March 6th 2009
Update
I think a little update on Aidan’s speech and motor development is due.
99% of things Aidan says sound like gibberish, however the intonations are very similar to English.
Here are words he uses:
Daddy
Doggie
Cookie
Cracker
Cork
Bottle
Water
Ball
Kick
Run
Go
No
Thanks
Bye
Kiss
We think he says ‘Where did it go?’ but it sounds more like ‘whe di go?’ accompanied with hands raised in the air and looking around. All the words above do not sound like they are supposed to, but recognizable enough to actually know what he is talking about.
He understands everything now. He closes doors he knows should be closed, picks up trash of the floor and puts it in the trash can. If he finds pieces of dog treats he puts them in her food bowl. He cleans up his table after meals. He always makes sure the lights are turned off before we leave the room.
He can point animals and objects out in his books (favorite are dogs, bananas and balls). However he does it mostly for Jason and ONLY when he feels like it. He still refuses to read books or even look at them for more than 5 sec. He prefers photos of animals / objects to drown pictures. Aidan can point some of his body parts: foot, knee, hair, nose and penis. We are working on the rest.
Aidan is getting a little picky with his food. He will not eat regular food if he is not hungry, but will gobble up a cookie without any problems. So we have to be extra cautions with that. For myself I figured that there are only two reasons Aidan refuses food a) not hungry b) texture or flavor of that particular meal is not appealing. We do not force him to eat anything, even on the days when he eats only a banana, a cup of cottage cheese and a rice cake and a bite of his breakfast, lunch and dinner. I guess the important thing is to offer nutritionally sound snacks if a meal is not an option. There were a couple of days when Aidan ate breakfast cereal for dinner. I pick my fights…
In Aidan’s case the trick to get him to eat dinner is to let him feed himself. He gets his table, his bowl and a spoon – no assistance. He loves to feed himself with a spoon! The other day he ate his yogurt by himself without much help.
Aidan Jay @ 1 year, 5 months, 9 days
Milestones posted by Lena and Jason at 11:52 AM | 
Comment
March 5th 2009
Mr. No-no-no-no
Aidan is transitioning into a toddler. You can guess about the transition by his new nickname – Mr. No-no-no-no. We have entered that very fascinating and frustrating period by being introduced to a very loud and clear NO. The kind of NO that you cannot mistake for any other word. He says No a lot and he means it.
-Aidan, can mommy have a kiss?
-Mmmm [looks at mom] No!
As annoying as it could be at times, this No is also very exciting. This little word sort of ties our adult world of ‘speech’ to a baby word of ‘pointing and grunting’. Aidan is also discovering that he can express his opinion! I feel that this is a huge step in his development and is bringing us (as in speaking grownups) and him closer. He is learning that there is a new way of expressing his feelings that does not involve a meltdown!
Of course our journey is not easy (is it ever for any parent and child?). There is a lot frustration for Aidan. He has all these needs and feelings but not many ways to express them. We are in between baby and toddler.
As parents we feel the need to respect his NO as much as we would like him to respect our No. It is not always easy. Now he chooses what he wants, so we have to think about available choices and how to persuade him to choose the right thing without a major meltdown. There is no reasoning with Aidan yet, he simply is too young to understand The Why’s. I am sure every parent goes through this and that is where we are. We also try to use word NO only when we absolutely have to, hoping to lead by example.
Aidan Jay @ 1 year, 5 months, 8 days Milestones posted by Lena and Jason at 10:26 AM | Comment
February 18th 2009
Winter blues
Aidan has had a runny nose for a couple of days now. I think it’s caused by his teeth cutting, Jason thinks he has a cold. He does not have any other symptoms though. I guess if you put all of us together you will get something: Aidan’s runny nose, my absolutely stiff-for-no-reason neck and sore throat, dad’s sneezing and congested chest. Charlie is the only one without complaints.
Speaking of Charlie…she has impressed us once again! We have a treadmill now. The first day we put it in the house Charlie was up and running. She just got up on the treadmill, Jason turned it on and she started walking! Just like that. No special tricks. Now the plan is to get her to do it by herself. Right now Jason has to hold her collar because she gets distracted and falls off. We will probably have to rotate the treadmill so she can face the room and we should keep Aidan away - he is the biggest distraction.
