End of October 2013

I'll start this blog with the punchline; a photograph of Aldo as the Halloween bear cub:

I realize that Aldo is a bit young for Trick or Treating, but he looked so cute in his costume that I wanted to share the love.  Aldo had a great time.  He carried his own treat bucket, the (plastic) head of a black cat, and had no problem taking candy from the giving baskets and transferring it to his cat bucket.  Typical for Aldo, he enjoyed the socializing; he not only had no trouble going up to strangers' doors, but he wanted to go inside their homes.    Aldo mostly held my hand, but often enough he pushed my hand away and wanted to run down the busy street.

We trick or treated at the "Highlands", the neighborhood on the way to the nordic center, just above our condo.  This is the happening, place-to-be for trick or treating in Tahoe City.  We also have a friend who lives on the block and socialized with them for a while.  My favorite part of the evening was the several times Aldo held his face or mouth against my hand when he got excited, as if to say, 'thanks mom, this is great'.  I was surprised to hear the kids and tweens refer to Adlo as a baby, 'Ahhh, look at that cute baby'.  He is still, technically, a baby but he sure looks like a little boy to me.  On the walk home I was able to draw Aldo's attention to the beautiful night sky (just like the night sky in his 'Baby Galileo') and tell him, 'stars', which he likes.

The few days leading up to Halloween were also exciting and fun-filled.  First, I have to thank Sally for taking a day off work from her other job to watch Aldo while I was in Sacramento for a meeting.  On so many levels, her flexibility was helpful.

I enjoyed watching Aldo 'speak' to his new bath toys; flat, foam sea animals which, once wet, can stick to the side of the tub.  Well Aldo had them all stuck to the side of the tub and then preceded to take roll call.  He pointed to each, pausing in turn, and said  "Goy-yai-ya.  Goy-yai-ya.  Goy-yai-ya".  Then, satisfied that everyone was present, he quickly spread his arms out, declared "Rrr-rah" and slapped his hands into the water and returned to his other toys.

Aldo is getting better at feeding himself and he's eating more variety.  No doubt, having eight teeth helps.  Two days this past week we did not use any jarred food!  I gave him a toddler fork and he's enjoying it.  On one night, he fed me my dinner of broccoli with cubed, baked potato.  I let him know how proud of him I was and he couldn't stop himself from smiling a bit, with pride.  Tonight he fed me again with his fork, this time from his dinner plate.  When the meal was over, he remained in his highchair, arranging his bowl, plate, sippy cup, spoon and fork.  He looked so adult; this was serious play.  I'm excited to think that Aldo might soon be feeding himself.

 I'm so thankful for these pictures because otherwise, amazingly, I would have forgotten this day.  The day before, I stopped in Truckee to buy Aldo some needed cold-weather gear, like the boots in this picture.  I was surprised, but Aldo loves these boots and let me spend 20 minutes figuring out how to get them on his feet.  The boots are a size too big and super clunky, but Aldo had been practicing walking in my shoes, so he was ready!  Oh, and we were almost out the door when Aldo suddenly remembered something - to bring his scoot outside with him.  Too cute.

Late October 2013

I continue to be amazed by Aldo's rapid development.  In the past few weeks I feel as though Aldo has come to grasp even more words and how to respond to them.  He clearly understands that coat, shoes and socks mean its time to go outside; and so he no longer fusses when I need to put them on him.  His pushing and pulling is an obsession; he walks the stroller and the cart and pulls his scoot wherever I let him (pictures below).  When I ask if he wants to hold my hand, he gives me his hand.  He responds to these words; leaf, steps (even says step), water, nose (touches my nose), change your diaper and poop come to mind.

We are both enjoying Fall this year.  The weather up til now has been wonderful, reaching the mid-60's each day and with no, or only a slight, breeze.  We've visited the lake on numerous occasions, even getting into the water knee deep (Sally reports they have also gotten into the water).  What a lucky kid!  We've also been taking walking excursions into the Nordic Center.  I always start us off at the same point and try and get Aldo to walk farther each time.  We got out with the backpack carrier twice - once just the two of us, and a second time with John, Heather and the dogs.

We made it to one storytime reading at the Tahoe City branch library.  Aldo did very well but when his time came to leave, it was really time to leave.  He was asleep within 15 minutes after getting home.  He's been trying new foods, mostly from my plate.  He has eaten egg, bran cereal, and tangerines.  He had a dinner meal without a jar (cheese, fish and sweet potatoes with butter, followed by yogurt).  He still wants to nurse but he takes a cow's milk bottle from me once each day.

We moved the books in his bedroom to a more accessible location and now reading has become a regular part of the bedtime routine.  I even organized the books to help me find ones appropriate for his mood, and it has helped (bedtime, songs, inter-active, simple stories, word-heavy stories).  I moved his more educational books to downstairs for daytime use.  Now I can appreciate what we've got (since almost all of our books were gifts or hand-me-downs).

