Heritage Days 2010 (and lots of pictures!!)

Last week, Aeson discovered light switches. He can't go past one now without turning it off and on, off and on!


This is Acey's new scrunchy face. He does it all the time! I'm glad I captured it on camera, lol :)
We spent most of this past weekend at Heritage Days. Here, Westen is being the conductor on the train ride they had. We made the mistake of going on the spinning dragons (my favorite!) first and then he was scared to ride any more! We ate some carnival food and watched the other kids ride and then he finally decided he'd go. He loved the little kiddy rides and then convinced me to go down the super slide with him. There will be pictures below of him sliding with his Uncle Eddie, so you can see how big the slide was! I'm scared to death of heights, so as I was climbing the million stairs, I kept imagining falling from that high! I took deep breaths and told myself I could do it for my baby! Once we were at the top, though, I'm pretty sure I'd have turned around if there had been a way to! I lived but afterwards I said never again!! It didn't even scare Westen at all. As we went to leave that night, I realized I'd given Aeson my keys earlier in the night to play with and wasn't sure if I had gotten them back. As we were searching, they came over the speaker saying there was a set found. Thank goodness someone found them and returned them! It was dark by then and it would not have been fun searching for them! I'll be much more careful now when giving them to Ace. :)
The parade was on Saturday. Down below, you'll see that Aeson slept through almost all of it! The noise didn't phase him. This man above was a very nice, older Veteran who helped Westen most of the time with collecting candy and even opening some for him. He was so nice!

That evening, Westen got a Batman tattoo and was quite proud of it. :) Here is the slide that scared me to death!



On Sunday, we went to the local Lion's pancake breakfast and airplane fly-in. It was rainy, so there were only a few planes but Westen LOVED watching them fly in and out. Next year, Eric's thinking about riding one with him. :)

On Monday, I discovered (from sneaking my finger in while he was sleeping!) that Aeson's top two teeth are now through! He's going to have a mouthful before long. He's now pulling himself up very easily and walking along the furniture. A couple of times the past couple days, he's turned himself around and seemingly tried to walk! I don't know what he's thinking! :) He's not quite able to do that yet, but it hasn't stopped him from trying.

Busy summer activities

Yesterday, Westen was signed up for the Kooky Kreatures activity at the library. Luckily, Aunt Chelsea was over and able to take him because Aeson fell asleep for the first time that day just before we were supposed to leave. I hated to miss it! :( He made a monster he named "Ghost." It's actually a little money bank too, which he loves. As part of the summer reading program, he also got to spin the wheel for a prize since he's at the halfway point (15 books). He got a little finger puppet and a fake tattoo. Here he is with his monster.
Last night, we had the LLL meeting. Last month Aeson hadn't been able to crawl. This month he was all over the place! The meetings are at Early Beginnings, which is nice because there are LOTS of toys. I got to see one of the kids I babysat and he's walking now!

We've had lots of storms here this week and Aunt Chelsea & Bentley have stayed the night a couple of nights. I'm thankful for the time together, but it will make me miss them even more once they move!

Today, we made a picnic lunch (Westen's suggestion!) and went up to the Brown Bag concert. The babies were tired but even they enjoyed it!

The park & Father's Day

Last week, Westen and I headed to the park (well, Aeson too but he was asleep in the car) and he had lots of fun.

On Thursday, there was a representative from the nature center in Peoria at the library, so we went to listen to him and Westen got to touch a snake again!

Saturday, we walked up to Farmer's Market and Westen got to plant a tomato plant.

Sunday was Father's Day. We spent most of the day at Eric's parent's. We had a good time and got to go see Grandpa Jim that evening as well. Eric got Cubs tickets for his gift, so the two of us will be heading to a game in August.

Last night, there were tornado warnings all over. I sent Eric out right away to get Westen, because he'd stayed at Grandma Sandy's to play with her. As soon as they got back, we all headed to the basement. Poor Westen was so scared! I don't even know how he knows what a tornado is-- this is the first time we've ever had to go to the basement & I don't recall talking about one before. Anyway, as soon as we got down there, he thought to pray! It was so cute, and we all tried to comfort him but we were quite nervous too! Luckily, I don't think anything really happened and Westen got to sleep in our room for the night.

We have a very, very busy week this week! We're headed to the library for an activity today and have LLL tonight, brown bag concert & picnic tomorrow, Heritage Days Thursday-Saturday, and then a dinner for Eric's work on Sunday. Busy, busy, busy!

Oh! Aeson said "ball" clear as day yesterday. Eric also says he said "hat," but I didn't hear it. :)

(The whole fam on Father's Day)

Pulled up to standing!

