Cheese with that whine?
As we humans have apparently been able to map the genetic code which makes up our species, you would think the next logical step would be to alter the whine gene - that which suddenly kicks in to high gear at about the 15 month mark of life. Aidan has discovered this gene exists, has harnessed it, trained it and put it to work with the tenacity of one having made the move to the dark side of the Force. He's like the official toddler version of Sybil; All bitter beer faced and teary eyed one second, a happy, laughing, everything is right with the world just a few milliseconds later. It's really an amazing transformation to watch, but if you blink you'll miss it.

Sure he's learning more each day, expanding his vocabulary past the word 'No' to include Paul, Water, Ella, baby, mo (which can be 'moore' or 'milk', sometimes both at the same time), down and Barney - but it's all overshadowed by the constant whining over anything not to his exacting standards. Here a whine, there a whine, everywhere a whine, whine.

Then there is the return of the 'I'm not sure if I'm happy or upset, so I'm going to use the happiwine' that which comes across as a confused attempt at either being happy or wanting to complain that your father won't let you run with scissors through a field of broken glass; or was it that he wouldn't let you mangle the dog in an attempt to play with something your own size... it's so difficult to choose, or tell the difference.

Wait until he's discovered that his father accidently deleted all the pictures that went with his blog - then I'm sure there will be some real whining.

Eww, Girl Germs ...
Aidan's been quite receptive of his new little sister Ella since she arrived on his doorstep, left, of course by a large white stork with a little blue hat resembling that of the Maytag repair man. At least that's the story I'm sticking to for now. Aidan, being the kind, gentle, loving brother he is has already learned to kiss his new younger sibling. He will come up to her as she's being held by anyone, lean over, pucker his lips up and get just close enough to her to make a smacking, 'Mmmmma' like noise. I can't blame him for not making any real contact; at his age I'm sure I didn't want to get cooties either.

Here a stone, There a stone, everywhere a milestone.

I’ve found that the life changing (or should that be transforming) events that seemed to come on a near daily basis in the first few months of Aidan’s life, are more difficult to come by these days. Sure, they still exist, but in the form of minor modifications rather then the ‘one giant leap for baby kind’ type. Back in the day, it was cute and funny when Aidan would sneeze – now it is just annoying when, as I am holding him, he does it right in my face (I am sure it is on purpose, but I cannot yet prove it).

Before, Aidan’s first steps were a monumental occasion! Currently there is no stopping him. The only real change in this area is speed. Each week Aidan seems to gain more coordination allowing him to first run, and then run increasingly faster. Sure, his arms and hands are still flailing away at his side, which is fun to watch, but he’s too young to understand if I teased him about it. That will have to wait for next year. On the upside – he’s still wearing his $50 ‘let’s gouge the new parents for as much as we can on baby’s first solid footwear’ shoes. But lest I forget, the $50 did include a ‘free’ Nordy and a Polaroid – worth the Grant I’m sure.

Aidan did have his first haircut this past weekend, which is itself a milestone. He is now no longer looking like the love child being raised by a hippy commune, but more like a well-groomed little boy. He sat in the barber chair with his mother, not making a discontented sound the entire time. What a fine, cooperative little hippy commune looking 15 month old he was. And there I was, the ‘I can’t believe he’s doing that – he must be a new father’ guy, capturing the entire event on video – not missing a snip of the scissors or a falling lock of hair (much of which was saved, sealed in an envelop for prosperity – maybe I’ll have some of it bronzed).

Aidan also has his second wave of teeth coming in, six, possibly eight (depending on viewing angle and available lighting) more poking through. Just what he needs for those unannounced, sneak attack, ‘I’m going to spin around and bite daddy’s face for fun’ moments.

Other mini milestones of note:
• Moving from ‘onesies’ outfits to mini polo shirts and pants
• Adding Teva’s to his footwear arsenal
• Eating more real ‘people’ food, less Gerber.
• Sucking liquid through a straw
• Adding more words to his vocabulary
• Actual understanding when his parents talk to him and taking direction such as (go get your hat)

In the immortal words of Golden Earring…

It’s 3am.... actually, to be more accurate it’s 3:30am that has me so puzzled. What is it about 3:30am? Nearly every night for a week our most recent household addition has been waking up and crying like I just told him that, after watching ‘Supersize Me’, we’re never going to McDonalds again. And it’s always at 3:30am. To be fair, Aidan did start out at 3am, but has progressed to the point where it’s between 3:25a and 3:30a every night. What is it about that time of the morning that awakens the sleeping giant? I’d like to know.

