Assuming the weather holds up, we are planning on spending tomorrow amidst the herds of exotic animals and school children at the Philadelphia Zoo!  We'll report back soon with all the details.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!  Especially to my beautiful wife (and Aiden's awesome Mom) Jen.

Sun + Son = Fun

Just some more pictures of Aiden having a good time outside.

April Pools Day

What do you do when it's 90 degrees in April?  Why go for a swim of course!

Some people may remember Aiden's first pool experience from last summer.  Entertaining? Yes.  Successful?  Ehh...maybe not.  

So, with the sun beating down over the weekend (and with another year of wisdom and experiences under his belt) we thought it'd be a golden opportunity for Aiden to have another try.  

How'd it go this time around?  Well, between a happily splashing baby, and a cool place for parents to rest their feet, lets just say we may be seeing a lot more of this pool in the months to come...

Earth Day Adventure

I don't know if anyone out there had big Earth Day plans, but we did not.  In fact, I think that we were sitting around after lunch and Jen said, "Hey... today is Earth Day."  And I said, "Hmmm... maybe we should do something earth-y."  Then Aiden said, "Ba, ba, ba... blahgity hughhh!"  And so it began.

In lieu of something more substantial like planting a tree, or saving baby seals we decided to keep things manageable and start some carrot seeds in the garden.  I had been meaning to get the carrots planted anyway, but it was a fun project to do together.  Hopefully later this summer we'll be munching on tasty carrots and reminiscing about the joys of our first Earth Day adventure.

Getting started:

First we had to get the soil ready for planting.  As you can see Aiden has a firm grip on his trowel, and he's ready for action

Everyone got involved!

Next we put the seeds in and covered them with a thin layer of soil.

Things were getting pretty down and dirty by the end.

Bailey is not allowed in the garden, but he was standing by, showing his Earth Day solidarity.

All finished!  The carrot seeds are planted and ready to grow.

And finally we enjoyed a little after-gardening swing session.  A great way to end a great Earth Day!

Lesson Learned

Parenthood, I'm finding, is full of surprises.  And it seems to me that being a good parent is all about the lessons that you learn along the way.  Here a few lessons that I learned recently:

1)  Occasionally your child may have a blowout diaper of epic proportions, and if (when) that happens, you will have to improvise.

2) Sometimes, if you are mid-improvisation and find that your child's clean clothes are two long flights of stairs away, it may be necessary to allow said child to go about his morning with only a diaper on.

3) And finally, some children (and ours in particular) really, really enjoy running around clothes-less.

Kitchen Aide(n)

Aiden always loves being right in the middle of all the action.  Wherever we are, whatever we're doing, he wants to be right there with us.  

The other day as we were in the kitchen getting dinner ready Aiden dove right in to help.  Of course to him "help" really just involves toddling around the kitchen with a pot in his hand.  It was pretty entertaining though, so that was kind of helpful.

Here he is, showing off his kitchen skills...

Spring has Sprung

Even though the last few days around here have been cold and wet, over the weekend we enjoyed a taste of beautiful spring-like weather.  With each passing day Aiden seems to be getting more and more comfortable with walking, and as things get nicer outdoors we are looking forward to him being able to take his toddler skills out into the yard.  

The first, and so far the only, time that we've been able to give him a taste of walking in the great outdoors he did pretty well.  The uneven ground and clumps of grass made for a few more spills than usual, but he's tumbling into the nice soft grass, so we say 'fall away!'

Here are some pictures showing his outdoor adventure.  There is one about half way down that makes it look like he's out for a little jog...

Easter Morning

On Sunday we enjoyed a quiet Easter morning at home, followed by a great church service, and a fun afternoon spent with family at the Weidner home.  Aiden, of course, recieved more then his share of Easter basket goodies.  And I, of course, filled my responsibility as a father and ate all the candy.  Here is Aiden checking out the basket (his favorite item, naturally, was the green plastic grass.)

The lone family picture that we managed to squeeze in during the day.

Here's Aiden showing off his snazzy Easter duds.