aidan turns 10

...10 months that is!

Aidan seems to come up with something to surprise us everyday-- it's hard to remember everything, but here goes:

A good appetite. With the exception of peas, there isn't a food that Aidan won't eat. He is now a fan of the Gerber line of finger foods-- biter bisquits, zwieback toast, veggie puffs. He still only has one bottom tooth, but he manages to turn a hard biter bisquit into a handful of mush.

Besides including Aidan at dinner time (I used to nurse him before dinner and then feed him solids after we had our dinner) we've started feeding Aidan at the same time as our dinner (Paul and I take turn feeding him between bites.) Aidan seems to like being part of the dinner routine with Mommy and Daddy. I've also started giving him some of my food at dinner-- just small samples to introduce his palate to new tastes. So far, he's had spaghetti noodles, teriyaki, rice, and corn mush from Chevy's. Aidan's doctor suggested we start feeding him cheese and yogurt, so that will be next on his menu.


"No Fear" Factor.On weekend mornings, Aidan wakes up around 5:30-6 a.m. to nurse. (His stomach hasn't learned how to sleep in yet.) He tends to fall back asleep after he is done, but if you put him back in his crib, he wakes up. So, I bring him to our bed and we usually can squeek another precious hour and a half of sleep. But when he wakes up, watch out! He likes to climb over our heads to reach for the wrought iron headboard of our bed. We have to grab his feet otherwise he will slip between the space between the headboard and the mattress. We've tried "blocking" the headboard with pillows, but he just uses the pillows to climb up higher, balancing his little pajama-covered feet precariously on the edge. He has also learned to work his way sideways to get to my nightstand where there's all sort of fun things that can go into his mouth.

Maximus rides again.Aidan's newest "thing" is riding his "chariot" (a plastic push cart that resembles a mail carrier's cart. He will pull the plastic pieces of mail and throw them to the ground. He pries the doors off and then climbs in. Then, we'll push him around the living room and kitchen. Sometimes, he'll lift one foot as if to test his balancing skills.

A little less baby, a little more toddler.This weekend, Paul and I went through Aidan's chest of drawers to get rid of the clothes his outgrown. A lot of stuff had to go-- most of it was 3-6 month size! Some clothes were never worn; there were a number of footed pajamas he was unable to wear because it we were in the midst of the dog days of summer-- too hot. Some of our favorite outfits no longer fit him. Aidan is pretty long-limbed, so 12 month clothes are already his minimum size. We are also starting the weaning process, so he nurses in the morning and at bedtime. He just doesn't like nursing during the day-- he is easily distracted, isn't interested, and shows this by biting (ouch). Strangely enough, he never bites in the morning or at night time. Aidan is doing well with solids, so my commitment to nursing for one year is coming to a close. I didn't think I'd even last a month!

Hmm, what else? Aidan likes to sing and wave his hands. Sometimes he'll do this when he's playing on his own. He also loves to laugh-- the tricky part is what makes him laugh today doesn't always work the next day.

It will be interesting to see what Aidan comes up with in the coming days.

Aidan's first mug shots

For Aidan's first passport.

Biting the hand that feeds him

After months and months of teething and drool, Aidan finally cut his first tooth a little over a month ago. He has one single bottom tooth. When he lets me, I'll take a peek inside his mouth and see several other teeth that seem to be ready to pop, but they just hover there, just beneath his gums.

Not having teeth hasn't stopped him from enjoying what the Gerber folks like to call "finger foods." Melt in your mouth veggie puffs, zwieback toast, biter bisquits-- Aidan can obliterate them with just his gums. He's the jaws of life in miniature. Lately, I've been feeding him some of my food at dinner. So far, he's had plain spaghetti noodles, rice (which he mostly just plays with), teriyaki beef (he LOVES that), corn mush from Chevy's and salmon. So far, he is an adventurous eater. I hope this continues!

