Porterfield Family

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'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!

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!