I hope you're sitting down...

I don't want to alarm you or anything but a few days ago I did something so shocking and perverse I can hardly say it out loud....

I made something.

I know! Take a deep breath, I was shocked too. I am what the French call "Les Incompetante" when it comes to do with anything that can be found within the walls of a Michaels or Hobby Lobby. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

It all started this weekend when Aidan suddenly and without warning developed a terrible allergy to Spring, apparently. Her eyes are red and watery and she keeps rubbing her aforementioned tons of hair into her eyes and causing a lot of goop. She has managed to lose every bow I have bought her. (Yes, SHE lost them, I have never lost anything in my life, I don't know what you are talking about)

Since she was obviously miserable I rushed out to buy her some bows at the usual place (they're the only ones she doesn't pull out of her hair). They were running low and I was suddenly struck by the idiocy of buying a $6 bow. Those bows are made out of ribbon, hot glue, and alligator clips. Not golden dust and fairy wings. Then I saw a bow holder selling for $35 dollars. This bow holder, I kid you not, is a piece of wood with ribbon glued to it.

So I went to Michaels and Hobby Lobby and eventually Ulta to gather all of my necessary supplies. I could have just gone to Michaels and Ulta but this is my first time. For under $20 dollars I was able to get enough stuff to make 20 bows and a bow holder. And here it is...

I made this in 10 minutes. The dragonfly even came pre-painted people! Embrace the hot glue gun!!

I love theme songs...

Aidan has an addiction to TV theme songs. Her favorite is the Friends theme song followed closely by The Cosby Show and The Office. She stops whatever she's doing playing, eating etc. and stares transfixed until the song is over. She doesn't care about anything but the music. I know you're not supposed to let babies watch very much TV but since it's the music that's the real draw I don't feel too bad. We get on my Itunes and have music education class too.

Weird

American Idol group medleys are so awkward I have to put a Diet Coke box over my head.

You're so vain, you probably think your blog is about you...

I played Aidan the video of her clapping and she thought it was the best thing she'd ever seen. She laughed at herself for about 10 minutes as I played it over and over. I played her some videos of babies on YouTube and she enjoyed that as well but she is still her favorite video star.

I know that from this picture of her luscious locks you might think I'm passing a 4 yr old off as my 10 1/2 month old daughter. But that's all her hair. Is it bad that I kind of want to find the hundreds of perfect strangers in various grocery stores who told me her hair would all fall out and say HA? I would also like to find them and say that yes she's warm enough, yes I took her out when it was raining and she lived, and yes I had to stop breastfeeding sooner than recommended and I didn't burst into flames. What is it about the grocery store that makes people so eager to enlighten you on parenting? Is it the soothing muzak, the fluorescent lighting, the intoxicating scent of so many Hostess products under one roof? It's a mystery.

Yeah I'm standing....jealous?

Clapping

And now a word from Ben...

OK I have got too much on my hands right now protecting our precious memories and Ben had a very traumatic experience happen last night that he needs to get off his chest. So without further ado....

I have experienced quite a bit in my relatively short life. I mean... I didn't fight in Nam, and have never even seen illegal narcotics, but I did work in fast food for 2 years in High School. Let's just say I've seen some things!

Last night I was giving Aidan a bath in her inflatable ducky tub and casually perusing through one of Dara's entertainment magazines, when Aidan stopped splashing and gave me a big smile. It was adorable, and I took a moment to soak in my beautiful daughter's smiling eyes. My mind momentarily drifted to to all the future occasions I anticipate soaking in her smile... her first day of kindergarten, her first piano recital at Carnegie Hall, that smile behind the veil before I walk her down the aisle to some undeserving punk. As I gradually awoke from my daydream, I reached for Aidan's towel and turned to take her out of the tub when I noticed something in her hand...poop.

A little round nugget of poop. It was in her hand and millimeters away from her mouth when I grabbed the squishy poop nugget and politely yelled "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!"

