Monday, October 15, 2007

Say cheese!


It remains to be seen if I'm ever going to be able to take another picture of Aidan smiling normally, but oh well :) He's discovered the joy of hamming it up for the camera...

And here's Aidan painting his pumpkin yesterday afternoon in the kitchen... quite a little artist. He had a lot of fun and couldn't stop saying, "Wow! Wow!" over and over again. Thank goodness for paintbrushes, right? He got the paint on his fingers a couple times and we had to take breaks from painting to clean him up because it distressed him so.



Soo... that was my last update until Aidan's little brother makes his appearance. Let's hope for sooner rather than later, shall we? Now that Mike AND my midwife are both in Salt Lake City, I'm sure we'll all have to sit and wait for a couple weeks... but who knows? We can always hope, right? :)

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Overtired kid = long day



Yep, he's asleep. I'm soooooo glad he's asleep.

Monday, September 10, 2007

First day of school (sort of)



Today was Aidan's first day at his Mother's Morning Out program, which we enrolled him in for the school year... he goes to a local Methodist church every Monday from 9-12 and he's in a class of about ten other 2-3 year olds with two teachers... it's like a pre-preschool, I guess. They have crafts and circle time and lots of unstructured play, and it's really for socialization. He even has his own cubby and hook!

Naturally, I was a wreck leaving him there for the first time. And rightly so -- apparently every year there's one or two kids in each class that really struggles for a while, and I just KNEW it was going to be Aidan (especially with his recent voyage into tantrum discovery). I stuck around for about 20 minutes outside the classroom listening to him cry "Mommy Coming?" feeling slightly sick to my stomach, but sure that he would calm down... I had to meet Mike to drop one of our cars off at the mechanic though, so I finally left... only to get a call an hour later -- yep, he was still crying. I guess he stopped crying for goldfish cracker snacktime, but started up again afterwards... and he refused to do the handprint craft with the other kids.

He stopped crying right after they called me, which is why I didn't pick him up early... but I still felt crappy. Ugh. I hope this gets easier for him AND me!! :)

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Random

I miss my bangs, I think. Mostly I had to post to get my curtains out of the #1 slot on this blog, because I'm really worrying that you're all staring intently at them and can somehow see all their flaws. :) And since our card reader broke and we can't get photos off our digicam until we go buy a new one, I was left with no other option but to do a photo-less post.

Anyway... should I get bangs again? Feel free to weigh in on the comments section. I really need to know, this is a big deal to me and I'm uncomfortable making any serious decisions without lots of input when I'm pregnant. I don't need to make another mistake like the "wedding-registry-bedding-and-bath-floral-everything-rampage-of-doom" or the "rodeo-princess-pregnant-perm-mishap-of -2005."

Oh, also. Just so it's out there in the universe for reference, siblings, read on... Christmas 2007 is as follows:
Anna --> Jo
Jo --> Anna
Buff --> Pat
Pat --> Buff

That is all. :)

Saturday, August 11, 2007

She's crafty!

Well maybe I wouldn't go that far... but I did finish my very first sewing project EVER, with the help of my 2005 Christmas gift of a sewing machine (thanks Mom!) and my 2006 Christmas gift of a big cute bucket o' useful things for sewing (thanks Nancy!!). It only took me this long to get brave enough to try and actually use them. I started with baby steps... last month, I threaded the machine and then walked away for a few weeks -- it was a little intimidating, okay? Not to mention everyone thought I was crazy because my first project was 2 panels (the whole matching factor comes into play first time out, that's scary!) on slippery material with a row of BEADS under the little pole pocket thing, hello!! You might not be able to see them, they're not giant softball-sized beads or anything... but they're there. Ooohhh, yes... they're there.



Okay stop looking... really, don't look too close. I'm counting on the fact that people probably won't come in and inspect my work. Let's move on!!


Here's an update for all those who aren't lucky enough to see us on a regular basis (hardy har har). This is my 28-week belly, which actually looks bigger when it's just my bare belly but I'm not going to do that to y'all. Or me, really. Let's all pretend that my pregnant face does not look more roundy-swollen than usual, okay?




And then because I think I might get in trouble if I posted without a picture of Aidan, here he is "helping" me get ready for a show. I walk away for 2 minutes to grab some catalogs and I come back to find he's removed 2 of my boxes of jewelry and has taken their place in my suitcase... he's playing with my mirror stand, too. Silly goose.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Aidan's a big boy now

So it's official... as I type this, Aidan is (hopefully) asleep in his new big boy bed. He only came outside of his room once, though I'm sure we're in for a transition period and I bet it won't always be this easy (especially at night, that kid will stay up until 9 pm some nights in his crib just chattering away because of how light it is outside, even though he's absolutely exhausted).

