Wednesday, April 28, 2010

HurricaneHead Wilson


Title taken from SeƱor Twain’s novel, Pudd’nhead Wilson

Meet Aed’s hurricane. He has an awesome cowlick on the back of his head that makes a perfect little swirl right in the center. It’s super cute, and you can actually see it now that he has some hair :) It’s going to make future haircuts very interesting. Daddy has a nice cowlick a little off center on the back of his head and it is not easy to cut around that thing.

Anyway! Sorry for the mega hiatus! I know you’re all dying to know what Aed looks like now :) He’s almost eight stinkin’ months old! Give us two days and he’ll be there. Unbelievable.

The last several weeks of our lives have been interesting and exciting, to say the least! Here’s a quick (phffffffff.. like I even know what that word means!) recap:

April 4th, a Sunday: Our friends The Bawulskis move in with us while they wait for final repairs to be made to their flat so they can move back in after it was flooded in early November.

April 6th, a Tuesday: We take off with the Bawulskis for a trip to Northern England, also known as THE SOUTH on all the road signs. A full report on the festivities of this trip is forthcoming.

April 9th, a Friday: We return successfully in one piece from our trip (we had our doubts at the beginning with a 2-month old, a 7-month old, four adults, and a dog) and the Bawulskis prepare to move back in to their flat (on time even, yay!) the next day.

April 10th, a Saturday: Aed wakes up.. Mama notices he feels warm.. He has a fever, but doesn’t seem too deterred. Morning continues fairly normally until it becomes very obvious that Aed is not well. He is unable to nap by himself, so Mama takes up shop on the cushy chair with Aed in her arms. They maintain this position all. day. long. Mama and Daddy quickly become concerned because Aed has not moved in hours, nor has he eaten. That has never happened before. Not to mention the fact that he keeps making little groans and tears are coming from his eyes, but no crying (heartbreaking!!). A call is made and a Dr’s appt scheduled for the afternoon. We begin to get ready when suddenly, the dam breaks and Aed pukes all. over. Mama.

Mama must shower. MUST SHOWER. Then we go and find it seems our baby has contracted a tummy bug amidst our traveling. Keep him hydrated, let him rest, know that diarrhea is on its way. Oh the joy.

April 13th, a Tuesday: Today is the day Daddy leaves for New York City to present his paper at CUNY. He is very excited. We are excited for him. However, no one wants him to leave. Aed is still sick, but Mama is sure he will be better soon. The diarrhea has begun, so it can’t be long now. We bid Daddy a tearful goodbye and head to the grocery store.

April 14th, a Wednesday: Daddy is in NYC safely. Mama is very concerned about Aed. He is still not eating, he is still very lethargic, he is still having diarrhea. Mama decides to call again and get another appointment just to make sure he’s ok. In the waiting room at the hospital, Mama suddenly feels very nauseous. She turns on the ignore button until after the appointment. Dr says Aed should be better soon, Mama will be lucky if she doesn’t get it.

Mama barely survives the day caring for a sick baby while fighting off the inevitable.

April 15th, a Thursday: Mama is sick. Daddy is seeing the sights. Aed is sick. Mama is tired of cleaning up diarrhea from every item of clothing Aed wears. She also finds herself cleaning it off the carpet. Mama’s torso begins glugging with the gusto of a giant water cooler and she knows it’s coming.. Joy of joys.

April 16th-18th, Friday – Sunday: Mama and Aed continue to be sick. It is torturous. Aed cannot sleep but is exhausted. Mama cannot let anyone into the house to help lest they get sick. These are lonely, icky times. Across the ocean, Daddy gave a smashing presentation and had a great time at the conference. He is looking forward to coming home, only slightly concerned with what he heard about some Icelandic volcano erupting. He will call the airline tomorrow.

April 19th, a Monday: Miracle of miracles, Mama and Aed are FINALLY on the mend. They wait with great anticipation to hear from Daddy, but Mama is pretty sure things are not looking good. Flights are grounded. We hear that the soonest Daddy can come home is Saturday. We begin to lament and search high and low for some other way, to no avail. He is stuck. We change gears and begin to find a place for him to stay for another week.

The rest of the week: Mama is biding her time until Daddy returns. She is exhausted from continuing to nurse a baby who is trying to make up for days without eating all the while her body is doing the same. We manage to get out and about a few times and are watching the clock for Sunday to come.

April 24th, a Saturday: Daddy’s flight is cleared to take off! Only one. more. night. on our own.

