Holiday Fun

What an amazing winter break it has been.  I’m going to try and keep this update short and let the pictures do the talking.

Christmas was quiet and spent at home with just my parents and my mother-in-law, Kathi.  Aiden’s presents spilled over beneath the tree.  With our Disneyland trip and 5K coming up in just 3 weeks we kept it small for the big kids.  We opted to make gifts for each other.  JD used his talents of painting to good use; Kathi (family tree), Aiden (mickey), and I (family ABC’s) were each given a personalized original.  I made superhero capes for our family of 3 and perfectly Kathi and each made a matching red t-shirt scarf (tutorial coming).  

I think Aiden’s favorite gift was his cute Melissa & Doug Kitchen Santa brought him.  Today he made soup for us, we enjoy a nice cup of coffee daily, and he makes some really yummy cupcakes too.  Santa knew just what to bring him and it even matched the apron and chefs hat I made him for his birthday.  Every opportunity he gets he’s whipping up something for us.

Part of the time we spent visiting family.  Lazy days lounging and playing at Grandma’s, celebrating GG’s birthday and hanging out with his cousins, lunch with Aunt Jess and Uncle B we had quite the adventures in Phoenix.  One of his favorite activities is playing pretend.  Anything from master chef in his kitchen to schwas-buckling pirates fighting Peter Pan and Captain Hook.  This kid loves to use his imagination.  

Oh and not to be forgotten is date night for mom and dad on New Year’s Eve.  We had our first adventure at the Tempe Block Party.  The Block Party was kind of a bust, but we had fun hanging out with a few good friends playing pool.

We reached a few new milestones too.  Finally, we are masterfully using a spoon and fork.  Although, when we get eager about the contents we sometimes resort back to diving in with our hands.  The family is currently deep in potty training.  We are trying our hand at the 3-Day-Potty-Training method.  More to come on that, we are rounding up day 2 as we speak.  

For me one of the most memorable outings was our 2 trips up to Mt. Lemmon to play in the snow.  That’s right a short hour trip from sunny 70 some odd degree Southern AZ and we were deep in 4 feet of fresh powdery snow.  Aiden had fun going down on the saucer with mom and dad, but wasn’t a fan of the toboggan on his own.  He didn’t seem to mind the cold and enjoyed making snowmen and crawling through the snow banks.  It didn’t hurt we got to eat delicious pizza from the Cookie Cabin either.  I see another adventure in the near future.

Updates:

• We almost have all our baby teeth in.  Just cutting the last of our 2 year molars.
• We are obsessed with LOVE Spiderman.
• We are talking in full sentences now.  Our favorite phrases are “What you doing?” “What’s that, the noise?” “Please to meet you ______.”  “mmm… the taste, good”
• He likes to sing and matches pitch and beat pretty well. He sung Happy Birthday to his GG.
• He sings along with the ABC’s and chimes in on “p” “s” “x” “z”
• He can rote count to 13, but usually omits the number 4.  He’s starting to count some objects with help.
• He recognizes some shapes: circle, triangle, and square.  He loves going around and making triangles with his fingers and declaring “triangle!”, especially on your nose.