Bruhnstock!

Last weekend we went to Bruhnstock!, an all-day-and-night celebration of my cousin Erin's recent marraige to Matt Bruhns. Bruhnstock was held at my Aunt Chris and Uncle Preston's home in Salisbury, VT. It was a perfect location for a big gathering - they have a gigantic barn on their property, so it was a very Vermont-ish barn party.

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Erin & Matt, the happy couple

Andy and Aiden and I went to the all-day portion of Bruhnstock, but had to skip the all-night deal (that's what having a one-year old does to your ability to stay at events past 8pm). The weather completely cooperated all day with only 2 drops of rain and very mild temperatures. There was lots of yummy grilled food, home-brewed whit beer (thanks to Joe, my cousin Sarah's husband) and an incredibly yummy dessert tray that was never-endingly refilled. Wiffle ball, horseshoes, bocce and other lawn games were abundant, and (though we missed it) a fun bluegrass band played in the barn all evening. A definite good time...

The Bruhnstock crowd

Andy and Aiden, and William and his Uncle Ben

We set up a tent on the lawn for the babies to romp in- actually, it was supposed to be for naps, but that never happened. William and Aiden played together for the second day in a row and didn't seem to be tired of one another :)

Hey! There's "Da-Doo!"

This is basically how William and Aiden play together. They play concurrently, is probably a better description.

William checking out the lawn at James' feet

Sarah enjoying a weiner and Aiden enjoying his new tent

Some scenes from the day- the sunset was gorgeous, and the llamas came out to visit the crowd.

Aiden and his Auntie Becky, who would not give him any of her beer.

Aiden and his Grandpa Dean

Apples, Bubbles and Cousins...

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Cousin Carrie, James, little William, Uncle Brandt and Aunt Sandy came up to spend some time at the Lake Champlain camp, and I was able to finagle a day off of work to hang out with them. It was such a beautiful day that we had to do something outside, so we decided to go apple picking in Shelburne. When we got to the orchard we parked William and Aiden on a blanket under the shade of a MacIntosh tree before proceeding to fill our pick-ur-own bags. Of course we had to give each of them an apple to munch on! William was a little unsure at first, but Aiden pretty much made a sloppy core of his apple in no time. He's got some serious chompers.

Aiden's still do-ragging it... he'll have none of a nice baseball cap like William's. We are going to have to think about a serious southward migration if Aiden thinks he can get through a Vermont winter without wearing a warm hat.

A lot of the apples were out of even the reach of Carrie and James, who are both much taller than average height. I pretty much had them fill my bag, as you can imagine. I'm not sure this picking arrangement was very stable, but the bags did get filled quickly.

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At one point a yellow jacket landed on the part of Aiden's apple he was just about to bite. It was one of those moments that happens in slow motion, I saw the wasp buzz around the apple... land on the apple.... Aiden's mouth opening slowly to take a big bite.... and then, WHAM! Uncle James slapped the apple out of Aiden's hands before he could get stung. And then, "WAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" a cry fest ensued, and Aiden looked at Uncle James very suspiciously for about an hour, not realizing he had been saved from an even greater trauma.

The boys did a great job of "playing" nicely together. Which is to say they stared at each other a lot and didn't fight over toys, so things went really smoothly. It will be much more fun for William, Aiden and Emma when they all get a little older.

Back at the lake house, a calm, warm day was unfolding so we all were convinced to go for one (last?) dip in the lake. Uncle James redeemed himself in Aiden's eyes by creating a bubble spectacle extraordinaire on the lawn for the amusement of the babies.

From Summer to Fall...

These last few weeks have been pretty low-key for us. We haven't had any visitors on weekends, and we haven't had to travel either, so it's been nice just to chill out around Huntington after what seemed like a few months of non-stop activity. The weather has gone from hot & muggy to crisp and fall-like in those few weeks, so we've done a bit of everything. Aiden has especially liked going down to the Huntington River- when it's hot, he loves to go splashing in the shallow water. Even when its not hot, he still loves to go splashing in the water. Mommy and Daddy, not so much.

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It was actually very hot this day.

Definitely not as hot this day...


But, oh well, we still ended up in the water.

We've been exploring the dirt roads around our neighborhood... Aiden refuses to wear a sunhat or a baseball cap, but for some reason doesn't object to a do-rag. So he's our little pirate.

TOO cold to go in the water this weekend! We had to draw the line somewhere.

Aiden did get a new disease from daycare about a week ago- Coxsackie Virus. He was fussy with eating for a few days, and then (on the weeekend, of course) broke out in a nasty red rash all over his torso. The Doctor said he had small blisters on his throat, which is "classic Coxsackie" apparently, and the reason he wasn't into eating or drinking. As his daycare maladies have gone, this one wasn't too bad, I don't think he had a bad case. We gave him pain medication for a few days to help with the throat soreness, and the rash faded after 3 days.

This is what happens now when Mommy or Daddy has to walk away for a few seconds to get something from the car or the house. Yay! Separation anxiety!

Grandma grew this obscenely large cucumber in her garden. No one dared to eat it but Aiden (though he didn't get very far)

Hello? Is Aiden There?

This is Aiden's newest game. Did you know ANYTHING could be a phone if you pretend hard enough? Including (see below): a baby monitor, toy car, plastic fish, megablock, maracas, a bath starfish, and a summer squash! How you play is this: you hold any old thing up to your ear, and then your bozo parents go, "HELLO? Is Aiden there?" with Pavlovian enthusiasm...then, you hand them the "phone," because it's obviously not for you!

HELLO? IS AIDEN THERE?

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IT'S FOR YOU!!!

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We're not sure how he got obsessed with the phone, since as many of you can attest, we don't use it that often! We are pretty sure he's a "southpaw" though (check out which hand he is using in every single photo)...just like his dad- or he'll at least be a lefty for phone calls :)

Daycare BITES back...

One day this week Andy picked Aiden up from daycare to find a "boo-boo report" in his cubby (never a good thing). The report form has lots of checkboxes for things like bumps, scrapes, bloody noses, bee stings, etc. For this incident, they had to make a new box: BITE. Apparently Aiden was "playing with one of his friends" and the "friend" got "frustrated" and proceeded to BITE Aiden on the cheek!!!

After Andy made sure that this was not a serious injury (no skin was broken), we couldn't help being slightly amused. I mean, of all the places to bite someone, why would you go for a cheek?! Aiden's do protrude more than most humans, that's true, but still... this proves Andy's theory that babies are in reality just small zombies. Can't you just picture one of the toddlers stumbling unsteadily towards Aiden murmuring something in baby-talk ("brains....brains....")...

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Of course, daycare won't tell us which one of the other little buggers actually bit our angelic son so now we have fun speculating every time we pick him up or drop him off. We know it was a boy, so at least it wasn't Aiden's girlfriend Cassidy. She would never do something that crude!