The Adventures of Motherhood

Everybody Waffles.

2011-10-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

This morning I told Aden we were going to eat waffles. This was his reply:

Here are the lyrics: "Waaafffles. Waaaafffles. Everybody Waaaafffles." Because you know, everybody DOES waffle...? It sounds a lot like the Clean up song. And "Everybody" comes out "yeah buddy". I'm not sure how he came up with it but you can bet that "everybody waffles" is going to be a 2011 Hit Song.

Also, Aden had to have the amount of football he watches restricted. He does a three point stance, wait until the quarterback hikes the ball, runs a lap, and then tackles whoever is on the floor. He did it for the entire 2nd half of the OSU game. Mommy and Papa were exhausted. So now everytime football is on he just gets way too worked up to handle. Imagine Dick Butkus as a toddler.. with red hair. Run far, far away.

Oh and mom fail of the day: Finding orange play doh lodged up into your son's nose. Play doh had to be put away due to eating it, regurgitating it, inhaling it, and stuffing it up the nose. It was a long day.

Only Trust Thyself, and Another Shall Not Betray Thee

2011-10-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

I'm going to write about something that I tend to steer clear of on my blog. My relationships.

Since Aden, I have become very protective of my feelings. I don't let many people in, not in fear of me being hurt, but in fear of my son SEEING me be hurt. I was adamant on not letting guys meet my son, why should they? If you aren't going to stick around why should I let you meet what is most important to me? Not many of them expressed an interest anyways. Over time I have become pretty hardened to the idea of love and happily ever after. You see so many people get divorced, break up, and get hurt and I realized I just didn't ever want to feel like that. Don't have feelings; don't get hurt. It worked well.

But then you meet that one person who is so persistent in breaking that wall down. Not because they care. Not because they want to be with you. Just because they can. They know what to say and how to act in every situation to manipulate you into taking that wall down.

And then they crush you.

That feeling I never wanted to feel? I felt it. That fear my son seeing me get hurt? It happened.

So much in my life is unstable right now. My school schedule, Aden's schedule, working.. I'm always frantically rushing around it seems. My schedule is tough. For once it was nice to have something stable. Someone I could talk to, someone who was supportive, someone who was on my side.

The whole situation is disgusting to me. The fact that I could get so worked up over someone is disappointing and embarrassing. The fact that I still can't listen to any song on the radio or drive anywhere without something crossing my mind and me asking myself over and over, "why did I do this to myself? Why did I do this to my son?.. is pitiful. "mora til den sterke" (mother of the strong)... is a lie. How can I teach someone to be strong when I can't even be strong myself?

I feel guilty. I feel guilty that Aden was the one comforting me. I feel guilty that I made him sleep with me 6 nights in a row. I feel guilty that Aden was the one to see me cry. I feel guilty that Aden offered me "shuey" (his most prized possession) day in and day out just to comfort me. I feel guilty that I ever passed up 1 minute of my time to spend with Aden to spend it with someone else.

I wish that I could blame this on someone else. I wish that this was someone else's fault. But doing that would only show weakness and immaturity, two traits which I never wish to possess.

It's times like these when I wish I was optimistic instead of realistic.

"Only Trust Thyself, and Another Shall Not Betray Thee"- William Penn

Drumming In The Chicken

2011-10-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

Remember how hitting has become an issue with Aden? Well, we have been being more strict about hitting others and how it makes them feel and all, and I thought we were making progress. That is, until SOMEONE taught him how to "drum" on his lap (aka hit his lap). Now when I see him hitting things he says "LOOK mom! I'm drumming". Newsflash AJ: People do not drum on mirrors. Or people. Or dogs. If I have to get this kid a drum set to teach him that we only drum on drums, I might go crazy. We have tried drumsticks before... not surprisingly, mom was the one who got all the battlewounds. Never argue with a toddler and a drumstick. Especially one who makes this face:

The other day, I asked Aden where shuey was. Aden smiled and pointed and said "In the chicken!" Well, here's the problem. We don't have a chicken. I asked him again and he again said "the chicken". He then ran and got shuey... in the kitchen. At least I can actually see how he got chicken out of kitchen. Unlike super clean and shuey..

Poor bubba is sick. This is the very first time (besides that time when he was 6 months old and I took him to the doctor and he had a sore throat. THAT was a big deal.) he has been sick. He just has snot everywhere. I always said I would never be that mom who had the gross crusty kid. Guess what? I have a gross crusty kid. Do you know how hard it is to teach someone to blow his nose? I mean, the kid just learned how to suck from a straw a few weeks ago. Sucking and blowing are really not strong points of his (get your mind out of the gutter, it's a child). Since he was sick, I took today off work and spoiled him rotten..Jeni's ice cream included. I don't get many days like that, so today was really special.

Today I don't know what AJ was doing but he was taking all of my underwear o

ut of the basket and saying "oh for god's sake".. which is also a quote he uses watching football (thank you grandpa for that one). I think he has a thing for underwear. I told him he could wear underwear if he used the potty and he runs over, makes me take his pants off, goes and shakes his little member over the potty and screams "ALL DONE!" then asks to put on my underwear. Okay dude, you love football and dirt as well as nailpolish and lacy under-roo's. Some may say that's odd but I just say you're well rounded. You wear those hipster boyshorts AJ!

After Aden told me he pooped his pants and I realized I forgot the wipes. This is not staged. He had control of the picture button.

And since I'm having another "why can't I be with Aden all the time" whiny day, here is a note to my boy:

Aden, I wish I could give you the world. I wish I could spend every single moment of every single day with you and teach you everything you need to know. I wish I could be wiser and make less mistakes for you. I wish you didn't have to learn things at the same time I do. I hope you never have to grow up as fast as I did. I hope you watch your mom and realize how hard it is for me to leave you and go to work or school. I love you, I miss you. It will get better.

(Am I getting repetitive yet?)

Aden's a Prince(ss)

2011-09-26T05:54:00.001-07:00

Oh my gosh. It has been almost two months since I have posted- possibly the longest I've ever gone without updating this. Summer quarter was probably the most hectic quarter I have had so far (well, until now) and along with my job I just found myself too lazy/tired to write anything.

Aden started daycare about a month ago. Reason:

Monday- usually I work 7-2, then class at 5.

Tuesday- internship 8-4, class at 7-9

Wednesday- internship 8-4, class 7-9

Thursday- DAY OFF (though last week I had to go into my internship)

Friday- usually I work a split shift, 7-2, 3-7

Saturday- work 7-2, and if I work treatments, 5-7

Sunday- if i work treatments, 8-10am then back at 4-7.

Thankfully, he loves it. Ryan has a pretty good schedule so luckily Aden never has to stay at daycare more than 5-6 hours. One day I picked Aden up from daycare and he was sitting in the middle of the floor with a book reading and his friends were sitting all around him listening. And somehow he has worked his magic so his teachers pick him up and snuggle him when I drop him off. Though he loves it, he sure isn't a morning person. I generally have to wake him up at about 6:00am and he usually always says "no wake up mommy. no wake up" making me feel like the worst mom in the world.

Aden is hilarious now, he is a non stop talker and he has a fantastic sense of humor. The only thing I can complain about is that he is exactly like his dad. (no offense Ry) Apparently Ryan had an ungodly amount of energy when he was little and has now passed that trait onto his red-haired son. And Aden's temper...well that one is my fault... but oh my goodness he is all about temper tantrums right now. Hitting, kicking, screaming. Everything. I can't tell you how many times he has smacked me right across my face. Who would have known being bitch slapped by a two year old could hurt so bad. Those sausage fingers do NOT play around.

He also has a dangerous obsession with blocks. It is the ONLY thing he will do. Do you know what it's like to have to build with mega blocks ALL DAY every day? The problem is, you start out making these nice, elaborate towers. Aden walks away after a little bit but you get so into it that you just keep building. Then out of nowhere, Aden karate kicks the tower (onto you) and knocks it down and you get SO mad that he just ruined your perfect tower. After awhile you start stacking 5 or 6 blocks and call it a house. If you somehow manage to complete a house, you're forced to have a "birthday party" with the numerous little people. Basically Aden's

version of a birthday party is stuffing as many little people into a house as possible and then singing "happy birthday to you" (poorly) and then knocking the house down. I dont know what kind of birthday parties he has been going to, but that sounds like a straight up terrible time.

AJ has also successfully(?) transferred into a big boy bed. He goes to bed fairly easily but most nights wakes up at 3 or 4 and comes into my bed and starts poking. I honestly cannot stand him sleeping with me, a. because his little tiny body gives off the most heat that any body has ever given off. and b. because he sleeps horizontal in my bed. Actually last night, he tried something new and climbed on top of me to try and fall asleep. Literally, climbed onto my back and fell asleep. I'm not sure if he is trying to snuggle or claim my bed as his own but either way, it was not working out. Then he made me take his jammies off. And that's when I decided that sleeping nakey in my bed was not gonna fly. Luckily we got one of those torture devices that

you put on the door so AJ can't get out of his room. Whoever invented those needs a big pat on the back. If Aden needs me, he knocks (okay, throws himself into) the door and I come get him. It totally works.

Aden's not potty trained, not close to it, not interested, and just not ready. He is really into bodily functions right now. He came home from Ryan's the other day and goes "Daddy, big poop. BIG poop"... I don't know what those boys do all day, all I know is that I don't want to be involved. He doesn't even hide the fact that he is pooping anymore. He stands in the room and makes eye contact with you like, "yeah. i'm pooping in the living room. deal with it". Someday, I will get him to sit on the potty. Someday.

AJ also has a hat fetish. He likes birthday party hats, woody hats, anything. Yesterday he put on a tiara and a necklace (leftover from me from last halloween) and came up to me and goes "I'm a princess. Where's my earrings?"... Well then. Talk about things you wouldn't think you'd hear from your two year old son... And dont think I didn't give him the earrings. I did. And the ring. And he looked fancy. Sometimes, he asks me to put nail polish on his fingers. And guess what? I do. It's not that I want a girl or anything creepy like that. Aden is exploring different things and finding out who he is. Why should I tell him he can't do something because it's "girly"? The kid wears a necklace. So what? Guess how many guys I know that wear necklaces? A LOT. Granted, they aren't pink pearls, but whatever. Aden works it.

He can identify his shapes, colors, almost every letter in the alphabet and is prettttty good at counting (four and six are often left out). At the grocery store, the cashier asked if Aden could say his ABC's. Aden replied yes. She asked if he would say them for her and Aden replied "A. B. C!" way to be a smart ass Aden.

I mentioned my internship earlier, well let me explain. I am an intern at Nationwide Children's Hospital Research Facility. Primates, mice, rats, frogs, fish, chinchillas... all things that I work with. They have 15,000 mice.. talk about not being afraid of those things anymore. Basically i'm not going into it too much because it's pretty controversial. Testing vaccines and whatnot. It is super interesting and I can't wait to watch some surgeries and stuff. To be honest, the hardest part is walking through the hospital and having to see all the sick kids. It makes me feel unbelievably guilty that I have a perfectly healthy son.

Anyways, everything is going pretty well, besides the fact that we are unbelievably busy. Only a few more quarters of this, then I am free!

"Cool" Mom

2011-07-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

You know, I really used to think that I was going to be a "cool" mom who would never embarrass their child. And then pictures like this happen:

and I realize... Aden is going to hate me someday soon.

The Super Clean

2011-07-28T18:53:00.001-07:00

It's that time again! The busy, depressing, lonely, middle-of-the-quarter time when I barely get to see my baby. I can't exactly complain (shocking, I know) because I love school, I love my job, and Aden is having the most fun hanging out with his dad. It would bug me less if he wasn't so dang cute all the time. You know what he says his name is? "Anen Tiger RAAAAARR!" One can only hope when going to his first job interview he introduces himself as just that. Roaring included.

Aden is freaking phenomenal at "sports". And yeah ,I'm going to be the mom that posts videos of things you really don't care about seeing my son doing. In my eyes it is my precious little redhead hitting a baseball better than any 2-3 year old around and winning at life. In your eyes its a kid hitting a ball on a tee.

I've gotten over the whole "hating people I know when I see them out because i think they are judging me" thing. It is way more fun to hear their comments about it. Sure, I get the "dang girlll I feel bad for you" or "where is Aden now?" (actually ma'am I left him sitting on the side of the road in a puppy costume. he's got a sippy cup of lemonade- he's good.) but for the most part, people are really understanding and positive. Who doesn't like hearing that their kid is cute? The one I get the most- probably from 90% of people I run into- is "It's great to see you out!" It's so sweet but it always makes me laugh. I swear I do things. I don't just sit around by myself weeping. If I don't have homework and Aden is at his dads, what else am I going to do? Girl has got to have homies.

Anyways, potty training is slowly making an appearance into our lives. I can now get him to sit on his potty pantsless. Does that count for anything? He really hates being wet/dirty but he does not freaking get the point that all of it belongs in the potty. Speaking of.... you know what ruins a day reallll quick? fecal matter on a bed. Diaper malfunctions are the worst kind of malfunction.

Aden is all into cleaning lately. He has always had a thing for the broom (who doesn't love a good broom?) but now it's the vacuum. Correction, now it's the "super clean!" Tell me how he got "super clean" out of vacuum. Please. He throws things at the super clean to try and get it to "come after" him. Poor super clean.

As for my job, I love it. I love the people, I love the environment, and I really love being able to tell disgusting stories. Who doesn't want to hear about an amputee cat or a dog with a gaping hole in its back? Now THAT is great dinner conversation material.

Aden is getting awesome at his alphabet and learning letters. Evidence:

And here is a video I took one morning for Kayla. Apparently her dogs name are "woof woof woof", "Bento", "Rinnie", and "Yado".... I'll let her know. She's been calling them the wrong names for years.

AJ also has a new bff. Rufus. Aka Roofies or Rupert. Get the two together and it's like dumb and dumber. Aden spent 30 minutes chasing big ol' bulldog rufus around with mike the lawnmower. You know that clip from south park with paris hilton's dogs that all killed themselves? I have a feeling Aden might have a book like that someday.

p.s.- You ever heard a 2 year old say "mongoose"? Try it. You'll like it.

Family Swim Day

2011-07-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

I've said it 500 times and i'll say it again. We like books. Aden will sit there for half the day and flip through pages of his books. Today I took some books that used to be mine and put them in Aden's room.

First of all let me tell you, all that was in there were books about how the body works, solar systems, and a bunch of world atlas books. Add that in with my rock collection, microscope, and this school picture...

... and you would have thought I grew up to be some kind of socially awkward genius.

Look at me now, mom and dad!

Yesterday was family swim day. Ronnie (see previous post if you don't know who that is) invited us over for a swim and luckily both Ryan and I were able to go and take Aden. I don't think I have ever seen a kid more in love with his dad. I knew they were going to be a lot a like but I didn't realize they were going to be the exact same person. We took turns catching Aden in the pool and bronzing (ryan wear's tanning oil, just to let everyone know).

We tried to take some family videos of Aden jumping from the couch onto my back but alas, Aden pulled my dress up and even though I was wearing bathing suit bottoms, it's still probably not classy to put it on my blog. Because you know, everything I do is classy.

Life is Apples.

2011-07-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

I'm one of those really annoying, overly excited parents who goes h.a.m on celebrating things that Aden does that I want him to continue doing... i.e, throwing trash away, cleaning up, reading books, working hard... you know, the reg. Usually I say "awesome!" or "good job!" Well now it's coming back to haunt me.

Aden decided that everything is awesome. Except he can't say awesome. So he says "apples".

Lately, things have been pretty apples around here. With swimming (which involves Aden jumping into the water over and over and over again until mommy's back gives out and everyone laughs at the crippled teen mom) and jeeping and rainy day movies.. i've been diggin' it.

For the first time in about 2 months i'm having a quiet weekend. Last night I played LIFE with Kayla- can we just make it clear that I was an "entertainer" (aka stripper) that lived on the beach with my husband Jamal (thank you kayla) and I STILL won at life. Kayla had like 9 kids- and today I relaxed at the pool all day and finished some work for microeconomics. By 3 I was wondering when my relaxing day would be over so I could get my boy back. What do people do when they don't have kids? Do they just sit there? What happens when they leave? Do they still get tired? How do they sleep if they aren't tired? Is drinking involved in every activity?

AJ came home with ants in his pants. Would not sit still. I'm pretty sure all he had for dinner was watermelon and a banana and a half. Good quote from Ry - "We're a little late because I tried to physically shove food down his throat. It didn't work." Really? that didn't work?

My family is apples.

Ronnie, Monkey, and Sha Ray

2011-07-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

It has finally happened. Aden tells me he loves me. There is nothing better than putting him to bed and hearing him say "Wuh Boo Mommy". Wuh boo too baby. Wuh boo too.

I am back in school now, after my two week break. I'm taking vet surg tech, small animal health and disease, clinical applications, and microeconomics (darn business minor). I'm technically only at school tuesday nights and thursday nights- which I love, I missed my aj so much- but have a LOT of online work to do. The first day back from school I did 20 homework assignments. 20. Not exaggerating at all. The sad thing is, that didn't even make a dent in what I have to do the rest of the quarter. Talk about overwhelming.

AJ finally really enjoys his jeep. (aka he lets me sit in it and drive it while he sits next to me). You should watch us in that thing. Aden and mom tearin' up Columbus. Today we sang some Pearl Jam and drove up and down people's driveways. I hope people appreciated seeing a baby in a diaper and a mom in her bathing suit driving in a toy car. They should probably just put wheels on our house, I think we're at that level now.

Aden also came up with this horrendous "hitting" game. He hits me really

hard right in the middle of the back and runs away. Then tries to get me to hit him back. One time I lightly tapped him back to see what he would do and just got full on attacked. Bad choices by everyone.

Once again, Aden was too tired to see the fireworks. He just cannot stay up past 9. I'm fine with it, but considering my family was out of town, my fourth of july was a little bit depressing this year.

Today, Aden and I rode some escalators, read some books, and turned in the last few bits of paperwork for my new job as a vet assistant (holla back!) at VCA Mill Run. After, we celebrated by getting ice cream. Typically, I get him a bowl but I decided to be one of those fun parents that lets their kids get the cone. Turns out Aden can beast a cone. When I was little, all I remember was being miserable with a half melted ice cream cone and sticky hands. Aden got the sticky hand part, but pretty much devoured the ice cream (and then asked for more). He seriously even held the cone by himself. Am I the only one who is proud of him for that? Probably.

The best thing about watching Aden learn to talk is hearing the names he comes up with for people. Ryan's mom is Gammy, my mom is Nonny, my dad is Pop, Ryan Mccurdy (ry's bff) is Ronnie, Mike (Ryan's other bff) is Monkey. I think Ryan and I will forever refer to them as Ronnie and Monkey now. Enjoy that, guys. Lizzie = Yiddy, Kayla = Cah doo, Daryn= Don, Aunt Kaitlyn= Katie, Charla Rae = Sha Ray (he got all hood on that one), Aunt Liane = eenie. There are so many more.

He's reallll good at shapes and colors. For some reason he knows pink the best (so sorry Ryan, seriously) and then red, yellow and blue from that book "Mouse Paint". He will sit for 10 minutes going through the book over and over pointing to the colors saying "raaaad, yeddow, blue!" The video will totally prove the shapes statement.

A lot of people ask me about potty training. Aden is 28 months and really just not ready to lose diapers. I don't stress about it too much (diapers don't bother me too bad- my life revolves fecal matter and other bodily functions anyways, both human and animal) but eventually he WILL be potty trained, I promise. Until then, this is what I deal with from AJ on a daily basis (no, there is no picture of anything disgusting.)

EESA ELLACOTUH!

2011-06-23T19:46:00.000-07:00

This is for my sister Erika who lives in California and constantly asks me for more videos.

"EESA ELLACOTUH!"

And yeah, he calls sticks, "dicks".

After I took this video all the said the rest of the night was "YEAH YA DO!"

Imagination Station

2011-06-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

Today Aden and I went to Imagination Station in Toledo, Ohio! We met up with Courtney, her two kids Ada and Akay, her family, Lauren and her mom and her son Jack, and Nikki and Amethyst. Ada, Jack, Amethyst and Aden were all born in March 2009. It was seriously attack of the two year olds.

We left at about 7:45am, I actually packed/ planned everything the night before so I could sleep in as long as possible. I had to wake Aden up so we could leave on time. Good thing he's a morning person. After getting on the road, I noticed that somehow I had Aden's (yes, I'm sure it was his) pee on my shirt. I don't know why and I don't know how, but it was there. I always wondered why so many people where mom cardigans. Now I know. Thank you, Gap Mom Cardigan, for covering up my sons urine.

