ian – Page 39 – Out Of Their Minds Design

Bicycle

Melissa and I talked about it, and decided it would be ok to buy Ian his first bicycle. (The purchase, assembly and first ride all took place on April 24th.) To me this is one of my greatest treats – an honor I’m very happy to have been given. I’ve got the whole story on video at this link:

Click here to watch the video. It is about 10 MB, so fairly substantial, sorry. Turn your volume up, he’s pretty quiet at the beginning.

Looking forward to his first ride on this thing! (Although I guess I missed out on his first true experience, he rode Kaylee’s bike in Ohio over Easter while I stayed home and worked.) See this image larger.

Alright alright, we’ll go out, hang on, let me get my cameras. See this image larger.

Seems to get this part pretty well… looks like it is maybe a hair too big for him, but he’ll grow into it shortly. See this image larger.

Give us some indication if you’re enjoying this, kiddo. 😉 See this image larger.

Later in the week I took him up to the top of the hill where all home development has stopped, and smooth empty streets are only traversed by bikes and walkers. He had fun and actually got away from me a few times — we learned to brake that day, but not before he went into the grass a couple times. See this image larger.

Unbelievable

Ok so here’s a quick rundown of the scoreboard… On Wednesday we started Ian on big boy underwear per his request. He had one success that day. Thursday he had no successes. On Friday, when we picked Ian up from daycare they had good news for us — Ian had gone potty twice successfully amidst a series of accidents. Saturday Ian went seven for seven with no accidents. Sunday Ian had one accident but otherwise had a day full of success. Today has been nothing but success, and just moments ago the unbelievable part happened.

It is Monday and a practice run for me taking care of the kids alone (Melissa’s here, but mostly observing.) Well Melissa was kind enough to let me take a potty break of my own. She asked Ian if he needed to go to the bathroom, and he said yes… They went to the lower floor bathroom, and Ian began just playing with his toys. Eventually Mommy said “well, if you’re just going to play, Mommy has to go back, but if you need anything call for me.” She heard Ian talking to himself a little later and went to check up on him TO FIND HIM ALREADY ON THE POTTY, PANTS AROUND HIS ANKLES, GOING NUMBER TWO… ALL BY HIMSELF!!! So Tuesday he was in diapers and six days later he’s taking care of business solo. Unbelievable.

EDIT – Tuesday morning (the 11th) we woke up to Ian pounding on his door and saying “Mommy! Mommy I need to use the potty!” He woke up dry again! (We ARE putting him in diapers at night, but I’m guessing even those nights are numbered.)

Grandma Sue’s April 2010 Visit

On April 17th, Grandma Sue arrived at the Grand Rapids airport, met by Ian and I at the gate. It was a lovely visit that I myself still feel a little bad about, because I had to pay attention to a very important deadline, and missed out on much of Grandma Sue’s stay. In the same way that I’ve been missing out on bits and pieces of everything, really. Thus I don’t have as many pics of Grandma Sue with the kids as I would have liked, but these things happen. As you can tell, I only recently surfaced from all that work, so that lasted far beyond the deadline during her stay. Anyway, here’s a glimpse into some of the fun while she was hanging out in Rockford.

Can Nina lift her head during belly time? Well, we’ve already seen that she does alright, right? See this image larger.

And sometimes she does spectacular. (Look at this one bigger, if you can…) See this image larger.

It helps to have Coach Ian on hand. See this image larger.

She’s like “take… the flippin’… pic…ture….*gasp gasp*” See this image larger.

Somewhere along the way, Nina got attached to this little doll… it isn’t quite as much of a necessity as a zooey/pacifier but she’s got a smile for that dolly just about every time. See this image larger.

She’s still doing great on weight-gain/eating. If she looks a little pudgy here, we couldn’t be happier. See this image larger.

The sleeping beauties. Are these not the most innocent of cherubs? The answer to that is “While they’re sleeping, absolutely.” 😉 This one’s worth a closer look as well… See this image larger.

Grandma Sue talks to Uncle Chris via Xbox 360; what you see before you is how my sibling and I communicate the most these days, via game. Which is awesome! See this image larger.

Now is a great time to mention that Grandma Sue put in some serious hours with Ian and Nina. She worked very hard to give us time to do the things that have been piling up. Ian looks pretty happy about it too, doesn’t he? 🙂 See this image larger.

Grandma Sue and the grandkids. See this image larger.

Hi ladies! Thanks again for visiting Grandma Sue, and lending a hand… it was a very nice visit! See this image larger.

EDIT – I’m putting together a video or two for the next couple of entries, so there might be a day or two of delay before the next entry.

