Daycare

Last week Mommy uploaded the blog from the Catskills without only Grandpa Ruane's photos, so this week we are throwing in a few picts from last week in as well. Here is one of Aidan playing in the guitar case (he and Daddy played a game where Aidan pretended to go to sleep in the guitar case), and another of Mommy and Aidan and Hannah - a friend of Mommy's from before high school who she reconnected with over Facebook. Hannah came up to have breakfast with Mommy last Friday morning, and they had a lot of fun catching up together.


This week, things have continued to go on at a somewhat frenetic pace. Aidan had his first two days of daycare on Tuesday and Wednesday, and even through the people there are wonderful, the transition has been tough. It is a small family daycare on 163rd street that his friend Cira attends (she loves it) with a woman named Maria Lara (she goes by"Tia Nina"), and Aidan will be attending two full days per week (Tuesday and Wednesday, 9AM-5PM). He was miserable when we left both days this week, and he stayed in his stroller (his safe space) for a long time on Tuesday, (though less time on Wednesday) to adjust. Mommy picked him up early (2:30) on Tuesday, but by Wednesday he managed to go down for a nap there without nursing (not normal for him), and so didn't need to get picked up till the regular time. We were all so proud of him!

On Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, Laurie watched Aidan, and he was thrilled to see her familar face and play with her yellow lab, Mellow. We are doing to transition into a schedule where Aidan is in daycare full days Tuesday and Wednesday, and then does half days with Laurie on Thursday and Friday. That will allow Mommy and Daddy three full days per week to get work done (which we simply just have to have more time for at this point), and will hopefully allow all of us to see each other at night time a few times a week as well. We have done well with our crazy schedule so far (Mommy working 6-11:30AM at Starbucks, Daddy at his office 12/1-10PM at his office), but is exhausting, and we need to do something different. We hope that this will be a good option for us for at least a little while.

Since Aidan will be in daycare now regularly, and Mommy is going to be gone most of the day for the next two weeks at a UN event for the next two full weeks, Mommy and Daddy are finally working really hard to help Aidan go to sleep by himself. Until now, he has nursed to sleep at naps and at bedtime, and so it is hard. But he is making great progress, and we are very proud of him! By the end of this week, even when Mommy was around, Aidan was able to cuddle to sleep rather than nursing, and that is a very big step for all of us. The transition is emotionally exhausing, but we know it will be worth it and everyone will be happier because of the change, so we are committed to the change.

Happy Birthday, Mama!

Things started out being crazy this week, but slowed down nicely by the weekend. Last weekend we had a lovely time getting ready for and going to Julia and Wayne's wedding. The ceremony was wonderful, Julia looked stunning, and they had an incredible party to celebrate afterward! Aidan got a lot of complements in his (rediculously cute) tuxedo, and was a great sport throughout the party, finally passing out while dancing with Daddy on the dance floor.
After flying back on Monday morning, things went into high gear. Mommy had a good time at her conference on Monday through Wednesday, despite it being hectic. She heard a great panel on teaching in IR, enjoyed lunches, dinners, and coffees with friends, was thrilled to pick up her national teaching award, and got some great job seaching advice. Meanwhile, Aidan was happy to see his babysitter Laurie again and was totally happy to hang out with her and Daddy while Mommy was at her conference. On Wednesday, Aidan stayed with a neighbor and then Laurie picked him up, so that Mommy could go to her conference and Daddy could take the train down to Washington D.C. for a World Bank presentation of his Bangladesh work. Fortunately, everything worked out for the most part, and we were all happy on Thursday that the conference and D.C. travel were over and we could all slow down a bit.