Aidan is obsessed with the exercise/storage room, mostly because it is generally off limits for him. As soon as we turn the lights on he rushes in. Aidan to the storage room is what Charlie is to the door bell. They both drop whatever they were doing and run over. Actually now that I am thinking about it, last night when Aidan heard the door bell ring he dropped his cookie, jumped off my lap and ran to the door…I wish he learned stuff from us, not the dog.
He likes Charlie a lot I think. He is always getting stuff for her. If she is sitting by the cookie jar begging for yet another treat, Aidan will come over and demand we give him a cookie so he can give it to her. He always shares his food with her, brings Charlie her toys and cuddles with her. Charlie mostly silently tolerates all the cuddling in hopes to get some more stuff out of the kid. As you see, it is working out for both of them.
Aidan Jay @ 1 year, 4 months, 21 days News posted by Lena and Jason at 1:04 PM | Comment
February 12th 2009
Teeth
It seems like Aidan is getting all of his teeth at once. Every time he opens his mouth there is a new tooth! He has been feeling OK. I think it does not bother him that much. He is a happy easy going baby during the day (still takes 2 naps), it is only in the evening hours he gets a little extra tired. Last couple days were not easy. He cried the minute we got home right until the bath time. Now we try to feed him dinner a little earlier and put him to bed earlier as well.
Aidan is always on the go. Now when we go shopping riding in the shopping cart is not an option anymore. He absolutely has to walk! So shopping is a challenge now, we have to think what store has enough space between the isles and does not have very low shelves. We also have to take in account Aidan's nap time - wheather his rested enough or not. If we take our tired baby out, the baby tends to insist on a) being carried around the store b) grabbing items off the shelves and running away with them c) dropping to the floor and demanding to be dragged around (we play like that at home - excellent way to clean floors by the way) d) all of the above and then some.
Aidan is always on the go. Now when we go shopping riding in the shopping cart is not an option anymore. He absolutely has to walk! So shopping is a challenge now, we have to think what store has enough space between the isles and does not have very low shelves. We also have to take in account Aidan's nap time - wheather his rested enough or not. If we take our tired baby out, the baby tends to insist on a) being carried around the store b) grabbing items off the shelves and running away with them c) dropping to the floor and demanding to be dragged around (we play like that at home - excellent way to clean floors by the way) d) all of the above and then some.
Aidan Jay @ 1 year, 4 months, 15 days News posted by Lena and Jason at 8:53 AM | Comment
January 27th 2009
Our First Video
Check out our first video!
This is what Aidan does during the day. He has lots of chores.
Thank you Chris for helping out with the video!
This is what Aidan does during the day. He has lots of chores.
Thank you Chris for helping out with the video!
Aidan Jay @ 1 year, 4 months Videos posted by Lena and Jason at 2:51 PM | Comment
January 20th 2009
Dancing
Every time Aidan hears music that he likes he dances! He puts his arms above his head and twirls around. I have done it ever since he was a little baby. Most of the time it was me doing all the dancing, now it is always Aidan twirling around the kitchen island.
Every now and then we catch him singing or humming some sort of melody. It is very close to whining, but he sings in a more pleasant ‘normal’ voice. We have so much singing and/or (depending on the mood) whining going on in our house (between Charlie and Aidan) that sometimes we just do not notice that sort of noise.
Aidan Jay @ 1 year, 3 months, 23 days First Moments posted by Lena and Jason at 2:50 PM | Comment
Wet kisses
Aidan has never really enjoyed kisses. It is probably my fault. I am an ‘over-kisser’ when it comes to Aidan. Jason calls me Chupacabra ever since we came home around midnight after a party once and I HAD to kiss Aidan before I went to bed. I could not just give him one little kiss and leave, so I woke him up. It was three in the morning before Jason was able to get Aidan to go back to sleep. So from now on I am only allowed two small kisses before Aidan is carried away to his bed and no more ‘blood sucking’ as Jason calls it.
Now back to kissing. Whenever we ask Aidan for a kiss he gives us his forehead. Last weekend he started putting his mouth forward. We were thrilled! Now when we ask for a kiss, if he feels that we deserve it and he has a moment, he will get his face as close as possible, open his mouth and press it against mine or Jason’s. Couple times he slipped a tongue in. It was hilarious!
