News and Notes from a busy week...

We kicked off the week with a full family photo shoot at our parent's house. They'll be moving soon, so this was one of the last times we'll all be together at the old house.

We also enjoyed a great visit with the Benner's who were here for the week from Los Angeles. They win the award for best house guests ever.

Aiden enjoyed his newer, bigger, and better blow up pool.

Now, if I can make a general recommendation to anyone currently reading this post it is this: go out and buy/ download the album "Sigh No More" by the band "Mumford and Sons." Once you buy it, set your music player of choice to 'repeat', sit back and enjoy (and remember to thank me later.)

And lastly, I don't know if many people out there have been following the World Cup with as much anxiety ridden excitement as I have, but if you have then you'll understand why I feel like this:

was one of the best moments I have ever seen in sports. Period.

5 Years

This month Jen and I celebrate our five year anniversary! That's five years of sweet, tender, loving marriage... oh, and also five years of learning to tolerate each others faults, struggling to make our way in the world of jobs, mortgages and taxes, and doing our best to raise an energetic baby boy.

Whew! So, it's been a busy five years. And so, to celebrate how far we've come, we decided to take a trip down to Florida's gulf coast for a little rest and relaxation- just the two of us. So, with luggage brimming with bathing suits, sunblock, and beach reading (and Aiden safely delivered to the grandparents) we hopped a flight down to Fort Myers Beach Florida for our celebratory weekend.

The beaches along the gulf coast are beautiful, and we took quite a few walks along the shore, but when it came time to relax we mostly settled in by the pool with books in hand.

Our hotel was one of the nicest we've stayed in. It was big, with ocean views from every room. And while I'm thinking of it, it was called the "Pink Shell Resort and Spa" and it was terrific in every way. I can't recommend it highly enough.

One evening we took a short side trip to nearby Sannibel Island. The beaches there are known for their shells, and in the short time we spent there Jen found a couple of good ones.

The sunsets every night were spectacular, and our hotel room balcony provided great front-row seats for the show.

What a great trip, and a great celebration of five years of marriage! Here's to five more years! (And also more beyond that...obviously.)

A Cool Pool

Aiden's kiddie pool has become a regular fixture in our backyard during hot summer days. As you can tell from last summer, and the summer before, it has served us well these last few years. With temperatures reaching into the 90's this last week it has been tempting to just hunker down in a darkened room, air conditioner blasting. And though we have succumbed to that urge on a few occasions, when we have ventured out of doors we once again reached for the pool to deliver some welcome relief for parent and child alike.

Scenes of early summer (through the eyes of my blackberry)

Boundaries

Why is it that, for a two year old, the one place you don't want them to go is the one place they want to be more then anything else in the world?

Here is a recurring example in our house: We have sitting in our living room, posing convincingly as a coffee table, Aiden's toy chest. Aiden has been told in every way that it is possible to tell a toddler that:

"No, in fact, that toy chest is not for sitting on/ laying in/ climbing into, it is simply a place in which toys are to be stored..."

Of course, it is no sooner that those words leave our mouths and reach certain tiny ears that the toy chest becomes the only place to sit in/ lay on, etc. It is the ultimate place of rest, better then the softest lazy-boy (and certainly better then the large, empty couch sitting mere feet away.)

Is it practical? No. Comfortable? I can't imagine that it is. Ergonomically sound? Certainly not. And yet there we continue to find him, reclining amongst the Hot Wheels and building blocks, pretending for all the world like the toy chest is very own sleep number bed.

I know that this "problem" is not so much of a real problem as a way of life. And I also know that parents with older kids are chuckling quietly to themselves thinking, "they 'aint seen nothing yet."

True, true I am sure, oh wise parents. Sitting on toy chests is small potatoes when compared to cars, curfews and other perils of teenage parentdom. And yet we will continue on, I suppose, making boundaries and having them tested.. and sometimes even broken.

1st official haircut

Aiden has had a few little trims from his Mimi, but a few weeks ago I (Jen) decided that he needed to get an actual haircut. I thought about taking him to one of those children's haircut places just for the experience, but I knew that even sitting in an airplane would not make Aiden forget the fact that someone he doesn't know is touching his head. It's funny because Aiden is not a shy kid anymore (much to our surprise) but when it comes to the doctor, or in this case a hairdresser, he knows something is up, and he doesn't like it. I had a hair appointment scheduled for myself and I asked Julia, who has been doing my hair since college, if she would trim up Aiden's hair. I warned her that it may not be an easy task. My mom met us at the hair place so that she could take Aiden after he was done and I could finish my appointment. Luckily she had her camera (I know, I'm a bad mom forgetting mine) so she snapped a few pictures documenting the occasion.

Aiden refused to sit in the chair alone and wear the cape even though we tried to convince him it was like superman.

He agreed to sit in my lap, and a small bag of chips helped sweeten the deal of trying to sit still and not pull away.

LOVE the look he is giving me in this next one...

Lookin' good!!

Thanks mom/Mimi for getting these pictures and to Julia who was such a trooper with my difficult little boy!