Children

I wish I knew where this came from, so I could give them credit.  But whoever they are, they MUST be a mom!

The missing shoe and popsicle stick poking out of the hair are priceless.

Balance

After dealing with John being laid off during the summer of 2009, it seems incredibly stupid to complain about him working.  Especially with so many people being out of work, I should be completely, utterly grateful he has a job.  But I can't deny that I would like a little balance.  I know it's the nature of consulting, but it's either barely any work or too much work to handle and they can't seem to hire enough people.  (I must mention that they've hired quite a few people over the past few months who have turned around and quit because they "can't handle the pressure".)

A few weeks back, John's boss asked him if he could work as close to 80 hours a week as possible.  John apparently told him that was unreasonable, and yet....it's basically happening.  We're on week two of not having John around for dinner or bedtime.  He's working 12-14 hour days.  He's been at work today for just over 12 hours, and as I was starting this blog post, he called to say it would be a few more hours.  It's a good thing I bought a cheesecake today to keep me company.

Party Time!

For Aiden's birthday this year, we opted to go for separate friend and family parties.  We had them combined last year at our house and it was just a little too crazy.  For the friend party, we planned a Saturday afternoon at a local park with a covered picnic area.  About a week before the party, the weather report called for sun and 77 degrees.  As the week progressed however, it turned to rain and 61 degrees.  Thanks, Oregon.  I'll admit I checked the weather report every hour the day before the party.  It sounded like the rain wasn't supposed to start until later in the afternoon and the party was scheduled for 3pm, so we decided to keep the location and hope for the best.  It was by no means warm, but the rain held off until 5pm, right when everyone was heading to their cars.  How lucky is that??  Plus, we pretty much had the park to ourselves since rain had been called for that afternoon.

Still being somewhat sick, I kept things easy.  Some snacks, cupcakes, and no decorations except for a Star Wars tablecloth.  The kids didn't spend much time at the table anyway - just for singing Happy Birthday.  It was pretty relaxing.  The kids just ran around and played and the adults were able to chat as much as we wanted.  It was great to see friends from preschool (some of whom we hadn't seen all summer!), friends from church, and cousins. 

 Since it was a little windy and the park trash can was already overflowing, we opted to take the unopened presents home to open there.  Aiden was extremely excited to get home and see his gifts.  He LOVED each and every gift.  His friends really know what he likes!  Bugs, Transformers, Star Wars, and Legos!

 On Sunday, we had the family party.  Since we were staying home, I did a cake instead of cupcakes and used a few of Aiden's Star Wars Lego figures for cake toppers.  It was pretty funny, especially when I had to clean frosting off of all of them later that evening.

 Awesome presents on Sunday too!  There was a funny moment when Aiden received not one, but two copies of a Lego set that he had already.  He handled it very well though and requested to keep one of them, since the pilot for that set was lost.  And he gets to take the other one back to the store to pick out a new set that he doesn't have yet.  It all worked out just fine!  He also got a huge airplane, which we all got to see in action.  I may have to post a video that my brother-in-law took, during which Aiden nearly takes him out with the airplane.

We had so much fun this weekend and I'm so grateful for the compliments on putting together the parties even though I'm still fighting this horrible cold.  It's hard to believe our little guy is six years old now.  Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to celebrate with us!

Happy 6th Birthday, Aiden!

My child is six years old.  Six.  I'm not quite sure where the time has gone and I'm sure I'll feel just as confused as each year comes around.  How did my first baby get to be so old?  Just about half way to being a teenager.  Six!

Aiden has been very interested in making sure he knows the proper order of months of the year for the past few weeks.  Yesterday, he said, "First there's January - when I was born", and I said, "Nope, you were born in October, which is why your birthday is in October".  He says, "Oh that's right.  January is the month that I started growing in your tummy".  John and I were a little shocked.  Well, yes that's right, we told him.  How he figured that out is beyond us and when we asked him about it, he said, "I just knew".  Ok then.

2005 was a big year.  We found out on Valentine's Day that we were going to be welcoming a little Minthorne.  We shared the news with a friend of ours who was directing a play that opened that night.  He said, "I'm happier for you guys than I've ever been for an opening of one of my plays" and he hugged me.  Peter was the first to congratulate us and share in those first few days of taking in the news. (It was a special day about two years ago when Aiden got to watch Peter compete on Jeopardy)  He got to watch my tummy grow and grow over the next few months and would spend many evenings with me as I hunted for yet more food.  I think he found it amusing.  Not many single guys in their 20s want to spend time with a pregnant chick, so there had to be some level of "this is the weirdest thing I've ever seen".  Between Peter and our numerous roommates in Philadelphia (who seemed to get used to living with a pregnant gal pretty fast), we had an interesting bunch of people involved in the pregnancy (these people threw me a baby shower and served beer - not to me, obviously - but that just goes to show you what kind of parties they were used to).  When John got the call that he was able to transfer his job out to Portland from Philadelphia, it was bittersweet.  We wanted to be close to family with a new baby, but it was sad to leave our group behind.  At 7 1/2 months pregnant, I had three weeks to sell most of our belongings and prepare us to move out to Portland.  About six weeks after the fastest apartment search ever, we welcomed Aiden into our family.

 I clearly remember sitting on the couch after coming home from the hospital, holding the tiny baby you see in the picture, and bawling my eyes out....in terror.  "They'll let anyone go home with a baby!", I wailed to John. "How am I supposed to know what to do?!?".  Cry, cry, cry.  And Aiden wasn't the easiest baby either.  We had nursing issues (which ended up with a stay in the NICU) and he had really bad reflux, which didn't get resolved until he was 18 months old.  But he developed just fine and he has continued to amaze us each and every day.  And I don't think I did such a bad job (thanks, instincts!).

From reading letters at 18 months, to fully reading at age 4 1/2, knowing massive amounts of science, being interested in space exploration, and having the strangest little sense of humor I've ever seen in a child his age, we love our unique little Aiden.  He's independent and joyful.  He's challenging and full of passion.  He knows what he wants and what he likes, and refuses to accept anything less.  He's got an amazing memory and thinks of himself as equal to adults (oh yes, we deal with this on a daily basis!).  He may have been our little surprise, but God knew it was time for him to come into this world and we are so very thankful for it.  Our life would not be the same without him.  Have a very wonderful birthday, Aiden bug.