Shortly after I solved that problem, Veggie Tales would not eject from my CD player. That would be fine besides two things. 1) I have had a cd stuck in my cd player before. It was Kanye West. I almost killed someone. 2) It was bible songs. I can only hear how the b-i-b-l-e is the book for me so many times. I'm aware that joshua fought the battle of jericho and the walls came tumbling down. Luckily, kicking the dashboard worked like a charm. Lullaby renditions of kanye west, coldplay, and no doubt replaced the nasal-ly singing vegetables. I am okay with that.

Not much excitement went on during the 2 hour drive. Aden was awake the entire time. I may have given him a piece of chocolate for being so awesome. He's 2. Bribes and Rewards totally work now.

Things we learned at Imagination Station

1) Aden doesn't play with things. He runs around them. No explanation needed. He simply just likes to run laps around things that other kids enjoy playing with.

2) New obsession : Firetrucks. He would not leave the play ambulance and play firetruck alone. He put on the hat (backwards, duh) and thought he was the coolest kid around.

3) Aden should work at a grocery store. He can work an apron.

4) I should not.

5) Apparently I stand like a flamingo, all the time.

6) No two year old eats their lunch (hooray! I thought Aden was the only one)

7) To make the giant piano work, you have to jump on it. Curse you Tom Hanks & BIG for making it look so easy.

8) "Family Restrooms" means a big counter and a miniature toilet that is impossible for big people to use. I don't care if you're offended, I'm taking my boy into the restroom with me and using a normal sized toilet.

9) I want my own hurricane simulator.

10) I need longer shorts. (see picture of me in child's apron)

We had so much fun with our Marchie Mama's! Can't wait to do it again soon!

All Photo Cred's to Courtney and Nikki!!! Thank you for not slacking like me!

Summer Break 2011

2011-06-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

Aden's new favorite tv show is little bill. Out of every show on Nick jr, the only one he will watch is about a family living in the hood that has absolutely no lessons in it, no learning in it, no plot, no songs... granted it's more "realistic" than backyardigans- I guess talking bugs, hippos, kangaroos, and birds are too juvenile for aj now- it's still a boring show. It's like when I was little and watched an hour of sesame street and then comes Bob Ross to ruin any excitement sesame street might have started. Apparently Aden would have picked the Bob Ross route.

Anyways, one episode is about car keys and now all Aden does is ask me for my keys. He also got into the habit of putting his hands on his face and yelling " DAAAAAAAAAAD! DAAAAAAAAD!" Thanks Little Bill. I want my two year old to do both of those things really badly.

Also, you know what sucks? two year old's ideas. Ice cream for breakfast. Ice cream for lunch. Ice cream for dinner. Everything involves ice cream. Or food. I'm thinking about putting a cheeto dangling in front of his head so he can be entertained with that for awhile. That kid is a bottomless pit. For the most part, he eats really healthy things... hummus, crackers, raspberry yogurt, craisins... but he just cannot get past his ranch and ice cream fetishes.

You know when you were little and you tried to catch you parents in a good mood and were really nice to them before subtly hinting at the fact that you wanted dessert... then before they could answer, reject yourself in hopes of them allowing it? Aden tried to do that tonight. He was snuggling and playing and laughing with me when he slyly turned to me and goes "Please?" me- "please what?" aden - "(something inaudible) ice cream? bowl? nooooooo ice cream. noo"... Guess who didn't get ice cream.

Summer break has been great so far. Starting off with Daryn's wedding (pics/ stories to come. I'm not sure if i'll be allowed back at any other functions involving her family), swimming with aj, the gay pride festival/festivities following with kayla, clippers game... and tomorrow, Aden and I are road tripping it (only 2 hours) to Toledo, Ohio to go to Imagination Station with some friends and their march 09 babies! Pictures will happen, I promise.

I still can't find the charger for my camera so still no new pictures. My bad.

Meet Mike

2011-06-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

When it comes to toys making annoying sounds, I'm probably one of the most patient people out there. I can handle that awful ball popper, I can handle any song the leapfrog magnets sing, I can watch the same movie over and over and over again. But one toy has now succeeded in driving me absolutely nuts.

Meet Mike. Chompin' Mike the Mower to be exact. Created by playskool, obviously by either a deaf man or a person who doesn't have children or know any. at all. Every time Mike moves he yells "POWER UP! IT'S WORKING TIME! LET'S GIVE THIS LAWN A BUZZ CUT" in some god awful military-ish voice. If that's not bad enough, mike chomps. The chomping just involves his mouth moving back and forth, slamming plastic together. Over and over and over again.

Tonight I was trying to make dinner and Aden found the toy and brought it inside (he didn't have a nap today and wouldn't stop crying, just take the damn thing inside if that will make you happy, i don't care) This was all fine and dandy until he decided to run laps around the island in the kitchen. He may as well been beating me over the head with that thing. I considered sticking my hand in with the chicken in the grill pan, just because it would at least get my mind off of that sound and probably cause less pain.... but instead, I lost it.

I walked over during a brief milk break, took Mike, opened the back door, and threw him outside. This obviously traumatized Aden, seeing his beloved Mike being tossed out the backdoor yelling "IT'S WORKING TIME".... F**k you mike. Work on that. Aden was cured with some ranch dressing. And Mike is never allowed in the house again.

Choopth and Toot

2011-06-09T17:34:00.000-07:00

One thing that is way new to me is this whole "i'm a real person and have my own opinion". There is no sitting AJ down and saying "this is what we are doing"... no. My little firecracker wants to do it his way, all the time. Today I said "stop being a wienie whiner"... his reply? "You're a wienie whiner" Touche, Aden. Touche.

He points me in directions (from the stroller or car seat of course) on our walks and car rides. You know, because I am not his mother and don't know directions. He knows best. That whole 2 years he has been alive... he has mastered the city of Columbus.

The names he comes up with are downright hilarious. Chips and Juice has turned into "Choopth and Toot." Charla Rae has turned into "Sha Ray", Lizzie into "Yiddie", Ice cream into "Hi Keen", Spoon into "moon" and the best- berry yogurt (he will only eat raspberry yogurt) "Buhhdy Yoga".

If he thinks something is a good idea, he will try to convince you of it. "Ice cream? Yeah? Yeah!" (nodding his head vigorously) "No, no ice cream honey" "ICE CREAM! YEAHHHHHHH!" Good luck trying to get that out of his head. Somehow he got introduced to the wonderful world of ice cream and has no plans on leaving anytime soon. Let's see, he got red hair from his dad, a crazy personality from his dad, a mean streak from me, and a sweet tooth from me. It's like God just said, "let's take every bad trait from both of them and create a child for them to watch while they go to school full time. It will be hilarious." Thank you, we deeply appreciate this.

My favorite thing right now is our nighttime ritual. We do bathtime, at the end of which he backs his naked self into me and lays down for a teeth brushing (you ever seen a naked baby back that thang up? Awkward and hilarious!) then runs into his room naked- screaming like the little gremlin he is. He gets dressed for bed and we pick out some books, do some puzzles, play with trucks and whatnot. When I put him to bed, every single time, without fail, his voice gets about 3 times higher and he says "bye mommy!!!! bye honey!!!! night sugar!" and blows me a kiss. It makes my day.

(by the way--- Katie Bentley, if you read this.. Aden kept pointing to that woman and saying "Katie! Katie!" over and over again. )

On a serious note,

I've found myself clinging to Aden since I got back from Nashville. I feel like Aden is what I have right now. I cannot explain how much I missed him this quarter. There were so many times I cried myself to sleep because I only got to see him for a few hours during the day. The worst part is, it's not going to get any better. Luckily this summer i'm taking an online class and my other two classes are only 2 nights a week, but in the fall... I don't even want to think about it. I'm not sure if many people know this but I'm not only getting my associates degree, I'm getting my bachelors in animal science and minor in business at OSU. I waited until I was done with all of my general classes with my associates and now I'm onto the rest of my general classes with OSU. I'm looking at 18 credit hours and an internship this fall, if things go well. It's going to be a lot of really hard work but if this is what it takes to give my son the life he deserves, I will do it. (by the way, with all these degrees I'll be looking for a job in veterinary pharmaceutical sales)

I miss being a hermit. I miss staying in my house, not worrying about what I look like, what i'm doing over the weekend, etc. I miss being boring. Mostly, I just miss structure. I feel like I'm just going day by day, not knowing what is going on or what is going to happen next. Someone take me back to the baby days where it was just Aden and I at home all day with a set feeding schedule and no noise but the sound of his swing putting him to sleep.

It's going to get better. It's going to get better. It's going to get better. It's going to get better. It's going to get better.

Update: The Doopy Book

2011-06-04T19:54:00.000-07:00

I found out what the Doopy Book is.

"No, David, No". Apparently David = Doopy. He was "reading" the book today and kept saying "doopy! Come back! Come back here!" (When David runs naked down the street) So there we go. Doopy Problem Solved.

We actually got to have a nice, relaxing bath complete with a Towel Toga. What? Your parents didn't make you a toga out of your bath towel and march behind you saying "TOGA! TOGA! TOGA!"? That's unfortunate for you.

One thing that amazes me about AJ is his ability to find food. The other day he had an almond in his hand. I don't even think we have almonds here. He also found an easter egg filled with jelly beans, a bag of oatmeal squares, and for awhile he was somehow getting sour skittles. I'm not sure if he hoards that stuff or what but it's amazing.

New favorite thing to do is feed the dog uncooked macaroni. It's the only thing he can reach in the pantry so he'll grab a handful and leave a little trail. Teddy totally eats it. Poor dog. I think he is sick of eating the yogurt and oatmeal squares off of the table. Him and Ted are still bff's. Aden recently learned that the dog knows how to shake. Teddy will be laying down under the table trying to sleep, and Aden will run over, crawl under the table and yell "TEDDY SHAKE! TEDDY SHAKE!" and grab his back leg and move it up and down, laughing hysterically. Teddy is on suicide watch.

On Friday, I was making my bed and Aden went downstairs. I come down a few minutes later and find Aden sitting on a chair outside, "reading a book". I swear he is a 5 year old. He beats me up, he goes H.A.M. when he plays sports with his dad, and he chillaxes by reading books. I mean, Ryan can throw a ball at him and he will hit it with the bat.

Cannot wait until the bat becomes a weapon.

Things I learned

2011-06-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning, we left for Daryn's bachelorette party in Nashville, Tennessee. It was the longest I have ever been away from Aden and after crying for the first hour I was away from him (I dropped him off Friday evening) I actually did pretty well.

Things I Learned In Nashville:

1) Cicada's are aggressive. Those beastly bugs go right for the face. We didn't look tourist-y at all, running around screaming and dropping our purses trying to get away from them. Dis. Gusting.

2) God Hates Whores. Right after I finished dropping it like it's hot with a street dancer (Thank you Daryn for forcing me to do that and for video taping it as well) we walked across the street and 3 young girls wearing neon green t-shirts with big black letters on them looked at Kayla and screamed "GOD HATES YOU, YOU WHORE!" Everyone around us was just flabbergasted. Who even says that to people you don't know? I believe I yelled "I HAVE A CHILD" (because you know, that makes you immune to such comments) Most ridiculous thing ever.

Before we found out that God hates us

3. Going to the Jack Daniels Distillery whilst still feeling the effects from the night before is NEVER a good idea. Being in 95 degree weather, smelling 140 proof whiskey. You tell me how I felt.

Jack Daniels was a 5'2" womanizer who was probably molested by a preacher.

4. I am not immune to sunburn. Something that is also not a good idea- slathering on oil with no SPF, sitting in the sun for 6 hours. And encouraging others to do it with you. "Come on guys! Go h.a.m. on this suntan oil with me! You won't burn!" Wrong, Ellyn. So wrong.

5. I would not have survived the college lifestyle. Though it was amazing, I could never do that every weekend. I felt so lazy- even though I lost a few pounds walking up and down broadway and demonbreun- and unproductive. At least now I have a kid so I have an excuse for being a total loser and not going out.

(always be nice to the quiet australian in the corner)

6. I have the best friends in the world

Doopy Books and Elmo Socks

2011-06-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

Since I went out of town last weekend and then had class late on Tuesday and Wednesday, I hadn't given Aden a bath in a week. (I don't make him sit around in his own sweat, his dad gives him a bath.. I think.) Bath time has always been one of my favorite times just because he loves it so much and is an absolute goofball. So of course, I made the mistake of looking forward to giving him a bath.

Right before, we were in my room playing and he walks into his room and starts asking for socks. I'm kind of used to this by now considering one of his favorite things to do is have me put socks on him, leave them on for 4 minutes, and then throw them across the room. I just kind of ignored it and started getting things ready for his bath.

He got a little whiny so I thought suggesting going into the bathroom for his bath would help. Wrong. The breakdown begins. It got to the point where I had to carry him into the bathroom and stand in front of the door. He was getting a bath. He had been outside all day and i'm pretty sure there were 8 different layers of dirt on his feet. I put him in the tub and he flung himself onto me and just kept crying and screaming. I knew he was tired but wow. This was the worst 2 year old tantrum he has had, by far. Finally I sat on the edge of the tub, sat him on my lap and started washing him. This is when I started to understand what he was saying. "Elmo socks". He was crying for his rainbow socks with Elmo's face on them. The $1 pair of socks I bought at Target last christmas. My kid just cried for 20 minutes because he wanted to put frickin socks on.

Then, after that he got mad that I didn't read him the "doopy" book. I have no idea what the doopy book is. I called Ryan frantically "WHAT IS THE DOOPY BOOK!? HELP ME! I JUST NEED THE DOOPY BOOK!" Turns out- no one knows. He settled for "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie".

Someday I will be able to understand him. Until then, here's to the doopy book and elmo socks.

Single Parenting Together

2011-05-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

Adens baptism May '09

Being a single parent is really hard. The more you work with the other parent, the easier it is.

Ryan and I try really hard to work together as parents. We don't want to just be civil, we want to be friends. We try to do family things, we talk on the phone, tell each other our problems, comfort the other, motivate the other, etc. Don't get me wrong, we argue and disagree on some things, but overall I think we are doing well, especially for being so young. No one knows what our situation is like so having that common ground and being able to talk to each other about it really helps.

Aden loves both of us, equally. I don't want him to grow up and hear me saying nasty things about his dad or his dad saying things about me. It's not his fault that we aren't together and it wouldn't be fair to him if we raised him in such a hostile environment when he had no choice in the matter.

Ryan is one of the funniest people I know, by far. He has the greatest personality and being his friend is awesome. I don't think this text was supposed to be funny, but the other day he got halfway down his street on his way to class before he realized he didn't have a shirt on. He frantically told me "I DONT EVEN HAVE TIME TO GET DRESSED!" Sad? yes. True? yes. Still hilarious? Of course. And who else gives drive by compliments?! Drive by compliments are just like they sound- when someone drives by or you drive by someone, give em a compliment. Like, "Hey! I LIKE YOUR SHIRT!"... try it. Dare you.

I'm not saying we have an ideal parenting relationship. Because we don't. But the thing that is most important to both of us is Aden. We would do anything for him. We want to show Aden that we ARE a family, just a different kind. We get along, we hang out, we are friends.

One thing though: Ryan. If you tell Aden that mommy has big poops again... I will destroy your votto jersey.

Payback time.

Nasal Conchae and More Fun Adventures

2011-05-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

This week has been UH- mazing. I didn't have class Monday (so Aden was with me all day) and Ryan went out of town for his sister's graduation so Aden is with me all weekend too!

This week Aden learned where his nasal conchae, pupil, patella, and umbilicus are. You don't even want to know the weird looks people gave me at the grocery store when my son was leaning over the side pointing up his nose screaming "CONCHAEEEE! CONCHAEEE!"

Saturday we sat outside at Kaylas with a baby pool (that took seriously an hour for me to blow up) and Aden was in heaven. I'm pretty sure he thought it was the best day of his life. There were dogs everywhere, kitties, water, a watering can, play fishes, and shu. We were there from noon until 4:30. He didn't have a nap before so within minutes of putting him in the car, he was passed out pete.****

He slept from 5 to 7... worst nap time ever. I thought for sure he wasn't going to go to bed until midnight. He had some taquitos, blueberries, and carrots, watched a little bit of toy story 3, then went up for bed. He was out by 8:30.

****that is the shortened happy version of the story. Here is the unabridged "kill me now" version. We were supposed to go to the pool with Kayla at her apartment complex. She called and made sure it was open and had seen people swimming there so we went. We get the 5,000 bags necessary to take a toddler swimming and entertain him for a long period of time, get to the outside of the gate and see the "no swimming, layout only". Wow. Really?! I try to pull Aden aside to a lawn chair but it's too late. He saw the pool. He throws himself down on the ground and screams "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" (water) and EVERYONE looks over and sees my kid thrashing around on the cement sobbing his eyes out. Keep in mind this is full of girls ages 18-24 probably wanting to relax but instead being distracted by a red headed 2 year old screaming like a banshee.

We immediately pack back up and leave and go get a baby pool at the store. Here, Aden decides he wants a ball. I decide he may not have a ball. Tantrum begins. Aden has this talent of going completely limp and unlocking his shoulders so it's impossible for my weak little rubber band arms to pick him up. A man watched me mouth "I hate my life" (totally jokingly) to Kayla. I wanted to cry. Walk away from Aden who is sitting on the ground crying. He follows. with a ball. I put the ball back, put my purse down (he knows that when moms purse goes down, he is screwed) sling him over my shoulder, pay for the baby pool at the register (where he continues to ask for a pack of m&ms) and leave. It was so embarrassing. His tantrums have been absolutely out of this world lately and it is plain frustrating. I'm 21. I'm typically a patient person but when you get the same thing every freaking day it gets just irritating.

You cannot be mad at this face for more than 5 minutes though....

Mom is a jungle gym

2011-05-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

Aden has decided that the most fun thing to climb and jump on is his mom. Today I got proof. Physical abuse by a 2 year old.

I'm in a leg headlock by my 2 year old. You have got to be kidding me.

But then he makes it up by being super cute and watching 2 minutes of backyardigans before trying to break my neck again:

And then he makes faces because he can see himself.

Sometimes, Aden will start crying and walk over to the mirror just to watch himself cry. Definitely voting him for most conceded 2 year old boy. "Hey mom! Come and see how good I look!"

Aden's bed

2011-05-15T06:11:00.000-07:00

Aden still sleeps in a crib. He can't get out of it yet, it keeps him in his room, and i think he feels really cozy in it. His crib, however, is filled with a bunch of crap. (ok, not when he is in there, my baby is not 'crap')

He has a pillow. The pillow started happening about 2 months ago.. it's not necessary in any way but I have definitely noticed he likes sleeping on it more than just the mattress. He has 3 blankets. There is Shu, his main blankie that he takes everywhere with him. There is a hand-knitted big blanket from a friend, and there is Ryan's blankie. When I was pregnant, Ryan insisted on putting his blankie in the drawer under the crib, along with his naked pooh bear (apparently ryan wanted to play 1130 no shirty with his stuffed animals) in his crib. Pooh has been moved to the toy box but the other day, Aden randomly walked over to the crib drawer, pulled out Ry's blanket and started walking around the house with him. I really didn't think we needed 2 blankets to take everywhere with us so I put it in his crib. So special. Finally, Aden has "I Love You Through and Through".

I read this book every time he is in his crib and then he "reads" it after me. Sometimes Rupert gets in there, sometimes he gets thrown under the crib.

Here's my aj in his bed:

Oh also, did I tell you what we did for cinco de mayo? Since we are Norwegian (and Aden is German. Remember how he's related to the von trapp's?) we celebrated the best way us vikings know how to celebrate a hispanic holiday... burrito bar!!!

For lunch we made our own burritos and then had fake fried ice cream. Instead of corn flakes around the ice cream we had crushed up Nilla wafers. Still legitimate right?

Aden LOVED it!

Knee Huwts

2011-05-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

No one likes to see their child get hurt... including me. Aden gets the most pitiful look on his face when he gets a scrape. I have never known anyone who can perfect an upside down smile until this kid. Every bath time has become a big ordeal because once he gets his scraped-up knees (he scrapes them every single day. curse those shorts!) underwater, he starts yelling "mommy. huwt. knee huwt. aid. aid. (band aid)" and crying. Poor guy. And of course he has to have band aids on both knees, not just the one that is scraped. Hey, if I were him i'd want toy story band aids too.

Aden has also learned the dreaded "mine". He'll walk around with a toy or his blankie and say "this mine! this mine! this mine!". Awesome babe, keep that up. See how many ladies you get.

You know how I always say my boy is the coolest kid in the world? Here's some more insight on his degree of coolness...

AJ knows when he is tired. He knows when he is grumpy and when he needs to take a nap. The other night he was just straight up exhausted and while I was changing him into pj's he said, "mommy, bed. bed" Dude. He straight up asked me if he could go to bed. at 7:10pm. Say whaaaaat? I guess all that sleep training and re-sleep training paid off. He's one of the best sleepers I know. 7:30pm to 6:30am with a morning nap 8:30am to 11:00am. Unless someone (g0d forbid) interrupts nap. You wouldnt believe the things that mothers do to keep their children from being woken up early from nap time. I don't care if I'm naked, if I hear the doorbell ring or ted or frank start to make a noise I will sprint downstairs and make the noise stop. Yes, the dry cleaner has seen me in a sports bra. Yes, the ups delivery man has seen a blur of me in a towel sprinting across the living room. You gotta do what you gotta do.

