Budding sense of humor

Aaron continues to amaze and amuse us. He is learning new words all the time now. We'll just suddenly realize he is saying something new, like "knee" or "neck" or "bib". And colors! Kim noticed him wanting her to name colors when they were out two weeks ago and although he doesn't always get them right, he is definitely learning. He requests his pacifiers by color now. Purple is his favorite, with orange and green close behind. I love to hear him say "purple". It's one of his few 2 syllable words.

He's really noticing letters lately, too. We have this book from the library called "One Bear, One Dog" that has really large letters. One day, he just started pointing to the letters in the words on each page to get us to name them. Since each page starts with the word "One", he picked up on the letter 'O' pretty quick. Now, in the middle of the book, he'll get up off my lap to go to his magnetic letters in the kitchen and he'll look until he finds the 'O' and bring it back.

And I'm loving his sense of humor. Today, he was looking through his lift-the-flaps farm book and on the food page, he pointed to the honey, and when I said "honey", he laughed and gave me a hug. He got up to point at it again and repeated this a dozen times. I don't know where it came from, but it was adorable. I must call him honey and not realize it.

Earlier this week, when my niece Larissa (he calls her LaLa) was over, he was just sitting on the floor with her looking towards his book case and said "babu" and then laughed. Then he seemed to think about it and said "babu" again and laughed some more. It seemed like he was trying to say something specific, something he found funny. Like "belly button" "blueberry". So then Larissa started saying "babu" and laughing back because it was so ridiculous. The rest of the time she was here, they were saying "babu" and cracking up. Now, if you ask him "What does LaLa say?", he'll answer "Babu!"

I also watched him play with his nesting castle blocks today and he made me laugh. There are 10 boxes made to look like a castle that you can stack up, or nest. He will often put a tiny one in the biggest one and then try putting the other bigger ones inside the big one, but they don't fit because the little one is in the way. We correct him and tell him it won't work, trying to explain that they need to go in a certain order. Sometimes he seems to get it. So today, I watched him put the smallest one inside the biggest one and tell himself "No, no, no" (only it sounds like "nyo, nyo, nyo"). So he knows it doesn't go that way, but he doesn't stop himself from doing it. This is the first time I've noticed him saying "no" like that. He's said it a few times here and there, although usually he just shakes his head if he doesn't want something you are offereing. Now he is saying it in more situations.

And a few days ago he made me laugh when I went to get him from his nap. He was sitting in his crib with his pacifier. He usually likes to sit in there for a bit before getting up. Sometimes he'll play with his animals in his crib, or give them to me. The other day, though, he was taking his pacifier and holding it to the heads of his stuffed animals and making a little suck suck sound. That was new. Not only was he offering them his pacifier, he was pretending they were sucking on it.

December is passing us by

Happy Holidays! I don't know where this month has gone, or even the entire year! Since I got back from my business trip, I've been so busy I haven't had time to post anything. But I have a few minutes while Thom and Aaron are at Lowe's and I'm a little under the weather, so instead of doing the million things I need to do before Christmas, I'm going to sit down with a cup of tea and give you an update.

The trip to Las Vegas was as productive as I'd hoped. I met a lot of good contacts, including many people I've talked to or e-mailed but had never met in person. The hotel (Tropicana) had lousy beds and I barely slept the first night so I was not my best the next day, but I managed to make the best of the short time I had at the conference. I also got to see my friend Lisa who was also there on business and play some nickel slots. My parents got to see Circ du Soleil and also took a friend of theirs out to lunch the full day we were in town. The drive out and back with my folks was pleasant - not too much traffic and we made good time, stopping in Barstow at In-n-Out both ways for lunch.

