Aaron Catch-Up

Aaron has been busy the last two months! He:

Chased kitties (this is Black Kitty at Grandpa Cliff's; he also loves to chase our kitty Leia),

Played with cousins,

Said goodbye to Great Grandpa Shaw,

Started pulling up and cruising around the furniture,

Helped wash dishes (he loves to hand you the silverware to put away),

Dressed up as a monkey and went trick-or-treating with Vampire Mommy,

Played in the leaves,

And made a big tissue mess (we were sitting on the couch and didn't notice that he had discovered the box of tissues until it was too late...).

He's also learned lots of new tricks, like fist-bumping Mommy, pointing to body parts (hair, nose, mouth, eyes, belly), making animal sounds (meow, arf arf, buzz, moo), and saying words (hi, ball, bear, plop, apple). And, of course, he still excels at being so cute.

Monster Mash!

Hee hee.

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Aaron Loves Music

The title says it all. Aaron loves music. In the family room there is a CD player and he is always in a happier mood when its playing. Sometimes we use it to our advantage and turn it on when he is being cranky. The music we play varies a bit, from classical to jazz and more recently the Beatles.

There are, of course, more photos and videos to share. The photo is a nice cheesy grin with some headphones on (no music is playing).

And the video is of Aaron reading his peek-a-boo book with his glow worm playing a song in the background. Turn up the volume and watch Aaron turn the music back on when it stops.

He is such a precious boy.

Aaron's New Game

Recently Aaron has become much more mobile. He's begun crawling up on his hands (or, more often, forearms) and knees, and is really getting quick.

He has his rounds he likes to make around the living room; he starts over by the computers, where we plop him down. He heads over to the cedar chest to play with the drawer and pull out all of its contents; then it's off to the scratching post to, well, scratch at it and play with the little springy ball on top. Then he heads down to the air vent, sometimes squealing if the air happens to be going. Then he hits the CDs. That's his new favorite place to play.

For a while, he would just pull every single CD he could reach off the shelf and drop it on the floor, then get frustrated that he was sitting in a pile of CDs and start kicking his legs.

So I taught him a new, much tidier trick--pull the CDs out just a little, then push them back in. He loves doing that now, and is very proud of himself each time he does it (though he'll occasionally pull one all the way out and drop it on the floor to get my attention).

Ahh, much better. Now to teach him to put is laundry away...

1st Birthday

Aaron had his first birthday on the 11th. It's been a long year but it's hard to believe that Aaron is already 1 year old. He's grown and changed a lot.

Anyway, I just wanted to share two cute videos of Aaron.

You might need to turn up the volume but Aaron is saying his Mum mum ma's.

Today, Aaron caught hold of a kitchen stool and had a blast. We didn't get the camera out in time to catch him laughing but you can tell he's having fun.

Our new prediction for Aaron's favorite sport: rowing.

The Fourth

This weekend we went up to see my grandparents. It was nice to be there and spent some time with them. It was the first time that they had seen Aaron and they seemed pretty pleased to meet him and play. We took a picture with four generations of Hart boys: My son, me, my father and my grandfather.

My folks were also up here for the weekend. They came to help my sister with wedding plans and play with Aaron. Grandma was playing peek-a-boo with Aaron and got him to play along:

Then this last video was actually taken about a month ago. It was just some fun time with Aaron while his is playing with his magazine.

As you can see, we are already subjecting him the pressures and expectations of popular, materialistic society... or he likes to rip paper and old magazines are good ripping toys. Either way, he's still pretty funny.

Speaking of Weddings...

My mom recently cleaned out her freezer and found our wedding cake! I knew it was in there somewhere! Most couples will try their frozen wedding cake on their first anniversary, but most couples are WIMPS! We instead tried ours on our (nearly) fifth anniversary. Because we're awesome.

Wedding cake then...

   

...wedding cake now.  

       

Cutting the cake then...

...cutting the cake now.

Slice of cake then...

...slice of cake now.

Eating the cake then...

...eating the cake now.

If you're curious about what it tasted like, imagine tasting a five-year-old piece of cake. Yup, that's pretty much it.

California!

Last week we went to California for Alex's brother Curtis' wedding (which, by the way, was absolutely beautiful). It was a fun trip, though a bit busy and tiring. Here are some of the hi-lights: 

Aaron went swimming for the first time. He loved it! He wasn't sure about it at first, but once we started going he was laughing and having a great time--until he swallowed some of the water, which was really nasty. Then he was done.

Swimming, woohoo!

For the wedding, we found a little tuxedo for Aaron. It was the most adorable thing in the world. We even got little black shoes for him, which lasted about ten minutes. Ha. 

At the church, before the wedding started.

At the hotel, sans shoes.

Matching Best Man and Best Baby.

Aaron dancing with Mommy at the reception.

At the reception, all the groomsmen "Night at the Roxbury"-ed Curtis. As you can see, it was pretty silly.

Alex's face is priceless.

So there you have it. We're so glad we could go. And of course....congratulations Curtis and Christine!!

9 Month Update

It's been a while (again) and Aaron just passed the nine month mark. This last week has been pretty good. It's always a struggle to get him to eat and sleep enough but the passed few days have been really nice.

We have some cute Easter pictures we'd like to share.

While on his belly, Aaron will often lift up his arms and legs (you can kind of see it here) and just rest only on his tummy for a few seconds. It is usually accompanied by kicking and some silly sounds.

Here is the whole family on Easter.

This is a video from today. He was just sitting there playing with his kitty book.

I almost forgot to add this video. Aaron was kinda tired and Jo was opening the mail. He got a kick out of the envelope being opened and then ripped.