2010’s Missing Pictures, Part III

April 13th, Ian removed a cushion from the couch, and laid down in the spot where the cushion was not. Two separate actions, really. If he’d had another 10 calories to burn he’d have made it to the cushion side, I think. See this image larger.

It looks like all of these were taken around that date. I can’t tell if this is cute or “No speaky engrish.” See this image larger.

Meanwhile, on “The Bathtub Deck” Nina flirts with the wait staff and orders a vodka martini. (So cute!) See this image larger.

I helped Ian build that helicopter back there. You can open a door and put somebody inside of it. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. He’s really great with legos though. I’m not sure if I shared this story or not, but apparently one of his teachers sends the other kids to him when they want an airplane built. He built them for most of the class. See this image larger.

“HEY HAI!” See this image larger.

I should probably animate this picture and the next one so that they go back and forth. See this image larger.

Does anybody else think Ian should take over for that red-haired creep on CSI-Miami? Looking at this pic, I can almost hear the bad pun, followed by YEAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! The Thomas pajamas would probably have to go, but we can negotiate wardrobe after salary. See this image larger.

So How’d That Turn Out, Part II

Last night Ian counted bunnies on the back of a book properly… as in, pointing to each character and assigning them a digit. “One…” “…Two!” And the two had a sense of finality to it, so this felt a little different than his usual counting, in which he points all over the page and counts to ten, regardless of the number of characters. To be sure, I turned the book over and showed him the other two bunnies. He counted them. I then opened the book so that both covers could be seen, and he counted to four. This morning he looked on the back of his cereal box and perfectly counted the six characters on the back of the box, pointing a finger at each, with the last number given that same sound of finality. Awesome! Just to be clear, he’s been reciting numbers for a good long time. Now he’s actually taking a true census of whatever it is he’s counting.

This morning Ian woke up dry, was directed to the bathroom, and he peed in the potty! Same thing happened after breakfast!! We’re showering him in praise and even a little bit of candy so that he knows he’s doing the right thing. You go, kiddo!

EDIT – UPDATE – Ian peed in the potty again later in the day, and then actually did a 1 AND 2 combo after that!!! Four for four!!! AWESOME!!! (If you’re wondering when this turn around happened I mentioned it a few days ago, and I will mention it again a couple entries from now.)

EDIT – UPDATE – And another pee… Five for five!

EDIT – UPDATE – And another poop… Six for six!

2010’s Missing Pictures, Part II

Ian, Nina and Melissa traveled down to Ohio without Daddy, remember? These were all taken sometime around April 4th-5th. See this image larger.

Unfortunately I can’t really say what was going on, because I wasn’t there. I can only guess. Here Ian practices opera while Kaylee jumpstarts a career in archeology. See this image larger.

Connor apparently has a friend that’s a girl that lives across the street that waited patiently to play with him. None of that is pictured above. See this image larger.

This is where Kaylee and Ian slept, in Connor’s room. Ian told me all about this when he got home. See this image larger.

Wow everybody is getting big! See this image larger.

This looks like it must have been Easter morning. I understand that Ian screamed loud enough in the church daycare that mommy could hear him from the sanctuary… sigh. See this image larger.

Nina got some fun Easter presents too! See this image larger.

Ian snuggles up with a Snoopy motorcycle for a nice nap… See this image larger.

Brace yourself, Part III is coming soon! (If you can’t tell, I’m finally off of the latest deadline du jour… updates should be much more frequent. Remember, a good daddy keeps the blog updated… a great daddy keeps a roof over everybody’s head. Ok, so an awesome daddy could do both — nobody’s perfect. 😉 )

First Day of School, and Other Stories

(Still plenty of catch-up to do, but I figured I should say this on the day it is happening!)

Today we loaded the kids in the car and took them both to school. We dropped off Ian first at his class and he had what we call “a good drop off.” This means he went off and started playing with friends instead of crying. By coincidence, this morning he also happened to ask if he could wear big boy underwear, so plenty of milestones today!

The bigger milestone was for Nina… we brought her into the infant room and reluctantly said our good-byes for the day. She smiled a lot and looked around in curiosity. It was a rough night last night so we’re all dog-tired — I think Nina will probably sleep the day away, as will Mommy, if I were her.

Other Stories:
Ian now has a favorite bear as of a couple weeks ago. We find him clutching it in the middle of the night, and asking for it from time to time, almost as much as his blankies. Melissa had a conversation with him about the bear’s name that went something like this:

“What’s your bear’s name?”
“Um… bear.”
“Well, that’s what he IS, that’s not his name is it? What do you want to name him?”
“Um… Grampa Dave!”
“Grampa Dave is Grampa Dave, won’t that get confusing? What’s another good name?”
“… … Goldilocks.”
“(Laughs) Is that because Goldilocks is with the three bears in her story? Goldilocks is the little girl!”
“um… Cookielocks.”

