Eat, drink, and be scrunchy-faced!

Aidan continues to grow like crazy, and as he's growing he is developing quite the interest in food. Big people food, anyway. If he sees somethign going in your mouth, he wants to try it too....that goes for everything, whether it's food, drink, or pills. Of course, he can't have pills, but we're pretty relaxed about the other two.

The funny thing is, every single new "baby" food we give him he makes a face at. Even if it's just for the first bite, he looks like you had just crammed a dog turd covered in fire into his mouth. I think the only thing he hasn't done that for is his zwieback (I have no clue how it's really spelled and I am WAY too lazy to look it up, so just nod and play along), which apparently means "crack" in baby language. He can sit and gnaw on that stuff forever.... we're discovering that it's great for restraunts that don't have celery for him to knaw on (which is his other secret vice).

As for big people food, it's about a 50-50 shot that he'll make The Face. Pizza he didn't, donuts he did. Go figure. Then again, we only gave him the inside bit of the donut, the part that doesn't really taste like anything, so perhaps he'll react differently when he gets some powdered-sugar goodness. But by far the oddest thing he's done occurred this past Sunday at brunch. We were out at a restraunt with some friends, and he managed to snag a piece of lemon. I didn't stop him, figuring it was way too big to fit all the way in his mouth, and assuming it was safe since it had no seeds protruding. See, and you all thought I didn't pay attention to those little life-threatening details. anyway, I thought at the very least it'd be good for a giggle at his expense. He got a good mouthful of it, and puckered up immedietly-- but that wqas it. No anger, or ick-face in sight. He took it out, looked at it, and put it back in his mouth. He did this a bunch of times, all without incident. Of course, I myself enjoy lemons, so I guess I really shouldn't be suprised that my perfect little wierdo does too.

On another note, I am now officially sure Aidan is destined to be a rock star. Last night, he was super fussy, so we brought him to bed with us. But he doesn't come to bed the way you expect an 8 month old to... he doesn't curl up tight like the little larval human he is and snuggle in. Oh nooooooooo-- he flops around until he's sufficiently spread out (looking like a very young, inexplicalby footie-pyjama clad passed-out roadie) and drools himself to sleep. All he's missing is a slowly burning smoke hanging from his limp fingers and a half empty bottle of Jack. And stubble. And, um, long flowing rocker hair. And spandex, maybe with a studded codpiece.

Ok, so maybe it's not all THAT similar. But it's pretty adorable, as long as you're not the one he's pushing out of bed to achieve his Nikki Sixx pose.

Which I'm usually not.

So it is, in fact, pretty cute.

Travels with Aidan

Well, as I mentioned, last week was vacation time! And what a vacation...Aidan took his first trip to a public amusement area-- namely, the Camden Aquarium. I know, I know, you're thinking "What the hell kind of parent takes thier 7 month old to CAMDEN?!?!?:" Well, let me tell you, the answer is "a terrified one". I had always thought, "No way, Camden can't possibly be as bad as everyone makes it sound-- I lived in West Philly, I can take it." WRONG. The second we got off the highway, up come the windows and down go the locks. There were a couple of guys walking up the middle of the street who I normally would have honked at and thrown the finger to, but I've become rather fond of breathing through my nose and not through a sucking chest wound.

Once we were there, safe inside the confined of the guarded parking lot, it was cool. They only let a set number of peopl in per hour so it can never get too crowded, which is nice when you're pushing a stroller with a kid who's flailing around like he just saw the world's biggest ba-ba. He LOVED it. He especially loved the hippos, pounding his little hands on the glass and kicking his legs with glee. I have to wonder exaclty what he thought they were, since the only two animals he has seen in real life thus far are cats and dogs. Maybe he thought they were giant shaved aquatic kittys. I dunno. Anyway, we also got his his first round of souvenier crap he can look at in a few years and wonder where it came from. I decided to start a new tradition for him-- you know those machined that flatten pennies and imprint a small picture on them? I decided he has to have one of those from everywhee we go.

I promptly screwed that up the next day when we went to Atlantic City and I forgot about it. AC was fun too-- he got to laugh at the seagulls, and there were plenty of old Russian immigrant woment to tell him how precious he is. Yeah, I knwo, that last part doesn't make sense to me either. But it's true. He had a grand old time strolling about, and even got a toy out of us when we went to the KayBee Toy Outlet. Ok, well, truthfully that was all me-- I have this sick addiction that makes me buy something, anything, every time I am more than 5 miles away from home. And yes, lapdances count but only if my family isn't there. Then I only get half credit. But I digress.

To top it all off, the little guy pooed a tooth through the other day. Kinda. I mean, you can feel it if you stick his finger in his mouth (which, FYI, he isn't a big fan of) but nothing is visible yet. and he, as usual, doesn't relly seem to care. Until he goes to bed. The it must really bother him, so he hasn't been sleeping so well lately. Which means that, yet again, I'm not sleeping good either. I think that before you're allowed to have children you should have to be subjected to a battery of test to check your mental abilities while running on no sleep for extended periods of time.

Like, oh say, 18 years.