Friday night, we drove up to the Catskills to see Grandma and Grandpa Ruane and celebrate Mommy's birthday. (Mommy turned 29 on Tuesday, but she had her conference to attend, so we postponed celebrations until the weekend.) We had a very nice weekend. Mommy was thrilled to have the massage (from Elaine Grandy - a masseuse with magical hands!) thanks to Grandma, eat the chocolate mousse cake that Daddy bought, go snow-shoeing through the woods with Daddy, and take a long bubble bath in Grandma's wonderful bathroom (while looking out on softly falling snow). Aidan loved seeing Grandma and Grandpa ("Mi-ma" and "Boppa" at the moment), and they loved seeing how much his language has jumped (he has been going through a language burst recently and is talking up a storm), and playing with him (he played "cocoa party" for half an hour with Grandma and Daddy, and loved throwing pingpong balls down the stairs with Grandpa). We love being able to get away up here!

Wedding

Last week we flew to California for Mommy's friend Julia's wedding. We double-booked the week, with Mommy meeting with dissertation advisors all day Wednesday and Daddy giving talks at Scripps on Thursday and Friday. The rest of the time, we enjoyed hanging out with Julia. We flew back to NY on Monday, and Mommy washed her face, changed into a suit, and took a train down town right away for a conference. Things are a little crazy right now, so we'll add more text updates. But here are some wedding photos for now.

Some favorite things

One of Mommy's favorite part of the day right now is when Aidan nurses before bathtime. He does amazing acrobatics all the while, but we have a wonderful time. First, we talk about what we did during the day, and then we act silly until I hoist him into the bath, despite protests otherwise. I list out all the events and ask him about them, and he loves reliving everything. Our conversations go something like this:

Mommy: Did you have fun at playgroup with Daddy this morning?

Aidan: Uh huh!

Mommy: Did you see your friends? Nate and Dillon? Dakota? Lilly?

Aidan: Uh huh!

Mommy: And then you came back and found Mommy at Starbucks

Aidan: Uh huh!

Mommy: And then we came home?

Aidan: (delatch) Us! (relatch)

Mommy: All of us, together?

Aidan: (delatch) Oooh eee oooh eee ooh (relatch)

Mommy: Oh, that's right, did you like seeing the fire engine on the walk home?

Aidan: Uh huh! BuS!

Mommy: Oh, and the buses? Did we see some buses?

Aidan: Uh huh!

...

When we are done with the day in review, we act silly. Aidan stays latched nursing on as long as possible, delaying the bath (which he now never wants to take), and Mommy tickles him to make him laugh. Aidan loves this, and we usually go through a routine where Mommy starts tickling, and Aidan laughs and laughs, and then says and signs "Moah!" (more). Then Mommy tickles some more, but he shakes his head sternly and says "no!" Then Mommy stops and says "okay", but makes a silly face with her eyebrows up (like "are you sure?"), and then Aidan gives in with a gigantic smile and says "Moah!" (more). Mommy tickles him some more, and we do that round and round again. Aidan never wants to actually get into the bath anymore (although once he is in, he is usually fine), but our time before the bath is precious-connecting-just us enjoying each other time, and I love it.

Other things that we love about Aidan right now include his laugh (it's so exhilarated and joyous and wonderful!), and some of the games we have been playing: Marco Polo (Aidan says "Mama!" at the top of his voice, and Mama says "Polo!", and suddenly the battle of wills turns into a game - Aidan even says something that sounds like "Marco" sometimes!); and a yes/no game we play while Aidan is in his highchair (he says "No, no, no! And Mama looks mischievous and whispers "yes" into his ears, and he laughs uproariously).

This week, Aidan has been really excited about cooking; we bought a toy food set and some toy wooden eggs, and he has been cutting the food (with help), putting the eggs in and out of the egg carton, spooning them from the frying pan into a bowl and back, moving food around pots and pans with ladels, and generally looking like a small chef.

He is also continuing to use new words: this week it has been "Mei mei" (Ming Ming from the Wonderpets), "Cuck" ("Tuck" from the Wonderpets, "duck" for Ming Ming, or "dark" when he turns the lights off), "Guckoo" ("Thank you"), "home", "mice", "rice", and some signs: a violin pseudo-sign, open and shut (from "Wheels on the bus"), and help. On Sunday night, he even said "Moah bus!" (more bus!) - his first two-word combination (other than "no, no, no!" or "no moah" (no more))!

