There is a saying, while the cat is away, the mice will play. We found out that the cats really don’t care if we play with our mice. They are happy to sit next to us and get some pets while Aja plays with Pepper.

On the potty front, Aja dutifully recites that he needs to use the potty to go to school, but has no interest in wearing underwear or going naked to get to the potty. He might be cold; the weather has changed for the cold lately. He might just be holding out for a summer and need to go a little slower. The school Sister is going to takes toddlers who haven’t potty trained yet, but we’d really like him to be closer to done before we put him in school at the same age she entered. On the other hand, we don’t want his emotional or fine motor skills to lag behind by over protective parenting. Quite a conundrum.

Today we visted the fire station to ask some questions. Aja got a full tour and a chance to drive and sit in the “boss’s” seat of the fire engine. He really didn’t want to go home!

Aja might be a little guy, but he knows exactly what he wants. he wants to wear overalls everyday. Corduroy is the best material. No coats please. Boots: cowboy, not muck.

Aja got to play on a farm with some friends the other day. Little Sammy was a lot of fun, but he didn’t go outside to play as much as Aja would have liked. He played on a tire swing, but it was so high he had to rely on other people for help. He played with dogs, chickens, alpacas, and illustrated both the reason that Mama doesn’t allow shoes in the house and no dirty shoes in the car.

He went shopping with Grandma and had lunch out one day. Aja played with Kiefer and planted a letterbox at the water while big sister was in school. He had a fantastic time playing in the forest.

Aja had a little shock this week. He realized that he can’t control his parents. The poor little guy really misses Daddy, and with Mama sick part of the week, he had to sleep himself. Sure she came in and offered hugs and water in the middle of the night, but she kept saying she needed to sleep. The second day of this, Aja had enough. He didn’t want to get out of bed if Daddy wasn’t getting him up. He was vociferous on this point. Eventually he closed the door to his room and wouldn’t let anyone in. He drove a tractor around the floor, telling it he would take it to Seattle and be its daddy. “I want Daddy. Not Mommy. Daddy.” Poor little guy. Eventually he was so into playing with his tractor that he forgot the issue at the mention of oatmeal. Oatmeal is the breakfast of kings and princes.

Aja got sick. He was very sick. Aja woke himself up vomiting and continued to vomit for a few days after that. He was a little trooper through it all. Aja didn’t do much those sick days. He read a lot of books, mostly, “my truck is stuck” and “Smash Crash”, “The mouse and the motorcycle,” and “The Little Engine That could.” He has a theme. He found some tractor books at the library just before the terrible no good very bad illness, too.

Aja has been going to parks and running around the yard lately, too. He helped mow the grass for a few hours, then went inside to help his tractors and cement mixer build something that involved a lot of “are you ready? OK let’s build.” His language has become complex, but the idea is very straight forward.

Aja’s been asking to visit the horses lately, so he’s had a few trips to the arena to visit Jerk and the other horses there. He wants to go to school and is happy to run around naked (even if he somehow gets wet this way), but he really doesn’t want to wear underwear. Panties might be OK, but his are nothing like Sashti’s. Naked is obviously better. Good thing spring is here and the weather is warming.

Aja has been growing and learning every day. The little man has been sick off and on in the last month. His fever would last a week at a time, meaning all the time was home time. We read lots of books He has started reciting books at random times. Usually, “My truck is stuck” by Kevin Lewis. He’s really happy with the alliteration and rhythm. Sometimes we are treated to an Aja rendition of “Green Eggs and Ham.” Usually this happens around food.

Aja does love eggs. When nothing else works, give Aja an egg and pancakes to eat. Apples and nuts are on the menu, too, now that Aja went to a horse show, totally unknown the world of concession stands exists. Here’s a picture of Aja helping to make pancakes. It’s hard not to take a taste while making pancakes.  Sometimes baby naked time has to happen between cooking the food and eating it.

Aja really wants to go to school. The prerequisite for school is using potties all the time. He can have a mistake once in a while, but the potty has to be a normal part of the day, several times a day. He’ll get there. Aja keeps trying, but occasionally comes out and says, “I can’t go to school. I didn’t use the potty. Need diaper change.” It makes you want to say “Awww” and hold the little man, stinky diaper and all. He tries so hard. Plus he can do all kinds of school work at home. Aja likes doing pinning jobs, using time cards, paint and all the other fun stuff that we can do without school.

