Aiden's Day

We have been blessed to have a truly wonderful person to take care of Aiden. He has been going to Ms. Amanda since about November of last year. We have decided to keep him there for another year, and when the baby comes it will also go to Amanda.

These are some pictures Amanda sent me the other day of Aiden playing, and of him and Ms. Amanda.




On a side note:
I have realized that I really like to blog. I could be a celebrity blogger. I would get to go to award shows and blog about what people said, and what they wore. I could do it. If teaching doesn't work out, I am moving the family to Beverly... Hills that is. swimmin pools, movie stars.

Thankful for time

When football season comes around, it is rare that we get to spend time together during the week or on the weekend as a family, because Mark is usually working. This makes the nights hard on Aiden, and me and I have a newfound respect for single mothers, and families that have members that work odd shifts. So I am so thankful when we do get some time together and not just in passing or 10 minutes in the morning.

Mark did not have to work this Saturday night so we decided to go have a picnic. We went to Cherokee lake in Thomasville with some Papa Johns Pizza! Aiden thought this was great fun! He enjoyed running straight for the water, quacking with the ducks, and of course PIZZA!




Today Aiden spent some time working on a some art. He calls it Ode to a Cheerio.

Reason #48 why you should mop your floor...

Sisters

When I had Aiden I was very fortunate to have several of my close girlfriends pregnant at the same time. We all had babies within the same month. The closest baby that was born was my sweet neice Abigail. She was born 12 hours after Aiden in Louisville. Samantha ( her mommy) and I seem to have a pattern of doing things in the same fashion or in the same timeline. For instance:
- Sam and I married brothers
- We both have December birthdays ( 5 days apart)
-We graduated from the same college at the same time, with the same degree. I think her GPA was a few points higher though.
- We both teach elementary school.
- We both had babies within a few hours of eachother and now...
- We are both preganant again!

That is right folks Samantha is roughly a week behind me in her pregnancy! How do we do this? Honestly , I love it! I love to be able to share the same things and go through it together. I am so blessed to have such a great sister! Congratulations Sammy and Steve.

So many things to do, and so little time...

I was doing so well this summer keeping up with the blogging thing and then August hit! I have started back at school, Aiden has gone back to Ms. Amanda's, Mark started a new job, and I found out I was pregnant again! So I am WIPED out by the end of the day. If I have not gotten around to telling you yet about the 4th Tallahassee Kagy, I really do apologize, but I have been somewhat preoccupied.

I have been sick, sick, sick, and very tired getting 18 kindergarteners into somewhat of a routine. It was very hard to go back because of this and missing sweet Aiden. For the first 2 weeks he cried, and screamed, and I would say I love you, give kisses and leave. Of course when I got to the car the water works began with me. Now it is much better. He walks into the house, waves, and smiles when I leave. Ms. AManda has also been working with AIden on calling her AMAN-DA. When we pull into her neighborhood I usually say "we're almost at Ms. Amanda's house." Then he starts to say "DUh, Duh, Duh", I guess he means Aman-DUH!

Mark has started his new job and seems to really enjoy it. He comes home at normal hours and gets to leave his work at the office. But with this comes the start of football season and he is out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights usually. I become what feels like a single mom on those nights and look forward to bedtime much earlier.

By the way this post took me three days to fully complete. SAVOR IT...


Aiden going to Ms. Amanda's


The Girls at Dana's Wedding


The view from our beautiful room! Thanks again Lidy!


Isn't Dana Beautiful?!

Leaving Babyhood

Today I took Aiden to get his first hair cut. This was a really hard decision for me because his little curls were just so darn cute to me, but it was really starting to look unkept. SO I took him to Tony's today. Tony is an older man who believes that baby's first haircut is an important thing. He starting cutting and was done before I knew it. The other man in the shop grabbed my camera and just started taking pictures. Tony was very fluent in baby speak and talked to Aiden about Tractors, Dora, and Thomas the Train the whole time he was cutting. He also told us that his grandson's name was also Aiden. When we were done he made Aiden a baby's first haircut certificate, and refused to let me pay or tip. The certificate was a nice touch but after reading it, I got a little choked up. It says: "This is to certify that Aiden Kagy has bravely met all the requirements of receiving his first haircut and has graduated from babyhood (snif, snif), on the 9th day of August in the year of 2007." Graduated from babyhood?! sigh...

BEFORE LEAVING BABYHOOD


DURING


NO LONGER A BABY!

