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.