But best of all, Aaron was fine while I was gone. Kim sent pictures and video to me on the phone so I could see him. He did look for me in the mornings, but seemed OK when I couldn't be found. Thom didn't have any trouble with him in the mornings or at night. I am so thankful for Kim. I don't think I could have done the trip without her. And it was great not having to worry about him while I was gone. They went out in the mornings and again after his naps and he had a great time. He was napping when I got home and when I went in after his nap, I got a lot of hugs. The next day he was clingier than usual, with both Thom and I, but soon returned to normal.

The Saturday after I got back, he got his second flu shot and his Chicken Pox vaccine. He didn't seem to get fussy from them as he has from other shots.

And then Sunday, we had our Order Fusion friends over, including Crystal and Eric and their new 5 day old boy Enzo! I have pictures from that night (including the 2 of us that I've posted here), but there was so much red eye, I need to doctor nearly all the photos (and consider getting a new camera!) I don't have time for that now, but I hope to post more pictures later.

I've been busy with work, and also with trying to get gifts wrapped for Christmas, make Christmas cookies and make gifts for my secret Santa. I'm the one who suggested we make gifts again after a several year hiatus, but I'm starting to wonder if it was the best idea. Thom is taking 2 weeks off, though, so on Monday, while Kim is here, we can work on our gifts. We got a couple of things made today, but there is more to be done. We are coordinating on the gift making since I have some skills he can use for his secret Santa.

December Update

Is it really December already? It's hard to believe how fast this year is flying by. Last week, we had Thanksgiving at my parents' house. It was such a small gathering, everyone fit at one table, which is rare for my family. Dinner was delicious and Aaron tried a little of almost everything. His favorite by far was my sister's cranberry dish, which she makes from fresh cranberries. (As she pointed out, the are mostly sugar).

He also liked my dad's glace (I'm not sure if that is the right spelling but I'm sure my dad will comment with the correct spelling if it's not.) They are a German potato dumpling and his mother always made them for her family and for as long as I can remember, he has made them for Thanksgiving and Christmas for our family. They start 10 days before Thanksgiving when he sets out 10 slices of bread on a cookie sheet to dry out. I'm not sure that they really get any more dried out after about the 3rd day, but that is the tradition. Later they are ground up into bread crumbs and mixed with potatoes that have been through the food processor (although in recent years he has started using a hand cranked meat grinder that give the potatoes a little more texture.) I'm not sure what else goes into them, but the resulting dumplings are then cooked in the turkey pan in gravey for 20 minutes after the turkey comes out.

Glace are very dense dumplings. When Lia saw Aaron eating some, she joked that we wouldn't be able to pick him up afterwards. We have a lot of family jokes about glace. Some members of the family won't eat it at all and others look forward to it. Eating glace is a rite of passage for potential in-laws as well.

Although I worked a little over the weekend, mostly I enjoyed a little extra time with Thom (who had Friday off) and Aaron. This week, I am preparing to go to a business conference in Las Vegas. It will be the first time I'm away from Aaron overnight. I'll be gone two nights. Kim is working 2 long days to cover while I'm gone and Thom is going to work from home on Thursday (with Kim working 1/2 a day that day), the day I return. I don't like to fly and since it is a 6 hour drive, my parents and I are driving out together. They want to go for a visit - my dad knows someone out there - and they offered to keep me company on the drive.

I'm nervous about being away from Aaron, but I know he will be fine with Thom and Kim. I just think it will be confusing for him. But I'm also excited about the trip which will be a great networking opportunity for me. I've lined up a few meetings already.

I will leave you with a few more pictures of Aaron with his books. I realized the other morning that we probably spend more than an hour each day reading books to Aaron. All on his initiative except the 3 we read at bedtime. He's a little book junkie. In fact, on Thanksgiving, we turned on the parade thinking he might like to watch it, especially since he rarely watches TV. He watched for a minute or so, but then wanted to get back to his books.

Reading with Bear. This is how our mornings are spent - taking turns reading books to Aaron.

Last week when Larissa was babysitting, I found Aaron reclined on her lap with one of his favorite books - Is Your Mama a Llama. Besides the llama, he also likes to point out the sun on each page.