So Much To Do, So Much To Learn

Last night his Sabrina ("Brina") came over and babysat while Mommy and Daddy enjoyed a much needed night out alone. She said he hardly fussed at all when we left, he loves her so much. Jason was saying that he probably will always remember her since he stayed with her so much when he was smaller and we still see her often. She was his only other caregiver when Jason was working on the dissertation and I was depressed. They have a solid bond. When Sabrina left Aidan was saying, "Bye, bye, Ba!" I assumed that the extra "Ba" on the end must have been his attempt at saying "Brina."

I finally went to the post office yesterday to pick up the box of c-mas presents that Cass sent from Houston. It came last week but I wasn't home to receive it and then I kept forgetting to get it. Last night when Aidan and I got home we opened it and he was so excited to see all of the toys! He's still not completely sure about the dancing Elmo that Grandpa Lenny got him and he walked wide circles around it, only playing with it under supervision. The threaded snake toy (you thread the wooden sections to make a snake) was a hit. When we were in Houston he wasn't quite able to do it dexterity-wise, but last night he did it with very little problem. The only thing was that once he threaded the wooden piece onto the stick, he couldn't figure out that he had to move his other hand (the one holding the stick) to allow the piece to slide down the yarn. There's room for improvement. Another big hit was Grandpa Lenny's boat toy. Jason unpackaged it before we left so that he could play with it in the bath and Brina said he had a great time.

It started snowing last night before we went to bed and we watched it out the front window for a while, making the sign for "snow." Aidan learned the sign quickly, although like all of his signs it wasn't exactly right. The sign for snow is waving your fingers around while your hands are decending, so that your fingers imitate the movement of snow from the sky. His version is one finger wiggling around in the air. This morning when we went out it was still snowing and he started doing his sign for snow. He's got such a great memory!

To quickly update you on the signing. He is able to ask for all kinds of specific foods now, which is so great for us. Previously he could ask for food, cookies, or milk. Now he can ask for apples, oranges, crackers, cheese, or bread. I'm trying to teach him other fruits and veggies, but sometimes he's more open to learned particular signs. I just try to use as many as possible as often as possible and he usually just picks them up just like words. He also still watches his videos and picks them up from there. Jason works with him when I'm not there but I'm a little concerned about that. Instead of teaching him a practical sign, he taught him "red." Now, I know that he needs to learn his colors, but I'm not sure now is the time. Well, I have to actually give Jason some credit because he was the one who taught him "orange," although the sign for the color and the fruit are the same. I wonder if he was teaching the colors and just happened to get overlap? Hmmm...