Thanksgiving

Aidan's first Thanksgiving was a whirlwind of visiting family and tons of food. After meeting up with the Ruane aunts, uncles and cousins earlier in the week, we all drove up to Grandma and Grandpa Ruane's mountain house in the Catskills on Tuesday for the real party. The immediate Ruane family was all there (Uncle Gabe, Aunt Karen, and cousin Miya; Uncle Matt, Aunt Devon, and cousins Rae and Elsey; and Grandma and Grandpa Ruane), and more people poured in each day, including Uncle Jon-Michael Ross (who flew in from Purdue on Wednesday) and tons of second cousins, great-aunts and uncles and other friends and family. For Thanksgiving dinner we had 31 people in total, and we chowed down on a 41 pound turkey! Throughout the week, Daddy had fun playing wiffle-ball with his brothers, and Aidan was sprightly and flexible, despite being passed around among tons of ooohing and ahhing strangers. Here are some highlights from the week:

- On Wednesday, we chilled out and Mommy made three apple pies (a Ross favorite), while Aunt Karen made two banana-cream pies (a Ruane favorite).

- On Thursday we had the Thanksgiving feast at 6PM, after which Daddy's cousin Tim and his girlfriend Ulrike (who are professional musicians in Manhattan) spoiled us with an incredible piano and violin concert in the living room. Ulrike told Mommy that a musician must "fall in love with" their violin like they fall in love with a person - her violin was made in 1780 and her parents had to sell a house to buy it!

- On Friday we had a bonfire in the backyard, after which a Tango instructor came to the house and led the Thanksgiving crowd plus visiting neighbors in a night of dancing.

- On Saturday morning, the grandkids made bookends for Grandma Ruane by painting their hands with acrylic paint and making handprints on stones from the stream. Afterwards, we celebrated a second surprise 60th birthday party for Grandpa Ruane with more extended family, shared stories about him, and presents, including a Kubota BX24 tractor from Grandma!

- On Sunday, we packed up, took Uncle Jon-Michael out to Brio's (Mommy's favorite pizza in the whole world), and drove back to the City where we shared one last night with Uncle Gabe, Aunt Karen and Miya, before they flew back to California and we started another normal week.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We may need extra naps this week to recover, but we had a wonderful time.

Macy's & Baby Weights

This Saturday Mommy attended her first exercise session with a personal trainer (Christopher Warden, the husband of Mommy's friend Sara - from our new mom's group), and loved it! Aidan got to be a weight for part of the time, and got entertained by Christopher while Mommy did squats, push-ups, planks, lunges, and other exercises for an hour. Mommy is looking forward to going back!

Saturday night we all took the subway down to Macy's - a nine story extravaganza packed like sardines with holiday shoppers. They had an entire floor of decorated Christmas trees, and their Christmas decorations are not officially up until after Thanksgiving! Aidan loved the lights but got overwhelmed with all the stimulation and was happy to get home and sleep in a familiar place.

Although Daddy has work on Monday and Tuesday, Sunday has started our Thanksgiving week: Aunt Karen, Uncle Gabe and cousin Miya flew in from San Francisco and are staying with us until Tuesday. Grandma and Grandpa Ruane drove down from the Catskills and took us all out to brunch at the New Leaf Cafe in Fort Tryon Park this morning. Tomorrow we are meeting up with Uncle Matt, Aunt Devon and cousins Rae and Elsey at the toy superstore FAO Schwartz - the kids are going to be in kid-heaven! Then we're off to the Catskills on Tuesday and we'll spend the rest of the week visiting with 32 other friends and family. We should have some great Thanksgiving picts to post next time!

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! We are so thankful for each other and all of you. :)

Shots and Snow

So, to continue:
Last week Aidan had his first shots (on his four month "birthday" - what a terrible gift!), poor baby! Because of problems with office staff communication, we've switched pediatricians to Dr. Yolanda Eng, who all the local moms love. Mommy and Daddy like her so far too, but Aidan screamed and turned bright red when another doctor in her office did his shots on Wednesday, so he might disagree - at least as long as he remembers that experience! After the shots, Aidan sobbed for a couple of minutes but Mommy nursed and comforted him, and he pulled through and was okay to leave in his stroller - what a brave baby boy! The next couple of days he was fussier than normal, and was making his "uncomfortable" sounds (which usually refer to being too hot or cold), so we think he didn't feel too well. However, a weekend with Grandparents who were dying to play with him helped!
On Friday night we drove up to the Catskills, which Aidan is now wonderful about (only a five minute gas stop on the way up -hooray!). And on Satuday morning we awoke to a winter wonderland! Every remaining leaf was covered in a glistening blanket of snow, just like out of storybooks! It was just cold enough to "stick", so we ran outside and got some pictures, and Daddy made Aidan his first snowball! We had a wonderful weekend. :)