You wouldn't think that one little tooth could do any harm, but think again! Aidan is still teething, so to soothe his gums any bare finger, forearm or other available body part will do. I've committed to nursing Aidan for a year-- that's only two months away and good thing because guess what else Aidan's likes to bite. (ouch). The other night, we were all playing on the floor. Aidan crawled up to Paul and pulled himself up. He then took a nose dive into Paul's chest and managed to bite Paul's man nipple! "Now you know what it feels like!" I told Paul. But, he had the benefit of cotton fabric to lessen the full effect.

Aidan has also left his mark on his crib (his crib rail is riddled with tick marks and scrapes) and the end of our dining table (where his high chair is) is also marked with his scrapes. He likes to gnaw on our end table in the living room (his fave spot) but we're not worried about it because is metal.

All this destruction and he only has one tooth!

it's times like these that make you forget that he kept you up all night

Day 1 of 2007

Happy New Year, folks!

The McJannets have survived their first holiday season with baby. It only gets better from here, right? (All the parents of toddlers are saying "HA" out loud about now.)

This year we went to FOUR family gatherings with upwards of 40 people at one of them. Aidan was Mr. Social Butterfly. He played with his cousins and charmed the great aunts. He must have had his picture taken hundreds of times with great aunts and uncles he's never met before-- but he took it in stride and smiled in his "My First Christmas" outfit and Santa hat. He napped between parties (man, I wish I could have done that) and attempted to catch a few Z's at our last gathering of the evening, but who could sleep soundly when you've got a rousing game of charades downstairs?

Paul and I were pretty much exhausted by the time we got to his parent's house. Aidan, fueled by his naps, was wired. We didn't get to bed until 2 a.m.!

It was that night that we decided to take it easy and stay in for New Year's Eve. We were invited to watch the fireworks from our friends' condo in Queen Anne, but the thought of getting stuck in Seattle traffic with a baby at 1 a.m. was too much for us. We're not really partying folk anyways-- when we used to live in Eastlake, we'd watch movies (actually, Paul would watch the movies and I would fall asleep) just step outside and take in the fireworks. Then we'd go to bed while everyone else whooped it up.

New Year's Eve day was spent putting up baby gates at the foot and top of the stairs because Aidan has become quite the stair climber. The problem is that he is less proficient going down the stairs and when you're not looking, he will do it whether you are there to catch him or not. I am not in any hurry to see him walking. I'm still getting used to this stealth crawling he's doing.

He got loads of toys for Christmas, but his mainstay favorites continue to be our metal end table (which he likes to teethe on and hang on to) and an empty Huggies diaper box he likes to smack his hands on.

In less than three months, Aidan is going to be a year old? How the heck did that happen?

I'm looking forward to the antics the little guy has in store for us this year. And I resolve to post about them on this blog.

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.

A Thanksgiving Surprise

Thanksgiving started on Wednesday evening when Paul and I left work around 5 p.m. to go over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go.

Okay, it was more like two hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-5.

Thank goodness Aidan was already at my parent's house.

So, we got to my parent's house and unloaded the car. Just before we changed out of our workclothes and got ready for dinner, Mom and Dad announced that Aidan had a "new trick."

Mom set a baby bottle of diluted apple juice on the floor about four feet away from Aidan and said, "Okay, Aidan. Go get your juice."

Without much hesitation, Aidan did an awkward but very speedy crawl and got his reward. It was awkward because his right leg wanted to get up and walk while his left leg stayed on the ground and wanted to crawl. Not bad for his first time.

But it wasn't his first time-- he did it earlier that day when we were at work. One of the prices you pay when you work full-time. But, it was fun looking at Paul's face full of amazement, pride and surprise. It's hard to describe what it feels like to watch your child learn something new; it's almost like you are experiencing it along with them.

As I watched him snatch up his bottle and enjoy his baby cocktail all I could think of was how that was one more thing to be thankful for this year.

That-- and all the stuff on our living room floor at home that we are going to have to stow away to prepare for baby proofing.

"Mama"

Today started off like any other workday morning.