We had to make meal time rules because he has a problem with sitting down and eating. He likes to carry around a bowl with snacks in it the ENTIRE day just to get ted to hang out with him. It got ridiculous so we are now breaking the habit. Talk about a pain in the butt. He cried for 45 minutes yesterday because I wouldn't put teddy grahams in a bowl.

I was thinking the other day about the weird looks I get from people when I'm out with Aden... I think it's because of the way I talk to him. I don't baby him. If you heard my side of the conversation, you would have no idea that i'm talking to a 2 year old. I can't help it, it's just my personality. In a lot of conversations you'll hear me say "Aden, seriously? that's ridiculous." I'm not trying to make him grow up too fast or anything, but i'm not going to sit there and say "mommy says NO NO!" ... not my thing and i'm pretty sure aden knows belittling when he hears it. So if you see me racing Aden and me calling him a cheater because he goes before I say "go"... don't give me that horrified look. I'm joking. halfway.

The jeep is finally getting some use from someone other than myself. Aden is getting really good at pressing the gas pedal. however, steering isn't in the picture yet. Someone probably needs to videotape what happens when he gets behind the wheel. It's basically me almost getting run over and chasing a moving vehicle running into bushes and weaving all over the sidewalk. Probably the funniest thing was when my dad got into the jeep and started driving it down the sidewalk with his leg hanging out the side. Our neighbors must think we have some serious issues.

Sometime soon i'll find my camera charger and take more pictures. I'm for real slacking.

Beat Boxing Baby

2011-05-07T17:45:00.001-07:00

I haven't been posting much lately, mostly due to the fact that my life isn't all THAT exciting. Yeah, Aden does funny stuff everyday but that might start to get boring if that was the only thing I posted.

Aden has become such the snuggler. He finally actually asks to be held and doesnt stick his arms and legs straight out when you try to pick him up. He clings onto my leg hardcore in new situations (he warms up to people fast but initially acts like a leech and digs his little claws into my leg).

I just taught him how to put his dukes up, how to say "hi dude", "sup dude", "excuse me" and "bye dude". You can't even tell me that isn't cool.

Aden has an obsession with the park, like any child should. Ryan takes Aden to the park literally every time they are together. Because of this, whenever Ryan's name is mentioned, aden says "park? wee? park? daddy?" They talk on the phone everyday and the only thing Aden ever says is "park!!!! park!!!! weeee!!!!" Ryan does not find this entertaining but I think it's awesome.

On a different note, last Tuesday was my 21st birthday. I have never been a real big party girl. I had never had a fake ID. I had never been into a 21+ bar. And can I just say, that waiting was the best choice I have ever made. It made my week so much more exciting because I honestly didn't know what a big kid bar was like (obviously not that great but still). This birthday was the best I have ever had thanks to all of my wonderful family and friends (especially daryn and kayla who have put up and witnessed a LOT this week) and I am proud to finally say that I can legally order a drink. Now I can put myself in more awkward situations. Huzzah!

On to the videos. In the first one, Aden does the new dance craze "move it like bernie" with my help. We have fun. In the second one, Aden shows off his beat boxing skills he learned from yo gabba gabba.

Easter 2011

2011-05-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

It's weird to think that this was Aden's 3rd Easter. I remember the very first easter with Aden when he was only a few weeks old and I just stared at him the entire mass. I also remember squeezing on too-small white pants and my sisters too-tight purple sweater--One of my many post-pregnancy fashion faux pas.

Aden and I made it to mass with my parents and my sister at 8:30 am. Aden did really well. It's hard to keep 2 year old boys quiet for an entire hour but he did well. He mostly just crawled around on the ground and walked across pews. I heard someone behind me tell their mom "I think we are going to start trying for a baby"..... Really? Are you not seeing the sweat roll down my face as I try and keep my kid quiet and busy? Or my ears turn bright red because he doesn't know how to talk in an inside voice? I'm just thankful that when the bells rang he didn't scream out "HO!!!!!!!!!!". Aden did however, fist bump the lady behind us after the "peace be with you" part. She was thoroughly confused as to why my two year old child didn't know how to shake hands, only how to fist bump. It's 2011 lady. Fist bumpin' peace is where its at.

Aden's easter basket was pretty boring. He got chalk, bubbles, some cars, a chocolate bunny (that was for me) and we did a mini easter egg hunt in the family room for those plastic easter eggs that were filled with jelly beans. That was great until he learned how to open the plastic eggs and started shoveling 9 jelly beans in his mouth at a time while I tried to pick them up before he could get to them. Jelly beans have now been banned from our house.

He also got a golf set. He goes nuts with that thing. He can hit the golf ball better than I can. It turns into a weapon (of course) after 5 minutes of golfing but still. For that 5 minutes he tears the green up! (the green being the living room floor. don't judge.)

Ryan came over easter day to hang out with us for a little. I didn't have aj for 3 sundays in a row so that is why Aden spent easter sunday at my house instead of in lancaster with Ryan.

Here is the very tired family on Easter:

And here is my boy coloring easter eggs like a champ:

Singing Toddlers

2011-04-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, Aden and I have jam sessions in the car.

He really likes dancing (I'm his mom- of course this kid is going to like to dance) and in the car he is restricted to head banging and fist pumping. Since he can't do anything else, he goes extra hard and it is absolutely hysterical. Now it's getting even better because he can kind of sing along. We had a sweet duet to "I'll Never Break Your Heart". He couldn't quite get the words but when I sang "I'll never maaaaake yooooouuuu cry" he would fake cry. Also, I don't know if I'm embarrassed about this or proud (maybe both) but Aden can sing Friday. You know, that awful Rebecca Black song? Aden comes up to me today and says "mommy. Friday. Friday". I honestly had no idea what he was talking about so he continued on, " fun fun fun fun ". By this time I got what he was trying to say and did the "PARTYING PARTYING!" and he would reply "YEAH!"... Ryan seriously wants to hurt me. I find it hilarious.

My kid will be going to school singing backstreet boys and fist pumping. At this rate, he may even be able to walk it out and move it like bernie. He is either going to turn out to be the coolest person ever or the biggest tool bag.

We're still working on the hitting. I swear, the second I say no he starts swinging his arms in circles trying to hit anything around him. It's like a walking windmill of destruction.

He also enjoys making fake sandwiches and putting them in random places. I found one in his potty (which at the moment is nicely positioned in front of the tv in my room. Classy.) I found another in my drawer. And another one on Ted. Ted was not impressed:

He has taken an interest in playing with my hair. I don't know if he is just jeal that I have long hair and he doesn't, or if he just likes hair. Either way, daily head massages are happening and I am not complaining. (told you he was a metrosexual)

School is fine. I'm really really sick of not seeing Aden as much as I'm used to (holla to ryan for taking him while im at class mon, half of tues, and weds. Steppin up his game!) but it makes the time we do hang out way better. It's really cute when every time he leaves a room for 30 seconds he comes back and says "HI MOMMY!!" Sometimes he calls me pretty too. And everyone likes to be called pretty.

The other day I was putting him down for a nap- Aden is the nap champ of the world, making him 5,000 times cooler- and I said "Aden, do you love your mommy and daddy?" and he replied "Yaaaaaah! Mommy!!! Daddy!!!"

His new fave thing to do is go outside, grab a clump of dirt, bring it inside, stomp on it, spreading the dirt everywhere, and sweeping it up. And then cry if he doesn't clean it up well enough. He also enjoys knocking over the statues of various saints we have located in our backyard. Today was the Virgin Mary. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that is sacrilegious... especially this close to Easter.

**If you have noticed, a lot of the pics I have been taking are me holding Aden in the exact same spot. I'm trying to take one of us once or twice a week. It's fun to see him change!!

Mom's have feelings too

2011-04-14T18:59:00.001-07:00

I like myself. I like the direction I am heading. I'm happy. But I'm also stressed out and occasionally lonely.

I thought about how I viewed "moms" before I became one. Strict, frumpy, lands-end wearing, middle-aged women who had their s*!@ together. People will tell me they respect me for being a mother or for being so responsible but i'm 99% sure that in their head they are thinking "wow i'm really glad that's not me". Which I understand. I mean, let's be honest, what college kid in their right mind wants to be responsible for something other than themselves.

It wouldn't matter if I was the coolest girl in the world, I would still be classified as a mom. One time, about a year ago, I was hanging out with a guy friend and I heard him talking with his friends in the other room and making fun of the fact that I'm a mom and he was hanging out with me. That wasn't only hurtful, but it was embarrassing. I always feel like I have to defend myself and say that I was on birth control, yadda yadda yadda, but I shouldn't. How do people not realize that if they have sex, this could be their situation?

Pippa told me a story a few weeks back about how someone asked "Why is she even out? Isn't she a mom?" First off, I didn't know that moms weren't allowed to go out in public with their friends. No one thinks that a mom's life should involve anything other than her children-- well here is a reality check. Moms need breaks. We need friends. If I didn't have my friends or the ability to go out childless once in awhile, I would probably go crazy. I've learned that I don't need to get rid of my social life and my fun to be a good mom.

I don't know if people think we don't hear them talking or if they don't care, but I hope one day they become parents and realize that they are still their normal selves. Having a child doesn't make you a different person.

Because of all the judgment I get and the time a relationship takes, at this moment, I can't see myself ever falling in love or marrying anyone, and oddly, I'm okay with that. I always thought that to be happy in life you needed a partner, and now I realize that though it may be lonely at times, it's better than settling for someone who doesn't make you as happy as you deserve to be.

This post sounds way more depressing than it was meant to be.

here's a little note : Girls without kids who talk to single dads probably hate me. Because I probably come off as mean. I don't mean to, but I cannot help but think they are selfish. What girl would knowingly want to take a kids time from their dad away? Every time I would be on a date with a single dad I would feel guilty because I would know that he could be spending this time with his kid. Or the money that he is paying for dinner with on his kid. But that's just a single mom's opinion.

What? You've never seen a baby in a trash can before?

2011-04-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

Oh man it's been a lonnnng day.

This morning went great. Until Aden whacked his head against my jaw when I was trying to pin him down for a diaper change. Then the bleeding started. I so wanted to lay in the fetal position on the floor and cry but figured that I would just be trampled and hurt even more so I just complained to Ryan and my mom. Complaining helps every situation. Always.

Ryan took Aden at 2 and I took a Toradol and slept for an hour. I woke up, got a milkshake, and went to school. You know you look good when the man at DQ asks "what happened to your face?! sumpin' dental?" Yeah. Sumpin' dental.

I feel like there should be a warning, "Do not attempt to look through a microscope for 3 hours for at least a week after surgery". I was getting so dizzy and so hot and the bruise on my face started throbbing. It was when the red blood cells started looking like cartoon characters that I realized I really needed to stop. After class I got into my car and got a call from Kayla who left her lights on and her battery died. Win.

Okay, I have pretty good common sense. But when it comes to cars, I know absolutely nothing. It's not because I'm a spoiled brat.. I just straight up don't care to learn about cars. Kayla knew the basics about where to put the cables but basically it was just me dying laughing while Kayla talked to her dad on the phone. Some engineering student came over and helped us. And for the record... when someone tells you to keep your foot on the brake and rev your engine... use both feet. I think he thought I was an idiot for asking but I almost ruined a car driving with both feet one time... almost.

I came home, made soup, studied, and talked to Caity on the phone about her snake shedding all of its skin at once. I'm not kidding, she has a picture of it on her facebook and it's the coolest/nastiest/creepiest thing ever. It's like 3 feet of snake skin all intact.

This is me talking to Caity and making soup. You wanna know why I wear cute pajamas? Have I mentioned this before? Because for 2 years I only wore my hamburger shirt that said "The Burger With the Grown Up Taste" and got made fun of every morning. HEY! You gain 70 pounds when you are 18 years old and see what you wear. I finally made a promise to myself that I would wear cute pajamas and not make my significant other want to vomit on me when he saw me in the morning.

I am now going to study for radiology and pray that tomorrow I can eat a cheeseburger.

This is Aden pretend sleeping. He better hope is face doesn't get stuck like that. Yowza.

Right after he woke up, stealing my special k protein bar. You can't even tell me he looks anything like me. That face has Ryan Kiger written all over it.

What? You've never seen a baby in a trash can before?

And if you want to see the maniac in action...

P.S.- My mom said I was funny. And said that I got it from her. The Peterson's are so modest. Love you mom!

Wisdom teeth and a toddler

2011-04-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

I've needed to get my wisdom teeth out for awhile. I mean they have been talking about it since my senior year of high school... but obviously when I got pregnant it had to be put off. With school and a baby I just kind of put it on the backburner. They weren't bothering me at all but I noticed my teeth starting to move so I decided I might as well do it now.

Honestly, I don't know what the hell I was thinking. I got them out not even 2 weeks into the school quarter, with a kid going through the terrible 2's. How did I not think this through?

I like to get things over with. I went for my consultation a few weeks ago and just told them I wanted them out ASAP. So they set the date for April 8th, at 8:30 am.

I let Ryan know a few weeks in advance. He was going to have to take Aden and find a sitter while he was at class on Friday. His mom and grandma watched Aden 7:30am- 5pm and Ryan picked him up and had him until Sunday at noon.

Okay rewind to Friday morning at 6:30am. The one morning Aden decides not to wake up at 6:30. I set my alarm and started packing his things for his stay at Ryans- Again, don't ask me why I didn't pack the night before. I seriously dropped the ball on that one.

We got out the door on time and made it to my 830 appointment. After the nurse ran into the door, hit her head on the light, and dropped part of the IV equipment, I started getting a little nervous. I mean seriously- you work in that office every day, you're about to put me to sleep, and you ran into an overhead light. Things are looking good.

The doctor put my iv in (THANK GOD) and I have got to give him props on that. It was quick and painless and he didn't poke around like my nurses Kitty and Candy at OSU. I remember my throat burning and I remember him saying "this is pretty fast acting...." and then I was out.

The nurse was not impressed with my knowledge of Diazepam and Ketamine (the drugs laying next to me), which totally disappointed me. I was really looking forward to discussing the off-setting effects from the balanced anesthesia. I think she just thought I wanted to be like her. I HAVE SCRUBS TOO MA'AM. I OWN A STETHOSCOPE.

I'm not going to lie I have not felt that refreshed for a LONG time. I woke up with gauze in my mouth and my mom next to me. I don't know how I got into a different room, but I did. I may have walked? I'm pretty sure they don't just sling you over their shoulder and lay you down in a room. I asked my mom for my phone and was typing how I felt. She was convinced I wouldn't remember, but I did. I even typed incoherent. Correctly.

My body isn't used to sleeping a lot, so I only napped for about an hour. I wasn't actually that swollen, just on the right bottom side. (Both bottom teeth were impacted. My mom heard a chisel.) I took the gauze out a few hours later but refused to take any medicine. I even straightened my hair and did make up and went to Polaris with my mom.

Right after I took the gauze out

Friday night- still med-free - I went to Mongolian bbq with Daryn and Kayla. I had a few bites of eggroll, soup, a virgin strawberry daiquiri, and cheesecake. I'm pretty sure the waitress felt bad for me because she kept taking things off of my bill. Then we had a movie night. I got home at about 11:30 and took two advil.

After one of my baths before I went to eat with Daryn and Kayla

Saturday morning I was a little more swollen, still mostly on the right side, but I was still feeling okay. It wasn't actually my mouth that hurt, it was my muscles. Random muscles. Like, my back and my arms and my neck. I took a toradol, which is basically like a stronger version of advil.. an NSAID (non steroidal anti inflammatory drug- thank you anesthesia) and I felt great. I went to Panera, got soup, went shopping, and then went tanning. (P.S. I'm sorry for whoever was in the tanning bed next to me. It hurt to open the bed so I just let out a big moan and flailed around a little. Didn't mean to disturb you) I got home at 330, took another toradol and took an hour nap. When I woke up... I literally looked exactly like John Goodman. The swelling had gotten worse on both sides and I was definitely starting to feel it. It was Charla Rae's birthday dinner at 5:30 so I got dressed and went. I left right after I ate, I really did too much that day. I took a bath, took an advil, and went to bed.

I bet you thought I was kidding about that John Goodman comment. I wasn't.

Today I woke up and still looked liked John Goodman. I took another bath (don't ask me why but they made me feel 10,000 times better. I think I took like 20 over the course of two days). I told Ryan I would just come get AJ because I missed him a lot and I knew Ryan wanted to go golfing. Aden really didnt react when he saw me... that was nice.

We went to Panera for lunch (their mac n cheese is what i've been living off of) and Aden ate half a bowl of soup, mac n cheese, yogurt, chips, and graham crackers. It was after he inhaled all of his food that he realized that his moms face looked really f-ed up. He looked at me confused for awhile, but eventually got used to the fatness.

Aden and I relaxing before bed.

We spent the rest of the day outside- 80 degrees!!! And then took a bath and I read 7 books. He was realllly worked up so I turned on our "faith, hope, and lullabies" CD and rocked him. I missed him.

I'm feeling pretty good right now!! I'm definitely getting a big bruise on the right side of my chin, but it'll get better. I'm proud of myself for just getting it over with. Hopefully I don't have to go through any more medical procedures for awhile.

A post of pictures

2011-04-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

Well. Aden learned how to take a picture using photobooth. I position the pointer and he clicks- well more like bangs- and takes the picture. Guess what we did all day? Aden took the first 4 of these pictures... there were like 100 more that I didn't post. It got ridiculous.

Yeah how do you like that bruise under my eye? I covered it up pretty well with make up but in this pic its really visible. At school one of the dogs got a little out of man and went for my face. Let me tell you, it felt fantastic.

I'm pretty sure Aden is 100% Ryan and 0% me...

I promise this was not staged.

My face says it all. A look of desperation and exhaustion.

Wtf? Is this the hand jive?

He is wearing a shirt with the NesQuik bunny that says "Some bunny loves me" and boat shoes. We keep it classy.

I'm pretty sure this child doesn't know how to smile.

People must think Aden cries all the time. Seriously, look at these pictures..

Notice the "I'm ignoring this" face. I'm getting pretty good at tuning out the pterodactyl screaming, even when it's an inch from my ear.

"Seriously Aden?" This is the stage when I stop ignoring and just stare at him. You know how you can feel someone staring at you and it gets really awkward? Yeah he feels it.

Wings 'n Wrastlin

2011-04-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

This week was definitely not easy. I was away from Aden for a lot of it and I'm pretty sure we both missed each other like crazy. Unfortunately, this week will be much of the same with my wisdom teeth ordeal but after that it should get better.I picked Aden up at Ryan's house (we meet on campus since Ryan is going back there any ways and hilliard is a stupid drive) and since it was so nice outside, AJ and I took a walk! We walked to Buffalo Wild Wings and went had a Mom and Sonday (look how clever that is) and ate wings. I wonder if people think it's weird that I go out to dinner with just my 2 year old? I mean, it's not lonely or anything for me... but I think people think that it is. It's not like we have a really stimulating conversation, but we do chat. Which i'm sure looks hilarious when I'm talking in a normal voice to a toddler acting like he understands and replying in jibberish.

So, heads up- if you see me out to dinner with just aden, I'm not lonely. I chose to go alone with Aden to dinner and chances are, we are having a good time.

Before we started walking, I asked Ryan if there were any big sports events going on- it's on campus and I knew if anything was going on it would be packed and noisy aka, we wouldn't be going there- but Ryan assured me that it was okay and a fine place for kids. Little did either of us know that Wrestlemania is going on. I'm not familiar with wrestling. What I do know, I learned from south park. I don't know the people and I don't know why everyone is so angry and sweaty all the time.

By the time we got there, the place was already filled with wrastlin' fans. My favorite was the man with face paint and a leather jacket on. He went H.A.M. on his outfit. And then he had the audacity to look at me when Aden started yelling "ROCK!" (the rock was saying something about being back and I pointed him out to Aden and Aden really liked his name.) Yeah dude, you are a middle aged man dressed up as your favorite wrastlin guy. Please judge me.

It got loud fast and Aden wanted to go finish our walk, so we left pretty quickly. Aden was great until he collapsed and laid down in the middle of the crosswalk because he didn't want to hold my hand crossing the street. That was great.

On our walk down high st, a man in a wife beater with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth leaned out his window and yelled across the street "looking good mommy!!" If I had been closer to him I probably would have yelled "Thank you sir. I was looking for a way to show my 2 year old son how to objectify women so he can start early. I'm really glad you helped me out." but I just gave him a nasty look and kept walking.

