Pig Pickin Post 2

On Monday, Aiden had an appointment at the pediatric endocrinologist.  Dr Vanderwel says that everything looks great with Aiden and he’ll just keep taking the synthroid medicine everyday until he is about 3 years old (when the vast majority of his brain development is complete).  He weighed in at 18 lbs 9 oz (40th percentile) and 28 inches long (75th percentile).    But, since I don’t have any photos from that MD appointment, I’ll just post some more of the pig pickin! 

Elvira was as slippery as, well, a greased pig.

Brian, Scott, and Charlie admiring Elvira in all her piggy glory.

 

One of our best friends, Cristen, flew all the way down from NYC for the pig pickin. She was less than impressed with Elvira getting slapped onto the grill at 6am.

 

Aiden hanging out with the boys while they wait to stoke the fire again.

 

With Grandma and Grandpa Wolford after the pig pickin. Look at those snaggles for teeth!

 

 

Swine is Divine 2010

This past Saturday, Sept 25th, the money pit held the 3rd annual Swine is Divine.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with how awesome (yet redneck) this event is, it starts off like this.    

Scott and Charlie fill the back of the Goat with chainsaws and axes, head up to Lexington to the Ripple family farm and cut down a tree.

 

Then they bring all of the wood home and split it all in preparation for the big day.

 

On the morning of the pig pickin, Scott, Charlie and Charlie’s brother Brian wake up around 4am to start the fire at 4:45am.  They put a bunch of wood in a burn barrel with has rebar wire throughout in order for the wood to burn and the coals to fall to the bottom of the barrell.  They take the coals and put them in he bottom of the cooker so the pig (named Elvira) cooks slowly for about 8 hours.  So they monitor the temperature all day and stoke the fire to keep it at just the right temperature.   

Aiden getting some tips as the boys stoke the fire throughout the day.

 

Around 2 o’clock people started arriving and bringing drinks, side dishes, and desserts.  We had around 130 people this year.  That’s got to be one of the biggest pot-lucks ever!  Scott, Charlie, and Brian chop up all the good parts of Elvira and serve up the BBQ with yummy sauce and coleslaw.  Who could resist that?!  Clear your calendar next September for the 4th annual!  The planning has already begun…   

Elvira in all her glory.

 

Enjoying the swinefest on the new deck!

 

Aiden and Aunt Kimmie

 

Aunt Cara, Cousins Lindsay and Ryan, Aiden and Grandma enjoying a little family time.

 

Although we had guests from New Jersey, Florida, and California all come in town for the party, Bilal and baby Aris (along with Kiva and Kainoa) made an impressive trip for the day from Raleigh.

 

One of Aiden's favorite grown-ups, Jen, taught him this little trick. "Hooray for swinefest!"

Sweet boy

Today on our “happenings for today” note from baby camp, Aiden’s teacher wrote:

“Aiden crawled over to the window and looked out. A bird landed on the windowsill and Aiden tapped on the glass.  When the bird hopped closer, Aiden smiled and continued tapping.  When the bird few away, Aiden stayed there a long time waiting for it to return.”

Maybe there is hope that Aiden will turn out to be a sweet, nature loving, mostly organic veggie eating, tree-hugging hippie like his mom after all.  Although, I see him do things like this next photo and I have my doubts.

I'll give you one guess as to what he is doing...

First Football Game

This past weekend, we took Aiden to his first Carolina football game.  After watching pick-up basketball in the morning with Scott, tailgating before the game, and fighting the half-time crowd to visit friends, he was exhausted.  Unfortunately, the Heels couldn’t pull out a victory, but he still had a great time. 

Although he’s playing it cool, Aiden was very excited about the game.

I know that I cut his head off in this photo, but I just had to show Aiden's favorite part of the game. Chewing on this water bottle. Go figure?!

 

A baby's gotta nap sometime, right?

 

Showing some TarHeel spirit with Coach Roy

  

After the game, we went back to the Williams' house to relax a bit. Aiden was fascinated by the pool table. Future billiards champion?

  

And of course, I brought my old standby...the ladybug.

There’s no place like home

This past weekend, Scott and I took Aiden to Lawrence, Kansas on his first plane trip.  We had been looking for an excuse to go and visit some of our best friends there and we found that excuse in Isley Ryan Newton’s 6th birthday princess party.  

Everything was shaping up to create a perfect trip to Kansas.  I got out of work on time, Aiden had eaten, taken a poo, and was a happy boy.  After flirting with the ladies in our row as well as the stewardesses, Aiden fell asleep right after take-off.  After that, I don’t know what happen.  Enter Dr. Jekyl.  When he awoke, he had morphed into the devil baby.  You know those people with the baby on the plane with unstoppable blood curdling screams? Yeah, well, that was us.  I can only attribute it to his ears not popping because as soon as we landed, he was Mr. Hyde again – all cute, sweet, and smiley.  Upon arriving to Mrs. Frederick’s house and eating a much needed lasagna dinner, we decided that we would stay in Kansas forever…because we were NOT getting back on a plane with our child! 

