We have such a happy baby... wait, unhappy baby, nope, happy baby again, oops, my mistake, a confused half happy half cranky... oh I can't keep up.

Who knew one half-pint sized mini-me could change moods faster then I need to change spit-up and drool stained shirts? My favorite is the "I'm unhappy and need to be fed, but I want to smile at the same time" look.. kind of a sniveling smile with the look of confusion in his eyes about which emotion he's really wanting to get across to his clueless paternal parental unit. One second he'll be happily screeching at something stupid I've just done, like changing shirts again, the next split second later it's the wailing of wanting a full bottle. It's a transformation that would make Stephen King proud.

On a maturing note, Aidan is now spinning himself around in complete circles... he'll just start kicking his legs and move his arms around that eventually he'll slowly spin himself around. Just the other night he completed three revolutions while Anya and I enjoyed dinner (and a dizzying show).

New Teeth

Man alive... I just didn't realize (nor to I remember from my own personal experience) just how much noise a tiny set of lungs can produce! Poor little Aidan seems to be getting his first teeth and isn't all that happy about it.

Anya was fortunate enough to have been invited to a little outing with the 'girls' last night which left me all alone with Aidan. Aidan had been his normal, happy self for the past two days, but yesterday he just seemed all out of sorts and cranky. I, in my finite wisdom, thought it would be a good idea to invite my friend Jeff and his son Tyler over, as his wife was also participating in the girls night out, as do some BBQ.

I quickly came to the conclusion that attempting to BBQ, converse with friends and take care of a cranky baby all at the same time was not something I would really suggest anyone try. Running around tending to the BBQ, comforting Aidan, trying to speak the occasional sentence to Jeff, answer Tyler every time he asked a question, re-tending to the BBQ, re-tending to Aidan who is now hungry, answering another Tyler question.... And around and around for what seemed like hours (which was actually only about 15 minutes I'm sure).

Fortunately Jeff helped feed Aidan and I made sure the steak on the BBQ didn't burn ( I can't say the same for Tyler's hot dog, but he didn't seem to mind) and we were able to get through dinner. It's really more of a scarfing really; trying to eat as much as possible, as quickly as possible before having to re-attend to the child. I've found myself accepting a fork full of beef that would normally choke a horse is perfectly acceptable and does not in fact require the additional few seconds it would take to cut it into a more appropriate consumption sized bite. It's all about efficiency.

Bum... Bum.. Bum... Then came the after dinner...

Aidan had had enough and he let everyone know... Everyone in the house and I'm sure everyone on our street. He was tired, his gums were sore and he didn't care who knew. For what seemed like an eternity there was nothing but tears, gaping mouth bitter beer faces and loud crying - again, in reality it was probably no more then half an hour buy man does that clock move in slow motion at the most inopportune times! Jeff is politely ignoring the verbal baby onslaught and tending to Tyler while I'm doing everything I can think of to calm Aidan down.. Standing him up, sitting him down, walking him around, trying to feed him (which didn't help much as his gums didn't like having the bottle anywhere near them), standing up, sitting down... up, down, up, down.. fight, fight fight.. oh, but I digress...

In the end Aidan finally was too tired and too hungry to not eat, quickly downed a bottle of formula and left with the Sandman. I waited for a few minutes just to be sure that he wasn't faking and quickly put him in is crib for some much needed rest - mine, not so much Aidan's.

Ten minutes later Anya came home.

Ah, the joy's of parenthood. I highly recommend it - misery loves company.

Drool.... How can Aidan not become dehydrated?? The kid is a non-stop drool factory. When he's not drooling he's spitting up what can only be compared to something of the consistency of warm cottage cheese. How can one tiny person produce so much fluid and not look like a piece of dehydrated fruit? Ah, yes, the non-stop, formula intake. Man this kid eats a lot. (Mental note: look into buying stock in companies producing baby formula).