I don't really have anything exciting planned for this week.. i'm just hoping the weather gets nicer so we can spend more time outside. If not I have a few crafts we could do. Not anything cool like fruit loop rosary's (this will happen.) but still something to do.

When we got home, I figured Aden would be tired from all of the walking and excitement, but who am I kidding? It's Aden Kiger. Welcome to my life: (warning, place volume on low. really really low.)

Okay take a look at the size comparison here. I cannot carry this kid much longer, my back is going to give out! Why does my kid have the same size torso as I do?

Aden and his amazing godparents, Charla Rae and Bill Bartelt. They had us over for brunch... best french toast I have ever had. It was fantastic.

Aden is a serious goofball.

And So It Begins...

2011-03-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

Spring break was NOT long enough. My brain needed a week to recover from the hell that was last quarter. Because of that, I didn't do much of anything. Except sleep. Usually I would be super excited because this is the last quarter before summer, but sadly, I don't get a summer vacation this year. I think 2 weeks at the beginning and 2 weeks at the end. Something like that. Oh well, Welcome to real life, right?

This is my schedule this week:

Monday- Class 6-9

Tuesday- Class 5-7:30, PACT after

Wednesday- PACT before, Class 6-9

Thursday- Class 5- 6:30

Friday- Ryan's night with Aden

Saturday- Weekend PACT 8am- 11am

Sunday- Weekend PACT 8am-11am, Aden with Ryan in the afternoon

And then of course I'll be up until 1am or later doing all of my homework/lecture notes for the week.

You know what is going to be really awesome? I get my wisdom teeth out April 8th (Friday). Luckily, Ryan is taking Aden Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so I get THREE DAYS recovery time. I don't even care about the pain, I haven't had that many days off in a row... ever. P.S. Ryan needs a sitter for aj that friday while he is in class so if you can do it, hit him up.

On top of those 3 days in April (which i'm guessing wont be fun at all), I am going out of town for Memorial Day weekend. My friend, Daryn, is having her bachelorette party... in Nashville!!! There are 5 of us going and I could NOT be more excited. Ryan will have Aden friday-monday... male bonding time. Aden needs it. He loves hair gel and finger nail trims and "cool guy" jeans. I have never met a more metrosexual 2 year old.

Oh, remember my post about inappropriate songs I sing to Aden? Here's a few more to add to the list.

- Rich Boy, "Throw some D's"- the song goes "throw some d's on that b****, just bought a cadillac" but we just sing it when we are cooking and change the words to "throw some cheese on that dish". By "we" I mean me with Aden saying "cheese" over and over again.

- Nicki Minaj, "Check It Out"- Aden seriously loves this song. He sings along with it and goes "oh oh oh oh oh ohhhh"

Aden is talking more than ever and usually talks 2-4 words at a time. Today at lunch he said "non, pop, daddy. Where dee go?" He's also obsessed with counting. He likes to point to things and have my count to 5 over and over again. He's so awesome.

Jumping is new favorite. He has been able to jump for awhile but now he likes to jump on beds and jump off of things. There is nothing cuter than a jumping toddler. And I will prove that with these pictures:

That is one handsome redhead.

The Quiet Monster

2011-03-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

Aden learned how to open doors. All doors.

I was in the laundry room listening to music and Aden was in the kitchen, right next to me. It was probably about 50 degrees outside. Not cold, but definitely not hot. Apparently Aden opened the door and wandered around outside in the mud with no shoes on and a short sleeve t shirt. I caught him outside singing to himself, spinning in circles, holding a stick.

Then I found him out in the garage sitting in an empty baby pool. Don't ask me how he got that thing down, it was hanging on a wall.

Probably the highlight of our day (besides the pterodactyl-like screeching) was when I came in to get him from his nap and when he saw my face, he immediately said "ew." and pretended to be sleeping. Rejected.

OH AND THE BEST THING EVER HAPPENED!

You know how Aden is a gross boy who doesn't care if he sits in the same diaper all day? Well today he reached behind him, grabbed his diaper and goes "mommy. uh oh. poop." I changed him and guess what? THERE WAS POOP! Then later he was running around with his diaper off and I asked him if he had to go to the bathroom. He ran to the toilet, sat there for a second, got up, tore off a piece of toilet paper, put it in the toilet, flushed, and ran away. Granted he actually missed the point of going to the bathroom and wiping but whatever, at least he knows what it is for. Ryan and I are really working together with the potty training deal. It's not going to happen any time soon we are guessing but introducing it won't hurt.

Today I tried a different approach to the screaming. Instead of time out (Aden really just likes to push buttons and see what he can get away with) the quiet monster came. Basically the quiet monster is me walking around like a monster (except my arms are in a t-rex position) saying "shh shh shh shh shh". It worked. Of course it did. Anything that embarrasses me always works. I'm pretty sure Aden wants to make his mom look like the biggest idiot on the planet.

We were time out- free today!!! And also nap-free. That better be a coincidence because there is no way in heck i'm getting rid of naps yet. If my kid is going to wake up at 6 in the morning, I better be getting at least an hour nap.

Speaking of which, it's 8:30. I'm going to bed.

The Worst Noise a Human Being Has Ever Made

2011-03-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

I think the title says it all. This is Aden's new thing to get what he wants. He was probably in time out for 1/2 the day today. I am laughing hysterically in the video because I was going to kill myself if I didn't. You will understand why after you hear this....

I would rather have a pen stuck into my eye then hear this all day tomorrow. Help. Me.

Spring Break Part 1

2011-03-22T05:21:00.001-07:00

I thought I was going to be blogging everyday of my spring break but it turns out, my days really aren't all that exciting or are too personal to be put on a public blog. All that needs to be said right now, is that I love Karma. I don't wish bad things upon people, but people get what they deserve.

Spring break is amazing. Last night I read 250 pages in a book. A book that I chose to read. That isn't about dissecting humans or animals or anything! I can exercise, cook, nap, go to bed before 3am... this is crazy.

Saturday night my sister and I went to the lil wayne concert.. IT WAS AWESOME. We danced a lot. At one point Lizzie was in the bathroom when a song she liked came on and she ran out, still zipping her pants up and had a full on dance party. By herself. While people watched. Meanwhile I was standing screaming and dancing in a circle. It must run in the family.

I think that is pretty much all I have done. Besides experiencing a country bar with line dancing. Something I learned: the only dancing I am good at is booty shaking. Give me a rap song and I can get low, I can pop lock and drop it, I can move it like bernie, shoot I might even be able to c-walk... put on a country song and I don't move. I don't know all those heel-toe-slide-kick moves.

I'm spending this spring break catching up on sleep. I went to bed at 1am last night (seriously I could not put my book down) and got a solid 5 hours of sleep. Someday Aden will sleep later than 7. And I will cry tears of happiness.

Aden fake sleeping

**I want to thank everyone who sent me a message regarding the womp womp womp post. Every single I message I received is GREATLY appreciated. I was in the process of copying and pasting them to my folder but a certain someone decided it was their place to delete them. Apparently if their own life is screwed up they want to try to screw mine up as well.

Hayshoo Mommy

2011-03-17T20:22:00.000-07:00

Aden has been really talking. Like... REALLY talking. It makes me proud but at the same time really creeps me out. In a good way.

This morning, I was making my bed and Aden went downstairs. 3 seconds later I hear him SOBBING. Usually I can tell when something is seriously wrong so I sped downstairs thinking he got his finger stuck in the vent or the dvd player (yeah that happens about 3 times a day). No. He is standing at the bottom of the stairs with dog poop on his foot (apparently one of the dogs felt the need to defecate in the middle of the foyer) just having a breakdown screaming "DUHT! DUHT" (dirt) in between his sobs. I take him over to the sink and wash everything off, the whole time Aden is saying "ewww. Dog duht. ewww"

After I finish cleaning his foot, I put him down and go get a wet paper towel to clean up the rest of the fecal matter that is now smushed into the wood floor. I go to pick it up and I see Aden with the broom sweeping where it was. He then lifts up the rug and sweeps the poop under it, turns to me and says "WhurTeeDoh?" (where'd it go). Gee, aden... I dont know. Possibly in the place you just hid it.

As I'm cleaning he says "eww Dog Duht. WhateeDoo?" (what are we gonna do) and then says Hayshoo mommy (thank you) when I'm done. Best conversation I have ever had.

About the Hayshoo mommy. Having Aden around is like having a fan club that follows you around all day and praises you for everything. I'll be emptying the dishwasher and Aden will come up behind me and pat me on the butt and go "hey. hayshoo mommy". The other day in the store he wanted to hold a box and when I let him he said "hayshoo mommy" about 5o times. Of course I replied "you're welcome" to every single one. Manners go both ways. If I don't show him my manners, he doesn't show me his.

Oh, also today he comes up behind me and smacks me as hard as he could. It was a full body hit. There was a wind up i'm pretty sure. I whip around real fast with that horrible mom look and Aden puts his hand down, looks around and goes "WHEREDEEGO!?" (Where'd he go). Yeah Aden, like a mysterious little man follows me around and hits me and then runs away and blames you. Nice try.

Speaking of hitting. Terrible two's are living up to their name, for real. I think we had 3 time outs today. He gets mad and his way of showing it, is hitting. It's an automatic reflex for him, which worries me. My mom was holding him today when he was crying today and I said "No, Aden, we are staying inside right now" and he hauls off and hits MY MOM. Oh hellllll no. He KNEW what he did was wrong and immediately starting crying, but he still had to get into some trouble. He also screams. Really really really really loudly. And throws himself on the ground. And makes his body go limp. There is a lot of dragging him from room to room going on. If you need a diaper change, you need a diaper change. Get dragged (literally) around or learn to pee in the potty. Flopping around is not a choice. Neither is kicking.

I mean HONESTLY, he has had his diaper changed for over 2 years now. Multiple times a day. and he still cries every time. If you still aren't aware that you are peeing, you can deal with a diaper. He ran around for less than 5 minutes naked yesterday and peed on the corner of my bed. In 5 minutes. WHO DOES THAT?!

Basically that is all that is going on over here. OH and I'm on spring break!! I can't believe I made it through this quarter. It was killer. All I will say is that I hate business communications. I really thought I was going to have to drop that class. My spring break doesn't consist of going to Panama or Mexico or even Indiana. It involves a tanning bed, box tickets at a lil wayne concert with my sister, A "Now that's what I call music" party (where all songs on all NOW cd's are compiled and made into one bad ass soundtrack), and hanging out with my boy Aden. Sounds like a perfect time to me.

P.S. I really am sorry that all my stories are about fecal matter/def

ecating.

Womp Womp Womp

2011-03-15T05:06:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it was the stress from the ridiculously hard anesthesia final I had yesterday, the 15 page paper due last Friday, or the parasitology final I have today but last night I think I had a pre-mid-mid life crisis. Or a pre-quarter-life crisis. Either way, it sucked.

To be honest, I don't really know who I am. And to make matters more complicated, I don't know who I want to be. I mean, I know I want to be a good person... but that's about it.

It's really hard to grow up. Raising a kid WHILE you're growing up is even harder. I mean seriously, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm 2o. I still make horrible decisions. I still care about what people think of me. I still seek approval from everyone.

I don't want my son having to grow up and watch his mom make mistakes. It's embarrassing for both of us. Sometimes I miss when Aden was a newborn. It was a completely different feeling. I didn't care what I looked like or what people said about me or that the only thing I could hold a conversation about was baby poop and childbirth*. I only cared about my son. I didn't go out alone with my friends until Aden was ten months old. Ten.

One thing that I do that kind of sucks sometimes is giving chances. I give EVERYONE a chance, no matter what I have heard or what people tell me. If someone reaches out for help, I will give it to them no matter what. Because of that, I have met a ton of awesome, fun people. But also, I have been hurt a lot. And a lot of rumors spread around. (which I am totally used to. I think I was thought to be pregnant my entire 4 years in high school. I threw them all off when I got pregnant right after graduation. It was part of my master plan.)

I appreciate every single message I have received and all the support I am getting, I really do. I actually save every nice message I get and put them in a folder on my computer. I look back on them and remember that there really are good people. If anyone has any kind of advice, I would love to hear it. Message me on facebook, email me (epeterson0234@gmail.com), whatever. I don't care if I have never spoken to you in my life, it won't be creepy I promise. I'm just pretty lost.

*I think I'm still like that. If you get me talking, I will be completely open about being childbirth. It was a gross miracle that I had to go through therefore you should have no problem hearing about how I could feel facial features on his way out or that I peed my pants after he was born or that I bled for like 5 months after (long story) or my battle with the ragin' rrhoids. No, it's not pleasant but I would rather tell people the truth and see their disgusted reactions than sugar coat it and hide what really happens. I don't sugar coat. It's a known fact.

P.S.- AGAIN this is not an attempt to have a pity party for myself. It's a blog for me to say how I'm feeling and ask for advice. I want to remember EVERYTHING about being a young/teen mom, including bad times like these.

The process of taking a picture.

2011-03-12T19:49:00.001-08:00

When Aden doesn't want to be held, he doesn't want to be held. Flat out.

I try to take a picture of us once a week (typically the one day a week I decide to put on make up and my hair isn't pulled back in a mom bun or covered in drool, fecal matter, and food) and usually it fails miserably.

First, he flails his body around and tries to get down. Like this:

Then, he cries. Like this:

Next, he gets offended.

As a last resort, he fake cries.

Finally, he gives an awkward fake smile while trying to leap from my arms.

And then I give up.

Yaaaaay 2 year olds!

"Awww"

2011-03-12T19:41:00.000-08:00

I walked downstairs the other day and I see Aden hugging his giant Pablo balloon and saying, "awwwww!"

So of course I had to take a video of it.

Oh, and did you know that he knows how to change the song on itunes on my computer?? Because yeah, that's normal for a 2 year old.

Also... I guess it's now acceptable to spit out food mid chew. Aden says so.

(and if you are wondering what he is so into watching on the TV, it's the today show.)

**P.S. this post is dedicated to my sisters. Erika because she won't stop asking me for more movies of Aden, and Lizzie because she just likes to see her name on here. Go sisters!!!

More of Aden's Birthday

2011-03-10T20:50:00.001-08:00

On the morning of Aden's birthday, he got a special breakfast! A birthday pancake!!!

Basically it was a regular pancake with sprinkles and strawberries around it and a candle in the middle. But nothing was cuter than seeing his face light up when I lit the candle and sang "happy birthday" to him at 6:30 in the morning. Just me and him. And a special pancake. Just how it should be.

And here is AJ playing with one of his new favorite toys.

(The one with the pen that looks like a penis)

Oh and here is the video from his birthday party on Sunday when he stuck his hand in the candle. Way to go man. Way to go.

HBIC

2011-03-10T18:36:00.001-08:00

For the love of God, Aden... please stop calling a chip a "teet".

In the past few weeks, Aden has started repeating EVERYTHING anyone says and coming up with more and more words. Today he started saying "thank you mommy", which really comes out as "hee shu mommy"... but is still so cute. Hitting and temper tantrums are becoming more of a problem. He now thinks that whenever he doesn't get his way, he can hit. Which is a lot.

I'm not a spanking kinda gal, just because I think that if he hits me, and I hit him back, that is just showing him that hitting is okay. And it's not. Plus he will be bigger than me pretty soon and I really don't want to be smacked around by my own child. I'm the HBIC. *

On Monday (Aden's 2nd birthday!), Aden had his 2 year check up. He weighed 28 pounds and was 33.5 (maybe it was 31. Something like that) inches tall. He is in the 50th percentile for weight and almost the 50th for height (dude I am so sorry for giving you my short genes AJ). He didn't have to get ANY shots and got a happy meal after it for being such a great guy. I know right? A happy meal. With chicken nuggets and apples. I'm a babykiller.

Anyways, these videos from today made me melt a little bit. He is too cute to handle sometimes.

*Head Bitch in Charge. Didn't you ever watch I Love New York?

It's Aden's party and I can cry if I want to

2011-03-06T16:54:00.000-08:00

On the night you were born,

the moon smiled with such wonder

that the stars peeked in to see you

and the night wind whispered,

"Life will never the the same."

Because there had never been anyone like you...

ever in the world.

Tonight, I chose to read this book, "On the Night you Were Born"... bad choice. I cried the entire way through it.

Aden will be 2 years old in 4 hours and 28 minutes. 2 years ago I was in the hospital, all 160+ pounds of me, laying in a hospital bed, eating ice chips and feeling amazing (thanks to that damn epidural). I think by this time I had stopped studying (yeah, I studied in labor) and was either watching Ellen Degeneres stand up or The Sound of Music. Both really awesome and appropriate movies to watch in labor.

Today was my mans party! We just had a very very very small get together with my family, pippa and adriana, and Aden's godparents and their daughter Emily (who is a kick ass babysitter). We had ice cream cake from dairy queen (WIN) and it was the best decision I have ever made. Except we might have had a party foul when Lizzie was trying to cut the cake and a piece was launched at Aden and landed on the floor. Minor casualty.

First of all, my parents are amazing (I'm working on a post all about that) and they and the bartelt's bought Aden a SWING SET. Like an actual swing set with a slide and swings and a glide-y thing. I swear, the first thing my mom said when I got pregnant was "We are NOT getting a swing set!" I cannot even describe how grateful I am for that gift. Aden is going to have so much fun on that thing. And probably break some bones. Seriously. My family is awesome. (duh the Bartelt's are family)

Second of all, I have never had more fun with a child's toy in my life. I got Aden a powerwheel's tough talkin jeep. I cannot wait until it gets warmer so I can tear the sidewalk up. Seriously, I chose that one specifically so it could hold 130 pounds just so I could ride with Aden in it. Don't judge me.

Anyways....

As cliche as this is, I have never loved anyone like I do Aden. I mean the way I describe it is, you know when you have starburst, and the only flavors left are yellow and pink? I would give Aden the pink. I wouldn't even ask to go half-sies.

So here is a note to you Aden Joseph, from your mom:

A.J.

You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. You have changed my life in so many ways and I cannot thank you enough for that. One day you will think I am a big dork because I dance with my mouth open and because I still listen to Ludacris. You will want to walk half a mile in front of me so I don't embarrass you. But I want you to know that I will always be here. I will always support you. I will always love you. I will always protect you. I will always be your mom.

I am the person I am today because of you. And I am forever grateful to you for that.

I love you Aden Joseph. Happy 2nd birthday!

-Money (aka Mommy)

p.s. Thank you for smacking me in the head multiple times for day and throwing awful tantrums. One day I promise to get you back by showing embarrassing photos to all of your friends.

Foodgasm!

2011-03-01T22:25:00.000-08:00

I told you I was going all out on the videos this week!

This one is from this morning and absolutely hysterical. About halfway through the video he starts rolling around in all the fake food and laughing. Sometimes I don't even know how this child is mine.

Who ate Ellyn?

2011-03-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

This next video is the most embarrassing thing I think I will ever post. I am unrecognizable (at least I hope). I was 37 weeks pregnant and had been in the hospital for high blood pressure- with no shower- for 2.5 days. My swelling was at its peak and I was pumped full of IV fluids. Before I went into the hospital I weighed about 160, so adding all that in (my swelling was ridiculous) I probably was between 165-170 pounds. I felt horrible, I looked horrible, I was in pain, and I was tired.

FINALLY... TWO years later. I am willing to show people this video. This is real life. My body did not take pregnancy well. And FINALLY, I am willing to laugh at that. No one but family has seen these videos.

Oh and for the record, in the second video- I did NOT cry twice. I only cried when the IV got misplaced and I started getting painful shocks into my vein. I totally did not cry when they blew up a balloon inside of me. I remember me bleeding a LOT and them freaking out though... that balloon thing didn't go so great.

Shit happens

2011-03-01T08:09:00.000-08:00

This morning, a man from the gas company came to the front door. While I was talking to him, Ted (our dog) got so scared that he decided to make a giant BM. I heard Aden going "UH OH UH OH! OH NO!" but was still trying to have a conversation with this stranger. After he tells me to go unlock the side gate, I come inside. Aden has started to walk around with a bowl on his head and throw the fecal matter. Because you know, he was raised in a barn. I start washing Aden's hands and then Frank (our other dog) starts EATING it. So I have a scared shitless dog, a dog with foreign poop in his stomach, and a child with it all over his hands. And the man from the gas company witnessed everything.

Lord Jesus I am too young for this.

In other news, here's another video. Ryan thought I deleted it. He is fergalicious.

P.S. Aden heard me say "meathead" and proceeded to put a fake hamburger on his head. He knows what's up.

YMCA

2011-03-01T06:33:00.000-08:00

Ryan and I used to make Aden dance ALL the time. I mean, why do you think he's got so much swag now? This is an example of our dance time with AJ when he was 8 months old (don't worry we will totally get back to embarrassing fat pics/videos of me)

Stop Talking.

