The early bird... is generally tired and ruffled
I’m not really sure where I lost control; it may have never had it to begin with which is certainly the most likely explanation. At some point, even if I did have any control – it’s long been lost to a mini-me like clone who’s only real means of communication is laughing, crying, or trying to rip my nose off of my face. Heck, the kid can’t even walk yet (although, to be fair, he’s working on it, taking a few steps here and there before crumbling to the ground like a member of the 2004 Washington Husky football team).

I used to be able to sleep through the night – now, my mini-me alarm clock cranks up the vocal chords at the not so reasonable hour of 5am. The problem with this is that the Aidan alarm is early enough to be really annoying and provides a rude awaking from a semi restful slumber, but late enough that there really isn’t any point in going back to sleep before having to get up for work anyway.

So, at my bride’s subtle, pillow muffled, “Will you go get him.” suggestion; I drag my half aware, semi conscious carcass out of bed and over to Lord of the Manor Aidan’s room to find him, yet again, standing up in his crib, hands against the railing as if waiting for the newly established airport security TSA pat-down slash breast fondling examination.

He is pretty cute in his fuzzy little full body suit fleece pajamas though.

Depending on the hour, either the aforementioned 5am hour or the earlier, seemingly ever-popular 1-3am stretch, Aidan is either appeased by stuffing any one of his hundreds of pacifiers into his constantly open, semi-toothed oral cavity which seems to be enough to get him back to sleep at the earlier hours – or he gets brought to the big bed for a early morning snack to put him back to sleep. The pacifier solution is great. Stuff the thing in and stumble back to bed before ever really waking up.

The snack solution pretty much bites.

Not only does the snack solution generally result in it not being worth going back to sleep, but Aidan is brought to our bed for his snack. Why is this so bad? Well, first there is the period of time where Aidan seems to have a need to roll and squirm all over the bed, so there’s no rest to be had during that time. Plus, of the 25% of the bed that I’m normally allotted, having to cling to the headboard with every fingernail entrenched into the wood so as to keep myself from falling off the edge of the mattress and on to the unforgiving floor, I find that Aidan now takes half of my already meager 25%.

Given my now 12.5% mattress allowance and really annoying, control losing 5am hour, I give up on any allusion that I might get a few more winks closer to 40 and resign myself to the fact that the day should be considered started and I should just get up and head to work. While I may not have any control at work either, at least I command 100% of my chair real-estate and requests for anything from me come via email, not a wailing set of 10 month old lungs.

He’s a Bruiser
So here are Aidan and I - playing on the floor having a fun time. Aidan is laughing and screeching - enjoying being played with… when it happened. I never saw it coming. Aidan thought it was such great fun; he tried it more then once. I, on the other hand, had a slightly different opinion.

As we’re playing on the floor, my face close to his, he suddenly (I’m going with lighting quick as I’m refusing to admin that my reflexes are already starting to slow) reached out with his short, pudgy fingers and took firm hold of my right nostril and tried to detach my nose from my face. Sure, it kind of smarted the first time… It was the third time where I started to get a bit annoyed – and finally smart enough to move out of arms reach.

The kid’s getting stronger. Ouch. On the bright side, I was able to breathe better after that. Maybe I should schedule Aidan in for regular sessions, “Come on son, come over here and give me a good nose rip.. no, don’t mind all the blood, I’m fine, really.”

Aidan also managed to have his first unsupervised experience with the stairs. He slipped past the (and I’m going to step up to the plate and, well dispense the blame) normally eagle eye of my blushing bride…. Ok, no, that’s not true. It was me – my fault, my lack constant of parental supervision which allowed the stealth like Aidan to slip past the check point and move towards the stairs. Now, to Aidan’s credit, he must have made it most of the way down the first flight of stairs as I only heard two thud like sounds. No real damage done (thankfully) only a shocked and surprised Aidan who provided a short pause before starting to wail. After a short bout of tears, all was well again – as he attempted to make another dash for the stairs a short time later. Guess it’s time to put that second baby gate up – although we were really hoping that Aidan was going to pick up on the going down the stairs backwards. He may have picked it up though as he didn’t fall very far… he must be close to a breakthrough, so to speak.