Aidan doesn't seem to mind all the drool (he doesn't like the spit-up so much). He just lets it run down his chin, over his bib, onto his clothes and, if he really applys himself, onto the floor, carpet, dad's clothes.. where ever it happens to land. And this isn't any normal drool either - it's industrial strength drool. Just for fun I might have to take him to the apex of the Ship Cannel bridge, put his chin over the safety rail (just the chin, not any more then that, I don't need any Michael Jackson baby hanging over the railing media frenzy coming my way), and I'll bet the string of drool would eventually reach all the way down to a passing tug, adhering itself to the windshield producing a 'spidy' like connection between the bridge and the tug that I could shimmy down on... Then, just for fun, Aidan could probably just suck it all back up again. That's the kind of industrial strength drool I'm talking about. Blech.


On a less sticky note, Aidan has started rolling over on a very regular basis! He quickly rolls over from back to front any time he likes, but doesn't seem to have any interest in rolling back over again. He'll just stay there on his front until he spits up and then starts getting upset because he then rolled his face all around the spit-up he just created until someone (to be honest, generally Anya) comes, turns him over and cleans him up.

Aidan is also becoming much better at reaching out and grabbing items on purpose, not just by chance. He'll focus on some object and reach and reach and reach until he gets his hands on it and is able to pull it towards him.... And right into his mouth where he'll immediately start to drool on it.

Infant clothing sizes... I think I've mentioned this before... Who comes up with these sizes? What I have determined is that the size ranges, based on months (0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months...) are not really intended to indicate which months the child will actually fit in the item. It can't be; I mean, just last night 5 month old Aidan was placed in a brand new 6-9 month one piece clothing item. It was already too tight. Not too tight around the belly which, to be honest, Aidan really doesn't have much of a belly, but length wise - it's too short. So here we have a 5 month old who is already too big for something that is slated for up to 9 months? Maybe for a hamster.

Infant clothing should be done in inches, not months. Let me go to the store and find a once piece item that lists the size as 27-34 inches (long) - maybe with some kind of secondary listing "For children who may be someplace between 3 and 12 months, your child may vary."

Aidan has started trying to feed himself. He seems to have the total concept down. He'll reach for his bottle, tip it up towards his mouth and adjust it around until he's able to suck away... For about 10 seconds until something else grabs his attention and he takes one hand to reach for it, dropping the bottle which seems to somehow always flip a little bit of formula up on his face - not that he seems to mind or even notice. Sure, it's only a start but in no time he'll be knocking back a couple of Mountain Dew's trying to stay up and study for the Final being given in a class he's attended only 10 day over the course of the quarter. Ah, the memories.. um, I mean, That's my boy!

You know, we have a pretty good kid. He doesn't cry much unless he's really tired. He seems to be happy nearly all the time. He laughs frequently. He's cute. He vocalilzes all the time. He's fun to play with. From all accounts he seems to be a big, healthy, not terribly fussy baby who sleeps through the night. While shopping at the Costco Home Store this past weekend Anya started chatting with another new mother who was carrying here new young son around the store. Initially we both thought that the baby had to be at least a month or two younger then Aidan - turns out he was three day's older then Aidan, just a smaller baby. The mother also explained that her son was still waking up every 4 hours at night to be fed. Yup, we're pretty lucky to have such a good baby - well, except for the projectile spit-up that seems to always target daddy's clean shirt.

There's never any warning; no whimper, no widening of the eyes - just a sudden expulsion of extra liquid nutrition that didn't seem to want to stay down; followed by a what I'm choosing to interpret as a smirkish smile on Aidan's part. Sometimes he'll target my clean shirt. Sometimes he'll really feel creative and get it all over my shirt and my pants then look at me with that grin as if I'm to award him with a gold star for the extra effort. "Way to go kid, you got it on everything I'm wearing! Take the rest of the day off and let's try and go for distance next time."

Yup, we're pretty lucky to have such a good baby... I keep telling myself as I'm changing my clothes for the third time.