2011-02-26T11:47:00.000-08:00

In the days leading up to Aden's 2nd birthday, I'm going to be posting some videos! The first one I'm going to post is a lesson to all men when their girlfriend/wife is in labor. Just. Stop. Talking.

At this point when Ryan claims I am "tired", my epidural had stopped working and I was on my way into full active labor. I could feel everything. I was focusing on breathing and not punching anyone in the face. When Ryan says that the video is blurry because of the lighting, I remember thinking "God if you turn on that light I am going to slap you in the face". This was 2 hours before Aden was born so you KNOW things were happening.

Also, I love it how Ryan says he is tired. Not only is it only 10:30 at night, but he had gotten a good sleep at home the night before. I had been in the hospital since Wednesday with an IV stuck in my arm the entire time (including while sleeping), peeing into a jug, getting my blood drawn 2-3 times a day, and then having contractions the entire day but no Ry, you must be EXHAUSTED.*

Another thing to NOT do. There is a machine next to the bed that shows the intensity and duration of each contraction. It shows up on the paper right before the woman feels it. DO NOT stand by the bed and state "WHOA that was a big one!" THANK YOU. I did not know that I was in crippling pain. I need you to point out how painful they are while you stand happily and not in pain next to me.

For real.

Probably the best thing to do is not to try and comfort her or tell her to breathe. I remember my mom goes "it's okay, just breathe" and in the nastiest tone I could I yelled "THANKS MOM!"... she almost left the room. My bad, mom. Love you! The best thing to do is cheer her on and tell her how great she is doing and that she can do it! Or in my case, that Wendy's is open until 2am.

So this is what labor looks like when your epidural starts to not work. Be happy that I don't have one when I could feel everything. There was some screaming. And maybe some snapping at nurses.

*I mean this in a joking way. I have told Ryan this like 300 times. Don't think i'm hatin on him.

**Also, when he said I was 6cm. I was 8.

Ride it

2011-02-23T17:48:00.000-08:00

Aden has this really weird habit of riding me like a horse. **

Disturbing image right?

Get your minds out of the gutter. I mean throwing himself on my back and jumping up and down and going "doo doo doo" like he is a jockey in a horse race. It's realllly really funny but at the same time painful. It usually turns into him stepping on my back and jumping off. And then into him throwing his entire body as hard as he can onto me.

Today I took pictures of this.

And then he decided to lay on the ground and flail himself back and forth.

The past couple of days with him have been SO awesome, another reason i've been so emotional. He knows how to say "ryan" now, which I think is just awesome. I like that my name is impossible for young children to say. That way, Aden will never learn my name and will have to call me mom (or money I guess) forever. HA. Anyways, it's been a lot less whining. Possibly the most annoying sound ever is him going "eh eh eh eh eh" pointing to something. We are learning to USE WORDS, especially please. Some new favorite words are "bread" and "run!"

By far, the cutest thing he has done this week is "singing" his "ABC's". His version is swaying back and forth with his hands behind his back going "c c c c eeeee c c". Omg. Hello awesomeness. I'm in the process of getting a video. Relax.

**I could have changed the wording. But I didn't. Because it's HILARIOUS. Also, I swear I don't take pictures of Aden and I all day. I tried to take one good one but they came out so fantastic.

All about my thyroid

2011-02-23T07:51:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to update about my thyroid! Because I know everyone really cares about the little gland in my neck that makes shit get crazy.

My first bloodwork came back with high TSH, so I had to go get an ultrasound check to make sure my thyroid wasn't enlarged or anything. The ultrasound kind of sucked and made my throat swollen... it feels realllllly weird to get a thyroid rubdown. Anyways, the day our power went out I got a letter in the mail saying that I have "multiple small cysts- all appear to be benign". The benign part = good. The cyst part? Well, i'm pretty sure no one really wants a bunch of cysts hanging out anywhere in their body. I went back to get MORE bloodwork done and see if my TSH was any lower (it was 2.5 weeks later) and FINALLY got the results.

My TSH is normal! That means that yeah, there are cysts but they aren't causing any damage to my thyroid. I haven't heard from my doctor in awhile so I don't know if I'm supposed to just hang out with these things in my neck or what. Whatever! All I know is that I'm gaining weight and feeling better. Huzzah!

Now on to getting my wisdom teeth out. This is going to be so much fun! yaaaaay!

Planned Parenthood

2011-02-23T06:19:00.000-08:00

http://saveplannedparenthood.webs.com/

Can I just say that planned parenthood helped me out the most when I first found out I was pregnant? I was 18, had no idea what was going on, and literally thought everyone went there.

Here are some things you probably don't know:

1) Planned Parenthood offered abortion as a choice that someone could make but it was made clear that they do NOT tell you where you can go to have this done.

2) Planned Parenthood gave me my due date of March 27 on August 1st, 2008. I couldn't get into my doctor until September, when I was nearly 12 weeks along (which is common, but for a teen mom it was really best to know early)

3) A lady took me, alone, into her office, told me I was pregnant, and gave me about 20 pamphlets talking about free programs they have, free sonograms, and adoption. Not one was about abortion.

4) After I left, I kept in contact with the woman I talked to. She called me about once a month to check up on me and just talk. It was the most helpful thing I have ever had a stranger do for me. The last phone call I had was just before Aden's first birthday.

5) Not to mention the fact that they do free HIV screenings, free STD tests, birth control, and cancer screenings.

This is my experience with the Planned Parenthood in Columbus. It was fantastic.

SAVE PLANNED PARENTHOOD

T minus 13 days

2011-02-22T08:59:00.000-08:00

I think there comes a point in every mom's life when they realize that their child isn't ever going to be a baby again. For me, that point was today. And it was depressing.

I don't know if it's the fact that his 2nd birthday is coming up in 13 days or if it's the fact that he told me he wanted ice cream in a bowl for lunch, but it hit me hard that I will never have that 7 pound little squishy baby back. The one who slept in until 9 right next to me in my bed, the one who only smiled at my voice, the one who I would wake up with 3 times a night to feed. I remember how quiet the house was and how I would just stare at him when he slept.

Another thing that hit me today- In just 2011, I have been called a "fake mom", I've been told that I'm selfish, I've had people say that they don't like me who don't know me, I've been told that I'm not fun, I've had people who I thought were my friends completely betray me, I've been called every name in the book... I like to think of myself as kind of a strong person, but there is only so much one person can take. I mean what is this, high school? So I ask all of you calling me these names and saying horrible things about me- Do you know me at all? Do you know my situation? Do you know my side of the story? Do you know what really happened?

My guess is, you don't.

When sad times happen, Aden knows it. Today we sat in his room and I watched this happen:

and then I cried. Because sometimes, people suck.

P.S.- don't whine if I delete you on facebook. It's facebook. And I probably have a reason I don't want you looking at pictures of me or my son.

Mora Til Den Sterke

2011-02-19T07:19:00.001-08:00

Ever since I found out I was pregnant, I have wanted a mom tattoo. I have one tattoo already, on my hip. It's the belt of Orion (3 stars) that my two sisters and I have. Bro tat baby!

When Aden was born, I knew I wanted his initials (ajk) somewhere on my body. It had to be some place that I could add more names if I had more children. I chose my wrist. When thinking about that, I decided maybe I wanted a little something more. My family is A LOT scandinavian, my mom always tells us to "BUCK UP! You're a viking!" I've grown up thinking being norwegian was bad ass. And I wanted a bad ass tattoo. So no doubt I wanted something in the language of bad ass.

I looked up different sayings that I came up with on my own. All typically beginning with "Mother of".. eventually I came up with Mora Til Den Sterke... Mother of the strong. I think it's pretty explanatory... my children are/will be strong. In many ways.

SO. I made a tattoo appointment. For February 18th. I told a few people about the appointment like my sisters and my close friends but that's about it. I figured not everyone is going to like my tattoo and is probably going to try to convince me out of getting it. But I like it. And that's all that matters.

Anyway, I went to Durb Morrison (who did my stars and my sisters stars) who is absolutely amazing. He took his time to adjust the font and make sure it was the size I wanted and was perfect in every way. I am SO happy with how they turned out..

Seben. Seben. Nine. Seben.

2011-02-17T10:16:00.001-08:00

I keep thinking of all these really great posts I could do. And then I forget them. So it turns into a whole bunch of random stories that really don't make sense because I can't tell a story to save me life. And that's what this post is going to be. A bunch of random things that really have no point.

First off, Aden learned the word please. Which comes out as "peeeeeees".. Probably one of the cutest things ever. Right now I have him convinced that if I say please, he has to do it. Example : "aden can mommy have a kiss?" "Noooo" "please?" and then he kisses me. Works every time. Hopefully that'll keep up for the next, eh 20 years or so? me:"aden can you not do drugs?" aj:"meh" me: "please?"... see where i'm going with this?

Aden is also learning so many new words. And they aren't really "normal" words either. He knows the basics- Mommy, Daddy, Dog, Cat, Book, Milk.. all of that. But he knows what a porcupine says too. (it's a long story but basically it's like a hissing sound of a cat when the quills stand up. Go with it.) He knows cheese, pizza, snack, blue, jelly (that one comes out alllll messed up. like eye- eej), socks, shoes, smoothie (me), yogurt.. just random stuff. Today I heard him repeating his toy that counts 1 to 10. Seven was his favorite number so he kept repeating "seben. seben. seben. niiiiiiiieeeene. seben." Hey bud, whatever gets you there.

He likes everyone to go everywhere at all times. If we go down to the basement, the whole family comes. One person gets the honor of carrying blankie, another gets the honor of carrying him, and whoever is left gets to parade sadly behind everyone feeling rejected by a toddler. (usually me.)

He calls his blanket Shoe-y. He calls the slide the "wee". He calls my mom nonny. When he REALLY wants something, he just yells "MOM" no matter who is watching him. So polite. Am I the only one that can't believe he is almost two?! What happened!?

I feel bad because school is really difficult right now and I feel like i'm half-assing being a mom. I wish I had the time and energy to do everything I want to do with Aden but I just can't. I had an exam last week, an exam Tuesday, and an exam Thursday. Imagine how sad I was when Aden started screaming and crying when I handed him off to Ryan. He just wanted mom time (as crazy and independent as he acts he still loves mom-time. He is a closet mama's boy). Luckily this week I don't have any tests and get Aden tonight until next Saturday night.

I forgot half of the things I was going to put in this post. Dang it.

Tatch

2011-02-09T05:52:00.001-08:00

My son is not even 2 yet and can play catch, or "tatch" as he says it.

This deserves some video props.

OSU should probably start recruiting him now... just sayin...

Eets Imported

2011-02-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

Okay so I know I posted this on my facebook but I thought I'd post it here too so it won't get too lost! Seriously, my eyes started watering when my sister showed me this video for the first time.

Some notes about the video:

a) he's been saying he is 2 for the past three months now. 2 is the only number he can say and it's ALMOST correct, so just go with it. I've been trying to get him to say it on video but he usually gets all shy or starts crying for food. (true life: my kid's addicted to food.. primarily yogurt and nilla wafers)

b) Apparently both Ryan and I say "no no no" enough to make him rat us out.

c) He is a way better performer for aunt lizzie than he is for his mommy

Other exciting life events:

-Aden and I had an awesome mommy-son dinner. I made his favorite- homemade mac n cheese, blueberries, and cucumbers. It really doesn't take much to please him.

-Last night Pippa and I went to see "No Strings Attached"... I think both of us wanted to shoot ourselves after it (single moms watching other people unrealistically fall in love, i mean...come on) but it was still funny!

- Before the movie, we went to get coffee and a foreign man (thick accent and some name that started with a G-) goes "I love yo har cahlor. ees it imported?" I don't even want to know what my face looked like when I looked at Pippa to help me out but I replied with a smile "thanks! It's mine." Was that correct? I mean, it is mine. It's not from Russia or something... I just slap some good ol' hydrogen peroxide on any hair that appears a color other than white.. that doesn't mean it's imported though!

-Speaking of that, mama done got her hair did today. Usually, I just do it with literally a tub of bleach and have Caity do it (yessss I know what I'm doing, my hairdresser told me to) but about every 6 months or so, I go in to have it done. I loooove the girl who does my hair, Amanda. I don't think she would cut or dye my hair a different color even if I begged. She trimmed me up today and made my hair look and feel 5,000 times better.

-here's something I bet you didn't know- when I was little, I NEVER had long hair. I always had my hair in a bob. This is the longest my hair has ever been. I definitely learned my lesson 2.5 years ago when I dyed my hair brown (wtf, brown isn't even my natural hair color) and cut all of my hair off.

Anyway, here's my imported hair... that I guarantee you can't even tell got anything done to it.

Rollin' with the Punches

2011-02-04T06:54:00.000-08:00

Oh. My. God. The past 3 days have just been one giant ball of sucking.

We got hit with this giant ice storm on Tuesday evening. Well, Tuesday night at about 11pm, right after I had started chugging an energy drink in attempt to study for my parasitology exam, the power went out. I always forget that power out = internet out = no studying. I figure, whatever it will come on by morning. I do some complaintexting to caity and go to bed at 1ish. Guess what? The power doesn't come on.

Aden wakes up at 5:30. Do you KNOW how dark it is at 5:30? Really dark. We make our way downstairs and immediately Aden starts screaming for waffles. How in the world do you explain to a 22 month old that the power is out? I started making an attempt but then neither of us could figure out what I was talking about so I just gave up and offered yogurt. He was content. Until he found out he couldn't listen to the Elf soundtrack or watch backyardigans. That's when the tears came.

It was about 7 by this time and I had enough power left in my computer to put in a dvd of Barney. The house was dropping in temperature so we snuggled in my bed and watched it, then took a nap. Aden woke up at 1030ish and my mom suggested we go over to Charla's. By this time Aden's nose was running from the cold (even though he had on cotton jammies with fleece footy pajamas on top) and it was going to be lunchtime pretty soon. We packed some things up- diapers, milk, toys, switched the car seat to my mom's car because mine had a thick sheet of ice over it, and headed over to charla's (aden's godmother). Immediately Aden started destroying the place- as two year old boys often do. You know, riding animals, putting fake fruit into plants, closing all the doors... just the norm. At 3:30, our power still wasn't on and I needed to go back home to get my scrubs and apparently some pajamas for Aden. Ryan's dad and stepmom were going to allow us to stay at there house since they already have a crib, diapers,

milk, etc. At our house, I had a letter from my doctor about the ultrasound results, giving me some not-so-pleasant news (which I will post later about when I know more) and reminding me to go get more bloodwork done. Faaaaaantastic.

On my way to class, I try to call my doctor to get more information about my thyroid and they tell me she will call right back. Then my phone dies. Great. I go to class and afterwards realize that I don't have my car seat! I drive back to Charla's to get it from my mom, only to find out that she had given it to Ryan to give to me when he had picked up Aden to take him to his dad's. I call Ryan from my mom's phone to make sure he left the car seat and oops- he forgot. I

drive BACK to where I just came from, pick up the car seat, and drive alllll the way to Hilliard. It's now 9pm on Wednesday. I get situated at Ryan's house, do some homework, and realize that my computer charger stopped working. Perfect. I do what I can before my computer dies, and go to sleep. Ryan's dad was AWESOME and woke up with Aden on Thursday morning so I could get some sleep. I woke up at 8:30 and immediately started packing things up. My sister's school had closed so she agreed to help me run some errands. At 9:15, I reinstall the car seat in my car, pack everything up, and go pick Lizzie up.

We go to the place for the blood draw (or what I thought was the place) and I run in to get it done. Turns out it was a doctor's office and they had no idea what I was talking about. Go me. She tells me to try next door at the Moorehouse. We pull into this HUGE building- it's like a mini hospital- and attempt to find a place to park.. I choose the parking garage. First of all, there are so many dang pillars in that garage that I could not get a good parking spot. I finally backed in and had about 3 inches of room to squeeze out the door. We called my doctor's office to make SURE this was where we were supposed to go (seriously, it was huge) a

nd after waiting on the line for 10 minutes, they confirmed that yes, this was indeed where I was supposed to be.

Aden wakes up from sleeping in the car so we get out the giant stroller and put him in. I forgot to mention, the parking garage had a thick layer of ice all over it as well. Imagine skating and pushing a stroller. Not an easy task.

We probably should have noticed the signs that said "elevators located on 1a, 2b, a

nd 3b before we parked... we parked on 3a. This required us to carry the stroller down a flight of stairs to get to the elevator. There was an audience of course. We get to the reception area and after not-so-nicely calling my name to register (There was no line and I signed my name in. The lady did not approve) they asked for a photo ID. NO problem, I just had it out when we were at the wrong place. Turns out it WAS a problem and I started looking frantically for my license. It wasn't anywhere. Luckily the lady hated her job enough to not even care anymore and just put in my date of birth and my doctor and sent me over to the lab (which I again got lost walking to).

At the lab, she starts digging around in my vein trying to get the blood to come out. She finally gets it and afterwards goes "Yeah, you're probably going to have a little bruise there, sorry about that! The vein kept running away!" Again, perfect. By this time, it's 11am and I haven't had one thing to eat yet. We make our way to the car, Lizzie is carrying Aden and I'm pushing the stroller (much easier that way). It's kind of difficult to get Aden in his car seat since my car is so small, so I always do it and Lizzie puts away the stroller. She goes to hand him to me, almost falls, but catches herself. For some reason, I found her facial expression to be hilarious and could NOT stop laughing. Between that, being weak, and my right arm not being able to bend all the way from the bandage she put on, I couldn't get Aden into his seat. At one point his face was pointed towards the back of his car seat and he was wedged in the middle of the seats. Mother of the year, I know. Lizzie stepped in and lifted him in and I buckled him, still

while laughing hysterically. I really hope a security camera captured this on video because it would definitely make a hit youtube video.

We go to our house (still no power) get MORE clothes for both of us, a pack n play, more toys, some books, bath wash, and other essentials. We then stop at Wendy's (my addiction for the past week) and get Aden some chicken nuggets. Definitely not what I like my child to have for lunch but a)we were on the go and there was NO power at my house, let alone anything to eat b) we had more errands to run and c) it was on our way and had a drive thru.

We go to the mall and I get my computer charger. Nothing else exciting happens at the mall besides Aden having to be carried out of the mall kicking and screaming because he wanted to walk up and down the food court and we needed to go. After the mall we stop at Krogers to pick up baby wipes, milk, and sippy cups. Then we go back to Lizzie's house, where we stayed the night.

We actually got power around 6pm on Thursday night but the house still wasn't going to be warm enough for us to sleep there, and I really didn't feel like lugging everything I had just brought over, back to our house. Aden woke up at 6am. By 9:15am I had Aden fed, dressed, and out the door, everything packed up and in the car, done dishes, and we were on our way home. By 9:45am I had thrown out everything that went bad in the fridge and freezer, started laundry, put back all the luggage we brought, gave Aden a snack, cleaned Aden's room and my room, and put Aden down for a nap.

This is my 3rd trip upstairs with some of our luggage and the empty hamper. No make up, tired eyes, pajama's... the works.

These 3 days have been some of the hardest days since he was born. It's really hard to be traveling around by yourself so much with a 2 year old, not knowing when your power will be back on, and relying on other people to keep you warm. These are the times that make me wish that I wasn't a single mom and had someone on the other end helping me out. But these are also the times that make me stronger, that are empowering, that make me a better person, a better woman, and a better mom. Thank you SO much to the Kigers, to the Bartelts and especially to my sister Lizzie for helping us out.

I'm going to go take a lonnng hot bath and thank God for what I have.

P.S.- congratulations if you made it this far... this was a looooong post

Mom Moves

2011-01-28T21:20:00.001-08:00

Two videos:

The first is Aden with Aunt Lizzie doing his new favorite thing- Bouncing. Apparently he thinks getting his shoulders dislocated is the greatest thing in the world. Ow.

The second is actually REALLY embarrassing for me but we all need to laugh at ourselves once in awhile right? Remember how I said Moms just cannot dance? Perfect example. perfect. In my defense- I thought you could only see the doorway, I thought the camera was zoomed in more- hence why I jumped into the area I thought you could see when Aden was behind the camera watching. Honestly, I will probably delete this post later on because I will regret ever showing my mom moves.

Money, Dirt, and Jesus

2011-01-28T20:02:00.000-08:00

What's new over here?

Absolutely nothing.

I have a tantrummy -that's a word right? yeah. it is.- 22.5 month old (someday I will stop counting in months, I promise) who gets mad and yells "MOOOOOM" like his world is ending. I've got homework and studying every single night. I'm a single mom with no time to do anything. And it's fantastic. I mean, i'm pretty sure if I hadn't become a mom when I did I wouldn't be getting 4.0's in school and getting 97%'s on Anesthesiology midterms (yeah totally happened on tuesday night). I've got the BEST friends in the world, I have the best family in the world, and I have the best son in the world. What more could I want?!

