Out of their Minds Design

Funday

Ian and I had some fun on Monday as usual… there’s some pics below after a few observations.

Observations:
• One of the bigger shocks we had this week. Despite the fact that we are brushing his teeth and noted two back-to-back teething-style colds for Ian, nothing could have prepared us for when we finally tickled him hard enough to see that two surprise teeth had come in on top, further back than we had managed to look.

• Several times now Ian has placed something difficult to manipulate in my hands so that he could have me hold it while he did whatever he needed to do. I mentioned a peg-and-ring toy, but he’s now done this with a stack of small plastic boats that fit into each other tightly, and the snack-holding cup.

• Another hilarious restaurant happening… Ian has always been quite the charmer when we go out to eat, wooing people at other tables like some kind of pied piper for grandparents. But this time we were at Taco Bell, and two teenage boys walked in. They looked like skater types. Ian immediately got this big grin on his face like these guys were his best friends. For the next five minutes Ian kept looking over and smiling at them and they’d smile back and laugh, and really gush at the attention this baby was giving them. We figured this was some fluke. A few moments later three more teenagers showed up, two boys and a girl. Again Ian beamed brightly and craned his neck to get a better view… and the new teenagers immediately noticed and giggled. Then it was peek-a-boo and smiling glances and laughter. It is extremely hard to convey how odd this whole thing was, and just how good it felt to have Ian as our son; he positively glows sometimes, but it is even more impressive to see him pass this feeling on to others. You see them glow too.

I took this shot because I realize we don’t often take shots of the back of his little noggin. You can really see his hair growth in this shot. See this image larger.

“Arf?” Sure, that looks cute, but that stuffed animal is about to be victim to a very painful nose-bite. Again with all that hair on the back of his head!See this image larger.

Sadly he thought this very hard plastic baseball was like his soft rubber basketballs, and stuffed it in his mouth as hard as he could. That hurt, I could tell. See this image larger.

The aforementioned rubber basketballs. See this image larger.

This image illustrates quite well something I said a few entries back about how Ian no longer has a problem just kind of laying on the floor and having fun with it. See this image larger.

Masterpiece

More stories and pics coming soon, but I wanted to share this little gem first…

Critics agree that Ian’s bold use of Vanilla Pudding (with blue food dye) on this expensive Italian typing paper has resulted in a composition that belies Ian’s young age. Forensic scientists confirmed that the small green dot seemingly hovering in the vast blue expanse, while formerly assumed to be Ian’s expression of life from another planet or perhaps even the very beginning of mankind’s existence, is in fact a mushed-up pea. (Photograph of Blue Sky taken at the famous L’Museume du Refrigerator, used with kind permission.) See this image larger.

Mini-Movie III: Run From Horse Truck!

This short movie gives a peek into the new game Ian and I created that is a bit like a really redundant car chase… enjoy! (Click the link and press “play” when it says to!)

Click here to view the short movie!

Mini-Movie II: Child Proofing

In this short video, Ian shows us how child proofing should probably not work. (Click the link below and hit “play” when you’re told to!)

Click here to view the short video!

Mini-Movie I: The Second Boo

This is a really short video that goes to show you that sometimes the second boo can be more surprising. Turn up your volume and listen carefully! (When the video says to hit play, do so!)

Click here to view this short video!

Sunday Best Part III

Hi again everybody, here’s some additional Sunday outfit pictures to enjoy.

Observations/stories:
• Well, well, well… it seems our sweet innocent little boy has been pulling a fun prank at daycare! We got a note the other day about our “ian’s pickpocketing” and of course immediately needed to know the details. It turns out Ian has been walking up to the smaller babies at daycare, which are strapped into a highchair or otherwise unable to move, glancing to make sure that no caregiver is looking, and then stealing the pacifier right out of their mouthes! He apparently does not even put it in his own mouth but is doing this for sport! I’m also told that if a caregiver IS looking, he gets a mischievous gleam in his eye and does it anyway.

• We also found out from our babysitter (whom works at the daycare facility) that Ian has been allowed to run all over the daycare into other age group’s areas and that he basically tries to socialize with all of the kids… even the 8 and 9 year olds. She said he made noises and conversational gestures. This goes right in line with what Melissa and I have seen from not only daycare but also the nursery at church and the women’s group that Melissa goes to on Tuesdays. You put him on the floor and off he goes to meet and play. I’ve often seen him trying to share a toy and commonly I’ve seen him give the toy he has to somebody else… sometimes me. There’s a small pang of hurt when you see him run off without so much as an over-the-shoulder glance, but you know, it is better than the times when he doesn’t want you to leave — those will break your heart.

