Just 2 months shy of being 3, Aiden is maturing in leaps and bounds! Sitting still and focusing on something, with the exception of looking at books, has never been one of Aiden's strong points. He just has so much energy and wants to go from one thing to the next. This has, in some ways, been very frustrating for me, but just in the last month or two he has grown so much in this area. One of the ways he has learned to focus more, is by doing puzzles. For Christmas he got a Sesame Street one from our neighbor and then a box of 4 different Thomas the Train one's from my mom. I figured he would take a while to get a hang of them, but after only doing them with him a couple times, he could do them completely by himself. He is now obssessed with doing puzzles and puts them together over and over each day. We'll clean them up and put them away, but then a little while after, he is asking to do them again. He just can't seem to get enough of puzzles! The most he has done is 24 pieces, but this weekend we bought him a 60 piece puzzle of the Map of the United States and he is already working hard at putting it together. It is really fun to watch him learn and grow. I am wondering if he is gifted like his daddy, with a love of working with his hands and figuring things out :)

Sesame Street puzzle

Working on one of the Thomas the Train puzzles

Working on his letters.

Clearly these are not flattering pictures of me, and ordinarily there is no way I would post these on the blog for you all to see. Aiden and I were just playing around taking pictures together the other day, like we have done many other times. But when I uploaded them onto our computer and was looking through them, I was struck by how blessed I am with this sweet boy! Blessed that God would entrust him to me as his mommy, and blessed that I am able to stay home with him each day and relish in the joys of motherhood. Not that it is all happy all day. Many times motherhood is just plain hard, teaching and training a little soul, but there is also so much joy. I get to enjoy the simple things of life through the eyes of a 2 year old. I love laughing with my boy, being silly with my boy, smothering him with hugs and kisses and tickles. These moments are fleeting and I want to soak them up! Thank you Lord for my boy!

The weather here has been so darn cold. I told Carl last night that this is the coldest winter I have ever experienced... he laughed since my only comparision are winters in South Africa and Southern California. Usual Texas winters are mild with an ocassional cold snap. However, It feels like this winter has been one long cold snap (high temps in the 30's and even some 20's) with a few mild days (high temps in 60's &70's) thrown in. I know for those of you further north I sound like a wimp since you have endured a much colder winter, but for me it has just been miserably cold. It seems like it has been an unusually cold winter most places. So much for global warming. LOL! Anyway, I am counting down the weeks till spring, and thankful that this winter is not the norm around here!

Saturday night we took Aiden to the Urgent Care. Earlier that day he had been bouncing behind Carl on the office chair (while Carl was working on the computer) and he fell off the chair sideways and hit his head on the baseboard. We figured he had just hurt his head, but as the day went on, we realized that he couldn't use his hand very well and putting any pressure on it made him cry. We decided that night to take him in just in case he had fractured something. They took an x-ray and thankfully all looked well, he had just sprained his wrist. It was really interesting, though, to see the x-rays of his little hand and arm. We could see all the growth that still has to take place for the bones to meet up and that much of his wrist is actually still cartilage. I guess that is a good thing when you are rough and tumble 2 year old!

Waiting for the Dr

Wait for his little booty jiggle at the end. Cracks me up :)

Last weekend we finally went out and bought Aiden a big boy bed! It was very bittersweet moving him out of his crib, but it was definitely time! It has been a much easier transition than I thought it would be and he just loves having his own big bed.

We haven't had any trouble at bedtime, he just snuggles up and goes right to sleep. Naptimes have been a little harder, a couple times I had to go in and discipline him for jumping on the bed (I can't blame him though, I know I would have done the same) or being too rowdy, but overall he has done a fabulous job adjusting and for that I am SO thankful!

He looks so little in the bed!

He is still using his crib blanket, but it barely covers his legs. I need to see if I can find a good deal on a cute bedset for his big boy bed!

In the past month or so, Aiden has really become very sweet and loving. He has always been a sweet boy, but he has become much more expressive in showing it. It just blesses my heart. So many times in the day he will climb into my lap and give me a big hug and kiss and tell me that he loves me. I think there are few things in life as precious as this. A couple nights ago we could hear him calling for me over the monitor (yes, we still use it!) asking me to come and snuggle with him. Of course, I was only too happy to oblige, and so I climbed into bed next to him and we spent a good 15 minutes just snuggling, talking to each other and singing songs. This coming from a boy who is always on the go and really struggles with self-control, what a joy!