Is he worrying about his college education fund? No point in worrying about that, he’d be better off worrying about how he’s going to get a scholarship as, by the time he’s old enough to go to college, I’ll have long since spent his college fund on fuel for summer boating trips.

Is he suddenly distraught with the earlier then anticipated ousting of the NCAA tourney by the number 1 seeded Washington Huskies? Well, unless he gets that scholarship, no need to worry about a school he’ll be looking at from the outside in.

Maybe he’s concerned about his reputation at the local Mall play land as his hair is looking like a mop and his mother doesn’t want to cut it quite yet.

Maybe he startles himself awake trying to figure out why his parents force him to sleep in what ammounts to a giant sock with a zipper up the front.

I'm not sure why Aidan wakes up at this less then desireable hour but I’m determined to get to the bottom of this issue… which could be the issue itself. His diaper is generally awfully full at this time of the morning. Maybe we should be feeding him more steak and fewer martinis at dinner time.

Milestone: An important event or turning point.

Aidan’s has experienced a number of milestones since the last January blog entry. He now walks with ease, even over uneven terrain – although he does have the occasional trip up which places him face down in the grass or dirt, but for the most part he’s lifting his feet up, navigating obstacles and is generally ready to start training for the Olympics. This mile stone was reached one evening, just matter of factly. Sure Aidan had been taking steps for nearly a month and a half before this time, but Aidan apparently decided that it was time to just become an upright human. He stood himself up, steadied himself, then followed me around the kitchen island and back to the front room again. From that point on there has been no turning back. It was so fun to watch for the first week or so as he would walk around, sometimes less steady then others, watching him recover from a near loss of balance, walking around with his hands up in the air like a circus performer on the high wire. He didn’t quite make it to the fully walking point before his first birthday like I was hoping he would, but hey, I’ll take a week or so after his birthday, that’s close enough for this proud parent. And he’s making use of the $50 shoes before he out grew them – that’s something of a relief.

Aye, Carumba!

We’ve also discovered that Aidan has a liking for Mexican food. We’ll go out to our favorite Mexican restaurant and I’ll order my usual combination plate number 24. I’m not really sure why I order the combination plate each time – it comes with refried beans and rice, neither of which I’m a big fan of, but it’s easier to say ‘I’ll take a number 24 with beef’ then it is to explain to the waiter that what I really want is two tacos and an enchilada. However, Aidan apparently likes the refried beans and will eat nearly the entire portion which is brought along with my #24 platter. He can’t seem to get enough of the stuff. He’ll crane his neck and head forward while sitting I his restaurant provided high chair, mouth gaping open with his lips doing that cute, protruding outward, baby bird like thing that they do wanting yet another bite of the brown, mushy protein goo. Yum yum. As a side note, he also seems to like the taste of margarita found on the straw I’ll give him out of my glass. Yup, that’s my boy!

Language

Another milestone, or maybe not a milestone but a work in progress which has made progress in the past couple of months is that of communication. I always used to wonder how these new parents all around me knew what their infant son or daughter was saying when some incomprehensible utterance came pouring out of their tiny lungs. Now I know. They make an assumption based on situation. For example, Aidan will use the sound ‘Daa’ to either mean Dad, Dog or Down. You really can’t tell the difference, if there is one, between the three, it all depends on if there is a dog near by, if I’m the only one in the room and Aidan is already on the floor, or if I’m carrying him and he’s simply tired of my mindless dribble and wants down. He his however developing a nearly understandable series of words: (na-naa) Banana, Momma, Da-Da (again could be dog, depends on who’s closer), Maa (More/Milk - again depends on the situation), Craa (Cracker) and of course the one word that is very clear, and sometimes loud, ‘No!’. There are others, I think, which must mean something as Aidan seems very insistant and makes the same exact sound over and over again – I just am not bright enough to figure out what it is that he’s saying. He’ll eventually get fed up with trying to make me understand and moves on to something more entertaining.

Aidan has also started to pick up some basic hand signals –waving bye-bye, waving bye-bye at a 90 degree angle and thus looking like he’s milking a cow for ‘milk’, touching his two hand’s fingertips together for ‘more’. It does make life a little easier with the onset of communication. Limited as it may be, it’s a start.