GUK! Guk! Guk!

Aaron has been walking for a month now. He never really went through that stage of wanting to walk and needing us to help support him. He just kind went straight from crawling to cruising to walking. His personality is starting to reveal itself. He seems to be a fairly easygoing, independent and curious toddler (already?!). His favorite toys are our phones, remotes, thermometers, and empty bottles. He's a very busy, busy, baby. He had a sleepover with his grandparents recently and they kept remarking on how busy he was the whole time. He doesn't enjoy sitting still..which worries me because we have a long plane ride coming up as we head to Asia to visit extended family. But we'll see.

Lately he's gotten really into trucks. We think it's his first word, because he consistently identifies them correctly as "GUK! guk! guk!" everytime he sees a picture or hears a siren. His second and third words may be "ma-ma-ma" or "da-da-da" or possibly, "cop-cop-cop" for helicopter. It's kinda hard to differentiate between "gukgukguk" and "copcopcop". Anyway, here are two videos - one where he's really enjoying his trucks and the other is a little slice of what he does when he's home during the day.


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1 year! and a quick recap

Sorry, I haven't had much time to write lately, so here's a quick recap:

- We went to Mexico with Isaac's family over New Year's. It was a nice, relaxing trip and Aaron got to show off his standing skills for everyone.






- Aaron turned 1 last month! We celebrated with Isaac's family in Mexico, and then we had a small party with my family here.





- He's taken a few steps here and there, but mostly seems unaware that he's walking. Anytime I try to record him doing this, he drops to his knees and zooms toward me to grab the camera, so no video yet. Generally, he seems to prefer crawling because it's faster.

- He refuses to let us feed him, but he enjoys feeding himself and making a huge mess. He mostly uses his hands, but occasionally, he'll use a spoon.



- Sometime since the last post, he seems to transformed from a baby to a toddler (minus the toddling). This hit home for me when I found him in the bathroom transferring his dirty diapers from the garbage can to the toilet. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture at the time, but it was both gross and hilarious. He's been getting into everything lately.




hmm..he needs a haircut!

11 months

Aaron is 11 months old now. He's coming up on a year so quickly!


He hasn't begun to walk or talk yet, but he's become more proficient at crawling and cruising. He's also begun to stand by himself for a few seconds. Usually he doesn't notice he's doing it, and when we get him to try to repeat the feat, his legs get all noodley. He's also getting taller! I can tell because he likes to pull himself up to stand on basically anything he can get his hands on, and his head used to be level or below certain pieces of furniture even when he was standing, but now he's inching up above those same things.

He has four teeth now, with another two making their way through his gums right now. He's able to feed himself cheerios, and small pieces of food like broccoli, fish, or cheese.

He's biting a lot, but isn't too interested in gnawing on his teething toys. Not when there's paper, books, clothes, furniture, and people to bite instead.


He laughs a lot, and you can see the pride in his face everytime he does something new. Like when he learned how to splash. Or climb into the laundry basket. Or open kitchen cabinets. Or, like just now, when he opened the Band of Brothers DVD case by himself. I have no idea how he does some of these things. I just look over and he's already doing them. He loves cords, outlets, laptops, and everything he shouldn't be getting into.


His main "words" seem to be "ma-ma", "da-da", and "bao-bao". He also likes to babble "ba-ba-ba" and "wah-wah-wah". Today I sang "Baa Baa Black Sheep" to him while he was eating dinner, and he kept interjecting excitedly to add his own "bah bah bah"s to the song.

We've been trying to spend a little more time with his cousins so he gets social interaction with other kids. Aaron and his younger cousin love to shriek and babble at each other, and he also enjoys following his older cousins around (already). Of course, they're both running around, so Aaron's "following" mostly consists of crawling three feet in the direction they've run and then reversing direction when they run past in the opposite direction. Basically it looks like he's pacing, except he's crawling and grinning wildly.

It's all going by too fast.

grrarrr!!

So i guess it's kinda hard to tell what Aaron was dressed as from the previous post. He was a dinosaur!

happy halloween!

so much happens in one day (kinda)

2:00am - "WAAAAAAAHHHHH"...Isaac changes a diaper and I feed him.
5:00am - "ba-ba-da-da-ma-ma"...same as 2:00am, but I take more time rocking him back to sleep because he's not as tired, and it's too early for him to get up.
7:00am - "da-da-da-da-da"... Isaac pulls himself out of bed to change a diaper and goes back to sleep
7:15am - "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma"... I pull myself out of bed to play with him and feed him breakfast.
9:00am - Nap #1 - supposedly for baby, definitely for me, Isaac is still sleeping.
9:40am - Isaac wakes up; Aaron is up, so they play together while Isaac gets up for work. Aaron likes our Sonicare.
10:30am - Isaac wakes me up and puts Aaron back in his crib. He pulls himself from a crouching position to a kneeling position in his crib for the first time. Isaac goes to work. It's playtime and we're reading.
11:00am - On our second time through "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?", he turns a page and bursts out sobbing. I switch to "Freight Train," and he's fine for the first few pages, but bursts out sobbing again. Apparently Nap #1 either a)didn't happen or b) was too short - back to sleep.
11:30am - I hear babbling and check on him - he's awake, and has pulled himself to his knees again. More playing, reading, and then lunch for him followed by more playing.
1:30pm - I put him in his crib for a nap; Make lunch for myself.
1:45pm - When I peek in to the room, he's pulled himself to a kneeling position again. I lie him back down.
Repeat every 15 minutes until 2:45 pm when I finally get him to fall asleep.
3:00pm - IM to Isaac: I think we need to lower the crib soon. Aaron's been practicing pulling himself to his knees for the past hour.
4:30pm - Aaron awakes, CRANKY. I try to comfort him, but he's unhappy being left to play by himself, so I carry him around with me, feeding him cheese while I make his dinner. The few times I leave him to himself today, he ends up gnawing on some wires or just as bad, exploring the area around the toilet (because I forgot to close the bathroom door).
5:30pm - Pop out to Gristedes for some last minute shopping for dinner.
6:00pm - Dinner followed by a bath for Aaron.
7:15pm - Isaac comes home and Aaron goes to bed.
7:45pm - Aaron is complaining in his crib, Isaac goes to check on him. I'm making dinner for us. Isaac comes out - Aaron was kneeling, and we discuss whether or not to push back Aaron's bedtime to lower his crib or to wait until later in the week since he's not standing yet. Isaac decides to lower the crib just in case. This way I can have peace of mind during his naps tomorrow.
8:00pm - "He's standing up!!" I dash from the kitchen to find Aaron proudly standing in his crib opposite Isaac. Multiple attempts to get him to repeat this prove fruitless. I return to the kitchen.
8:05pm - "He's doing it again!" Isaac decides to tape this feat before he lowers the crib.
8:30pm - I finish cooking, come in to see for myself and to watch Aaron while Isaac finishes lowering the crib.
8:45pm - Crib is lowered, Aaron is asleep. We eat dinner and watch the debate.


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crawling

As promised, a video of Aaron crawling.