Aiden loves to play with his little friends, and as he gets older, it looks more like playing with rather than alongside his friends. He loves to talk about the people in his life – me, Ianiv, his grandmothers, his friends.
He knows the names of all of his closest friends, though he’s most hesitant with Elizabeth – sometimes he’ll say something that has 3 syllables, other times he makes a weird rowing-like sign that I’m assuming means Elizabeth in Aiden’s world. Zayden is also “Nee-na” right now, though it’s slowly morphing into a more accurate sound. Cole he can say perfectly.
Often when we’re in the car, Aiden asks about people, presumably to ask if we’re seeing them or just to know where they are. Anyway, that’s how our interactions go.
I think it’s wonderful for Aiden to have a set of close friends, even at this age. I can’t wait to see them all grow up together!
As you know, Aiden loves to watch videos of himself on the iPhone. He asks for “baby” all the time. We usually give him a short “baby” time in the morning when we’re all a little groggy. His current favourite video is also the shortest – it’s one of him and buddy Zayden at Burgoo:
As part of our ongoing ActiveMama Profile series, I thought this would be a great opportunity for you to get to know ActiveMama’s contributing author, Jessica Liew. Jessica is one of my closest friends and an inspirational mother, always ready with an encouraging word or a smile. Aside from contributing here, Jessica and her husband also run a fabulous recipe blog, Tonight’s Dinner.
Here’s an introduction by Jessica Liew: I’m a 31-year-old teacher who happily lives an active lifestyle in the perfect place to get out and enjoy both community spirit and the outdoors: North Vancouver. I became a mother for the first time on December 11, 2009 just a few months shy of my 30th birthday. Zayden was a mellow, happy little guy from day one and has always enjoyed getting out and seeing new people and places, so he really helped me get to know our community much better than before. He’s 15-months-old now and loves going anywhere that he can walk freely. He’s also working on developing his vocabulary. His current favourite thing to do is look out the window for dogs and then make barking noises when he sees one.
After Zayden was born, you got out quickly with him. Was this intentional? Did you have things you planned to do to meet other moms?
Getting out of the house on a daily basis was not something I planned in advance; it was survival. I was very anxious (yay, crashing hormones!) for the first few weeks after Zayden was born, and getting dressed and going for a walk with the stroller everyday helped to ease those anxieties a bit. Once we got in that habit and Zayden got a little older, I started looking for more structured activities that we could enjoy together and made an effort to meet up regularly with the moms from our prenatal class.
Structured activities get a bad rap – I think they’re great! How has being back at work affected your connection with your mom network, if at all?
Being back at work has affected everything in my life including my relationships though not always in a negative way. It is definitely harder to find time to see everyone we would like to see when there are only two days on the weekend to do so, but we are never short for plans anymore. I am also lucky to have my summers off as a teacher, so I look forward to reconnecting with everyone in the summer months and enjoying the sunshine with an active toddler in tow.
Zayden has never been a big fan of personal grooming. You know the kid with the perpetually runny nose? The one with a little bit of his lunch still stuck to his face? The kid that you see and think, “Why can’t his parents just wipe his face?” That’s my kid. We try to keep his face clean; we really do, but it is hard because he hates having his face wiped. He screeches, cries, and violently slaps our hands away whenever he sees a cloth or tissue coming towards him. He also puts up a fight when it comes to brushing his teeth, changing his diaper and putting on his shoes and coat.
Apparently this is a common toddler issue as they begin to assert their independence and their new found love of the word no. But we have finally found something that gets us a little extra cooperation when it comes to cleaning his face and hands: The Alligator Song.
It is a song I made up on the fly one day while struggling to clean him up after a particularly messy lunch. Zayden loves music, so he responded well and we now sing it whenever we need to clean him up from a meal. He’s so familiar with it now that he will, on occasion, hold out his other hand to be cleaned at the appropriate point in the song. He still turns his face away when we clean his face, but at least he doesn’t cry anymore.
So if you’re like us and have tried everything to get your toddler to cooperate with basic personal grooming, here’s one more thing to try: The Alligator Song (to the tune of The Wheels On The Bus).
(While washing his hands)
The alligator goes chomp chomp chomp
Chomp chomp chomp
Chomp chomp chomp
The alligator goes chomp chomp chomp
And eats up all of the crumbs
(While washing his face)
The alligator goes lick lick lick
Lick lick lick
Lick lick lick
The alligator goes lick lick lick
And cleans up your dirty face
Today is my good friend Jessica’s birthday. It’s hard to describe how lucky we’ve been to share this experience – this experience of being parents – with such an amazing person. Jessica is strong and patient and hilarious and a great writer and a wonderful mom and friend. I didn’t expect when I walked into our prenatal class nearly 2 years ago now that I would walk out with such strong and amazing friends.
Jessica and I often joke about how we were separated at birth. We look alike, we think alike (you know, except that she’s Team Jacob and I’m Team Edward) and we adhere to similar parenting philosophies. Our kids have similar names – Aiden and Zayden – and we like the same products.
During the year of Jessica’s maternity leave, we saw each other several times a week. She kept me sane when I was sleep deprived and helped calm the “what is wrong with my baby?!” questions that every parent has when wondering about things like personality and whatnot. Jessica is more than missed now that she is back at work. I love her like a sister and wish her a very wonderful birthday.
After Zayden was born, you got out quickly with him. Was this intentional? Did you have things you planned to do to meet other moms?
Zayden has never been a big fan of personal grooming. You know the kid with the perpetually runny nose? The one with a little bit of his lunch still stuck to his face? The kid that you see and think, “Why can’t his parents just wipe his face?” That’s my kid. We try to keep his face clean; we really do, but it is hard because he hates having his face wiped. He screeches, cries, and violently slaps our hands away whenever he sees a cloth or tissue coming towards him. He also puts up a fight when it comes to brushing his teeth, changing his diaper and putting on his shoes and coat.