Week 14: Wading, Women and Wardrobe

Week 14 started out with a bang! On Friday night we went out to dinner with a very special visitor from Seattle, Jen (of Buck and Jen). And we got to see Jen's friends Heather and Justin and their little girl, Harper! Well, Harper is a few months older than you...and was verrrrrrrrrrry interested in you.

At first you seemed okay with Harper...in that you pretty much ignored her. But she only grew more and more interested with (and the kid at the table behind us).But, she was a persistent little lady...and found the outer limits of your baby bubble. Then you deployed your best defensive stink eye. Or is that an "I'm scared" look!

Yeah. That's definitely a 'scared' look. Either way, we will have to hang out with Heather, Justin and Harper more often! And beg Jen and Buck to visit from Seattle more often!

And guess what? On Friday night YOU SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!! We put you to bed at around 9 and you slept until 8:30 am!!

On Saturday morning we went to hang out with Josh and went to the bird store to check out a Mccaw parrot. You got to see all the beautiful birds hopping around and chirping while. You were pretty much amazed by all the activity, noise and color in that store.

The bird looked like this. Josh and Amy may name her "Roscoe"
Then on Saturday night we had a BBQ with your Aunts and Uncles, but you slept through the whole thing! Another great night's sleep for Aidan!

Another cool part of being 14 weeks old is that you got a whole new wardrobe! Well, not new. But we were finally able to crack open the storage box of clothes for 3 - 6 month old babies because your 0-3 month supply was too small!

Finally you were able to wear the Yellow Submarine onesie that Aunt Sham got for you before you were born!!
Well, you can smile about it, Mr. Serious!

To lighten the mood, we had a little daddy and me time. And we got some good smiles out of you!


What a handsome boy in your Yellow Submarine shirt!

And, since you're 14 weeks old, you have to do your exercises too! You and Mommy did more and more tummy time too! And you got so good at holding your head up and even practiced standing on your tippy toes!



That's right-- that's a new play mat! We saw it on a friend's blog and decided that we were tired of letting you play on the floor on a pile of blankets and yoga mats. So we headed off to Buy Buy Baby and got you this cool multicolored mat, which will also be a puzzle for you to put together once you get older. But for now, it just makes Tummy Time that much more fun (and more successful).

As if Tummy Time weren't fun enough already, we decided that - since it was such a hot weekend, and since we were already getting invitations to go swimming and people's pools- that we had to test the waters...literally.

So I blew up the old inflatable pool and we suited you up and hoped for the best.
We looked the part...now to do the old toe test.

One toe in the water...pretty good...Let's try two feet in the water! Hmmm...still considering it...
But not hating it. So, that gave me the courage to try a little more:

Not too bad, this pool thing...Not too bad at all!

Up above the waist and we're still a thumbs up! Now for the whole submerge!
Success! You LOVED swimming! You and I swam in the pool for a good 30 minutes...splashing and floating and letting it all hang out!






You absolutely loved Swimming time!

In fact, you loved it so much that before dumping out the water the next day, we went for another swim, which went over just as well! (Except that you peed all over your swimsuit and threw up in the pool-- but, hey, we're still figuring this whole thing out!)

And the rest of the week was a success too! You slept through the night two more times, had dinner with Mimi and Pops and again with Nanneh and Baba.

You got to wear a whole lot more big boy outfits and play with some new big boy toys that we unearthed from storage for you, including the one-man-band Turtle you love and the Eric Carle froggy!

Sorry that you kind of blend in there!

and...tomorrow... you're taking your very first road trip all the way down to Houston, TX to see your Uncles, Aunts and Cousins!

We'll definitely have some stories to tell for week 15! But, for now, it's bath time on a Thursday night! Oh, by the way, you also are taking big boy baths...no more hammock in the bath tub! What a monumental week!

Big Baby

So, here we are at week 14. You missed this week's you-to-fruit comparison, didn't you? Well, fret not. In week 14, you are approximately the size of a Lemon!

How cool is that? You know, your Mom LOVES lemons! She ate so many of them when she was a kid that she wore down the enamel on her teeth and, consequently, they didn't glow in black lights. But, that's all been fixed now. Yay for modern dentistry!

Some cool things in your development this week:

• You are "making urine"- that sounds just like your dear old Dad. I make urine quite frequently.
  
• You are breathing amniotic fluid. Okay, so that sounds a bit amphibious. But, eventually you'll breathe good old air.
  
• Your liver, kidneys and spleen are developing like crazy! You'll need all of those, fer sure!