• Today I put a hat on Ian’s head (more like a visor…) upside-down. He started to take it off, but I was laughing and this caused some hesitation. He went to take it off again and I said “Show mama.” He stopped trying to remove it and immediately spun around and worked his way over to the side of the room where Melissa could see him!

• Melissa – “This is a turkey, it says ‘gobblegobblegobblegobble.'” Ian – “Bahcklebahcklebachklebahckle.”

• General observation with ramifications to follow: Our house is not set up well for a great number of things. It’s not great for one kid, and as we talk about another, I realize that it simply is not practical for such a situation. We don’t even need more rooms, we simply need a better floorplan. Despite the risk and the very bad timing for the housing market, we’re deeply considering finding a new home. Ouch.

There goes my lens cap again… he likes the one on the video camera too, as viewers of Ian’s Greatest Hits Volumes II and III will soon discover. See this image larger.

He’s puffing his cheeks here because he knows he’s about to fall down. Nature’s airbags. Seriously he did fall right after this picture… but yeah, probably not so much on that air bag theory. See this image larger.

Sunday 2nd Best

Normally I’d say his outfit below is a tie with the other one, but the truth is, my camera is messing up a bit so the pictures don’t look as good. Thus, second best!

Observations:
• About three days ago Ian drank from a drink-box of milk, using a straw. A normal, standard-issue straw.

• He slept entirely through the night on Friday. Sadly, if I’m not mistaken, that may have been his first. He’s doing much better about that these days — which I guess means we’re doing better about that these days.

• Yesterday, Mama and I both closed Ian’s door at roughly the same time. I was pulling the door shut, Ian’s mama was pushing the door shut from within. Well, we both saw it close, and neither of us “finished” the process. The door closed, but did not latch. Mom looked away from Ian for a moment, and he wasted no time getting to the door, digging his fingers into the tiny crack of the shut door, pulling it wide open, and running off into the wild blue yonder. I heard mama call out in surprise and I ran upstairs to see her freaking out. If you don’t recall or don’t know, Ian’s bedroom door overlooks seven steps down to the living room. It turns out, however, that he decided to take a hard right and go into his mom and dad’s bedroom… Thank God. Obviously we’ll learn from that lesson.

• Today, Ian picked up a soccer ball toy in one hand, a baseball toy in the other hand, and then used his forearms in a pincer like motion to pick up and cradle a basketball toy up to his chest.

• About a minute after the above, he tried this again, and pressed the basketball against his head rather than between his arms, still carrying three objects. Apparently he knows his body.

• We have a toy that is a long peg that ends in a round base that Ian can put wooden rings on. He found it difficult to align the peg with the hole in the rings, as it is a tight fit, so I helped him by aiming the base (and thus the peg) as he pushed the ring down. This worked. A moment later he decided to take the ring off the peg. As I said, it was a tight fit, so he found both of his hands busily trying to pick up the ring, and ending up picking up the whole toy with the base by mistake. Now think about this, for a one year old: He came over to me and put the base in my hands… as if to ask me to hold that part like a vice, while he pulled the ring. So not only is he understanding physics (Dad you hold part A, while I pull part B) he’s also not afraid to ask for help when he literally needs a hand.

• While watching an episode of Pocoyo today the narrator asked the audience to determine which of three shapes was a ball. I asked Ian, “Which one is the ball, Ian?” He looked away from the television and picked up two of his toy balls from amongst his toys. He then walked up to me and offered me one.

Today’s smile is brought to you by kitchen mischief and the letter “T.” See this image larger.

As a parent should it freak me out that our kid giggles whenever he’s running away from us? See this image larger.

Fly Shoes Don’t Bother Me

About a week ago Ian in a pair of sneakers turned into a rag doll, more or less. He’d flop over like his bones had turned to rubber. Yesterday I put him in his sneakers again and let him walk around a bit. He made it only a couple steps and then fell again, but that was progress. we took them off of him at that time; the idea was to introduce them but not make him feel like he was chained to them right off the bat. We also left the shoes in the play area so he could see that they weren’t inherently evil.