I wanted to share a picture of him from this morning from right when I put the bedding on his new mattress set. We're leaving it on the floor for now since he's an all-over-the-place sleeper and I doubt even bedrails could contain him right now.



He was really excited about it, jumped right in this morning and when I asked him if this was his big boy bed he said, "YES!" so at least we have that going for us :)

Oh and by the way, the air conditioner man came today and confirmed that indeed, yes it is unusual for your AC never to get your house down to the set temperature and consequently run all day long. A new valve and a freon refill later, and it's a Pioneer Day Miracle! (or a Stephanie's Birthday miracle, depending on the side of the family you're in or your state of residence)

UPDATE: Success!

Friday, July 20, 2007

What are you, 2? Sheesh.

Aidan turned 2 this past Tuesday -- I can't believe it, yikes! He's just grown up so suddenly, I feel like I blinked and he turned into a big boy. He has started talking more, too... it's always "dan [fan] on" and "garbage truck" (with a french accent) and "chips! chips! chips!" (gee, I wonder where he got that inborn obsession with deep-fried junk? Hmm. MIKE. )

I have plenty of pictures since I never seem to have time to post and people are always telling me that I'm lazy (in much nicer words of course). SO prepared to be visually assaulted with wrapping paper and festivities.

We're setting the stage... oooh, ahh... look at the craziness that was his birthday party!

Considering there was something like 10-15 children there I thought it was pretty under control. What you don't see is the 2 pools, the little tikes toddler playground and the big kid playset.

And here's the birthday boy, stuffing a chip into his mouth. Aww, tender. I found out later that the chip eating was a big trend for the day. Grandpa Williams apparently caught him double-fisting the chips, after stuffing approximately 40 of them into his mouth. My son.


As if the potato chips weren't enough, here's Aidan having some cake with Daddy and his Grandparents Silver. I don't think he was a big fan of the cake, even though I painstakingly decorated it myself and then neglected to take a photo of its wonderfulness. Did you know that whipped frosting gets really runny if you add food coloring? Also, for your future reference, red food coloring turns the frosting pink (not a super manly color for a car) and if you try to add yellow to it to hopefully save it by turning it orange... well, don't hold your breath unless you like neon pinky-orange cars. Sigh. 1 trip to the grocery store later for new frosting you've learned your lesson and the car is now a pale blue and you hate decorating cakes.


We didn't open gifts at the party, since it was basically a BBQ in disguise as a birthday party since this is the last year that he won't care... but later, after a much needed nap and much grumpery, we opened some presents. Here's his new tricycle from mom & dad... and what's this here? He's eating a chip... is anyone surprised?


Here's Aidan playing with a neat little car that you shake up a few times and then put down, and magically it zooms across the floor. He was a bit afraid of it at the beginning, and then he thought it was pretty cool... and I think now we're back to being scared. Ever since the Tickle Me Elmo incident of Christmas '06 he's been a little wary of things that move on their own. ;)


This is Aidan "sawing" into his water-doodle mat. He looooves the tools, won't put them down. The mat has a water-filled pen and when you draw on the foam squares (covered in fabric) it writes, but as it dries over the next minute or so, the writing disappears... so it's pretty fun too -- once you turn it over to the side with the fabric and stop jabbing the water pen into plain foam and complaining about how it doesn't work right.


NEXT DAY, round 2 of gift opening (I said there was much grumpery involved). Here's Aidan opening a present with help from his new tool. It turned out to be a fun little RC police car for toddlers...


Which Aidan was (surprise!) scared of, no matter how much Mike "demonstrated" and "demonstrated" and "demonstrated" for him. You don't see Aidan here because he's started crying and has run away from the toy that moves by itself. I'm sure he'll grow into it, and hopefully by the time he does Mike will not have totally drained its batteries. :)


Here's Aidan opening his neat little handmade alphabet book from Grandma Silver which is full of "numbers" (letters don't exist yet)


Tired? Yeah, me too. Aidan finished up the day by zoning out and watching his new Sesame Street DVD about counting. Isn't that a nice photo? ;)

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

It's a boy!



Just wanted to share that news with y'all! Isn't he cute in a weird fetal kind of way?

We're definitely having another boy, and we might have to name him Aidan too because things could get ugly here, real quickly. Boy names are not something Mike and I agree on. Wish us luck!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Hardest. Thing. Ever.