Aidan Jay @ 1 year, 3 months, 23 days First Moments posted by Lena and Jason at 2:43 PM | Comment
January 14th 2009
Mommy’s Little Helper
Aidan LOVES to help around the house! It is very interesting considering that we did not teach him any of that. He just watches what we do and tries to imitate. His favorite thing to do is unload the dishwasher. He likes to take items out but since he cannot get into the cabinets we have to grab things fast otherwise they go randomly on the counters or floor. He is slowly getting the idea of ‘dirty’ dishes. Sometimes he tries to unload dirty dishes, but we are working on that.
His second favorite activity is mopping floors. We have a swifter mop in the coat closet downstairs which we hardly ever use. Jason took out the middle section out, so now it is perfect length for him.
Whenever we do laundry Aidan is always around. He likes to put dirty clothes in the washer (with our help) and then put wet stuff in the dryer.
He is also a big help when it comes to putting his dirty clothes into his hamper. On occasion he put some clean clothes in there (clothes that he got from his dresser).
Pretend ‘plant watering’ is a big hit too. He mostly runs around with the watering can though. I put plant food in the water every time I water my plants, so Aidan does not get to participate in actual watering yet.
Aidan is always there to help me unload grocery bags. Unfortunately he has not figured out what item goes where, so he sometimes insist on putting eggs in the pantry and canned goods in the fridge. There is a good reason why our pantry has a lock on it. If it was not for the lock, we would never find anything because Aidan loves reorganizing things. He will sit there and take every single item out and then put it all back in, but the way he feels it should be organized.
Aidan Jay @ 1 year, 3 months, 17 days News posted by Lena and Jason at 1:28 PM | Comment
January 12th 2009
15 months
Last Friday we took Aidan for his 15th month check-up. As soon as we walked into the room Aidan started crying, it was like he remembered his last visit. When the nurse came in to get his measurements he was screaming so loud we could not hear each other. It was hard to have a conversation with the doctor; I could not hear myself speak. However we were able to find out that he is 24 pounds and 32 inches long now (measurements are approximate, because Aidan was not very cooperative). He also received some additional shots, so it was not fun for him.
Over the holidays Aidan had some sort of breakthrough if you will and now we can proudly say that he is using the following words:
Daddy
Doggie
Bawa=ball
Anana=banana
Wawa=water
Kaker=cracker
Lego lego=let's go let's go
run run
Lego lego=let's go let's go
run run
He has been talking a lot lately, but it is more gibberish than actual words. Our pediatrician said it is absolutely normal for his age, and not to worry.
Physically he is doing great. Now we have to run after him (we could just walk before). Last weekend we stopped by the camera store to look for a case for my camcorder. To distract Aidan we gave him the case, hoping it will keep him busy while we wait in line. Next thing we know he is running for the exit with the case in his hand! As soon as he saw me running after him he turned around and ran in a different direction! He thought it was a great game!
Running around is his favorite game of all. That’s the one he plays with his dad. Jason usually gets whooped in an hour! I do not even try. While daddy is Aidan’s #1 play mate, Charlie is his #2. I am waiting for her to file a harassment suit against the boy, seriously. He is always ‘hugging’-pressing his body against her, ‘petting’ – smacking her, ‘initiating play’ – shoving all sorts of toys in her face and he always gets her in trouble. We have several plastic balls that are for Aidan and Charlie is not allowed to take them (she crashes them), but he constantly throws them for her and teases her, so she ends up grabbing them. However there are plenty of tender moments between those two. Aidan loves to curl up with her and she enjoys all that food he throws to her while eating.
Speaking of food… My goal has always been to introduce him to as much stuff as possible, while he is young and does not have an opinion. He is definitely a meat eater (at least for now): chicken, beef, venison, lamb – you name it. He loves salmon and always eats huge amounts. Aidan is also big on starches: rice, pasta (including ravioli, tortellini etc.) We have also introduced all sorts of beans, as well as vegetables and fruit. Basically he will eat anything as long as it has good flavor. We use all spices when cooking (I keep the heat down though). Recently he has tried some Lebanese cuisine and enjoyed a lot.
Aidan Jay @ 1 year, 3 months, 15 days Milestones posted by Lena and Jason at 2:08 PM | Comment
January 5th 2009
Holidays
It has been ages since we posted any updates; therefore one of my many New Year’s resolutions is “update more”. This is the first time I am actually making resolutions and I have a few…we will see how that turns out.
Now with all major holidays behind us I have no more excuses.