Omg, about the tantrums though-- they are on a whole new level. If this is terrible 2's

then just give me a gun now. He's on another hunger strike and will only eat yogurt. He insists on putting every gosh darn thing in a bowl or "Boh" as he calls it. I mean, I get the fact that you want to put your snack of goldfish in a bowl, I really do. But when you are getting 1/2 of a graham cracker is a bowl REALLY necessary?

He's also big into "helping". "Helping" empty the dishwasher = taking all of the silverware and throwing it into one drawer. "Helping" do laundry = taking all clean and dirty clothes and mixing them together. Then laying on top. Because that's what real men do. "Helping" sweep the floor= hitting the dog with the broom and laughing hysterically when the dog runs away. Good times.

What I find hilarious is how anti-dirt he is. If he gets any type of fuzz or dirt on his toes or hands he will come over to you and say "yewwww" (A-mans version of ew) and hold out his hand or foot until you remove the "yews".

AJ wakes up at 6:30.. usually. I try to get him to snuggle with me in my bed and watch some yo gabs but that just ends up him screaming "MOM!" in my ear because apparently i'm not moving fast enough. He goes down for a nap at 8:30 and I totally nap with him. I have had the absolute worst insomnia for the past few weeks so I'll get anywhere from 1 (not even joking) to 5 hours of sleep at night and then get 2 or 3 more in during the day.

As for school, my favorite class so far is Parasitology. Any class where you can play with poop and use a microscope is awesome in my book. I smell fantastic after that class. Anesthesia comes in at a close second though. I mean, me with a real needle is just great. Someday I WILL be able to tape an IV catheter in without killing something, I swear.

Did you notice in the video in the last post that Aden calls me mom instead of "money"?! It makes me feel like more of a mom instead of just one of his hoes.

Oh, here is something sad. When I had my thyroid ultrasound- no results yet but omg it is so much more fun when you are having an ultrasound to see a baby- I was about 3 floors below where I had Aden and had my oh-s0-lovely stay in the antepartum unit. On my way out, I saw a new mom being wheeled out of the hospital with her brand new baby. My eyes just filled up with tears. I remember on my way out being the proudest person on the face of the earth. I'm pretty sure I had the biggest, doofiest smile on my face. I also wanted to tell every person I was passing my detailed birth story but we were moving too fast. Anywho, that was me almost TWO years ago. TWO. How do I have a giant 30 pound two year old? That's not even fair.

That's about it... tantrums and school. OH! And before I forget, Aden loves saying grace. Yeah, the kid who can't sit for 5 minutes in church thinks that thanking God for our meal is the greatest thing in the world. We literally have to say it 15 times a day. He sits at his table with plastic food and folds his hands in his lap and waits for me to say it. I'm done thanking God for plastic food. It's not a real meal, nor is it blessed. Every day at lunch I read the excerpt for the day from my Sacred Space prayer book. I could probably read him something from a dirty magazine and make him fold his hands and he'd still be happy but I figure, hey why not throw a little Jesus in the mix. No but seriously, can I hire someone to escort us to church?

Love you Aden Joseph.

The Phone Call

2011-01-27T16:44:00.000-08:00

Aden apparently needed me to get him something so he decided to pick up the phone and call me....

Sound familiar?

The Joys of Fist Pumping

2011-01-27T04:59:00.000-08:00

Obviously Aden is learning all his moves from his mom.

Do The Pretty Boy Rock

2011-01-26T05:41:00.000-08:00

I try REALLY hard to prevent all this cuteness from happening. It's just too much for one person to have. Obviously, it's not working.

P.S.- Aden and I do the Pretty Boy Rock every day (just switch "girl" to "boy"... totally works). Don't hate him 'cuz he's beautiful.

Babysitting

2011-01-22T17:25:00.000-08:00

Okay i'm going to try and write a post that makes at least SOME sense, despite the fact that I've gotten an average of 3 hours of sleep per night for the past week and a half.

So here's what's up.

I went to the doctor on Tuesday to talk to her about this ridiculous weight loss. We looked at my chart and I weighed 106 in August and on Tuesday I weighed 96 pounds with shoes, a jacket, and all of my clothes on. She decided to draw some blood to check my thyroid. We just checked my thyroid in August when I was talking about how fatigued I was, and it came back normal so you can imagine how annoyed I was when she suggested it again.

Well, turns out that I have an overactive thyroid. That's pretty much all I know as of now. I am supposed to have an ultrasound on my thyroid this Thursday and more blood drawn in 2 weeks and then I guess we will know more? I made the giant mistake of researching hyperthyroidism and started freaking myself out. Way to go Ellyn.

ANYWAYS, the point of me saying all of this is that I need a babysitter. Not only for Thursday at 10:00am, but also for Tuesdays 4-6 while I go to class. Ryan watches Aden when I have class so I don't really have any time for appointments that I need to go to. If anyone knows of someone who can help me during those times and be kind of like an "on-call" babysitter (I'd let you know at least a week in advance) pleeeeeeeease send me a facebook message or just leave a comment on here.

Other than that whole situation, things are getting way better. I'm back into a routine for the quarter, which is always a plus... and my friends have just been absolutely phenomenal. I got the BEST card from my friend Brenna, just because. Having so much support and so many people to talk to has really really helped.

One thing that I haven't even thought about is Aden's birthday. I mean, I know it's in March and all... but I should probably make some kind of plan. Maybe. I don't even know what I'm going to get him.

School is going well. A lot of work. A lot of stress. But I'm making it! Someday i'm going to post the video of me doing my "blood flow of the heart" rap... not anytime soon... but someday.

Okay so let's all go find a babysitter for Aden right now! Ready, Go!

Extreme Talking

2011-01-13T06:29:00.000-08:00

Whew. Staying up till 2am doing homework is killing me. The only good thing about it is learning about all sorts of nasty parasites that dogs and cats ingest. Dissecting fecal matter is totally my thing.

Let me start off with this awesome video of Aden all grown up. It started as a video of him saying all of the different words he knows, but ended up with him saying "No D" (no idea) and "Iontknow" (i don't know). It was too hilarious to stop taping.

Next is this video that my friend Brittany showed to my friend Bekah who showed it to me. Probably anyone who is pregnant, has been pregnant, or wants to be pregnant, should listen to it. Some people loooooove being pregnant, they feel great, they look great... but I think for most women it is really depressing to watch your body as you know it completely transform. I mean 9.5 times out 10 you aren't going to look exactly like you did before you were pregnant. There is all kinds of shifting goin on. So listen to the song and then send it to every pregnant woman you know and make her cry, just like Bekah did.

Now let me introduce Aden's new favorite item......

drumroll....

His OSU football helmet!! His Grandpa Kiger gave this to him for christmas and he lives in it. Right when he sees it he yells "BALL!" throws his hands up signaling a touchdown, and puts it on. I'm telling you, you do not know the amount of cuteness this kid has in him. I'm pretty sure there is unlimited supply in there.

Also, did you know that Aden turns the big 2 in 2 months? Yep, a week before finals week. I don't know if we will have a big huge giant party this year or keep it simple. I won't have my sister here to help decorate or bake anything (dang it!) and it would pretty much just be me planning the whole thing by myself so we might just shy away from that.

Okay so I know I am video overloading but I just can't help it. This is what we call "Extreme Talking". I never knew that talking could be a competitive sport but apparently it is in Aden's view. You can literally see him trying to push the words out. Work it Aden! You can do it!!

Cool guy.

1-11-11

2011-01-11T06:20:00.000-08:00

Hello friends!!!

Let me first start off by saying thank you, thank you, thank you, for the support. I really appreciate every note, comment, email, message, etc. that people send me.

I want to say that I don't post things to have a pity party for myself or to make people for sorry for me. I post things to make people realize that this is what being a young mom (or regular mom) is like. I mean shoot, I have a really good life and parenting is STILL hard and frustrating and lonely. Like I have said before, I'm not going to sugar coat my life for you. I'm not going to act like everything is all peaches and cream because it's not. And anyone who tells you that their life is indeed peaches and cream, is lying.

I'm not even ready to go into my new relationship status right now because a) it's complicated and b) it's straight up embarrassing after what I posted like 3 weeks ago.

Things in my life are going to change starting right meow. There is going to be some early spring cleaning of some people in my life that just shouldn't be there, and it's going to be great. Like, a new fresh start.

By the way, it's January, and who the heck is ever happy in January? It's gray, it's cold, it's gloomy... I'm allowed to have a sad day right? The challenge is getting up the next day and workin it off. Things may suck for awhile, but they will get better eventually.

I wish I had some great, awesome, intelligent, inspiring quote but all that comes to mind is that song from Jesus Christ Superstar... you know the one...

I bet you had no idea I was such a weirdo. I like rap and musicals. Seem to go well together, I know.

P.S.- I titled it 1-11-11 because it's probably the only thing I'll get to write the date on today. And I wanted to write it. Deal.

A post that sucks.

2011-01-08T18:13:00.000-08:00

I'm going to tell you what sucks. Flat out.

WHAT SUCKS:

- Watching all of your friends have the time of their life in college while you're just begging for college to be over.

- Not being able to meet anyone like, ever due to the fact that I go out, what? twice a month?

- Watching your son run to his Grandma and Grandpa when he gets home and not acknowledging you.

- Being hit every single diaper change

- Having to have the maturity of the 30 year old and not fitting in with people because of it

- The feeling of guilt every time I have a night off.

- Feeling like you are failing miserably at being a parent

- Knowing you are being criticized by everyone. For everything you do.

I'm envious of most people my age. There. I said it. For once in 3 years I want to be selfish. I want to only worry about myself. I want to be able to do what I want, when I want to. I want to be able to eat food when I want to eat food. I want to cry when I feel like crying. I want to stay in bed all day for no reason. But no matter what, that will never be my life. Ever. No matter how far I am from Aden, I will always worry about him. I will always put him before myself.

I knew I would feel this way with the quarter starting again. Who in the world wants to leave their kid for 4 nights in a row to go to school? Probably the part that hurts the most, is that he doesn't even care when I leave. It just DOESN'T affect him. He doesn't cry when I go, he isn't happy to see me when I get home.. It's like i'm failing as a mother.

In the past 2 1/2 months, I have lost 13 pounds. Last time I weighed myself? 92.6. It's like this cycle I just can't break. I get so nervous about school and caught up with Aden that I just don't eat. I'm trying so hard to gain weight right now because I personally don't like looking like a skeleton. I'm tired all the time, Carrying Aden up and down the stairs exhausts me, and I look like i'm sick.

So, What doesn't suck?

Loving my son more than anything in the entire world and knowing that he is all I need to be happy.

No words

2011-01-01T18:33:00.000-08:00

This was Aden tonight, right before bedtime. He had danced to this song about 3 times already so he was pretty exhausted.. No words can describe the cuteness of this. He was pullin' out ALL the moves.

Dancing AJ

2010-12-30T07:04:00.000-08:00

Aden has become the most hilarious little ball of energy. Just this morning (at 8am) he was running laps downstairs and throwing himself on the air mattress my sister was sleeping on. He still calls me Money.. which is fun, and he is obsessed with the Elf Soundtrack. I'm not kidding, he makes us listen to it at least 4 times a day. I need a new CD to replace it seeing as it's christmas music and I REFUSE to listen to christmas music after January 1st. Even December 26th is pushing it.

He calls Lizzie "Yishi" and Dad "daddy" but that's pretty much it. He prefers to just scream until he gets your attention. He also pinches. It's not hard and it doesn't hurt, but if he wants your attention, he'll walk over and pinch you. WHERE DID HE EVEN LEARN THAT?

Also, Ryan and AJ are plotting against me, i'm sure of it. Ryan says "Aden, go get mommy" and Aden grabs a pillow and runs over and smacks me with it. Not even funny guys. A lot of times, I'll be playing with Aden and he gets so excited and worked up that he just starts hitting me. We're working on it.

How scary is it that he is going to be 2? I am that creep mom at the store that gives unwanted advice about what toy to get your 9 month old for christmas. (This actually happened)...Before I had Aden I was really concerned about what people thought of me but now, I don't really care. If I want to tell you what I got my baby last christmas and what he liked, I'm going to do it whether you are interested or not.

Well I thought I had something interesting to say but now I'm just rambling. So here's a video of my dancing man.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

2010-12-30T06:54:00.000-08:00

So you know how I talk about that awesome gymboree sale they have where everything is 6.99 and under? Happening now. They have to clear out everything from the previous summer to make room for the new stuff. It. Is. Great.

I walked out with Aden's entire wardrobe (minus some swim trunks) thanks to Pippa....

It's really too bad it's only December and we have like, 5 more months until any of this can be worn. Dang it.

Christmas Aftermath

2010-12-29T20:54:00.000-08:00

This is Aden's kitchen! I took a picture of all the drawers just because I have OCD and really enjoyed finding a place for all of his fake food.

This is pre-organization. Aden moves things from the cupboard, to the basket, to the fridge, to the oven over and over again just stacking canned goods and other non-perishable items

Aden is in Little People Heaven. He has the bus, the barn, the Noah's ark, the wheelies rampway, and the airplane. I haven't figured out a good set up yet so for now this will work.

He looooves the magnets. We haven't tried painting with the easel or anything... I can just imagine how well that will go.

Aden also loooooves his new slide. LOVES it. He will put his feet off to the side and go "noooooo" and then move them back to the middle and slide down. Can't wait for the day when he decides jumping off the side of the slide and land on the cement basement floor.

This is the bracelet that I wanted SO bad and was convinced I wasn't getting. It's a pandora charm bracelet from Ryan along with Aden's birthstone. My sister's surprised me with the heart charm too!

This is what the entry to the basement looks like after christmas. Too bad it is FREEZING down there and layers are a must.

Those are the Melissa and Doug blocks. Aden is getting more and more interested in them.

And here are Mom and Dad, goofing off with all the toys

Christmas 1,2,3,4,5 2010

2010-12-29T17:56:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to lie, I've been putting off this post just because I knew it was going to be a long one. But then I had more things to write about and knew I had to do this one first so, here we go.

As previously mentioned, our christmas started on the 23rd. My brother and nephew arrived around 4, we ate dinner with them, and then Aden and I went to meet Ryan at his dad's house around 7 for Christmas Eve festivities. That night they opened a Wii from Santa along with Just Dance-- which was absolutely amazing. We had our Kiger Christmas on the morning os the 24th. Aden got a talking Woody, a Sit&Spin, a car racing thing, jammers, Toy Story 1,2, and 3, a race car, a teddy bear.. and probably more that I'm leaving out! Then we went over to Ryan's mom's house around 1 and had a christmas there and a late lunch/early dinner. Aden got a tricycle and an awesome recordable book! We got ready for 4pm Christmas Eve Mass at St.Brendan's and headed on over, barely finding seats. It didn't matter anyway because the mass was like 45 minutes and Aden spent 40 minutes walking around whining outside of the church. He was having a really off day.. he hasn't been eating much at all and the whole christmas thing threw him off even more.

After mass, Ryan went to dinner with his mom and Kaitlyn and I went back to my house with my family and Aden. We read books and ate and AJ put on his christmas eve jammies and went to bed. Ryan came home and put together Aden's new Kitchen (with the help of both of my sisters, my brother, AND my nephew), and his slide. And yes, my son has a kitchen. No, it is not womanly. Don't even go there.

Okay so now we are at Christmas Day. We wake up, open presents with my family.. I cannot even remember everything Aden got.. so many books, little people sets, trucks... everything a little boy could ever want. Aden took a 3 hour nap (after no naps the day before) and we got ready and packed up. When he woke up, he ate and we left to go to Christmas #4.

The drive down to Lancaster is always nice because it's 45 minutes of just the three of us. That's the only time during christmas when it's JUST us and it is so peaceful and just feels right. I imagine that's how it will be when we are real grown ups and NOT living with my mom and dad. One can only hope....

Anyways, we get to the Kiger's and just in time for Santa to get there and hand out all of the grandkids presents. We hung out there till about 5:30 when we went over to the Kilbarger's, ate another meal, did more presents, and then finally left at about 8:30.

It was an exhausting 3 days but filled with so much family and love. Aden actually got sick on the 26th with a fever but recovered after one dose of tylenol. We'll have to see about next year... I don't know if we can do 5 christmases in 2.5 days again!

Oh and guess what, I took NO pictures. Seriously, none. All of the pics I'm putting up are someone else's or taken before or after the 23-25. What a HUGE fail. I was tired. and rushed. my bad.

So here are the pictures stolen from other people (mostly my sister, Erika)

My happy guy!

Slide finally done!

Christmas Breakfast

John,Erika,Nana,Evan,Lizzie,Chris,Aden,Me,Ryan, Papa

Grandma and Aden

Ryan and I arguing when putting up the slide. I'm obviously right.

Lizzie,Ryan, Emily, Me, and Erika winning the Gingerbread Competition 2010

Too tired to open presents

Aden and Mommy on Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning

Mommy, Aden, and Daddy at Christmas #5

Pretty Baby Aden

John, Erika, Nana, Lizzie, Evan, Chris, Aden, Me, Papa On Christmas Eve

Aunt Kaitlyn, Daddy, Mommy, Aden, and Great Grandma Kilbarger

Sliding down Aden's awesome new slide on Christmas Eve

Mommy &Daddy being so exhausted at the last christmas of 2010

I didn't know I could stretch out sweatshirts..

2010-12-18T18:11:00.000-08:00

After losing the a million pounds I gained while being pregnant (okay, not a million, just 70+).. I have realized something. It was not a good idea to try and wear my clothes while I was pregnant.

All of my sweatshirts' elastic is stretched out and loose, my "Frankie says Relax" T-shirt looks normal on top but the "RELAX" part is stretched about two feet farther than it should be, the butt in a few of my jeans is worn out and the legs are so stretched that I can fit both legs into one pant hole. Not to mention the jeans that I tried too hard to put on and split up the middle. What was I thinking? Was I really like "wow, this totally could still fit and look cute on me. I'm gonna wear it" ?

My spandex have turned into sweatpants, my shoes are stretched out.. because yeah, your feet grow when you are pregnant. I went from a size 6 to an 8, then back down to a 6. My feet were doin' all sorts of funky stuff when I was trying to squeeze my fat feet into my skinny shoes... it's a mess. Moral of the story: when you get pregnant, DO NOT try to fit into pre-pregnancy clothes. You WILL lose the weight and you will then be depressed that all your clothes make you look like a homeless man.

Since I realized that my entire loser-mom-wardrobe is full of cable knit sweaters, t-shirts, jeans, scrubs, and crocs, I thought I'd use some extra money for some "going-out" clothes. It's honestly not that easy for me to keep up with what everyone is wearing when I only dress up once a month. I got into jeggings a year after everyone, and yeah... I'll probably be that mom that keeps her styles for 25 years... as much as I did NOT want to be that.

Anyways, I was kind of excited about my outfit last Wednesday, when Ryan and I went out with some friends.

They aren't good quality pictures... dang photo booth... and the second one I was obviously not ready but it was the only one with decent lighting.. but good enough right? right.

The entire thing is from forever 21.. a grey leopard print dress with some dark green in it, black textured tights, and ankle boots. I wore a black cardi on top of it because it was so dang cold.

See? I'm proud of that. I put 3 pieces together and I'm proud. I have style problems, I'm aware of this. In my closet you'll find the same item in 6 different colors.

So that was my exciting event of the week. Putting on a dress and tights and boots.

Man, I'm lame.

On the other hand, I did wrap a BUNCH of gifts this week, went grocery shopping, and did part of my mom's christmas shopping. Which reminds me... running errands with a toddler when it is snowing and below freezing outside is just miserable. You've got to warm up the car, put on all of your warm clothes first because your toddler stuffed into a million layers will not wait 5 minutes for you to put your warm gear on. Then while you are putting your kid's layers on, you start sweating profusely because of all of your layers and having to chase your kid around who is yelling "BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS!" and refusing to put on his jacket. Then you load the car, then you drive 7 minutes and have to lug everything out of the car, get into the store, de-layer your kid or else there will be a screaming fit from him being too hot, de-layer yourself or you will fall over and die from heat exhaustion, grocery shop and entertain the child, pay for the

food, layer yourself up, layer your kid up, sweat some more, put kid in car, put groceries in small tiny tiny jetta with a giant stroller in the back so all groceries most surround the car seat

and the driver's seat, drive 7 minutes home, unload child, take child's warm clothes off and turn on a distracting show, unload all groceries from car to house, put all groceries away.

And it's not like you can just stay home all day every day in the winter. You HAVE to go places. It sucks. I have no idea how parents with multiple children do it.

If I want more kids I think I will move some place warmer.

Also, guess what? My sister comes tomorrow, My brother and nephew come home on Wednesday AND My bff Caity comes home on Tuesday!!!! Caity has been studying abroad in Spain since September and I have missed her so much. She is one of my only friends without kids who I really can still relate to and love to pieces.