When Aja is feeling up to it, he visits the indoor playroom and has a ball with his friends. Aja likes playing with Jason at the playroom. He gets a kick out of playing with Aiden, too. Aja is smaller, but faster than Aiden, so Aja can play with a boy who is bigger sized, but who doesn’t get the toys first. Aja is also more articulate than Aiden, so he feels like a big boy. It doesn’t hurt that Aja can get food at Aiden’s house that he never gets at home. “I want to go to Aiden’s house.  Play Spider man. I can eat Oh’s.” You can see the appeal. So much forbidden fun. Aja also plays with Kiefer as much as he can. Kiefer loves to play outside. They can bike together, walk in all weather, and have a ton of fun. They barbeque and eat trail snacks, they ride and play hike. There’s time at the river and time running around the house making paddles out of tinker toys. Aja and Kiefer started letter-boxing together. Their first stop was the wetland. Aja loved running up and down the paths between the marshes and the lake.

Aja was playing “naked running baby” through the house one afternoon about two weeks ago and went into the forbidden media room. This room is forbidden because of the wires in easy reach on the walls and the equipment on the floor. He slipped (naked babies wear socks cuz they get cold) and landed mouth first on the elliptical machine’s track. Aja chipped a tooth and cut the inside of his cheek. The poor little guy was so unhappy! His smile remains in tact in spite of the slightly broken front tooth.

Aja has been dealing with Daddy’s job in another state pretty well. This month he’s become very attached to Mommy. Aja started eating on his own. He’s asking for specific food. Yeah, it’s cocoa most of the time, but we’re getting real food in him, too. In fact, “I want real food. Not just milk. Real food now.” Thank goodnesss he’s put on a pound this month.

Aja has been having a good time of it lately, but he’s  still little. This is his favorite treat, when he sees someone else (Daddy) having it. Aja not only got to drink some of the all natural orange weirdness, he became blase about it! So much so that this picture was taken off TinyPic as inappropriate. Boredom in the diaper set cannot be allowed. Actually, it was well past nap time, but Aja managed a special treat of the soda.

There has been some trouble sleeping. The nights that Aja knows Daddy’s coming home, he doesn’t sleep well. In fact, he can usually get himself up and around shortly after Daddy comes home. He does fine the rest of the week. Aja did suffer some nightmares this week. Aja was worried that Sashti was in his room and was going to hurt him. It was a tough night.

Aja has been working on his love of animals lately. He loves seeing animals. He gets so excited about his rat, Pepper. He just doesn’t want to touch her. He’ll feed her, let her out, give her treats, but not touch her. She has little rat hands, after all. And for horses. He’s convinced that any horse that looks at him doesn’t like him. But he loves horses. If only they wouldn’t watch him with their big horsey eyes.

Aja’s realized that he’s a big guy. Aja is a great learner. Here he’s doing some pouring work while at the same time learning what colors he can make by mixing primary colors. It was a lot of fun, and so wet and messy that it was down-to-the-diaper time. There’s a real possibility that the little man might be color blind, but he had a ball. Pouring games are the greatest.

Aja loves playing with his tractors, we all know. What we didn’t know was that the Little Man can create a whole world. Aja’s tractors are people. There’s Mommy, Daddy, and Baby 0r beebee (Aja) tractor. These tractors have adventures, they go places and sometimes they sleep in Aja’s room. They hook up from one tractor to another and have to get their keys go to school.

Aja changes car seats from Aja’s to Sashti’s on a whim. He fights for the right to get into the seat he wants today. Aja will ask to go different places in the car. Playroom, Aiden’s house, coffee house (“We can do that, mommy!”), sometimes he asks to go to Kookoolan or to Kiefer’s house (he thinks that cocoa is likely at Kiefer’s house).

Aja can count past 10, but doesn’t associate the numbers with items past #4. Aja also knows the ABC song, but isn’t quite there yet. He sings a lot of the songs he knows. He’s memorized “Green Eggs and Ham” and has named the daschound “hoo-hoo” after the sound that a owls make in “When Sheep Can’t Sleep.”

Aja’s also become a consummate two year old. He wants things, but doesn’t want them. He really wants them, you just have to take it away when he says no after asking for it. Covers, fried egg, milk and going outside are all subject to whims and quickly rejected before being accepted as the Toddler Right.

The Little Man realizes now that he can go to school, too. All he has to do is use the potty. He’s been working on it off and on for a while. Last weekend, he was wearing Sashti’s PJs and they fell down. Over and over, he pulled up the legs to keep himself from tripping, hooking his thumbs into his diaper on each pull. The diaper couldn’t take the pull; it fell. Aja had his morning bowel movement and was very upset to have to change his outfit. So the next day he tried the potty. Then the day after that, Aja said he can use a potty all the time and go to school. He’s tried many many times today, and almost has the hang of it. It helps that he announces, “Mommy, I didn’t poo. I just had gas. I just had gas.” so there’s no question of where he’s there or not yet. He always laughs, making it hard not to laugh no matter what you might have given up to rush him to the bathroom.

