Aiden is 3 and a half!

Today is all about Aiden, the little guy who made Dave and me parents. He made our dreams come true and changed our lives so much! It's hard to believe he's three and a half. It seems like he should be about seven (because it's hard to remember a time we didn't have him), but I'm glad he's not seven. 

He has the best smiles! 

Aiden has a few favorites these days, mostly Legos, planes, and space ships. He'll play Legos all day long. He makes "Dustys" (planes) and "astronauts" (spaceships). Then he flies them around all day. 

He has a great smile for Momma! 

(Pardon the mess.) I got Aiden and Anders matching church jackets and one morning before church, he had to see how he was looking. So serious. Looking good, Aiden! 

He is getting better sleeping at night and he usually still takes a nap during the day. If we are busy all day, he'll skip his nap. That only happens once in a blue moon. 

In this picture he's excited about all the fish in the water. He loves seeing fish and birds. He's been learning about all kinds of different birds lately. He can spot robins ("with a big orange belly"), geese, and ducks on our walk. In his bird book in addition to those three, he knows Eagles, cardinals, great blue herons, hummingbirds, an indigo bunting and owls ("Mr. Owl goes hoot hoot!"). That book is his favorite!   

He had the best time in Florida! He is a little hesitant about the water and would rather play toys in the sand. He went into the water a couple times and I think by the end of the summer he'll be pretty confident in the lake. 

Here's another one of his Dustys. It is spring loaded and goes nice and far. 

It was a major score at Target. Three bucks for endless hours of entertainment! 

This was the day after his new hair cut and he looked so big. Doesn't he look much older than three? That haircut made him look so old for a couple days. 

He likes to wear a hat, so it comes with us where ever we go. All the older guys and ladies at the park and in the stores tell us they like the hats. 

For a couple days recently, Aiden was all into bubbles. He fell asleep talking about bubbles. The first thing he said when he woke up was "I want to blow bubbles." Nonstop bubbles. 

And those shades! :) 

Anytime we leave the house, he needs to have his sunglasses with him. We were outside the other day and it was bright and sunny. He had to go back inside and find his sunglasses. "Way too bright, Mommy!" Here's my super cool dude at a baseball game on Saturdag. 

Yep, he loves the hats and sunglasses! 

If he's not wearing them, he knows just where to stow them for a minute or two. 

Last but not least for our big boy, his new bike! Dave found this on Craigslist a few weeks ago and Aiden has seriously jumped into bike riding. He calls it his fire bike. I'm not sure where that name came from. The first couple days, he had to figure out the pedals. He has come a long way because the last two days, he's done almost three miles! We go for a walk every evening and he has been getting bored in the stroller. On Sunday, Dave let him ride his bike instead of going in the stroller and he did it! He made it the whole 2.8 miles both on Sunday and Monday. Today he's been saying "let's go another three miles tonight." 

A few other random things he has been learning lately: he can sing the whole abc song ("I sing it by myself!"), count to fourteen or fifteen, and he knows his left and right. Aiden is growing up too fast for this Momma, that's for sure.