At 6:12 a.m., Aidan woke up for his morning nursing session. After a quick diaper change, he groggily managed to nurse for a good 6 minutes non-stop.

As he is apt to do, he takes a break, rubs his eyes, sighs and goes back to work. Or sometimes he looks around the room for a minute or two before remembering the task at hand.

Today, at 6:22 a.m., my baby stopped nursing, looked me straight in the eye and said, "Mama."

Not, "mamamamamamamama." Not, "dadaadadaadadadad." Not "damamdrrrrrgrrrrrammamamadadadamaga."

"Mama"-- just like that. With just one word, he told me "I know who you are and I can say your name."

Being Mama is good.

"zuuuuKINI!"-- and other words we say to get our babies to laugh

In case you didn't recognize the word in the title, that would be "zuchini," the vegetable. But said in just the right way, it can make a 7-month old laugh like mad. Here's another one-- "spaaaaaaaGETTY!" (a.k.a, "spaghetti!") Picture six parents huddled with cameras in front of these little guys yelling these words at them. No wonder the kids look bewildered.

That's how we got this picture (and a lot of others) when we visited Fairbank Farm last weekend. It was Baby Reunion #7 with Aidan's baby classmates from our birth class. Every month us parents meet up and see how our babies are growing, swap baby stories and catch up with what's happening in our lives. It's always a good time and it's comforting to share our gripes and successes with each other. A lot of our friends have kids that are either way younger or way older than our kids, so for some of us, this is our only way our kids socialize with kids their own age.

I highly recommend Fairbank Farm for an outing for the littles ones. Kids 10 months and younger are free. They are only open in April and October, but admission is only $2.50 and you get food to feed the animals. Besides pigmy goats, geese, chickens and other fowl, they also have pigs. There was one sow that just had a a bunch of piglets. They were all piled on top of each other in a little pen with a heat lamp attached. Mama Pig was in a separate pen. One of the moms commented that if that was her, she'd be a little pissed that she was separated from her babies. I'm thinking Mama Pig was getting a break before the next multi-feed.

We dressed the kids in costumes for the first time and surprisingly, they didn't pitch a fit. Some babies don't like to be enclosed in hats and hoods. Not these kids. They took it all in stride. We are already looking forward to the babies' 1st birthdays (all in March) and have already planned our next monthly get together.

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!

son, patience is a virtue

It's a given that adults deal with situations that frustrate. It's natural to be feel impatient, especially when you are surrounded by fast food, fast internet, instant messaging. But babies don't have to deal witih that, right? Their world is as wide as their arms can reach and whatever mommy and daddy can provide is good enough, right?

Wrong.

At 6 plus months, Aidan is frustrated. At around four months, he hated being on his belly. Not even 10 seconds would pass and he would be screaming and then crying until you picked him up. But, tummy time is important so we kept encouraging him and after a long while, he finally took to it. Fast forward to now-- Aidan is trying to crawl. He finally gets the idea that you have to be on your knees, but he's developed this habit of crossing legs at the ankles (when he reclines, sits, you name it) and he doesn't realize that just won't do if you want to crawl.

He keeps trying. He'll be sitting or on his back when all of a sudden, he's on his belly and gets into position. He gets on his knees and pushes up-- but he doesn't yet get that you have to push up on your hands and straighten your arms. He keeps his head on the ground and grunts. Then screams. Then cries in frustration. All we can do is cheer him on and them watch him fall to his side so he can do his signature rollover.

Out loud, I encourage him to keep trying--- "you don't have to do it all today, Aidan!" But in my head, especially after he's nursed and I'm holding his sleeping form in my arms, I think ,"Slow down... don't be in such a hurry to grow up!"

When Mommies Attack

When I started this blog many months ago, it was a result of going to a seminar and building one for work. I thought it would be a fun way to keep friends and family updated on my pregnancy and some of the trials and tribulations experienced as a first-time mom. In the back of my brain, I knew that having a blog meant everyone with access to the world wide web would see these pictures and ramblings, but that didn’t bother me at the time. There are millions of blogs out there about parents and their babies—why would anyone not known to or related to me even bother?