Preview

This weekend we visited Grandma and Grandpa Ruane in the Catskills for the long Veteran's Day weekend. Here's a shot of Aidan napping happily in the living room. Mommy got some more work done with the free babysitting and Daddy helped Grandma cook lots of meat pasta sauce and meatballs (a Ruane family recipe which is out of this world!) in preparation for Thanksgiving. Aidan had his first bath in Grandma Ruane's wonderful bubble-bath-tub with a forest view and saw his first snow! We'll post some more picts soon.

A Day in the Life of an Almost-Four Month Old

Instead of doing a "this week..." entry, today instead is "a day in the life...."

On a regular day, Mommy and Aidan get out of bed after our last nursing of the night to change a big baby diaper. This wakes Aidan up out of his night sleep, and he turns into a sunshiney baby alarm clock for Daddy when we go back to bed, all clean and dry. While Mommy and Daddy yawn, Aidan watches us with bright eyes and gives us tons of gigantic smiles and tells us in cooing happy baby talk all about his dreams and how wonderful he thinks the light is in the window. Then Mommy gives Aidan to Daddy and takes a blissful shower while Daddy plays with Aidan in bed, singing songs, crackling and throwing his ball up and down, dancing his Teddy with him, and talking to him. Once Mommy is out of the shower, Mommy plays with Aidan and Teddy while brushing her teeth and getting dressed, and Daddy showers and gets ready for work. Then Daddy goes to work on the subway and Mommy and Aidan begin our day.

In the morning, Aidan plays in his play gym while Mommy eats her cheerios, next we read a couple of books, and then Aidan has his breakfast and takes a nap in his swing. Mommy tries to work on her dissertation while he is napping. When Aidan wakes up, we go through our baby play stops, one by one - always, of course interspersed with nursing snacks! On the floor, we play in the baby gym, where Aidan currently loves grabbing and trying to eat his sun-rattle; we do "tummy time," and Mommy shows Aidan interesting things (like patterned balls and moving fingers) to practice eye tracking and develop neck muscle; and we practice rolling, back-to-tummy and tummy-to-back. In the bed, Mommy puts Aidan on her tummy and slowly rolls him from there to one side and back again, while he stares, amazed, at how the world flips over and back; Mommy flies Aidan like a little airplane around in figure eights; and our newest trick is for Mommy to do sit-ups while Aidan does tummy time on her shins (check out the cool picture! - Aidan laughs and laughs when we do this - he loves it, and it's a great workout!). In the glider, we read books, and Aidan turns the pages. On the changing table, Mommy has kissing attacks on Aidan's tummy, toes, and face (he's kissable from head to toe). On the couch, we play "this little piggy" and play tickling games ("heads, shoulders, knees and toes..") And around the house, we dance and dance.

When we get bored of the house, we go outside: We get all bundled up and strap on the Ergo or pull out the stroller and walk around the neighborhood. We watch the kids playing on the playgrounds (Aidan can't wait to play on the jungle gyms), and hike around the trails in the parks. Sometimes we meet up with other new moms from our New Mommy Group, and Aidan talks to the other babies while Mommy talks to their mommies.

When Daddy comes home, Aidan gives him huge smiles and starts getting ready for the real party. Daddy usually takes Aidan out on another walk to the park, where they watch the kids playing basketball, and Daddy gives Aidan a bottle. (In the meantime, Mommy does some more work on her dissertation at home.) When they return, Aidan has another snack and a big warm bath, and then climbs into snuggly pajamas to get ready for bed. Daddy makes dinner and then sings and dances with Aidan until he's had enough partying, and then Mommy gives him another snack and he sleeps for a while in his swing. Mommy and Daddy have their dinner and work or putter around and then go to bed. Mommy picks up Aidan when he needs another snack later, and they all sleep (or sleep and snack) until the morning.

On weekends, Mommy passes Aidan off to Daddy when Aidan is not nursing so she can work on her dissertation, and Daddy plays with him all day long and goes on long walks and makes delicious food for everyone. Daddy does a lot of the same thing Mommy does, but he is very creative and comes up with all sorts of exciting new games to play with Aidan. This week, he started playing "car wash", where he walks over Aidan with a towel, swishing it back and forth, while Aidan lies on the ground. Aidan smiles and smiles up at him - he loves all the amazing new things that Daddy comes up with to keep him entertained!

This is what we do on a usual day. Wish we could share it with you in person more often!