It rained so hard last night that there was no way I was going to get any yard work done today. I’m not about to try to force the weed trimmer through wet grass, especially as high as it’s grown already. But I wasn’t going to do any work outside today no matter what, because we had a family dinner tonight.

Eric’s birthday was Sunday and mine is tomorrow, and since the size of the family has doubled in the last two years, we’re into condensing these occasions as much as necessary. Besides, we’re both old enough to be satisfied with as little fuss as we can get away with, when it comes to observing our birthdays.

And we’re both more than happy to spend time with the family. We gathered at Tammy and David’s house, because that’s where the kids are (and more importantly, that’s where the kids’ beds are). Their bedtime, D.J.’s and Dakota’s, is well before the start of Survivor, but it’s nice to know they’re safely tucked away upstairs. It’s just too bad the rain had made the big back yard too muddy to play in, because the extra daylight could have been put to better use.

Aiden, on the other hand, can still get away with making his own bedtime. Not always, but certainly when he has an appreciative audience. He was in a good mood all night, ready to perform his trick of standing up in the middle of the room. He seems to be doing it more and more deliberately, and he’s thisclose to taking off and walking (or, more likely, running). You can see him thinking about it, which is probably why he hasn’t done it. He can push his little baby-walker all over the room, but he hasn’t taken off on his own just yet. Any day now, though.

And his vocabulary is growing. Besides “grandma,” “duck,” “quack” and “dog-dog,” he has an assortment of little squeaks and grunts that R2D2 would understand. They’re almost all happy noises, and he loves to hear the sound of his own voice. He has that in common with most of the rest of the family, especially his oldest brother. Maybe he has already learned that he has to speak up to be heard.

Aiden is everywhere these days, and into everything, and learning about how the world works all day every day. He got a laugh with a quick nod of his head, so he did it until he decided it was time to move on to something else. He kept moving the whole night, except when he was eating, until he started to slow down late in the evening. He was snuggly for a little while, but then he got a second wind and was all over everything (and everyone) again. He’s ten months old with enough personality to be the life of the party and the light of the family.