seven months, one week, two days

That is how old Aidan is today.

I've had a hard time keeping up with the blogging and the photo posting on his website. So, I'll attempt to rundown his milestones in this post. He does something new every day and while I want to document these happenings, I'm leaning towards enjoying the moment and taking it in instead of grabbing the camera to catch it in pixels.

So, here goes:

• Solids. Aidan continues to like solid food. So far, he likes rice cereal, apple sauce, carrots and sweet potatoes. He recently added oatmeal and apple juice (albeit diluted with water) to his repertoire. He didn't like peas much; but I didn't think to warm them up a little the first time he tried it. (The scrunched up look on his face was priceless, however.) So, we will introduce peas again this week. The weeks to come will bring bananas, peaches and white grape juice.
  
  
• Sitting. Aidan has been sitting up on his own for a while now and can play on his own, but he prefers to have company. He doesn't realize the strength of his grasp, as evidenced by the little round bruises on my upper arm that measure the exact circumference of his fingertips.
  
  
• Scooter. Aidan hasn't crawled yet (he doesn't like being on his belly and doesn't get the whole get on your knees thing), but he likes to scoot backwards on his rear.
  
  
• Pull ups. Aidan can pull himself up in his crib. Ah, the end of life as we know it is near.
  I keep hearing stories of babies that skip crawling and just start walking one day. I think Aidan might follow in those footsteps. We better get on the baby proofing project pretty quick. Eek.
  
  
• Mommy, come get me! Aidan continues to be very good natured and mild mannered with other people-- be they friends, family or strangers. However, he is starting to display a little separation anxiety. It starts out with his smile slowing turning into a deep frown, a quivering lower lip, a flush of red on his face and a large tear rolling down his cheek before turning into a loud cry. It doesn't happen a lot-- just when he is in the arms of someone he hasn't seen in a while or hasn't seen before. With a little warm-up ( and a cuddle with mommy) he's good as new.
  
  
• Laundry?! The other day, Paul was putting away the laundry and put Aidan on the bed amongst the clothes and the plastic hangers. Aidan LOVES hangers. He thinks they are the greatest toys/teething rings ever. We've decided that he doesn't need toys-- just boxes, hangers and wrapping paper amuse him to no end.
  
  
• Social butterfly. Aidan continues to visit with his fellow birth class babies every month (Us and three other couples struck up a friendship and have met up regularly since our first "reunion" in April). Next month, we will have the babies in their costumes and hope to visit a pumpkin patch. Aidan also attended the baptism of my godson and welcomed his 3-week old cousin, Nicholas, today. It's nice to see that Aidan likes to socialize and be in the thick of things, however, this often leads to not so good...
  
  
• Napping. We are thankful that Aidan sleeps through the night (with an occasional yelp that a quick binky in the mouth always fixes). However, the kid doesn't want to nap during the day. If he does nap, it's in spurts of 30, 45 or 60 minutes. If you're lucky. The longest nap he's ever taken recent was just shy of three hours. He used to sleep for hours upon hours as an infant. Now, he squirms and rubs his eyes to keep himself from falling asleep during the day, sucumbing only when he is cuddled and bounced by someone on the exercise ball.

So, that's month 7 of Aidan's life so far. Who knows what I'll be writing about next month? (Hopefully, I'll be blogging a little before then.)

that's a nice stroller you have there

It's funny how having a baby will get you to have conversations with total strangers.

Recently, we were at the Seattle Outlet Mall (in Marysville, which is at least a 30 minute drive from Seattle in good karmic traffic). On those trips, I always go Carters and Osh Kosh to shop for clothes for Aidan who is growing like a weed. I usually have Aidan in the stroller and he is usually still asleep from the car ride. The stroller is a Graco and it has a nice turning radius, but it's a little tricky to open the store doors which usually open out towards you (and you have to be far enough away from the door to give clearance, but not so far away that you can't reach the door.) I have short arms-- that's my problem.

So my first brush with niceness was a woman who held the door open for me so I could get the stroller over the threshold "bump" and into the store. The wierd/nice thing was she wasn't even going into the store-- she just helped me out as she was walking by. Talk about your random acts of kindess. I told her "thank you" and mentally sent her good vibes for the rest of her day.

Then, when I was in the Osh Kosh store, a sales gal complimented me on our stroller. Turned out that she had the same one for her 5 month old son. This led to a nice 10-minute conversation about how her baby didn't seem to like being in the stroller at all and how Aidan seemed to be pretty comfy in it. She was a little embarrassed and apologized for taking up my shopping time, but I could have talked to her all afternoon; she was really nice.

At Safeway the other day, Paul, Aidan and I were in the baby food aisle selecting next week's new food introduction. There was a petite blonde with her adorable baby girl who was lounging in the cart. The cart had one of those snuggly coverings that protect babies from germy carts. She was looking at Aidan as she lay crosswise in the lap of luxury. We struck up conversation with her mom, exchanging the "s/he is so cute, how old is s/he" opening lines. Turns out that her daughter is a month younger than Aidan, but 22 pounds-- at least 6 pounds more than Aidan and a month younger! The mom jokingly called her baby a little monster, but she felt bad because her baby wanted to be picked up all the time but she was so big it was difficult to do so for long periods of time. It seems that all the baby girls I've met are bigger than the baby boys I know-- well, at least bigger than Aidan. I'm pretty sure that this will all even out around puberty. And if the last month of successful solid food introductions are any indication, Aidan could be at 22 pounds in a couple of months. In any case, we were "shopping buddies" for the rest of our shopping trip because we kept running into each other in the aisles and ended up checking out at the same cashier line.

At least once during a shopping trip or errand, we can count on conversations and shared observations with other parents of babies or well wishers. I like to think of these interactions as God's/Mother Nature's/Karma's way of letting us know we're doing okay.

germ swapping

It was only a matter of time. Aidan got a little cold from a baby friend and, sure enough, he gave it to Mommy and Daddy.

He got through it like a trooper. A runny nose for a day and a half; a cough; a sneeze. He was better in two days. Babies have super immune systems.

Paul and I must have gotten the adult version-- the kind that lingers as a sore throat for a couple of days, trying to decide if you're going to have post nasal drip or a deep, hacking cough at night. Paul and the former, I got the latter. Fun times.

We are trying hard to wash our hands and keep coughs and sneezes at bay when we're with Aidan, but when you nursing and he wants to cuddle cheek to cheek, it's difficult. We may be playing hot potato with this cold all winter. And, cold and flu season is upon us and our side of the building has already had its share of sickies that still come to work even if they are sick. Why, why, why? Please, do us all a favor and stay home. I cringe at my desk listening to my cube neighbors hack, cough and blow. You are spreading your germs on the copy machine, the door knobs and the in/out board. Ick.

I Zerbert You!

Last Friday night, Paul and I were on the floor playing with Aidan. He wasn't much interested in his toys--mostly, he was wiggling around and trying to climb on Paul who was sitting cross-legged. I was lying on my side with my leg resting on Paul's knee.

Aidan made a dive for my shin with his mouth open, finding another victim for his teething gums. Instead of chewing, he puckered his lips and blew, making a surprisinging large, juicy zerbert. I was so surpised I laughed; Paul thought Aidan farted. (He has been eating sweet potatoes lately.) With this kind of reaction, Aidan continued to zerbert me a couple more times before he got bored.

Paul and I zerbert Aidan all the time when we change his diaper and/or clothes. I guess it was just a matter of time before he turned the tables on us!