I'm typing very slowly, as my fingers are swollen and sore from 2 hours of insane manual labor that should have only been attempted by someone with a graduate degree in Engineering... I'm talking about assembling a play kitchen.



What? Are you laughing? Psh. I'd like to see you try.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Hellooooo world!

Hey, I'm Aidan. And I'm cute.



I like grapes, books, dancing, Elmo, and especially cats. They love me too, can't you tell?



Mom kept putting off updating this website, she kept whining about something called "morning sickness" but I got tired of waiting. Sheesh. The people have a right to see pictures of me, you know? :)

I'd post more pictures but this "morning sickness" also apparently makes Mom's shutter-finger very lazy. I'll see what I can do and get back to you.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're awful!!

I'll just get straight to the point and post some pictures for y'all...

Here's Christmas:


Aidan is obviously disgusted that he can't hire someone to open his presents FOR him...


In his new PJs and slippers with a couple cool toys (calculator did belong to mom... DID belong.)


Aidan in his cool chair with his kitty cat, who he couldn't face another day without.


Now, to more recent activities!


Aidan playing in his cool new toy (thanks Kristy, miss you! Even though we love having it, we'd love playing with it at your house even more!)


My cute boy!!

So there you have it... no time for words, as I am a very busy and important person who has to run and do busy important things (like clean my kitchen).

xoxo

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Helllooooo?



Here's Aidan talking on the phone (remote control) with a very important client (Santa). Please note the pile of boxes behind him -- we've been oh-so-busy packing for our impending move (Anna's crazy idea that moving between Thanksgiving and Christmas would be a good idea).

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Aww, aren't we cute?



We had an appointment with a photographer to take some pictures of our little fam-damily before we went on vacation, and she bailed on us without notice. What a peach, huh?

HOWEVER, my super wonderful sister Buffy swooped in to save the day while we were in Oregon and took some pictures of us! I guess the lighting wasn't ideal, and Buffy was worried that they wouldn't turn out -- Aidan "squirmy butt" Silver was fuzzy in a lot of them I guess.

I think this one is pretty cute though, aside from my double chin. That's not Buffy's fault, though. That's on me... well, maybe I could blame it on all the turkey.

Thanks Buffy!!! You really ARE a peach. mwah.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Vacations are good for my sanity...

And you know I must have been in desperate need for one if I claim they're good for my sanity and I was with most of my side of the family (we missed you Jo and fam!). I loooove my family, but a week in a cabin together when it's raining 23 1/2 out of every 24 hours of the day is maybe not the best idea, if anyone is considering taking such a vacation for themselves.

Here is an example of said weather:

It does look cloudy, but now imagine rain, LOTS of it... and while we're doing that, make it horizontal so it smacks straight into the windows. Now, throw in some thunder and some wind, I believe I read that there were gusts up to 65 mph. Ahh, now you have it. Anyone care to take a walk on the beach with me?

So we spent nearly all of our time indoors... in front of a toasty fire. Aidan had a couple of his cousins to play with, and after a few days cooped up inside they even got over the fact that they were playing with "baby toys" :)



There were some moments of decent weather though, so we visited Newport's bayfront and saw some sea lions, which are very loud and whose breath is quite unpleasant and can travel great distances because of its potency:



We also stopped by Devil's Churn...



We also made a stop at the Oregon Coast Aquarium where Aidan ran around enamored of all the fish, one flounder in particular.



And then, just in time to say goodbye, the sun came out. I took a picture of it while we were loading our suitcases into our rental car, and couldn't help but feel a bit miffed at Mother Nature and her sense of humor. I counted no less than 15 people on the beach, walking around without jackets. Hmph.



I am aware of the "non-fantastic-ness"of these photos, but our camera battery died halfway through the trip and so I am waiting for some other pictures from my sister and mom... and they're both way better at taking pictures than I am. So hopefully I will get a few more pictures up here in the near future. :)

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Happy Halloween

I figured I would pop in and post some pictures from our day since many of you may have forgotten what Aidan looks like because I've neglected my duties so....


Here's my bat boy right before I took him trick-or-treating to a few houses on our street. Like the fangs?


Digging in the candy bowl... must be genetic, since he's never actually tried candy so doesn't even know of its wondrous qualities.


