ian – Page 25 – Out Of Their Minds Design

This Day Just Keeps on Goin’!

But yes, on April 3rd, more than just the events recorded in “Is it Cold?” happened.

In “JAMS” (kinda like Sunday School for little ones) Ian made this egg carton full of stuff to study about Easter. The important part of this pic is his name, which he wrote by himself! See this image larger.

This is a picture of a construction worker using one of those cement hoses to fill in a road. Ian saw it on Bob the builder and drew it! See this image larger.

I asked Ian to draw a picture of “Lofty” from Bob the Builder. Here you can clearly see Lofty’s eyes, his mouth, and his hook. (He’s a sort of crane-truck.) See this image larger.

I asked Ian to draw a dinosaur! ROAR! See this image larger.

Collect them all! See this image larger.

*NOOOO IT TOOK ME 10 MINUTES TO MAKE THIS MESS!!!* See this image larger.

Next entry, the bath that followed the picture above.

Video
Click here to see this very quick video of the kids practicing “cheers!” Probably skippable if you’re on a low-bandwidth connection at the moment.

Later that Same Day…

Two entries published today, peoples, be sure to read on down!

Same day as butterflies, I guess I got a little picture-happy…

This is an example of Ian’s creativity. He’s taken a rescue canoe, a set of car wheels, a set of tractor wheels, a blue support, a gasoline pump hose and made a fireman’s truck with ladder. The upside-down cow is because he saw the blue part there and decided it was water. So the firetruck gets its water from the blue part of what I guess would be a cow shaped bucket. See this image larger.

There’s that chin scratch! Cute kid though, I’ll keep him. See this image larger.

Time to play, The Many Faces of Nina. I call this one “quiet consideration.” See this image larger.

Sideways smirk! See this image larger.

Silly jelly bean-a Nina! See this image larger.

Deer in headlights! See this image larger.

Jack Nicholson! See this image larger.

FIRE!!! See this image larger.

Butterflies!

March 29th, and Ian’s class had a field trip, so we all went! See this image larger.

We went to Meijer Gardens to see the butterflies! See this image larger.

There were some flowers growing, so I took some pictures of those too. See this image larger.

You’d be amazed by how little time we actually spent with the butterflies. See this image larger.

Pretty. See this image larger.

Nina points out that winged insects appear to be flying around the area over… there. See this image larger.

Also pretty. See this image larger.

My awesome family! Sorry I cut off the top of Mommy’s head, but it turns out to get everybody to smile, I can’t be looking through the camera at the same time. See this image larger.

Hey, look, pretty! See this image larger.

Video
Click here to see everybody getting ready to go outside to the Children’s Garden portion of Meijer Gardens. Here Ian helps some young ladies with their coats, and then becomes shy when he realizes everybody is thankful.

Ian never used to have to hunch over to go through this door. Huh, wha happen? See this image larger.

We’ll post bail soon, I promise. See this image larger.

Nina – *Wha- that lady put wings. On her fox. And look her lips are moving whenever the fox tries to talk. I need an adult! This woman is crazy!* See this image larger.

Our beautiful butterfly. Yes this is the best shot I could get at the moment. See this image larger.

Digging for buried treasure! See this image larger.

Ian braves the hedge maze. See this image larger.

He emerges victorious! Later he tripped and got a nice chin gash out of the deal, but just tell everybody he ran into a minotaur while in the maze, it makes for a cooler story. See this image larger.

A good time was had by all at the Children’s Garden. See this image larger.

Stories

I have stories that reach from around March 21st to April 11th… I need to get it out here onto the blog because I’m beginning to lose some of the stories in my head or my scattered notes.

Over the course of the last several months, Ian’s vocabulary has been incredible. He’s been picking up words and using them in context, properly. I don’t have any excellent examples of this, but he’s surprised Melissa and I a couple times, now. “Did he just say ‘perhaps?'” or “Hey Ian, what’s that stuff bees make honey out of?” “Nectar?” “Good boy.” (April 11th – Ian talked about his “real” dinosaur tonight. Said it was “splendid.”) There have been a few times recently when he’s asked what a word means, rather than gloss over it in a coversation.

