Two Year Old Checkup

As suspected, Aaron is growing. I have checked for elves in his closet who shorten his pants and put weights in his pockets, but he was naked when they weighed him, so it must be true.

Height: 35 in (July- 32 in) 50-75 %ile
Weight: 27 lbs 1oz (July- 24 lbs 11 oz) 25-50 %ile

Now I know where all that food goes!!

Big Birthday Weekend

Aaron is Two!! Just ask him. He'll hold up four fingers and insist there are two. According to a scientist I heard recently, until he's 3 or so, he won't really understand anything more than "one" or "more than one". He'll recite numbers up to ten but doesn't really know what they mean.

So what did we do to celebrate? The Pop Shop of course! We did eat a meal there, but it was all in preparation for ice cream.


On Saturday, we attended Jack Santee's fifth birthday party at an athletic club. He was interested in the moon bounce, then too scared to stay in it, then incredibly upset when it was deflated at the end of the party. It's so hard to be so emotionally labile.

With Mike at the party

On Sunday, it poured, so we went to check out the Please Touch Museum in Northwest Philadelphia. For those who don't know it, the P.T.M. is designed for children about ages 1-8, and everything is made for touching! And touch we did. He was so incredibly happy there that we felt like terrible parents for not having gone sooner. Some highlights:

With mommy on the carousel:

In Storybook Land on a boat that went up and down:

And then we found the Transportation Room! They have a part of a real city bus that the kids can get into and pretend to drive or ride. When he saw it, he went nuts. "A bus! A bus! A bus!" I don't think he's ever been on a bus, so I'm not sure where the excitement comes from. There were also cars to drive and a monorail train to sit in.

On the monorail (it's a good think I'm short):

Driving a "gruck":

By this time, our little guy was tired and it was really too dangerous for him to drive, but he insisted on getting behind the wheel.


I'm off to work in a few minutes. More pictures later.

Happy 2010

The aughts are over! There were some good times (finishing med school and then residency, meeting Mike, getting Aaron) and some crap times (fertility heartbreaks and my father's death). All in all, I'm happy the next decade is upon us.

The arrival of 2010 means that in 2 weeks, Aaron will be 2 years old! He is into everything, talks constantly ("car, mommy, car, car, mommy, car, car, right mommy?"), and wants to help with everything. In general, he is not such a good helper. He has decided that feeding Bouts is his responsibility and insists on bringing the dog food from the container to the bowl by himself. He only gets a few bits in each scoop, so it's a long process. Bouts, however, is sweet about it. He is one patient dog. Forgive me for including both videos. I couldn't decided which one to use.

Aaron has started to count and to name colors, although both numbers and colors are so abstract that he often confuses them. He has an Elmer the Elephant stuffed animal that he loves and carries everywhere. He pointed to a pink square and said, "pink". Then he pointed to a green square and said, "green". Then he pointed to a black square and said, "four". I'm sure he'll get there eventually.

He seems to be a smart little boy (no bias). He lost a car under a cabinet the other day and I got it out with a wooden spoon, which he thought was wonderful. The next morning, he pushed a bunch of his toys under the cabinet and then asked, in his sweetest voice, for the spoon. Here he is wielding it like a weapon.




We are not planning anything big for his second birthday. It was just Channukah and Christmas, and he won't know the difference this year. Maybe we'll just hang out in our jammies and make an Aaron cake.

Busy times

We've been busy in the Lovell house. I started my new job at Cooper Hospital and I think I'll be very happy there. Over this past weekend, Aaron really revved up his "terrible two"-ness. Lots of funny stuff, but also a plethora of meltdowns. "Milk please?" I hand him a cup with milk. "NO!!! No milk! (don't) Want it milk!" accompanied by vigorous shaking of head from side to side and many tears. One distraction later, he is all smiles and hugs. It's unbelievable and exhausting for all of us.

We had a little Adoption Day party, at which he was adorable. There were a lot of kids here and they were all over the place. He was born in the year of the Golden Fire Pig, so I made some gold pig cookies, which were delicious.


Uncle Jimmy came to visit for Thanksgiving and everyone went to a parade on the main drag. He still loves parades (we just saw the lighted firetruck parade last friday and I though he was going to lose his mind with excitement).




We also paid a visit to Baba in Worcester two weekends ago. Aaron saw his first snow and got to play in it, although it took a while to convince him that it was snow outside and not bubbles. He was pretty sure of himself.

He's convinced now. And that "uh-oh" was because he noticed a truck whose presence he had not yet announced.

This little piggie

As states go, New Jersey is definitely at the bottom of my list. Our county held its first swine flu vaccination clinic on monday for children ages 6months to 5 years. No pediatricians' offices could get the shot, so there was no other choice. The clinic was scheduled to start at 4pm. We arrived at 3:45 and got in line two blocks away.

at the start of our wait:

We were done at 6:10. Aaron was great, considering. We were standing in front of some really nice people, who gave us snacks (Aaron had finished his bag of goldfish and his milk in the first 30 minutes) and loaned us a fleece for him to wear when the sun went down and it got cold. I couldn't help but feel that we were participating in something akin to the polio vaccinations of the 1950's. There were so many people! There were health dept officials with bullhorns! When we finally got inside, he got the shot, which took two seconds. Luckily, all was forgotten when he received his lollipop ("lalalop"). Ahhh, candy, the fixer of everything.

A year's time

Tomorrow, November 4, will be the first anniversary of our adoption of Aaron in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Adoption day is sometimes referred to as a family's "gotcha" day- we got Aaron and he got us. Regardless of what you call it, November 4th, 2008, changed all of our lives forever. That morning, Mike and I sat in the reception room of the orphanage, surrounded by half emptied tea glasses, sweating (we were sweating as were the glasses). I realized that my camera battery had died just as a woman brought a skinny little boy dressed in fatigue pajamas into the room. She handed him to us, he stuck his thumb in his mouth, and it was done. Pictures were taken (not by me), gifts were exchanged, and we were whisked off to the DMV of Saigon to adopt our little boy. I don't know that I posted these pictures. They were emailed to me by Chi, the adoption coordinator.





He weighed just 18lbs (5%ile) that day. Now, he is 26lbs (50%ile). I'm also happy to say that his clothing choices have improved dramatically.

Tomorrow is a bittersweet day for me. Our adoption day was the most wonderful day of my life, but it also happens to be my father's birthday. It is so sad that he is not here to celebrate this milestone with us. I miss him every day and he would have gotten such joy from Aaron. It's around this time last year that he got sick again, and although he got to visit with our boy four or five times, it wasn't enough.

On a less tearful note...

Aaron celebrated his first Halloween on saturday! He was dressed as Mr Spock from Star Trek, although he just thought of it as an outfit with matching hat. It was his first experience with candy. He looked really cute even though he couldn't keep his hair on straight.

With mommy, dressed as overtired night doctor:

With captain Daddy Kirk:

With Kirk and clown Grandma Linda:

A message for Baba

Here is a message from Aaron to his Baba, who is away visiting Jonathan. You may note the unfortunate haircut given to him by Grandma Linda. Apparently, he moved. A few times.