I say that because a lot of people without kids don't understand that I can't alwa

ys go hang out with them even when Aden is asleep. It's not my parents responsibility to listen for Aden when he is sleeping... it's mine. Plus, I'm freaking tired. I don't want to go drink alcohol and have to wake up at 6am. I don't always want to go to a bar and meet people who know nothing about me and act like idiots. I don't want to go to a party with people 3 years younger than me who judge me based on creeping on my facebook. That's why I love Caity... she gets it!

Well let's see, it's 9:50 on a Saturday evening... this would be my bedtime. Wooo parenthood!

P.S. ^ How cute is this last picture? He fell and scared the crap out of himself when I was trying to take a picture of food. We were sitting in front of the camera that was still on so I just took a picture of him sobbing instead. He stopped crying two seconds after he saw he was on camera.

Countdown to Christmas!

2010-12-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

Wheelies Rampway- Little People make the coolest toys! He is getting this as well as some extra cars to go with it in his stocking

Little People Barn- I can see him being obsessed with the animals and the sounds it makes.

Ryan and I are both guessing that these cardboard blocks will be his favorite gift. He stacks anything that can be stacked.

- Remember how his favorite book is "How I became a Pirate"? Well now he really really really likes pirates. He loves his mega bloks so this will be perfect.

This Step 2 easel was a steal! We got it on sale for $29. We got some magnets to go along with it as well as an easel set.

This is what we are guess-timating to be his 2nd favorite gift. He loooooves slides. He tries to slide down his sillytown ramp (which is about 8 inches long and NOT for real people) and when we go to the park, he goes up and down the slide over and over again. We'll keep it in the basement during the winter and bring it outside when it gets warmer.

This is follow me Thomas. You shine a light and Thomas follows the path. Cool right?

Tag Jr Reading system, carrying case, and 2 books.

He got some other pretty awesome stuff too but I'll have to wait until after christmas to post those!

5 more days until Christmas Extravaganza begins!

Money!

2010-12-13T06:52:00.000-08:00

Aden comes up with new words everyday. Some of them are actual words and some are Aden's own language. One of his favorites is "Tobai" (pronounced Toe- Bye)... I have no idea what it means but he says it ALL the time. That and "Money"... we finally figured out what "money" is...

Money= Mommy.

That's cool Aden. Say everyone else's name properly but then call ME money. It's kind of embarrassing when we are in the grocery store and he says "MONEY! MONEY! MONEY!" and I go, "sweetie, my name is mommy. Say 'mommy'!" and he replies "No, Money!" Man that kid is lucky he's cute.

Aden also started helping me empty the dishwasher. Every single morning he hands each dish to me one by one and I put them where they belong. If he can't get the dish out by himself, he makes me get it out, hand it to him, then he hands it back to me.

Sorry the video is sideways.. you can thank Ry guy for that.

Also, Aden has this hilarious obsession with hats. This is his new favorite to wear around:

In other news, I just sent out our christmas cards today! This isn't exactly the BEST picture but you get the idea..

I am so glad my mom and dad's christmas parties are over with. A lot of people in your house during a toddler's bedtime is really not so easy. At least he looked super duper adorable.

The sweater vest and oxford shirt are what he is wearing for christmas, just with different pants. How business casual does he look?! I imagine someday him and his friends looking at these pictures, laughing at how goofy I dressed him.

This last picture.... there are no words to describe it.

Ryan asked "how much weight can this crib hold" to which I replied "I don't know". He proceeded to climb into the crib and lay in it. For a good 5 minutes.

Next post will be what Aden is getting for christmas. Be stoked.

Reality Check

2010-12-12T14:05:00.001-08:00

Well guess who got a 4.0 this quarter???

That's right!!! This mommy! I've gotta say that I really did feel guilty for last Monday when Aden was playing and I was following him around with my notebook and notes studying, not really paying much attention. Paid off though right? I had to get an 110/120 on my Lab Animal Medicine final to get a 4.0 and apparently I did... though I'm not sure of my exact grade.

I'm starting to read my anesthesia textbook.. apparently this next quarter is one of the hardest in the program. I kind of figured that, seeing as I have class every night Monday through Thursday.

Okay, okay, on to some more serious stuff.

When I was little, I- like most young girls- thought that you meet your soulmate, know he is the one you want to be with forever, and live happily ever after. It's been a hard realization for me that this does NOT happen. I think more often than not, one person feels like they are doing more work in the relationship than the other is doing, thus the problems start. Things are NOT smooth sailing in relationships.. there will be fights, disagreements, arguments, and you know what? That's okay. There may be days when you think "How am I still with this person? WHY am I still with this person?" and that's okay too. But to continuously think that you "deserve better"... what is better? Do you want your partner to agree with every word you say? To wait on you hand and foot? To disown his or her personality to develop one exactly like your

own?

It's not realistic. It's not realistic to live "happily ever after". It's not realistic to be happy 100% of the time.

Ryan and I went from having a high school relationship to having a full blown serious adult relationship in just a matter of months. When you have that and then throw a little screaming baby in the mix.... that is hard. Really hard. Even when you are married, a baby complicates things.. no matter how much you love each other. I don't know if it's the fact that a baby really DOES mean you are "stuck" with that person or what... but it just makes relationships extra hard. We never had a night to ourselves, we were both always tired, everything was done as a "family"... which is great, but we forget to remind ourselves that we were together as a couple and loved each other before having a child.

I think for both of us, being alone for awhile was a good thing. It took us being apart to realize that ultimately, we want to be together.

I used to think that you broke up, and that was it. I'm truly happy to say that that's not the case. We both had a conversation back a few months ago about how we couldn't stop thinking about each other and loving each other, and obviously that meant something.

SO. To answer all "are you and Ryan together?" questions.... Yes. We are. And we like it like that. Any advice or encouraging words for two young parents with a dad in engineering and a mom in vet tech would be greatly appreciated!

Well now that that's all cleared up, Let's talk about our weekend!

Ryan's started on Tuesday and mine started on Friday (totally fair right? not!) Ryan has been such a gigantic huge help since his finals have been over and it's been a nice little break. Yesterday evening we decided we would do something fun and go to the Columbus zoo lights! We pack everything up (and it was a lot!) and get everyone situated into the car and it starts raining. Only drizzling, so we continue on. We get onto Powell road and traffic was backed up for MILES. On a Saturday. At 7 pm. And it starts raining harder. We make a u-turn and decide to just forget it. Ryan has the awesome idea to go to Tim Hortons and get donuts and hot chocolate and drive around and look at christmas lights on houses.

It was perfect. Aden was in the backseat saying "OOOOOOOH!!! COOOOOOOL!!!! OOOOOOH!" the entire time. We got to stay warm and dry and have some quiet alone time as a small little family. No, it wasn't exactly the evening we had planned, but it was just as good, if not better!

Today we took Aden out in the snow. Well, actually I did and Ryan took a video of us from inside.

Can you tell I don't go out in the snow much? It was windy and freezing and Aden LOVED it. He would have just walked around for hours if we had let him. He thought it was the best thing in the world when Ryan threw snowballs at him!

I have really been slacking on my picture taking so here's a picture of me holding a giant toddler on my hip. Seriously, he is going to be taller than I am pretty soon.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-29T09:31:00.001-08:00

Wow I am way behind on posting!

Good news, Aden has passed his fussy stage! Seriously, that lasted like 3 months. What a frustrating stage! Waking up at 5am, screaming all day, not showing any affection towards me, refusing to eat, jealousy... phew.

The not showing affection thing was the worst. I mean the tantrums are 50 times worse if you don't get any kind of kiss, hug, or cuddle time too. The eating thing I just kind of ignored. I wasn't going to force food down his throat and I wasn't going to make him sit at the table and scream until he ate. We really don't make a big deal out of eating his veggies or eating everything on his plate... and it really works for us. He LOVES veggies and fruits and is a great eater, and I think a lot of that is because we just don't pressure. Sure, I'll comment on what a great eater he is or ask him to take one more bite now and again, but the bottom line is... he isn't going to starve himself. He will eat what is put on his plate if he is hungry. I refuse to let him snack throughout the day and eat graham crackers for dinner... not happening buster.

So now, Aden wakes up at 6:30 or 7 in a great mood which makes me in a great mood!

Thanksgiving was fantastic. This year Ryan and I switched roles. Last year I was so anxious and worried about switching Aden's schedule and going somewhere for Thanksgiving (I never have left the house on thanksgiving) that it made my day a little tougher. This year, Ryan was the one making comments about Aden's schedule. We did Thanksgiving at my house first, then we went to Lancaster and went to his Grandma Kiger's for pumpkin pie and then the Kilbargers for Thanksgiving Dinner and then back the the Kiger's to spend the night. The next day we made cookies with the Kigers (best family tradition ever, everyone brings a bunch of their favorite recipes and you make tons and tons and tons of cookies) and then went home at about 3.

Oh and guess what else? It's almost winter break! I've been done with all of my assignments and quizzes for awhile. In two of my classes, the only grades left I have are the actual final. In the other one we have a quiz today, and then the final next monday. I feel really confident in my grades (I have to get a 62% to get an A in my Vet 101 class and I have to get a 69% to get an A in my Vet 114 class) and will spend this Tuesday and Thursday doing nothing but studying at the library! My Vet 101 final is available on Friday so I'm really hoping I can find a sitter so I can take it that very day and have the weekend to study for my other two. I have PACT again this Sunday at 8am and I swear, if I get stuck scrubbing the feces encrusted dog cages I'm not gonna be happy. I don't mind doing it once a quarter but totally not cool if I have to do it twice.

Okay. End post. I'm boring, I know.

P.S.- I just almost titled my post Thanksgiving 2011... getting a bit ahead of myself I guess.

Shaggy&Tasha

2010-11-16T18:59:00.001-08:00

I'm pretty sure it's official, I smell like poop all the time. Whether it's Aden poop or dog poop... it's poop. And it reeks.

Anyways, these are two of the main reasons I permanently smell...

First, everyone meet Shaggy.

Shaggy is my dude. He is the one that if you kneel or sit and are face to face with him, he gets really really really excited and decides that it is necessary to jump on your back and hump you. This has happened multiple times.

Shagster has an abnormal amount of energy. He is part terrier... that's probably where is energy is from. He's also an obsessive tail chaser. I'm not kidding, it's actually a disorder. He and his tail have to be separated at all times. Every time I pulled out my phone to take a picture, he stared straight at it. Such a model.

This is Tasha, or as I call her, Tosh.0. Tasha has a total attitude problem with other girl dogs. I swear she purposely flounces out the door when she is going outside to make the girl dogs jealous. Whenever she walks by they jump at their cages. She is SUCH a cuddle bug. She goes to the bathroom asap just so she can get more petting time. Her downfall- not the brightest crayon in the box. Today she barked at a step stool as well as a black coat. Fierce.

These are my PACT dogs. Notice I don't have a picture of my PACT cat, Felix. That's because Felix is totally not nice to me.. so until he starts being nice to me he isn't allowed to have his picture on my blog. Even though he's a total cutie.

Tasha and Shaggy will be with CState until Sept 2011. Then they will be adopted out to students, workers, friends of students, etc.

So there ya go. Let's give a round of applause for Tasha and Shaggy!

The life of a Sherpa

2010-11-12T05:30:00.001-08:00

So HOW fun were those pics!? You can actually see the stages of not only Aden's life, but the stages of getting dressed. Remember how I didn't really get dressed until November? Then I started taking better care of myself in January. Good times good times.

Anyways, I am finally starting the see the light at the end of the tunnel! I have 2 lectures in Vet 102 left, I think 4 lectures left in Vet 114- but no more homework, I finished it all! and 2 more assignments in Vet 101 plus all 3 finals. Right now I'm working on an assignment due Nov 30 that consists of 20 modules along with a quiz at the end of each one. I have finished 12. How exciting is that?! My first quarter of Vet Tech school completed! Oh, and I totally found out what I got on my other midterm...94!!! so 93 on one and 94 on the other!

The tantrums are gradually decreasing. He knows where we keep the cookies (he sees my mom eat them and watches her) and literally stands by the freezer and whines for them. Totally not going to happen.

You know what bugs me? That people think I feed him sugar on a daily basis. Really, he doesn't even get juice more than two times a month. Water and milk only. We eat fake chicken nuggets because I don't think it's okay to feed people liquid chicken. (I'm so not kidding, if you want the link I'll give it to you) Fruits and veggies are fed (and eaten) at every single meal and every single snack. His favorite cereal is oatmeal squares. He didn't have any sugar until his 1st birthday when he had his cake- and he didn't even like it. I let him have 2 pieces of candy on halloween and 1 piece after lunch/snack for a few days. Sugar is fine in moderation. I'm not going to deprive him of treats and snacks. It's not like i'm putting coke in a bottle or letting him eat mcdonalds every day. I feel like if I teach him that sugar every once in awhile is an okay thing, he won't binge eat it when he gets the chance to. My mom was pretty relaxed on what I

ate (besides the no caffeine till I was like,15) compared to my siblings and I was the one who grew up loving vegetables. So really, if you don't want to feed your kid sugar ever, that's fine..

good for you. But don't try to tell me that I'm doing something wrong by teaching my child moderation or giving him treats. I mean for pete's sake we are having grilled talapia, red and orange peppers, and grapes and peaches for lunch.

On a lighter note...

Aden and his word's are hilarious. Every time I get him out of the car seat he says "cold!" no matter what temperature it is! This morning he said "ba!", pointed to a bear stuffed animal, and then growled. He pulls out the video "Babe" (never watch that before easter ham by the way) and oinks like a pig. He will argue about whether something is a truck, car, or bus with you. He will beg you to read him the book with the "kitty" on it. He finds it so funny if you replace the word "David" in the book "No, David" with the word "teddy" or "mommy" or "aden". He will answer no to almost every question. If he wants something, he'll put his head down, his hands behind his back, and smile. He will always fist bump/ hit the rock when you ask him to. He has the best aim I have ever seen a 20 month old have. He can stuff half a banana into his mouth. He has amazing conversations on the telephone.

I have proof on the last 3:

Do you like how he threw Scout right at my face? It hit me... if you can't tell by the "OW!" And see that weird tiptoe thing? He does that ALL the time. He thinks it's the greatest thing since gerber puffs. Yesterday, when the phone rang, he went to pick it up, pressed a button, and started talking. I think they hung up (telemarketers.. ugh!) but omg it was mega adorable.

Oh have I told you about the Rescue Fleet? I think I've mentioned them- the firetruck, ambulance, tow truck, and helicopter that all make noise and that I have to carry

EVERYWHERE. Up and down stairs, in the car, outside... everywhere. Apparently to Aden, I'm just a sherpa. I do nothing but carry his crap around while he walks up and down the stairs. Here's the rescue fleet hangin out:

See?? They are rather large. And not easy to carry. The other day I brought out his new little people nativity set (I decided I should give it to him before christmas so a)we can have it set up and b) I could see if he likes little people... which thankfully he did.. seeing as he is getting a lot of sets of LP for christmas. They have an airport. I totally want the airport. Anyways, he was in a rotten mood after his afternoon nap so just sat there and sobbed. Until I brought in the rescue fleet. I had different voices for all of the LP.. it was great. We (I) set it up so there was a fire and the rescue fleet had to come rescue baby jesus and life flight him outta there. Aden interrupted Jesus' life flight and threw him across the room, but it's okay, he's good.

I can't even imagine what is going to happen when the LP cavemen, school bus, and barn get in on this action.

Aden throwing a grocery cart at me.

Mom&Me

2010-11-05T05:02:00.000-07:00

Apparently I take a lot of pictures of Aden and I on photobooth. I just found a whole folder with pictures of me and baby. Enjoy these gems.

Hide and Go Poop

2010-11-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

They say the first step towards potty training (no worries, we still aren't even close to that) is hiding while making a BM. Well, AJ just started hiding.

He won't go to a designated area, just close enough so he can peek around the corner to make sure you know the situation. Even if you couldn't see him you surely would know what's going on. I have never heard a person be such a vocal pooper in my life. I hope that doesn't continue because I really don't want people coming into my house and thinking I am hiding some ki

nd of animal in my bathroom (literally, he sounds like a gorilla).

I don't know if there is a nice/proper way to ask someone if they can make fecal matter any quieter....

Making his way back behind the chair with scout and blankie

Look at him with a book.. he is such a guy.

Feeling refreshed.

Of course this new quirk is called "hide and go poop"

P.S.-If you are offended by the talk of poop, the word poop, or the description of poop, you probably shouldn't be reading a mom's blog.

Mandarin Monster

2010-11-04T12:27:00.001-07:00

Guess who just ate a can and a half of mandarin oranges...

THIS GUY!

By-eee

2010-11-03T17:03:00.001-07:00

Is it just me or has this week been ridiculously busy already? It's only Wednesday and I'm about dead.

Monday I took my midterm for Vet 114 (93% thank you very much) and with the 40 minutes leftover I did some of my required weekly work with one of the dogs, Shaggy (you know, the one that humps me every single time). Then I had Vet 102 from 6-8pm when we worked with mice, rats, and guinea pigs. By worked, I mean handled. Actually, the rats were my favorite. We just had to check out their teeth (ew.) and look at their eyes and ears. I could NOT get the hang of handling the guinea pigs (I swear mine hated me and kept trying to get away from me. I WAS SCOOPING DR.OLIVE! I PROMISE!) so I will definitely be going in and working one-on-one. It's not required, I just want to do my best and actually feel confident before I go stickin' a needle in them.

Anyways, after vet 102, I went to Ryan's and had some Hungry Howie's pizza and watched some football, went home, changed my sheets, and went to bed. Tuesday I had a midterm during the day- I still don't know my grade on that- and then came home, made aden dinner and gave him a bath, and then rushed off to do general parameters on Tasha (who really didn't mind getting a thermometer stuck all up in her business) and bathed/groomed Shaggy. Went to Ryan's for my leftover hungry howies, went home, started laundry, went to bed. Today Aden didn't wake up till 8-- don't get too excited, he was up for 2/3 hours last night-- we had breakfast, did laundry, had lunch, went to the library, went to the grocery store, had a snack finished laundry, played outside, ate dinner, had a bath, read, and went to bed. There was a 45 minute nap in there somewhere.

Ryan asked us to go to dinner with his fam for his uncle's birthday but Aden had an absolute meltdown after his nap at 4 and he didn't stop crying until bathtime.

His new words are "UH-OH!" and "boat". every step he walks down he goes "uh-OH" and everything that drops,spills, or makes any kind of noise is "UH-oh". I have absolutely no idea where he learned it. It started on Monday morning randomly.

He is also going through a growth spurt. He's been sleeping 12-13 hours a night (not really consecutively) and he's been eating like a starving man. For dinner the other day he had 4 chicken nuggets (fake meat), a CAN of mandarin oranges- seriously an entire can, probably about 8 cherry tomatoes, and a handful of pasta with broccoli carrots and corn. He ate so well that I gave him 2 pieces of candy corn for an after dinner treat. This morning he had an entire cup of yogurt, a waffle, oatmeal squares, milk, and a banana. I'm expecting him to grow 2 feet overnight.

"Bye" is also a new favorite word. Whenever he gets off a bed, a chair, or just leaves the room he says "by-eee" It makes it that much harder to leave him 4 (that's right, 4) nights a week.

Since it's taken me 2 days to write this post, I'll stop now. Huzzah!

Trick or Treat Success!

2010-10-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

We did it! We made it through Trick-or-treat without one single meltdown! And guess what else? He kept his costume on. You know what his costume was?

drumroll please....

A DOG!

Duh, that's like the only thing he knows how to say. Thank goodness that thing had a ton of warm padding in it because it was freezing. I was wearing a sweater, a northface jacket, jeans and ugg boots and I was STILL cold. Ryan dressed for the arctic though so he was nice and cozy:

Are they not the best looking guys you have ever seen?!

Aden was kind of in a grump mood all day so right when we got a piece of candy we let him do his thang with it. He chose an 100 grand (looove those) and took one bite and then held onto it with a death grip. At the next house he put his melted candy bar in someone's candy basket and picked a new one. Nice trade Aden. He didn't say trick or treat and any time someone looked at him he would turn his head away really fast. Someone wasn't feeling very social.

We were out for maybe 25 minutes before we all got too cold and went back to Pippa's. Ryan had to go back to school (seriously, college and babies do not mix) so AJ and I just hung out with Pippa, Adriana and Preston for awhile. Our kids looked absolutely adorable.. Adriana was a chick and said "peep peep peep" when you asked her to.

We let the kids have a few pieces of candy.. one being a sucker. They both got big tootsie pop suckers and Aden was so excited to eat it that he ate 1/2 of the wrapper be

fore I could even unwrap it. ew.

