mitgr81 Son Times – I’m not to blame edition
It's all my old job's fault. I've let my blog slide, but I'm going to remedy this. As you may or may not know I was laid off in late July. The good news there is that I had already been looking for new jobs, I was quite unhappy there. I have a sneaking suspicion they figured that out and wanted to look for ways to trim the budget, I guess somebody who was going to leave is a good choice for that. At any rate, since I lost my job, spending time writing a blog and taking pictures didn't seem to be a good use for my time. Now that I have a job (which I love very dearly) I'm just out of the habit. I'll keep trying to update it more often, but I can't make any promises. You'll see why....now!
It's all my new job's fault. It's in Sioux Falls, we live in Brookings. I'm now a ::gasp:: commuter, at least until we can get somebody to buy our home. It's not a horrible drive, only about an hour, but it's the fact that I have to get out of bed 2 hours earlier to get ready and out the door on time, so I've been going to bed earlier, and then getting home an hour and a half later, so my "free" time has gone close to zero. It's alright though, I've been loving my job, and we're starting to become a pretty big thing, and just today announced an International partnership. (Shameless plug, if you're a small business owner or operator, especially if you use QuickBooks and/or SugarCRM, give us a call)
It's all arijem's fault. She started calling Arden "Arden-pie" almost as soon as he took his first breath. In playful honor of that, I've been calling Ensel "Ensel-cake" or just "Cakers". Arijem just called and let me know that Arden was cooing over Ensel and saying, "Hi Ensel. Hi Baby. Hi Ensel" ...insert short pause..."Hi Cakers".
So, until next time,
It's probably all my fault.
Arden Weekly – “So Somebody Does Read It” Edition
Okay, I think it's almost been long enough. About the title: I've been having a bit of a "why am I writing this every week when only AJ and my parents read it" moment, but I've since heard from enough people to get me motivated to write again. I apologize to those of you who missed reading it, especially those of you who had commented in the past. I will say this, though. It's nice to see comments or feedback. Not prodding you to write "lulz I readed it" every time something graces this hyperweb portal, just every once in a while if you'd just check in, I'd really appreciate it and will find it even easier to sit down and spend the time editing photos and writing the next week. Much love; rant off.
Our guy has been on a serious reading frenzy lately and it's really been showing up in the growth of his vocabulary. I'll hit my favorite phrases below, but you really should come see them in person! 
Starting off will be how he shows off a new achievement. He'll gaze into my eyes or run over to my feet and call "Daddy Ook Ook" or is it "oouk oouk"...at any rate, it's "look look" and it's unbelievably adorable. If you're lucky he might substitute my name for yours, but good luck. He's been my shadow lately. There have been several nights that he has insisted that I help get him to sleep, but I only end up distracting him so far, so I end up having to leave, which breaks my heart more than his.
The next anecdote will center around his ever growing strong will. He's usually pretty mild about it, but there are times where he's undoubtedly a toddler. The best way to trigger it is usually to offer him the choice between a few books or snacks or something. He'll look at the one, then the other, then the one and finally pull out that judging index finger and proclaim, "DeeS on!! (this one)"
We went to the SF Airshow this past weekend. I think we all had a great time, I know I did. There's always been a special place in my heart for aerobatics, well, flight in general. And to be able to go with my wonderful son and watch him catch the bug and just soak everything in. It did end up taking its toll on him though, he just barely made it back to the car before zonking out for a nice well-deserved nap. He's getting to be almost conversational with some of his speech too. The airshow is a prime examlpe of it. While sometimes you'll just hear, "Planes, noisy, people, umbrella", other times you'll experience him tell you how the planes flew all around (follow that pointer finger again) and hear how noisy he thought it really was at some times. He'll cover his ears, shake his head and torsos back and forth and scream, "NooOiIIIISEEEEEY". He might then go on to tell you how many people there were, this by pointing like he was picking them out of an imagined crowd. Now, you might ask about where the umbrella story comes in. This highlights his rapier memory. On our way in we followed a little girl with a pink and purple umbrella. As we were heading out Arden glanced over and saw that same umbrella. It didn't take him long to point her out, he's just quick. I think he remembered that we followed her in before I did.
