Idiomatic Expression

Now that Aidan is a month old, and my personal laptop bit the dust, the updates will probably be limited to once a month. However, I was working on his passport photo and figured I might as well share that with everyone. It took a bit of work to have him positioned looking at the camera on a white back ground and enough light to not need a flash.

Aidan is becoming more interactive every day and will now “talk” back when he is in the right mood. He continues to love watching ceiling fans and staring out of windows, and has decided that the screen print “Blown Away” by Marcel in our living room is worthy of hours of contemplation.

In other news, we should be getting a new Rinnai tankless water heater in the coming weeks to replace the failing 15 year-old 50-gallon gas model that we have now. In addition to being able to take a shower while we do laundry and wash the dishes, we are going from around 50% efficiency to over 82% efficiency. Good for the planet and good for my utility bills. The mostly dead laptop will be getting replaced once Apple announces the upgrades to its product line in early September.

We probably should have considered the homonym ramifications of Aidan prior to settling on that name.

Main Entry: a
Pronunciation: \ə, (ˈ)ā, Canada ˈa\
Function: indefinite article
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English ān one — more at one
Date: before 12th century

1—used as a function word before singular nouns when the referent is unspecified < a man overboard> and before number collectives and some numbers < a dozen>
2: the same
3 a—used as a function word before a singular noun followed by a restrictive modifier
4—used as a function word with nouns to form adverbial phrases of quantity, amount, or degree

And…

Main Entry: din
Pronunciation: \’din\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English dyne; akin to Old Norse dynr din, Sanskrit dhvanati it roars
Date: before 12th century

1: a loud continued noise; especially : a welter of discordant sounds
2: a situation or condition resembling a din

Of course, a loud continued noise is a good description of the situation here sometimes, so perhaps we were on to something when we choose his name.

Definitions provided by Merriam Webster

Well he was 4 weeks old about 6 days ago, however life continues to conspire against us, and after four and a half years of faithful service our home laptop seems to be limping towards death.

Aidan continues to change every day and is a bit more alert and interactive. He has started to smile (on purpose) and is attempting to make non-crying noises in response to Katherine and I. So far he whatever he is doing he does with gusto. His cries are LOUD, he roots around violently when he is hungry and when he finally sleeps it is lights out (unless of course you need to try to put him into his pack-n-play or bassinet which triggers the big cries again). His is getting pretty good at holding his head stable, but still looses hi balance and head butts whatever is in front of him (which hurts if he aims for your face).

Just yesterday Katherine saw his first tear when food did not arrive quite quickly enough.

Murray continues to notice the lack of attention, but is mostly settling into a routine. Unfortunately that routine consists of indicating that he wants to go outside about the time the baby starts feeding.

Katherine and I are surviving pretty well, but not terribly enthusiastic about a laptop upgrade on top of the planned water heater upgrade. The baby room is 95% painted I just need to touch up some mistakes this weekend and I can get started on assembling baby furniture. Then it is back to wallpaper removal.

Pictures from the last week are here.

Aidan is healthy and doing well, so the doctors don’t want to see him until he is two months old. To his amusement his parents attempted to measure and weigh him themselves last night. Our best efforts produced the following.

Date 7/31/08
Weight 9.8 lbs
Length: 22 inches
Head Circumference: 15 inches

The pictures at the top of this post our from Jim, and more can be seen here. The gallery is up and working again so check out some more photos from week three.

I headed back to work this week, Katherine and I are doing well with the transition, it is difficult for me to leave the family every morning. Perhaps it is time for a photo on my desk.

Aidan continues to get better at holding his head steady, and his favorite activity, other than eating, is watching the ceiling fan in our bedroom rotate. A bath and a bottle will put him into an opiate-like haze for a couple of hours (must be nice to be a newborn).