Happy Birthday Aidan!

We had Aidan's 1st Birthday Party this afternoon. Here he is, not sure

what to think about the silly party hat!

Aidan and Mommy!

His Elmo cake!

Getting a better look at Aunt Stacy!

Are all these presents for ME?

Not to be left out of the fun, Grandma and Grandpa Whetzel brought a gift

for the big sister too!

Ava showing Aidan how to

figure out all these new toys!

The great thing about a big sister -

sit back, relax, and let her do the present opening!

Ava and Callie even put on a little "First Birthday

Song" for Aidan that they made up themselves!

The candle is lit - bring

on the bad singing...

Ta-da! Aidan sees his cake, and we all

sing Happy Birthday! He isn't too

sure what to think about all this!

For me?!

He played with it at first...

it was pretty gooey, and he had a look that said

"Oh my word, are they really letting me do this?!"

And it was very BLUE too!

Blue..... everywhere!

Now he was really getting into it,

shoving it in with both hands like a boy should!

By the time the red frosting got mixed in with

the blue, and ended up all over his face, he looked like

he had gotten the best of someone in a back alley!

Ahh.... the sugar coma is kicking in. And we head

straight upstairs for a bath!!

Happy birthday, my handsome boy! I can hardly believe you are a whole year old.

One year of sweet memories made, and many more to come!

Mommy and Daddy love you!

My baby is one year old today!

Exactly one year ago today, I was in labor with Aidan. At this very hour (5am-ish), I was filled with anxiety about whether or not he would be healthy and fine, eagerness to deliver and finally meet this baby boy, and of course pain - thank you, non-functioning epidural! Over the next few hours of that day that became our little boy's birthday, I had no idea that it would be such a whirlwind of a labor and delivery story!!

The 4 hours I waited, from my recovery from general anesthesia and surgery, until I was able to see you after your time in the NICU seemed like forever, but this first year of life seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye.

It was never completely smooth-sailing, even from our first few days in the hospital. Daily bloodwork, and twice-daily forehead screens for bilirubin levels, due to quite a bit of jaundice, kept things interesting. By the end of day 2, Aidan was put on a bili blanket (the blue lights you see underneath his blankets in the picture above) to attempt to bring his bilirubin levels down.



Finally, we were able to go home! And the next week was rough, as any family with a newborn knows. We were sent home with our own rented bili blanket machine to use, and were told to have him on it as close to 24 hours a day as possible. Luckily, Aidan was a laid-back, happy baby, who didn't seem to mind it at all.

I was totally in denial how yellow he really was, until a few months later I looked back at pictures of him during his first week! And this is where he spent that first couple weeks - in his Moses basket, hooked up to the bili blanket, sitting on the coffee table in the family room!

The week was filled with dr visits, more bloodwork, more bilirubin testing. Supplementing with formula, anxiety that he is not eating enough, pumping, and more dr visits. But luckily after a week of this, he was much improved. His color was so much better, he was eating again like a champ, and was given a clean bill of health. And our bumpy road smoothed out again, just like that.

Such a sweet baby, who could sleep anywhere, and

loved to be held!



And a year later... here you are, my sweet boy. Full of laughter, personality, smiles, babbles, new teeth, new tricks, and so much happiness. You have made our family complete. I can hardly believe you are a year old already, and that you are leaving your baby days behind you. Happy birthday Aidan!

Happy 6 months Aidan!

Wow, how time flies! Aidan is growing so fast, it is hard to keep up. He is now rolling over both ways, trying SO hard to sit up unassisted (he can do it for less than a minute, but always ends up toppling over or falling forward!), he is eating every type of fruit and veggie, loves his oatmeal, and his new favorite - banana yogurt! He loves to splash in the pool and jump in his "jumperoo"!

At his 6 month appointment, he was 17 lbs, 10 oz in weight (52nd percentile), 27 1/2 inches tall (80th percentile!) and his head was around the 44cm mark - not that anyone ever pays attention to head measurements!

