Busy week

This week was a very busy one for Aidan and Mommy! We flew to San Francisco on Tuesday and have been staying with Uncle Gabe, Aunt Karen, and cousin Miya Ruane this week, while Mommy has had her International Studies Association conference. Mommy managed to put on a professional hat and do a great job at the conference. In the mean time, Aidan had a hord of friends and family to their best to distract him. We had Tuesday afternoon to take a breath, and then things started really going!

Wednesday included a bit of conference and a lot of family. In the morning, Mommy and Aidan hung out with Mommy's friend Julia, Aunt Karen and cousin Miya Ruane, Aunt Frances Ross, and Cinda and Jim Baize (Uncle Chris's in-laws). Then, Julia, Frances and the Baizes took Aidan to a park downtown while Mommy schmoozed with some book publishers at the conference. Afterward, the Baizes checked out downtown San Francisco while the rest of us met up with some of Mommy's family: Aunt Rachel and Tammy, and our cousins Nat, Nell & Limin, and Elwyn. Afterward, the cousins went out for ice cream at Mitchell's - a delicious ice cream store, and Mommy enjoyed "Macapuno" one of the three kinds of coconut ice cream! (yum!)

On Thursday, Mommy co-chaired her panel and presented her paper, and Julia, Aunt Karen, and Miya played with Aidan. Aidan was not thrilled to be left again, but everyone survived, and he was overwhelmed to see Mommy when she came home!

On Friday, Uncle Gabe took the day off, and Grandma and Grandpa Ruane arrived, so there were reinforcements. That was great, because Mommy had conference commitments 8AM-2PM and then again 6PM-9PM. Unfortunately, Aidan went on a bottle strike and hardly ate anything while Mommy was gone. But fortunately, he "adopted" Uncle Gabe and was mostly calm as long as Gabe was holding him. Mommy came home for a few hours to nurse and celebrate a family birthday party for Grandma and Rae, but had to leave again afterward. That evening, she returned to see Aidan asleep on Uncle Gabe's chest - so cute!

On Saturday, mommy had one last conference meeting to attend, and Aidan again was totally happy, as long as he was with Uncle Gabe. Mommy was amazed that morning when Aidan choose to have Uncle Gabe hold him, not her!

On Sunday, things finally calmed down. Aunt Frances joined the Ruane clan for a delicous birthday breakfast. Then we chilled out while Aidan took a nap at home and then went on a walk to a nearby park.

This week has been a whirlwind for Mommy and Aidan! We are looking forward to seeing Daddy when we go home to New York tomorrow. It has been wonderful to see our family and friends, and for Mommy to revisit her professional self. But it is going to be nice to be home!

Teeth!

This has been an extremely eventful week!

Last Sunday, Aidan started crawling, and although he started slowly, he is now zooming across the floor!

He has also gotten TWO teeth this week! On Tuesday, the first one (bottom center-left) broke through; on Wednesday his gums swelled up and it disappeared again; on Thursday it broke through again; and by Friday the second one (bottom center-right) was well on its way. Today, the swelling in his gums has gone down, and both little white teeth lines are sharp and visible. Fortunately, nursing hasn't felt much different for Mommy (that's a relief, for now!). And although Aidan was up every hour on Monday night, last night he slept for several multiple-hour stretches at a time - so we think he is feeling a little bit better. We have given him Tylenol and some teething gel at night to help him sleep this week, and cuddled with him a lot, which has helped. But Mommy thinks that teething sounds like it must be miserable! We are happy that Aidan won't remember it.

Mommy and Daddy have had a lot of fun playing "catch" with Aidan this week. We throw a ball into his lap, clap and congratulate him on catching it, and then wait for him to throw it back, and congratulate him again. He loves it! He smiles and laughs and pumps his arms up and down in excitement when he catches the ball and after he throws it - it's wonderful! At the beginning of the week, Aidan would pick up the ball and throw it, and it could end up anywhere - forward, back, or either side. But by the end of the week, he has started throwing it consistently forward and a little to the right - it's amazing! Daddy thinks that Aidan is probably a righty (too bad for the left-handed baseball pitcher fantasy!), and both Mommy and Daddy love playing "ball" with our beautiful baby.

On Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa Ruane drove down to take us all out to lunch, where Aidan loved the balloons at the restaurant. They had fun playing with Aidan and were amazed to see all the changes since they last saw him a couple of weeks ago. They will see him again this week, when Mommy flies out to California for a conference. Aidan is coming with her and staying with his Ruane aunts and uncles, and Grandma and Grandpa Ruane are going to help babysit. Daddy is staying behind to work while we are gone (March 25-31), but it's going to be a busy week for everyone!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Surprises

We had lots of surprises this week! First, on Monday, Aidan surprised everyone by "pulling up" on a couch for the first time! He promptly fell over and hit his head - poor baby! - but he is now pulling up quite often (while Mommy pays more attention), and building up his little baby body-building muscles!

On Tuesday Aidan had his next round of shots at the Doctor's office, and we found out his official new stats: He now weighs 20 pounds 1 ounce, is 29 inches long, and his head is 18 inches in circumference. That means he is officially too big for his "infant" carseat, and is now moving on to his convertable carseat!

Then this weekend, Uncle Chris Ross surprised us by visiting Manhattan! So, on Saturday, Mommy, Daddy, and Aidan all took the train downtown to have brunch with him and walk around the city. Aidan took a nap while everyone else was brunching, but then had fun playing with his uncle and showing off how he well he could scoot across the floor of FAO Schwartz! We visited Ground Zero, saw the Statue of Liberty in the distance, walked up Fifth Avenue, checked out Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and scoped out the toys at FAO Schwartz. It was such a treat to see Uncle Chris!!!

Finally, on Sunday while Mommy and Aidan were having a "Skype date" with Grandma and Grandpa Ruane, Aidan started crawling!!!! He saw the webcam on the computer across the room and crawled a good foot or two as he tried to get over and grab it! Previously, he had been doing lots of "commando crawling." Grandma and Grandpa Ross were thrilled to see his new crawling technique, and Mommy was floored that he is starting to crawl already! He is moving towards light speed extremely quickly!

8 months old

Mommy and Aidan have had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Ruane's house in Hopedale, MA this week. Grandma and Grandpa are thrilled to play with Aidan! They have made tons of huge block towers for him to knock down, taken him to the swings and out to brunch and lunch at restaurants, and done anything silly that they could think of to make him laugh! At the beginning of the week, Mommy could only pass him off to Grandma or Grandpa for a few seconds before separation anxiety set in, but Aidan can now hang out with them for up to an hour totally happily!

This week Aidan has started really drinking from a bottle, with consistency unlike ever before. And he is now able to quickly and easily move from his stomach to to a seating position, or vice versa, and move his legs while scooting speedily across the floor. Daddy is going to be amazed when he gets back on Tuesday! Grandma Ruane is sure that Aidan will be crawling soon.

The power of food

Although we have heard that studies supposedly show that giving babies solids does not help them sleep better at night, Mommy thinks that something is wrong with those studies and the old wives are right! This week we started playing with feeding Aidan more food, and he has definitely been sleeping better at night! At lunch on Thursday Aidan ate 3.5oz of pureed pears for lunch with his friend Jack, while the babies' mommies were on a lunch date at Emilou's Cafe (don't the babies look cute in the high chairs?!). Then for dinner, Aidan ate 4oz of chicken/sweetpotato babyfood, about 2oz of pears/oatmeal, and about 3oz of formula! This was amazing, because before now, he would only eat 1 or 2oz of food at mealtimes. The trick, which we learned from Mommy's friend Jeanie, seems to be to give Aidan play breaks when he gets bored of eating; and when he seems like he is really done to change gears and give him dessert (fruit), which he always manages to find more room for; and also to intersperse the food with drinks of formula to wash it all down.

Since he's started eating more, Aidan has stopped waking up every hour or two at night (which he had reverted to at the beginning of the week), and has slept several back-to-back 3hour stretches between 8PM and 8AM. Mommy and Daddy are thrilled, and hope that this trend continues and even improves!!!

On Saturday, Aidan pulled himself from lying on his tummy into a sitting position for the first time! Now he can scoot from a crawling position or sit from a scooting position as well as roll all over the place - he is really mobile!

One thing we forgot to write about last week: one day Mommy was looking away from Aidan for a while and then turned around to say "hi" with a smile, and was rewarded by Aidan clapping! He has only just started to do it and doesn't do it consistently, but Mommy is enchanted that her attention can now inspire applause!

On Saturday this week Daddy flew away to Trieste, Italy for a conference. Mommy and Aidan are taking Amtrak to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Ruane this week while Daddy is gone for 11 days. We will miss each other!