Tonight Mama re-introduced the shoes and he never stopped moving. He fell a bit more than his usual walk, but we could tell he’d reached another milestone of sorts. I’ll explain why this particular thing is a milestone in a future entry.

Observations:
• Ian points his toe when you move a sock toward his foot.

• Mama told Ian “Tell Dada thanks for a great day!” and Ian turned to me and said “Daak goo a dai dai.” It wasn’t like he knew what he was saying, but he was trying very hard to mimic, which was neat, plus he looked right at me.

• Just because he’s not a big talker sometimes doesn’t mean he isn’t understanding us. “Give this to Mama” and “Bring the ball to Dada” aren’t just resulting in recognition of the person, but completion of the actual task. I’m really not sure if that’s advanced for a one year old, but I’m proud of him none-the-less. After all, can “Mow the lawn for Dada” be far off?

Here he comes! See this image larger.

There he goes! See this image larger.

Mama and Ian try to discover where “Spot” is in the “Where’s Spot” book. Ian can lift the flaps of the book and turn the pages, of course. (He’s looking at the “try the basket!” part in this image… see story last entry.) See this image larger.

The coveted lens cap. I think you’ll be seeing that in a lot of photos and videos. I think my attempts to hide or try to get the lens cap back have resulted in a false estimation of value. See this image larger.

Sneak! Sneak! Sneak! See this image larger.

Book Smarts

Observations:
• Twice now we’ve seen Ian return a book to the book-bin that is in our living room. We never taught or asked him to do this.

• Tonight I quoted a line from a book that Ian’s read, as part of a joke. [For my own future reference, the line was “Try the basket!” from the book Where’s Spot?] I was in the kitchen and Melissa was walking away from the play area for a brief moment, and we laughed at my reference for a moment; during this time Ian came into view and we both were surprised to see that he had been busy digging out the book I had quoted from the book-bin.

Tooth or Consequences

Ian’s not a happy camper at the moment. He’s got one heck of a head/chest cold and on top of that has a tooth coming in that is really taking its time, pushing through those gums one painful micron at a time. Those things appear to be related from casual observation… new tooth means new horrible cold and fever. He’s sad, he’s whiny, he’s become a fussy eater temporarily, but he continues to learn and grow.

Some additional recent observations:
• This is an old one, actually, but I wanted to note it. Probably since he was only a couple months old, Ian has consistently helped us dress him. He bends at the elbow, or straightens out his leg, if it helps. You can pretty much lift his hand toward a sleeve and he’ll push his hand right through until it is out of the cuff. I’m not sure how common that is, but I realized the other day how painful it would be to dress him if he didn’t do that.

• Last night I replaced a few of the pictures around the house. In the bathroom we have some shots of him in the tub, and I had put a new one up with Ian playing with a ball. Melissa brought Ian into the bathroom for something unrelated, and he immediately diverted her attention to the new images by pointing excitedly and saying “ball!”

• This morning I made a stack of soft blocks into a column. He noted the dog on the side of one of the cubes for the first time and smiled at it. Before he could examine it as much as he wished, he pushed the column over, but kept his eye on that top block… he was able to pick it out from the other blocks immediately.

• Also this morning, I sat in the living room with Ian while he played with some loud rattles. “Shhh,” I said “You’ll wake mama up.” His head swiveled to look up the steps at our bedroom, and he called aloud “Mama!” Then he want to the gate and started crying for her. This may not be advanced or anything, but it just seemed like he understood where Mama goes to sleep.

Sorry no new pics at the moment… I might see about getting a shot of his teeth up here if I get a sec. EDIT -> Here’s some pics!

Really I was just trying to take some good shots to see what’s going in on my kid’s mouth. He really won’t let you check it out usually, he’s too busy to let you take a peek. We are trying to teach him the good ol’ doctor’s “say ahhhh” trick, but he doesn’t have that down yet. See this image larger.

So instead, we use Mama’s patented TICKLETICKLETICKLETICKLE method. See this image larger.

The cutest of the bunch, in my opinion, but also the most telling… see detail shot below! See this image larger.

I’ve highlighted and labeled the area where you can see the white-ish nub of a tooth poking up. The whiter that gets without actually being out, the more he’s hurting. The good news is, as soon as it pokes out, most of the pain seems to go with it.

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