Christmas came early

Thanks to the UPS man for delivering the first great toy of this year's Christmas season: cardboard boxes. I suppose it's a good thing that the boxes on delivery actually contained items that we'd ordered as Christmas gifts, but at least for now, the cargo is secondary to the packaging. This is how Aiden and I spent the majority of our morning after these boxes arrived, and I'm not sure who had more fun.

In Thanksgiving-related news: I am thankful that my child is a boy because it gives me a good excuse to do things (like build large hot-wheels tracks out of cardboard boxes) which, lets be honest, I would want to do anyway.

Backyard Camping

A little while back I thought it'd be fun to set up the tent out in the yard for Aiden to play with. He did like it, although he spent most fof his time running around it and opening and closing the zipper. To each his own.

It was a fun little morning activity and it makes me excited for when he gets a little bit older and we can take our sleeping bags out there, start a fire in the firepit, and do some real backyard camping.

The Parade

With Halloween just around the corner Aiden's pre-school put on a mini costume parade for the kids. As it turns out, there are few pleasures greater then seeing a gaggle of costumed toddlers ambling in circles around a parking lot, waving at anything that moves. It was pretty great.

There were some pretty creative costumes on display. One of my personal favorites is Aiden's little friend Leah who dressed as a "nurse in training." (I took some pictures) Aiden's costume was a Phillies player, which is something that we'd picked out before the Phillie's disappointing fizzle. Although the wounds from their loss are still fresh I think that seeing our two year old proudly strut his stuff in Phillies garb was the first step in the healing process.

Anyway, it may not have been the "Phillies parade" that we were expecting, but I'll take this one any day of the week! Enjoy the pictures...

Falling for fall

The weather has taken a turn for the cooler around here recently and I, for one, am loving it. The last few days Aiden and I have been taking advantage of the sunny, fall temperatures by hanging out in the backyard. I started a project a while back where I am using broken-up pieces of our old sidewalk as edging for some of our plant beds. Despite being far from completed, Aiden decided to claim the area as a new place for him to play and get dirty.

Post wall-walking we moved on to collecting leaves. Which, as you'll see, then transitioned nicely into collecting dirt.

A boy and his dog

This video pretty much sums up the current state of Aiden and Bailey's relationship. Aiden just wants to play, and Bailey barely tolerates it all because he knows that Aiden is his primary gateway to all food-crumb related morsels.

My favorite parts of this video are when Aidens declares definitively "Its my rope!" (its not) And also when he chases Bailey around the room imploring him to participate while Bailey desperately eyes his escape route.

Untitled from Robert Jones on Vimeo.

UFO!!!!!! (Unidentified Flying bOy)

...these pictures are classified as TOP SECRET as this quadrant of the living room is designated as a strict no-fly zone... you never saw this... it never happened...

Doctober Part 2

For those not fortunate enough to live within reach of the airwaves of the Philadelphia radio broadcast here is the final out of last night's no-hitter as called by Scott Franzke:

Doctober

Unlike the last two years there has been nary a blog post in the lead up to this season's baseball playoffs. What can I say? Maybe we've reached an era where making the postseason is just buisness as usual for our Fightin's.

I could hardly let tonight's game come and go, however, seeing as that it was (literally) one for the ages. I am excited to have game one in the bag, but beyond that, watching Doc deal the second postseason no-hitter in baseball history was just electrifying.

Thank goodness for Doc. And thank goodness for baseball.

Here we go again...

Pre-school begins

Aiden started pre-school 2 weeks ago, and we've been meaning to share some pictures. Aiden is now a proud student of 'Pre-school in the Valley' 2 mornings a week. The pre-school is in the church where Rob grew up, and coincidentally, both of Aiden's grandmother's work there!

Here's some pictures from the first day before heading out the door.

Not quite ready to let go of my baby!!

Being silly with daddy

Here we go!

Aiden was teary the first day, but is now loving school and doesn't look back when I drop him off in the morning.

Zoo again

We made another zoo trip last Friday. Mimi and Pop-Pop came along this time which was lots of fun! Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures. But, we got some great ones of the new baby giraffe that was so cute, I (Jen) could barely contain myself!

With mama

Rob and Aiden checking out the baby giraffe

We also saw the otters again, which is one of our favorite exhibits. It was lunch time for them and they were all eating fish- they eat the whole thing- bones and all!

And even though this is not a great picture of us, it's the only one we have from the trip.

And sorry there are no pictures of Mimi and Pop-Pop, but they were there, I promise!