramen for luch, and a pizza crust for dinner), but then seemed to come down with an ear infection, so had to start taking medicine for that (since he doesn't like it, Mommy called it his "Marshmellow medicine" and gives him a marshmellow each time he takes it!), as well as his fever-reducing Tylenol and/or Motrin. Finally, over the weekend (which Mommy and Aidan spent in the Catskills with Grandma while Daddy left for a conference in Arizona), he began to really get back to his old cheerful, more normally eating, and unfeverish self. It was such a relief! It has been really scary to see him so sick.


Mommy took the week off from work to be with Aidan, and Aidan took the week off of daycare to get better, and we watched lots of Caillou and Wonder Pets and Winnie the Pooh on TV, read books, painted lots of pictures, and did a lot of sleeping(in the daytime - not so much at night!)


Once Aidan started feeling better, he had fun playing baseball with Daddy (looking comfortable hitting lefty!), and playing piano concerts for Mommy and Grandma Ruane (he especially likes playing sad, slow songs; he loves playing low notes to have elephants come to the door, and medium-range notes to have polar bears visit; and he read off the number of bass and treble clefs from Grandma's music scores and made sure he made the same number of high or low notes ("4!") -- it is amazing to see how much he has learned from music class in school, and how much he loves music!). He also enjoyed playing his "letter game" on the computer (he types out the letters or numbers of his favorite trains and makes sure Mommy puts them in the right color - blue A, red 1, etc.), having pretend cocoa parties, and even taking pictures of Mommy, Grandma and his polar bear (and his letter game)!


Daddy will be gone until a week from tonight, but Aidan went back to daycare relatively cheerfully this morning. We are looking forward to visiting Grandpa Ruane, as well as Grandma, in the Catskills this weekend. Then, we'll just have another day and a bit before Daddy comes home again! Aidan told me that "there are too many trips, Mama!" -- it is a bit crazy right now, but I'm looking forward to getting through it!

Underwear and a Doctor

The last couple of weeks have been busy and accomplished for all of us.


In the first week, Aidan decided that he was ready for underwear! Daddy bought him a bunch of Thomas Train and Superhero underwear, and then we had him try a pair on last Sunday (which he was skeptical about), just to try them. But then on Monday morning, he asked to wear them! Even though a first day of underwear at playschool was NOT the plan, we let him put them on. Then we proceeded to be amazed when we picked him up at 4PM that he spent the whole day in dry, clean, underwear (even through naptime), asking to use the potty when he needed to, without accidents! It was amazing. The rest of the week, the trend continued: he had some accidents, but minimal and understandable (for example, his teachers didn’t respond fast enough when he asked for the potty on Tuesday, so he had to change into one new pair), and he is now totally into wearing “big boy” underwear! We celebrated the transition by getting “big boy” sheets for his bed (red and blue car sheets), which Aidan loves, and continue to be amazed by the transition!


In other highlights from that week, there was another big snowstorm, so we had some more fun with snowballs and sledding in the park; Daddy took Aidan to the transit museum downtown, and he was thrilled to “drive” the busses and see a K train (there are no K trains working today); and we continued to have a blast with puzzles (Thomas Train and Dinosaurs).







The second week, Aidan and Daddy hung out together while Mommy went on a “big adventure” to Los Angeles to defend her dissertation. Aidan was sad to see Mama go, but had a lot of fun with Daddy, until he got sick on Saturday (fever and vomiting). He rotated between cheerful and sick for the next few days, but was happy to see Mommy Monday night when I came home. In the mean time, I was worried about him, but still had a really nice trip:


The dissertation defense went great: now Aidan has TWO “Dr. Ruane” parents! And afterwards, my mom (Nana), dad (Pop-pop), and Frances met me with leis and champagne to celebrate; and my dissertation advisor (Ann Tickner) had us over to her house, along with my other IR committee member (Nick Onuf), his wife, and a couple of my friends (Catia and Christina), for a celebratory dinner and another dessert (salmon, pasta, salad, and three different kinds of cake, as well as wine for everyone else). Everyone enjoyed themselves, and it felt wonderful to have everyone there for such a great celebration! The next day, Nana, Pop-Pop, Frances and I all visited the La Brea tarpits (where some amazing fossils continue to be dug up). Then we chilled out with ice cream and coffee and dinner at the airport until each of our planes headed off. On my way home, I stopped through Knoxville, Tennessee for some “girl time” with my dear friend Julia, and the celebrations continued! It was a wonderful way to celebrate finally getting through the Ph.D.


Monday night, we all got back together again, which made all of us happy. I had missed my guys! Aidan was a trooper, but was still battling bouts of being sick, so it looks like we're in for another rough night. But at least we can work it out together.