Crawling and standing

Needless to say, Aaron is mobile now. He crawls everywhere and loves to pull up to standing to see what is up higher. He is even happier now with his new found mobility. 

Color balls

This was crazy. I realize it is most likely just a lot of coincidental luck on Aaron's part. I had 3 balls and told him what colors they were and asked him to choose a certain color ball (and it wasn't always the ball closest to him or by a certain hand - it changed position). For 5 in a row, he got it right. And then he got bored. But it was pretty awesome. Lucky. But awesome. What a fun 'little experiment'.

Thanksgiving part 2

And on Saturday we had Thanksgiving over at my family's house. Loads of kids there too! Ages 6, 6, 5, almost 4, 2.5, 18 months, 8 months, 7 months, 2 months and one almost due. 

Visiting with Spike who made a delicious pecan pie

Clap your hands!

Jeff and the kids

Aaron having breakfast with the squirrels. He was very entertained by their shenanigans. Kyle and Emily still love watching the squirrels at Grandma's house while they eat. Those crazy squirrels figured out how to leap over to the top of the bird feeder despite the cone to (attempt to) keep them off. 

Trampoline

The day after Thanksgiving, Papa and Kari took all the kids over to a trampoline place near them. It is a giant warehouse type building that has trampolines everywhere. Trampolines into a foam pit. Trampolines with basketball hoops. Trampolines to play dodge ball. Trampolines to do an exercise class. Trampolines to jump around like you are on Super Mario Brothers. Trampolines to do tumbling passes. It is awesome! The kids had a lot of fun. 

Kyle getting some air before the foam pit

Emily flying into the foam pit

Dodge ball with Jeff, Kyle & Ben

Emily jumping and practicing her tumbling

Aaron bouncing with Aunt Stephanie

Emily doing her tumbling.

Thanksgiving - part 1

We started Thanksgiving off at Jeff's family's house. All the cousins were there and the kids were off and entertained all day long together! The age breakdown goes like this: 7 year old, three 6 year olds, 1 almost 6 year old, 3.75, 3.5, 2, and an 8 month old. Lots of kids. Lots of boys - all boys except Emily. 

The kids standing still for a brief moment. 

Kid's dinner settings

Cute turkeys

Uncle Eric with a turkey on his head. Aaron found it funny until he got tired. 

Romper room

Back in Chicago, we went over to Tommy's house so all the kids could play and we could all hang out and catch up. It was like romper room with all the kids, babies and toys around! Everyone had a great time!

Aaron & Trevor playing. They are 3 weeks apart. It was cute watching them play 'together'. One would play with the toy while the other studied the other one. Then they'd switch roles to playing and studying. Very cute. 

Emily passed out at Grandma's house. 

Aaron learned to sign "more". He's very good at asking for more food. The kid has a hollow leg!

Madison

After leaving Milwaukee, we headed over to Madison. While Jeff worked, the kids and I had a good time. We went swimming at the hotel, did homework, walked around the capitol, shopped, ate and attempted to visit the children's museum but it is closed on Mondays. For dinner, we went over to Josh and Stephanie's house and had a great dinner of homemade gnocchi, pork roast and salad. Delicious! 

Milwaukee

The day after arriving in Chicago, we drove up to Milwaukee to visit with Grandma Sondra, Grandpa Newt and Auntie Judy. We hadn't seen them in over a year so they hadn't met Aaron yet. It was a fun visit and long overdue. The kids had a great time visiting and playing. Auntie Judy is a great entertainer for Kyle and Emily especially! 

Playing dolls with Judy

Aaron showing off how he can stand up

This is the high chair that Jeff used at Grandma's house as a baby! 

Chilling with Newt

Aaron and Grandma 

Grandma with her great-grandchildren!

Cuteness

Just some cute pictures of Aaron lately. 

In training

Jeff training Aaron young. 

Sleeping with the monkeys

How Kyle sleeps ;-) He sure loves his monkeys. 

Crawling

And now Aaron is starting to crawl... just in time to have to sit still and confined for 4 hours.. great timing baby! 

Climber

Aaron can now put himself up to standing. Here he is in his crib seeking me out. He is becoming quite mobile. 

8 months

Big boy! Aaron is now 8 months old. He is starting to crawl, eats and sleeps like a champ and is a generally happy boy. He does have some separate anxiety and gets upset if I go more than 10 feet away from him, but he is quickly soothed with a hug. And he is so very boy going after the electronics - phones, computers, remote controls and the like. Time is flying by!

8 months

6 months

4 months

almost 2 months

Jeff cloned

Jeff's clone. 

Ah ba ba ba ba

Aaron is quite chatty these days. He's moved on from just vowels and is getting some consonants in there and chatting up a storm.

Standing

Aaron may just be figuring out crawling, but at the same time he is figuring out how to stand on his own two feet...

Voted

I took Aaron with me to vote. And we voted. I only had to get a new ballot once because he made me scribble outside the bubble box. Then he played on the floor while I finished my new ballot. Aaron enjoyed eating my voter receipt. 

OB sunset

Down in Ocean Beach for a nice walk along the beach after waffle ice cream sandwiches. And then we had dinner. Yes, we did it very backwards. And it was glorious. 

South Beach Tacos outside of South Beach since they don't allow anyone under 21 in. Tacos were good. Kyle, Emily and Aaron may or may not have had a shark taco. Not sure which was which. But one was shark.