What happened since October? Our Halloween was pretty low-key. Aidan was dressed as a Monkey (see pictures) and even had a real banana as a prop, but he ate it right away. We passed out candy from our porch (it was a super warm night and all the neighbors sat on their porches and gave out candy). We had a very good turnout and most of kids’ costumes were pretty imaginative. Aidan mostly hoarded candy (who can resist shiny wrappers?).
This year we hosted Thanksgiving dinner. Since Nanna and Poppies were going away on vacation next day, Daddy offered to cook. We had a very traditional meal of turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, and corn and of course a pumpkin pie. Aidan loved it all!
Right after Thanksgiving we were able to visit Grandma and Grandpa Porterfield. Aidan and I stayed for the weekend only, while daddy spent first week of December hunting. Now we have a freezer full of venison.
Since daddy cooked our Thanksgiving meal, it was my turn to cook for Christmas Eve dinner. I made a leg of lamb, mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts. We invited a couple of friends over, put Aidan to bed and had a nice adult dinner. I also made a traditional Christmas wine drink (traditional in Germany), called Glühwein. It was very delicious.
On Christmas Day we went to Nanna’s where we got to see Aidan’s Auntie Dee and his cousins. Unfortunately neither dad nor I got to talk to anybody that day because of one little boy who did not want to sit around and unwrap his presents. All he wanted to do was climb the stairs, open doors, grab things that were not meant for little boys and so on and so forth. Needless to say we did not get any photos …or video. Oh yes, one of my gifts was a video camera! And a MAC laptop for all my movies and photos! Now I just need to get back to taking pictures and recording all the precious moments.
Ever since Aidan gained his freedom (freedom to move around), it has been almost impossible to get a picture of him. As soon as he sees me with the camera he runs away or tries to grab it!
We celebrated New Year on the couch in our PJs just like most of Americans, or so said Ryan Seacrest during the Dick Clark’s New Year TV thingy. We both sort of fell asleep there for a while, but Jason woke up just in time to pour some more champagne before the ball dropped. Aidan was sound asleep in his bed of course.
Aidan Jay @ 1 year, 3 months, 8 days Holidays posted by Lena and Jason at 12:53 PM | Comment
October 31st 2008
13 months
Please check out our October photos! October was a great month, with warm weather and sunny days. We spend as much time outside as we could. A visit to a pumpkin patch was great fun! We have several farms in the area with pumpkin patches, corn mazes, pony rides and all sorts of fun activities for kids. Aidan being a bit too young to enjoy most of the activities had a blast just running around.
Speaking of running… Aidan is unstoppable now. He will not hold our hands when walking outside anymore. Actually he does not walk anymore either, he runs. He runs as fast as he can and as far from us as possible…just in case we want to catch him and never ever let him out again. He loves to be chased after…Charlie sometimes indulges him.
Aidan’s favorite toys are still balls. He throws them, rolls them and bounces them off furniture and walls. His grandma and grandpa Porterfield got him a football for his B-Day, so now on game days (when Aidan and dada watch games in the basement) they play football. Jason passes the ball to Aidan and we yell ‘go, go, go’ and Aidan runs around the couch with it and dada either tackles him (which Aidan loves) or he scores a touchdown and we all yell ‘touchdown’ of course and then Aidan with dada’s help ‘spikes’ the ball. Needless to say Aidan loves it.
Recently Aidan has been shown a definite preference for his dad. He wants to be held by Jason only. He is fine with me as long as dad is not in the room. If we are all together, he will whine and cry for Jason to pick him up, but will run away from me if I attempt to get him. I guess he is going through a ‘daddy’s boy’ phase.
He loves to cuddle with Jason. He will not cuddle with me like he does it with his dad, but he will climb on my lap and push his belly in my face and squeeze my head and stand like that for a minute or so. It is pretty funny and puzzling to both of us, because I usually have hard time breathing with a belly in my face. Hmmm, I wonder what Freud would say…
Actually thinking about this, I believe Aidan cuddles with Charlie more than any one of us. He is learning stuff from her too, like if his hands are busy (busy grabbing things or climbing someplace) he will put a toy in his mouth and carry it around until his hands are free. Whatever she is doing he wants to do too. So if she is chewing her rawhide he will try to pry it out of her mouth and taste it himself. We are pretty sure that little pieces of dog cookies inevitably make it into Aidan’s belly. Sometimes we catch him; sometimes he is just too fast. He has also developed a penchant for the trash can. He was caught licking it on many occasions. I blame Charlie for showing him that trick.
