Ready, Set, Go!

Last night David got to revisit the newborn days. We put Ayden to bed in his crib, as usual, and we started our movie (John Carter) while I wrote the blog. When Ayden woke up, about 45 minutes later, also as usual, I brought him down, nursed him back to sleep and passed him to David.

Left - 1 month old, Right - last night (hard to see...)

This used to be a weekly tradition but since Ayden had gotten older movies wake him up. Newborns seem to sleep through everything but by the time he reached the 6 month mark it got a little harder to keep him with us during movie time. It's also a little harder now because Ayden won't take a pacifier anymore so I'm the only one who can "pacify" him to sleep. I'm glad we gave it a try because David really does cherish when Ayden sleeps on him and it really doesn't happen much these days.

We hosted a play date today with a little girl (and her parents) who is just a month older than Ayden. I used to work with her dad and we actually have a lot in common with them as far as parenting and our kids' habits are concerned. They are both small for their age, a little ahead in milestones, not so great sleepers and they also put forth effort not to expose her to much TV. Her mom only works part time so we decided that we need to get together more often. Yay for new mommy friends!

Ayden and their little girl played by themselves for most of the play date while we parents chatted. When they did notice each other, it was super cute. He liked her hair and she liked his ears. She only has one tooth and adorable dimples. It was good to reconnect with an old friend and an added bonus that our kids had so much in common. The mom was especially comforted by the fact that Ayden was so small as most other babies they know seem to be the standard chunky babies, same as us.

I didn't take any pictures during the play date [gasp!] but oddly enough, the day we had our own play date, pictures from the last one we attended were uploaded to Facebook. Here was the best family shot:

Other than the play date, most of our day consisted of this:

He is so persistent at mastering his new skills, as always. David seems to think this will be a break through week as far as walking is concerned. We shall see!

Since I went to the grocery yesterday and we cleaned the house before the play date we didn't really know what to do with ourselves for the rest of the day. We have been hyper-scheduling our weekends for so long that we felt anxious with the down time. We sat in the living room floor and played some more, then got Ayden down for his afternoon nap for which I joined him during the second half. David worked out while we slept and then it was dinner time. The rest of the evening went as usual: dinner, dinner clean up, family walk, the 4 Bs for Ayden (bath, books, breast, bed) and now David and I are going to watch a movie from our own DVD collection. We've kind of challenged ourselves to re-watch all of our DVDs and any that we find ourselves passing up time and time again will be donated to the movie lending program at David's office.

Overall, we really had a great day. I think me going to the grocery during the week may have to become a usual thing. We really enjoyed the time it opened up today! Tomorrow we will be meeting the folks from our childbirth class at an orchard. Should be fun!

~Sarah