Porterfield Family

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!

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…

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.