Kitty Drama

We've been adopted by a new kitty. Gray Kitty showed up sometime around Christmas and hasn't left. At least not for more than a day or two. As stray kitties go he's actually pretty nice. He comes, eats Leia's food, lounges in Leia's spots, and generally acts like he lives here. He even tries to be friends with Leia.

Leia, however, has no desire for kitty friends. She seems to tolerate Gray Kitty, unless he gets too close to her (although I did catch them bumping noses once, without any hissing from Leia). 

The development of their relationship has been funny to watch. At first Leia would stay as far away as possible from Gray Kitty. And Gray Kitty would keep trying to get closer to Leia. Sometimes we'd hear Gray Kitty meowing (he has a very distinct meow) on the back porch. We'd look out the window and see him meowing at Leia, who was warily huddled in a corner. We'd open the door and Leia would come running in. A couple seconds later we'd hear Gray Kitty meowing again, only now he's sniffing around the spot where Leia was, then meowing at the door. 

We usually put Leia in the garage at night, and one or twice we've accidently locked her in there with Gray Kitty all night. We'd go out in the morning and find Gray Kitty nonchalantly lying in one of Leia's usual spots and Leia scrunched up as close to the door as possible meowing like crazy.

Now they frequently nap in parallel on the back porch. This is a huge social step for Leia, who usually runs away from any strange animal. This may be the closest she'll ever get to being friends with another kitty.

It seems like every day there is a new chapter in the kitty drama. And we laugh and laugh.

The Latest Goings On

First of all...spring is finally here! These are the first daffodils that have blossomed in the yard:

Aaron has been loving the nice weather. We go outside and play on a blanket in the shade almost every day now. He likes it, and I think it helps him sleep better. Woohoo! Here he is on St. Patrick's Day

When he's not playing outside these days, he likes to play in his jumeroo

or veg in front of the TV with Mommy and Daddy.

Ah, our little couch potato-in-training. We're teaching him well.

More Aaron

So, it's been another while since we have posted about Aaron. He is getting so big. I'll skip the small talk since it's late and just post some pictures and videos.

These are his crazy and tired wiggles. He starts forcing the laughing when he is tired. Don't worry, a nap soon followed this video.



Here he is just before bed with Jo. My two cute babies.




This is the same night as the picture above. He had a haircut the day before.

Potty Boy

We've started potty "training" Aaron. I say "training" because he already knows how to do it--we just sit him on the potty and he does his thing. He really seems to like it; he sits there and unrolls the toilet paper (or he did until we moved it...), looks at himself in the mirror, talks to me, blows raspberries, and whatever else suits his fancy. He seems to understand what it's for too. He will usually wait to go until I put him on the potty, unless it's been too long. We certainly don't catch everything, but there have been far fewer poopy and wet diapers to change lately, which is awesome. I figured he probably won't be totally potty trained for a while, but at least he will be used to the toilet and understand what it's for.

And since all the grandmas will want a picture, here's a recent unrelated one:

Yeah, it's still cold here, but that day it was a little warmer and I just couldn't resist seeing those little chubber legs and feet (I changed him into long pants and socks just after taking this).

One Night of Sleep

We finally enjoyed another night of sleep. It's amazing how much better everyone feels and acts.

Lately, Aaron hasn't been sleeping very well. For more than a few nights, he woke up whining or crying every hour or two all night.

Last night he slept for about 9 hours straight, which is almost unheard of for him. He didn't eat so much yesterday so I fed him earlier than normal today at about 5:15 am. After eating and a diaper change, he went back to sleep until 7:45am. All said, he got about 12 hours of sleep last night. I don't remember the last time he got 12 hours of sleep with only waking up twice.

I'm not sure if our new-ish schedule or sleep routine are starting to work, if he was finally so exhausted from his crazy sleeping that he just shutdown for 12 hours, or if it was a lucky fluke night. In any case, it was a good start to the week.

Here are some pictures of our well rested 6.75 month old boy-- baby.

Smiles are always cute



He's so big!

We're Back, By Popular Demand!

Happy 6-month Birthday to Aaron!

All right, so it was actually on the 11th, but when am I ever on time with birthdays?

I have to say, so far I don't like 6 months. Aaron hasn't been sleeping too well; there have been several nights--actually, it was almost every night--the last two weeks that he woke up every single hour. That is noooo good. I think it's been due to some kind of stomach virus and then later from the vaccinations he got. And now from...who knows.

But on to what we've all been waiting for: the stats.

Height: 28 1/2 inches; 96 percentile

Weight: 17 1/2 pounds; 50 percentile

Head: 17.4 inches; 61 percentile

Aaron isn't really a big eater, and his weight percentile has actually been going down a little. So basically all his food is going into height and head. 

He's kind of starting to sit up, but not very well:

As for crawling, well, it could be a while. For a while every time I tried to get his knees under him during tummy time he'd just face plant and laugh. He's doing a little better now; he doesn't stay in "crawling position," but he doesn't laugh anymore.  And if I lift him up a little he goes on his hands and knees, but not supporting any weight. In other words, if we lived in zero gravity, he'd totally be...almost crawling.

I was going to put up some recent pictures of The Boy, but Blogger is being stupid. So here's  a little video. Aaron got some blocks from Grandma Hart for Christmas, and he loves to chomp on them. He really goes to town; afterwards there are puddles of slobber on the block and Aaron's shirt is completely soaked. It also makes a funny little squeaky sound, which you may or may not be able to hear. (Please ignore my voice...I have the absolute worst baby talk voice.)