For all that, Aja is an amazing personality. Here’s a video clip of Aja talking. He smiles and loves with all his heart. It’s so hard not to laugh when he’s seriously explaining the motives of characters in his books or what his dump truck is doing right now.

Being an Aja is difficult. You have to get up early to visit with Mama, have just the right amount of laying around time.  There is a point in the morning that the milk bottle needs refilled, but everyone around you insists that there is time to eat some thing. They offered all kinds of great food, but you know deep down there is nutrition hidden in that food. So, as an Aja, you had better ask for crackers. They might have heard you the first time. Better ask again. Don’t forget to make sure you have on overalls, and the right overalls at that. is it a red chord day, maybe traditional denim or kahki overalls. You never know what they day will bring, so choose carefully. Ask to go in the car. Make sure that you have the right boots and that you will be relieved of your sister when you get where you are going. On to the playroom. What, is it the right day? Make sure that you made yourself clear. Playroom. And so it goes, as Vonnegut said.

Maybe climb on on some hay in the evenings while helping at the barn. Maybe pour some feed. Help out by feeding the pet rats. Aja’s rat’s named pepper. She’s black and white. Aja likes to pet her and talk to her in a high falsetto.

Speaking of falsettos, or something like that, Aja has taken to using his sister’s hand gestures. He air pinches people who displease him. It’s followed by a guttural growl telling someone to stop it. He really admires his sister. She’s so big she can reach things that Aja needs a step stool for. He sits with her at the little table we set up because Aja falls off the big table fairly frequently. This table is short, but still tall enough that Aja can swing his little feet while sitting there with the table itself about the hight of his armpits. Aja has started taking very good care of his little babies and Sashti’s babies as well. He makes sure that they are well fed and get their sleep. Sometimes when Sashti is gone at school, Aja wears her clothes and tells me he’s a big boy. Other times he cuddles up in his pjs (or Sashti’s footie pjs) and tells me he’s a baby and needs hugs.

Aja likes to go out on the town and play with his friends. Most of the girls Aja knows are older than he is. He likes to play with boys, anyway. They do fun things like run down slides and run around outside. There’s nothing better than running around outside. Aja got his first bycicle accident riding outside with Daddy. He got a little scrape on his hand that needed kisses and many many band aids to cover a very small scrape. And some books and being held by two parents at the same time.

Aja walked all over down town with his sister and some little friends the other day. He crossed streets and  was on sidewalks with cars around. He held hands the whole time Mommy asked him to hold her. It was such a big day for the really big guy proving who he can be.  Aja’s getting bigger in his talking, too. He can carry on many sentence conversations about things that he used to only say the same things over and over about. That doesn’t mean that the middle of the conversation Aja won’t begin a treatise on how and why he likes tractors that only has three sentence but takes ten minutes to say those sentences over and over to get his point across. He likes tractors. A lot of tractors are green. They can be big, too. Big green tractor is a video on the computer. Big green tractor is a good song. Aja likes tractors. Big green tractors are on the computer. you get the idea.

One of the sentences that Aja says over and over is “It’s broken Daddy.” This applies to lots of things. Anything, really. A couple of times he did break his yellow PlanCity  cement mixer. It’s made of wood and seems to have crashed into a bigger truck one too many times. After Kieth gave Aja a beautiful new mini excavator, the little trucks got their own small garage and the big trucks go into a bigger garage.  But the cement mixer needed fixed a few times. First Daddy sat down and explained how to do it. He had a lot of help, but Aja took a special place in the proceedings.

Aja still talks about what’s good or bad to eat. He will try something new and say “It’s good Mama.” One morning when Daddy got out of the shower, Aja came over to him and said, “Daddy it’s not good. Doesn’t taste good.” Aja had tried one of the natural cough drops.

This evening Aja came out to Mama holding a few items. He had found some “crackers” in his room. “I have crackers. It’s good Mommy. It’s good.” He popped a second (I hope) in his mouth, then pushed in a third as mama came running. Aja was eating rat food. When asked about it Aja said, “I don’t do rats.” He said it several times while opening the cage to pet Pepper, or was he trying to snatch another cracker? I think that’s a comment he must have heard when Kieth babysat last night.