He is also beginning both to be more afraid of things and to face his fears. At the beginning of the week he became really afraid of elephants (their big noses scared him), but every day he asked for an elephant ("more" & trumpeting noise)! On Wednesday he had a big step: he has been afraid of vacuum cleaners since he was born, but on Wednesday, he asked to push it when Mommy had it on, and then he told her to leave ("Buh bye! Buh bye!") while he vacuumed himself! Mommy was so proud.

One quick last thing: on Sunday, we all took a family outing on the Staten Island Ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyline at sunsett. It was beautiful! Afterwards, we got dinner at an L&L Drive-In franchise nearbye (an awesome Hawaiian plate lunch spot!), and Aidan loved Spam musubi, kahlua pig with rice, and haupia. Mommy was elated to have Hawaiian food and thrilled that Aidan loved it too!

Flags and more

A few weeks ago, Mommy and Daddy bought a world map shower curtain that also has world flags at the bottom of it, and it has made bath time so much fun! The flags are right at eye-level for Aidan, and he can now identify a bunch of them: He points out the U.S. flag if you ask him where "Aidan's flag" (or "Mama's flag" or "Dada's flag") is, he also can pick out Greece, China, Canada, and Kiribati (which has a cool picture of an ocean with a sun and a bird above it), as well as his favorite flags: Kenya and Swaziland. He loves these last two because he thinks their shield images are guitars -he always finds them and says his word for guitar, "boo-wah! boo-wah!"! Daddy has fond memories of finding errors on the world map shower curtain that was in his bathroom growing up (his parents would pay him 10 cents for every error that he found), and so it is fun for Mommy and Daddy to continue in this tradition.

Here are some photos of our babysitter Laurie with Aidan. The last time she left, she asked for a kiss, and he pecked her on the check totally happily. She then informed Mommy that that was it: we were stuck with each other!

Aidan has been learning new animal sounds recently. This week, he learned that horses say "neigh", and now he usually will say that any animal that you ask him about says "neigh" as well. The default animal sound used to be a dog sound ("heh heh heh" heavy breathing or "oh ar ar ar" barking sounds), but it has definitely switched. He says it in a cute, sing-songy voice with his eyebrows up ("NAY-ee!"), which is even more cute when it is an incorrect response to a question (like, "what does a bear say?"). He sometimes will also tell you that monkeys say "oooh! ooh! ooh!" and he also knows that elepants make trumpeting noises (he purses his lips together and blows in a very realistic fashion). But the default right now is "NAY-ee!"

Aidan has also been working really hard on language. If you ask him to say a word, he will try to say it, and it turns into a fun game for us! He is getting really good at "s" sounds, and has been saying "BuS! BuS!" all week (he loves his toy bus). He also can say "ice", "us", "zoo" and "bahbow" (sometimes baseball and sometimes bubbles).

He has been particularly into "up/down" games recently too. He stands by the steps and stands up tall ("uh!") and then crouches down ("dow!") and repeats this, over and over and over again.

Here are some highlights from this week:

On Tuesday, Aidan continued to be Troy's (the playgroup director's) biggest fan: he now regularly stands millimeters away from Troy when he plays his guitar, and bopps his head, claps, and dances to the music. Troy is very patient, even though it must be difficult to play guitar without bumping into Aidan with him so close!

On Thursday, we had a playdate with Aidan's friend Sebastian, his sister Jasmyne, and their mom Vanessa. Aidan followed Jasmyne everywhere, wanted every toy that she picked up, and eventually decided that he wanted to hold her hand and walk everywhere with her. Jasmyne played very nicely with him, even though she didn't want to hold his hand, and they ended up both happily cuddling while watching The Wonderpets together.


On Sunday, we took another trip to the Bronx Zoo. It was a gorgeous, warm winter day (it got up to 52 degrees! so much better than 25!), and we had a wonderful time visiting the tigers, sea lions, penguins, and frogs.