I LOVE discovering "new" things...

The last thing that happened with Aaron today (after a very good day, by the way), was to see his very excited face over his "heart beep"! He is so excited that he can feel his "heart beep" in his chest that he is going to tell the kids at church all about it!

So now, the story...

I was putting Aaron to bed tonight, which is always a treat for me. We had the typical "books and rock-a-bye's" for his bedtime routine. After we "read" his book of choice tonight, which was really "The Great Big Book of Things To Find", he laid down for hugs and kisses. (By the way, this kid is incredible at finding the items in each picture!)

He's been having a difficult time letting me leave him at night, lately. I've been working on ways to lighten the separation at bedtime. Tonight, what naturally happened was to treat him like my pillow instead of my beautiful boy. As I had my ear against his chest, I could hear his heartbeat and mentioned it to him.

After a few times of tapping my finger on him in time with the beat, it occurred to me that I could show him where to feel it himself.

Oh my! The excitement that happened after that! His eyes bugged out and he kept saying, "Can you hear my heart beep? Can you hear it in my stomach?"

My favorite part was the eyes, though. Those big, golden brown eyes so sparkling and wide open! Honestly, after how hard the past few weeks have been with him, nights like tonight make it ALL worth it! :-D

FINALLY! An update!

I am FINALLY updating my blog, per a request from Grandma Jo Ann.  (By the way, I will never post anything else about potty training.)

Aaron and I got to go to Las Vegas last weekend for my Mamaw’s 85^th birthday. My dad arranged a terrific dinner at Mimi’s Café with a beautiful birthday cake. We got to see a lot of family that we don’t see very much. My younger sister from Washington was there and shared a hotel room with us. Aaron also got to meet his Uncle Robert for the first time.

I will post pictures later this weekend. I didn’t take very many photos this time.  I know! I was surprised too!

Normally, I love taking pictures, especially when there are people I don’t see very often. Having a very active and very excited 3-year-old really makes a difference in how much attention I spend on things like that right now.

(I am very much looking forward to getting copies of the pictures everyone else took….hint, hint!)  ;)

Aaron was soooo excited to go on a plane. He talked about it for over a week. He did such an amazing job being so nice and obedient on the plane rides, too. He was in charge of his own suitcase and carried it with him the whole time. He didn’t even complain once…although, he did drop it and keep on walking when we were at the baggage claim in the Vegas airport. He just decided he didn’t want to carry it anymore. He picked it up again and we kept going.

Aaron loved seeing his Aunt Jeni, Grandpa Dave, Grandma Jo, Sondra and Bella, the Hawkes, and his other uncles and cousins that were there. There were a few moments that were my personal favorites:

•          When we were leaving Mimi’s, Aaron said, “Grandpa Dave is my best friend”. 
•          As we were giving our final hugs and kisses before leaving, Aaron pushed his way through to get to Grandma Jo. This was particularly sweet because it took him awhile to warm up to her at first.
•          As we were getting into the rental car to go back to the airport on the last day, he was very disappointed and said, “I thought Grandpa Dave was going to drive with us”. He was very sad.
•          Aaron got to play a lot with Aunt Jeni, which was great!
•          Oh, and “maked gwirwirls”. Lots and lots of them in the two tourist magazines the car rental company left in the car for us. Aaron was looking through them and (thankfully!) Aunt Jeni was watching to make sure he didn’t see anything in appropriate. She and Megan were able to censor them after Jeni saw the first “maked gwirwirl” by tearing out any pictures that were not Mommy-approved.

On our last night there, I got to have a girl’s night with my sisters Shera, Jeni and Sondra. (Okay, technically, Sondra is my sister-in-law, but she has always felt like family to me.) A huge THANK YOU to Blaine for watching Aaron so I could spend some adult time with the girls!!!

Aaron wants to make sure I tell the following highlights of the trip (in his own words):

•           To fly on a plane!
•           Eat dinner with Grandma Jo, and give her hugs and kisses.
•          Say I love you” to everybody.
•          To sleep in his bedroom again.
•          To see (his) mom again at Shera’s house. (Not on the trip, but later.)
•          To play on the floor on his carpet with (his) cars and (his) other guys with the blue car.

We were both sad to leave, but I am very grateful for the time we got to spend with our family.

I am also very grateful to Aaron for being as good as he was. Not every 3-year-old can handle that much travel and excitement in such a short amount of time as well as he did.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying he didn’t have his moments or that they weren’t quite dramatic when they happened. There were plenty and they were always dramatic. Some of them even dragged out over quite a bit of time. But overall, he really did very well and I learned a lot about how to handle traveling with him.

Happy 85^th birthday, Mamaw! Thank you, Dad /Grandpa Dave for putting this together!