Welcome Home, Daddy!

After a couple of weeks of busy conference schedules for Daddy, things have finally started to settle down. This week he had a shorter NASA workshop in New Orleans (where he got the latest information on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill), and Grandma stayed with us to help out. It was great to have her around! She got in late Tuesday and stayed till Friday morning. While she was here, she moved the car, did laundry, and helped tag-team with the kids. She also got up to play with Kiana at 2 or 3am multiple days in a row! (It feels like this cold that Kiana has is never going to end! it has regularly been waking her up in the middle of the night because can't breath, and it is *exhausting*!) On Wednesday, we all took the train downtown and caught 15 minutes of the Central Park Zoo, where we raced around and saw the polar bears, a snow leopard, snow monkeys and seals before it closed early. Then we had dinner at Five Guys, and Aidan ate a *whole* "little" (1 patty) hamburger, before training back home. Grandma even managed to carry Aidan home, after he fell asleep just one stop before ours, despite all our efforts to keep him awake!


Aidan has really been missing Daddy while he has been gone these last few weeks, so on Thursday, I suggested that he make Daddy a card. That way, when Daddy got back at around midnight that night, he would have something to welcome him home. Aidan loved that idea, and picked out a card with a picnic on the front for Daddy. He had me draw a heart with all of our names together inside it ("that means, 'I love you, Daddy'!"), and drew all his favorite colors with markers in it as well. He even put a stamp on it! Then, when he was done, he had his own idea: he asked me for some Saran Wrap (which he had just seen me use for leftovers), and delved into his own Halloween Candy plastic pumpkin to make Daddy a present: a plastic wrapped package containing a lollipop and the wrapper of his favorite M&Ms candy! He gave both the present and the card to Daddy in Friday morning - it was VERY sweet, and Daddy loved it! We are all really happy that the next trip that happens will be all of us together for Christmas!


Other highlights, generally and from this week:


BOTH:
- We've changed our bath routine: now, we have bath *before* dinner (5:30PM bath, 6:30pm dinner): both kids go in to the bathroom together, Aidan gets clean first while Kiana watches from the Bumbo, and then Kiana gets clean in the tub while Aidan plays there. It means more laundry (dinner clothes always get dirty so PJs go on after dinner), but I LOVE it! It means that baths are faster, easier, involve less fights, and bedtime is WAY easier and earlier! Aidan has been going to sleep between 7 and 8pm (instead of 8 and 9:30PM) and waking up on his own in the morning, less sleep deprived. It's awesome!


AIDAN
- This has been happening for a while, but thanks to what he is learning at school, Aidan is reading! He regularly reads simple signs (e.g., "Fed Ex" on mail trucks, "End" at the end of a cul-de-sac, "Park" at garages, as well as very simple books at school). The books he reads are school are pretty boring, so I just ordered Sing, Spell, Read and Write (which my mom used to teach me to read when I was little), so hopefully that will make the process more fun!
- We have only one week left of soccer school of this season, and Aidan is getting really good at it! He now admits loving going, too, which is nice! We've just signed him up for the winter season, and are looking forward to continuing the fun.
- Aidan is also getting wicked skills at baseball playing with Daddy: their living room matches this weekend ended up with balls slamming so hard at Daddy (witch hitter or righty) that he was diving for cover. Daddy says they probably shouldn't play inside anymore, because Aidan is getting too good!
- When we walk places, now, Aidan regularly wants to get carried (after all, Kiana gets carted around in an Ergo or her stroller). He has taken to telling us that, "my bones are breaking!" whenever he wants a lift, to make sure we realize that he really, really, *really* needs it!!!
- Aidan is still being absolutely fantastic with Kiana: he makes lots of silly faces at her and says "boo" and is silly to make her laugh. She *adores* him, and is totally captivated by his antics!
- Aidan has started panhandeling! After watching a mariachi performer on the train pass his hat around for donations after a song this weekend, Aidan has been asking Mommy, Daddy and Kiana for change for his baseball cap. He doesn't do tricks (we've asked him to, but he says "No" and then reminds us that he has said "please"), but he gives us change to give him, and he always remembers to give himself change from himself as well. (!)


KIANA
- I forgot to say last week that Kiana not only rolled over but also got her hand out from under her! She did it again this week, so she is working hard!
- She is really becoming Miss Personality: she is laughing and laughing and laughing, tries to fly -- batting her arms up and down when she gets excited, and beams and beams giant smiles at us! In the school yard this weekend, she laughed and laughed when I put her up in the air and kissed her tummy: she is SO cute! Daddy loves that she doesn't just react any more: she really does her own part of interacting, and if you look across the room at her and catch her eye, she'll smile ecstatically at you as if you've given her the best present ever!
- At playgroup this week, she did a new trick! She sat up, with her hands leaning on the floor around her feet, all by herself for a minute!
- She's starting to really play with Aidan: on Sunday night, she had a blast when Aidan played a game where he gently threw a ball to her, she caught it, and then Daddy threw it back to Aidan. Everyone was having fun!