missconnumication leads to ...... a pretty funny story!

Yesterday was a pretty normal day. I was at work, Zander was at daycare, Aidan was in school from 9:15 - 4:00 and Adam worked in the morning and was home doing law school in the afternoon. The plan is that Adam is always home when Aidan gets home. It is great, they really have some good bonding time and they both enjoy it. Sometimes Adam will run and Aidan ride his bike to soccer practice, sometimes they do homework together... sometimes they just cuddle on the couch and watch their favorite show (AFV) Yesterday at about 4:10 Adam called me and said that he was out getting his tire fixed on his truck and blah blah blah, and I said "what?! Where is Aidan? He said oh my gosh, I totally forgot! He rushed home and Aidan was here waiting. I have always told Aidan in the unlikely event that one of us is not home when he gets here to go into the back yard and the back door will be unlocked. Well it wasn't unlocked :( Bad mommy forgot! So Aidan used that brain of his and decided to go through the doggie door.... our dog has a kennel that has an outside area, then a doggie door to an inside kennel in the garage. Ok, good idea except that Aidan can't reach the gate latches, so he climbed the fence, went through the doggie door and was climbing the second fence (in the garage) when adam got home! Nice to know he at least thought it out and didn't panic..... I think we will communicate a little better about who is home for aidan from now on!

How in heavens' name to kids with older siblings ever make it???

Aidan loves his baby brother so much. He tells me thank you all the time for giving him a brother, and he wants nothing more than to help, and to take care of little zander. He has often offered to babysit (yeah right!) sweet but just not gonna happen!
So yesterday morning I woke up at 6:30 with no baby in my bed! For the last 15 months zander has woken up pretty much every morning between 5 and 5:30 (thanks to my husbands early riser genes!) and comes to bed with me to nurse and cuddle. Yesterday when I woke up at 6:30 and relized he wasn't there I paniced. The only reason I could think of for this change in schedule was that one of those cute stuffed animals that I let him sleep with against my mothers advice had smothered him.....(ok, I am not always logical at 6:30 am) so as I got ready to rush in to his room preparing for the worst I heard Aidan laughing in the living room. I went out there to find Aidan and Zander playing and having a ball! Aidan looked at me and said "mom, I got Zander up so you could sleep in, I have been taking care of him.... we even ate breakfast!" I said thank you to aidan, and told him how sweet he is, and then asked how exactly a boy who cannot even reach over the crib could get the baby out of the crib, he said easy, zander stood up and hung his arms over and I just grabbed them and pulled! Oh my gosh, I w as trying to subtly check to make sure that zander's arms still worked while telling aidan how smart the 2 of them were! ( I did later show him a better way to get zander out and explain the dangers of dislocating babies arms) All I can say is wow! It is a miracle that older kids don't kill off our younger ones in an attempt to help!

its always something!

Aidan is such a handfull lately! Last weekend he fell of some sort of strange aparatus used for football practice while at his dad's house and needed 6 stitches. We often ride our bikes to school, he loves it... zander is never happier than when he is riding in his backpack, and it is making my legs look dang good! Yesterday we rode to school and aidan was so excited to show me his "desktop garden" so I walked in with him. His teacher took me aside and said she is worried that he may have ADHD, and that we need to address the issue. Last years teacher said the same thing, and I managed to get through the year by modifying his diet... I have gotten pretty lax on the diet, as I have no willpower whatsoever. When I get up in the morining I like to have coco puffs and coke.... I am not a healthy role model here! So now I am back to the research that I only did halfway last year and the modified diet that includes no white bread, very little sugar, lots of protien... etc. I am hoping to get through this without the help of medication... we shall see.
He has also decided that he no longer wants to be aidan clark, he wants to be aidan staley. I told him that even though he is a staley, his last name is still clark, and he replied with can't dad just adopt me? I told him that was not really an option, so he decided to rebel. He is writing Aidan Staley on all of his school papers, told his soccer coach that his jersey needed to say staley instead of clark, and even told his dad he was "embarrassed" by the name clark...... wish me luck on this one!