Vacation

Here we are at the end of our vacation. At the beginning of the week we went to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. The kids loved it. There was plenty to do. We walked through numerous tank areas, and there was even an area outside for the kids to play in water fountains that shot in the air. Aiden ran, and ran, and ran.
Abby and Aiden got along beautifully. They would sit together and play, and then they would walk around and babble to each other. It was very interesting to see the two of them interact.
Abby took her first steps with the entire family watching. We all clapped and cheered.
Aiden loved the beach! He would sit and play in the sand and then he would run straight toward the water. It was quite exhausting! It made me worry about the lack of fear he had toward the water.
We had a great time hanging out with all of Mark and Steve's cousin's and their kids. We are quite a group. There was about 24 of us hanging out together on a regular basis.
Overall we had a good time, but look forward to the comforts of home. We miss our Coletrane and Sunny. They have been off at camp.
Here are a few vacation shots.

Light Bulbs

One of the things that I enjoy the most about being a mommy is the light bulbs.
This is when something that you have you have said or signed for months finally clicks. Sometimes these things go unnoticed because you are together everyday
But then someone else notices. For instance, the other night I went out to dinner with some girlfriends and Mark put Aiden to bed. He said that he was on the computer and looked over and Aiden looked pretty tired and was walking in circles. He said “Aiden are you ready to go night-night?” Aiden then stood up walked to his room, turned on his waterfall noisemaker, and then shook his hands for all done. Then today he and I were going outside and he was getting fussy and I was trying to finish up one last thing. This was probably the dishes or the laundry or something exciting like that. In order to buy some time I told him to go get his shoes. He looked at me like he knew exactly what I was talking about. He walked to the basket where his shoes are picked them out and brought them to me. The more interesting thing to me was that they were his shoes that he wears to go in the yard and they matched.
Yesterday we played wash mommy's car. He started washing the car but then the leaking water hose looked much more fun I suppose.

what we've been up to

This summer we have been so busy doing "stuff". We have been going to play with friends, to the pool, and music groups. We tend to get so busy that I have to schedule in a day to stay at home to try to keep my house in decent shape. This past week my mom and I took AIden to Jasper, Florida to see my grandparents.


These are family night pictures from the park. Aiden had a great time. It was 30 minutes past his bedtime and he was still toddling around like a little drunk man. He was so tired but he did not want to leave. He really enjoyed the seesaw. It was one that bounces if no one is on the other side and he would get excited and kick his legs to try to bounce up and down.

Kid training

I have realized something about myself. I am terrible about keeping journals. I had every intent of writing down every momentous occasion that happened in our lives. The life part happened but the journal part seems to be an ongoing struggle. I have come to accept that the most journaling I am ever going to do is online. SO... if my blogging seems mundane please forgive me. I don't have a ton of insightful things to talk about at this point.

Right now I am listening to a crying baby. Aiden has developed this ugly habit of not wanting to nap anywhere other than his bed. He will sleep at night other places but not during the day. This is a problem for us considering we are constantly on the go AND he goes to a babysitter during the day. So right now I have started to try to condition my child. We are at home and I have set up his pack n play in our guest room. My hope is that he will start to feel comfortable sleeping in this. It is not going well.
This past week we went to the Farmers Market in Thomasville and picked out a yummy watermelon. The pictures are an indication of how yummy it was.


Aiden has also gotten very good at hitting the balls on his ball maze toy/thing. Mark has also shown in the appropriate use for a hammer. He walks around with this thing and pounds on everything, pots and pans, his toys, the floor, the dog. He reminds me of the old Mario game when you got the special hammer power and could pound anything in your way. Gotta run- kid is still crying!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there. We spent most of the day at church. They had a big fun thing called DADFEST! There was stuff for the kids to do, a blues band ( great job guys!), and lots of classic cars. We had fun but it was so hot. We spent most of the time trying to stay cool under the tent listening to the band. Aiden enjoyed walking around and dancing every now and then to the music.

I found myself tonight cleaning messes up everywhere. Aiden has begun to tear through our house like little bitty hurricane. I just walked by the bathroom to find toilet paper everywhere. Why? It was the only thing that kept him busy this morning while we attempted to get out of the house on time. Do you blame me?

WARNING... not for the weak at heart

So.. this morning Aiden and I are making are daily trip to work/school listening to the usual mix of kids songs, Dave Ramsey, and the morning news. Aiden was sitting very quietly in the backseat ( which has started happening less often), and he began to clap his hands and play. So I turned on his music and began to beebop my way down the road listening to the cat came back singing along like it was my favorite song. SO this went on for a couple of minutes until I looked back at him and caught a glimpse of something on his head. WARNING: YOU MAY WANT TO STOP READING HERE. It was POOP! My kid had poop all over him. I mean from his head down to the tip of his itty bitty toes. He was clapping with it all over his hands, and then patting his head. I was speechless! So when we got to Ms. Amanda's we went straight to the tub. I now cannot stop smelling poop. I feel like it is still somewhere. I hope to stop smelling very soon.

