Pachyderms, Primates, Penguins, Pumpkins and...Giraffes! A Photo extravaganza!

It's fall...and that means we can finally do things outside again!
To celebrate that, and also to -mostly- celebrate your Mom's 29th birthday, we had a fun outdoorsy weekend!


First we took you to the Dallas Zoo!

We didn't expect you to go crazy, by any means, but your reaction was really quite good!

You noticed- and were captivated by the penguins:

You went face to face with a Mandrill Baboon:

You gandered at giraffes: You had fun with your Mama:
And posed for the camera:
We eyeballed some elephants:
And you even tried to imitate one too!

Then, the next day, Uncle BJ, Aunt Kari, Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Michelle (and almost-Brady) joined us on a visit to the Arboretum's Annual Pumpkin Patch to take pictures of you with flowers and pumpkins, because, what could be cuter? Mine and your Aunt Kari's cameras were clicking away all afternoon! The better pictures are Kari's; the decent-ish ones are mine! But you look super cute in all of them!
Don't worry: I caught you.

New fun: eating leaves!





The return of the stink eye!

We had such a fun weekend; but what's more you seemed to have fun too. Granted, you slept for a good portion of both activities, but when you were awake, you really seemed to like all the animals and pumpkins, despite the awesome stink eye picture!

It'll be so cool to take you back to these places next year when you'll really notice the animals and laugh at the elephants emptying their bowels and bladders right in front of us! You can even run like a mad man all over the pumpkin patch!

But, I'm in no rush: it was a serene afternoon helping you see knew things, sit on manicured Arboretum grass, watch the animals, hang out with your family and eat a few leaves. It's great being outside, isn't it?

High Praise

Aidan- guess what? You sat in a restaurant high chair all by yourself and you were such a good boy! No more hanging out in the car seat and a sling for you!

And only on your second try too: last time we tried to put you in one of those things you screamed bloody murder. But 2-3 weeks later and you're high chair sitting like a pro!

Way to go, man!

Then, of course, to celebrate you and Uncle Jeremy played spoons while one of you was on top of my head!

Noises & Voyages

You love voyaging around the house in your walker. Of course, going mobile by scooting is a lot of fun too, but that's more work. The walker just seems to be more fun for you, you scream and chase the dogs and shove their food bowls out of the way. You even decided that you could catch Daddy off guard and go for the camera. FREEDOM!!!!!



Of course, all this mobility is bound to make a boy excited...very excited.



That video has been making me laugh since we took it almost a week ago! You're even more vocal than that now, and we love it. You can talk and talk for hours it seems. Except that your talking is sometimes that screeching noise. But we don't mind it! It's how you show you're excited!

The biggest surprise noise you made came last week. Your Mom and I were eating dinner and you were galavanting around town in your walker. All of a sudden we hear a loud *POP*. I look at you and you purse your lips deliberately and then release... *POP*POP*!

You figured out a new noise! And you were so proud of yourself.

Of course, I got the camera out and you stopped making the noise, but then your Mommy tricked you by feeding you some water out of an adult glass (one of your other new tricks!) and you started pop POP POPPING all over again!



How fun is that? Now we can have whole popping conversations where we pop back and forth. It'll sound like bubble rap, for sure, but it's just part of growing up and taking maiden voyages around the world (or toward the dog's water bowl, whichever is your fancy) and discovering fun new noises to make along the journey!

Going Mobile

For a while now you've been going pretty nutso for your mother's and my cell phones! You like to eat phones and twirl them around in your hands. They're just the right size for you to hold! There's pretty much no toy in the world that is as consistently makes you as happy as a cell phone (simple pleasures, I guess!)

So, we decided to combine your love of cell phones and your burgeoning mobility to see how far you'd be willing to go to get to your favorite toys.

And the results were amazing!



You're not quite crawling yet; this is still technically "scootching" (that's the techincal word). But it's incredible to see how far you've come, how much you've grown and how mobile you become when there's a mobile phone on the line!

For the Dogs...

You love your dogs, Aidan. I mean, you REALLY love them. You hug on Preston whenever you get the chance, you open wide for them both to kiss you (gross!) and you light up whenever you see Toby.

It makes sense, though, they've been by your side since the beginning!

But, it's becoming clearer every day that the dogs love you too. I WILL one day capture a picture of you hugging Preston. It's just about the cutest thing ever.

But, until then, here is another cutest-thing ever. I present to you: dog vs. baby, a play in one act.

A: "Oh hey Daddy! We weren't up to anything, right Toby?""I challenge you to a dual! On your marks...""Get set...""Aidan wins. Toby gives up.""Wait a second...something about that seemed a bit too easy..."Surprise open-mouth-kiss-enjoyed-by-all attack move! Kisses for everyone!

Okay, so, yeah, it's a little bit gross...and your Mom asked me not to post that picture. But sometimes love is messy. And we brushed your teeth soon thereafter.

In Toby and Preston we all have life-long friends. Even though they want to eat the roof of your mouth occasionally, the dogs are our family and they are really just fuzzy little bundles of love (and poop...and sometimes vomit.) But, like I said, love is messy. And sometimes love hurts.