Aja has been quoting from the last line of his favorite book lately. “I want you to help me smash. I want you to help me crash” and carrying around a couple  of trucks, just like in his Smash Crash book. Of course, he’s also carrying around Sashti’s horses saying, “I horse trainer. Trot on.”

Aja is a man on the go. He has been asking to go to the car to go new places. Aja wants to go to the playroom to play with Lilly. He wants to go to the grocery store to pick up some food or to the dairy for milk. He wants to wear a skirt like his sister, so Aja pulled apart the snaps on his overalls, pulled them up above his knees and walked over to a horse to go riding. He idolizes Sashti so much! He wants to sit in her car seat, play with her animals, and though he doesn’t want to sleep with any stuffed animals, he wants the right to drop her dolls at the door when he goes in to go to bed.

Aja’s still having trouble eating, but we’re working through it. He doesn’t want solid food, but we are able to get some soups and yogurts into him. He will also take a little cream of wheat – no lumps.

The little man talks about everything now. “I have to hold you.” “Little baby want some apple juice?” to a stuffed animal, “Maybe cocoa? I make you cocoa. It’s good, baby.” He’s been telling everyone that he is a baby, not a big boy. He wants to be everything so much. Big independent boy now, little baby for cuddles and sleeping with mama at night. he doesn’t nap. It’s amazing. He can cry and carry on without any adverse effects until just before 6 pm, when it’s time for a bath, teeth, story and bed without a fuss.

This is a picture of Aja saying, “Byebye. I have to go. Be right back. Mama, I be right back. Just a minute.” Aja has had a very long week. He’s been extremely attached to Mama and this rare ten minutes of almost independence was a treasure to commemorate in the photographic medium. Aja played with Kiefer and Kieth for a little while on Wednesday afternoon. He had a great time outside on the bright sunny day. He got to pet Cassie.

The other day Mama was dropping big sis off at school, Aja pet the helper dog that was visiting. One of the teachers at the school trains diabetes dogs. Aja went to go pet the golden retriever puppy and said, “I like dog. Have puppy? Aja have puppy?” He learned that unfortunately, dogs are too big (besides we’re moving). He responded, “I have hamster?”

Aja had his two year appointment at the doctor’s office this week. He has a normal sized head, is tall, but has lost weight in the past few months. The little guy just hasn’t been eating lately. We’ve attributed this to the ear infections and growth spurts, in fact the last ear infection was treated with such harsh medicine that it hurt his stomach. The doctor who usually sees Aja did his check up appointment and she changed his medication. The past few nights he’s been sleeping all night and a couple days he slept 13 hours the little man could have been growing, but he’s been loosing weight and refusing to eat. The little man has been worrying us.

Don’t worry, though. Aja has been very active. he stands on the saddle of Sashti’s horses and says, “Mama I ride careful. I be careful.” Just to make sure I don’t make him get off for the trick riding he’s been doing. Aja spends most of this time attached to Mama, to the point that he’s trying to nurse again off and on.

The little guy still works hard on his pouring and other fine motor skills. He uses markers occasionally, and spends a lot of time trying to play with horses the way that his sister does.

He also loves to read and is getting into turning the pages of books. Aja has been reading truck books, but also “Mouse Cookies” and so many other books that get lost under the pile of favorites. Aja picked out “Max and Art” from the library. The author/illustrator, David Weisner, is a house hold favorite, but the book seems to really speak to Aja. Lately Aja’s been working on right and wrong. He spends a good deal of time while reading Art and Max trying to decide on wether Art is mean or not. He says, “He not nice” while reading anything with difficult interactions. Tonight he moved from the books to his sisters behaviour. “Mama she’s not nice. Mama. She’s not nice. She say not nice.” He’s right, unfortunately. Tonight was particularly hard. But he is applying his lessons from books very well.

Aja wears his carharts over almost anything. He loves them. Mama tried to keep him warm, though, because they have only 6 snaps on the legs and the legs open up each time he bends his knees. Even when they fit very well, the carharts have very large gaps between the snaps. We picked out a lot more overalls, but couldn’t find any carharts where we went shopping. So he wears the carharts over pajamas and any other pants or outfit. He seems to like overalls because he would rather not walk down the stairs if he can frog slide backwards.

Aja had a birthday! He’s two years old now. The day was nice, so we went to visit a friend and get some ‘o’s’ with kiddos Aja knows. Then out to the library to have story time with a bunch of friends. Lunch with Kiefer and Alma, then out to the toy store and a stop at a bakery for a special treat. Aja didn’t sleep at all that day! We picked up Sashti and ran another errand out in the Big Burg before heading home.

