$50 Thomas Train Set Fun

Daddy got a really good deal from Goodwill. It was Thomas and friends wooden train set with train table for $50. It comes with so many tracks and decorations including trees, hospital, service center, carousel, Sodor Honey Bee Station) and two Thomas trains, Percy, boat, fuel truck, coal cart, milk truck and some caboose. Aiden has so much fun with the train set and keeps saying "Happy Birthday". I guess this is the coolest gift ever. Daddy was taking some pictures of train set and Aiden said "cheese" and probably thought Daddy was going to take his picture as well.
1. Accessories


2. Aiden with new train set, very happy


3. Aiden plays with new train set

Fireman

Aiden got a plastic fireman hat from Indiana State Fair and he's been having fun putting on his and Daddy's head.

Transition to EPS II

Monday is Aiden's first day in early preschool II room (2.5 to 3 years old). The dropoff wasn't easy after 3 days weekend with Mom and Daddy plus a lot of fun in the state fair. As soon as I opened the door, he saw new teachers and he immediately turned to me and wanted to be picked up. So I picked him up and he hid his face on my shoulder and grasped me really tight. Then I handed him over to the teacher and from there, he went to a full-force crying and kicking and trying to get off her. So I gave him a hug and told him I would pick him up later, but he just wasn't listening, instead he regrasped me and cried "Mommy, Mommy" with so many tears on his face. It was quite hard for me to walk out. During the pick-up, I asked the teacher how long he cried and she told me he cried for 45 minutes. That is all-time record long. Teacher said he finally calmed down after his best friend David came in and after that, he was completely fine, playing good, nap for a LONG time (2.5 hours, probably exhausted from crying) and potty during every change of diaper.
Update: today is second day in new room. When we walked past his old room, he stopped and pointed at the door and told me "this way". But I told him that he needed to go to next door and he started whining. I opened the new room door and his whining got worse and then changed to cry after I hung his bag and ready to leave. The teacher who was playing puppet show took him and put him on her lap and he was still crying. After a brief goodbye, I walked out and peeked at him and he stopped crying after a few minutes. So quite a bit improvement in terms of duration of crying compared to yesterday. I think his mind has been set that he belongs to previous room and he has got so comfortable with his previous two teachers after 10 months. Hopefully he will make new friends soon and stop crying soon.
Wednesday update: went straight to his room, a little clingy to my legs, but then sat down for circle time and no crying. Whoohoo!

Aiden's Songs

Lately, Aiden has been really enjoying singing songs he has learned. He can sing five songs now: ABC song, Twinkle Twinkle little star, Bah Bah Black Sheep, Are You Sleeping Brother John and Happy Birthday. I wish I could record them, but most of time, he sings them during the car ride between home and daycare. For ABC song, he pretty much can sing the whole thing except the last part, he does "next time .... sing with me" and will follow the tune for the parts he doesn't know the words to make it sound like he knows them. And his all-time favoriate is also ABC song. Just recently, if you try to sing along with him, he will tell you "No, it is Aiden's turn". He also likes to sing along during the cartoon show like Mickey mouse clubhouse, wonder pets etc and if he really likes the music, he will move his head up and down or from side to side for his version of dance.

Indiana State Fair

We finally made it to the last day of Indiana State Fair. This is Aiden's third year to the state fair even though he is only 2.5 years old. But this is definitely the year he enjoyed the fair most. He liked to ride all kinds of machines - firetruck, tractors, lawn mower, Bobcat jeep. He liked to watch the dog show especially when the dog got on the teeter totter. He liked to ride on the carousel and the horse he rode even went up and down. He told Dad to find his own horse to ride since he didn't want Dad to hold him on his side. We were going to do the car ride but big storm was approaching and we had to leave the fair. And of course he liked to play with water since it was really warm day. Next year, we will have to do more rides as he showed so much interest for the rides this year.

1. Ride on the old firetruck


2. Not so much into the hat though


3. Mommy, take me away from the big pumpkin


4. Tractor ride



5. Lawn mower ride


6. Bobcat jeep ride


7. Play with tractor



8. Waiting in line for carousel ride


9. Riding the carousel

Chocolate Cookie Face

After the soccer practice, we stopped by Carmel farmer market to look around and we bought some homemade delicious chocolate cookie. Aiden ate the whole cookie and he definitely loved it. Check out his chocolate cookie face.

1. Saying "Cheese"


2. Looks like a cat

Waiting for Beach Time in Hotel Room

Grandma Zeigler sent me a good picture of Aiden taken in the hotel room. He was so ready to go to beach with his new "Cars" backpack and very excited about it as you can see from the picture. It is not that easy to get a picture of Aiden with a big smile on his face.

Last Day of Beach Vacation

We were planning to visit Grand Haven, Michigan for the last day of vacation. But the weather wasn't doing us a favor. We woke up with rain so we just drove around the town of Grand Haven and beach. Then we headed to Lake Mall to kill some time. It turned out to be a good morning for Aiden. He rode the train and played in the playland inside the mall. After that, we headed back to hotel for nap time. When he woke up from nap, the sun started breaking through the clouds and of course we couldn't miss the beach for the last day!
1. ride the train

2. crawl out of the light house

3. cross the bridge

4. More beach time

Playing Sand and Water

We got Aiden a Thomas train beach playset for his first b-day, but we never really had chance to play with them. Aiden didn' know what those trains were used for. But this time, he enjoyed so much making sand trains with the mold. Sometimes he didn't really know he needed wet sand to make train, instead he filled his mold with dry sand and of course when he tried to put it down, everything fell apart and he kept asking "what happened". Mom asked him to use bucket to bring some water to wet the sand so that we could make more trains. Aiden made so many trains on the sand and had a lot of fun. He also loved to kick the beach ball.
1. Digging sand

2. First sand train

3. Fill mold with sand using shovel

4. Pat the sand

5. Turn the train mold

6. Aiden's work (with some help from Mom)

7. Pour water into the sand castle

8. Run away from wave

9. Just look around

10. Beach Soccer

Beach Time

The second day, we headed out to Pere Marquette Beach early. The beach was considered as one of the cleanest beach for Great Lakes. When we got to the beach, there were only a few people on the beach and we took nice walk to light house. Aiden had to be strapped down in his stroller since part of the walk was not fenced and there were huge rocks next to the walkway. Aiden did OK during the walk but wasn't too happy to get his pictures taken in stroller for sure! After we walk, we headed to beach and Aiden wasn't sure whether he should walk on the sand barefeet or not. Grandma held his hand and he walked very CAUTIOUSLY on the sand. After we showed him his little footprints, he loved to walk on the sand.

1. Ready to take a walk to light house


2. Pretty scenery


3. Walk cautiously on the sand with Grandma


4. Aiden's footprints


5. Walk with Grandma along the water.

Trip to Muskegon, Michigan

Grandma Zeigler and Mom had a summer beach getaway with Aiden in Muskegon, Michigan the past weekend. This is Aiden's second trip to beach. The first time was last winter in Florida and he loved sand and water but the water was way too cold to get in. The first afternoon in Muskegon, we walked to the marina to see some big boats and took trolley tour around the town and beach. Trolley was great way to tour around with Aiden in the hot summer.

1. Big boat!


2. Riding trolley with Mom (self portrait)


3. Standing in the trolley