MiT Gr8 1 For the Horde!

Arden Weekly – Sous Chef Edition

Arden puts the green on Mom's chicken sandwich. Yes there is chicken under there.

Hello again, thanks for visiting!  It's been at once a busy and very uneventful week.  Arden's continuing his vertical exploration and it seems that there is nothing safe left in the house.  He's pretty respectful and very careful so I'm not worried.  We don't really have anything of value in most of the house anyhow, though it would be nice to lose as little as possible.  But, again, he's incredibly respectful of our things and hasn't broken anything thus far.

His favorite place to climb recently has been to the top of Mount TupperwareTote.  We've got one of those big tote tub things that apparently makes the perfect stool.  He'll drag it all over the place (usually just the kitchen), push it against the cupboards and help arijem with her work.  He's not afraid to tackle any of the household chores, be it cooking, mixing, washing or quality assurance.  I think QA is his most favorite, must take after Dad there.  He's very good at taking instruction for a 16-month old, and will maintain a high amount of focus.  I think the gMa's side tongue focuser has made it to Arden as well, anything he's up to that requires any amount of focus will be done with a tongue in clenched teeth.  It's funny to see that reflection of myself, gMa and gMa's family in him.

We visited Uncle Sean in the hospital this week, he had a herniated disk trimmed.  Arden was a very good visitor, ran back and forth with our get-well cards and the tin of cookies arijem put together, even finished his job before he was distracted by a get-well balloon.  He managed to stay in the recovery room for the most part, although gMa did escort him through the magic doors (elevator) to the water machine a couple of times, and I think that sated his thirst for exploration.  It also helped that there was so much to explore within those walls.  They had a bed that came out of the wall, Uncle 'Hat's bed had buttons that made it do funny things, there were lights in all sorts of places.  It really was a young explorer's dream.

The highlight of the evening had to be when Arden was exploring a light fixture that happened to be below the automatic hand sanitizer dispenser.  Reports vary whether it was Arden's head or the balloon in tow that triggered it, but the end result was unanimously verified.  A noise sounded from overhead and wet splattered on the floor.  Arden wasn't so much scared as he was deeply interested in what made that noise and that puddle and how he could trigger the neat thing again.

Arden has been a very good traveler lately.  We've taken several walks around the blocks and he's been loving his stroller.  He's ridden in the car very nicely, when he wants to.  We were very impressed on the night we went to visit Sean that he didn't conk out on the 30-ish minute trip.  Once we got halfway we had to coax him just a little bit so he wouldn't get the cat nap trick and feel refreshed and unwilling to sleep.  On that note, yes, he's been sleeping mostly through the night most of the nights.  We're happy for that, although Mom has been dozing off with him a good share of nights, since she is sleeping for two.  Speaking of which, she asked me to wake her up 10 minutes ago, better go get in trouble. 

Thanks again for reading, until next week,

Dad

Arden poses between slices

Arden Weekly – Big Brother Edition

Tiny2

Arden escapes the 'get dressed for the day' monster.

Yes, it's true!  Mitgr81 v2.1 has been announced.  No public beta should be expected, but expect the full release sometime around early September!  Congrats to @arijem for a very successful first check-up, which confirmed that we are, as we knew, 15 weeks along.  As we made our way to the check up, Arden got treated to a circus of visitors, from gMa and gPa to BRosen and Link.  It sounds like it was a very nice, and very effective visit.  Arden even took a nap for gMa and gPa!  We  were expecting nothing less than a full nuclear meltdown, but he's apparently grown a lot since last we tried to sneak away.  It was nice to get out of the house and have some "us" time, but all we did was talk about Tiny2 and Arden.  Oh well, I guess that's what's going on in our lives.

We also had a nice St. Pat's day visit from BRosen, NRosen and Link!  I threw some rubens on the griddle, @arijem made some delicious steakhouse fries and a few desserts, and Mr. George Killian himself provided the adults with some Irish Red.  It made for a great day, we were very glad for our visitors and had a marvelous time.

It's been absolutely gorgeous lately.  I really cannot complain about the recent weather.  Yeah, one day was a little overcast in the morning, but that broke by noon and it turned out to be one of the most marvelous days of the week.  Arden has taken full advantage of this great weather and his newly-discovered back yard.  It's so nice to see him running around and checking out rocks, grass, leaves, pinecones, birds and all the beauty nature has to offer.  Speaking of him running, he'll hate me when he's 16 and reads this, but he has the most adorably geeky running style.  He's definitely my son.    He'll pitter-patter those feet as fast as they'll carry him, pump his right arm like it was going out of style and completely avoid any motion of his left.  It'll swing a little bit, but it pales in comparison to the wild flailing of his right.  It's a blast to watch, and boy, can he move!

Arden's still got the bird-watching bug.  You should read about it on arijem's site.  It's been very nice having our fine feathered friends, I can tell Arden appreciates having them around and looks forward to seeing them every day.

He's still been waking me up in the mornings and asking me to make him breakfast.  It's nice to have that extra time with him, and very nice letting arijem and Tiny2 have their morning sleep-ins.  Lately he's been tearing through cinnamon bagels with strawberry cream cheese like it's nobody's business.  It's fun to hear him say 'bagel', well, all his words are developing nicely.  "Bah-`gie" in particular is adorable.

I'm starting to think we're getting the first indentions of molars starting to kick in.  He's been a little more sensitive around his cheeks, and has been bopping them with the heel of his palm every now and then.  I hope they don't bother him like I hear molars can, but he's a tough enough sort that it won't be catastrophic.

Last night Arden surprised the crap out of us.  We were outside watching the sunset, since he had been napping late and was just starting to wear down, and out of the blue we heard, "Staaah, staah".  We looked at Arden who had his finger very obviously and accurately fixed on the first star of the evening.  We were absolutely shocked.  We have read books with stars in them, but always the over-sized, 5-pointed dooders, hardly ever a pinhole point of light in the deep darkness of a sky.  For him to make that association, or memory recall is, in this father's humble opinion, a HUGE development.

Until next time, this is Dad telling you to keep looking up!

Arden wears Daddy's Hat