We recently had to say goodbye to another great friend. Mimi and Pops' dog, Max, was once my dog: I picked him out from the adoption kennels when I was only 12 years old. He made me feel like Toby and Preston make us all feel now!

Granted, you didn't really get to know old Max in his prime; by the time you were born he was already an old, old dog who smelled pretty badly, was mostly blind and wasn't too playful. But he was true blue too, and every Monday afternoon when you went over to Mimi and Pops' house, Max perked up a little. He was interested in you for sure...sniffing you a little here, checking you out there; but he was already well beyond his playing years. But we loved him still.

And now, he is no longer with us. That's the rough part about puppy love: our little friends aren't designed to be with us forever. That's a pretty heavy lesson for a 7 month old, but I know you'll notice that Max isn't there at Mimi and Pops' next Monday, so I figured it best to level with you now.

The good news is, though, that because they can't be with us forever, we humans have free reign to accept as many puppy kisses, play bows and tail wags as we can get while our friends are still with us. So, more power to you, little man. You keep playing with Toby and Preston, and take as many kisses as you can get... as long as you're relatively sure that Toby hasn't reverted back to his puppy-hood eating habits, which weren't so sanitary.

And since this post is for the dogs, this post is truly for Max...who would totally approve of your dog day afternoons!

Month 7 Already? Family, Food, Floors and Fairs

Oh my goodness, you're 7 months old already! Look at that happy boy- that's you! it's not long ago that you were in your Mom's belly, and now you smile, you "talk," you scoot, you roll, you play, you laugh, you're sooooooo close to crawling and you're getting cleverer by the day.

For example, the other day I walked into the bathroom (where mirrors live) to play one of your favorite games, "Who's that Baby?" (This is played by looking into the mirror where you laugh and giggle and smile at your reflection and I say "Who's that Baby?" repeatedly in a silly voice. It's much better than it sounds on paper). Anyway, we walked into the bathroom and the lights were out. We begin to play the game, but instead, you reach for the light switch! I do play the lightswitch game with you a lot (on, off, on, off)-- but that just blew me away that you reached for the switch. Could it have been a fluke? Sure! But, I like to think that you're just super clever and knew that you can't play "Who's that baby" with the lights off!

And you're so clever that you know when Mommy and Daddy are eating...and get kind of cute/upset when the food's not for you. Once at a grocery store, your Mom and I were eating free samples. Every bite we took, you'd open up your mouth to get a bite. But you couldn't eat spicy queso! You were so upset that you cried!

During breakfast one day, you were watching longingly as your mom ate a bagel...
One day, big man, but not yet. At this point you weren't even 7 months old yet! The lead up to your 7-month birthday was filled with family and fun and floors and food...and even a fair.

You celebrated your first Rosh Hashana Dinner with Mimi and Pops, and we invited your Godparents, BJ and Kari too!

You really amazed everyone by eating a whole heck of a lot! And then Mimi and Pops gave you a new toy, a bear name (I'm not kidding), Caleb B Beanster. Well, you LOVED Caleb B Beanster- you grabbed him and started squealing and screeching and laughing! We think that you thought he was a dog!

After dinner, we all played on the floor!

You also got to celebrate your first Break fast for Yom Kippur, though we did it a little differently this year: it was a brunch break fast the next morning (don't worry, nobody fasted an extra 6 hours). Jeremy and Michelle and almost-Brady joined us for that!You really impressed everyone by eating a huge breakfast, including a whole banana!

Then we played on the floor! (noticing a pattern?)

The weekend before your monthi-birthday, your Uncle Taff and Aunt April, along with Addison and Autumn came to Dallas to go to the fair with you (and the rest of us).

But, on our Fair day it rained the whole time! Grey skies and lots of rain mean indoor activities. So everyone went to the mall, where you got to experience the craziness that is a "soft play area" on a rainy day.

Actually, except for a brief forray into a hippo's mouth for a photo op with Addison, you witnessed the craziness from the sidelines. The most action you got was when a little boy sat down next to me and said "Excuse me, may I pet your baby?"

How could I say no?

So some kid pet your back while your cousins played!

Uncle Taff and Aunt April and family were really happy to hang out with you, even if we were at the mall!But, worry not, the next day the clouds cleared up and we got to go to the TEXAS STATE FAIR! This was your second visit, technically. But I'm guessing you don't recall your first visit.

So you got to soak in all the fun in the sun (and the shade...it was cool in your morning and you got to wear your cool hoodie sweatshirt for the first time).

You strolled with your cousins:

Proxy shared a corn dog:

Took in the sights:Saw Big Tex:

Made friends with Autumn:

Got strapped in by Aunt April:

Helped me hold a Turkey Leg (Holly forgive me for posting the mid-bite picture!):

And fell asleep:

You hung out with these nuts...You might have wanted to ride the rides with your cousins, but you're not quite Big Tex enough yet...So we had to watch from the sidelines...but maybe next year you can ride the rides!So, you understandably had nothing to say on that topic.You're still a bit too young to ride the crazy animal train or go in the house of mirrors, but we can't believe you're as old as you are...

Before we knew it you were 7 months old already!

And the fun is just beginning!