Way to grow, my sweet baby boy!

Teething sucks!

Poor Aidan! He really is a trooper through it all. But wow, teething is really a pain. He has had a shadow of the outline of his 2 bottom teeth very visible for the past month now. He drools like a faucet and chews on anything he can get his hands on. His favorite, of course, are my fingers... ouch! That boy has some strong jaws. He's almost 5 1/2 months, and is approaching the same time Ava got her first tooth, so if genetics repeats itself, it won't be long before those pearly whites finally make their appearance.

5 months old

Wow - time is flying by! How did Aidan get to be 5 months already - didn't I just go back to work, and start buying 3-6 month onesies? Nope... I guess not. I just can't keep up!

Aidan is such a great baby, we are so blessed to have such a sweet little guy in our family. He is so happy, and watching him reach all these milestones just melts my heart every time. He is rolling over both ways now, though the rolling from tummy to back needs quite a bit more practice. He is eating all sorts of fruits and veggies, and loves almost all of them, except he is a little slow to warm up to the green beans. He also had his first bites of homemade mashed potatoes the other day (loved it!) and homemade whipped cream (hated it!).

His 6-9 month onesies and 6 month size summer clothes are all getting snug... looks like we will me making a 2nd round of shopping for more summer clothes since it is still only June, and we have a long stretch of hot weather ahead of us.

Another first!

Since Aidan has been really working on his bottom two teeth that are trying to come in, and he has been eating baby food with no issues for a few weeks now, we decided to try the infamous Gerber biter biscuits! Of course, no stretch of babyhood is complete without the experience of one of these brown, gooey, messy concoctions!

He was really into it! Except he kept dropping it, because after a few minutes these things become really slimy and slippery. He totally enjoyed it - and the very thorough bath that he obviously needed afterwards!

[UN]swaddling success!

I can safely say it, now that it has been a full week - we are free of the swaddle habit! At over 4 months, it was really time to quit, but it has been our safety net, our key to a full nights' sleep, not to mention great naps in his crib during the days. But Aidan is a big boy now - I was beginning to worry about what else I could use to swaddle him, because one by one, he kept growing out of the latest swaddle blankets I'd been relying on to wrap him up tight. It took a few nights of getting up at 2 or 3am, and a few nights of letting him fuss for about 20 minutes before falling asleep, but he's great now. We're using the soft, snuggly cotton Sleep Sacks, so he stays warm, and can move his arms and legs freely. Naps aren't quite as long as they used to be, but he seems happy most all of the day, so I think he's getting plenty of rest. Now I can take a deep breath, and quit searching the Internet for extra large cotton and velcro swaddling contraptions... whew!

Pass the peas, please!

We've started a whole new phase in this babyhood thing.... welcome to the world of solid foods! We decided to start a little earlier than the recommended 4 months of age, just because we'd sit Aidan in his seat on the kitchen table during our meals together as a family, and he would watch in amazement (or jealousy, maybe!) as we ate, and would even start to move his mouth, making eating motions! It was so funny to watch, we thought maybe he was ready to be an active participant at the dinner table, so we decided to give it a try.


We started with a little cereal, but anyone who's ever had kids knows how bland and boring that is, so we've moved on to veggies and fruits. This is a nightly scene at the Whetzel house - Aidan covered in whatever was on the menu for the night! But he LOVES it - he opens up big for the spoon, and sometimes he'll just gulp it down and want more immediately, other times he'll smile his big gummy grin, and whatever he's eating will dribble down his chin. Either way, he's loving it!


So far his favorites seem to be bananas and sweet potatoes. But on the night these were taken, the theme was peas.... everywhere. He has a habit of sucking on his fingers and fists (teething is our guess right now), even in the middle of the meal. So this means, peas everywhere! Our laundry, and our diaper changes have gotten a bit more interesting lately, but he's happy and growing, so we must be doing something right!