Present overload

What's the perfect word to describe Aidan's first Christmas? Ah yes, overkill. Between Christmas Eve with close friends and family and Christmas Day with two sets of grandparents (and aunt Nettie), there are now enough toys in our house to entertain Aidan until he's 3.

Poor kid was completely overwhelmed with the number of gifts he had to open. In fact, he seams to have developed a distinct fear of gift wrap.

At least the first Christmas gift from mom and dad ever (pictured here) got big smiles.

No thank-you

Ah Thanksgiving...Most of us spend the entire year looking forward to this glorious day of gluttony.  Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, green beans, cranberry sauce, pie--what's not to love? According to Aidan, everything.

Let's just say his first foray into real food didn't go so well. Green beans were immediately spit out. Potatoes and yams were tolerated, but only barely. Pie filling was enjoyed, but if it wasn't, I'd think the kid was plain weird.

At the end of the night, the (typically) champion eater was fleeing at the sight of a spoon and begging for baby food. Next year is bound to be better. More teeth means more enjoyment, right?

Aquarium=great rainy day activity (NOT!)

Today was one of those miserable rainy days where all you want to do is stay inside. Pre-kid, we'd go to the movies and theater hop, gorging ourselves on popcorn and candy. Now that Aidan is here, we decided to put our family membership to the Academy of Sciences to good use instead. Unfortunately, every other family in the Bay Area seemed to have the same idea. Making our way through the aquarium, the crowds became so insane and loud that Aidan looked at me, said "momma," and covered his ears. That's when we decided to quickly check out the African safari and ecology exhibits and leave. Brian and I were so proud of ourselves for staying calm through the experience that we treated ourselves to the Olive Garden (turns out Aidan loves Minestrone soup). If I ever suggest going to Golden Gate Park on a rainy day again, please remind me of this moment and slap some sense into me. What was I thinking?

Oh Pooh

Pumpkin patching

Even though I had no voice, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to take the babe to the pumpkin patch for the first time. Aidan LOVED the wood chips on the ground (it took us a good five minutes to get a picture where he wasn't trying to eat them). After the photo op, we quickly picked out our pumpkin and hightailed it over to grandma and grandpa's house for dinner. Ah, good times.

Pumpkin festivities

We had a great time at the 2008 Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival. While we were waiting to get our family picture with the giant pumpkin, I managed to take this cute portrait of Brian and Aidan. Aren't they handsome?

My tooth hurts!