14 months old

Aidan is officially 14 months old today! Despite the cliche, it is somehow still amazing that "babies grow up so fast"!

Aidan created his first artistic masterpiece this week. Mommy bought some large chalks a couple of weeks ago, and has been trying to get Aidan to draw sidewalk art with her at the parks or on the blacktop near our house. But until this week, he was having a hard time holding the chalk in a way that made any color show up on the pavement. But this week, Mommy pulled out the crayon bath toys from Grandma Ross, and after a day of not making much color, Aidan really started to get the hang of it! By the end of the week, he was drawing lots of wavery lines on the corner of the bathtub - one day, he only wanted to use blue, and the next day, he only wanted to use red - so the final work is rather patriotic! Mommy hasn't wiped them off, yet, because seeing her baby's first artwork is so exciting. Here is a picture of Aidan's first masterpiece!
When he has been outside this week, Aidan has been particularly excited by airplanes and helicopters (which fly over our Manhattan apartment at least a few times an hour). When he hears the roar of their engines, he will stop running around, cran his neck back, point, and watch the plane or helicopter move from one side to the other side of the sky, as he says "da! da! da!". It's pretty incredible how dramatically improved his vision is now from when he was little! As his vision has gotten better, he's been excited about buses, then dogs, then squirrels, and now airplanes! It's amazing.

Here are some cute (and not so cute) idiosyncracies about Aidan right now:
- He talks in his sleep: sometimes he says "da!" and he even makes "milk" signs. Sadly, he also cries in his sleep sometimes. He must be having vivid dreams!
- He's getting more cuddly: he'll cuddle up with Mommy and play while nursing, rather than just gulping down the milk and moving on (he plays eye-blinking games and laughs at being blown at in the face; unfortunately, he also shoves his fingers in her mouth and hits sometimes - Mommy usually turns this into a "high five" game, which is much better)
- He cracks himself up! He'll just start going "ha!" for no apparent reason, which makes Mommy and Daddy laugh, which makes him laugh, and the cycle goes on
- He has temper tantrums where he gets into the "downward dog" yoga position, and then bangs his head against the ground: the head-banging and temper tantrums are frustrating, but the posture is pretty funny!
- He now really likes just sitting. He will sit in a corner of the couch and just chill for sometimes five minutes, and he sometimes goes around the cement circle at dolphin park just sitting on the side (taking a break from playing in the water). It's funny to see such an active kid having so much fun just sitting!

This weekend we went to our last "first birthday party" of the summer. Aidan's friend Gus, who was the youngest baby of the New Mom's Group, is finally one, and all of the parents have officially survived the first year. Looking back, it is pretty amazing how different things were a year ago. For us, we had just moved across the country to New York, we had a new apartment, a blow-up bed, a 2-month old baby, and no air-conditioner while waiting in a huge heat-wave for our stuff to arrive by truck across the country; we didn't know anyone and Alex hadn't started his job yet. But now, we are in an apartment that feels like home, with a baby who is his own little person with his own cute personality, air conditioners so we don't go crazy from the heat, a community which we feel fully a part of, friends who we are close to, and jobs which we are getting work done at and enjoy. It's a pretty amazing difference!

This week, Mommy and Daddy are also celebrating an informal anniversary: we have known each other now for 10 years! We can't believe that it was 10 years ago when we met as freshmen at Cornell. There have been a lot of changes during that time (Aidan has definitely been the biggest, most cataclysmic, and wonderful one!), but the one thing that has not changed is that we are so happy that we found each other and are pursuing our journeys together.