April 25th, a Sunday: Daddy gets home!! Mama has a new appreciation for single parents around the world and a new compassion for any that may cross her path. Daddy is so happy to be home and sleep in a bed after two weeks of couches. We begin to adjust to having Daddy back in our routine and Daddy continues with his academic responsibilities.

We are getting back into life as normal and are so thankful for it! I have great plans to post a few slideshows of some trips we never accounted for in the past year but would really like to have a record of. The Aedster is doing new and ever-exciting things that we’ll fill you in on as well. He is as cute as ever and movin’ and a groovin’ like never before!

Until next time..

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Baby Crazy!

Aed and I were invited to a friend's house for a play date a little over a week ago. We were invited along with lots of other mommies and babies, so it was a full, fun house! These were all the babies born in the Autumn and winter months in our group of friends, and they had a great time eating/sleeping/staring/crying/yelling/babbling/smiling/playing with each other.

We were able to get a photo of all the mommies and babies:


You'll notice Aed and Ellie are the delinquent back row-ers not paying a lick of attention to the camera! :)

And also one of just the babes!


Too cute :)

It was a great morning - thanks Emily!

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Vitamin D

Is a hot commodity in these parts. No matter how much the sun shines, you just can’t get enough!

Fortunately, we have big windows.

And nekkid babies!


He basked in the warmth of the morning sun..


I basked in the cuteness that is my baby boy and his squinchy nose..


And his delicate toes..


Aed loves shadows. If there is a shadow in his line of sight, he’s got his eye on it!


If you can manage to pull him away from the shadows, you get some sweet little faces.


My little cutie-pie!

Monday, April 05, 2010

That is SO Moreish!

Moreish is a word used in the UK that I had a hard time grasping. I heard it a lot in reference to food, but in my head it looked like this: Moorish. I could not understand what all these people were talking about, calling everything from cherries to stuffed salmon Moorish!

This perplexed me slightly, but not so much that I did anything about it.

The, one day, someone flipped the switch upstairs.

Not Moorish, moreish!!

As in, that is amazing, please give me MORE!

You can imagine the confusion I had been experiencing up to this point.

Then, I thought, what a funny, literal way to describe the morsel you just placed on your tongue.

So now, when I pull out the cracker box and find this on the back..


I can wholeheartedly agree!

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Don’t like it? Play with it!

I often let Aed play with his food (and my food if I'm eating something he can eat).

This is only slightly hard for me. I’ll be honest.. His baby food grosses me out. I can’t even bring myself to taste it. I make the stuff for pete’s sake! I know exactly what is in it! But I can’t do it. Because when I puree it, it magically becomes baby food and really disgusting and squishy.

I don’t mind that he gets messy.. I just think it’s SO GROSS that it’s mushy baby food. I know. At least it’s not poop, you’re saying. Or boogers. Or any number of gross things I may find on his person in the years to come.

So I let him play with it. I encourage it, actually.

For example. A sunny afternoon.. Lunchtime.. Avocados on the menu (amongst other things).. Aed, not typically a picky eater, suddenly decides he does not like these avocados. Too green perhaps? Maybe too smooth? The boy certainly has a sensitive side.

Well, one thing that is hard for Mama to handle is wasting his food that I purchased in the raw and made with my own two hands.. Just throwing it on out, because we all know I’m not going to eat it! So, I decided if he wasn’t going to eat it, he might as well brush up on some other senses and touch it and squish it and rub it all over his face!


And that’s just what he did!


I am foreseeing some finger painting in the not-so-distant future! :)

You'll also notice the bowl and spoon are at the very edge of the tray.. as far from those little hands I can get it. I used to let him play with the spoons after he was finished, but as of late, he just gags himself over and over again instead of chewing on them, so we've stopped that habit! And he can have the bowl once it's empty, but man can that kid reach! And he doesn't just reach, he lunges :) Things aren't safe even at the edge of his tray anymore.

Aed’s highchair has two little toys on the tray (toys that are often covered with Mama’s attempts at not wasting food..). One is a giraffe, dubbed Gerard, and the other is a Zebra whose name is Zebedee (but we call him Zeb). While Aed does occasionally look at Gerard, he LOVES Zeb.


Can you see the love in his eyes? That zebra gets ALL the attention. And, the little avocado squisher has figured out that if he pushes on Zeb’s head, all the little beads dance around in his tummy.. How exciting!

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Spring is in the air



But it’s still cold enough for hats!


The Aedster was looking mighty fine in this little number a few Saturdays ago on a trip to the beach!

It was a gorgeous day, and not too cold, so we went with some friends of ours down to West Sands.

The Bambinos played in the sand while the mamas oohed and aaahed at their cuteness and the daddies flew a kite.


They don’t get much cuter than this! :)