Lately Aidan has been pretty interested in his anatomy — namely the part of his body that makes him different from a girl. A couple of days ago, while William was getting him dressed for Montessori, he had the following conversation with his dad:
Daddy, I am a boy. I have a pee-pee.
(He stops and thinks for a little while.)
Today is Show-and-Share day in school.
Oh boy! Wonder where he was going with that last thought. 🙂
I love Halloween but not for the candy. I love Halloween because it is fun to dress up the kids in costumes and watch as they go from house to house delighted about the candy they are receiving. More importantly, I love Halloween because it heralds the coming of the holiday season. Soon we will have Veteran’s day, and Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. All wonderful holidays spent with family and loved ones. Holidays that I’m especially looking forward to this year since my new job has sapped any and all time I have to spend with them.
Halloween this year is probably going to be my most memorable because I ended up hobbling down the streets and going to bed with a throbbing foot and barley being able to walk. I had managed to twist my foot (heard some cracking in the process too) while doing cross walk duty at work. I could have sat Halloween out but then Caitlin would not have been able to go trick-or-treating since William already had his hands full with Mark and Aidan. I also didn’t want to miss out on seeing my boys delight as they went from door-to-door gathering their goodies. So I limped down the streets Caitlin in tow watching as she marveled in her freedom to run up and down the sidewalks.
Needless to say by the time I got home I could barely stand. I was terrified that I had broken my foot and then aggravated the situation by going trick-or-treating with the kids. Went to sleep with a bag of frozen peas on my foot and woke up the next day with my foot feeling miraculously better. Thank goodness. Still limping about a bit because the foot still hurts a bit but I think with time it will feel better.
I know it was dumb to do what I did cause I could have done some serious damage to my foot but I loved watching my kids enjoying their Halloween. If I had to do it all again with my foot in such a condition, I would do it in a heart beat! Leaving you with some pictures of the kids in their Halloween costume and trick-or-treating. Enjoy.
Click on image to view more pictures
I believed William when he told me that I would not be making any money my first year of teaching because of all the expenses we have. But I didn’t know how bad it was going to be until I sat down tonight and itemized all my expenses – day care, life insurance, vision insurance, short-term disability insurance, etc. OMG! My heart sank. I won’t be making any money at all! In fact, it looks like I’m going to be owing money to my employer or getting a negative pay check (if there is such a thing). It’s absolutely horrible!
I know you are wondering why I’m putting myself through this torture only so I can be in a financial hole. It’s for my boys. It’s so that William and I can afford to send them to preschool. Aidan greatly benefited from his preschool experience last year. It would be a crime not to expose him to that environment again this year. And I know Mark is ready for that challenge too. Me staying home would be great for Caitlin and myself, but I know my boys would lose out on this deal. It would be unfair to them.
*Sigh* What have I signed up for? Other than the boys going to preschool, I don’t see anything else positive coming out of this experience (at least for this year). I’m forced to put Caitlin in day care and I’m going to be dead broke!
My ray of light is the knowledge that things will get better by the end of next year. Aidan will be starting kindergarten then and Mark will hopefully be potty trained (diaper expenses go down). So basically I have to suffer for one year as I work towards giving my boys a better life and a jump start on their education. I’ll just have to remember this “piece of sunshine” when I get my first (second, third, fourth… ) negative paycheck(s).
Ain’t life grand! Ugh!!! 🙁
Aidan and Caitlin had their well baby appointments last week and both of them weighed in at the low one percentile of their weight charts. Aidan, at 4 years, weighs 28.5 lbs (12.9 kg) and Caitlin, at nine months, weighs 15.65 lbs (7.1 kg). Height wise they are around the 20th and 15th percentile respectively (Aidan measured in at 39.5 inches and Caitlin at 25.5 inches). Neither William nor I are worried about these low numbers. Given that he is tall and ultra skinny and I’m short and “healthy” it is no surprise to us that our kids are so tiny. But it is funny to hear the doctors try to “put us at ease” about our kids growth. Sometimes I think they are more worried about the growth than we are and they are talking out loud in order to make themselves feel better about it.
Anyway, as I was saying, Aidan had his four year well baby appointment which is a big one for kids. They get their vision and hearing checked and they get a round of booster shots. William took Aidan to get his hearing and vision tested while I stayed in the room with Caitlin and Mark. When they came back from the tests, the report I got from William was very funny. Aidan was really excited about the procedure.
Nurse: Aidan look into the microscope and tell me what you see.
Aidan: I see pictures.
Nurse: What pictures do you see?
Aidan: I see pictures.
Nurse: (Shows Aidan a copy of the images that is under the microscope). Can you tell me what these pictures are? Aidan correctly identifies the pictures.
Nurse: Can you tell me which pictures you see under there (pointing to the microscope).
