Trick-or-treating for grant money might just pay off.

After a long day in the operating room, inventing new techniques on the fly in response to challenging surgical circumstances, Dr. Aizay is tired, but satisfied. "We-e-e-e-l-l, I guess surgeons the world over will call that the "Etler Maneuver," he thinks, reflecting back on a job well done. Another life. . . saved!

Well done, Dr. Aizay, well done.

Here is Aizay playing and in the corner is a photo of baby Davey. Besides baby Davey's strange anti-halo, he and Aizay do not look completely unalike.

The picture I wish I had taken yesterday: Aizay discovered that under the wood chips at the playground, there is dirt. Once he found it, he began to fling it in the air like confetti while squealing with delight.

This morning I discovered that Aizay can write already! I found his letter to Santa...

Dear Santa (and those who hold lucrative sinecures while spending their days browsing axetler.blogspot.com in hopes of new posts),

I would like any track set or single train car from Brio or Thomas and Friends wooden railways. I think my Mommy and Daddy are getting me a Thomas starter set. (But Brio and Thomas tracks fit together and both take the others' trains so I can use additional pieces from either brand.) Oh yeah, and I also want this for our basement. I need somewhere to play in the winter and those kids at the mall play area are nasty. There was this one girl yesterday who pushed me to the ground 3 times, just cause I wanted to touch the spinny wheel thingy. No lie. And I know my mommy really wants this because I keep trying to get out of the stroller...You know I am a really good boy, Santa, because I like to eat veggies.

Sincerely,
Aiden Xavier

Who is Aizay's best friend?

"You're Elmo's best friend!"; that's what Elmo says. Other things Elmo says: "Elmo's so happy!", "Elmo has so much fun playing with you!", "Let's go for a walk!". Notice how everything Elmo says deserves an exclamation point. Elmo goes a little overboard with the enthusiasm. If he had constipation, I am sure he would say, "Elmo is having lots of trouble pooping!" Anyway, I hope Aizay doesn't find out that Elmo tells every kid with a My Size Elmo that he is their "best friend".

The Messy Eating Retrospective

Once I knew I would be posting the second messy eating picture in one week, I decided to look back at 9 months of eating pictures. As for the latest entry, Aizay broke into a bag of Hershey's chocolate nuggets and bit through the wrapper so he could eat one. Then he spit out the wrapper bite and kept on going. That's when we sat him in his highchair so he wouldn't spread chocolate everywhere. He kept on "eating" that one nugget but it looks like 80% of it ended up on his face.

Next: Buffalo Wings

This is Aizay's saag face. Tonight for dinner, he had spicy vegetable curry and saag paneer. They were both a hit. (Aayesha, I think the saag paneer he had in utero gave him a taste for the stuff. Remember, never deny a pregnant woman spinach!)

Christine

p.s. Aizay is in the 25%ile for weight and the 85%ile for head circumference. We generally don't think his head looks that big. When I opened this photo I thought, oh yeah, his head is big. Not that big, but big. What do you think?

Aizay hates comment spam

I've turned on Blogger's anti-spam feature, which means you have to enter a random series of letters into a special field after you've entered your comments. As much as Aizay will one day enjoy reading about herbal viagra and "shakespere fishing rods", I think we can all do without.

SHHH

When we shush Aizay, he quiets down just long enough to shush back. Then, it's back to the hooting and hollering.

The freakishly long Etler torso

I think Aizay has an extra vertebrae like his father. Although Dave denies that his spine is heteromorphic...Perhaps he will grow up to surpass his grandfather as the "world's tallest midget"...Although, when Dave's dad says that, I think he technically means dwarf. Of the little people, aren't midgets well-proportioned and dwarfs oddly proportioned (or "differently proportioned" to say it more sensitively)?

Christine