Happy Halloween!!!

Hope you all had a great day! Here are some picts of us at a party, checking out the neighborhood costume parade, and playing with pumpkins.

Gecko hands

This week Mommy and Daddy have been totally amazed by how Aidan has gained exponential control over his hands. He can now quickly grab and hold onto things! Aidan especially loves holding onto Grandma Ross's butterfly chew-toy and her crackley-sounding ball with his hands and mouth, while it is in his lap. (Daddy also throws this ball up in the air over the bed in the morning, and Aidan watches it like a cat, completely enthralled!) Most incredibly, Aidan has started turning the pages of books that Mommy reads to him! It is totally amazing to see him do this - not always totally intentionally, but always impressively!

Mommy and Daddy are also delighted that Aidan is laughing so much. We love kissing Aidan's tummy on the changing table, or kissing his chin and tickling his face and hearing him giggle - it is such an incredibly cute sound! Every time Aidan laughs, we join in- we just can't help it. :)

This week, Aidan and Mommy went to our usual playgroups on Tuesday and Thursday (here is a picture of some of the mommies in the New Mommy Group). And on Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa Ruane visited, and we all visited the New York Botanical Garden's Japanese Chrysanthemum exhibit, and then built Aidan's baby bed. So, now Aidan's room only needs its finishing touches to be done - Mommy is thrilled!

Headshots

Here are some head-shots of Aidan - Mommy went a little camera-crazy this week! He is just SO cute!!!

Big City Baby

This week Aidan is getting incredibly close to rolling over! He swings one leg over the other one so that it touches the floor and arches his back around, but can't quite get over his arms, which are usually in front of him because of his fingers (which are stuffed in his mouth). On Tuesday, he turned so he was lying completely on his side on the changing table, but didn't push any further. We are looking forward to the complete turn sometime soon! Recently, Alex has also discovered that he can give Aidan toys, and Aidan will grab them and hold on to them. He loves grabbing rainbow colored cups in the tub and his "itsy-bitsy spider" toy on his play gym. He can even stop the spider from inching back up its elasticized web -- talk about strength and eye-hand-coordination! Aidan has also been having fun "flying" with Daddy around the house - body horizontal to the ground, head forward, and tiny face shining with excitement. We are having a lot of fun playing together!

Our big adventure this week was having our friends Julia and Wayne come to visit from Los Angeles. We all tramped around the big City, and Aidan had his first taxi ride and first visit to Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero and FAO Schwarz. We also checked out Central Park and Time Square again, ate at Ray's Pizza on Lexington and got a good walking workout! It was wonderful to visit with Julia and Wayne, and Aidan was fantastic- he talked to the people and lights, slept in the Ergo carrier, and nursed all over the place without getting too distracted. We had a great time!

Time Square and Birthday with Grandpa

On Monday we took Aidan to Time Square for the first time, and he loved all of the flashing lights and people! When we went to bed that night, he slept for 6 straight hours (9:30PM - 3:30AM) - the longest time yet! That hasn't repeated itself since then, but Mommy is thrilled to know that it is possible!

Then, this weekend we drove up to the Catskills to celebrate Grandpa Ruane's 60th birthday with him - a big milestone! Grandpa drops everything to play with Aidan (which Mommy thinks is wonderful!), and he enjoyed playing recorder and tambourine for Aidan and having lots of baby conversations with him.

Our drives to the Catskills are getting more and more beautiful as the fall deepens. As we drove through the mountains this weekend, it felt like we were part of a school of fish swimming through a coral forest full of golden brain coral and scarlette fan coral, with cumulous sea foam clouds floating above us, and fish-food leaves scattering softly across our path. Mommy and Daddy love the fall!

Laughs and more

This week, Mommy and Daddy are both convinced that Aidan is beginning to have little baby laughs! He also has started singing with us when we sing to him, which is incredibly cute! We have a couple of other milestones this week, too: Most excitingly, Aidan has started accepting bottles again! We started getting him used to bottles in San Diego, but stopped over the past month because of the craziness of moving. Fortunately, Aidan is still willing to give bottles of expressed milk another shot -- hooray! The other big step is that we have set up a pediatrician for Aidan (Dr. Charles Gordon), and we discovered in our first appointment today that Aidan is officially weighs 15 lbs 2 oz, is about 26 inches long, and is in the 85th and 91st percentile for weight and height (a very well-propotioned baby!). So, now we know why Aidan has already grown out of everything but the 3-6month and 6-9 month clothes!

At Mommy's New Mom's group this week, Aidan started a baby conversation with some of the other babies - some of his first with his peers (rather than family, his fish mobile, or various pieces of household furniture!) Mommy was very impressed.

Rallies and apple-picking

This week, Aidan attended his first political rally and went apple-picking!

On Thursday, we took the subway down to Washington Square, where we met Daddy and joined thousands of other people in watching Barack Obama deliver a rousing presidential campaign speech. Aidan was wonderful! He loved the lights and people on the subway ride, stayed awake for a couple of hours while the political pundits prepped for Obama, and didn't mind too much nursing while packed like sardines in with tons of NYU students and other New Yorkers. (Although he was extremely excited to see everyone - he has reached a point now where we have to hood him like a little hawk to nurse in public, or he cranes his neck around and can't concentrate on eating!) He finally fell asleep toward the end of the rally, in the midst of a rallying chant of "fire it up! (fire it up!) ready to go?! (ready to go!)" between Obama and the at least 10,000 people who were there - quite an accomplishment!

On Friday night, we drove up to the Catskills for the weekend, where Daddy took lots of long walks by the stream and up the windy, foresty road with Aidan, and Mommy got more academic work done than she has managed in ages! The trees are beginning to change color, and there is a constant rain of dry leaves. It is so beautiful! On Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa Ruane took us apple-picking at Stone Ridge Orchard, which was a first both for Aidan and Mommy. We came home loaded with a couple of bags of apples, which will be enough for at least one apple pie (yummy!).

Here's some picts of apple picking, and a random video of Aidan talking to the fish on his swing :).