I wish Charlie could talk, so she could teach him some words, because Aidan seems to be uninterested in using actual words. He talks alright, but not in a language anybody understands. At the same time he is very good at getting HIS point across whenever he needs wants or does not want something. He understands very well too and can follow simple directions like ‘bring me the ball’ or answer a question like ‘where is doggie’. Well his answer will be pointing in her direction and making some ‘bla, ga, ta doggie’ sound. According to child development books, it is totally normal and he is still in the preparation stage. I just hope it does not last too long, because I am paranoid about it already. Of course his favorite words are ‘dada’ and ‘doggie’. He also says ‘go, go, go’ and ‘run, run, run’ when they play the football game.
Aidan Jay @ 1 year, 1 month, 4 days Milestones posted by Lena and Jason at 9:41 AM | Comment
September 27th 2008
Aidan's 1st Birthday!
Aidan is 1 year old! We cannot believe it. We made it!
Initially I did not want to do anything special for his birthday, him being so young, you know. However, every single person told me to have a party. Jason said that WE need a party, not the kid. Which is kind of true.
So we have invited all our immediate family members to help us celebrate. We were very happy that almost everybody was able to take time off and come see us.
Aidan did so well. He took two naps before the guests arrived, actually everybody waited for almost an hour for him to wake up. At first he was shocked to see all those people in the house, but within an hour he warmed up and let everybody hold him.
Surprisingly he did not freak out when we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him; he wanted the cake which Jason and I were holding in front of him!
Aidan got lots of new clothes, which we have asked for and some cool new toys. I think the party was great and I am looking forward to the next one!
Aidan Jay @ 1 year First Moments posted by Lena and Jason at 11:15 AM | Comment
September 22nd 2008
Mini Vacation
We have decided to take a mini vacation, since neither Jason nor I could imagine going anywhere remote with Aidan, we figured that a ‘staycation’ is the best. We both felt like getting out of the house would be good too, so we asked Nanna and Poppies to stay at their condo on Solomons Island.
Aidan loved exploring the condo! Of course since it is not child proof, we had our hands full! He absolutely loved the deck and we all spent lots of time there and had all our meals there too.
This would have been the greatest weekend ever if it was not for Aidan who absolutely refused to nap in a new place. He slept though nights OK, but day naps were out of question. Needless to say we had a very tired and cranky baby on our hands all the time!
Weather was excellent throughout the whole weekend and we spent as much time outside as possible. Our Saturday plan was to visit the Art Fair which was at the Ann Marie Gardens. It was wonderful - beautiful sunny day in the garden, shaded by trees. We used the backpack for Aidan this time too, although the stroller would have been a much better idea. There were not too many people, so we decided to let Aidan walk around, which he did with pleasure. Of course the pleasure did not last long. Aidan wanted to play in the middle of the busy crosswalk, and by ‘play’ I mean pick tiny little stones and sticks of the ground while tons of people were walking by! As soon as we removed him from there he had a major meltdown and was inconsolable. We had to leave without lemonade and funnel cake!
On Sunday we went for a nice long walk on a board walk, had a tasty lunch at a local restaurant and even enjoyed some ice cream! Aidan was very good. Afterwards we tried to visit some antique stores in the area, but Aidan was not interested. He was getting tired again, so we figured that he might give it up and take a nap in the car. We drove around for a while, exploring the area and stumbled upon a park with a beach! Who knew it was right there! Well I guess everybody but us. It was getting late, but we decided to check it out anyways. Aidan was a little unsure of the sand, but got over it pretty fast. I took him to the water and he had a blast throwing little shells in the water – so cute! It was time to get back home though, but Aidan did not want to go and as soon as I picked him up he started scramming. Poor baby, he was so tired. All the way to the car through the park he cried and cried and cried some more.
Both Jason and I are looking forward to the time when Aidan is not so dependent on naps. As soon as we got back home he went back to his normal nap schedule.
May be next year…
Aidan Jay @ 11 months, 25 days First Moments posted by Lena and Jason at 11:04 AM | Comment
September 13th 2008
Fair
We went to our local fair on Saturday and it was the best fair I have ever been to. We put Aidan in the backpack since stroller is a little too wide and bulky for certain areas. The layout of the fairgrounds was so smart. All animals were on one side, tractors and all sorts of machinery on the other, rides and entertainment were in the middle and food stands were in a separate area. Every single barn had a wash up station, so kids could wash their hands after touching animals.