Nina repeated a small sentence back to me the other day, and we have that on video, to come shortly. You’re going to love that one.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Nina’s able to (at times) handle a pen or crayon correctly, better than Ian can currently, and probably better than I do after 25 years of mostly using a keyboard. I also saw Nina in church pick up a crayon and start trying to draw with it. I’ve since seen her hold a pen or crayon incorrectly, but it is crazy to see a one year old pulling off that kind of stuff. You want another example? She can turn pages on her own. I’m not talking about the boardbooks. Yes, she can turn those, but she can turn PAPER pages. And just once, I saw her grab a thumb-full of pages and let them go one at a time, like an adult perusing a magazine.

April 1st – Nina pointed at the tissues and said “Dissue.”

Was extremely odd to get a phone call from Melissa’s number, and it was Ian. “Daddy, are there TWO blue blankies at home?” (Trying to ensure that they weren’t accidentally leaving one at daycare.)

Neither of us saw this coming, Ian was offered a banana, but then we gave part of it to Nina. We couldn’t undo that once it happened. Giving him a new banana just meant that he wanted both the new and old banana. We were frustrated with Ian, but he’s had to share almost everything since she was born, so one could imagine him thinking *Do I really need to share my fruit?* Especially when almost 90% of the bananas ever purchased at the grocery store since his birth, have been for him. Don’t get me wrong, we know he needs to learn to share, but maybe he had a point to be upset on this one.

Ian is able to open his car door to get into Melissa’s car.

Nina was walking pretty well 6-8 steps by the end of March. By April 6th she was making it across rooms and pulling little stunts like being able to step on something as she walked over it. She was also going all the way across rooms by the start of April, and at one point just stood there applauding. She was up on her feet for as long as 30 seconds with one crossing of the living room. April 8th, she walked across the living room and back again. Also on April 8th, Melissa and I both compared notes and discovered that this was the day when our little fighter went from “walk, fall, crawl” to “walk, fall, tough her way back up to a stand, and keep walking.” So proud of you little girl!

April 6th, Nina fed herself with a spoon. When Mommy cheered, Nina clapped along. For the rest of that week, when Nina fed herself, she’d clap in self-congratulations.

April 6th, Mommy was unaware that her cell phone rang in the living room… Mommy was surprised to see Nina walk into room with her cell phone, and hand it to her. (In case you don’t get that, without using words Nina just said *You had a phone call, Mommy.*)

Nina and I read a book of opposites almost nightly. She has been learning the things I do as examples. I’ll point to us when I say near, and point far away when I say far… she points far away too now. Up and down? Her little arm or arms go up and down, most of the time. But the best has got to be awake and asleep. I always pretended to sleep on her head during “asleep.” Now both of our heads slump over at the same time.

Aunt Melanie got Ian some green sand for his sandbox a long time ago. We put it in the sandbox as the weather turned to spring this year, and Ian was thrilled. Melissa went to take a picture, and as Ian posed for the shot, as if Aunt Mel could hear him or writing the photo’s caption, he said concisely “I am happy with my green sand.”

Ian hit his head on Melissa’s car door mirror in the garage while running through. I heard him crying about it, and it shook him up pretty bad. It is funny though to hear what he says, immediately Mommy – “What happened?” Ian – “I wasn’t watching what I was doing, and I ran into the car.” I think most kids wouldn’t start that sentence with “I wasn’t watching what I was doing…” As amusing as this honesty is, is it more funny that a few days later he put his bike helmet on and ran into the car mirror on purpose? Melissa said he was giving it a little test. Round Two: Ian.

Ian, April 11th, “It’s gunna load up in a few minutes.” (Regarding a Netflix-streamed tv show.)

Ian said something so wonderful this morning but I can’t remember it, at all. I’m really disappointed in myself for not making some kind of note. Life is coming at us pretty fast, right now.

Prayers for Uncle Chris’s recovery. He’s been going through far too much lately. Hang in there, brother!

In Other News

A mix of stuff here, sorry…

March 27th, finally everything had thawed and my roof nail collection grew even bigger. If you’re in West Michigan and need a roofer, I can tell you who not to use. See this image larger.

Ian peeks out from behind his viewmaster… See this image larger.

Does he see pirate treasure? See this image larger.

Ian woke me up the morning of the 28th to tell me he had something awesome to show me. It turns out it was this blanket, stretched out to a rectangle shape, next to his bed. See this image larger.

The solar system mobile that Ian received not too long ago was joined by this inflatable space shuttle, some glow-in-the-dark stars, and this lamp from Ikea. Earlier that week, Ian sort of insisted that we finally put this up in his room. I’m glad he did. When I took out his old lamp, there was exposed wire, where the shielding appeared to be weakened and worn away… not near a cap or anything, this was just exposed, and dangerous. You know when something horrible happens (like a fire?) and you think to yourself “if only I had seen some kind of sign to warn me of this?” Well, I’m thinking this is what one of those signs looks like. See this image larger.

