Happy Birthday Aiden!

Today my little girl turns one year old. I can hardly believe it. It has been such a busy day and went by way too quickly (so no pictures until tomorrow!). But we have had a good time. Aiden had a good day at daycare, we had birthday pictures taken (so CUTE!) and we opened lots of birthday presents- if you sent them to the house, Aidie opened, enjoyed and was recorded- we will post soon!
At this time 1 year ago I was waiting to hear if I was going to have to have a C-Section or not. I hadn't even started pushing yet! Wow! Aiden would be born an hour later. The biggest blessing of my life. Every day is more amazing than the day before and I am sure this coming year will be an even bigger adventure than these past 365 days have been. I can't wait to see what it brings to us. More post tomorrow. For now: BED!

Aidie... Where's your belly?

Here it is!
Aiden has had the best time showing off her belly over the past several weeks. It is so cute to watch her pat her tummy or raise up her shirt and give a big smile. She has gotten so good at finding her own belly, she decided to move on to other bellies...
Like Daddy's, for instance!
Now we are comparing bellies. See my belly, Daddy! Well, since you asked ;-)


We have also mastered the sippy cup. We are only taking a bottle before bed now. What a big girl! I am so unbelievably proud. Not even a fuss about it until this morning... and we found out today that she has an ear infection and a sore throat. No wonder this poor kid hasn't been eating, drinking and is super clingy :( We are on antibiotics for the first time ever, which I suppose is lucky, as she is not quite a year old. Hopefully this all ends soon and we have our happy, healthy little girl back in time for her birthday!
On another adorable note: Aidie now lays down and cuddles with whatever she can find whenever she feels sleepy. Fantastic cue for Momma and Daddy on nap and bedtime!

And for a final viewing pleasure. Here is Miss Aidie doing her walking. Boy is she really going. She now carries toys and she even brought me a book to read her today. WHICH MEANS: She only has 1 more goal to meet before she finishes her 18-24 month goals. Boy is she whipping through them!

It may have been a while since I've updated, but we have been having tons of fun.... mostly in the "big girl" category! Aidie is now primarily off pureed foods and on to table food. Although she is still loving her apple sauce. Daddy is pretty sure he is way better at feeding time than me, due to the amount of mess. But honestly- she needs a chance to experiment!
We have also been spending a lot of time outside. Aidie is loving all the outdoor time!

Of course indoor time is fun too! It is hysterical to watch Dan and Aidie because Aidie actually "fights" back. However, if anyone besides her is doing it, she freaks out.
We have recently discovered a new way to help mommy in the kitchen. Aidie loves to play in the kitchen cabinets (mommy approved of course!). We're doing something new and she loves all the sounds.
We decided to grill out one day. So we tied up Cainy, put Aidie in the high chair and off we went!
Daddy even posed for a grilling photo ;-)
Aidie is becoming quite the little mathematician. She LOVES to play with rulers and calculators!
She is getting so much more advanced with all of her toys. She and daddy stacked all of her rings the other day- very little daddy help! She is also learning to help put away her toys!
More fun time outside!
Our St. Patricks day excitement. After Aidie went to bed we had green drinks, complete with four leaf clovers!
When Aidie wouldn't sleep one day- a habit that just keeps getting worse and worse!- We stopped by the zoo and looked at all of the pretty flowers blooming!
Aidie has been participating in some psychology experiments at the psych building. Here she is enjoying one of her well earned prizes.
Aidie loves to help mommy clean. Anything with a button is fair game in her opinion!
That's pretty well it for our life up til now. If you keep up on Facebook, you know she is becoming quite the little toddler- what with screaming fits, not sleeping and generally getting into everything. I suppose we'll just hold onto our hats and try to point her in the right direction as long as the wind doesn't sweep us off our feet :-)

Aidie's Wish List

Please find Aidie's wishlist at www.amazon.com.

Do you love green beans this much?

We have had a lot of fun over the last few days. The best part being that we went to the park for the first time since Aiden was born. We had a fantastic time. She wasn't so sure about swings and slides at first, but after a few tries she discovered that they were awesome! Enjoy our outing!