Aidan enjoyed himself a lot. We spent about 3 hours there and would have spent even more (we did not visit the birthing center or milking station), but the heat was getting to us. By 1pm it was 100 degrees and no breeze at all. We were worried about Aidan and he was getting a little tired too.
Aidan Jay @ 11 months, 16 days First Moments posted by Lena and Jason at 10:34 AM | Comment
August 27th 2008
11 Months
Here is a belated 11 month update!
I guess the biggest thing is that Aidan is walking very well now. The truth is neither Jason nor I had anything to do with it. All child development books are right – kids develop at their own pace. Yesterday Aidan climbed on the wood bench that we have in the family room. It is the same height as the couch, but it has bars in the back that allowed him to hold on while pushing himself up. I guess the couch is next!
On Sunday we walked to the grocery store, which we do often, but this time I let Aidan walk and he did a very good job. He refused to walk on his own, so I had to hold his hand all the time. He was the happiest camper ever! He was laughing and trying to catch up with Jason who was walking in the front with the stroller.
I swear Aidan’s arms and legs have gotten longer this past week. All of the sudden he can reach all the ‘unreachable therefore safe’ items. Yesterday he was trying to put one of his toys up on the side table (he was standing on his tippy toes); it was not an easy task, so he got frustrated and just threw the toy up there. Now he thinks throwing toys up on furniture is very funny, because you may knock some new stuff off and toys always fall back down anyways.
He figured out that he can open and close doors now, as long as he can reach the handle. Several times he locked himself out, which was pretty funny. Once he realized he could not open the door he laid down on the floor to see if I was still there. Of course being a good mother and all I hid away, so he started banging on the door going ‘ba ba ba ba’. It was funny and hopefully a lesson for him, like he would remember. I learned that he will let me know if he was left behind and that he does not like to be by himself even in most interesting places. For example, if the room is dark (storage room, master bathroom) no matter how much he wants to go in there he will not. He will open the door nice and wide and sit in front of it, but will not step in. That until he can reach the light switch.
Speaking of light switches – Aidan’s most favorite trick in the world. He loves switching the lights on/off, could probably do it for hours.
Aidan is super cute with the dog. Every now and then we have to protect one from another. When Aidan wants to play with Charlie, he picks up any random object and throws it at her head, while standing right next to her. Most of the time the random object is a heavy plastic toy. Needless to say Charlie is not always happy about that. Other times when Charlie abandons her chew bones, he picks them up and brings them back to her. Most of the time they do pretty good together. They play with her tennis ball or follow each other around the couch (by which I mean Aidan follows her around thinking that they are playing, while the dog is just wondering around). Sometimes he thinks that she is following him, so he giggles and runs away. Those two are figuring it out little by little.
Food is still a struggle. Aidan has no interest in solids at all. We can probably feed him anything as long as it is stage 2 consistency. Same goes for self feeding. He will play with food but not eat much, little bits maybe. He loves his cup with a straw. Will drink gallons of water but not formula. Formula only from the bottle! He is eating yogurt now. I don’t know why we have not given it to him earlier – he likes it! Have not started on milk yet, but offered cheese. He hated cheese; I think it’s the texture – chunky – therefore, not good. May be he is waiting for more teeth, I don’t know.
On the verge of 12 months some children say ‘mama’ ‘dada’ discriminatively and may even use a third word like ‘cup’ or dog’ or whatever – so the books say. In Aidan’s world most of the things are named ‘dada’ or ‘da’ ‘ga’. In the morning when I walk in his room he greets me with a huge smile and happy ‘Dada’! When we were looking at my childhood photos, Aidan pointed at a large picture of me at the age of two in a red dress and a big bow and happily screamed ‘Dada’! When I told him ‘mama’ he got up said ‘dada’ three more times and walked away.
Once in a while we catch Aidan having a very interesting conversation with his toys. Conversation that we do not understand. I like to think that he speaks Persian, a language his care provider speaks with her family and a language her very old mother was teaching Aidan. Of course our provider just laughed when I told her about it. Books say that this is just another step towards speaking.
Aidan Jay @ 11 months Milestones posted by Lena and Jason at 1:19 PM | Comment
July 28th 2008
10 months
Aidan is 10 months now. Right top incisor has finally cut through. It has been a while. His bottom teeth came out so fast, but the upper ones do not seem to be in any hurry. Left one is still a giant bump. For a little baby Aidan has some big teeth though, I think he has his daddy’s teeth, I guess we will find out soon.