The nights are cold enough that we are back to using the bunny blanket from Tina.  Also, both Sally and I are hiding one of Tina's gifts to Aldo, from him.  It is a puppet ladybug that uses your fingers for its legs.  Aldo loves it so much that he will bring it back to you when you take it off.  So it must be hid.

Last weekend was the Fall Festival at Rideout, put on by the TCPUD.  Aldo rode a pony - but without much emotion.  He picked for us a nice little pumpkin.  And we walked around enjoying the bigger kids until Aldo's need for a nap became apparent.  Around north shore and Truckee there are many Fall Festival events but this will be our only one.

Halloween is coming soon and I'll update the blog afterward.  Aldo has a great costume (another hand-me-down) but you'll have to wait to see.

Early October 2013

I took notes over the past two weeks of Aldo events that I wanted to remember, so this post will be a bit heavy with language.

First, Aldo continues to challenge himself, and improve, at walking.  Pictured below you see him walking the forest litter in Skylandia.  Later, he walked us to the trail at the condos used to take you through the meadow and up to the bike path...and then he walked the trail, and the bridge, over and over again practicing going up and down steep and loose terrain.  He did great.

We have a new pack for me to carry Aldo when we hike (thank you Grampa John and Gramma Kristine).  It has all of the bells and whistles, including stirrups for his feet.  We've taken it out twice so far, once near home and the second time up at the nordic center.  I feel his weight more because he sits higher up and off my back, as compared to the Ergo back baby carrier.  At the nordic center, he required that I talk the whole time, telling him what I was seeing.  So I decided to kick a pine cone and tell him over and over again, 'I'm kicking a pine cone.  Kick kick.'  Well, yesterday he decided to kick his own pine cone and he did a great job of it, kicking it (on the paved bike path) an ultimate distance of about 30 yards.  Soccer here we come.

Food continues to be tricky for us, for many reasons, but in particular Aldo's teething and the difficulty I have with pre-preparing food.  So he eats a lot from jars still, and yogurt.  On one occasion, I managed to cook a meal for him but he wrinkled his nose at it, shook his head, and (not kidding here) handed me a jar of food with a face that said, 'ok mom, thanks but lets just stick to the jars, shall we?'  He's decided that he absolutely wants to practice feeding himself with the spoon, to practice drinking milk or water from a glass, and he's starting to take to his more steady-flow sippy cup for drinking cold milk.  He did feed himself strawberries (pictured below) and I often place finger food in front of him for dinner (cheese, apple slices, cooked carrot, avacodo, fish, etc.) and a bite or two usually makes it in his mouth.  Oh, and he likes refried beans, sometimes.  And he can eat an entire nutrigrain bar in one sitting, so I keep those handy in the car and diaper bag.

I'm trying to teach Aldo that his jackets and pants have pockets.  I put something in his pocket and encourage him to pull it out.  He loves his toothbrush and even lets me (quickly) brush his 4 upper and 3 bottom teeth before taking it from me to massage his aching gums.  He has been actively climbing down from our family bed on his own for a couple of weeks now (I've been teaching him proper form for some time now, starting with the couch).  He has an extremely charming smile that will likely not last - he wrinkles up his entire face for this smile, so much so that you'd swear he can't see out of his eyes.  And he and I are now exchanging the ninja phrase, "Hiiii-Yahhh".  Grampa was doing this during his visit, and I'm not sure if it was inspired by our earlier Hi-Yas (where I take Aldo's feet while he is on his back and imitate a karate kick while saying Hi-Yah.  It gets lots of laughs from Aldo and others) or if Grampa discovered this game on his own - Dad?.  In any case, it is now one of Aldo's 'words'.

But the big news is that Aldo is working toward being potty trained.  He doesn't know he's doing that but he is doing a great job.  The past few nights, following his bath (when Aldo commonly pees on the floor before I can get a diaper on him), I have repeated to Aldo, "go get on your potty" and he does it!  He almost sits still, but he enjoys getting on and off of it.  He has not peed in the potty.  He has peed, twice, right beside the potty.  And one little poop.  But I view this as very positive progress.  I hear that boys are really hard to potty train young, so I'm keeping my optimism low - even still, I'm hoping we can crack this nut at 18 months.

 Aldo walked from our condo all the way to the lake, about 1/4 mile.  I picked him up only at the intersection.

This scoot has seen a lot of use at the Mitchell house and with the other grandkids.  We have it in Tahoe on loan until the Grandparents return.  Aldo's legs are not long enough to get a good scoot action yet, but he loves to pull it around the house and backyard.

 Strawberries, Aldo's new favorite food.

We were supposed to can the apples we sauced during this girls night, but instead only Aldo made it to the canning pot.  The apples came from a tree here in the Glen.

