Aiden at 18 Months

Aiden has picked up a few funny mannerisms lately.

Whenever Travis flips to the sports channel and there is a football game playing, Aiden immediately starts clapping his hands and screams "Go, go, go, go, go!" at the TV screen.

I try to count stuff out as often as possible for Aiden. Like the three steps on the back porch, for example. I count out each step, with a little emphasis on the "three!" for the last step. Aiden started saying "two" with me, but never 'one' or 'three'. Just within the past week, he has started trying to count to three before throwing a ball, or shutting a cabinet, or throwing Mr. Lion back into bed. But instead of counting 'one, two, three' he says "two, two, two, two..." It took me almost a full day to realize that he won't actually release whatever he is throwing without me screaming "three!"

Aiden had his 18-month appointment over the winter holiday break. He did pretty well. My mom came along and tried to help distract him while we waited for the doctor to come in. He's right below the 50% percentile on his weight and height, so all is well there. He got one vaccination in his thigh. Every moment he got for the following couple of days, he would point where the bandaid had been and say, "Ow." Too cute.

For his first birthday, my family got him a bunch of Buzz Lightyear gear. It hasn't been until recently that he has really shown an interest in Buzz himself. It might be because he is getting older and has more patience for full length movies. He still won't sit through the entire thing, but he will take 10 minute breaks from his playing here and there to watch the action parts. Now every time we see Buzz (Blockbuster, billboards, grocery store) he screams, "Buzz!" At first it was "Buh", but now it's more like "Buh-sch".

His other favorite character is "Melmo!" Elmo was a big hit this year at Christmas. He got everything that is possibly related to Elmo. Now, when he wakes up in the morning and sees the Elmo stuff in his room (books, dolls, etc.) he says, "Melmo." First word of the day folks!

Over the holiday break, I worked with him on naming the other Sesame Street characters and he's picked up a few. Big Bird and Cookie are the most clear, but he's attempting Oscar and Grover as well.

We had a great two weeks at home together, despite the last couple days being a little trying for Mommy. He went to daycare one day each week, in hopes that he wouldn't completely lose a knack for getting along with his peers and teachers. Each day they said he did great, which made me feel much more confident about bringing him back this week.

Yesterday morning when I dropped Aiden off for school, he showed some serious interest in the Wiggles video that was playing on the TV. They really creep me out, so I was hoping to avoid them as a favorite show for Aiden. Too late I guess. I know it's the music that draws him. He likes all shows with music. I didn't think it possible, but it turns out the Wiggles can get creepier. Check out this clip from the video that was playing at the daycare that day:

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I REFUSE to buy this for Aiden. No matter how much he likes it. I need to go donate some Yo Gabba Gabba DVD's to his class...