Social videogames?

I thought this was so funny, I had to share.

Yesterday, we went to my brother Jim's for board games and dinner. I thought we were all going to play, but my 15 year-old nephew Chris was playing a first person shooter game on the computer and didn't show any signs of joining us. When it was clear he wasn't going to play with us, I said something about him being antisocial for not playing with us. Without looking over from his game, he replied, sounding a little annoyed, "There's like a million people online right now. I wouldn't call that 'antisocial'."

And he was serious. As if playing an online video game with "like a million people" where you go around shooting each other is as social as playing board games with your family. It's probably more social since there were only 5 of us playing board games and not a million.

Saying goodbye

Today we said goodbye to Aaron's first nanny. Julie started with us in September, back when Aaron couldn't sit up on his own, didn't flirt with strangers in restaurants, and was generally much less interactive than he is today. It was a sad day for us as well as Julie. Aaron lights up when he sees her and I know she adores him as much as he adores her.

Julie doesn't graduate until May, but she is starting a new ("real") job on Monday related to her major (pyschology). As a going away gift, we got Julie a Starbucks giftcard (she often arrived with a Starbucks cup in hand) and a reuasable insulated cup from Starbucks that we were able to customize by adding photos of Aaron (including this one we just took today) to the paper insert. Julie also surprised us with a Thank You card and offered to come play with Aaron sometime when we need to get out of the house.

Julie has been a great care provider for Aaron and one that will be sorely missed and hard to replace.

Afraid of the dark?

There was a time, many months ago now, that Aaron would sleep about 9-10 hours at a stretch, waking up for a feeding around 4am, then sleeping another 2 hours. But some time before his stomach bug, he was teething and starting to wake up around 2am, and sometimes again before he'd get up for the day. Then when he had the stomach bug, he was up 2-3 times at night, and I fed him each time to make sure he was rehydrated.

But now, he is still waking up 2-3 times after he goes to bed (although the first time is usually between 9-10pm, before I got to bed). He wakes up crying and I've tried to wait a couple of minutes to see if he'll go back to sleep, but he usually just gets louder. But we notice that in the morning, when he wakes up for the day, he can be awake for 30-40 minutes by himself in his crib, making noises and playing with his stuffed animals, but not crying. Sometimes, if he wakes up around 5:30, we just let him go and he usually goes back to sleep for another hour or so.

So why is he OK at 5:30 or 6:30am and not in the middle of the night? Although I usually nurse him to get him back to sleep, I don't think he is really hungry. So now I am wondering if he is afraid of the dark. Has anyone else had this experience? We are going to try putting a night light in his room to see if that helps.

Flowers

After we got home from our morning outing yesterday, Thom took Aaron out to the swing. I looked out and saw that Aaron was holding flowers in each hand.

He's so funny. Last week, I took him out in the yard and picked him some purple flowers. He held them in his left hand and reached frantically for the plant with his right hand, pulling off the ends of some flowers. Finally, I picked him another small bunch for his right hand and he was content to hold the flowers in each hand for about 30-40 minutes. We walked around and sat on the swing and he just looked around, babbled, and looked at his flowers. Before he had the flowers, we sat on the swing and he wouldn't sit still - he was trying to grab the swing, the pillows, anything. But with the flowers in his hands, he was content. (This isn't really a flower fetish - he's just as content with long blades of grass, leaves or just about any plant he gets his hands on.)

The only thing more interesting than his flowers, is the camera. He is dropping his flowers here to try to reach out to my camera.

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my 34th birthday. I only wish Aaron hadn't woken up at 12:30am to be the first to greet my birthday - and again at 3:30am.

Following a long standing tradition, Thom took the day off from work. After some coffee at home and feeding Aaron breakfast, we headed out to a local French bakery where we had breakfast. I brought along some Joe's O's to keep Aaron occupied, but he showed more interest in Thom's croissant.

I've tended to shy away from feeding Aaron table food, especially at restaurants when I don't know the ingredients. We are supposed to avoid honey, dairy (althouth we got an exception for yogurt), soy, egg whites, chocolate, and strawberries until Aaron is 1. But as his first birthday approaches, I am less worried about introducing new foods. I thought croissants might have eggs in them, but I looked up a recipe and it seems like they don't. But we didn't let him have the strawberry jam that came with them.

After breakfast, Aaron was pretty tired. Rather than head home for a nap, we decided to go for a drive out in the country and let him sleep in the car. Then we stopped at the library to return some of his books and let him play with the toy they have that has doors he can open and shut.

In the afternoon, our new sitter Candace was here and I got some work done. After she left, we headed out to In N Out for dinner. We kept Aaron up past his bedtime, but he did great. He is very self entertaining and just enjoyed watching people around him - especially other kids. I'm sure it has a lot to do with his personality, but I have also made a concerted effort not to bring a lot of toys with us when we go out so that he learns to entertain himself in other ways. We have a couple of emergency toys and his pacifier, but other than that, he entertains himself by watching people and scenery, or playing with random objects at other people's houses. (My mom kept him quite entertained with her measuring tape for her knitting one day.)

All-in-all it was a very nice birthday.

Words

It surprises me sometimes how many words Aaron understands now. Just this morning, I realized he knows "milk". I had started using the word milk sometimes when I breastfeed him. "We're going to have some milk now." or "Do you want some milk?" But I hadn't realized he understood until this morning. I hadn't nursed him since he'd been up and I figured he was hungry. He was sitting among his toys on the floor playing and usually when I sit down with him and he's hungry, he'll reach for me. But this time, he didn't. He continued to play with his coffee can. But when I said "Aaron, do you want some milk?", he immediately stopped what he was doing, looked at me and reached for me.

Another phrase I recently discovered that he understands is "All done". Sometimes when I'm nursing him, he starts playing with my hair, or wants to sit up and try to reach something to play with. I guess it is hard to just eat when there is so much in the world to explore. But if I ask him "Aaron, are you all done?", if he's not all done, he immediately goes back to nursing.

Other words he knows include: light, fan, clap, wave, Puppy (for his stuffed puppy, not in a general sense), and Bear (for his stuffed bear). I'm sure he knows more, but those are ones we can confirm. He will also wave if you ask him to say goodbye to someone.

Visit from Grandma

On Tuesday, Mom came up to see Aaron (and I like to think me as well). We spent some time at the house, but then went out to lunch at Macaroni Grill - a first for both of us (and not bad!).

Coincidentally, Mom and Aaron were both in red, so I took a couple of photos. Aaron is wearing these adorable red velour overalls from the Pumpkin Patch. They have a zebra on the front and are thick and warm for winter. I loved them when I first saw them, but balked at paying $26 for an article of clothing. I try to always buy stuff on sale (or on eBay) and also have a lot of hand-me-downs. But I went back when the spring line was in and the winter stuff was on sale. I paid $10 for the overalls, knowing he wouldnt' have much time to wear them before the weather heated up, and got them a size too big. The cuffs roll up and you can see the printed lining. Who knows, maybe the will still fit when it cools off in the fall. But red is a gender neutral color, so I figured the next kid could wear them, boy or girl.

Mom was reading Aaron Baby Danced the Polka. Auntie Janine gave this book to him and it has become a favorite for all three of us. Thom and I enjoy the rhyme and rhythm of the story and Aaron loves the flaps he can open up - especially the ones that have words hiding on them! The smile in the first photo captures how much he enjoys seeing the hidden picture and word. A few flaps towards the end of the story only have pictures and he doesn't show nearly as much reaction when those flaps are unfolded.