Red Sox Baby in New York City

This has been a big week for us. Daddy started his job at NASA-GISS on Monday, Mommy explored some "new mommy" groups in the neighborhood, and Mommy has been trying to convince Aidan to sleep without needing her to nap with him. All of our moving changes have disrupted the old sleep schedule, and we are trying to get back to something that works better for everyone involved! We've also moved from the baby bath to the big bath, and Aidan has been exploring what to him is a pool-sized upgrade and enjoying it a lot! Daddy bought a set of "Mr. Incredible" and "Dash" plastic toys from the Children's Orchard, and Aidan very animatedly tracks Dash in the bath while Daddy holds onto him and Mommy soaps him up. (Here's a picture of Aidan being held up by Daddy's legs in the bath tub.) Aidan has been having grumpy periods at the end of each day - what with walks and playing and hanging out with people, he has a lot to process! However, baths are one of the saving graces from the 5 to 6 PM blues, so we've been having them a lot, whether he's dirty or not! The other things that work are playing "peek-a-boo" and flying him up in the air above Mommy or Daddy's head, so we do those a lot in the early evening, too. :)

This weekend Grandpa and Grandma Ruane drove down for lunch and Mommy's cousin Heather Beljean joined us for dinner on Saturday. It was great to see them! We took the opportunity to try on the Red Sox jersey that Grandpa and Grandma Ruane gave Aidan - isn't he rediculously cute in it? Aidan spat up on it before we went outside (smart baby: he probably knows wearing a Red Sox jersey in New York City would be a rather daring thing to do). But we caught a picture beforehand, and we laughed and laughed about how crazily cute he looked! We also got a cute video of Aidan and Grandpa Ruane talking at the Indian restaurant around the corner that we went to for lunch - hope you like it!

Baby conversations

This file is a couple weeks old, but I only just figured out how to upload a video clip, so here it is! It's a short video of Aidan and Alex having a little baby conversation in the Catskills - Enjoy!

New diaper size!

We finally have an apartment full of furniture and stuff, and after we opened a box with our scale in it, we found out that Aidan now weighs 14 lbs! That means he is officially onto the next bigger diaper size (no.2). He's definitely still growing! Daddy has his first day of work at his new job tomorrow, and we are all looking forward to getting to the end of the boxes and getting back into some kind of routine. Mommy is even looking forward to getting some real work done in her dissertation! Wish us luck - this balancing is going to take some creativity and work.

We've spent the last couple of weeks travelling around between New York and Massachusetts, and Aidan is now pretty happy in his car seat, although he still loves getting out and exploring the world free from restraints.

We hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Ruane in Hopedale, MA, for a couple of days, then in the Catskills, NY, for a few more days, and had a lot of fun seeing friends and family. Then we surprised Aunt Frances who was flying through Boston on her way back to California from Israel by driving back to Boston from NY to visit with her at Chris and Jim's for a couple of days. Frances loved seeing how big Aidan has grown (the last time she saw him he was less than a week old!), and we had fun shopping for baby clothes, eating at Vinny T's Italian restaurant, and playing Nintendo Wii with Chris and Jim. Now we all are back in Manhattan, camping out in our new apartment until our stuff arrives in a couple of days. Aidan loves going on walks, whether it is through the beautiful parks nearby, or through shops in the city.

Since we've gotten to NY, Aidan has started having wonderful baby conversations every day! Each morning, he wakes up with a sun-shiney smile and responds to Mommy and Daddy's "Goodmorning, Aidan! How are you doing today?" with a series of baby language - "ah-gah", "ah-goo", "oh-OH-oh-oh", and most recently lots of little squeaks and chattery sounds. He definitely understands that conversation is an interactive thing, and he loves discussing things with us, and with other people, if they take the time and talk to him! Mommy and Daddy think this new development is wonderful, and we love having conversations together.

Moving to NYC...

Our San Diego apartment is now packed up and rolling across the country toward Manhattan, but we flew ahead to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Ruane in Hopedale and in the Catskills. Aidan was a world class traveler, and loved all of the overhead lights that people kept turning on and off in the airplane. He's also sure to love the Shandaken house as he gets bigger, and currently spends all of his time staring at the contrast between the bright walls and the windows. He was also quite the party animal during our dinner party with people from the Hollow, and still knows how to sleep amidst a din of happy voices. Aidan is smiling every day now, and can control his arms enough to give Mommy cute hugs during feedings. He also loves chirping with anybody who will have a conversation with him.