Aiden has popped his first tooth out into his mouth.  It’s just to the right of the middle on his bottom jaw.  He’s been pretty cranky lately, and this goes a long way to explain it.

Aiden has been pretty good at sleeping through the night lately. He still wakes up from time to time, missing his passy, but overall, it’s better than before.

…except…

Every morning, between 4:00 and 6:00, Aiden wakes up, and we end up bringing him into our room. He falls back asleep in our bed, snuggled up with us.

That’s probably a bad habit to form (for him), but it’s hard to break (for us).

A while ago, Aiden went to the doctor for his 10 month visit.  The doctor was a bit concerned that he was behind on a few key areas (he still doesn’t crawl, nor couldn’t stand up on his own).  We had never really encouraged standing, so we weren’t sure if it was his deficiency or our own fault.  The doctor wanted Aiden to take a Denver test to see where he was on several key developmental areas.

So we went crazy trying to get him to stand up.   And he did, that night.

Now, he’s able to pick himself up on almost anything–a chair, your pant legs, the side of his crib.  We’ll walk into his room in the morning, and he’ll be standing there in his crib, right in the corner, looking at you, arms outreached in the pick-me-up-pick-me-up position.

He can also sit up from a laying-down position.  It’s funny–he gets on his stomach, and gets into a crawling pose.  He keeps his hands stationary, but “walks” forward with his feet to get his bottom up in the air.  Then, he falls over onto his side, and pushes himself up onto his bottom.  It’s amazing that a little human can figure these things out on his own, and in such a unique way.

So, we went back to the doctor for the Denver test.  45 minutes of waiting led way to 5 minutes of testing.  And, by “testing”, I mean “questions for us”.  We could have done this test ourselves if we had bothered to look it up.  AND, since it wasn’t a “regular” office visit (no co-pay for that), we had to pay a chunk of our deductible.  Ugh.

For the first time, Aiden stayed with his grandparents at their house without us. It was awkward.

We had our annual Christmas party last night, and while we’ve had little parties at our house with Aiden around, this party was larger and we thought we’d try it sans kiddo. We took him over to Grandpa Genna’s house around 4:00, and, as usual, Aiden was ecstatic to see him. We said our goodbyes, and headed for the door. Aiden got a very concerned and confused look on his face, but didn’t cry.

The party went well (pictures), and afterward we went to pick him up.  He was asleep, slept on the drive home, and slept through the night.

Aiden slept in his own bedroom for the first time last night.  He didn’t seem to want to at first, but after rocking him to sleep, I deposited him in his bed around 9:00.  He slept until 11:30, and woke up hungry.  After a snack, he went back to sleep and slept until 3:50.  I rocked him back to sleep, and he slept until 5:30.

Compared to most nights in our bedroom, this is a pretty good night.  It’s not fun having to walk upstairs and across the house whenever we hear him on the baby monitor, but I know he really should be in his own room at his age (or, rather, much sooner.  oops.)

I think we need to invest in a nightlight for him.

On his 8th month birthday Aiden can fully sit on his own now. During our week long trip to Destin, Florida, Aiden made his first real attempts at crawling which we got a chance to capture on film. He is still unable to crawl all the way, but definitely making good progress trying. It seems like he is doing a much better job flipping back and forth in order to transport himself and at times while trying to crawl forward he actually ends up crawling back a bit.

He talks a lot in his own, in his little baby language. He seems to be very close to being able to say complete words. He seems to be a lot more aware and a lot more curious of things around him. If any object comes into his area of reach, it becomes Aiden’s.

While on vacation in Florida, Aiden was responsible for the tragic lost of a coffee cup from the table in the rental house.  Fortunately it was already empty.

Also, while in Florida, Aiden got to swim for the first time in a swimming pool at the rental house. With mommy’s and daddy’s help, Aiden got to float in the water and did a froggy style swim. While in the pool Aiden also got to float in his own tube with handles. He also got to stand for a brief moment in the Gulf water. He was a bit afraid as the waves touched his feet, but mommy quickly raised him to safety. He was very fascinated by the flying sea gulls and pelicans on the beach.

While on the trip, Aiden found his new favorite toys, which include plastic fishes and frogs that came in 3-packs are meant for bath time. It’s amazing how 2 sets of $.99 toys can be so much better then some expensive electronic toys.

After our vacation, Aiden seems to have a problem being left alone in the room and even being left for extended period of time in his play center without someone playing with him. It has lasted for 2 weeks already, but it seems to be getting a bit better, at least we hope.

He can no longer be left in a rocker by himself while sleeping. Aiden has learned to sit up and seems to enjoy it a lot, but without any support he could very easily fall out of it.

While going on the walks with mommy and daddy, Aiden now sits in his stroller without the care seat. Just like a “Big Boy” would! He enjoys it a lot more since he gets to see everything around him.