Aidan had an eventful weekend this week. he picked out his first Christmas tree on Saturday and saw Santa for the first time. Sunday he got to meet Santa and Frosty the Snowman for the first time while playing with a bunch of other kids. He also go his first glazed donut. Of course, along with that came daddy's first experience with a son acting like a meth freak. To top it all off, Sunday Aidan turned 11 months old. He's now in his twelfth month on the big blue marble and closing in on his second year.  I added a bunch of pictures from the party on Sunday in the new 11 month gallery as well as some of the shots we took for our Christmas cards.

Although he didn't care tremendously about the tree shopping, Aidan was a huge fan of the Sunday festivities. It had all the ingredients for success: little kids, noise, confusion, music, shiny things, and sugar. How could he go wrong? He was surprisingly nonchalant about Santa. He wasn't scared of him but he didn't have much time for him either. The girl dressed in the Frosty costume got a much warmer welcome. I'm convinced he would have left the place with Frosty without a second thought.

By far the most enthusiastic response came when he spotted his big cousin Haley. She's about 3 which is the same age as his buddy and other cousin Emma. He spends hours every day with Emma and is amused by her every move. He either thought Haley was Emma or just assumed that all blond, three year old girls are endlessly fascinating. The moment he saw her he rushed her and threw his arms around her. It would have been cute once but by the third time I thought we were going to have to break out the fire hose to separate them. Poor Haley was asking "Why does he keep doing that?"

At the end of the weekend everyone in the house was exhausted and in need of a nap. Only one of us got one of those though. 

Well, here are almost at the 11 month mark for Aidan and I've let a month go by without writing. In my defense, its been a little bit of a crazy month. I've been in the process of getting a new job all month and it has consumed much of my non-Aidan time. Tack on a Thanksgiving at our house and a couple of radiator covers that needed to be built before Aidan gave himself an accordion shaped brand on his hands and there just hasn't much time to write.

Aidan is now walking. He took his first real, unassisted, steady steps about two weeks ago. With every day he gets more adventurous and stilled at his new vocation. This new found mobility makes him even harder to keep track of and more prone to fits. As he can get to more stuff, he seems to select more things he can't play with causing us to utter his new least favorite word "no". When we say it he just stares at us blankly, refusing to blink, defiant. He's waiting for us to back down or enforce our rule. Of course this is followed by us removing the cord/ monitor/ plug/ machete from his hand and him instantly bursting into tears. Bring it, kid because guess what, five minutes of your crying will beat 6 hours in an ER and a lifetime of you AND mommy pointing to a scar and saying "Remember when you let me play with the curling iron/lawn dart/bag of glass?" 

He is a lot more fun now. It seems every day he is more entertaining and more fun to play with. You can actually interact with him now instead of just trying to make him laugh. He's a big fan of music and is prone to "dancing" whenever he hears it. Dancing for Aidan consists mostly of him squatting like he needs to poop the stand up quickly over and over again o, if he's sitting, rocking back and forth like Rainman waiting for Whopner to come on. He's discovered he likes to hear me attempt playing the guitar but he likes it better when he can mangle the strings while I play.

I've added some more pictures but his new found walking skills make him harder to photograph. Partially, that's because we need two hands to remove objects from his fist and can't hold the camera. We're taking him Sunday to see Santa (my dad) for the first time. I have no idea what his reaction will be but it will be interesting. I'll be sure to post those pics as soon as I get them 

Aidan turned 10 months old Friday. I got distracted by the whole Pan Mass Challenge thing and completed neglected this important piece of news.

At 10 months he is now eating solid food, being weaned off his bottle, and starting to walk with the assistance of mobile toys. He’s actually taken a step or two here and there but he’s so anxious to walk that he tries to go too fast and wipes out. He will happily push a wagon around though.

Meal time is a horror show. He’ll about anything you put in front of him but will usually want what you’re eating instead, even if it’s the same thing (he gets that from mommy). He’s got a fondness for grilled cheese that we’ve just found and he especially loves trying to fit as much food into his mouth at one time as possible. He’s still a little tough on the sippy cup thing. He prefers a bottle but we’re trying to get him off of it. Our hope is that he’s onto solid foods completely by 1 year which will mean no more formula but whole milk instead.

He’s more fun every day. He laughs easily now and likes to play. Peek-a-boo is up there on the favorites but he also likes a good chase. He’s pretty fast on hands and knees so its not always easy to catch him!

There are definitely times I miss the baby but in the end, I wouldn’t trade my little boy for that baby.

Its Aidan's first Halloween! Aidan is a fireman this year because, well, we had the costume and he can't talk. I'm still not sure who gave it to us but someone gave this great little fireman outfit to Aidan. Grandpa and Nana Walker added the hat and suddenly we have a costume. I wonder if its just coincidental but the fireman costume is very fitting.

Aidan's name is an anglicized version of the Irish Aodhan or Aed. Aed means fire. St. Aidan is credited with saving a fortress from surging pagans. It seems the pagans built fires around the walls of the fort but St. Aidan prayed for a way out and the winds shifted blowing the fire and smoke over the pagans and saving the fort. So, a fireman is a very appropriate costume for our little man.

We'll be doing a small bit of trick or treating tonight and hopefully taking more pictures! 

One of the things I've been dorkishly proud of about Aidan is his friendly nature. He never got shy or unnerved around people. After a few seconds of studying a stranger's face he'd determine that they were, in fact, not the devil and play with them as if he knew them forever. Of course, this is not really something to be proud of since A, I didn't teach him that, and B, we ain't done yet.

This Saturday he was in one of the best moods he has ever been in. We had a little father son time at the garage getting the oil changed and then later at the mall when he picked out mommy's birthday present and daddy got his watch crystal replace by a near sighted hack with a palsy. Even low on his nap juice Aidan still held up. With the folks coming by for a grandbaby fix and some birthday cake Sunday I was convinced his good attitude would vanish just in time, his little way of saying "Screw you people, I'm not your performing monkey." Yes, little man, yes you are.

Sure enough, the parents came by and Aidan turned into a cranky crying machine. We put him down for a couple of useless naps to no avail. Before everyone left we managed to get him laughing pretty good but it was an awful lot of work. We thought he might be getting sick or over tired. Then everyone left.

With mommy and daddy in the room, it was party time. Just like the day before he transformed into happy kid. Its like when Wilbur would plead with Mr Ed to show someone he can talk to no avail only to have the damn horse turn into a motor mouth the minute everyone left.

So chalk this up to Aidan's first bought with shyness. 

I've posted a bunch more pictures, including some in his fireman's outfit on his 9 Month album page.