Saturday evening, we had Uncle Eddie, Aunt Chels, and baby Bentley over for dinner and to watch Alice in Wonderland (good movie!). I had read to make breastmilk popsicles for teething babies but since I really don't like to get out my pump unless I have to, I decided to make water with a little bit of 100% juice ones. And we gave Aeson his first one that night...
Can you see his uncertainty? :) He kept going back for more!
We ended up spending the day with them on Sunday as well. We're all going to miss them so much if they move! We showed them the house we are under contract for (at this moment..) that day. Every time we go in, we're pretty much overwhelmed by all that we need to do! I will HAVE to post before and after pictures. :)

On Monday, we put my niece in the exersaucer for the first time and she loved it! Westen stayed with Eric's parents for the night and did all sorts of fun stuff. They got ice cream, painted, planted his sweet potato plant, and he was about to take a bath with his (not TOY as he corrected grandma but..) FRIEND shark. :)

It's been a quiet day around here without him! Aeson pulled himself up to standing for the very first time today! He's stood for quite a while if we position him that way but today is the first time he's actually pulled himself up all by himself. He's done it several times since! I was so excited that he even got excited. That combined with seeing my camera (and deciding to go after it!) made for a blurry picture. :( At least I still captured it!
Aunt Chels also spent the afternoon with us, which Aeson loved, as you can see... :)

Yesterday

As I was catching up on my daycare paperwork, I came across our scores from one of the games we played with my sister and her husband this winter. I love summer and all that there is to do, but this made me remember that even during the winter, there are good memories.. memories of warm chili, discovering new games to play, and holiday meals. My sister is now uncertain where they are going to move, and I will miss those times if she does move far away! I know they will still happen but not as often.

I'm not sure if I've written about it before but Aeson ALWAYS crosses his feet when he's sitting down! It used to just be his feet and lately it has been more of his legs. It is too cute!
Excuse his dirty mouth. :) After noticing his first tooth coming through on the bottom, I noticed you can now see ALL four teeth on top moving their way down. They aren't at the edge of the gums yet but they will be soon. My poor teething boy.

I know, I know.. No dairy until at least one. Well, Aeson's had it a couple of times! We eat ice cream too often. :) And he is TOO interested! Last night, he just kept sticking his tongue out over and over again to eat Daddy's cold yummy cone!

Wedding Weekend, First Tooth!

Last week, at exactly 10 months old (9 gestationally), we FINALLY felt Aeson's first tooth! It's his bottom right one and it's definitely through. You can feel all the ridges but can't quite SEE it yet. (Plus he never wants us sticking our fingers in his mouth! haha)

We were gone this entire past weekend. Eric stood up with his friend Justin on his wedding day. We stayed with Eric's parents and had a good time. We were out late both nights, hanging out at Justin's parent's house, and when I was woken up at 8 & 9am, I remembered why you can't do that once you have children!! :) Lots of people got to see Aeson for the first time, or the first time since he was an infant. Most people said he looked just like daddy, which is typical :); however, a couple said he had my eyes or looked like a mix of us. Don't ever hear that!

Eric and I have been talking about when we'll start trying for our next baby for a while now. We got to thinking that their birthdays are exactly 6 months apart, so it'd be nice to have babies in May and November because then they'd all be 3 months apart! Plus, I never want to be at the end of my pregnancy in mid to late summer ever again! I haven't quite figured it all out, but it's a nice thought. :) At this point, I'm scared to death for another pregnancy and birth after Aeson's issues and STILL (10 months later) being sore sometimes from the C-section.

We decided to list our house with a realtor, so we're just waiting on our first showing now. We have until the end of June to get the rebate, so we'll have to re-evaluate things if we haven't sold by then.

Memorial Day weekend

We had a lovely weekend!

We went to my friend's son's birthday party on Saturday. It was for her youngest son, but Westen and her oldest have been the best of friends pretty much since they were born. Now that Westen is no longer in daycare, they don't get to see each other as often, but we still do from time to time. They've always gotten along perfectly. Well Saturday, Westen came up to me at the birthday party almost crying because her son had taken his Lego man completely apart and thrown all the little pieces everywhere.. and on top of that told him that he didn't want to be his friend anymore! Westen was heartbroken! We looked everywhere for the Lego pieces but only found two. He'd been very attached to his Lego man, taking it in the pool and to bed (everywhere!) with him. For the next couple of days, he kept asking why Kaden said what he did too. I felt so bad for him!

Sunday, we had our open house. Only one couple showed up this time. They seemed pretty interested, but we'll see. We're not really sure what to do from here.

That evening, we took Westen to his very first movie. He enjoyed it! We watched the new Shrek movie, and while he got a little antsy, he was still very good!

When we got home, we cut tiny pieces of our wedding cake from exactly one year ago and fed them to each other. :) It actually didn't taste too bad! I can't believe we've been married for (now) just over a year.. In some ways, it feels so much longer and in others, it doesn't at all! We get frustrated with each other and all the things I suppose normal couples do, but it amazes me how much I still care about him. I suppose just how different it is from my first marriage. Every day, from the moment I wake up, I can't wait until he gets home just to be with him. I love him very much.

Monday morning, Aeson woke up bright and early. He hasn't been sleeping very well lately. Eric decided to take me to buy a camera for our anniversary! I bought a dslr .. and I have no idea how to use it! It's frustrating me, because I want to be able to take good pictures NOW. On top of that, I got my didy today and I now have to learn how to use THAT as well! Ahh.. information overload!

We had a cookout yesterday evening at our house and had our siblings and some friends over. Everything was delicious, and we even made yummy daiquiri's.

Now we have a shortened work week and then another busy, busy weekend. One of Eric's best friends is getting married, so we have the rehearsal and all on Friday and then the wedding & reception Saturday. We're staying with Eric's parents all weekend, so I'm a bit nervous about how Aeson will do out of his home environment and with the busy weekend. Oh, if life were only easy all the time! I suppose I should be glad this is the extent of my stresses. :)

Oh, and on our exact anniversary, Aeson finally put it all together and CRAWLED! I think he's so much happier since he's able to get all around the house now! I'm so proud of him. :) He's kissing constantly now too, waving hi and bye, and giving five's. He's almost 10 months old!