Aidan is also close to another breakthrough – walking! He’s taken his first, unsteady unassisted step. Not really on a regular basis, but it’s a start. He’s quickly mastered the little wheeled walker toy – where he stands up, grabs the handle and starts nearly running down the hallway. The only problem is that he seems to kick one wheel with each step, so he unknowing turns himself away from his straight line generally ending up into a wall, a piece of furniture or visiting guest. Now if only he’d figure out how to redirect himself we’d be in great shape. As it is he’ll walk himself into some object then wait there for assistance – as if AAA is going to send a tow truck to help him out. Once straightened out, he’s off like a shot, making it another 10 feet before running into another obstacle. I’m sure it’s due to my providing the shallow end of the gene pool. Probably should have found a walker toy with a built in airbag.

It's true, Aidan used to be cute.

It was cute when I would be holding him and he'd lean over and start sucking on my nose. Now he has teeth. It's not so cute any more as he tends towards using these jaw bone entrenched knives of Satan.

It was cute when he'd reach out with his tiny hands, grasping hold of my lower lip with those short, pudgy fingers. Now he seems to have the strength of a side show freak who wants to detach my lip from the rest of my face.

It was cute when Aidan would reach out and try to grasp Anya's hair and look at it with wonder. Now Aidan appears to be trying to provide Anya with a hairline much like my own - one handful of hair at a time.

It was cute when Aidan would wake up in the middle of the night and be standing in his crib, steadying himself on the front rails of his captive cell. Now it's just not; It's old, and I'm generally just too tired to notice and provide him slack for evoking anything resembling a cuteness factor.

It was cute when Aidan would take his naps in the afternoon and early evening. It is probably still cute, if only he would stop moving and settle down long enough to take his naps in the afternoon and early evening and not fight sleep with every inch of his compact, red eyed, constantly fussy and whining being.

It was cute when Aidan would reach up and try and grasp the knobs of the kitchen cabinets. Now he pulls them open and attempts to empty all the contents on to the floor - and not just the lower drawers but the second ones up as well -those that he needs to stand up on his toes in order to see into to grab the most breakable item. (Mental note: need to stop at store for more thick rubber bands - possibly duct tape.)

I can hardly wait for his sibling to arrive. That should double the fun... and double the bar tab.

In all fairness to Aidan - he's still cute (at least to his parents who must consider him cute and accept him as is - it's illegal to post him on eBay), he's just growing up.

Relative Fun
Sunday was probably the most complete Ridgeway/Furse/Stutz family gathering held in a number of years. Everyone was there including all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and of course all the cousin’s children. Aidan, not the youngest in attendance this time (that honor went to newly arrived Logan of Cousin Mike and wife Lauren), was still the youngest, mobile kid in the house. Crawling from one person to the next, from one room to the next – each move made with the vigor and enjoyment of, well, an infant in the midst of a large group of people, Aidan seemed to enjoy himself and was constantly on the move. Aidan seemed to either be on the move trying to keep up with the other kids running around or trying to chase after one of the two dogs in attendance.

Aidan even let loose his musical talents while sitting at the piano pounding and poking at the keys along with older, second cousin Kyle. Aidan seemed to really enjoy hitting the keys and having them make noise back. He even found that simply poking at individual keys resulted in a solid tone to be emitted from the light wood colored upright.

The evening was a great success and Aidan seemed to have a great time with the other kids and the dogs and Aidan was asleep about 10 seconds after being placed back in his car seat for the trip back home – thoroughly tuckered out after a full evening of food, relatives, fun and activity.

Blissful Slumber - Not if I can help it.
What is it about a sleeping baby? They're so cute, so peaceful, so innocent. Let's take like Aidan for example; lying there without a care in the world and yet I just have to disturb him by sticking my finger in his ear. Not enough to wake him up, but just enough to cause him to twitch a bit. Sure, it's mean. I know that. Hey, let's be honest, why should he get to enjoy such restful sleep during the middle of the day when he won't allow me to get a full nights sleep? I figure a minor ear poking for my own personal entertainment is a small price for Aidan to pay for keeping me up hours on end in the dead of night. Besides, it's fun. A little poke in the ear and a minor face puckering results - that in itself is cute and provides minutes of entertainment. Although, it is pretty amazing that, even as an infant, he knows to bring his hand up and try and swat away whatever it is that is disturbing his blissful slumber without hardly a thought to it.

I also noticed that Aidan snores on occasion. I think he must get that from his mother. I've never heard myself snore so he couldn't possibly have obtained that trait from my shallow end of the gene pool. Little Aidan, eyes closed, looking so peaceful... suddenly SNORT! Snore... SNORT!... and back to uneventful rest. I'm thinking of starting my own on-line Aidan Sort betting pool... hey, I have to come up with some way to pay for his European horse shoe mentorship program - now just where did I put that spam email that told me how to help a displaced middle east royal family by accepting five million dollars from them... I may need that.