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!

Aiden Crawls!

Aiden is officially a crawler. It is funny though because I was so worried about him crawling that I truly didn't think about all the things that go with it. Some of you told me and now that I know he can crawl I want him to stop. Not really but baby proofing sucks! He not only crawls but he can actually climb things as well. He is into everything. Cabinets, he tries to climb kitchen chairs, he gets into dogfood. Fun times. I act like it is horrible but at this point we are still having fun chasing him around. The other thing that he has started to do is try to feed himself. It makes for a rather messy meal but he insists on feeding himself any chance he gets. Things he used to prefer to eat with his fingers like small veggies, he would rather I stab it with a fork and let him put it in his own mouth. Dinnertime is a bit longer than usual now.

Easter

Easter was fun- except for the weather. Church was great- family was fun- and lunch was yum-my! Fortunately I took Aiden to the park to take Easter pictures last week. The weather was beautiful except for the flesh eating mosquitoes that got to Aiden. I think that he may be allergic to the bites. They were about the size of a dime and looked like blisters. One of them even popped. Gross- I know you didn't need that much info. The original point being that despite the bugs the park was fun.





This was one patient bunny!

Sunny Saturday!

Tallahassee (and its surounding areas) are beautiful this time of year. I love to drive down the road and look at all of the different colors that fill the streets. I also love our yard. We have azaleas everywhere and in the shady area on the side of the house we have close to 10 dogwood trees that are all in bloom. It is breathtaking. So I decided to pose Aiden in front of the flowers because who can resist a baby in front of flowers? Not me!

Aiden and I drove out to my parents house to enjoy the weather while Mark helped a friend sod his yard. Aiden had a great time riding around with Granddaddy on his tractor, and was mesmerized by the handle that made the bucket go up and down. After a while we went home and Aiden was asleep before we got out of the driveway. I enjoyed the quiet on the way home and realized Aiden is 11months old today. Yesterday he took a his first step.

Big Boy

Aiden loves to play in his room. Mostly he loves to throw his ABC blocks to see how far they will go and how loud he can make it hitting the hard wood floor. Well at least that is how I hear it down the hall.

What-chou-talkin' bout Willis?

Four- Wheelin'

We went to my parents house for my dad's birthday. While we were there I took Aiden for a ride on their four-wheeler.Although we were going about 5mph Aiden loved it and then began to rock back and forth to keep going. It was pretty cute. He had fun hanging out with his Ya-Ya, Grandaddy, and Uncle Cody. Dad likes to shy away from the camera but when I get pictures from mom I post some of all of the boys ( hint, hint, mom.)

Weekend Fun

We love the weekends so much. It is a chance for some down time from the crazy week, and a time to see our growing group of friends. This was taken last weekend at the park. Some of the guys were playing frisbee golf for Jeremy's birthday and Sandra and I braved Tallahassee's unpredictable weather with the boys. As you can see Aiden and Ranen look a bit chilly.

Later on back at the Walworth's we attempted to pose the babies for a group shot. It was an experience. Babies on the move are quick! The older kiddos were a little bit easier. Aren't they cute?

This weekend was the start of first birthday's. Aiden's good buddy Noah turned one and invited Aiden to take a stroll in his new wheels. Aiden told me he wants a wagon now. Aiden also took some pointers in cake eating form Noah. April is on its way!

At home I set up our old fish tank with some cheap-o goldfish. Aiden loves the fish! He watched them for the longest time and then got pretty upset at the thought of bedtime. What a ham!

Things I Like... by: Aiden

Thing I like
by Aiden

I like hangin' with my homey's!

I like sharing cheerios with my friend Coletrane.

I like reading my ladybug book!

I like crazy hair!

I like mermaids, hubba, hubba!

Howdy!

Happy New Year! We made it through the holidays. We had a great time with Aiden. Of course he had no idea why we kept sticking boxes with pretty paper on them in front of him. He liked the bows but that was about it. It left me wondering why in fact I had even bothered to wrap the few things that we got him.

After Christmas Aiden and I took a road trip to see a friend of mine that used to live in Tallahassee and after relocating to Ohio has moved back to Spring hill, Fl near Ocala. While we were there we decided to take Aiden and her two kids which are 2 and 6 to Weeki Wachee Springs. For those of you who don't know this is a Florida attraction where girls dressed in mermaid suits swim in the spring. You sit in this theatre where you can see under the water and watch their show. In theory it sounds fun and I am sure at one point it was but it was severely run down and not much to do. The highlight was Aiden getting to take his picture with a pretty mermaid.

He continues to grow and change each day. He wants nothing to do with crawling, but loves to stand up and hold on to his toy walker that his Nana and Grumpa got him. He used to push it without moving his feet but he will move his feet now and take steps. For those of you that are Scrubs fans that is Dr. Cox on the T.V. in the background. Mark has had a Scrubs marathon today and watched almost an entire season of episodes.

Aiden has also started to develop new facial expressions. This is his latest. This expression seems to emerge when the camera comes out. Aren't those some cute cheeks?! I could kiss all over them.

Overall we are doing well and are glad to resume a somewhat "normal" life after the holidays.

Butchy Clause

This past weekend we had our Christmas in Sarasota with Mark’s parents. Sam and baby Abigail flew down from Louisville and we got to spend time with them. Because Steve works for UPS he is banned from taking time off before Christmas so he couldn’t come. We had such a good time. Abby and Aiden were too cute together and it reminded us of how much we miss seeing them.
The big plan was to take the kids to the mall to see Santa. It was like a scene from the Christmas story. The line was wrapped around in a loop. After I went to investigate I also discovered that the cheapest Santa picture package was $20.00. So we weighed the options and quickly left. Later on Mark’s uncle showed up with a Santa outfit that he had for years. We dressed up ole Butch and made a Butchy-Clause. The pictures below paint a very clear picture of what went down.
I would also like to add just how cute my niece is. She is a hoot. Baby girl Abby has the whole package. She has the looks and definitely has a personality! I can’t wait to see her again.

Kicking off the season

This weekend we kicked off the holiday season. On Friday night we took Aiden to see Santa. It was past Aiden's bedtime so we were taking bets on how he would act. Mark walked him up to Santa, set him in his lap and Aiden smiled. It was very cute. He was feeling his red velvet suit, and looking for the jingle bells up santa's sleeve that he would occasionally ring.



Then on Saturday, we went to the Celebration of lights parade downtown with Dana. Once again Aiden had a great time and it ended up not being as cold as it was supposed to be. We came with fuzzy hats, scarves, and blankets and at one point had to take them off because we got hot.
This is Aiden in his cute hat with Dana.


Today we went to the Christmas tree farm, picked out, and cut down our own tree. Then we ventured into Walmart to try to start shopping, took a look around at all the madness and soon left to try again later.


Tonight Aiden watched as we put the lights on the tree and was completely satisfied. What a little trooper.