Despite the rough start, we had a wonderful time in Kansas visiting with friends (namely honorary “Nana” Margey, Casey and Crystal Crane with little Bryden, and Bill and Jen Newton with babies Brek and Maelle and one of the coolest 6 year olds ever, Isley).  Those girls are so much fun and have such fabulous little personalities.  Then came the princess party on Saturday.  Isley had all her little friends over all dressed in princess attire when Sleeping Beauty made a surprise appearance and stole the show.  We were thoroughly entertained by all of the dancing, treasure hunting, princess makeovers, and cake/ice cream.  It was a wonderful day for Isley and a wonderful weekend for us!  It’s the best to have friends in your life who you can just pick up from where you left off no matter how long it has been since you last saw each other.  

Luckily we bravely decided to take Aiden back with us on the airplane (after briefly considering leaving him in Kansas).  We pumped so much milk, juice, and water into him that his ears must have popped continuously for 2 straight hours.  He was the happiest kid you’ve ever seen and everyone on the flight loved him.  So there is at least a small chance that we may take him on one other flight before he is 18. But we’re still undecided on that one. 

Let the princess party commence!

 

The boys with Princess Isley

 

Isley makes 6 look good.

 

Enjoying Sleeping Beauty's stories

 

Hanging out at chez Newton

 

Brek warming up her dance moves in preparation for the party

 

Aiden and Brek enjoying a meal together.

 

Those little KU tooshies kill me!

 

At Stonewall Farm with Mrs. Frederick. Thanks for having us!

Curious George

Aiden has become addicted to all things that are not his.  Although he still loves his toys, he has a much bigger affinity for accessories – Scott’s belts, my earrings, socks, Scott’s shoes, etc so our closet has become one of his new favorite places to hang out.  If we let him, he’d sit there for an hour just taking the shoes one by one off the rack and throwing them around.  Of course, you have to stop him because he also wants to taste every shoe, belt, sock, etc.  He is such a curious little guy, always determined to figure out how things in this big world of his work.  We try to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the Aiden-show.  

"Ooh! Big one's belt. One of my favorites!"

 

"Hmm...metal and leather. Wonder how that will taste?"

 

"Yup, tastes the same as it did yesterday!"

 

"Another one of my favorite pastimes is to stick this ladybug's leg in my mouth, while crawling around and checking out other stuff in this house."

 

So many toys...so little time.

 

"Mom, you look busy. I'll walk Bruno today!"

 

Bruno's face says it all, "Seriously, you're going to let him get away with this?!"

 

A glorious picnic on Labor Day

 

Nothin' says fun like a little swingin'

Aiden’s newest trick

It is by no means consistent, but Aiden has figured out that shaking his little hand around almost resembles a little wave. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giWcBl485dA

Happy Labor Day!

Although I had to work this weekend and didn’t get the chance to take too many photos of Aiden, here are a few recent ones enjoying the last of the summer weather in the mountains.

Peek a boo!

The next Mozart?

 

Curious George, here, has to investigate everything these days, even the space under the coffee table.

 

"Just pretend like you can't see my mom's legs under this tree and it looks like I am sitting all by myself!"

8 months

Today was Aiden’s 8 month birthday.  To celebrate, we hosted baby happy hour (i.e. playgroup) at our house today.  I guess Aiden was too excited about hosting that once everyone finally got here, he was only able to stay awake for about 10 minutes.  Then, he napped the remainder of the time.  I remember when all the moms could just sit around and chat while the babies laid there cooing back at us all.  Those days are so over.  At one point, I was the only mom sitting on the blanket laid out for the babies (because my baby was asleep).  There were babies on the stairs, babies crawling into the bathroom, babies crawling towards the front door, babies reaching towards wine glasses, babies everywhere!  And anxious moms chasing behind them all.  After Aiden woke up, Uncle Charlie and Uncle Dave came over to help finish off the leftover food from playgroup and, of course, to celebrate Aiden’s 8 month b-day. For a glorious 8-month birthday dinner, Aiden ate cabbage, honeydew melon, and toast.  Because, really, isn’t that what we all want for our birthday dinners? 

Some stats for the 8 month mark:  Aiden weighs 18.2 pounds.  He has 5 teeth – two bottoms, two fangs, one top front tooth, and the second front tooth is knocking on the door.  Although he prefers the speed of army crawling, he can crawl on all fours and is pulling up on anything he can grab onto (watch out Bruno!).  He eats three real meals per day (loves peaches and mangoes; hates peas and green beans), loves to play with anything that is yours (not his), and he spends the majority of his free time stalking Bruno around the house and giggling about it all the while.  

Happy 8 months little man