The other verbal utterance that is a lot of fun, but quite dangerous is "Vroom VROOM" This, of course means it's his way of telling us it's his turn to drive. Though sometimes it's, "Daddy Vroom" or "Mommy Vroom" but most commonly, "Arden Vroom VROOM!" He's a lot of fun to see in the driver's seat, he handles it very well. Always turns pretty vigorously, always beeps and usually even puts the key in the ignition and touches the shifter. He's amazingly observing! We tried to get him to some of the airplanes to Vroom them, but the lines were quite horrible, but luckily there were some reps from the Guard there with a MLRS and HMMT there. The cool thing about having those around is that they're machines that both my Dad and I have worked on the communication systems for, and to get Arden up in one...well that's just cool.
Until next time, which will hopefully be next week,
Dad
I show Arden around the MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System)
Arden Vrooming a HMMT
Arden Weekly – Firecracker Edition
Arden running away from a freshly-lit smoke ball. He really had a blast with the fireworks, wasn't a huge fan of the surprising noise, but seemed to love the lights and flashes.
Arden has been even more fun this week than he was last. The weather has been nice enough for us to get outside and be silly some, but we've still been doing our share of wrestling and goofing off. I've been getting a little more concerned with involving education(al activities) in our play. It's wonderful how quickly he's been putting things together. One of the most recent educational forays has been into getting some more parts of the body named. He had been very good with the common stuff, mouth, ears, eyes, nose, so I started gently pushing. After only a few minutes he had learned elbow (though eyebrow may replace it from time to time), fingers, toes, knee, foot, ankle, forehead, neck, chest and, of course, butt. After all, you're not really a boy unless you can run around in public screaming, "Butt butt butt!"
This guy...oh boy. He's going through a car nut phase. Every chance he gets to be in or around a car is just pure elation. He's so clever with it too. He was running gMa's CD Player, he can put the key into our car's ignition, and knows which switch belongs to the which windows, and which is the door lock. It's crazy. Sometimes his Daddy lets him "drive" the car in the driveway. It can be a bit of a double-edged sword though. Sometimes when we need to go somewhere and he's tired out, or not, he's much more interested in driving the car and monkeying around up front than he is in sitting in his car seat. Props to gMa for suggesting we actually use the toy steering wheel Aunt Nikki got us for his 1st in the car instead of in his room. That has helped quite a bit, but as I was saying last week, he's quite a strong-willed little tot.
The time is starting to come to get Arden used to the idea of having a baby [probably] brother around the house. We've been taking care to point out babies we see when we're out and about, and letting him talk to the baby in Mommy's tummy a little bit. We had him feel kicks one day, but I think that spooked him more than anything. He jumped back pretty quickly and hasn't been showing any interest in feeling any more recently. I think @arijem is still planning on getting a doll to carry around when we get closer, just to get some practice in. So far, I think we need practice. We were in Target last week, poking around a little bit and came across the doll section (Why, by the way are all dolls girls?!?). The particular model we were checking out had a sensor that made it giggle when the doll was moved. Of course, our little guy found out pretty quickly that the easiest way to make a baby giggle is to bop it on the forehead, right between the eyes. Oh dear.
Until next time, may your baby not get bopped,
Dad
Arden was very upset that the chicken wouldn't go any more. He spent several minutes trying to coax it back into action.
Extra special thanks to gMa for sharing her photos. I got too busy playing with Arden and chatting to turn my camera to him. Silly me.
Arden Weekly – Zoo be zoobe doo Edition
Our big guy is still a fan of squishing himself into his baby's playpen.