Aidan: (Looks through the microscope) I see ‘A’. I see pictures!
Nurse to William: He will have to redo the eye test at his five year well baby appointment.
She proceeds to check his hearing and place a headphone on his head.
Nurse: Aidan raise you hand when you hear the music.
Aidan raises his hand.
Nurse: No Aidan, raise you hand when you hear the music.
Aidan raises his hand.
Nurse: The music is not on.
Aidan raises his hand, higher, higher.
Needless to say the tests were inconclusive.
Also, Aidan said the cutest things about Caitlin. When the doctor was examining his sister he told her, “She’s a princess.” And when it was Caitlin’s turn to get her shots (after he had gotten his) he tells the nurse, “Don’t hurt her.” It makes me proud that Aidan is such a wonderful and caring big brother.
PS: In case you are curious, I just measured Mark. He weighs 23 lbs (10.4 kg) and is approximately 34 inches tall.
Last night, Aidan told me he did not like me. Yes, my four year old boy is telling me he doesn’t like me! He was mad at me because it was bed time and I had told him he was done playing the computer for the night. He wanted to stay up longer and play. It was already half and hour past his bed time and given that he does not take naps anymore and that he gets up pretty early, I am concerned that his lack of sleep is stunting his growth. So I just smiled at him and played along.
Do you not like me this much (stretching my arms out wide)?
Yes.
Or do you not like me this much (brings my arms closer)?
Yes. I don’t like you Mommy.
Do you like Daddy?
Yes, I like Daddy (knife twists harder).
Aidan you don’t have to like Mommy but Mommy loves you.
I give him a hug and leave him in William’s capable hands while I go to get Mark ready for bed.
I didn’t think he was supposed to start this phase until he was well into his teens. I know he has no idea what he said hurt. I know he doesn’t mean to say such things or cause such pain. He’s still little and it was his way of trying to convey to me his annoyance of not getting to do what he wanted. Yet, knowing all these things does not make his words hurt any less.
I tried to explain to him this morning that I was upset by what he had said last night, but I think my words fell on deaf ears. I guess this is a good experience to prepare me for things to come when he is older and is some what conscious of his words. I wish my skin gets thicker by then.
Arizona experienced an unusual weather pattern this past week. Temperatures went from 102 F (39 C) to 67 F (20 C) over the course of the week and included a fair share of wind and rain. What I found most unusual was the mini hail storm we had… in summer!
Check out the little ice cube that rained into my grass.
As odd as the weather has been, I’m glad we had a break from the summer heat as temperatures will be back up in the 100s F by the end of this month.
Looks like the boys enjoyed the weather as well.
I finally got around to making the web page of Aidan’s fourth birthday celebration. Sorry for the delay. Life kept getting in the way.
Hope you enjoy the pictures of Aidan’s Fourth Birthday.
PS: In honor of Aidan turning four, I was planing on writing about Aidan’s birth story but I haven’t had the time (as is always the case). I’m hoping that I will get to it soon (mostly so I can remember it cause the details are starting to get fuzzy). It should be an interesting read (at least for me) if I ever get it done.
William has redeemed himself. This year I had the best Mother’s Day ever. William and the boys presented me with a gift I will cherish forever. Behold, my prized Mother’s Day gifts from:
Aidan
(Yes, Aidan drew the heart (which William say looks more like a lung), his signature rainbows (he loves drawing rainbows), the yellow sun on the far right corner(you can’t see it but the sun has an eye and a tooth), the butterfly, and wrote the wording by himself)
Mark
Caitlin was excused this Mother’s Day for obvious reasons.
Thank you William for the best Mother’s Day so far.
While talking to my mother today she states, “I haven’t seen pictures from the birthday party yet.” My answer, “I haven’t made the web page for it yet.”
I know, I know… I’m really late with this one given that Aidan’s birthday was over a week and half ago and I have yet to put pictures of the event up. With Aidan, me, and my computer feeling sick this past week I haven’t had a chance to make a web page for the party. Aidan and I are doing much better now and Dr. William is almost done fixing my computer so I’m hoping to get the pictures up by the end of this week.
Something to look forward to. 😀
So I tried giving Aidan a haircut the other day… ummm… didn’t turn out so well. The left side of his head looked lopsided. Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy with what I had done. I was upset at the thought of Aidan going to school looking like a fool just because his mom was trying to attempt something way out of her scope. Then, like a ray of sunlight, in came William to save the day… and the mess that I made.
Behold, Aidan’s new look…
… which bears a striking resemblance to Aang from the Nickelodeon show, The Avatar. What do you think?
All Aidan needs to do now is shave his head and draw a blue arrow on it.
Btw, William is overly excited about shaving Aidan’s head and has actually gone as far as suggesting that Aidan go as Aang for Halloween this year.