Chillin

When he's not walking, Aiden loves to crawl up into things these days. Remy's new dog bed for instance:

In fact, everyone enjoys the new dog bed...... ...and poor Rem has to wait his turn in the cat bed:
And although he doesn't always cooperate when being strapped into his car seat in the car, Aiden loves to hang out in his old car seat
Check out those front teeth!
And those toes!! No he's not diseased, it's just a casualty of accompanying Noni Joy to the nail salon

Walking!!

It's official, he's walking!

Aiden's first Halloween!

Do I hear someone in trouble?

It's a bird...

It's a plane...

It's SUPER-AIDEN!!

Pumpkin patch!

Today we took Aiden to pick out his very first pumpkin at the Stanly Lane Pumpkin Patch in Napa. Despite being afraid of the pigs (even the ceramic one featured in the last picture) Aiden had a great time smacking and tipping the pumpkins over, and trying to eat straw. :-)
And to top it off we used the navigation feature of Aiden's fancy new 'toy' to find the place. (Thanks to the fact that Pinky's Hot Dogs has been permanently blocked as a potential destination we arrived without incident)

Busy busy

We've been busy, busy here and have lots of updates. First and foremost, Aiden is still arguably the most adorable baby ever. Everywhere we go people still comment on how cute he is, how blue his eyes are and how easy going he is - we just smile and agree. :-) He is also very busy himself these days and gets into Everything.

Secondly, as of November 2nd I will no longer be unemployed!! I was offered a better position with a better salary than the one I had been interviewing for at Seminis - yay! It's an agricultural seed company so I'll be working to help design genetic markers that can be used to test breeding stock for things like disease resistance, drought resistance and improved nutrient value in cucumbers and melons. Definitely a change from horses but I'm excited!

Ok, on to the pictures....
Aiden rocking his super cool hair do (I never know what to expect when I pick him up from Joy's)

Apparently retired climbing rope is a favorite for both dogs and babies alike

Under the bar stool ( a favorite hangout these days)

Checking the mail

At Zack's birthday party

And at the park with our Momma's group - he thinks the slide super fun

Camping!

Despite a minor hiccup that involved us packing our tent but not our tent poles (doh!) our first family camping trip was a big success! We had a huge, grassy campsite that was perfect for our big group and all the little ones we had running (and crawling) around. Plus the campground had all sorts of fun stuff like ducks to feed, playgrounds, a private beach on a nice quiet section of the Russian River, hay rides and even a dog park! Check it out....

Aiden very excited to be having dinner:
Hanging with Dad in his special camping shirt:
Some of the gang feeding the ducks and geese:
Excited screaming about being at the river:
Checking out the water:
Hanging out in the tent:
Campfire coziness:
And waking up with daddy:

Labor Day Weekend

We had a very full weekend that included two days of the state fair, a BBQ and a birthday celebration. Very fun and very tiring! Here are some highlights:

Aiden & Erik about to have lunch at the fair

Hanging with Zack at the BBQ

Keira dancing at the BBQ

Birthday fun on the back deck

Ponies!

Aiden meeting his first horse - Auntie Diane's Molly at their Regionals a few weekends ago:
And his first ride at Auntie Leah's house :-)

Crawling!

Somehow my little baby boy is already 8 months old! It's a little sad because I miss the days where he actually wanted to sit in my lap to be held, but it's also a ton of fun. His new skills include the 'pincher grasp' and army crawling. Now that he can pick them up he loves Puffs and Cheerios and shovels them in to his mouth like they're going out of style. Here he is helping me choose what to have alongside his Cheerios this morning:

To demonstrate Aiden's crawling skills all you need is the proper motivation. This can come from a variety of sources including anything that you would really rather he not touch (cell phones, TV remotes, sunglasses etc.), a food item of yours that you have carelessly set next to you on the floor, anything with the potential to maim or kill him (outlets, power cords, heavy things that can tip over on him like the vacuum) and of course, any animal that is brave or stupid enough to be caught napping on the floor. Here's Aiden the moment before he has spotted something particularly interesting that he wants to check out.

And here he is the moment after he's spotted such an item:Go Aiden Go! :-)

7 months old & the Solano County Fair

Aiden is 7 months old now & he's definitely continuing to grow up faster than we can keep track of. He's even finally the same size as the giant polar bear he got for his birthday in the hospital.

Both of his central lower teeth have popped through now & he's chomping on everything he can shove in his mouth. They're tough to get a photo of, so you'll have to stay posted to get a glimpse of the pearly whites. He loves, loves, loves to smack things and hear the big noise it makes. His favorite thing to do is smack the water though and make a big huge splashy mess :-)

A couple weekends ago we went to see Grandma Joy show llamas at the Solano County Fair and Aiden seemed to have a blast looking at all the different animals and people there. It was also yet another chance to rock his oh so cool shades, this time with the other Pedroni men.
He's pretty darn close to mobile these days - diaper changes have become such a crazy, rolling, acrobatic feat that they've temporarily been moved from the changing table to the floor. Once on the floor he flops like a little fish out of water but somehow manages to move in a directed way. You'll look down and suddenly his little bare butt is three feet away and you have nothing but a fresh diaper in your hand. He's also working pretty hard on getting up on his hands & knees, and will pull himself up with only a tiny bit of help from us. What a strong little guy!