Hi howdy hey! It's been a crazy week here again. Strap yourselves in, it's going to be that way all summer, I'm afraid. They've been good great weeks (at least at home), though, so it's very well worth the craziness.
Our big guy is starting to get pretty independent, and sometimes even slightly forceful. He's always been fairly strong-willed, but I think that comes with being 19 months. Probably my favorite example of his will is during meal times. He'll often poke around with his remaning food and then query: "Done, Daddy? Done, Mommy? Done Arden. Done…Daddy?? Done……Mommy????", making sure to ask us each in turn how much longer it will be until he can get down and play. Hopefully those of you gathering with us on the 4th will get to hear it, it's very sweet.
Arden has impeccable manners for being just over a year-and-a-half. His favorite ways to show that are to greet most everybody and everything that catches his attention, "Hi horses", "Hi Daddy", "Mornig Mommy", etc. and 95 times out of 90 he'll say a crisp, "Bye Bye". It's fun hearing some of the less standard things we say bye-bye to; horses, swimming pools, rabbits, the outdoors, all get a fond farewell. All these are wonderful but I have to say, "Welcome" is my favorite for the moment, probably because he uses it right a good deal of the time, and sweetly another good bit. I'm not going to dwell on the proper usage, but he will often use it to say 'thank you', which; I was thinking, makes sense. Most other formal exchanges of that nature are repeated. I say, "Hi" you echo "Hi" or "Hello" (or "Heaven-o" if you're in Kleberg county, TX). You say, "Bye" and likewise I echo...you get the drift.
We took a trip to the Sioux Falls Zoo (many thanks to G&G AJ for the multipass). Arden was quite energized and really had a blast...I wish the animals had been a bit more active, but it was a fairly warm day, and later in the afternoon.
And now the BIG NEWS! Arden made a poopy in his potty!!!!!!! One morning at breakfast time Arden asked Mom to get him down...he ran around for a short bit, but then started saying, "Poopy! Poopy!". We asked if he had just gone (sometimes he's very good at letting us know) but he didn't answer, he was too busy gathering. He ran to the living room, shuffled through his books and grabbed his potty-training propaganda book, dashed over to the table and grabbed his mother's hand and rushed her off to his potty. She got him ready and he excitedly sat down. They read through the book, but no poopy. Arden stood up and paused...out came that tricky poopy, right onto the floor! AJ coached him that he had just gone, and helped him sit down so he could make more. Sure enough, MORE POOPY! He was very excited and super proud of himself, got to put a puppy sticker on his potty and help me dispose of the evidence. It was a blast, I'm very glad I was home to see that.
Until next time, may your poopy ever land in your potty,
Dad
Arden Weekly – Father’s Day Edition
Hullo one, hullo all! Happy (naturally belated) Father's Day to all you fathers!! Arden was a great little buddy for me on that day, helped me run to the store for steaks and beer, took me fishing and showed me how to hook the tastiest ones. When we got back home he was a great helper with the grilling. He helped carry the charcoal, uncovered the grill with me, and made sure the lighter went off when told to. It was a lot of fun, and a truly special day. Many thanks to Arden and @arijem for all the care, laughs and love.
Saturday was garage sale day, we hit a couple decent ones then cruised around a little bit. We chanced across a sign and decided to go with the winds and follow it. We had been halfway looking for a table for a while, but haven't found anything we loved for a price we could live with...until this one. AJ saw a bunch of chairs and a table in front of this place, and we had to stop and check it out. Short story even shorter we walked (read: drove) away with a new table and only $10 lighter. It's not in perfect condition, but it's certainly more than acceptable, the chairs are in pretty good shape and will surely get us taken care of. The best part is that Arden can set this table (which he loves) and climb up on these chairs much more safely. It's really been something that has spurred his amazing growth. Every day seems to bring new talents to this boy's arsenal. It's great.
