Magic Moments

It's a Sunday tradition. Aiden gets to play with the ads while mama looks at the coupons and the Target ad while Dada combs through the Best Buy ad. For some reason the paper is SO much fun! As always, Aiden sports his Vikings gear on Sunday to cheer on our team with Daddy. My baby is growing. It seems like there will be a keeping of the status quo for awhile, then Aiden will all of the sudden surprise us with new skills! His pincher ability is starting to develop. I'll catch him poking at things with his pointer finger and try to coordinate his tumb to pick it up and get it...it's a fun process to watch! He can get into a crawling position from a sitting position (but still just scooting and not crawling) and this morning Dada discovered that Aiden had a tooth that poked through! I had been suspecting it from the way he has been chomping on everything, but he hasn't been super fussy so I didn't really think much of it. But sure enough, the tooth is there! I ...

5:15 AM- Aiden is awake. Aiden has been awake since 3:20 AM. Mama Bear is very grumpy. Daddy Bear got home at 11:00 PM and is currently in the shower so he can be back to work at 6:00 AM. When did the rule become that if Daddy and Baby were awake Mama had to be awake too? Sigh. What happened to sleeping in on Saturdays? NOT COOL! I have fed Aiden, rocked Aiden (for more than an hour), given him more milk, layed with him, made Daddy a smoothie, ahhh! I have tried to be a VERY boring Mama and have not talked, smiled, NOTHING. Yet for some reason this is funny. Aiden is in his bed laughing. Yes, that's right. LAUGHING out loud...belly laughing...and talking, and peeking over the bumper pads trying to see me. Seriously, it's like he had a shot of caffeine. Stay away from this bear cave today....if I don't get to go back to slumberland, mama will not be a fun mama. You know what they say, "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." P.S. It snow...

I'm sure all of my fellow mommies out there will appreciate this, however, if you aren't a mommy you may want to proceed with caution. This post might contain too much information for some of you. :) In my pre-mommy life my days used to be marked by meetings and work responsibilities. Being a teacher and a therapist, my calendar was full of case note and report card deadlines, appointments with parents and social workers, and of course dates with Tom. Since Aiden's birth, my calendar is quite bare aside from a once a week story time at the library and an occasional play date with Aiden's friend, baby Elyse. Since I stay at home and raise Aiden, gone are the things I once deemed important that used to keep me on a schedule. Believe me, when I was working I would start counting down to the weekend on Monday mornings. No one needed to remind me what day it was. HAHA! Now, my days seem to run together and are marked by Aiden's milestones. As of late, the thing that keep...

Last night, after weeks of begging, Tom finally agreed to take us to church at Solomon's Porch which is a church in Minneapolis. I have been wanting to check it out for awhile now because it is a very different style of church. It isn't really a Christian pop culture church, but instead it is very communal, holistic, and relationship oriented. The sanctuary is filled with couches arranged in a circle and the pastor speaks from a stool in the middle that swivels so he can connect with everyone. Comments are welcome during the service and all the worship is written by the Solomon's Porch band. It incorporates posture prayers, communal readings, and is very baby friendly during the service. In fact, the pastor even said that if a baby cries that is just fine! That really meant a lot to me. Anyway, Tom was very nervous b/c it is a tad bit of a "hippie" church. It's full of free spirit's and granola's (a major plus for me, but caused Tom anxiety). I had b...

Sometimes the toys that are the most fun are the things that aren't really toys at all. "This looks fun!" "Look at me guys!" "Peek!" "This is mama's failed attempt at trying to contain me."

One of my friend's once told me that she didn't want her kids to think that other people's artwork was worthy of being framed, but their artwork was only worthy of the refrigerator. So, she planned on framing her kid's artwork. I think she was SO wise! I decided that Aiden's artwork is worthy of being on more than just typing paper, so I dug out a canvas for him from my art supplies (I'm an artist wanna-be and for Valentine's Day Tom restocks my art supplies) and we went to town! Aiden finger painted almost the whole kitchen and painted himself, but he did a beautiful job on his painting too! I can't wait to hang it up! The finished product! Little hands at work "Finger painting is SO fun!" "Mama, I need more paint!" "I'm off to a good start. What do you think so far?" "I just need a little more yellow in this corner." "This is my best work. Dada says it'll bring millions on Ebay!" P.S. Aiden ...

Our friends, Nate and Natalie, get the most awesome deals on Craig's List. Seriously, they find stuff that is like new for so cheap and I have to admit, I'm jealous....until today. I made my first Craig's List purchase and I have joined the ranks of their success. I have been wanting to get Aiden an activity center. These toys are wooden cubes and have a different activity on each side. They are these classic toys (I'm not into fad toys) that emphasize motor skills, cause and effect, thought processes, etc. Anyway, the wooden activity centers retail for 50-100+ dollars and I just couldn't justify it. Today I got lucky and I bought one on Craig's List for $12 that is in excellent condition. And, to make it even more worth it, Aiden LOVES it! I'm a pretty happy mama today. My baby who is not yet 7 months and not crawling yet can pull himself up with this toy and stand and play. WHOA! "Mama! I really like the maze!" "No time for a diaper chang...