4 years with Aiden: The second year

With Aiden, the colic defined our life. I learned what caused his massive bouts of crying:

1. over-stimulation-Stores, radio, television, just about any type of loud, colorful environment set off hours of screaming...

2. over-tired-We kept a strict bedtime routine. If we didn't, we paid for it later with hours and hours of screaming. Even a motorcycle going by outside and waking him up too early was enough to ruin a whole day for us. He always woke up crying--rarely woke up happy and ready to go.

Life was a balancing act and instead of the baby conforming to us, we learned to conform to the baby's needs...After all, we are the adults :-)

On the good days we had a happy little guy:



We were so excited the day we took this picture! It was the first time we'd been able to be away from his crib and have him take his nap. It didn't hurt that we were at the beach and we always had ocean waves playing in his room continuously while he slept as a white noise...


Each milestone made him a little less colicky. Sitting, crawling, standing, walking, and finally talking. The colic lasted until he was 18 months old! It wasn't as bad as it was initially, but we endured a lot of crying that first year and a half...Today he can run and run--he has great lung endurance...I blame that on the first 2 years of crying.

We had fun discovering new foods...He has never been a picky eater!



And he started making himself useful around the house :-)



We moved quickly from walking to running:


To accessorizing all by ourselves!


And after the first two years, the "terrible twos" were not so terrible after all...In fact, every year has been better than the year before...