Aidan On The Go
I've noticed that as Aidan continues to grow older the blog entries describing the milestone events in his life as recounted by his sieve minded father have become fewer and father between (probably because I've managed to stay out of 'Babies R Us'). As a result, having just taking another sip of my tall, nonfat, French vanilla latte in an attempt to stimulate the normally stagnate grey matter, I will attempt to recount some of Aidan's major events of the past week - or ten days - or however long it has been since the last entry.

Break out the radar gun - Aidan's on the go! This past weekend while on the boat in Poulsbo Aidan decided it was time to make a decisive move towards crawling. He would lift him self up on to his hands and knees, as he's done for quite some time, but then he would suddenly lift one arm up off the filthy blue carpet which covers the interior floor and put it back down just a little further out in front of him... then he'd try and do it again - lifting the same arm up off the floor and raising it above his head while semi twisting his body to see if anyone was noticing only to then fall over backwards. He gets that kind of intelligence from me. But only a few days later Aidan had figured out to lift one had up, put it back down and lift the alternate hand up and put it down - finding that it worked much better then trying to lift the same had up every time. I'm sure he gets that from his mother. Soon future Olympian track star Aidan was making his way across the floor, one uneasy movement at a time, up to the point where, today, he just crawls from point A to B fairly well. Sure, he still does the 'Army Crawl' when he wants to get someplace quickly (it helps that with one push off the hardwood floors and he's half way to his distination before he slides to a stop).

What's with all the whining? Monica Selles meet Aidan Stutz. Much like the over enthusiastic grunting Monica was known for during her tennis playing days Aidan seems to have adopted this kind of whining whenever he is putting forth effort or has some obstacle to overcome. Crawl, whine, crawl, whine... It's not that he is terribly upset about anything, he's just having to put forth effort and seems to be whining because of it - he gets that from me I'm sure. It's not really a cry or an all-out whine, it's more a tight-lipped, rounded cheek, squinty eyed loud half grunting half humming - much like an Olympic athlete who was busted for drugs or blood doping (feel free to pick your favorite out of the 20 or so who were escorted from the games this time around) Aidan seems to be complaining, but he doesn't seem to really be complaining about anything in particular. Picking him up seems to solve all problems and he will transform back into the smiling faced, happy baby again. It's just the noise which is annoying - or maybe I'm simply a new parent who is getting his just rewards after having done the same thing to my own parents. Nah, that couldn't be it.

High Five! Aidan has discovered he can get nearly his entire hand into his mouth. Yippie.

Run down to the rusted Ford Pinto three blocks down and cut in, I'll fake it to you. Ahh the ageless line from Mr. Cosby can only mean one thing football season has started. I've recently started taking Aidan for stroller rides up to the local High School to watch all those much younger then me, and with much better knees, hone their skills on the 'ole grid-iron. Aidan seems to enjoy watching all the kids run up and down the field as he crawls around pulling up grass up by the handfuls. He's also made a few friends along the way - younger brothers/sisters of those playing - and Aidan seems to enjoy being around others his same size.

No need for crampons Another one of Aidan's new accomlishments is to be able to climb up the side of something, say the couch and stand himself up. He is all excited when he gets himself all upright - until the point yesterday when he apparently fell over sideways and bonked his head on the floor.. although he seemed more upset by the shock of falling then actually being hurt - he must have a thick head - yet another trait I'm sure he's aquired from my side of the kiddie gene pool.