On April 2nd, Grandma Sue landed in Grand Rapids and we settled her into her room for the week. And what a great week it was… it had just the right balance of activity to sitting-around chatting… Ian started off sick but got over it quickly… and there was a lot of fun to be had in general. I’m going to say that Ian became very attached to Granny Sue, almost immediately… when we picked up Ian from daycare he recognized Gramma Sue right off the bat, and she got a nice hug.

On April 3rd, Ian awoke a little out of it, and insisted napping ON his daddy. I’ve got a picture with Seth, our cat that looks like this too, from many years ago. Apparently I’m good mattress material. See this image larger.

Funny to see him playing with this toy, something his little form fit inside of so easily right after he was born. See this image larger.

On the fourth of April, Grandma Sue joined us for a visit to Meijer Gardens for their annual butterfly hatching exhibit. We all had a great time! Grandma Sue took this shot, and I was standing next to her, so I ended up with a similar shot… to be honest I couldn’t decide which I liked better… See this image larger.

…so I’ve posted both of them. You decide! See this image larger.

He loves the outings where we just let him run. There’s a kind of wildness in his eyes when he realizes we’re going to set him free… and the sheer speed he is capable of leaves us breathless — on so many levels. See this image larger.

Grandma Sue poses with one of the performers from the exhibit! See this image larger.

Meijer Gardens wouldn’t be a garden without the flowers, of course… here’s a nice shot of one of them! See this image larger.

Ian spies the plastic barrette in this girl’s hair and waits for it to take to the air! See this image larger.

This adorable boy is currently blocking the fire-exits… move along please. (Nice shot, Gramma Sue!) See this image larger.

Well, I don’t have any audio, but I just wanted to say how awesome Ian has been the last many days… he’s getting smarter by the minute, and it has been breathtaking watching him develop this way. Here’s some stories as best as I can remember them…

He pointed at his toes the other day and said “little piggie, little piggie, little piggie.”

Grampa Dave and Grandma Marcia were here for Easter (Much more on that trip shortly!) and Ian got a new red star shape that looked like it was a major pain in the butt to make… (As I said to him when I saw it “Wow, you skipped right over making a rhombus, that would have been much easier!”) Anyway… long story short, you can stack them in an odd way that is difficult for an adult to do, let alone a two year old. So after Ian knocked it down I was surprised to hear him say, plain as day “Built it again, Daddy.” This was clear as a bell, no “um” or other noises… no deciphering necessary.

He helped me sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” yesterday and is shocking how close he gets to saying all of the words. Nowhere close to perfect, but recognizable to say the least. I’ll try to get a recording of this shortly.

Tonight he tucked a bear into a chair, gave it a blankie, said night-night and kissed it on the nose.

We took a survey tonight that we’ve already taken earlier versions of… it just sort of checks to see how he’s doing compared to your average kid. As we went down the list we were checking “yes” almost all the way down. In several cases we weren’t sure, so we asked him to try a thing or two. Body parts was the part that I think floored me the most. I could barely get a word out of my mouth and he was indicating what I was talking about and repeating the word… hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, knees, feet, legs, back, head, body, belly, and with a slight correction, shoulders and elbows… the survey wanted to know if Ian could find seven parts.

I need to get the rest of the blog caught up so you can hear about the visitors we’ve had the last few weeks, so forgive me for making this comment slightly out of order; when Grandma Sue was here, she read him a book that has since gone into higher rotation called “Yes Yes No No.” I admit it is my fault that it wasn’t popular. I didn’t like that it gave Ian ideas that he might not have had already – like sticking your toys in the toilet, for example. But you could tell he was paying extra attention when Granny Sue read it… and a few nights ago Melissa put an extra twist in that made it even better: she’d say “And this boy is doing a no-no… what’s he doing?” Ian began explaining. (I’m very proud of Melissa turning the verbal exchange around here… Ian explaining things is adorable, but more importantly – good practice.) Now I want you to understand that when Ian gets to trying to talk about something like this, there are a lot of extra words that come out — what we’re looking for are the golden nuggets. “He no no onna no wall — e paper!” Translated by my ears, is “He shouldn’t write on the wall, he should write on paper!” Tonight he took it a little further… “He no onna pulla kitty’s tail. An kitty ne pet da kitty.” If you can’t tell… that one was “he shouldn’t pull the kitty’s tail, he should pet the kitty.” This was accompanied by a soft petting gesture, and a kiss on top of that. (Which is particularly hilarious, because you can ask Seth — this is not a lesson he has come close to learning with a real cat yet.)

Ok the first one isn’t little so much as important. A couple days ago Levi Schoenborn was finally allowed to leave the hospital, having recovered for the most part from RSV. I can’t imagine what it was like being away from home for so long, and not being able to hold your child for so long.

Here’s some recent Ian stories.

Two days ago (the 27th) Ian sneezed directly into his hand. It looked so natural and good that I didn’t even notice until Ian’s Mommy said “DID YOU SEE THAT?” We gushed praise on him, and he blushed a bit and smiled wide.

Last night Ian ordered me to sit down so I could get a second hug before he went to sleep, that was awesome. It was particularly nice because sometimes he’s been a little difficult — and while I don’t get angry or insulted, it is hard not to feel a little discouraged when your son is yelling “NO DADDY” at you repeatedly.

Talking with Ian about whether or not he’d like a brother or sister, Ian has stated his opinion: That he would like one. No this doesn’t mean anything yet, don’t start counting days or anything.

I think we’re retiring the booster chair in favor of our less-tall travel booster chair. That kid is always growing.

We’re all noticing the grass is greening up a bit, and are looking forward to being able to run around outside. As it is, we’ve had a few opportunities in the last week, and have taken advantage of them whenever possible.

I joined a group of stay-at-home Grand Rapids Dads. Most of them aren’t working, and literally take care of the kids all day. But they meet on Mondays and Wednesdays, and as you probably know, Monday is my day with Ian… so I’m going to join them on Mondays if they’re doing anything fun. Already it has worked to Melissa and I’s advantage; they have a map of places where they meet and it is basically all the fun places one might want to take their kid in the area. On Friday night we checked out a kid’s gym, and Ian had a blast; it was free too. He’ll probably like it more when he’s a bit older, but he had plenty of fun. I’ve got some video, which I will try to share shortly

I’ve got a great video of Ian eating cereal and discovering the magic of the cereal box toy that is sometimes present. He’s still not sure why a new toy isn’t available whenever you open the box again, but he certainly enjoyed the one that did come out.

Ian’s really been paying attention to the potty lately. We’ve got an Elmo video about the potty and I think it has helped him a lot. (It is brought to you by the letter “P” and the number “2.” I’m not kidding. I thought that was hilarious.) On our note from daycare last week there was a small smiley face and a circle around “tried potty,” and he has been kind of experimenting with it at home as well.

I can’t help but feel lately that it is race between Ian figuring out how to defeat the baby-proofing on some of the cabinets, and having him understand what “poison” is. When I open a cabinet that he can’t, he looks at it with his brow furrowed, and tries it himself a few times. Based on the complexity of the things he CAN do at this point, it almost seems like he hasn’t broken into them out of courtesy to Melissa and I, or something. I know it won’t be long, guess we need to move some things around.