Aidan discovered his belly button this week, and the discovery process was incredibly cute! On Tuesday afternoon, Mommy and Aidan walked over to check out the public library on 187th and St. Nicholas, where we met up with Aidan's friends Jack and Mossisa. The babies had a great time in the children's room, looking at the giant (3-4 ft in diameter) lamps on the ceiling, climbing and sitting on the semi-circular baby-sized couches, chasing each other around the bookshelves, and reading new board books. They were all moving in different directions for the first hour or so, but after a while, they all ended up playing on the baby couches.
Then, all of a sudden, Mossisa lifted up his T-shirt, looked at his stomach, and got a dawning look of realization on his cherubic face: he realized that he had a belly button! He pointed at it and told all of us what a wonderful discovery it was, and then he reached over to Aidan, lifted Aidan's T-shirt, and exclaimed with a second discovery: Aidan had a belly button too! Aidan's eyes opened wide, and he lifted his own shirt to double check: yes! he had a belly button too! He said "da! da! da!" and shared the good news with everyone. Finally, Jack, who was on sitting on the floor next to the couch and who had been watching this all with great wonder, lifted his own T-shirt, and exclaimed that he too had a belly button! All three of them did! They were all thrilled with the discovery, and it was ridiculously cute to see them all coming to the realization about it at the same time together!
Other points of interest this week:
- On Wednesday, Mommy asked Aidan (as a matter of routine, while playing with Aidan's barnyard puzzle set), "what do horses say, Aidan?" - and out of the blue, he responded: "Neigh!". :) Up until now, he has been responding that doggies breathe loudly ("what do doggies say?" "heh, heh, heh!"; this makes sense to Mommy, since dogs in Manhattan are pretty quiet, and they really do breathe loudly more often than they bark). However, he hadn't started responding with other animal sounds. So, Mommy was amazed that Aidan answered the question at all! By the end of the week, Aidan also at least once said that sheep say "ba". So, Aidan now knows how to make the noises at least for dogs, horses, and sheep!
-Aidan is starting to communicate very well. He says "ma" or "mom" for Mommy, "da" or "da da" for Daddy, says "hah" and "bah" and waves for "hi" and "bye", he both says "moh" and claps as a sign for more, says "ah dah" and makes the "all done" sign (Mommy thinks this is a GREAT sign; he can use it to mean all done or stop; and we can use it to tell him that we are not going to play with something any more, or that we are not eating any more cookies, or whatever; and he understands it and doesn't get upset about stopping something, like he does without the sign!). Aidan also says "mih" and makes the milk sign, makes signs for food, pick-me-up-please (hands up in the air), says "daw" and breathes loudly (the dog sound) for doggies, makes the siren sound (ooh eeyou ooh eeyou) for sirens / firetrucks / ambulences, makes a little sing-songy sound imitating far-off plane engines for airplanes and helicopters, and has other signs and word approximations which he uses which Mommy can't remember at the moment. But he is getting very good at communicating!
- On Friday, Mommy and Aidan had a playdate with Aidan's friends Dillon and Nate (the twins) and Lily (their neighbor) at the twins' house. The kids had fun playing with each other and with the twins' toys, and the mommies had fun hanging out and letting the kids do most of the entertaining of each other!
- In Mommy's opinion, Aidan is now officially running! He can charge along at a great rate, fast enough for Mommy and Daddy to walk normally while he keeps up (at least for a little while). He usually holds out his right hand straight to keep his balance, and swings his left arm in a running motion. His knees only bend a little bit, so it's kind of like jogging or speed-walking, but he is definitely moving fast!
- Favorite books this week: Goodnight Gorilla, Freight Train, Go Dogs, Go!; other contenders: Goodnight Moon, Runaway Bunny, Baby Beluga.
Then, all of a sudden, Mossisa lifted up his T-shirt, looked at his stomach, and got a dawning look of realization on his cherubic face: he realized that he had a belly button! He pointed at it and told all of us what a wonderful discovery it was, and then he reached over to Aidan, lifted Aidan's T-shirt, and exclaimed with a second discovery: Aidan had a belly button too! Aidan's eyes opened wide, and he lifted his own shirt to double check: yes! he had a belly button too! He said "da! da! da!" and shared the good news with everyone. Finally, Jack, who was on sitting on the floor next to the couch and who had been watching this all with great wonder, lifted his own T-shirt, and exclaimed that he too had a belly button! All three of them did! They were all thrilled with the discovery, and it was ridiculously cute to see them all coming to the realization about it at the same time together!
Other points of interest this week:
- On Wednesday, Mommy asked Aidan (as a matter of routine, while playing with Aidan's barnyard puzzle set), "what do horses say, Aidan?" - and out of the blue, he responded: "Neigh!". :) Up until now, he has been responding that doggies breathe loudly ("what do doggies say?" "heh, heh, heh!"; this makes sense to Mommy, since dogs in Manhattan are pretty quiet, and they really do breathe loudly more often than they bark). However, he hadn't started responding with other animal sounds. So, Mommy was amazed that Aidan answered the question at all! By the end of the week, Aidan also at least once said that sheep say "ba". So, Aidan now knows how to make the noises at least for dogs, horses, and sheep!
-Aidan is starting to communicate very well. He says "ma" or "mom" for Mommy, "da" or "da da" for Daddy, says "hah" and "bah" and waves for "hi" and "bye", he both says "moh" and claps as a sign for more, says "ah dah" and makes the "all done" sign (Mommy thinks this is a GREAT sign; he can use it to mean all done or stop; and we can use it to tell him that we are not going to play with something any more, or that we are not eating any more cookies, or whatever; and he understands it and doesn't get upset about stopping something, like he does without the sign!). Aidan also says "mih" and makes the milk sign, makes signs for food, pick-me-up-please (hands up in the air), says "daw" and breathes loudly (the dog sound) for doggies, makes the siren sound (ooh eeyou ooh eeyou) for sirens / firetrucks / ambulences, makes a little sing-songy sound imitating far-off plane engines for airplanes and helicopters, and has other signs and word approximations which he uses which Mommy can't remember at the moment. But he is getting very good at communicating!
- On Friday, Mommy and Aidan had a playdate with Aidan's friends Dillon and Nate (the twins) and Lily (their neighbor) at the twins' house. The kids had fun playing with each other and with the twins' toys, and the mommies had fun hanging out and letting the kids do most of the entertaining of each other!
- In Mommy's opinion, Aidan is now officially running! He can charge along at a great rate, fast enough for Mommy and Daddy to walk normally while he keeps up (at least for a little while). He usually holds out his right hand straight to keep his balance, and swings his left arm in a running motion. His knees only bend a little bit, so it's kind of like jogging or speed-walking, but he is definitely moving fast!
- Favorite books this week: Goodnight Gorilla, Freight Train, Go Dogs, Go!; other contenders: Goodnight Moon, Runaway Bunny, Baby Beluga.
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