One of the neatest new tricks is nearly perfect emulation of his beloved mother or acceptable father, most recently he's been joining us in our mealtime prayers. He'll usually have started his supper as soon as it's within reach, but fairly commonly he'll drop it as soon as we start praying, clasp his hands together and be very quiet while we pray. When the, "Amen" comes, he echoes back with a mighty, "AMEN!"
He's also been quite interested in spending time with me lately. I think I've told you before how he'll latch on to me as I leave for work and say, "Bye Mommy", but lately he's been both asking and telling me when it's time to go outside to play or down to the store. I used to ask him something like, "Are you ready to go, buddy?" or tell him, "Let's go, buddy" but now he's turned the tables on me and is quite adamant that we "Gobuddy", or excited to jump in the car and "Go bud dee?" It's simply adorable.
Until next time,
Gobuddy!
Arden Weekly – Tut Tut Edition
It's been a fairly drippy week, so not a whole lot of updates. Arden's continuing to amaze us with all his new words, and how quickly he's picking them up. With the rainy weather there has been many an opportunity to hear his new giggle-inducing phrase "Tut tut, rain. Tut tut, rain!!" He's apparently watched enough Winne-the-Pooh to pick up the phrase, "Tut tut, it looks like rain" from when Pooh is a rain cloud and Christopher Robin walks around with his umbrella singing.
His other new fun trick is to climb in and out of the playpen AJ got him for his "baby". We're waiting until closer to Tiny's arrival to fully deploy the baby-hype-engine, but that hasn't stopped his bears, leopards, snakes and other members of his menagerie from making it their home...when he's not using it as a fort.
Our garden is coming along nicely, but most of you know that from Garden Weekly. Arden's been a super help with that as usual. He's a great waterer still, and has been especially careful to get rid of a lot of those pesky purple, yellow and red things hanging on to Mommy's pretty green flowers. We've since put an early stop to that practice.
Since getting back from Uncle Kyle's graduation, Arden's been struggling to sleep through the night again. He had been sleeping until 5 or 6 consistently, lately it had been really only until 1 or 2. But after our super-busy Saturday, (and maybe the completion of molar #4 (I'll have to validate that)) he's been an extremely good sleeper. Last night he was out until 6. And, I guess, the night before he was asleep until 5:45, so maybe it wasn't just super Saturday.
So, super Saturday. Yesterday was intensely busy. From right away in the morning we were abuzz with activity. Almost beehive-next-to-a-soda-factory-busy, but without the soda-drunk stinging. We started with a trip to a few garage sales, then since he was such a super trooper with those, we went to the park, which must be the closest thing to heaven on earth for a little tyke. He played himself silly there, so we went back home, checked on the neighborhood horses and had a good lunch and a nice hard nap. As soon as I heard him stirring, I ran into his room, and tickle-bombed him, much to his squeal-arific delight. We had a quick little snack and then set off exploring. We meandered down to the road that supposedly led to a lake, but which we hadn't checked out to that point. It was better than we ever expected. And longer. We found a couple approaches that we used as a nice, small repose. I taught Arden how to throw pebbles into the water, and he taught me how to properly splash Mommy. We found that the trail we were on ended up close to where we usually walk, so in the future the 2+ miles we walked that day might be a more intentioned shorter walk.
That evening had us all fairly beat, but Arden still managed the energy to help me watch the fire on the grill and oversee my burger grilling. By the time we checked on the garden again and took a quick bath, this little boy was zonked-OUT. AJ came out from putting him to sleep no more than 7 minutes after I said my goodnights. Unfortunately, the day took its toll on us as well, and we were both out well before we could take advantage of our boy sleeping so soundly and catch a movie or even a TV show. Oh well, it was a great day and made for an amazing weekend.
As I write this, Arden and my best (non-@arijem) buddy's ~2 year old are having a great time playing while their moms have a nice little chat. I should probably go supervise them. (the girls, naturally. :D )
Until next time, Dad.
