Over the last fortnight, Aidan has been taking huge strides towards independence. In particular, he's found his sense of balance: he can sit unaided, and stand holding on to something - luckily his toy chest is just the right height! Aidan has finally found the crawling position: he rocks backwards and forwards, and he even moves backwards. He occasionally manages to lunge forwards, but ends up with his face on the floor :-(. We're urgently looking at Aidan-protecting the house!

Aidan has been to the childminder twice now, both times returning "tired but happy". He drinks/eats as much as normal, but finds it difficult sleeping in a new place. As predicted, it has been much harder for Carolyn than for Aidan!

His eating technique is improving (he occasionally opens his mouth now!), and he seems to be enjoying an increasing range of foods.

He's had three swimming lessons so far, and for the first time on Saturday he didn't cry after going underwater. The rest of the lesson he loves - he is a real waterbaby.

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Image 0025-3895 Canon PowerShot S45 1/60 sec., f/2.8 2004:01:21 16:58:23 UTC

What's in the box? Aidan can now stay standing, holding on for balance, for quite some time. He loves looking through the toy chest and choosing which toy he wants to play with next.

Normally we put Aidan's carseat onto a special trolley, but he's now quite big enough to sit in the trolley himself! We tried him this way for the first time on Sat 24th, and he enjoyed inspecting his surroundings from this new perspective.

Image 0025-3912 Canon PowerShot S45 1/60 sec., f/2.8 2004:01:24 18:58:59 UTC

Image 0025-3921 Canon PowerShot S45 1/60 sec., f/4.9 2004:01:25 10:34:37 UTC

Aidan is following in his father's footsteps - mixing sound at church.

Cracked it at last! Aidan can now easily get into crawling position - this happened quite suddenly. He's (still) not crawling yet, but he is rocking backwards and forwards (as of Wed 28th). He somehow manages to get around the floor of the living room quite easily anyway!

Image 0025-3933 Canon PowerShot S45 1/39 sec., f/2.8 2004:01:27 08:56:46 UTC

Image 0025-3938 Canon PowerShot S45 1/24 sec., f/2.8 2004:01:27 16:00:35 UTC

Another relatively new development is sitting - Aidan can now sit quite happily for as long as he wants to (steadying himself with his hands or legs if necessary), and is beginning to like playing in this position.

Aidan and the Snow Baby. On Wed 28th we had about 3in (7cm) of snow - a lovely white blanket over everything! It was Aidan's first chance to really see snow, and Daddy made a Snow Baby for him.

Image 0025-3968 Canon PowerShot S45 1/60 sec., f/4.5 2004:01:28 17:32:08 UTC