Recently when we were shopping in the grocery store, Aidan started wiggling and kicking his right leg.  He had been sitting in the cart a while as it was a major stock-up trip.  I asked him what was wrong and he looked like he was trying to find just the right words.  Then he replied, “Mama, I have bees buzzing in my shoe!”  It took me just a second to realize that his foot had fallen asleep and he was trying to describe the sensation to me.  I thought it was a very inventive description for a 3 year old. 

He has also started to think it is really funny to steal whatever spot Brandon and I have been laying in/sitting in.  When he first wakes up in the morning, he always trots right into our bedroom and wants a few minutes to snuggle with us before we all get up for breakfast.  If Brandon gets up to go the bathroom, Aidan excitedly moves over to Brandon’s spot in bed and gives me a cheesy grin.  Then he says, “I’m taking Daddy’s spot!  He’s gonna tell me to scoot my buns!”  So when Brandon returns he obliges and tells Aidan, “Scoot your buns!”  And Aidan giggles wildly.  Today he did this to me during lunch.  I left the table a couple of times to get things from the kitchen and each time I returned he had gotten out of the chair he had been sitting in and took whichever chair I had just vacated.

I came back and he was grinning from ear to ear and said, “I took your spot!” 

There are so many fun moments with a 3 year old.  I am truly a blessed woman.

Some recent cute moments caught on the camera.

Stuffing Daphne into a little canvas toybox with him.

Getting his own water….”I do it MYSELF mama!”

Making cupcakes with Daddy.

Last Thursday when I picked him up, the kids were still outside on the playground and had just started to come in when teacher Judy blew her whistle.  There were a few stragglers that didn’t want to go in….and big surprise…Aidan was one of them.  I saw teacher Nancy gently prodding them to go in and then she spotted me coming to them.  She said, “Wait there, we’ll come to you.”  I heard her tell Aidan, “Your mom is here Aidan.”

I heard a squeal of delight and out pops Aidan’s smiling face from around the toy shed.  He took off in a full sprint to me and threw his arms around me.  He missed me!!!  But the good kind of missing.  Where he had had a great time without me but was still happy to see me.  I loved it.  That moment will probably be burned into my memory forever.

Teacher Nancy told me he is starting to really make some more connections with other children which is great because that is one of the big reasons we wanted to do preschool.  His preemieness (especially his fragile lungs the first couple of winters) really limited our ability to get him same age social exposure. 

I remarked to teacher Judy today that Aidan seems more comfortable being a little chatterbox around adults and a bit more reserved around his peers.  I love these teachers because they bring a sense of balance to my thoughts around Aidan and help me understand the way kids work since their experience is MUCH more broad than mine.   Judy nodded and said, “Well, Aidan is an oldest and an only.  I always expect those kids in my class to be more comfortable with me in the first few months than their peers.  Most of their conversations have been with listening, relatively quiet adults and it feels natural to them.”

She told me Aidan shared well today and that he is doing wonderfully.  She thinks he is coming along at a wonderful pace and that I should not worry.  At that point Aidan came running up to me, hugged teacher Judy, asked where teacher Nancy was, and insisted he must say goodbye to Liam before we leave.  Too cute!

I am so glad we made this decision for our boy.  It seems to be going really, really well.

Oh…and a funny.  Aidan is SOOO obsessed with his Thomas trains.  He has taken this into his pretend play.  He pretends to be a train.  He army crawls sometimes and tells me his knees and elbows are the wheels.  He toots and chugs.  Then he says , “See the smoke coming out of my smokestack” as he points to his head.  And the color of shirt he is wearing determines what train he is that day.  Today was a blue shirt so he was Thomas.  Yesterday was a red shirt so he was James.  He will even refer to Brandon and I as different trains based on the color we are wearing.  He called me Gordon this morning because my coat was blue.  I asked him why I wasn’t Thomas and he said, “Thomas is smaller and Gordon is big.”

Please, oh please tell me that their obsessions give way at some point.  I just can’t go through life being called Mavis, Percy, or Gordon. 

Cuteness at preschool to follow.

Funny story…Saturday night the family walked down to the Mercer Island Fire Station for the annual Mercer Island Christmas tree lighting and community gathering.  They were going to light the tree in Mercerdale Park and the firefighters were going to be showing the trucks to kids.  Christmas goodies and hot drinks to be served.  Except…

That Mom got the night wrong!  Don’t ask me why on earth I thought the 5th was a Saturday and not a Friday.  But I blame it entirely on Mommybrain.  Does that give me a pass?

On the way home, I suggested we stop at the Starbucks and get Aidan a hot chocolate.  We sat inside by the fire and he thoroughly enjoyed it.  During one sip, he began doing the swishing thing that kids like to do with drinks sometimes.  I told him politely to swallow it.  He smiled devilishly at me and kept swishing.  I said, “Aidan this is NOT a game!  Swallow it.”

He smiled again and Brandon told him to do what Mommy said.  So Aidan swallowed the cocoa and dealt out the following gem.

“Mommy, it IS a game.”  And he smiled ear to ear. 

Brandon looked at me and simply said, “Mommy, you got served!”

“I wanna go up the esca-elevator!”  Pointing to the escalator at the mall.

“Mommy WATCH! Aidan do it with teacher Dana!”  grabbing my hand and sitting me  down on the sidelines in Little Gym because he wanted to be a big kid and do his warmup without mommy’s help. 

“I love you forever” after reading the book before bed with Daddy.

“Let’s go pay for this” after picking up pretty much anything that catches his eye in any store lately.

“Maybe for Christmas” which is what I have been telling him with pretty much every toy he wants recently.

 Below are a couple of cute shots in the last week or so.  We took him to the Mariners’ last game of the season and he fell asleep on Brandon near the end of the game. 

And here he is out at the driving range with Dad.  Brandon says he is getting pretty good. 

A visit to the zoo with Aidan’s friend Jaymin.  Jaymin is also an almost 28 weeker almost exactly 1 year younger.  They really enjoyed each other as you can see by the game of chase that ensued.

So cute and getting so sure of himself in his body and trying new things. Like climbing up onto things not anchored to the wall…yeah, gotta fix that one.

And this picture is bittersweet. Aidan turns 3 in less than 2 weeks. (He is almost 36 months actual and 33 months if you adjust for his prematurity) But does the picture below look like a 3 year old? DH and I were blown away when I downloaded these from the camera last night. My husband said, “Geez, where did our toddler go? He looks at least 4 in that picture!”

I love you Aidan. You are my daily reminder that life is miraculous and wonderful in ways I could never have imagined before you.

Most mornings now when Brandon is getting ready for work Aidan will go running into the bathroom and tell Brandon, “Want hair like Daddy’s!”  That is Brandon’s cue to wet Aidan’s hair down and put in some gel.

Do these two look alike or what?

Ugh.  At least I had to be puckering for them to be seen! 

But today, he was driving it around and I asked him where they were going and he replied, “Going to get Mommy some coffee!”

So either once a day Starbucks is too much or I just have a very observant child!  I am going to believe the latter, because let’s face it….Mommy needs her Starbucks!