Arden Weekly – Snip Snip…SNAPPY Edition
Remember that picture of Shagg-a-doo Arden for a little bit. You'll be seeing a whole different guy soon. A much bigger looking guy. It's been a short week, since I just wrote a few days ago, but it's been pretty busy nonetheless. Most of the business has been coaxing Arden off of things he has climbed. Some amazing and okay, some even more amazing and probably not the safest venture for a young lad. I think the first instance of, "Oh my, you can CLIMB!" was hearing, "Hi puppy. Bye puppy. Hi Puppy. By Puppy"... echoing from the bathroom. He had made his way on top of the toilet lid and was opening and closing the blinds and shouting at the neighbors dog['s chain] (the dog had been gone for a day). He was pretty proud to have made that climb. He's also been scaling our chairs incessantly, and has made very short work Mom's Secret Project 2009. (Hinted at below)
Our big boy has also been very busy working on his summer-boy legs. I think all that climbing is starting to pay just a little, lots of scrapes and scratches, a few bumps and bruises, but they're looking pretty rugged. There's one pretty nasty scab that he got from a collision between him and one of my toenails. I still feel horrible about it, but he had forgotten about it a long time ago. Now the scab is starting to get itchy, so he's been pretty keenly inspecting it, not quite to the point of picking at it yet and I hope that stays. And now to the big news of the week: Arden got his 3rd? 4th? haircut today. Thanks to the help of Winne-the-Pooh and a bunch of patience from me and arijem we were able to get him all trimmed, snappy and schnazzy. It's a bit tough cutting his hair, not physically, just emotionally. Our little guy is growing up right in front of us and cutting his hair is just an admission of that fact. Now that the hair cut is done, he looks so much older, at least 3 months so. This photo doesn't really convey it, but in person you really feel like you're in the company of a 2 year old. The only saving grace to that is it shows off his big blue eyes, unfettered. And those big, sweet blue eyes just scream, "Mommy and Daddy, I'll always be your little boy", and that makes me happy. And now, the after photo: 
Until next time, Dad
Arden Weekly – Finally
I'm terribly sorry that it's been a few weeks sans Arden Weekly. It's been crazymode around here lately. Uncle Kyle graduated, Dad's cousin had her baby shower, we put in a garden...it's been NUTZO! Anyhow, our little guy has been just impressive as heck lately. His phrases are really coming together nicely, and not only the embarassing stuff like, "Daddy burped!!!" but full out constructed phrases like, "Puppy! Peek puppy" ("Oooh, I heard a puppy, let's peek at the puppy") and is getting great with saying "bye bye" to things. "bye bye puppy," "bye bye horses", etc. It's a blast.
One of his cooler tricks lately has been tip-toeing, or "tippy toe, tippy toe!!" He really seems to love doing it, and I'm pretty impressed with his balance while doing so. Though, there are still times where he'll just randomly faceplant when walking normally. It's gotta be tough being 18 months old, but at least he's pretty close to the ground.
Arijem and Arden went up to the North and helped with Uncle Kyle's graduation preparation. I guess he was quite the chef and a great helper all around. It did seem to wear him out though.
He's been incredibly sweet lately, and awfully fun, he's been teasing both me and Mommy quite a bit, and it's been great!
As I said in our intro, we planted our garden this most recent weekend. Arden was, as always, a great helper-bear. When he wasn't in the mood to play in the dirt (not much, really, he is a boy after all) he loved going on rides with Mom or Dad. I took him on a nice long walk in his stroller to see the horses at one point, and for a few wheelbarrow rides, Mom mostly chased him around the yard. It was a blast.
For a good deal of the gardening, the cousins were around. It was a nice break to have some more company around, and well worth the added stress of having 3 more people stuffed in our home. I was glad they could be here.
Again, I'm very sorry to have missed the last few posts. I hope to keep updated more frequently in the future.
Until next time, much love to all,
Dad.