Aidan giggled. I choked a little at the monkey house smell now coming from the inflatable ducky tub. I found myself in a bit of a quandary as I held my naked baby in one hand, and her poop in the other. Obviously the poop in my hand had to go... but where and how? Once my poop hand was clean and her poop hand was clean, I took a deep breath and devised a plan for appropriate poop disposal and complete bathroom cleansing.

Poop happens, and next time it does, this dad has a battle plan!

Whew...

IT managed to recover my pictures at least. If you need me I will be obsessively backing up my pictures all weekend.

Oh...bleep.

So I may have crashed my hard drive on my laptop and I may have lost half of my pictures of Aidan because I wasn't done uploading them to a photo sharing site.

I may have a nervous breakdown.

Crowd control....

So it's been a rough week for Mommy, all of my grad papers and projects are due over the next couple of days. Aidan, has once again proved insensitive to OU's academic requirements. A lady in one of my classes has an 8 yr old daughter who told her that her grad school was ruining her life. I'm sure if Aidan could speak she would say something similar.

So when you have to do a paper and you baby won't stop trying to unplug the Tivo you only have so many options....

Option 1

Option 2
In all fairness to me, she did this to herself.

Gotcha..

I captured the tooth on film a couple of days ago but I've been so busy I haven't been able to post it so here it is in all its glory...

Ok, you can't really see it...

There you go, it's there I promise.

Morning mission

I have spent the last 15 minutes trying to get a picture of Aidan's first tooth. When did she get so fast and strong? I actually tried to pry her tongue away from her tooth but it is not happening. I really don't want to traumatize her just so I can have a picture to remember it by.

Aidan has also made a new friend, our floor vents. The vents may be the bane of our existence but she likes to hover over them until the air comes on and blows her hair and then she shrieks with glee.

This is her best friend though...

Aidan and Vivian

You're moving where?

Aidan doesn't know what to make of the continued mass exodus from Oklahoma of everyone her mother holds near and dear.

Now Angie has moved to beautiful Juneau, Alaska and we will miss her so much. I envy her the beautiful scenery and will miss my one friend who shares my aversion to hot weather.

A walk down memory lane...

If you will indulge me for just a second I have to say how unbelievable it is to me that Aidan used to be this tiny. I was backing up my digital pictures and found this one of Aidan at my Nana's house on the 4th of July. I just cannot believe that she is 10 months old and can clap and wave and army crawl and gnaw on anything made of wood left unattended in our house.

Catching up

While I was without my digital camera a lot of things happened and I had to resort to commemorating them with a disposable camera. Now I used a disposable camera from high school until I went to Vienna my junior year so you wouldn't think it would be that big a deal. I hated it! It was like flying blind. Especially with a baby, you always have to wait until they smile and it happens so fast! So anyways these pictures aren't the greatest, but my baby is:)

Official Easter Dress. I'm so glad Mandy took pictures before Easter because none of these seemed to do her justice. She looks SO cute in her purple dress and her favorite Easter item was the purple tissue paper my parents present to her was wrapped in.

Aidan rocking her pigtails to a new level with her Aunta. Her hair is getting so long again! This time I'll let a professional cut it.


This was her official Daddy's coming home from Japan outfit. My Aunt Brenda found her the perfect shirt. The band's flight ended up being a lot later than expected so I had to wake her up when Ben came in and she was soooo happy.

Tooth!

Yesterday morning Aidan woke up with her first tooth! I would show you a picture but she refuses to take her tongue away from it even for a second.

Embarrasing moment of the day...

So when you're sleep deprived things happen...Today I walked into the men's room at OU before class. And we're not talking just opening the door and quickly realizing my mistake. I'm talking about going all the way in, wondering why everything looked different, and standing there for a full minute while men were standing at urinals in front of me. I froze like a deer in the headlights. There was eye contact. It was awkward.

Usually I feel about 100 years old when I'm in the OU Student Union but today I definitely felt like a freshmen. I hid in the ladies room until I was sure all those guys had left.