Last night, storms rampaged across much of the US, including our house.  I was up late working, and at smidge past midnight, the excessively loud wind prompted me to check weather.com.  There was a nice red line of death on the radar map heading right for us.  We had about 20 minutes.

So I go downstairs and hop into bed, mentioning to Tanya that we’ll probably be dying in about 20 minutes.  Sure enough, right on queue, the neighborhood weather siren fires off.  This siren is designed to be heard for well over a mile, and is conveniently positioned right across the street about 4 houses down.  It woke Aiden immediately, who was scared to death.

I snatched him up, wrapped him in his blanky, and brought him down to our room while we prepared to set up shop in the basement.  Man, that siren is LOUD.  I grabbed the flashlight, Tanya grabbed a blanket, and we headed on down.

We were down there for about 25 minutes.  I kept checking the radar maps on my phone, and Aiden snacked on some formula.  The wind and rain hitting the furnace exhaust on the roof was suprisingly loud, especially after a power flicker prompted me to turn off the two computers that run in the basement.

Aiden wasn’t scared anymore, but got pretty antsy, and didn’t want to be held.  Unfortunately, our basement isn’t finished, and with the litter boxes living down there, the dust level on the floor frequently leaves a bit to be desired.  We didn’t want him scurrying around in his socks and falling onto the bare concrete, so he had to be held the whole time. 

Since it was actually his first time in the basement, flying around like Superman and looking at all the fascinating boxes did a pretty good job of occupying him.

In the end, there was no damage, but it was 1:00 in the morning Aiden was awake.  We put him to sleep in our bed (at the expense of our comfort–I was nearly falling off the bed since I didn’t want to shift him over and “reset” his progress to sleeptown).   We plopped him back in his crib close to 1:30, and he slept through the night.

I used to really enjoy storms when I was young.  I thought tornados were cool, and love to would watch the atmostpheric violence through the windows.  Not so much, anymore.

Aiden ever-increasing vocabulary of monosyllabic grunts seems to have lost a member.  “Ma”.

He has been quite vocal lately, and after learning the raspberry, loves to walk around spraying the world with his emerging-tooth-inspired slobber.  He can say “Da Da” (or, more accurately, “dadadadadada”), and “Bubba” (“bububububu”–baby and/or bottle).  We’ve heard some N-based sounds “nuh”, and most of short vowel sounds.  He can smack his lips quite loudly in what we like to pretend is a kiss at us, and he can grunt like nobody’s business, frequently while pointing at some item or place that he wants but probably should not have nor go.

And he used to be able to say “MaMa” (again, “mamamamamamama”).  Tanya tries to extract some form of maternal greeting, and almost out of spite, it seems, he refuses to say it. Even worse, a “DaDa” will come out, making me beam with pride.  Mission accomplished–Aiden loves Daddy the most!

Today is Aiden’s 1-year birthday!  I can’t believe how quickly that year flew by.

We’re going to have a party for lunch, with Aiden’s grandparents over. The decorations look great, and there are balloons all over the kitchen.  He thinks it’s pretty funny that they fall up instead of down when he lets go of them.

Yesterday, while Grandma Alla was cooking dinner, Aiden was running around the house and came into the bedroom, where Tanya and I were talking. He just walked right in, happy as can be, smiling and showing off his new tooth. In that moment, I saw Aiden for the first time not as the little baby we’ve known for the last year, but as a little PERSON.

It is a bittersweet feeling, realizing that your child grows up so quickly. It is amazing and wonderful to watch him develop, both physically and emotionally–he has evolved quite a personality of his own. Yet, he’s my baby, so small and innocent, and I don’ want that to go away.

I know I can’t stop time, so I try to make the most of this stage; somewhere between baby and child.  I can definitely understand why a lot of people have kid # 2 around this time.

It looks like tooth number two is coming in nicely. Aiden doesn’t seem to mind this one as much as the first one, but he sure is drooling a lot from it!

Aiden is getting rather proficient at walking around, and can even “run” to a degree.  We play this game where I get on my hands and knees and chase him around making a quacking sound.  He used to hold on to Tanya’s finger and run around, but now he can do it on his own.  I’ll hide around a corner or behind a couch, and he’ll walk around very cautiously, knowing I’m hiding somewhere.  Then I’ll pop out quacking, and he’ll squeak and take off running.  It’s hilarious.

He even knows when I stop and turn around to start chasing me back!

Yesterday, Aiden figured out how to stand up on his own for the first time.  He has been able to stand upright for a while, using chairs and people to pull himself up.  But now, he’s independent.

He can also walk on his own for 5-10 meters.  He likes to walk back and forth between mommy and daddy–sometimes he’ll start out from mommy headed to daddy, get close to daddy, and decide that he wants to go back to mommy.  He turns around in the middle, and heads back.  It’s hilarious.

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.