Aidan is showing more interest in walking forward, however if he wants to get somewhere fast his preferred method is crawling. He is so fast! He uses furniture to move around and he walks straight with our help of course.
We started learning words a little bit. We point at things and name them; we have done it for a while now. Aidan likes to say ‘dada’ and ‘dog’ – most popular words in our household. However his ‘dog’ sounds like “dak”, the reason we know it is ‘dog’ is because he only uses it when Charlie is around and he often points at her. When we went to Nana’s house on Friday, he pointed at Nana’s bulldog and called it a “daaaaak”. Now we know that he understands what a dog is!
Aidan loves to play with Jason! I think it is because daddy’s play style is so much more fun than mommy’s. With mommy it is mostly toys on the floor, shapes and words. With daddy, it is the “Super Baby” game, where Aidan goes flying around in the sky!-Commonly known as Airplane. Daddy often uses Aidan as a dumbbell, yes…needless to say, Aidan loves it!
We have not started any table food yet, cannot move past stage 2. Stage 3 is still to chunky and the gag reflex is pretty strong.
Aidan Jay @ 10 months, 1 day News posted by Lena and Jason at 9:01 AM | Comment
June 30th 2008
9 months
Friday June 27 Aidan turned 9 months and we went to the doctor for check-up. Luckily Aidan was only due for a Polio shot. He did great as always, did not cry at all. Even when the nurse stabbed him with a needle (there is no other way to describe it) he just cringed and made a whiny sound. It seemed like he was going to cry, but then decided that it was too much effort.
He is 22 pounds, 29 and half inches long. I guess now we can say ‘tall’, because he stands up.
The doctor was very happy with his development.
Aidan is cruising and crawling all over the place. We keep moving things around the house, because he discovers new ‘toys’ every day. Of course, the ‘toys’ he discovers are not for babies.
I guess the biggest was dog bowls. He went crazy splashing the water around, he was all soaked as well as the floor around. He had a lot of fun! Now, we have to pick bowls up whenever Aidan is on the main floor, because it is the first thing he goes after!
Next big thing was tub faucets; he figured he can turn water on. So now we have to keep him out of our bathroom or he will waste all water (he prefers the hot water faucet).
He also loves his tub and all the objects he can throw in it and then try to get them out. Needless to say he is not allowed to go in his bathroom either.
We have a fake plant in the basement, and it has moss in the pot, instead of dirt. Of course it is super fun sticking one’s hand in there grabbing as much moss as one can and throwing it all over the place, including one’s mouth.
Anything with knobs is great fun too…I can go on forever!
Aidan started using his thumb and forefinger to pick up small things. He loves to use his forefinger to poke Charlie’s eyes. Yesterday he was digging in her eye and she did not even bother to move, since her head was on my lap. I guess she figured that it was better to lose an eye than move off my lap.
Aidan has lost all interest in Jumperoo and Excersaucer. Who needs that when you can move around on your own! Excersaucer is used to throw toys in and climb underneath it.
He still loves to play with balls. He seems to prefer the purple one. He throws them and then chases after. He throws them on the couch/table etc and then retrieves them.
Remote controls are popular too. We just let him have those. Large dog bones are good fun, especially if he can get them from dog’s mouth. Charlie just gives them to him.
Aidan has learned to give things back if we ask. He has also learned to do ‘high five’ and even wave ‘bye-bye’ sometimes. He makes kissing sound if you ask him for a kiss, and will happily blow raspberries all day long if prompted. I am trying to get him to place objects in certain places. He did pretty well with the remote control. He usually takes it off the side table, so I asked him to put in back, which he did after a couple of tries. He sort of understands 'no', if we say 'Aidan NO' he will stop and turn around and wait for our reaction.
We are still waiting for top teeth to cut. The gum is all big and swollen, but they are not cutting yet.
Aidan Jay @ 9 months, 3 days Milestones posted by Lena and Jason at 11:56 AM | Comment
June 10th 2008
Among some other things...
I forgot to mention that Jason got his laser eye surgery done and I got my wisdom teeth pulled. We are doing great.
The surgery did not even feel like a surgery. It was a 10 min thing. Laser does all the work. I was able to watch it and it was a bit uncomfortable when the doctor was lifting the flap, but otherwise seemed very simple.