Aidan had his first extended boating trip over the holiday weekend and seemed to do quite well with it. Although he didn't really seem to enjoy going through the locks from Lake Washington to Puget Sound very much. Maybe it was the sudden lack of attention due to his parents being pre-occupied with trying not to crash into other boats while getting situated in the locks - but boy does that kid have a set of lungs on him. He'll just have to appreciate later in life how we ignored him for a few minutes but saved his college tuition by not having to spend it buying someone a new boat after we sank the one they had by running into it while we were attending to him.

Aidan + Life Jacket = unhappy baby. Aidan just does not like wearing his life jacket. I mean, what's not to like.. Having to wear a big, restrictive vest with a neck hole barely large enough for one of his arms, let alone his neck (made for infants up to 30lbs the tag says.. ya, right.).

Aidan also suffered his first sunburn thanks to his terrible parents who didn't think to apply sunscreen in overcast/barely sunny at times weather. Aidan didn't seem to mind though - didn't even seem to notice, even after the tiny blisters appeared (and have now sense subsided). The redness of his chubby cheeks didn't really go with the light blue Disney logo Mickey Mouse football sweatshirt he was wearing - or was it the educational dinosaur cartoonish 'follow me' sweatshirt (not affiliated with Disney and I'm sure was therefore affordable), it's so hard to remember due to the multiple shirt changes due to Aidan "The human volcano of spit-up" Stutz that seemed to erupt every 15 minutes or so.

After the weekend, all ended quite well. Aidan's sunburn was doing well, my sunburn was starting to flake away already and we didn't hit anything all weekend. Whew!

I have been reminded by some that I have not posted a new entry into the Aidan Blog for some time. Well, I have no excuse other then just being busy I guess. So, for those wondering how Aidan is doing these days here is an update:

He's just fine.

I have come to the conclusion that I am nothing more then an animated toy to young master Aidan and am quickly forgotten as soon as a television is spotted. Yes, Aidan has discovered TV... Now before you go getting all up on your anti TV high-horse - we try not to let him watch it other then for watching his Baby Einstein videos however he does occasionally catch a short viewing when the TV is on and will twist and crane his head around trying to watch it. It's really pretty funny to watch. But once the TV is spotted it's 'dad... dad who'?

You know, I'm not sure who created the infant sizing standards for clothing (if there even is one as I'm noticing that no two manufacturers of clothing seem to follow the same sizing philosophy), but geeze - what kids are they sizing these clothes for?? Some baby with the growth potential of a rock? Sized to fit infants from 3-6 months - yea, right. Maybe to fit from 2-4 months. I'm going to have to get a second and third job delivering news papers and serving up coffee in order to pay for all the new clothes the kid is going to need as he's already out growing some of his 6-9 month clothes and he's not yet 5 months old ( Aidan will be 5 months old on June 10th - send money). I have to say, for as much of a marketing to children and media behemoth as the Disney company is, they seem to be the only ones so far who have the sizing for infant cloths correct. Sure, a tiny sweatshirt with micky ears on it is $75 ($5 on eBay I'm sure), but it fits at the right time and hey, what kind of parent would I be if I didn't provide Disney logo ger gear for my son in order to be able to advertise for Disney? It's really best that Aidan learn about capitalism early in life.

Hold the presses... We have an important update... This just in.... Aidan has rolled over for the first time (as reported by his mother, I of course missed it). He's now able to occasionally roll over from his back to his front, but only when trying to reach out and grab something out to his side and with both hands. But, it's a start.

I have also noticed that Aidan is no longer as jerky in h is movements as he used to be only a few short weeks ago (must be due to watching so much TV). His head movements are smoother and he's now noticeably concentrating on using and coordinating his hand and movements - of course he still whacks me in the face if I'm too close when he's laughing, but it's worth it seeing such a happy baby, wearing a Disney sweatshirt and Mickey mouse logo pants. I'll be waiting out by the mail box for my 'thanks for having your son advertise for us' Disney rebate check.