One HUGE thing is that Aden wasn't scared of Adriana! Usually he runs screaming to me and hides from her when she tries to kiss/hug/play with him but this time he actually played WITH her! It was like a toddler version of tag.. I only got a few seconds of it before my camera died

Overall, trick-or-treat was a huge success (even though Ryan ate all of the fizzy skittles) and i'm bummed its over. Now we move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Remember how we had 3 thanksgivings and 5 christmases last year? Dear Jesus help us all.

Tricks, Treats, and Tantrums.

2010-10-28T07:22:00.000-07:00

Man, i'm bad at posting during the school year. This october has definitely been a lot busier than last october. Ryan and I are both full blown into our programs... did you know he is majoring in engineering? Talk about a smart guy. Anywho, while going over our schedules for this Winter, we realized that we are going to be busier than ever. Know what that means? Bye bye library day...hello staying up until 2-3am. I actually cried because I have class Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. from either 5-6pm or 5-8. Not bad right? Well then you have to spend at least an hour a week with the dogs walking them, caring for them etc. And not to mention the grooming and general parameters you have to do once a week as well. I am also taking an online class. How is it that I have 3 classes, only 2 vet ones, and will be busier than ever? If Ryan wants a guys night with Aden, that'll mean I only get to put him to bed 2 times a week. TWO. I told you I cried. Ryan has class every single day. If anyone is interested in babysitting PLEASE let me know when you can. I think i'm going to start looking for a "regular" babysitter or two so I can start introducing them to Aden and getting him used to new people. Seriously, please write me an inbox message.

You know what doesn't help? Knowing that it won't get better for a year and a half. I have

school the next two summers. No vacations, no nothing. Sometimes growing up really stinks.

On the other hand, Trick or Treat is tonight!! How awesome is that? Last year Ryan and I felt weird going up to people's doors with our 7 month old asking for candy so we just walked around. This year... even though aden can't say trick or treat and even though he has never really had candy (besides some chocolate I sneak him every once in awhile) we are totally going. And you know what? I'm gonna eat the candy.

It starts at 6 and guess who has class 5 to 5:50 tonight? Oh yeah, that's me. So if you see a mad driver on 71 north tonight, that'll be me trying to get home in time to dress Aden up and then drive back down to Upper Arlington to trick or treat with my fam and Pippa,Preston, and Adriana. (I would call them the Black Family... Adriana black, preston black... but that kind of sounds racist soooo i'm not gonna go that route)

Aden is the most tantrummy little guy ever. For example, my mom was eating her breakfast this morning and Aden wanted the cereal. I went to get him some of his own instead of him trying to mooch of my mom's plate, and he swung around screaming and threw his grocery cart on the ground. Ugh. The worst times are morning time (no matter what, this kid doesn't wake up happy) and 5pm. Punishing doesn't even work... just ignoring. He gets seriously offended when people don't watch or pay attention to him. He's become a master of getting out of your arms when you hold him and also at pinching. I don't know what happened to my sweet little newborn baby but I did NOT sign up for this. I guess when I was pregnant I just was thinking of the new baby stage and then going straight into the school age. Stupid terrible two's.

After a long day of tantrums, I make it a point to read to him every single night, no matter how bad the day was or how scream-y he is being. It not only helps him relax, but it lets him know that I love him to pieces... and best of all, it calms me down. My favorite mommy-calm-down-book is On The Night You Were Born. It brings me back to Friday night (technically saturday morning) on March 7 at 12:28 when AJ was born. I STILL can't believe he didn't cry when he was being held. I guess we're getting payback now.

New words are still being learned; chip, bird, bread, banana... just randoms. He really isn't as interested in using real words as he is with blabbering whatever sound he can make. I'm not too worried because I just remember how it was with walking. I wanted him to walk SO bad (he didn't even crawl until 11 months and he didn't stand until 12.5 months) and then he started walking and now, well... here we are in toddler hell. I figure it'll be about the same with talking. I'm guessing with Aden it'll be more screaming/animal sounds like it was when his dad was little. Maybe someday i'll have a little Vivianne that'll follow in MY footsteps and be a quiet, shy, blonde girl attached to her mommy. But knowing me I'll probably end up with 6 boys. Because God loves me like that.

So to continue with the halloween festivities- did you know I have only been to one halloween party in my life? and that was in 5th grade when I looked like cinderella on crack. So Pippa (again, she really is my only friend) and Ryan and I are going to Xavier to do some halloweening with him! Wait till you see pics.

Okay, off to study more for midterms. Did you know that general parameters involves sticking a thermometer up a cat/dogs rear end? Did you know that Shaggy- one of the dogs we work with- humped me while I was sitting on the ground playing with him... he is a big dog. Did you know Billy Bob got loose in an empty classroom and I couldn't catch him? Did you know I love what i'm doing?

No. Because I never have time to blog. grrr

GOOOOOOAT

2010-10-19T06:06:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been awhile! School is really getting intense now and requires a lot of studying. Well, that and Aden has turned into even MORE of a mad man than he was before. Who would have thought that was possible??

So let's start with an update of AJ!

He knows SO many words... let's count shall we?

Ball, Stick (which comes out dick), Doggie, Teddy, Mommy, Daddy, Papa, More (along with the sign!), Book, Goat, Kitty, Sounds that a cow, bear, kitty, pig make, Bubble, Tree, Bus, Baby, No, Football, GO BUCKS, 1,2,3 GO,

He can understand a lot of what you say. For example, "let's change your diaper!" - which I don't even say anymore because he immediately stops what he is doing, stands up and runs away from me. Speaking of diaper changes....what the heck. I dread changes because he screams bloody murder every single time. He twists and turns and kicks and scratches an

d pinches. Then after you get the new diaper on, he is fine... Until you try to put his pants on. Then the flailing begins again. He's absolutely nowhere close being ready to even start talking about potty training. I don't expect him to be but man, this kid could walk around in the same diaper for 3 days and not care. Such a boy.

Bath time is every night. Every single night. Partly because he loves it and partly because he is just a stinky grimy sticky messy toddler boy. Every night he leads me into the bathroom and stands next to me while I turn the water on and fill the tub. He hands me the bubbles to pour into the tub along with his shampoo and proceeds to put every single toy in his tub. I let him play in the tub for awhile and it usually ends with me covered in water and Aden even more worked up than he was before. Aren't baths supposed to be relaxing?

The sleeping schedule has improved tremendously within the last week. The past few weeks he was waking up at 2:30 (yes, a.m) and then between 5 and 5:45. If I was lucky he would take a nap, but he went 2 or 3 days straight when there was just no nap involved at all. No naps = unhappy mommy. That means I would go from being up at 2:30 and 5:30 and be a mom all day with a no-nap child and then go directly to class at 5 until 8. Thankfully, I think that is over with for now. I swear, we have to sleep train Aden every other week.

Since Aden is such a high energy kid, we have to provide a lot of entertainment. He typically wakes up at 6 a.m and then I let him watch a show (backyardigans) in bed with me. I know, not good parenting but come on. I am up until at least 11:30-- usually later between 12-1am -- doing homework or having my alone time. We then get up and do breakfast and play with our indoor toys and read books until about 9. 9 is naptime. If I try to push nap any later, he won't take one. So 9 is the magic number. Nap lasts until 10:30 or 11. During that time I usually don't do schoolwork because I need rest and quiet. My brain needs to just hang out for a little bit. Then we get up and have lunch and that's when the crazy begins. Don't get me wrong, Aden is a nutso in the morning (this morning he was screaming just for fun) but I think it's easier to handle because you know he'll be going down for a nap in a little bit.

Crazy time lasts from after lunch until bedtime (7:30-8). He needs constant entertainment and toys just don't cut it. He doesn't even like to play with toys other than the ball popper. He just likes to throw them everywhere and then roll in them. Seriously, the other day he emptied all the fake food out of his grocery cart, put it in a pile, and then rolled in it. Laid down, and rolled in it. We have been playing outside a LOT. Going to different parks, making playdates, running errands. Basically just keeping him entertained and helping his little brain grow.

This past weekend, Ryan, Pippa, Preston, Adriana, Aden, and I all went to Leed's farm. It was about 30 minutes away and had an awesome petting zoo that the kids adored. We were only there for 2 hours but oh my gosh we were exhausted. Aden was in love with the goats. He was kissing them (ew), letting them lick his hands, touching their horns... it was so cute. He would see one and yell GOAT! GOOOOOOAT! GOOOOOOAT! Then he resorted to rock throwing. After he nearly hit some child with a rock, he was escorted out of the petting zoo by mom. I know, I ruin all the fun.

That's pretty much all that's been going on over here. It's been exhausting. Being a mom to a baby is one thing, being a mom to a toddler is another. I think I was an excellent mom to Aden as a baby, now I'm pretty sure I suck. So to all expecting mothers/ mothers of babies : when your kid starts walking... Run away.

P.S.- Heck yeah I taught Aden to say Go Buckss, don't judge.

TEDDY!!!!!

2010-10-06T10:31:00.001-07:00

Aden can only say a couple words. Instead of saying things like "milk" and "no", he says things like "TEDDY!" (our dogs name), "pirate", "go bucks!" and the new one he said today pointing at Winnie the Pooh..."Titty Pooh"

He jib jabs a LOT and really wants to be having a conversation but the noises just don't make words. I think he uses the sound "ba" for 20 words. Roll with it AJ!

Sorry for the short, awful video from my phone!

What is super duper cute is a 18 month older whispering.

And what is cuter than that? An 18 month old throwing his yogurt container (and spoon..oops!) in the trash can. All by himself.

Okay okay, enough with the movies! Guess who is gonna be 19 months old tomorrow? Hint: it's not me. I can't wait to post pictures of this fall and last fall!

I cried.. yes, cried.. because I thought I would have PACT 6-8 on Thursday... during trick or treat. Not that Aden even really knows what is going on... but Pippa and I were going to take the kids together. Anyways, I found out on Monday that I can choose any day I want! WOO! Talk about excited. Oh, by the way- PACT is when we go in and take care of the dogs and cats at school. Obviously someone has to take care of them!

Not much else has been happening lately. There's a lot of school going on! We are taking advantage of these nice fall days and going outside as much as we can. I really am going to be upset when it takes 20 minutes to put on a snowsuit, a snow coat, snow boots, hat, and mittens and then freeze my butt off for 20 minutes outside, then come inside and have to take all the wet clothes off of Aden and myself. Remember last winter when he couldn't move? good times, good times.

For christmas Ryan and I have picked out a lot of things we can play with INSIDE to get us through the cold months. Not just toys..but creative stuff too. Santa's got a game plan.

Enough with the winter talk! We are in the process of planning a trip with Pippa (Can you tell we don't have many friends?) to a pumpkin patch! We're trying to plan a time when both Preston (adriana's dad) and Ryan can go but we will see what happens. I just got some apple cider mix and some caramel dip for our honeycrisp apples. The most perfect fall snack in the world.

Seeing as i'm just rambling now, I guess i'll go do something productive. Enjoy the videos of Aden!

Gianna Jessen

2010-10-01T05:07:00.000-07:00

If you have 10 minutes, you need to watch this woman, Gianna Jessen. During the last few months of pregnancy, her mother decided to get a saline abortion. This is when a saline solution is injected into the mother's womb and the developing baby breaths it in and proceeds to die. The baby is then delivered dead. Gianna was born alive.

I even went on to watch part 2... the whole thing is about 15 minutes long. It's amazing.

What up eminem?

2010-09-29T18:24:00.000-07:00

Aden got his haircut today! It was his first one since Daddy shaved it so I can officially say that I forgive him now! haha.

He was NOT happy about the lady using the clippers on his head... until she popped in yo gabba gabba and gave him a sucker. Then he was in heaven. Okay, I know nothing about the length of boys hair sizes. What is up with the 1,2,3,4 and 5 things? We cut Aden's to a 5, which is a good length but I wouldn't have minded going a bit shorter, down to a 4. The cut was great but then she kind of cut his bangs straight across.. now he looks like eminem. I fixed that by getting some pomade and giving him a faux-hawk. So if you see that style a lot in upcoming pictures.. that's why. Because my son has an eminem haircut.

- let me pause for a second to tell you that my entire cup of hot chocolate spilled everywhere. Do you want to guess how happy I am about that?-

Anyways, every time we go get his hair cut or get pictures taken, the same questions ALWAYS comes up. either "What color is his hair?" or "what color do you think his hair will be!?" And every single time I reply with "Well it used to be darker red. and then he lost his hair. and then it grew back white in the back and red on top. So we don't really know anymore."

So if you were wondering what color his hair is.... there ya go.

Aden was also being Mr. Super Adorable today in the tub. SO adorable that I recorded it to show you all how goofy this child is.

Also today, Aden was going up and down and up and down on the rocks. Every single time he'd wait for me to say "1,2,3 go!" I love the way his little toddler body runs. It cracks me up every time!

Okay, off to make more flashcards. I'm exhausted!

Bye Summer!!

2010-09-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

Since school has started again I haven't had much time to blog. Well, actually that's a lie I just feel guilty blogging because I could be taking notes or doing flashcards during that time period.

So for the first great news:

Turns out I already took Humanities. Apparently I never sent my Winter '09 OSU grades to CSCC. I was looking online at the course (and dreading it) and realized that I had most definitely taken Western Civilization at OSU when I was pregnant. And no WAY was I taking it again. SO that means I get to take 3 classes this quarter and I am so glad. It's not that these classes are hard, they are just a lot of work. On top of the classes I spend an extra hour of my own time with the animals down at the program and then 2 hours on the weekends with them once a month.

I was feeling overwhelmed yesterday because I hadn't had any library days yet (remember how I go to the library twice a week and sit there for hours on end studying while Ryan has Aden?). This quarter my library days are Tuesday 11-3 and Thursday 11-4:45 with class following at 5-5:50. Anyways, today I finished EVERYTHING. 5 homework assignments, a quiz (which I got 100% on.. thank you very much), lecture notes on animal restraint, and a video lecture. I even went to get my swipe card- it's an ID so I can enter the vet tech building whenever- and applied to work at the polls.

Okay- I've worked at the polls for 2 elections. Yes, It is miserable. 5:30am till 8pm? Miserable. However, seeing as I have no income right now, an extra $150 wouldn't hurt. And since I've worked twice and been trained twice, I could be the leader. Plus it's less exhausting than being a mom. And it's one day- I will survive. Oh and p.s- if you want to babysit for me, totally go for it. Probably from about 7:30 or 8am till 11am when Ryan gets here.

Aden has come down with a little bit of a sickness- his first EVER (besides two little colds, one when he was 6 weeks old and one when he was a few months). No fever yet.. just a lot of stuffiness and he seems to be extra tired. I'm definitely not complaining because he is sleeping through the night still... so he must not be feeling THAT bad. I just hope it doesn't get worse!

It's become much cooler here. Last week it was in the 90's and this week its in the 50s and 60s. I don't mind TOO much because I get to pull out Aden's fall wardrobe! wahoo! I'm seriously going to take a picture of all of it because it's just so darn cute. Pippa hooked us up with the most adorable sweaters/shirts/jeans/hoodies/hats ever.

I KNOW that there is stuff i'm forgetting to write about Aden. He's doing lots of new stuff. He "reads" through his animal book and can just about say "tiger" and then he roars along with it. If you show him a pig, he oinks. If you say pig, he oinks. Also, apparently if you say guinea pig... he oinks. Umm close right?

One of his new fave books his "No, David". It's about a freaky looking kid with pointy teeth named David, whose mom says no david all day. Aden likes it because he can read along and say "No, no no!".

AJ has also become an expert trash thrower awayer. (it's a word, don't worry about it) He takes all of my trash, all of his trash, and even things that aren't trash that he thinks should be (metal spoons, his fake play food milk carton, my socks) and throws it in the trash can.

Speaking of his play food.. he looooooves it. He feeds it to me and mak

es me delicious "sandwiches". I think his favorite thing is putting the fake lettuce on my head and then wearing the fake onion rings as earrings.

That's about it on the updating. Besides these adorable pictures in his first fall outfit.

And no, it really wasn't THAT cold he just liked the hat.

Fall Blues

2010-09-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

The end of summer has become especially hard since finding out I was pregnant in July '08. It's not that I don't want to go back to school, I love school and it keeps me more motivated. It's seeing everyone else leave and go back to school and doing what I thought I'd be doing.

In some ways I definitely think I isolate myself from people my age, partly because it annoys me that I have this huge responsibility and am trying to make my perfect little baby grow into a responsible, respectful, smart little man and they are trying to wake themselves up before noon. The other reason is because I wanted that to be me. Carefree and only

worried about finals and where I was going out that night.

I don't go out as much as I could but honestly, I don't feel like being judged all the time. Take for example, last wednesday. Pippa and I went out again (last time we could before school starts and our lives are over) and Ryan had told me that a bunch of his friends happened to be going where we were going. Okay, great, fine. All nice people. I literally spent an hour trying to look good because I knew they would think one of two things. They would either think 1. She looks pretty good for being a mom! or 2. Wow she went downhill!!!

And you KNOW when you tell people you're a mom they just automatically assume since you are out then that you go out all the time.

It's literally annoying being judged EVERYWHERE you go. I look pretty young... I think it's the freckles? So I get some looks at grocery stores, the pool, on walks. I get "are you the babysitter?" or "you're the nanny right?". Those are fun. No one would guess that I have a weird obsession with rear-facing car seats and bury myself into how-to toddler books. (If you are wondering about the rear facing car seat... Aden is legally allowed to be forward facing in a car. The limit is 1 year and 20 pounds. Aden is 18 months and 26 pounds and we still rear face. I read all about rear facing when Aden was an infant and got a convertible car seat that can be rear facing until he is 35 pounds. Chicka Chicka yeeeeeeah)

Once again Pip and I have a fun story from Wednesday. Some kid (I say kid because he looked about 15 and was fairly short) was creepily talking to us.. telling us all about his

fantastic allergy problem... so to get him to go back with his friends we pulled the mom card. He literally would not believe that we were moms. Pip pulled out her phone and he laughs and goes "HAHA yeah right, that kid is like, 2".... wow way to make things more awkward dude. Finally he walks away and we walk past him as I hear him say to his 2 friends "dude... those girls are moms!!!"

That is what we call a Class A jerk. Maybe I should've leaned over to Pip and been like "DUDE THAT GUY HAD NASTY PHLEGM-Y ALLERGIES".

Thank goodness school is starting and I can stay in my room all night and do homework.

And here's my little ravioli monster...

I looooove me some snuggles

2010-09-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

With school coming up pretty soon (6 days!!) I know that I will have very little free time. I feel super guilty about it and because of that, I've been giving Aden lots of extra snuggles the past few weeks. It always seems like my phone is always buzzing or i'm looking up something on the computer or playing around with iMovie and photoshop... so I take "technology breaks" and turn the tv off, shut down the computer completely, and put my phone in another room or on silent on the top shelf. Then I lay on the floor and get out different toys or crayons and paper or a puzzle and play with him.

After awhile I'll say "Aden, why don't you go grab a book, get blankie and come sit on mommy's lap?" And guess what? He does. He picks up 1 of 6 books : I love you Through and Through, The Sleepy Little Alphabet, On the Night you Were Born, Pete the Cat, How I became a Pirate, or 100 first words. If he cant reach one of the books, he will point to the top shelf and say "moooooooom! moooooom!" He then picks up the book, gets his blankie, and literally dives into my lap. We will end up reading ALL of the 6 books and probably a few other random ones. It's a lot of reading. But he loves it.

And I do too.

Bedtime Routine

2010-09-12T18:21:00.000-07:00

Every night, Aden eats dinner between 5:30 and 6. After cleaning up, we go upstairs and take a bath and then have our "upstairs time", or downtime. For most kids that means reading books, snuggling, listening to lullaby's... not for Aden though.

For Aden it means this:

Big Red

2010-09-10T04:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'll admit it- I really wasn't the cute pregnant lady I had always dreamed of being. I was tired all day everyday, I was on my feet all day working anywhere from 8 to 12 hour shifts, and I had recently cut and dyed my hair dark brown. Here's a tip- DON'T change your hair right before pregnancy. Then you have to deal with getting fat and hating your new hair. I think I decided to go back to blonde (brown isn't my natural hair color... at all) like 2 months later. It took 8 months to get it back to normal.

Anyways, I owned 3 pairs of maternity jeans and about a handful of tops and then a few sweaters. Mostly, I just wore sweatpants and sweatshirts. I stopped working at about 30 weeks due to my excessive swelling so I really didn't have anything TO get dressed for.

One thing that I owned was a maternity coat. It was a red maternity mid length coat. I thought it was just SO cute. Until one day when Ryan said "You kinda look like the kool-aid man in that coat."

From then on, whenever I walked into the room, Ryan would say "OOOOOOOH YEAHH!"... the worst part is, it caught on and soon, even my family was doing it. I eventually just stopped wearing it and instead squeezed my northface around my big belly.

We have NO pictures of big red, just this one video on Christmas 2008.