16 months

Aidan,

Today you are 16 months old. Time sure does seem to fly by. You are growing up so much and are really starting to turn into more of a little boy each day. I hardly think of you as a baby anymore at all. You have recently figured out how to climb and love to try climbing on everything: the kitchen table, couch, your wooden horse, the rocking chair, and I even caught you standing precariously on your old activity table today. You have such a unique and special way of loving. You are extremely affectionate and offer kisses readily. You snuggle with us every morning in bed and we cherish that time with you. You are so active it is often hard for me to keep up with you. You tend to want to be right where I am, in the middle of everything, and you rarely play with your toys. Your favorite thing right now is the car and we probably spend a good 45 minutes a day in there playing. You are soaking up new information all the time and you are starting to really imitate us more. You have recently learned how to say "hallelujah" and it is probably the cutest thing you have said to date. You are interested in animal sounds and know how to imitate a rooster, chicken, and an elephant. You continue to love music and are a really great dancer. You love going to church and are really good in the nursery, but we have noticed you have started to become a little shy this month. You have been teething like crazy the past two weeks and it has been really hard, but you have 4 new teeth, bringing the grand total to 14. You have expanded your tastes for foods, but have also developed a weird sort of selectiveness when you eat. Your newest love is salsa and you like to dip things in it. You are still trying to figure out if you want to take just one nap a day now and sometimes you do, but because of all the teething we have just been playing it by ear a lot. You are still extremely devoted to your blankie and spend a lot of time loving on it. You did throw blankie in a bathtub of soapy water the other day and it was quite a headache for mom trying to get it dry and available for your nap that day. You are a still such a joy and even though your personality can be trying and exhausting at times, we love you for you. You have made our lives so full and you continue to amaze us at how much love you have to give back.

Love,

Mom

Content

What a wonderfully full and beautiful day. I spent the day at home with Aidan as usual, but I woke with a desire to be content, patient, and drink in the beauty of His wonderful creation.

We ate our breakfast and then I let Aidan play in the car for awhile. He has this new obsession with playing in the car and I just took a book along and sat in there while he played. We usually go early in the morning cause it is not so hot. Then we played in the garage and yard for awhile until Mita came for a little visit. She brought Aidan a cute tank from H&M while she was in Chicago this past weekend. Aidan played happily and then went down like an angel for his nap. While he napped I caught up on some things online, took a long shower, and took a little nap. He woke around 1:45ish and we had lunch together. I gave Aidan some salsa in a little container and he had such a great time dipping his chips in it. He just sucks the salsa off, but it is so cute. He wanted to feed himself lunch which is an emerging idea that I am kinda starting to like. We finished lunch around 2:30, got cleaned up and ready to go outside to fill up his little pool. Pool-time was fun. Aidan pranced around the backyard picking up handfuls of mud and bringing them back to the pool. (He is such a boy!) I thought it would be fun to share a popsicle, but Aidan had a major meltdown about it, so I ended up tossing the popsicle and carrying my wet and dirty son inside to get cleaned up as he screamed and carried on like a crazy person. I stuck him in his bed and he calmed down quickly and (gasp) played in his crib for like 20 min. I couldn't believe it! He never does that! Then we went to Wal-mart to pick up a few things so that I could bake some cookies. We got home and Aidan ate a snack while I whipped up some cookie batter. We watched a little Sesame Street, ate dinner, went on a long walk, took a bath, brushed his teeth, read books, sang songs, rocked, and cuddled before bedtime. It was great!

Now, off to clean the kitchen, mop the floor, do the laundry, and actually bake those cookies!