Hi family! See this image larger.

I knew the high tension power lines were somewhere in the neighborhood, I finally found them in this picture, but they’re way at the other end of our property this time. EDIT – Actually, that’s somebody else’s property. I’m not even sure why I included this. LOL. See this image larger.

The third loaf of bread I ever made in my life, and it was almost perfect. I gave Ian a taste of this bread and told him I made it. He challenged me on it, saying “This is from the peanut butter and jelly store.” That’s his name for Panera! The highest praise one can get from our little boy, trust me! See this image larger.

What we didn’t have in kid pictures, we’ll make up with movies, let’s go!

Video
Click here to see the kids having fun in boxes made out of mats! Check out those static-electricty hairdos!

Video
Click here to see Ian and Daddy’s awesome contraption. (It should be noted that he was just starting to get in a behavior rut when I started putting this together with him — by the time we were done he was a happy little angel again.) The reactions after the successful launch are worth every MB you feel like downloading, trust me.

Video
Click here to see Nina break her previous record on steps. By this time she was up to 6-8 steps, but usually averaging 4-5. And a smooth landing, kinda, right?

Video
Click here to watch Mommy tickling both of the little ones!

Spring 2011!

Alright everybody, I bet I can do an entry-per-night again for a little while… here we go!

March 20th, Nina naps at the grocery store! See this image larger.

The kids watch a video… See this image larger.

March 21st, the 2nd loaf of bread that I made in my life. Was it awesome? No, but it had promise. See this image larger.

And that’s all she wrote for the 20th and 21st, goodbye! WAIT! One more thing… We have four awesome videos! Sorry, these all run a little long… lens cap and blocks are the longest, FYI.

Video
Click here to watch Nina clean up some blocks… and then mess them up again… and then clean them up.

Video
Click here to watch Nina transform my lap into a reading chair. This happens often. 🙂

Video
Click here to see Nina hand over the remote like a good girl!

Video
Click here to experience a camera-eye view of what it looks like to have a 1 year old try to put a lens cap on you.

And the March Goes On!

March 20th, and Spring has arrived! Our little girl celebrates with a brief stroll! See this image larger.

Here she comes! See this image larger.

…carefully! See this image larger.

Steady, Nina!! See this image larger.

Almost there… oops we’re blocking Ian’s view of the TV… You made it, Nina! Yay!!! See this image larger.

Later in the day, Mommy and Ian share a tender, goofy moment with the iPhone… See this image larger.

March 21st, it’s even warm enough to go outside with a little bundling!! (and if I haven’t mentioned this, Ian’s hat looks significantly less dorky than the one I wear in winter-time. I’m going to get one like his!) See this image larger.

More March-ing!

Nina taking steps! See this image larger.

Peekaboo! See this image larger.

Ian… no. See this image larger.

She could See this image larger.

…go… See this image larger.

…all… See this image larger.

…the… See this image larger.

way! See this image larger.

Woohoo, I’m tall! See this image larger.

Yes, the grasping edges of these mats are all that is keeping the kids from falling. The good news is that when they fall, they’re pretty much guaranteed to hit a mat. See this image larger.

Melissa is just out of frame ready to grab Nina… See this image larger.

This picture is really the first time I saw what everybody else has been telling me about the kids looking a lot alike. See this image larger.

Wow, they’ve been up there a long ti– oop, see ya Ian! See this image larger.

Nina loves her swing… I’m not sure if this is her first time, it is probably the first time that she can remember anyway. That makes two of us, lol. See this image larger.

She liked it enough that she sometimes lifts up the shades in the sunroom to look at the swing. If I’m holding her, she points toward it. (As in, “go that way.”) See this image larger.

Weee! See this image larger.

Ian enjoys being out in the almost kinda spring like weather! See this image larger.

This day was March 19th. More soon! See this image larger.

