Trouble Maker in Chief

Aaron is my trouble maker in chief. This last week he did it again. My sewing room downstairs used to be a bedroom that the previous owners rented out. So the outside of the doorknob had a key entry, and it locked from the inside. I've never had the key to this door. Aaron snuck in when I wasn't looking (because he loves to illegally play with my quilting needles- which is highly prohibited). He just happened to also turn the lock on the inside without realizing what he did. He locked himself in without knowing it. When it was quiet I went to check on him and found him locked in. I tried to get him to open it up, but he didn't know or understand how. I tried to use a credit card to open it. No luck. I called a neighbor to enlist her help, but together we were unsuccessful. So I called a locksmith and found out it would be $75 for him to come out. What an outragious price!

By this time I was getting desperate. He'd been locked in about an hour. I figured if I kicked the door in, I'd damage the door frame. I decided to cut a hole in the door because it's only about $35 to replace. I got a small jigsaw electric saw and with the help of my neighbor cut a hole in the top of the door. The noise scared the pants off of Aaron and he cried quite a bit. I found the room in quite a state. Aaron had stuck the pins into the carpet and lined them all up. There was all kinds of thread EVERYWHERE! He had eaten all of the candy in the room. He really had a fun hour.

So here's the picture after I taped the pieces of wood back onto the door until I finally break down and replace the door (above).

This is a sweater of Bart Simpson that uncle Daniele sent to Aaron. I felt like it was quite fitting to this last week.

Jordan is 8 months old today! I can't believe it. He is now crawling quite well. He tries to pull himself up on everything. He is finally eating solids, but still refusing a bottle. He cut his two bottom teeth on the 1st of January, and now his top two are coming in. I forgot how horrible it is for them to get teeth. He's been waking up at night screaming his head off, and unable to console him.

Isn't my husband cute?!

Hanging out in bed with mom.

Merry Christmas

This is the Christmas outfit from Grandma Copple. Aaron was adorable but refused to sit and smile at the camera.

My big boy.

Jordan enjoyed watching Aaron open up Christmas presents.

"Oh WOW!!!" Is what Aaron had to say.

Aaron was the INN keeper this year for our family Christmas pageant.

Bologna soccer team shirt from uncle Daniele.

Today was a very bad day for Aaron (and for his mommy). All he did was whine and yell "mamma" at the top of his lungs (which is very, very loud) every three seconds all morning long. He woke up Jordan twice from his nap. Jordan has been really cranky and fussy because he's getting his second tooth in 4 days. I also happened to be watching a neighbor's little girl. When her mom came to pick her up, Aaron took all of the special Pecorino cheese that Paolo's brother had just mailed us, and ate it/spread it all over while I was helping the mom. I came back into the kitchen to finish making lunch and found Aaron doing this. Big sigh, big breathe.

Paolo was watching Jordan while I napped yesterday. He thought it would be fun to put Jordan on the chair and take a few pictures. The chair was sopping wet when he was done. Love my husband!

Crawling

Jordan is now officially crawling. Thank goodness not well yet. It happened Sunday. He was 3 days shy of hitting 7 months. Where does the time go?! I wanted the time to slow down the second time so that I could enjoy it more, and instead he's growing too fast.

Two peas in a pod. Jordan loves it when Aaron jumps on the bed. Jordan really can't wait for the day when he is as mobile as his brother.

"bicotto pichi". One of Aaron's favorite treats are fig newtons (in Italian we call them biscotto di fichi). So he asks a lot for his "bicotto pichi". I love listening to him try to talk.

Jordan still won't take a bottle. He's anxious to eat the food we're eating. Even the rice cereal is making him constipated. It's a battle I can't win. He loves trying to eat his special baby cereal, but he doesn't have good control over gripping yet.

Playing on mom and dad's bed.

Aaron is starting to use his imagination and pretend. It means that he does a lot more fun things, like wanting to be zipped up inside my back pack. He also pretends to eat or put unknown objects in our pockets. I wonder what he pretends to be putting in our pockets. If he's anything like his dad he's probably imagining putting a dirty diaper or something else disgusting in there.

We've just started doing solids on a regular basis with Jordan. Today was the first time he was actually enthusiastic about it. I boiled a sweet potatoe and smashed some of it up and tried to give it to him. The problem with feeding Jordan is that he grabs at everything you have in your hand and he moves around so much that half the time I end up shoving it up his nose instead of into his mouth.

While I was trying to feed Jordan, Aaron kept going into the bathroom and doing things he wasn't supposed to (I'll let you use your imagination because it's probably close to exactly what was happening). So at least 4 or 5 different times I had to put the food down and go grab Aaron. While I was gone, Jordan grabbed the spoon and food and went to town.

trucks and leaves

I was taking pictures of Jordan, and I turned around to find Aaron like this. I was about to yell "pull your pants up mister" and then decided to capture the candid moment. Now that Aaron is better about being potty trained, I leave him in underwear all the time. The only problem is that he sometimes does this to let you know that he needs to go potty.

Playing in the leaves.

I tried to put Jordan in the leaves to get a cute picture, but all he did was cry.

We put the kids in the same bath (on a day that Aaron was less dirty than normal).

I finally have a fairly decent picture of Aaron smiling, even if he does have food in his mouth.

This was a weird looking potatoe that I was about to peel the other day. I decided to take a picture of it. What do think it looks like?

Of course it was Paolol's idea to put Jordan in Aaron's truck.

And he loved it! Especially for the ride his dad gave him afterwards.

Halloween 2009

This is the day that Aaron was on one. This is him when I found him playing in his room. A little later that day he went to "play" in his room, which really means he goes to hide and poop. Unfortunately he does this in his underwear on a regular basis. I didn't catch him in time. When I did find him he was using an empty box of diapers as a slide and had poop smeared up his whole back. I took him to the bathroom and put him in the bath tub to wash him up. While I was rinsing his clothes, he figured out that the brown stuff could be smeared all over the rest of him. What a day!

Jordan is no longer happy just laying around and doing nothing. He's got to be sitting up and looking or doing something, or he lets you know he's not happy. He is just as pleasant, but a little more demanding. I think it will get easier when he's able to sit well on his own for long periods of time. Right now he can last a few minutes if I'm lucky.

This is our first snowfall of the year from about a week and a half ago. I took Aaron outside to play in the snow while Jordan was taking a nap. After Aaron touched the cold snow he started crying. After that he was too cranky to play and we went back inside.

Here's my little pumpkin. In my opinion adorable!

Notice how one is smiley and the other... well... he can give the worlds dirtiest looks, and you have no doubt as to when he's not happy about something. In this case, he hated the pirate. I did my best to get a picture, but that was near impossible. Good thing I got the costume cheap at a garage sale!

Aaron now loves to bang sticks on everything. Boys!

There goes the hat!

5 months

I don't think I've had a real good picture of Aaron for a while. He's a fast moving target, and when he finally does say "cheese" for the picture, he gets this horrible squinting smile.

Jordan is 5 months old today. He is starting to drool and put everything in his mouth. He can sit by himself for very short periods of time. He is all smiles. He is definitely an angel baby. The only exception is when it comes to eating. He's got a stubborn streak. He is still refusing to take a bottle and will go hungry for up to 8 hours, so Paolo has to bring him into work every single time I work (which is 3 times a week).

We were getting ready for a Halloween Party, and Aaron to hug his brother. Aaron loves holding/hugging his little brother. It really just looks like a wrestling match, but Jordan laughs and seems to love it. So we let Aaron "love" his brother under strict supervision.

All smiles this little one!