Aiden has been having a great summer, particularly this last month of glorious weather. We spend endless hours playing outside our house in the alley with all the neighbourhood kids. Although I often lament about not having a yard, I know he’s getting something far better through his interaction with all those kids. The kids are all older than him (youngest is 5, eldest is almost 12), but they all dote on him and are more than happy to drop whatever they are doing to play with him or teach him things. It’s truly amazing. His current favourite activities with them are playing tennis or hide & seek. 

• Weight 29.5 lbs (apparently last month was an erroneous reading! Still no change in 10 months)
• Wears 3T tops and pants (finally put away all but the very-largest of the 2T clothes)
• Favorite foods include: ice cream, sausages, oatmeal, gorilla crunch cereal, veggie straws, chocolate milk, roast chicken, yogurt with granola, nuts
• Wants to know the names of the streets we are driving on. Has recall for many of them (St Georges, Lonsdale Avenue, Keith, Grand Boulevard)
• Loves looking at street maps
• Asks the names of street signs & store names: “What’s that store? What does that spell?”
• Wants to know the first letter of a word he hears: “What’s that start with?”
• Has renewed interest in the alphabet. Has improved his recall again, only confused now on 3 letters
• Wants to know what things are made of. A common question this month has been “What is XX made of?” He’s asked about houses, cars, cardboard, water, most things he’s holding
• Is interested in how things are built. Enjoys likening things to skeletons (a house frame is like a skeleton)
• Loves to pretend to crash and fall. People must think he’s quite clumsy!
• Wants to climb in and out of his carseat every time; has learned to close his own car door.
• Loves to hug and say “I love you SO much” to family and friends. Very huggy month. 
• Has mastered his “L” sounds – they are over-enunciated right now
• Began calling Damien incorrectly – was saying Damiend; we don’t know if he got confused or was doing a nickname. May have come from my little Damien songs where I repeat his name to a tune (the D would thus restart after his name)
• His favourite phrases: I can do it by myself, I can’t do it, you want to read this together, never mind, I don’t like this, where are we going today
• My favourite phrases of his: I did it all by myself, I love you SO much, my tummy is so full, yellow (said more like yeLL-Low)