Steady as She Goes, Marching through March

Allow me to sort of catch you up here so that I don’t forget all this stuff. So the initial shaky starts got a little smoother, and then Nina’s number of steps increased a bit as time went on. Her progress is steady, but there’s a lot of testing and stumbling going on while she gets this whole thing figured out. March the 14th was definitely an improvement over the previous day, at times. A few days later she sometimes didn’t need as much help with her start. A few days after that and she was going back and forth between mommy and daddy, 3 steps at a time. Yesterday (the 25th) she was really starting to get the hang of it, for the first time really seeming to prefer walking as a means of locomotion, and sometimes going 4 to 5 solid, pretty well placed steps. Much of the time that she did start losing her balance, she regained it, and when she fell she fell mostly on her butt. When she didn’t fall on her butt, her hands and arms had the strength to save her head. I saw her cruising along our dining room gate yesterday and then look for all the world like she said “to heck with this,” and pushed away from it to walk on her own. Today, the 26th, we started to hear words that sounded like “cheers!” and “fishy!” at completely appropriate times. She’s doing great, and by now she probably thinks her name is “good girl!”

Alright so that’s the way of things up to present, let’s go back to the 14th and see some pictures and videos!

Nina reads in the sunroom. We’ll work on that “right side up” thing soon. 😉 See this image larger.

We have a lot of “Daddy Loves Me” clothes, and I almost always seem to pick those outfits on days when I’ll have time to take pictures. See this image larger.

Ian and Nina play with the parking garage. See this image larger.

Guess who was playing with it first? Does it matter? Haha! See this image larger.

Video
Click here to see and hear Nina making goofy noises.

Video
Click here to see Nina trying for a good step, but falling a little short.

Video
Click here to see Nina starting to get the hang of this walking thing!

Video
Click here to see Nina playing and saying “dut!” on March 15th.

March 16th, Daddy, Nina and Ian watch an episode of Backyardigans… See this image larger.

…it was apparently intense enough that we all had to bite our fingers or blankies. See this image larger.

March 18th, and we’re seeing some signs of spring. Like these plants. And the now-visible hundred-or-so roofing nails from a contractor experience I’d really rather not talk about. See this image larger.

Ian and Brandon’s son Max playing before we went out to dinner. It was cool to see these two interacting. Max has so much big boy personality… I can’t believe Ian’s only a year younger! See this image larger.

These Foots are Made for Walkin’

Yes, I know in the title that it should be “Feet” technically, but then it doesn’t rhyme with “boots” does it, smartypants?

March 13th, this was the day that Nina started taking a stumbling real step before falling forward, instead of just falling forward. In fact she took two real steps. I’m going to be specific here, because she improved as time went on… She needed to gain complete balance with the help of parent, and could then stumble forward through two shaky steps before collapsing into the arms of the other waiting parent. This happened only a few times on this day.

March 13th, after seeing a Facebook slideshow that included Uncle Chris’s fun in Las Vegas, Ian held this up to my face and asked “Is this Uncle Chris?” I said “Of course it is.” See this image larger.

The irony is not lost on us that Nina has a medical cart as a toy, and has heart surgery this year. We want her to be more comfortable with this kind of thing, in general, and all of us to be more comfortable with the topic in general. See this image larger.

Melissa picked this cart up for cheap, and she couldn’t have done a better job. I think we were worried it was too tall, but the handle is SO high, that it actually forces Nina to achieve almost true front/back balance as she uses it, unlike most of the wheeled toys that we have. Daddy gives Mommy the engineering thumbs up! Is it a coincidence that her first steps also happened this day? Probably not. Again, awesome Mama! See this image larger.

This chart has changed how we deal with Ian. He gets a little circular magnet coin whenever he completes one of his responsibilities… or exhibits good behavior. He gets enough coins and we take a trip to the toy store. He seems to love it, and we’re much happier to have a little leverage. See this image larger.

Ian trying out a super-hero pose! You really need to watch the video I link to next to understand the significance of this image. See this image larger.

We have some great videos too, check these out!

Video
Click here to see the most entertaining video I’ve shown in forever. Watch it once, and then read this to see if you caught everything. First and foremost, Ian spends most of the video wondering when he is going to achieve a cool enough pose to warrant Daddy clicking the shutter on the camera and actually take a picture, not knowing that I’m using the camera to capture video, not still images. Meanwhile, in the background, watch as Nina stands up nicely, attempts to put her cup on the table, succeeds, gets it back down, and then climbs up a toy to get a better vantage-point. None of the things that she’s doing are first-time attempts, but certainly she’s never pulled them off with this much dexterity. Yes, you get to watch all of this happen in the same clip. This video reminds me what a privilege it is to be a parent, that these moments of hilarity and awesomeness can actually overlap, like planets aligning.

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