Checking out the goods after coming home - the most important part of the evening, as many of you know. By next year a pencil with dracula's picture taped to it won't be quite so cool, I bet.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Beautiful Dreamer



This is what happens when a toddler decides to transition from two naps a day to one... the mind is resolved to stay awake during lunch, but the body lags behind in the actual execution of this new plan. I'm sure it will catch up eventually, but for now it's pretty entertaining to watch the struggle!

Monday, September 11, 2006

Aidan's 1st Haircut

Well, Mike finally got his way. I loved Aidan's messy baby hair, but Mike was positive it was starting to resemble a mullet. So today, on Mike's birthday, we took Aidan to a cute place called Cookie Cutters haircuts for kids, and came home with an entirely new toddler - yikes!

He got to sit in a little fire engine chair, and they put on an Elmo video for him to watch, which really did work, he was only upset about half the time. Here's his mostly unsuspecting before photo:


And here is Aidan starting to realize he wasn't comfortable with the situation:



This is where he is completely positive that he hates what's going on:



Here the very patient and extremely quick stylist is trying to finish up, after I swooped in to help hold him tight since he decided he was so unhappy he was just going to get up and walk on out of the salon:



And here's a picture of him in the car after he stopped crying!



And finally, here's how he celebrated his new haircut while mom ran to the store and dad was getting ready for work:



All in all, a red letter day. Aidan even drew all over a homemade card for Mike's birthday, since he's now figured out what pens and markers do (Aidan, not Mike). He even scribbled with his left hand, people.

What a birthday present for Mike!

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Anna's case of slackeritis...

I am pretty embarrassed right now, since I have been so ridiculously awful at posting this summer! I started selling lia sophia jewelry, which I love, and that enabled me to quit my "real" job (yay!) and Mike worked all sorts of wonky hours because his work is hiring so many new people that the new hire classes he teaches are at all sorts of odd hours to fit more classes in.

Not to mention Aidan's kicking out butts as far as our energy goes! He's walking, and talking... (if anyone's keeping track he says no, duck, cat, bus, light, and clock) and basically growing into this whole toddlerhood thing. He's mastering the art of food-throwing and tantrumizing, and if my family's karmic wishes come true, he'll be holding his breath until he passes out in no time (seriously mom, it's not that uncommon! I read about it in "What to Expect the First Year" I promise!)

So we've been keeping pretty busy lately. We've had plenty of time for playing in the sprinkler...



and playing peekaboo with the shower curtain...



and learning all about the wonderful sounds things make when you hit them together...



So you can see we've had our hands full. I do apologize for my serious case of slackeritis, and I hope it's not chronic! :)

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Holy Crazy Week, Batman!

Wow, I don't even know where to start! Maybe I'll take a nap and try again later. No, you say? You don't think I would dutifully post right after I woke up from my much needed rest? I don't know why, it's not like my last post was over a month ago. Such a lack of faith, tsk tsk.

FINE, I'll do it right now. But if I nod off in the middle of posting, I'm going to blame it entirely on you.

Last week was nuts! Monday the 17th was Aidan's 1st Birthday (sniff sniff) and we threw a backyard party for him to celebrate, and my friend Jessica married Mike's friend Aaron yesterday, and Mike's parents stayed with us the whole week, too. It was a lot of fun, but I am soooo glad it's over!!

Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure:


Mike made about a billion hamburgers, at both Aidan's birthday party and the rehearsal dinner we hosted in our backyard Friday night. Such a manly grilling god.


Mean Auntie Buffy, letting Aidan lick limes and then laughing... tsk.


Singing "Happy Birthday" to our little goober! See his smash cake? I'm so crafty, it's even shaped like a "1."


He really didn't get too messy. I guess he was a little grossed out when he got frosting all over his hands and couldn't get it off. It must just be his neat personality, because I'm sure his sugar-free carrot cake and cream cheese frosting were DELICIOUS. Really.


Opening the bajillion presents... I kind of forgot it was a party for him, and just invited all my friends for a fun BBQ. They all brought presents, and I didn't even think about that until I saw the obscene pile of gifts. Not that Aidan was complaining...


On Monday we went to Hogle Zoo with Grandma & Grandpa Silver in the morning. See the tiger in the background? We caught him at naptime, I guess!


Aidan really liked this little cat... Snow Cat or something like that. It was cute and little, and Aidan went a little crazy for it.


Jessica & Aaron's wedding. I hope I don't get in trouble for stealing my sister's picture, but I didn't have my camera with me, I was too busy being Jessica's Matron of Honor and looking fabulous in pink. Don't beat me up Buffy! Here go to her website and see it for yourself so she doesn't get mad at me for taking the photo.

Yawn, now I really am taking a nap.