The little man was unfortunately very sick. Aja got an ear infection a couple days after his birthday. He spent a day glued to Mama before a doctor prescribed medication that tastes something like liquid orange chalk. Aja doesn’t like the medication, but has put up with it for the sake of getting a vitamin afterwards. Aja missed out on a trip to the mountain, but he got to spend a whole day with Daddy.

Aja spent a copule hours Monday morning playing at the barn with a cat and chasing around the horses feed barrow. He wasn’t very happy about leaving the house at the time. He got ski pants and a big jacket on to keep the little man warm. After he finished the work at the barn, Aja was able to get his car seat switched around. He no longer needs to sit in Sashti’s car seat while she is at school. The little man tried to get into her seat, but realized that he was able to sit in his own seat and see. Her car seat is a little smaller, anyway. Aja sits higher in his own seat now. The little man is pretty happy about the situation. He talks about the world he can see out the front windscreen now.

Aja’s been reading “Smash, Crash” and “Truckery Rhymes.” He also loves playing iwth his airplanes and helicopter especially. He takes them around the house and then under the table into a ‘car wash.’ The little guy also plays with his tractors all the time. He also plays with a car transporter, loading his emergency and construction vehicles onto the transporter.  He’s started holding his new little brown llama when being told stories before bed. The llama doesn’t have a name yet.

As part of hoping to make Aja feel better, he’s been allowed to watch some tractor videos on youtube. The little guy has been having a ball. When the acetaminophen is working he’ll sing and dance. It lasts for about an hour before Aja is too tired and sick to keep going.

Aja is working on full sentences now. He corrects himself. For example, he might make a couple statements like, “We home. We are home now.” One of the milestones of his age is using pronouns. It’s a given that Aja’s 2 year check up will tell us Aja’s on track.

The little man has been amazing the past two weeks. Aja has started using pronouns and prepositions in his sentences. He will say, “I want to eat now.” He’ll take a couple bites then say, “Now I need diaper change.” He’s almost there.

Aja’s favorite things in the world are still tractors, but he’s playing with Sashti’s horses now whenever he gets a chance. He’s also discovered the car wash. In two weeks he convinced his parents to have three car washes. Not only that, he was flying his plane around the house and pretending that the table was a car wash. He went through the under table car wash many times. It was thrilling. He loves playing peek a boo still, so that added to the enjoyment.

We started playing with more books and focusing on talking about the potty lately. Aja knows when he needs a diaper change and will announce it or run away depending on what he wants to be doing instead. It’s annoying to have a dirty diaper. He doesn’t like it. But let’s say there’s cocoa on the table? The diaper change will have to wait, obviously.

Aja’s helped cook cookies, meals, cocoa, and all kinds of good stuff lately. he loves being up on the counter. Aja likes his vitamins so much that he will get up onto the counter, then open the cupboard and get out the vitamin bottle. He does this several times a day. Aja also loves to brush his teeth. He spent a couple days with Grandma, helping cook, brushing teeth and generally having a great time.

Aja’s Daddy’s little angel these days. With Daddy working in another city most of the week. Aja decides to keep to Daddy’s side most of the time. He loves being like Daddy, but Daddy doesn’t wear carharts. Aja loves his overalls, carharts most of all. He goes to bed quietly after a book or two and will tell Mama that he needs to lie down at times. With Sashti going to school full time soon, Aja will have a lot more Mama time in the near future.

Aja has moved on from his basic discussion points to ask “Where’d Daddy go?” Then answering himself, “Daddy in Sea-Attle.” Sometimes he will make his own stories. “Mommy on a tractor. There’s a horse. I play horse. Horse cook. I cook. I horse cook pancakes.” He also loves his carharts and overalls. While getting ready fof bed after a bath, Aja said he wanted to put on overalls again. I explained that we don’t sleep in overalls. Aja said, “I overalls pajamas.” The little smarty pants convinced me tonight that he could stay up to look at a toy Sashti let him play with. Sashti never lets him play with her horses, but tonight she capitulated and Aja played with Clyde. He pet it and spoke in a soft, high voice, then asked to sit in Mama’s lap while he rocked it. He’s been reading everything he can get his hands on. Well, listening to books anyway.

Legos are one of Aja’s favorite toys. He also loves his tractors. There isn’t much wrong in the world if there’s a tractor to push. Aja would like to play with horses and dogs, but they are usually bigger than the little man. He can probably get off a high dining room table chair, but right now he doesn’t want to do that. It’s nice to know someone will help you.