Filed under 'Clay Aiken'

What a little cutie! Record producer Jaymes Foster took her 8 1/2-month-old son Parker Foster Aiken, fathered by American Idol star Clay Aiken, for a trip to the mall with some family and friends on Sunday.

Clay commented on how much Parker means to him. "At the end of the day, Parker is the most important thing of the year, and of my life, without question. Having a son and that type of responsibility is obviously going to be something that I remember forever."

For most parents, the fact that the little baby they brought home is their child doesn't truly hit home right away - and for Clay Aiken, his moment of realization came amidst a frightening health scare with son Parker.

"He had been gassy for weeks and then he started throwing up," Aiken, 29, tells PEOPLE in its latest issue. "Jaymes [Foster, the baby's mother] and I were trying to be calm, rational parents, so we didn't call the doctors too much, but it just got to a point where he was vomiting everything. He was starting to get dehydrated."

Parker was admitted to the hospital, and diagnosed with pyloric stenosis, a intestinal condition that complicates baby's digestion, and scheduled for surgery to correct the problem.

"Parker had been in one day already when I got really panicky," Clay recalls. He woke up at 2 a.m. and headed to the hospital. "I was a little worried, like 'I don't think they're going to let me in the hospital at 2 or3 in the morning.' Then I thought, 'Wait a second, I'm the father! Of course they'll let me in," Aiken says. "It was the first moment when I thought, 'I'm actually this child's father!' "

To read more from the interview, head to this post, and pick up this week's People to see pictures of Clay, Parker and Jaymes.

Source: People; People print edition, Oct. 6

Photo: Michael Lavine for People

This week's cover of People magazine, features Clay Aiken and his new son, Parker Foster Aiken, born August 8. The cover also touts the headline, "Yes, I'm gay." Clay spoke with the magazine about what finally made him come out to the public - a promise he'd made to himself before his child was born.

"It was the first decision I made as a father," Aiken, 29, tells the upcoming issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that."

Clay, a born-again Christian singer, says that he wants his son to be raised in an environment that is "accepting and allowing him to be happy," and that's very important to him.

Says Aiken: "I have no idea if he'll be gay or straight. It's not something I'll have anything to do with, or that he'll have anything to do with. It's already probably up inside the code there ... No matter what the situation you're in, if you're raised in a loving environment, that's the most important thing."

Parker was born by artificial insemination to Jaymes Foster, and he weighed 6 lbs, 2 oz. People hits newsstands everywhere on Friday.

Source: People