Mommy and Aidie coming down the slide!

Taking lots of steps with Daddy.

I LOVE SWINGS!

It's small, but the look on her face is hysterical!

Sideways shot

Peeking through the fort slats

Sitting with Daddy on the chain bridge.

Do you think I look like the Michelin baby or something?

We have also been working on some new words (as well as teeth!). The following are attempts at some goodies!

*CHEESE*

*BOO*

We are working on our sippy!

The next is a video proving Aiden's love of vegetables. This kid loves green beans to the point of ridiculous! So cute!

Walking, Talking and THE DRESS!

No, Aidie isn't getting married quite yet (although there are a few handsome, infantile gents lining up), but I AM super excited about her birthday dress. If you are looking for adorable girly duds check out togs4tots on Etsy. I am in LOVE! Super reasonable and perfect for whenever. She even added extra ribbon and sewed on a "1" to the bottom for a few extra bucks. I cannot wait until April 16th!!!
Speaking of her birthday: for those of you who are unaware, we will be having a Rubber Ducky theme, as Aiden LOVES ducks!
Please be aware that the next section is not presumption, merely a response to the many questions we have been asked. In regards to gift questions (GIFTS ARE NOT REQUIRED!), please note the following:
1. We will be posting a registry for Aidie's birthday. As soon as it is done. I will publish the link.
2. As we have SO MANY 18month clothes (and she is already wearing 12month clothes), we are asking for 24month/2T clothes only. Of course if you'd like to make something or find that perfect outfit and it happens to be of 12-18month size, we won't hold it against you and will flaunt it appropriately ;-)
3. Aiden's likes: Ducks, dogs, bunnies, magnets, interactive books, bathtime, puppets and shoes
4. Aiden's dislikes: Anything in/for her hair/head (this excludes shampoo, as she loves bathtime! But includes, although is not limited to: hair bows, hats, ribbons, head bands, etc), items that cause restriction (such as her car seat!), bananas, avacado, and videos of herself with mommy.
Hope the list helps!
Aidie is getting to be quite the walker but doesn't really do much without quite a bit of encouragement. She took six steps last night, although we only caught four on video. Enjoy the clip of our most naked girly taking a walk!
Also, she is quite the talker and her favorite word right now is "Hi!" Enjoy her adorably cute voice. She says hi to everything, clocks, doors, the dog, strangers, pictures and even the tv. SO cute!

So much for pictures and posting

This past weekend, Daniel, Aidie and I went to go visit my cousin, Jessie, her husband, Jared and their new little guy, Iroh. - Were there way too many commas in that sentence or what!?!- We had so much fun up there that we completely forgot about getting our camera out of the car. Thank goodness Jess had hers inside and took some photos! A friend of mine made us dinner when Aidie was little bitty and we wanted to send on the love. So we went up, made dinner and I got an herbal steam bowl with drops to take home for my head cold. Thanks for sharing your herbal knowledge dear cousin! Cold is cured! Woohoo!
On another visit note: If we were ever even thinking of having another child, Aiden has nixed that in the bud pretty quickly. When I finally got a chance to hold Iroh, he was on a feeding frenzy that day, Aiden was not having it. She screamed and cried whenever I held him. She grabbed onto me and gave me a look as if I had betrayed her. So... I held them both at the same time. It may look like I was meant to have tons of kids, but obviously my first born doesn't agree!
Hopefully the insane jealousy will abate by the next time we get together :-)
On the eating front- Aidie is in the weaning process. I have always hated having to give Aidie formula. But with low production and breastmilk banks being too expensive, it was really the only option. Thus, I am weaning her early to get her off of that stuff! We are doing really well. She is only taking three bottles of formula a day now! Yippee! We have three/four meals of food- puree and table food mixed each day too, complete with sippy! Hoping to get her taking her juice from her sippy soon. The issue there being that she has to drink all of it- as that's how we have to give her the Miralax. So, practice, practice!