A look back - Wausau - part 3

Regular readers will notice there aren't many family portraits on the blog.

These next few pictures might explain why.

One and a half people looking at the camera.

2 here.

Almost.

Time to go home.

A look back - Wausau - part 2

A trip to the apple orchard was in order for Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful day. Perfect for apple turnover, apple crisp (crumble to the Brits), apple dumpling and Dutch apple pie - all topped off with vanilla cinnamon ice-cream. Oh, and there was hot apple cider to keep us warm, too.

Watch where you're going, Sophie.

Roby and Ally keep warm.

Aidan likes to kid around.

Even tempting him with lashings of ice-cream we couldn't keep him away.

A look back - Wausau - part 1

Erin and I were looking at our photos last night and realised we didn't blog our trip to Wausau about a month ago. It took 5 adults to look after 4 angelic kids.

Leo meets Aslan

Aidan was pretty reluctant to put his lion outfit on this afternoon at Madison Zoo's trick or treating event. Actually, I guess kicking and screaming shows more than reluctance but he got over it when we said he didn't have to put his lion head (hood) up.

He was in awe when he met the king of the zoo.

I'm not sure who's taming who.

Go Badgers

We went to the Badger basketball Scrimmage today. It's become an annual De Vos-Waller family event.

The Badgers won.

It may not look like it, but Sophie shared a lot of her popcorn.

"It's called a slam dunk , Aidy."

Quick comparison - a year ago.

Aidan met Bucky. He was a bit too scared, last year.

Rough-housing

Aidan loves playing rough. This weekend we've wrestled around the house, he's tickle-tortured his mum, belly-flopped me, and found a great new toy. Apparently there's nothing more fun than rolling around the floor in the laundry basket.

Odd

Aidan had a funny old morning, yesterday.

I went home at lunch time and our nanny told me there were some parts of the morning when he just wanted to be on his own, lying somewhere; on the floor or on the sofa. We both said in unison, "that's not Aidan."

Teething? Not sure.

But after his nap and a trip to the pet shop he seemed fine when I got home. He just wanted to chase me around the house while I was making his evening meal.

The things we did this weekend - part 6

There were lots of things which Aidan did this weekend which weren't documented by Erin and her camera. They include:

Sharing copious amounts of ice cream with Papa Bud.

Running through leaves which were being blown at him.

Chasing the kitty-kat - Beijing - at every opportunity.

When catching Beijing, giving her Fisher Price medical treatment.

Having two evening meals on Saturday night.

Jammin' on his harmonica, drums and shakers with dad and grandma.

Here's one shot that couldn't be missed...

The things we did this weekend- part 5

Some of the exhibits were fun, even if they look spooky.

Things we did this weekend - part 4

The nearest we got to taking a family portrait.

Things we did this weekend - part 3

On Saturday afternoon, we went to Franconia Sculpture Park.

It was great to have Pappa Bud with us.

Aidy leads Grandma to his favourite exhibit.

I think he thinks we can get some inspiration for next year's big project - The Treehouse.

Things we did this weekend - part 2

After a morning snack, Aidan experienced his first bouncy castle.

He loved being bounced by the oder kids.

At least I think he did.

Things we did this weekend - part 1

We went to the Grain Bin in the middle of nowhere, nowhere near Grandma's house on Saturday morning. First, we stopped off to say hello to a few animals.

Aidan got a little too close to the moo cows.

And got way too close to this little puppy dog. Thankfully we could get him away, pointing in the direction of cinnamon buns and tasty treats.

Road Trip to Amery

We're at Grandma Char and Pappa Bud's for the weekend for a fun visit. Aidy's watching a pre-breakfast Winnie The Pooh. He loves it here.

But here's what happened on the way up:

While Erin and I discussed Christmas presents for friends and family, Aidan started reading. He has a new truck and car book. After about ten minutes or so, we heard some noises coming from the back like a strange kind of tune. Erin and I stopped talking without looking at him and he was telling the story of the book. He was going up and down in sentence cadences, using the odd words and vehicle sounds he has and it sounded something like.

WhurwhuurbahbahhCAAARRRbububublaWOOWOOWOOOWOOWOllalblahhTRUCK.

WOOWOO is the sound of a fire engine - as if that needed explaining.

I could see the pride in his mum's eyes.

Then came the wristband. I found a green and yellow flower wristband which flicks on and wraps around your wrist and I put it on my right wrist. Aidy saw this and pointed at it and obviously wanted it for himself. We that it was this he wanted for a while and I just thought he'd taken offense at me all of a sudden. Erin being the perceptive one in our parental partnership, saw what I had on my wrist and gave it to him.

The day before, on the way to swimming, Aidan had found this wristband and struggled getting it on, but eventually, he did and was very proud of himself. We heard the same noises of frustration I'd heard the night before and left him to his own devises. But when we looked back a few minutes later Aidy had wrapped the band around his head, saying "eyes, eyes" and pointing at them. For the next ten minutes he'd take it off and put it on again saying - each time, much louder - "nose, mouth or eyes".

He played to the crowd and time passed by very quickly.

Towards the end of the journey, when he should have been asleep, we started singing a few calming nursery rhymes. But every time we'd finish one, from the deepest dark heart of the back of the car, we heard a little chuckle and applause. Instead of ignoring this, Erin and I, both rose to the occasion, said "thank you very much" and carried on. This led to us exhausting our repertoire and getting a little boy who needed to sleep, very excited.

We tested this excitedness by visiting Grandma Jane. Needless to say he crashed, was grumpy and was asleep in the back of the car within 5 minutes of leaving.

Now he's up, drinking his milk and playing with cars, while Pooh is on in the background. He can't wait for the adventures that usually happen while we're here, to get going.

Words

The switch seems to have gone on for Aidan's vocabulary. He's repeating a lot of what we say and giggling a lot when he does.

His personality is coming through now, too. Here's three stories to prove it.

The three of us went for a walk the other evening and we walked by a man who said hi. Erin and I said hi back and Aidan did too, but he was a little too late for the man to notice. A minute later a woman did exactly the same thing except Aidan said hi back to her immediately. And let out the proudest giggle as we went on our way.

Another night, Aidan and I were upstairs reading some books. There's one which we use most nights and Aidan tells me what the pictures are. Theres a picture of a ball then chair then car. As I was asking what the pictures were Aidan picked up an other book, started looking at that and in a bored teenager's voice just said, "ball, chair, car," without looking at the right book. He's getting too smart - and cheeky - for his own good.

And last night we visited some friends. Aidan happily played with a Mr. Potato Head and a toy camera while we sat around chatting. A few minutes went by then Aidan walked up to us all, held the camera up to his eyes and started saying "cheese". He went round the room repeating it until he'd snapped us all.