Hurricane Irene Strikes!

First an earthquake, then a hurricane! I think this is the last time Aiden and I take a week's vacation! Hurricane Irene came into town Saturday into Sunday. We were prepared - Alvin had taken all the patio chairs inside and tied down the other outside objects. I went to the grocery store and loaded up on food. Vicki came over to be on lock down with us. The winds were so bad that Alvin and Aiden slept down in the basement for 2 nights because we were scared a tree would crash into Aiden's room.

So we did a lot of family bonding time - baking a cheesecake, playing Play-Doh, playing with jeeps and having fun with the air mattress. All weekend all Aiden would say is "Aunt V, can you play with me???"

We were very fortunate - all we have is a small leak in our bedroom ceiling and tons of branches in our yard. Most of our area didn't fare as well and had flooded baseements, no power/internet/phone, down trees, etc. In fact we only lost our power for less than an hour. Most of the roads by us are still closed and NJ Transit isn't running trains so Monday I worked from home and Aiden stayed with me since his school lost power and phone service.

He's Almost 3 Years Old!

A few more weeks and our cute little boy will turn 3! I can't believe how big he is. In 2 weeks he starts in the Preschool room at daycare. Pretty soon he'll be moving into the other room in a big boy bed so the baby can have the nursery. And of course he continues to amaze us every day with things he says and does. This morning he had us cracking up when he told me "Mommy I'm sick. You need to take me to the doctor." So I asked him what was wrong and he replied "I have the hiccups!"

Some fun things he does these days:
- He says "wait" all the time. Like "wait, let me show you something." "Wait, wait, come here."
- If you show him flashcards or puzzle pieces with the alphabet (and not in ABC order), he can recognize almost all his letters. He only had difficulty with J, H, W, and Y today.
- He is a little daddy's boy. He wants Daddy to do everything with him and it's so cute.

Aquarium Fun

Hugs for Aunt Alicia

Loved the Hotel

Another way Aiden seems to take after me - he really likes hotels. Even though he had a long day at the zoo and hadn't napped, he got so excited when we got to our hotel room. He thought it was the coolest thing ever to stay there and he especially loved our view of Philadelphia!

He Is My Son

Aiden definitely takes after me when it comes to how he feels about animals. He's scared of all of them! He freaked out in the petting zoo when we tried to get him to touch the animal. Although he did brush the goat's hair. Honestly it was worth all the money we spent at the zoo to see him brushing the goat. Of course he didn't want to feed them. He would throw the food at them instead of putting his hand to their mouth... just like I used to do when I was young (and even now!)

I Want My Face Painted!!!

All day long Aiden begged us to get his face painted saying he wanted a dolphin. We told him when we were done with the zoo, on the way out, we would. He wouldn't stop asking us "now can we go and get my face painted?" So before we left we stopped by and 8 minutes and $8.00 later Aiden had a cute dolphin on his cheek. Well as you can see from the photos, he was not impressed. I don't know if he hated the art work or hated having paint on his face but he asked Alvin to take it off so Alvin had to remove it with baby wipes! Hopefully that will be the end of Aiden begging for face painting!

Philadelphia Zoo

We took Aiden to the Philadelphia Zoo this week. It was Alvin's first time there and I hadn't been there since I was young. We had a lot of fun, but we do like the Bronx Zoo and Central Park Zoo much better.

25 Weeks!

New Sneakers

I took Aiden to the mall this week to get new sneakers and new brown shoes for the fall. He now wears a size 9 wide. My little boy is growing up! He loves his new kicks!

Nanny Comes to Visit

Earthquake!

Aiden and I are on vacation this week and enjoying being home together. Today Nanny came to visit. Aiden had a blast playing cars and his new vegetable game with her. The cleaning people came today and imagine my guilt when I realized the woman who owns the company (and cleans my house) is 38 weeks pregnant! Here I am 6 months pregnant and she is lugging the vacuum around and on her hands and knees scrubbing my floor. 

Well while they were cleaning the house, Nanny, Aiden and I were in the basement. We were laying on the floor playing a puzzle and upstairs the cleaning people were vacuuming. All of a sudden we felt the house shake. I couldn't believe how much movement they were making upstairs that would cause the house to shake. Didn't think much about it until 30 minutes later when I heard on the news that there was a 5.9 earthquake in Virginia and it could be felt through Toronto! Guess that wasn't the cleaning people who made our house shake! I'm definitely glad I wasn't in the city today since I work on the 45th floor of my office! 

Such a Hard Life

Aiden Really Wanted This Bike

Drinking Buddies

Best Buddies

The Unwrapper

Whenever we go out to eat and Aiden gets crayons he always takes all the paper off of them!

Sharing a Love of Cat in the Hat

We went to Steve and Lisa's on Friday night and Aiden and Sofia had so much fun watching Cat in the Hat. This is now Aiden's newest favorite show and he said he wants to be Cat in the Hat for Halloween!

Rainy Sunday

It downpoured all day today. But we didn't mind because we need the rain and we were going to a baptism for Aiden's cousin. Aiden had so much fun playing with Tita Carol's iPad at the party. Then when we got home he became Daddy's boy again. He decided that Daddy was his best friend and Mommy wasn't his best friend anymore. He only wanted Daddy to tuck him in.

But he was really cute this morning in church. He had slept over Lolo and Lola's house because Alvin and I had a surprise party to attend last night. So we met them at church. He was so excited to see us that he was smiling so big and he kept hugging us. Then halfway during mass he exclaimed "I forgot to say hi to my baby!" and he started kissing my stomach and saying "Hi baby!" He melts my heart!

Happy 2nd Birthday Sofia!!!

We had a great time celebrating Sofia's birthday at her pool party!

More Delay Tactics

Aiden loves ignoring us when we're trying to get out the door on time. This time he was pretending to cook as he talked on the phone to Nanny and Papa. So finally we told him to bring the phone in the car and continue his conversations there. So he proceeded to "call" Lolo and Lola, then Aunt V and Rob. When it was time to call Aunt Aly he realized "oh, my phone is broken! It needs new batteries!" Ha!

Getting Ready for Cars & Croissants

Saturday morning we headed to Chatham for the Cars and Croissants show to meet up with Alvin's friends and their kids. Of course Aiden wanted the Sponge Bob cookie again at the bakery and I bought it for him and of course he ate 2 bites and then didn't want anymore.

Check out these moves

Both Alvin and Aiden are huge fans of the Fresh Beat Band's new summer song. Everytime it comes on Aiden yells "it's Daddy's favorite song!" and then he jumps up and busts a move!

Daddy's Barber Shop

We finally did something we've been wanting to do for awhile - Alvin cut Aiden's hair last night! I was pretty impressed by how nice it came out. Especially since Aiden wasn't staying still for most of the time. He was too concerned that he had hair all over him and he wanted it off! But it saved us the $25 we usually spend at the kid's salon.