Aidan's First Fourth

Well, he slept through it. That pretty much sums it up. The Eastside branch of the Stutz Clan went to Oak Harbor by boat to enjoy the 4th along with other members of the Sea Ray Crusing Club. We attended the Oak Harbor 4th of July parade (mostly made up of farm equipment, gardening clubs, obnoxious political groups and local high school cheerleaders) and Aidan slept through nearly all of it. Aidan did wake up for lunch however - after we walked into the downtown area of the main road.. then again fell asleep while carrying him back to the marina. In between bouts of sleep, he did exhibit his 'happy baby' side, along with his 'fussy baby' side... so more or less the holiday went like this for Aidan:

Sleep
Happy baby (eat)
Fussy, Fussy, (eat) happy..no, Fussy
Sleep
(eat) Happy, Fussy, Happy/Fussy
Sleep, Sleep

Such is the life of young Master Aidan on his first 4th of July.

Aside from the 4th of July experience, it's amazing how much progress Aidan has made over the past week. Where he was only able to roll over one direction - and only from back to front; He's now able roll either direction front to back, back to front.. and has started to figure out that if he keeps going in one direction he can actually move himself across the floor.

He's almost figuring out the crawling thing, but hasn't quite figured out that he needs his knees and hands supporting him at the same time, not just one set or the other, but I'm sure he'll figure that out quickly enough.

I did give him a taste of my ice cream cone last night - which he seemed to like a great deal as he immediately grabbed my hand with both of his and brought the cone back down to his mouth again for some additional tastes! I just found it fun that Aidan not only liked the ice cream taste, but then to knowingly grab my hand an bring it down to his mouth for more just reminded me of his continual mental and physical development.

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!