And, this one's pretty cool. You are growing thin, downy, feathery hair all over your body for warmth. I know you may be worried that you'll look like me after I got my head shaved or Uncle Jeremy or some kind of Wookie, but don't worry.

This hair growth, called Lanugo, is only gonna stick around while you're in the womb. It's cold in there, apparently! They have some high tech images of what this Lanugo looks like:

See, you look more like Mark Twain than a Wookie. But, you're definitely in a part-mammal, part-amphibian stage in your life. Which means you could, theortically, star in Waterworld 2. (Don't worry, these jokes will be hilarious later in life).

But, the most interesting thing, to me, is that, apparently, you're above average already! The Bump says that at week 14, on average, the baby is 3.4 inches long.

A week ago yesterday, you clocked in at 4.o inches long, from rump to head! That makes you significantly larger than the average-sized baby! Almost 1/3 bigger than the average!

This revelation was greeted with a humorous exhange between your mother and I (very intelligently debating the difference in our respective sizes):

Aaron: "Our baby is way longer than the average length. The Bump says that at week 14, on average, the baby is 3.4 inches long. But our baby measured 4 inches long. LAST WEEK!"

Holly: "Really?"

Aaron: "Yeah, look at me!"

Holly: "Are we gonna have a big baby?"

Aaron: "Yeah, look at me!"

Holly: "Yeah, but look at me!"

Aaron: "So, look at me!"

Holly: "Yeah, but look at me!"

This went on ad nauseum until our batteries wore out. We haven't gotten any stats on percentiles or anything like that, yet. But, if this lemon information is any good, you might be a big baby!

Whether you'll be big or not, I still can't get over how much you've grown from the first time we saw you! You're a little person in there now; at first glance you were just a smudge with a heartbeat!

14 Week Fireworks!

Mimi, Pops, your Mom, you and I just returned from a trip to Maine last night. We got to see and hang out with tons of family, including your Uncle Taff, Aunt April, and your Cousins Addison and Autumn. Taff and I even went baby clothes shopping at the Maine Mall; I'm pretty sure we looked like quite an odd couple to be visiting Baby Gap together in Maine. But, it was totally worth it. I bought you some really hip clothes (which have buttoned-up bottoms (something Pops will probably be envious of)) AND a really cool Darth Vader t-shirt which you can wear in March of 2011. Talk about planning ahead!

So, we were in Maine on your 14th week conception day celebration! As mentioned above, I celebrated by buying you clothes!

You and your Mom chose to celebrate with some FIREWORKS! A real outpouring of excitement!

So, Southwest Airlines is cool and all, but they're not the most direct way to travel. Your Mom stomached the ~10-hour journey up to Maine. And on the way back she did just fine on the drive from Maine to Manchester, New Hampshire. The flight from Manchester to Baltimore was decent too. By the time we flew from Baltimore to St. Louis, Missouri, though, your mom was starting to feel a little unwell. During the flight from St. Louis to Dallas, she seemed like she was going to make it: pale, eyes shut, feeling pretty ill and holding on to the seat in front of her for dear life.

Then they announced that we had begun our initial descent into Dallas. I could see patchwork ground out the window. I could also feel that the ride had gotten substantially bumpier. Your Mom hadn't said a word in about 15 minutes; then she made her move and deftly reached for the barf bag tucked in the back of her seat. She put it to her mouth and...and....WHAT A SAVE!

She breathed heavily into the bag, letting it inflate and deflate with her breaths; but crisis was averted.

Or so I thought.

Moments later, the bag made its way back to your Mom's face. The crunch of the landing gear coming out of the bottom of the plane seemed to be the only sound I heard. I looked at your Mom, and she looked at the back of her eyelids; eyes tightly close. This was it. The grand finale. The fireworks!

I held her hair and exchanged the first bag for the second, the second for the third. She recycled her Starbucks Banana Strawberry Milkshake and Bagel sandwich.

Your Mom had quite a record going! 14 weeks and 2 days of pregnancy without vomiting. But, on that flight to Dallas, the record was wiped clean. My sweatshirt had to be wiped clean as well. The man in the aisle seat of our row, unfortunately, did not say "goodbye" to us as he left.

This just goes to prove that when your Mom does something, she does it big. And anyway, as your Mom said soon afterwards, "At Least you'll have something for the blog."

So, in utero, you've been to Massachusettes, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine! And, I believe it's safe to say this will mark the end of your in utero inter-state adventures.

But, the fireworks were all for you, young man!

Here's what we know so far: you are 14 weeks old, you don't like flying, and you already have some pretty cool clothes to wear; I am down one sweatshirt; and your mother is feeling MUCH better now.

Happy 14th week!