Our playdate with Kate and Belinda

Aidan and I had a great time with our friends Katherine and Belinda today. It was a nice day, so we took a trip to the park. It turned out to be a great photo op!

Your daily Aidan pic

My latest wedding

Well, I say it everytime, but shooting weddings really does get easier and easier. Not that it's ever actually EASY. Shooting weddings is the most difficult type of photography, in my opinion. This was from about 3 weeks ago, and it's complete with sabers and everything. Sabers=swords ;) (Oh, and there's a new Aidan pic in the post below, in case you missed it!)

Just an Aidan pic for the day

Naked baby alert!

Aidan is growing up way too fast. It's now clear that he understands most things I say to him. When I say, "Aidan, do you wanna take a bath?" he says "Baaaaa!" Then he runs as fast as he can to bang on the bathroom door. (I keep it closed because he likes to play in the toilet water.) He also has a few other words, too. He says "daw" for dog. Today, we were in my bedroom putting away clothes, and he went to the window. He looked out and saw a dog in the neighbor's yard. He kept saying "daw, daw, daw, daw!" I said, "Yes, Aidan, there's a doggie!" So I picked him up so he could see a little better. When I tried to continue to put laundry away, he would pull on my clothes and say, "Mama, DAW!!!!!!" It was a little annoying after the 10th time, but he's so stinking cute...Who am I to deny him?

Anyway! This is Aidan running to the bathroom because I asked him if he wanted a bath.

Happy Valentine's Day

We know it's almost over, but Aidan and I wanted to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!!

The prince of boo boos

Over last weekend, I took Aidan to a lake to feed the ducks. Aidan was so excited to see them, and he kept walking as fast as his little feet would take him to get to them. Well, he's still a wobbly little guy, and the result is in the photograph. Aidan took a good hard fall onto the concrete. He cried for a good 30 seconds and then was over it. Today, he climbed on a table at school, and fell off, ending up with a giant goose egg on his forehead. Everybody keeps telling me it's because of B.O.Y. What do YOU think?

What a brave, brave boy

Aidan's visit to the hospital went very well. He was so brave, and he didn't even cry when strangers took him away. Although I can't say the same for his mama. I cried. Nearly the whole time he was gone, which was all of about 9 minutes. They wheeled him back in, and he had just started to come around. He was completely disoriented and groggy. He was also super cranky. We stayed in a recovery room only for about 10 minutes, and then they said we could go. He seemed better when we got into the car. I suppose because it was a familiar place. The hospital was a long drive from our home, so Aidan was able to take a nap in the car. Then he slept for a couple hours once he was in his crib. When the little guy woke, he was as good as new. We even took a trip to the park where he tried to chase a dog.

Did I mention he's a little walking maniac now? And you can just tell he's so incredibly proud of himself. It's utterly adorable to watch him take every single step and laugh the entire way. He still does look a little drunk though.

Anywho, here are some pictures from our weekend at the lake where we fed the ducks and geese. Did I mention he tried to chase them, too? He needs to share his energy with his mama!

Just a quick photo

FINALLY!

My ridiculous internet provider has been having issues lately, so I have only been able to access about 50 percent of the sites I want. This being one of the ones I couldn't access, so I'm sorry for the lack of updates. Also, if anyone has called me recently, I apologize for not returning your calls. My cell phone won't turn on! So email me if you need to chat. :)

Aidan is getting his tubes on Monday. It's scary because he will have anthesesia, but the doc said the surgery will only take about five minutes. And most importantly, Aidan will be more comfortable.

My days have been so busy lately, mainly because my unit is returning from Iraq VERY soon, so those of us who stayed behind have had a million things to do....But I'm not complaining. I got to stay in the U.S. with the wonderful little Aidan and didn't have to head for a second trip to the desert.

Hopefully I'll be getting PS very soon, so I will be able to share some Aidan pics with you.

OH! And if everything goes well, I should be leaving the K-Town on Easter. (March 23, if you didn't know.)

Where to even begin????

Our lives are a little crazy right now, in case you're wondering why I've been MIA. First, Aidan's been quite sick. He has had a never-ending ear infection since November. We've tried every antibiotic and shots, but they're not helping. So he's been referred to an ENT specialist so he can get tubes. :( I'm scared, but I know this will make him better. Plus, it's a super common procedure. But still, he's my baby, and it makes me sad.

Second, and this is much better news, the Army has moved up everyone's stop-loss date. What that means doesn't really matter. All you need to know is that I get to leave Killeen a month earlier than I had anticipated, which is so wonderful. If nothing changes, my clearing paperwork will begin March 3, and I'll begin my terminal leave March 22. At this point, I plan to move that same day. Lucky for us, the Army has to ship everything back to my home of record. So, Aidan and I will be moving back to St. Louis in less than 2 months. That's exciting for me, but it's also scary at the same time. Having 30 fewer days is stressing me out, honestly. But, I'll just have to deal with it. I've already started my transitioning, and I'm in a workshop this week to prepare my resume and do some mock interviewing.

And, more bad news/good news....My stupid Sony Vaio laptop died right before Christmas. Luckily, we were able to purchase a brand new iMac, which I absolutely adore. The only problem is, now I don't have Photoshop that is compatible with the new computer. This means no new Aidan photos for a while, until I fork over hundreds of dollars for the software. Ugh. (I had been using a trial version, but it just ran out.) I'll try to edit a few at work, but I'm not in the office all week. Sorry! (Especially to the grandparents. I know how much you guys look forward to the Aidan pics.) Then I thought, oh, I'll post a movie of him walking. That'll be great! But then I realized the cord that connects the camcorder to the computer is Sony-specific. Sigh.....

Welp, that's all the news for now. I'll keep you updated on Aidan. We meet with the specialist on Friday afternoon.

A walking zombie (aka Aidan)

So Aidan is learning to walk, and I'm not sure if all kids do this, but he walks with his hands straight out in front of him - like a zombie. Then he starts laughing and looks up at the ceiling, starts blinking really fast, and then he falls flat on his face. Then he just smiles and gets back up again. He really is a tough little guy.

Family pics

Both of our families came to Texas when Dan was home on R&R. Here are a few from that time.

Aidan's first Christmas

So I'm still getting caught up with posting photos from Dan's trip home, but here are some from Aidan's first Christmas. Although he didn't seem too interested in the gifts, he enjoyed the paper and the boxes everything came in. Oh, and he enjoyed climbing on the boxes, too.

Daddy and son

The best part about having Dan home for nearly 2 weeks was watching him bond with our son. At first, Aidan was a little leary of his dad, but it wasn't long before the two of them were having so much fun together. Here are some photos of the Welch boys.

This is from our visit to the tree farm. We went to get our tree the same day Dan came home. Aidan loved the dog that lives on the farm.



Aidan's baby-sized cake



Daddy blew out the candle for him.





Hey! I think that looks good!



Hey! Why's daddy eating my cake?




The cake - after Dan and Aidan got ahold of it.



I think it's safe to say the child likes chocolate cake.

A whirlwind R&R

Well, Dan has come home and already is gone again. I'm sitting here alone, wondering how those 2 weeks went so incredibly quickly. Luckily, I have tons of photographs to remember those precious days. We celebrated Christmas, Aidan's birthday, and we were able to go see Mizzou win the Cotton Bowl. I have quite a bit of editing to do, but here are two photos from Christmas day. It was a gorgeous, warm day, so we took Aidan to the park. He LOVES to be outside. I'll post much more tomorrow. Hope everyone had as wonderful a holiday season as my family did.