And thus, welcome to the family, Cookielocks.

With recent deadlines taking their toll on my family life, (and the number of blog entries I’m able to do) it was sad to hear Ian ask Melissa the other day “Can Daddy come home from work?” This is even sadder and perhaps more amusing because I work from home.

Hopefully I’ll remember a couple more stories soon, but this is all I have at the moment. I have a ton of videos and photos to share, but I need a day to myself to catch up, and that hasn’t happened yet. Soon though, very soon.

Catching up to do…

Sorry about the delays… I will continue to update the blog only as much as I’m able with my work schedule. Things right now are pretty horrible work-wise. Melissa has been a saint about the strain this is putting my family under.

By the way, if I didn’t mention it, there’s a whole slew of pictures that I need to get on here from March and April… I’ll get to it, I promise.

April 11th, and we’re just playin’ outside… See this image larger.

I made him pose like this… it isn’t as if he’s got his own sassy attitude… cough. Cough cough. See this image larger.

He looks like one of the Little Rascals, although I couldn’t tell you which one. Spanky? See this image larger.

April 12th, this was probably just before Nina started using a zooey/pacifier… It hasn’t done much to alleviate the need for Mommy’s constant attention, but it has made for less screaming. Which means a little more sleep. See this image larger.

Still April 12th… Ian and I messed around with my camera. This isn’t a bad shot for a self portrait! See this image larger.

This was just a nice smile while running up from downstairs. See this image larger.

These were funny because I just called out emotions as I was clicking the shutter. These were all one-offs as well, meaning that I did not try for more than one of any particular facial expression. Here I called out “Make a happy face!” See this image larger.

“Mad.” See this image larger.

“Sad.” See this image larger.

Much more Nina on the next entry, sorry!

A Bit More Easter

Because Melissa, Ian and Nina scooted out of town to Ohio during the Easter weekend, some packages and cards were not opened until after the fact. Thank you everybody for sending great stuff! I’ve got to get a bunch of pictures off of Melissa’s laptop so that the Ohio journey’s story can be told!

In the meanwhile, here’s the post-welcome home party images — these were all taken on the 7th of April.

Me – “Look it says ‘Ian.'” Ian- “Can you get this sticker offa here?” See this image larger.

He was so excited to open the packages, he left his shoes on and ran into the house. See this image larger.

The big hit was this egg with a spring-loaded top. Much time was spent scaring each other with the pop-up peep. What do you think of his shirt? Apparently Ian’s daycare doesn’t consider his foray into the art of pudding Expressionism worthy of a change into the fresh clothes we provide each and every day. shrug. See this image larger.

Did I mention this was a hit? *pop!* (Shirt cleaned up via Photoshop.) See this image larger.

This was also a big hit… See this image larger.

Candy! Always worthy of a touchdown victory dance. See this image larger.

Everybunny needs some bunny to… you know I can’t even finish it. How does Hallmark write this stuff? We think we might have heard the strained screech of a near laugh yesterday, by the way. And you should see Nina smile these days! I’ll get some more pictures up here ASAP. For now, to bed! See this image larger.

A Few Stories

Ian – “I see a spider!”
Mommy – “We should get it and take it outside. Where is it, I don’t see it.”
Ian – “Right there.”
Mommy – “I just see some dirt.”
Ian – “That dirt’s movin’.”

I went into daycare to pick Ian up just a few days ago, and Ian had built something out of lego-like blocks. He and I always make complex things together when we play with this kind of thing at home, so seeing what he built I sort of shrugged it off…
Caregiver – “You know he’s always doing that.”
Daddy – “Doing what?”
Ian asks me to help him put another wheel on something that isn’t quite fitting.
Caregiver – “The other kids build towers. Ian builds things that actually look like things: He builds cars that look like cars. Planes that look like planes. No other kid in class does that.”

Same day:
Daddy – (looking at sheet of information for his day at daycare) “Oh kiddo, did you use the potty today!?!”
Ian – “I went pee for Ms. Sarah!”
(I’m not sure why I found this hilarious… that it was almost like a limited-engagement performance. But yeah I really gave him some praise for that.)

EDIT – April 1st phone call – “Hello Daddy? Are there two blue blankets at home? They aren’t here.”

More pics soon. Sorry about the lack of entries lately. Work is killing me.

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