Go speed racer!

This week Daddy put together Aidan's highchair and Aidan is now eating his meals like a big boy there, instead of in his swing. He is also scooting like crazy, and can make it from one side of the room to the other if he has toys to follow! Mommy has started babyproofing the house, but it is going to be hard to stay ahead of Aidan! One day this week Aidan started to pull himself up on the side of his crib, so Mommy and Daddy need to drop the mattress down quickly, too. It is amazing how fast Aidan is moving right now!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Mommy and Daddy celebrated Valentines' Day a day early this week, since Daddy had a conference in Colorado, February 13th-15th. We all went out to lunch on Tuesday at Emilou's Cafe, and talked about how amazing it was that it was on Valentines' Day one year ago when we had an ultrasound and found out that Aidan was going to be a boy! We know much more about each other now. :)

On Saturday, we all drove up to Grandma and Grandpa Ruane's mountain house in the Catskills to stay for the long President's Day weekend. Grandma and Grandpa babysat Aidan for almost three hours while Mommy and Daddy went out to celebrate Mommy's birthday on their first real date since Aidan arrived! We enjoyed delicious seafood and Chardonnay at Peekamoose restaurant, and the chance to have an uninterrupted conversation for over an hour - what an amazing luxury!

On Sunday, we kept celebrating, with a delicous birthday breakfast made by Grandma, mommy's favorite pizza at Brio's for lunch, and delectable flourless chocolate cake at Marguerite & Nadir's house before dinner. Yum! Aidan was enthralled with Nadir's grand-daughters (Shane and Skylar), who kissed and cuddled and cradled and patted him. He also laughed for their mom, Rebecca, who gave him tons of Eskimo kisses. This was all amazing, since Aidan is definitely developing stranger anxiety right now - he must have been able to tell that they were kind and wonderful people!

Aidan's most amazing development this week is his confidence in his mobility: he now decides where he wants to go and scoots, rolls, rolls, and scoots all the way over! It seems rather exhausting, but he is motivated, and he even tries to roll over the pillows that Mommy puts in his way to constrain him! Mommy and Daddy really need to accelerate our babyproofing of the apartment!

Scooting!

This has been a bit of a crazy week for us. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Aidan woke up, ready to start the day, at 4:00AM! Daddy was an amazingly good sport about it and played with him while Mommy slept, and then Mommy took over and let Daddy nap. But we are definitely not planning on moving to Europe (or adopting their time zone!), so neither of us were very happy about Aidan's strange time-change. Later in the week we played with sleep: we delayed Aidan's bedtime by an hour (7:30PM instead of 6:30PM) and had a few nights where we spent hours trying to get him to stay asleep (he really wants to sleep ON us right now and keeps waking up when he is in his crib). Finally, he changed his clock around, has actually slept for 4 or 5 hours straight for 3 of the last 4 nights (5 hours was a first since the day he was born!), and has been waking up late at 8:00AM!

We think the crazy sleep stuff might be due to big developmental changes going on. This week Aidan started scooting, which has been really exciting! He will hold a crawling position for a few seconds if we put him on all fours, and now face-plants on the floor, pushes his bum into the air, and pushes himself forward. He can move at least 3-4 feet in length with this new method. He can even scoot OVER Daddy, if he starts by leaning against his chest, and can also turn over once he is done scooting.

The other new thing this week is that we have started feeding Aidan two solid meals a day: this week it has been pears for lunch, and carrots or avocados for dinner. Aidan loves the carrots, and the pears are making it easier for his little bowels to process the solids. But the first time he tried avocados he hated it! He refused to swallow and left the avocado on his tongue until he could spit it out! Mommy hopes he changes his mind on avocadoes - she thinks they are delicious.

On the social front, Aidan had a playdate with his friends Jack and Grace on Thursday while Mommy hung out with their mommies (Jeanie and Sara), and we all had fun. Aidan and Jack sat next to each other and exchanged toys over and over again (the blocks went round and round and round!), and Aidan looked like he was trying to kiss Grace for a while (or at least munch on her round little cheeks!). On Sunday we all had a potluck at Aidan's friend Dakota's apartment, and the parents enjoyed talking and watching while the babies played on the floor. It is so nice to have such a wonderful community here!

Dum ditty dum

Aidan has started trying to fly this week -within just a couple of days, he has started to flap his arms up and down all the time. One day, Mommy was reading "Hand, hand, fingers thumb" to him at bedtime and drummed his hands on the book along with the story ("dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum"). The next day he wanted to drum his hands on every book we read! One night Daddy splashed Aidan's hands in the water at bathtime. The next night, Aidan couldn't stop splashing his hands himself! He can even pick up two wooden coasters and hit them together repeatedly to make drum sounds! It is quite an amazing accomplishment.

The other thing Mommy and Daddy are amazed at this week is Aidan's hair: he all-of-a-sudden has a significant amount of it! Some if it is almost 2 inches long, and it now takes a while to dry after a bath. It is now long enough that Mommy and Daddy turn it into a mohak for fun. In the doctor's office this week (where we visited because of Aidan's cold), a lady told Mommy that she liked his hair cut, and was surprised to find out that it was totally natural!