Arden Weekly – Mother’s Day Edition
What a busy week!!! Arden finally got those bottom two molars in. Well, one looks to be about 75% through, the other is all there, just needs to biggify. To distract us from the teeth-athon, there have fortunately been tons of things to do. Outside is by far the favorite of the week, though. As you can see from the first photo his little socks were soaking wet. Well...maybe this will explain things best, and save me a thousand words:
Arden's been a huge helper outside. There is very little he can't or won't do any more. ::sniff:: ::sniff:: he's getting so big. Here he's watering one of Mom's maples. On the other side of the house is the patch of lawn he seeded (no fertilizer, natch) and the 10 trees he helped plant. Over his right shoulder is the rock garden he's been thinning out. Well, that one's not quite so helpful, but he does it with such sweetness that we call it helping.
Words are coming faster and faster and FASTER lately. It's crazy. I swear he learns at least 3 new words from me each day (hopefully none of my I-don't-think-Arden-is-around words slip in there), and I only have a handful of time with him each day. I know he's learning most from his much sweeter mother. I can't even count the new words, but the phrases are great. Here's my favorite story of the week. We've been giving Arden a slice of chunk cheese with breakfast on many mornings, but we'll slice it into thirds if not quarters so he has a nice, manageable stick to chew on. One day he stopped eating them almost outright. I think he had noticed me eating a full slice not too much earlier, maybe the previous day. Anyhow, this day he just refused the sliced-up pieces with a big, "NO!...Daddy." AJ didn't really know what to think of it, but he continued, "Big! Daddy-big!". From that point on he only takes slices that are as big as Daddy eats. It's very sweet, and warms my heart to have a guy so amazing look up to someone like me.
Today was Mother's Day and we had a great time with our beloved Mommy. We started off with some breakfast preparation, complete with "Daddy-big" cheese slices, and juice with ice, which has become equally important to Arden lately, I know he gets that from Mom. After breakfast we headed to Church and took Mom out for lunch. Arden snuggled up for a nice after-lunch snack with her pretty much all afternoon, but woke up just in time to get Mom some flowers and assemble things for a nice grilled-out supper. We made her some steak and shrimp (yes, her request) and were delighted to find out that Arden LOVES shrimp. I was a bit concerned that he had inherited my unease about seafood, but he just inhaled his pieces. After supper was probably the most fun new thing we've done lately. We went on a bike ride! One of mom's gifts was a bike-mounted baby seat. This one is actually pretty clever. The child sits in front of you, closer to your center of balance and where you can snuggle a bit better to make the bumps fun instead of scary. It's a tiny bit uncomfortable to me on her bike, but I think as Tiny2 gets a little bit bigger we might be moving it to mine where it will fit me better. So far AJ seems to like it quite a bit.
It's sort of hard to see from the distance here, but there's a little hand/head rest in front that seems to work very well for a drool pad, as tonight proved. Arden's pretty snugly secured in a 5-point harness and has foot cups to ward off any flying debris and make sure toes don't get spoked. It's really quite nice. He got a helmet too, but we were just making a quick run to make sure the seat actually allowed pedaling. I'm not really that bad of a Dad. (I hope)
I do know that I'm half the parent Arijem is, she's an amazing woman and an incredible mother. I'm so proud to be in the position to thank her for all she's done for my beloved son and me. AJ, I appreciate you, and love you dearly.
Mom, you too have forever been an incredibly positive influence on my life, and I firmly believe that without your guidance and encouragement all I have now would not be possible. I love you very much too, and appreciate you more than I'll ever be able to express.
You two are the best. I hope to live up to your example of parenting, but think I have a pretty decent shot...after all, I do come from a long line of parents.
Well, we've gotta get back to work. Until next time, Dad.
Revision to Arden Weekly.
Sorry, I just realized that I forgot one of the stories in Arden [almost] Weekly. I was reminded of it by a beautiful book display in the living room. Please see the updated section.