So, imagine my surprise when I received a flaming email from Ricki (who I don’t know) early this morning.

“i was into your blog until you started getting all my kid is better than yours.”


What the hell? If you know me (which Ricki obviously doesn’t) I’m not that kind of person and I have never written anything that says that. I can see now where she might have picked up this tone—my post about Aidan’s high fivin’ was meant to be tongue in cheek, but I guess that didn’t come through. (I mean really, high fivin’ is hardly a skill and he hasn’t done it since!)

In any case, Ricki continued her virtual tirade insulting me, my child, my husband and working mothers. She continued to say that her being a stay-at-home mom to three boys made her a “real” mom and then she cast a “pox” on me and my family.

Oh, she also called me a cow and attacked my ethnicity. Nice.

There were more insults and unsolicited, fragments of so-called mothering advice, but really, it was just mean.

I naively thought motherhood was this universal club where other moms shared knowing looks and supported each other, whether you chose to stay home or not. I’m lucky to be surrounded by friends that are moms (stay at home and working) that share advice and do not judge because our parenting styles and decisions are different. I’m sure in a perfect world, all moms would love to stay home with their babies, but a lot of them can’t. I’m one of them. I think when it comes down to it, parents want happy, healthy kids and they will do whatever it takes to attain that in order to raise them into kind, happy, productive adults. As long as that is the goal, does the “means” matter, as long as no one is getting hurt, taken advantage of, etc.?

I don’t think I’m different from any other mother that revels in the little, ordinary milestones that babies do—probably not a lot blog about it. I could blog about sleepless nights, worrying about whether he’s nursing enough, how tired I am at the end of the day—but why waste time complaining when I can talk about the small “unordinary,” fun things that my kid is doing?

Since I can blog, I do because I want to share this news with those who care. If you don’t care, don’t read my blog.

Ricki, you are very lucky to be able to stay home with your boys and they are lucky to have you. I truly hope you and yours never experience the feelings of intolerance, judgment, and downright meanness your email inflicted on me.

rice is nice!

Aidan had his first taste of "solid" food on Saturday. We obviously don't have to worry about this kid's appetite-- this is Aidan's "I want more" face. You'll get this face when he is "presented the boob" or food (his or yours) is anywhere within arms reach. Sometimes he makes this face when he wants to be picked up by me or Paul. It's hilarious.

The signs that your baby are ready for solid foods include sitting up on his own (check), interest in what you're eating (double check) and not being totally satisfied after nursing (um, kinda.) Aidan was ready three weeks ago according to what you read, but we opted to wait after his six month appointment with baby doc to get some tips on how to introduce solids.

Or, maybe he was just reveling in the fact that he now uses a high chair positioned at the head of table?

So, rice cereal has been a success. Next installment-- applesauce. Yum!

has it really been six months?

where did the time go? aidan is now six months old!

when i was pregnant, every parent i talked to would say, "enjoy it-- time flies.. have your camera ready because he's going to change a lot..." they weren't kidding.

here is a little pictorial showing a little of the month-to-month change stuff we were warned about (thanx to Nynz for pointing me towards slide.com):

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

high fivin' fil-am guy

Last night, Aidan gave his Lola Ely a "high five." Then he gave me one. Then he gave Daddy one. I can't describe how awesome it was to watch his little brain process the words "high five" and then, watching his little hand raise up to meet yours in response.

My child is a frickin' genius.

Then, he showed how he is learning "close...open." I think every Filipina mom teaches their baby this. Basically, in a sing-song voice, you say "close...open" while you close and open your hand and then your baby's. My mom has been diligently singing this to Aidan since he was an infant and last night, he did a little close-opening himself.

My child is frickin' amazing.

Aidan turns 5 months old this Saturday. I can't wait to see what he shows us next.

BTW, the photo above is Aidan and me before his christening last Saturday. He's reaching for his Tito/Ninong Larry's camera.
(Or, maybe this was a preview of the high-five?! )