Jason's one eye is 20/20 and the other one is 20/40 right now. We were told that it takes about three months before the eyesight balances out. Jason will get another surgery to correct the 20/40 eye.
My experience with teeth pulling was great. I had IV sedation. Only one tooth had to be cracked, the other ones came out without any problems. I was a bit sore, but nothing major. I was able to eat normal food and brush my teeth next day. Took prescribed pain medication for 2 days only. All in all, it was nothing like the horror stories everybody was telling me.
Aidan Jay @ 8 months, 13 days News posted by Lena and Jason at 2:44 PM | Comment
June 9th 2008
8 months
Our last update was in April… Time flies!
A lot has happened during May!
Aidan got two bottom teeth and now is getting ready to cut two top ones! So it was not a cold that I thought he was having last time I posted.
He did great while the teeth were cutting. No problems at all. I am hoping top ones are as easy. Right now they are just huge bumps in his gums; I am expecting those to start cutting in a couple of weeks. He has been a little bit on a sensitive side, but it could be his age too.
Talking about age…He is 8 and a half months and pretty much mastered crawling! This is crazy, because just a couple of months ago I was complaining about his lack of interest in belly-time and sitting. Now he absolutely refuses to lie on his back, which makes diaper changes extremely uncomfortable for Jason and me. Just imagine putting a diaper on a baby who will only stay still if he is on all fours!
He loves crawling after toys, so we play ‘catch’ a lot, but without actual catching, I guess it is more ‘chase the ball’ game. Most of all he likes to go after tennis balls that belong to Charlie. Those two will be playing together in no time.
Speaking of Charlie…She is so amazingly good with Aidan! She does not bother him much at all, but will come over and sniff him. He usually gets all ticklish and makes funniest faces! Every now and then he will try to climb on her, she would just lie there. The other day Jason told me that he had to separate those two, and I assumed that the dog got too excited, but it turned out that Aidan was the trouble maker.
We have to keep an eye on him all the time now. A couple of days ago I caught him licking the refrigerator. I guess seeing his own reflection was intriguing for him, so he figured that it may taste good too. There he was going up and down the refrigerator licking it.
Did I mention that he is ‘cruising’ too? He walks around using furniture and anything else he can find. That puts him in a perfect position to grab any object off the furniture. Remote controls and my laptop are most fascinating, as well as phones. Toys are not interesting at all, since they are easily available on the floor.
Aidan is maturing emotionally as well. I like to call it ‘mature immaturity’. He has become whinier if you like. Now he gets upset when one of us leaves the room, or when we would not let him lick refrigerator for example. Sometimes he will get all upset if we try to take a toy away, or pick him up while he is trying to get somewhere.
He is still pretty much on the same schedule. Up at 5:30 am and down for the night around 9pm. He eats every 3-4 hours, takes naps between each feeding. He does not particularly like to nap, since it involves lying down. We pretty much have to force him to nap. We lay him down with his head jammed against something soft (that’s the only way he likes to sleep) give him a pacifier, give him a rag and hold him down, while trying to gently pat his butt. Meanwhile Aidan screams as if were killing him and throws his body around trying to roll over and crawl away. In about 10 min he gives up and falls asleep. I wish there was another way to get him to nap. Unfortunately if we do not do this, he will not take a nap and will turn from a happy smiley baby into a very cranky baby, and believe me cranky baby is not fun. Night time is the only time when he just passes out.
We have moved Aidan to his own room; so far it’s been OK. He wakes up around 3 am and as long as we give him his pacifier he goes back to sleep right away.
We have also started new day care. Our original care provider quit. She is having some health issues, which may cause black outs, so having an infant in care was not a good idea. Luckily we were able to find replacement pretty quick. It is another family care in our neighborhood. They have the whole basement of the house remodeled for daycare, with a separate kitchen and dining area, huge play room and a sleeping room. Very baby friendly with minimum furniture and tons of toys. Right now they have Aidan and a three year old girl.
Aidan Jay @ 8 months, 12 days Milestones posted by Lena and Jason at 2:49 PM | Comment
June 5th 2008
It's been a while...
It has been so buzy around here! I have tons of new photos to upload! We are all doing great and I promise to post all the updates soon!
Aidan Jay @ 8 months, 8 days News posted by Lena and Jason at 12:59 PM | Comment
