A Christmas Baby Reunion

Last weekend, we had our monthly reunion with our classmates from birth class. All the babies are around 9 months old and in various stages of cutting teeth, crawling and pulling themselves up. Aidan is the youngest of the four babies by a little over a week. (And wouldn't you know it-- he cut his first tooth the next day. Maybe it was peer pressure, seeing that the other babies already had a few.)

You would think that meeting up at the children's area at Bellevue Square during the height of Christmas shopping would be a bad idea, but it worked out just fine. Paul, Aidan and I arrived first and found an empty bench and chairs for the rest of the group. After several minutes, the rest of the group trickled in. Since it was already well past noon and the parents were starving, we decided to go to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch.

When I think Cheesecake Factory, I think long wait, long lines-- and I expected as much with eight adults and 4 babies. But a 25 minute wait goes quick when you've got kids and parent-talk to keep you occupied. I was impressed by how kid friendly the Bellevue restaurant was-- there was a "parking area" along the side of the restaurant for strollers (and judging by the number of stroller there were, other parents already knew what a kid friendly place this was.) They offered our choice of high chairs and boosters. They even offered free bread and cut-up bananas for the kids. We were able to eat and chat and, as a nice way to end the lunch, a customer sitting at a nearby booth complimented us on how well behaved our babies were.

Well, almost. I had some spillage problems on my side of the table. I was mixing Aidan's formula and accidentally dumped water on the table. Then, Aidan made a reach for my glass of soda and in my attempt to get to it before he did, is spilled on my lap. All I can say is thank goodness for quick drying cargo pants from Lucy.

We then decided to stand in line for a Santa picture, only to ditch the idea when we found out it was $19.97 for one 5 x 7 and you had to come back in the middle of the week to pick it up? In this age of digital cameras and on-demand photo printing, WTF?!

So, instead we took advantage of the holiday displays around the mall and perched our babies on a sled. For FREE.


The day ended with a gift exchange. We put the babies around the pile of gifts, the idea being that they would "choose" one. Each of them gravitated to the gift "they" brought (after all, they've been looking at it all week at home) so we encouraged a little gift swapping. The babies are capable of ripping gift wrap paper, but not very fast. And, of course the first torn piece goes directly into the mouth.

So ends another baby reunion. Stay tuned for next month!

nine months and counting

It's hard to believe that Aidan is now a little over nine months old. He's really coming into his own and his personality is starting to become more distinctive with each passing day.

He crawls, he climbs. Last Sunday, Paul was sitting on our stairs checking his voicemail and Aidan was sitting on the floor in front of him. I was in the kitchen. Then I heard Paul say, "Hey, how did you get up here?" Aidan had climbed two stairs and I looked up in time to see him lift his right leg to place his knee on the next step. Aidan can climb stairs!

Goo Goo Eyes. Last week, my parents took Aidan to the mall and a little blonde girl took a shine to Aidan. She thought he was cute and started talking to him. According to my mom, Aidan decided to play shy and hide his face when she talked to him. He also developed a new smile that involves fluttering his eye lashes so his eyes go all squinty. He now uses this smile whenever he's trying to be charming or trying to distract you when you've caught him getting into something he's not supposed to.

The boy who refused to sleep. Around Thanksgiving, Aidan stopped sleeping through the night (we knew it was too good to be true!) His newfound ability and excitement to crawl and pull himself up, coupled with the beginnings of separation anxiety and doting grandparents that slept with him on the guestbed have resulted in a kid that wouldn't settle down to sleep. Back at home, he would fall asleep, only to wake up once we laid him down in his crib. The worst was the first night home when it took Paul almost three hours to get him to sleep. After a week of trying cry-it-outs, constant checking, back pats, back rubs and binky rescues, we finally got our one night of sleep-through. Of course, this went out the window when the big wind storm of 2006 blew in last night and kept waking him up. We've developed a new bedtime routine where at 8 p.m., he goes upstairs with Daddy, changes into his pajamas and gets a bedtime story. Sometimes he falls asleep while being read to; sometimes he gets one last nursing nightcap. So far, it's going over well. And, Paul and I get a couple hours of wind down time before going to sleep. Nice!

Nosy, no-napper. Aidan is very observant. He is a constant people watcher. He likes to stare at people's faces. When he's nursing, if he hears a noise he will stop and look around. If someone walks into a room, he has to see who it is. My mom and I tell him he's being "nosy" This nosy-ness also keep him from taking naps during the day. He refuses to take naps. He will wiggle around, rub his eyes, squeal and scream to keep himself awake. "What do you think you're going to miss, Aidan?" we ask him. Eventuallly, he collapses after sheer exhaustion. He'll give a short yelp as if to say "Fine! I give up!" before doing a face plant on your chest while you hold him.


Single, M, HWP. At Aidan's 9-month check-up the doctor announced that she couldn't find a thing wrong with him. (Yea!) He is height-weight-porportionate for his age. How we got a baby like this, we have no idea. But he's healthy and happy and on track and that is all that counts. I still think he weighs more than the 17.1 pounds they say he is.

Handling the family jewels. Yes, Aidan has discovered he has a penis-- or at least something grab-able down there. Lately, when Aidan is getting his diaper changed, he reaches down and grabs his little wee-wee like it was a little red clown nose. I hope it doesn't hurt, because he has quite a grip. Does this mean he's going to ask me about the birds and the bees soon??!?!



We are looking foward to the holidays and seeing how Aidan fares with the sights and sounds of Christmas-- and the joys of celebrating with all sides of the family! Hang on to your tinsel...

My First Christmas Photo Shoot

I've always wanted to create photo holiday cards, so with Aidan as our inspiration, Paul and I set-up a photo shoot in our living room. These are all the outtakes before we got the final shot we needed. Lucky for us, Aidan didn't mind dressing up under the hot lights to play baby supermodel.