Aiden is walking all over the place. I just thought I would pop a few pics in of him toddling around. I don't know if you can see them very well, but his little curls have started curling around his face. I love them, Mark usually says something like "poor kid."

Aiden Walks! ...well kind of...

I got home this afternoon from my last day of school and Aiden I were walking around the house together. He has recently started taking one and two step here and there, but today he got moving. He walked down the entire length of our hallway, laughing the whole time. This was the furthest he walked by himself for the rest of the day. The hallway walk definitely broke down some confidence barriers because later that afternoon he began letting go of my hand even when it wasn't always safe for example the stone walkway leading to our door.


A couple of weekends ago we bought Aiden one of those hard platic pools. We filled it with water and let it sit in the sun for about a day. This was still too cold for little man, so tonight Mark had the bright idea to bring the pool in the house. So... Aiden got to swim in the pool in the comfort of his home and its warm water. Some may call this a bath. He loved it and played stand up, and fall to the ground more times than I can count. Maybe he will now remember how much fun he had with the pool outside, like all the other normal kids.
These are just a few pics of him playing in the pool, and the mean game of stand up- fall down.

Memorial Day Weekend 07

Unlike last memorial day this one was quite mellow. Last week was busy, being that it was the last week of school, so this weekend our family took it pretty easy. Staying home lately has gotten a bit difficult. The smoke is pretty bad where we are and it makes it hard to go outside. So on Saturday we went to Tallahassee where it was much better and met some of our friends for a picnic.

Aiden is trying to toddle around so the playground was a little more exciting. We also brought his tractor and he had fun pushing his buddy Ranen around.



Starting yesterday Aiden developed a pretty mean diaper rash. It was really bad today, so we spent alot of time outside today, so that Aiden could run in the nude. This is Aiden with his Tigerlily. Tigerlily can be pretty nasty sometimes but has always been very sweet to Aiden. We are trying to teach him the difference between stroking the cat and patting the dog. He is catching on pretty well.


So that is what we did. I was thinking back to last memorial day when we had water fun at our house with all of our friends. Aiden was so bitty. I watched him at the park this weekend pushing Ranen around and I just couldn't believe what a kid he is turning into.

and more...

A few more pictures...

Birthday Pictures

AIden's Birthday Party was this weekend. It was a whirlwind but it was so much fun seeing friends and family. Here are a few pictures. Someone grabbed my camera and took pictures for me, and I am eternally grateful, but I had over 175 pictures of AIden's birthday! That is insane!

So here are a few!

Ophidiophobia

The other night Mark, Aiden, and I went out to dinner. Wee drove separate vehicles because Mark was meeting us after work. Aiden screamed through dinner after grabbing hot French fries and shoving them in his mouth. I had to leave the restaurant twice to get him to chill out. Needless to say I was glad to get out of there. As we began to leave Mark told me that he was going to be just a few minutes behind me because he needed to get gas. No problem.

When Aiden and I got home I went straight inside and changed him and put him to bed. I had to go back outside to get a few things from the car. At this point it is almost dark. As I passed the pond I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. After only one more step I almost flew out of my skin.

There was a SNAKE hangin out in MY pond! I ran inside and stood inside the screen door. I watched as he swam around, as it was a warm evening and thought about how cool he looked. This really bothered me even behind the door becuase I have such a fear of snakes. I kept thinking that Mark would pull in the driveway at any point. About 10 minutes passed and still no Mark. I stood their watching this snake swim. He would dive to the bottom and come back to the top. I didn’t want him to get out, so occasionally when he would peek his head out of the pond I would throw something in the pond to scare him back in.

When Mark got home he couldn’t believe that I had stood there so long, and then he wanted to know what I wanted him to do to it. Kill it, I said. Now I know that this snake did nothing to me, but I couldn’t help but think of AIden and well me opening the door to find our friend at a later date.

So Mark made me attempt to hold the flashlight on this snake (because it is dark), while he fished him out of the pond. When I say this I really mean throw the snake out of the pond.

Finally after a very long time Mark got the snake out of the pond and disposed of him. Mmmmmm- my hero!

We think that it was a rat snake but still aren’t sure.Even though we have lived here for over two years and there has never been a snake in the pond- I am ready to rip that bad boy out of the ground and get rid of it!