September 2013

September was a great month.

We had a week long visit mid-month from the Georgia grandparents - see their (soon to arrive) blog below.  Aldo experienced his first cold at the end of the month, due to the rapid switch Tahoe experienced from summer to fall weather.  I witnessed Aldo's ability to quickly recover from several 'headers', although one sent him sleeping for 13 hours.  

This month has been all about stacking blocks (see below), pushing or pulling toys (3 trucks), and playing with anything that has wheels or is a ball.  Funny story, I went into the local kid store, Ruffles and Ruffnecks, and said I was in to buy Aldo a toy.  After hearing his age, the owner replied, 'then you'll want something that is stackable, or push-pull toys, wheels, balls, just things that move.'  Well, ok then.  We came home with a Brio stacking clown, on a standing rod.  He's already mastered the stacking though not in the proper order.  He still loves the toy truck / car carrier John and Heather bought him for his first birthday.  We've been reading a lot less this month.

I'm happy to say that we managed to get out for many rides to Alpine, and then for a play at Common's Beach.  Aldo still gets upset when it's time to leave but its manageable.  I moved him into his new car carrier (a gift from the Home Owner's Association members here at the Glen).  The new carrier is still rear facing, per the direction of Squaw Fire Chief Pete Bansen, who installed the carrier for us and let Aldo drive a fire truck.  We had a wonderful warm and heavy rain one afternoon and so Aldo discovered the fun of puddles.  I wish someone could have filmed us playing.  I was holding Aldo's hands with him facing forward in front of me, and I would give him a lift while he would pull his legs up and then STOMPED them down in the puddle with a loud, happy grunt, over and over again.

I bought him some new clothes this month, almost exclusively from Hanna Anderrson (wonderful!).  Up til now I've had so many hand me downs, and Grandma Pat purchases, that buying clothes for Aldo was never a concern, just a treat.  But with his increased mobility I need him to be as ready for the elements as I am.  Next month I'll be purchasing even more as he finally moves out of all 12 month outfits.

Finally, Aldo's eating has seen some modest changes.  The biggest change is that he's curious to try feeding himself with his spoon.  He puts the wrong end in the bowl or puts the proper end in the bowl but then fails to put it to his mouth.  But he's trying and he can only get better with practice.  Yogurt remains his mainstay.  

Aldo did this at the beginning of Sept

With Heather at TERC.

Blurry because he's on the move now and because he's back to holding a finger, although now the purpose is to make you do what he wants to do.

Tara gave Aldo this outfit a long time ago and he finally got to wear it.  So I took many pictures because it was his first and last time.  It will go to Finley next, in SF.

From the Georgia Grandparents:

It was great to leave behind Georgia’s heat and humidity in exchange for the crisp, cool air of Tahoe City. We were looking forward once again to spending time with Nikki and Aldo on their home turf. It was now September; we had last seen them in June.

What a difference three months can make. During our absence Aldo had his first birthday Now he was walking. And walking. He loves to walk! His favorite thing is to hold your finger with one hand and his push-toy with the other…. and take you for a walk. We walked around the room again and again. Then we walked outside to the deck and patio. Then we’d walk back into the condo. We took him in the stroller to Skylandia where he saw a man with a dog. Naturally, he wanted out of the stroller. He immediately grasped the strangers finger and towed him all the way to the beach! He had little interest in the dog. It was a delightful day. Aldo has a funny little habit of “scrunching” up his nose and mouth when he first sees you. His “scrunch” quickly becomes an infectious laugh… which makes us laugh in turn. It was a great week in Tahoe City with Aldo and Nikki. Although we miss them now that we are back in Georgia, we shall be returning soon. Meanwhile, we enjoy the weekly “Skypes”….and the welcome Fall weather. Below are a few photos from our visit.

First Birthday and August 2013

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY ALDO!
Common's Beach in Tahoe City, July 31, 2013

Aldo had missed his morning nap, so he took a quick 30 minute nap during the party.

___________________________________________________________
AUGUST 2013

Having perfected his walking skills, Aldo is now learning to speak.  He can say 'duck', 'truck', 'trac' (for tractor), and he continues to only say 'mom' in a crisis.  He can also say 'yes' as I learned on two occasions.  The first was at 4 a.m. when, with neither of us was sleeping. I asked him rhetorically, 'Aldo, would you like to go downstairs?' and he replied, earnestly, 'Yeth'.  The second time was when he wanted to play on our steps.  I said, 'no Aldo', 'Yes?', 'no Aldo', 'Yes?, 'no Aldo, its not safe.'  (He backed down his stair).  He knows many many words even though he cannot speak them yet.  He knows ball, butterfly, shoes, outside, stroller, hungry, avocado, yogurt, water and more.

That's dirt on his face.

All clean now.

For a closer looksie...

Dinner with Webster, and John and Heather.