Bye Bye Bottle

It is official.  As of August 15th, 2010 Aiden is off the bottle.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be because Aiden has started drinking very well from cups with straws.  He was only getting a bottle before bed and we finally just took it away.  We are very proud of Aiden and how well he did with the transition.  Here is a photo of Aiden having one of his last bottles and drinking from a straw cup at the same time.  Silly boy!

Vacation - Bryce Canyon

On the way back to Salt Lake City, we decided to stop at Bryce Canyon and we were so glad we did.  It was beautiful.  It was also a lot cooler than Zion.  What was also nice about Bryce is you could get to all the vista points by car.  This was great because it is difficult to go on a lot of the trails with a stroller.

1p36 DSA Conference - Water Fun

At the 1p36 DSA conference, one of the fun activities was going to a water play area at a mall in downtown Salt Lake City.  The water jumped out of holes to classical music.  It was a very hot day so it was a perfect activity to enjoy.  This was a great activity for Daddy and Aiden to participate in.  Because Aiden is still not walking independently, he needs constant one on one attention when doing most physical activites.  If an activity is too hard for Aiden he usually gives up quickly.  As you can see from all the photos, Aiden had a BLAST!  He laughed and laughed and did not want to get out of the water. All the kids and adults really enjoyed this activity.  I wish we had something like this close to our home.  Enjoy all the photos!

1p36 DSA Conference - Rachel Coleman

If there is one thing I look forward to each summer is the 1p36 DSA Conference.  This is the 4th year and the conference is in Salt Lake City, Utah.  We have been lucky enough to also attend the last two conferences in Indianapolis, Indiana and Boston, Mass.  The conference is like a big family reunion.  Usually, 30-40 families attend and about 20 of the families attend each year.  I like listening to the speakers but having a weekend where you can see a whole bunch of children that is like yours is amazing.  We were lucky enough to have Rachel Coleman from Signing Time attend the conference and perform for the kids.

 Aiden listens to Baby Signing Time every day and I thought he would get the biggest kick out of seeing her in person.  We were able to sneak in and hear Rachel practicing.  Aiden was so excited.  He was clapping and laughing.  It was so cute.  It was like Aiden was meeting a rock star or a girl he had a big crush on.  I could not wait for her to perform.  When Rachel start her show she started telling the story on why she started Signing Time and after 15 minutes of talking, Aiden fell fast asleep on my lap.  He missed her singing all her songs :(  The goods news is we got these photos with her afterwards.  Rachel does a lot of tours so I am going to find out when she is coming to NY so I can take Aiden to see her again.

Pool Fun

Aiden loves the water.  Almost every day in the summer we spend time in our backyard pool with Aiden.  We are trying to teach Aiden to swim.  He will kick and move his arms doing the doggie paddle really well but he keeps trying to swallow the water.  When Aiden swallows the water, he laughs and laughs and coughs and coughs.  Steve and I even let him do it a couple of times to see if he would finally understand that swallowing the water is not good but it did not work.  So for now, even when we have a life jacket or swimmies on Aiden, we still have to keep a close eye on him or we will not have any water in the pool left :)