Ayden and Finleigh

Jenny and Finleigh came up yesterday and spent the night with us and we a great time! Ayden loved the baby, and he was very good with her! He held her and played with her and basically spent every second wanting to be around her. Finleigh is such a good and sweet baby! Definetely made me have an even more severe case of the baby bug! :) Here are some pics, they are all so cute!

Holding the baby

Going in for a kiss! Finleigh is not so sure...

Another smooch!

Sweet baby girl!

Look at those adorable thighs!

Dinner time!

Ayden's Big Boy Bed!

After weeks of deliberation, we finally decided to replace Ayden's toddler bed with a regular bed. He was quickly outgrowing the little bed, and since the plan is to have him in his own room by the time we have another baby, we decided it would be easiest to get a bed big enough that we could lay down with him during the transition :) We were going to buy a full size bed, but in interest of saving money and living better (lol) we are using our very new and comfy queen-sized guest bed. We figured our guests wouldn't mind sharing with Ayden, especially since our main overnight guests are his grandparents! The bed looks so cute in his room, especially with his cute new cowboy and horses quilt :) I still have a few finishing touches to put on the room, like new curtains and putting his name in wooden letters over his bed, but I just couldn't wait to post pics of our big boy in his bed! So far he loves the new bed, but its not bedtime yet! We shall see how it goes!

Officially a big boy's room-crib and changing table gone!

Watching toons :)

Ayden's antics

I just wanted to post a few of the funny new things Ayden is saying and doing:

He calls ketchup "hot sauce"

Every time it would thunder last night, he would say"it's a monster!"

he loves to snuggle under the covers and say "oh, it's cold!!"

The first thing he does when we wake up in the morning is ask me if I need to potty, and then if I need coffee! Smart boy!

He is speaking in complete sentences over 50% of the time. Sometimes it's really cute..."I love you too, Momma" or "I need more play-doh, okay?" and sometimes it's really rotten...Last night Chris asked him if he was finished with his dinner and he very clearly said, "No, Daddy, I want to eat my applesauce. Go away."

Also, instead of just saying "no" to something, he will say, "No, I don't want to ---(take a nap, eat lunch, etc) It is amazing how much his vocab has exploded recently!

He says "no momma (or daddy) wait! wait!" when we are walking away and he's not done with us!

His biggest behavioral issues right now are running from us when it's time to leave the house, eat or go to bed and screaming the loudest, most shrill scream you have ever heard when he doesn't get his way. Fun times :)

Everytime he has even the smallest boo-boo, he says "momma, kiss it?" and if Chris is home he must kiss it too :)

Sesame Street band-aids have magic powers in making boo-boos (even invisible ones) immediately all better :)

Fun at the fair!

Tonight we went to the Benton County Fair, which was very small compared to the AR/OK State Fair in Ft.Smith we have gone to the last several years! But there were rides, animals, and food--all the basics were covered! Ayden rode 3 very questionable rides, ate some nachos, saw some animals, and together we went through almost an entire pack of anti-bacterial wipes :) I rode a mini-rollercoaster with him, which was disguised to look like a harmless "kiddie" ride---WHAT THE HECK EVER!! It was awful! Very fast, jerky, rough, nauseating---I can't believe he didn't cry, I was terrified! As soon as it stopped, he looked at me and said "down, momma?" He definetely didn't want a second ride, LOL. Here are some pics of our night!

Getting ready for the horrific ride!

YIKES!

Enjoying nachos!

Petting zoo!

Guess what?!

Ayden just peed on the potty! It was just a little sprinkle, but a big accomplishment nonetheless! In just the past couple of days he has started asking to use the potty on his own, saying he needs to pee-pee or poo-poo, but he never actually does anything. He always wants to wash his hands, and I told him this morning that if he would pee-pee, he could wash his hands, so he did! Then he said, "wash hands, momma?" Forget bribing with candy, this kid just wants to play with soap and water, lol! It's just a minor step in the major goal of potty-training, but I definetely think we are making some progress!

He will hate me for this later...

Blog book!

I am so excited, I finally ordered the first volume of our blog book! I have been meaning to do this for weeks, months actually, and I finally decided to order it in 3 month volumes to cut down on the cost, since I have 2 years worth of blogging to print! I can't wait until it gets here and I can order the next one!

Such a mess!

Ayden loves spaghetti, but I hesitate to make it because he makes the most insane mess when he eats it!! Guess I should just be glad that he likes his momma's cooking :)

Relaxing after a hard day's play :)

Ayden has started assuming this hilarious pose everytime we play a movie for him. As soon as we told him we could watch The Lion King tonight, he squealed with joy, jumped on the couch with a pillow and blanket and kicked back and relaxed! He is so his daddy's boy!

And how cute is this....same pose at 3 months old!!

Wild Wilderness Safari!

Yesterday we took advantage of Chris being off for the holiday and had a fun family day! We started off with breakfast at IHOP and then headed to Gentry to the Wild Wilderness Drive Through Safari, which was so cool! A couple of my friends from work had told me about it so we decided to check it out. It was so much fun! There was a huge petting zoo and we spent over an hour feeding and petting goats, pigs, horses, donkeys, monkeys, and kangaroos! The animals were very gentle, but there were signs everywhere saying "Do not chase the animals" so needless to say, we had to keep one hand on Ayden at all times! He broke away a couple times and scared some chickens but luckily that was the worst of it :) Ayden even got to ride a horse! Then after the petting zoo we drove 45 minutes through an awesome safari and saw zebras, camels, tigers, lions, and buffalos just to name a few! We had such a fun day and can't wait to go again! Here are some random-order pics of our day!

Enjoying the drive through safari

Enjoying chocolate chip pancakes :)

Chris made a new friend!

On your mark, Get set, Go!

Ayden just started doing and saying this, out of nowhere! He cracks us up! We are guessing he learned it from some cartoon, seeing that Chris and I aren't too big on foot races :)

I guess it makes perfect sense to a 2 year old...

To take all the cushions off the couch and bring them into the bathroom while Mommy is in the shower. Oh, and to wear Daddy's dress socks while doing this. Why ask why? LOL :)

Bock-a-Bye, Momma?

One of my favorite moments as a mommy is coming home from work on weekend mornings to my sweet, snuggly baby boy. The first words I hear from him are "bock-a-bye, momma?" Which means he wants me to hold him and rock. I asked Chris to take a picture this past weekend so I would never forget these precious moments :)

I hope he is always momma's boy

A sweet baby boy and his very tired momma

Big shoes for a big boy!

So....I made one of many rookie mom mistakes--way underestimating how quickly a child's feet grow! In other words, shoes purchased in April will probably not still fit in September! Chris and I took Ayden to get new shoes last night, thinking he might need a size 7.5 or 8. Uh, try a 9! Easy! Why am I surprised, I wear an 11 and Chris a 14. Poor little guy has been screaming to have his shoes off a lot lately, no wonder if you have a size 9 foot in a size 6.5 shoe...whoops! Here he is with his new big boy shoes and wearing a new outfit from his birthday money (Thanks Aunt Jess & Uncle Josh :)

What a big guy!

Look at those big ole' feet!

Cool new kicks!