Melissa and I were treated to our first parent/teacher conference for his daycare on Monday the 8th of December. Overall it was interesting to hear about things from a teacher’s perspective, and we learned a lot about our son and our son’s daycare.

It is easy to get a little frustrated in this situation — this person is telling you what isn’t going so right, but also telling you not to worry about it. Not that anything is even seriously wrong. In fact I found myself being a little proud of Ian for what he’s been up to, with nothing more than a little dash of concern.

Apparently, he’s been doing (or not doing) two things in particular:
The first is that he’s not been talking, and being shy around larger groups of students. Get him down to two or three people and suddenly he jabbers away. The teacher, Miss Judy, went on to say that she was considering giving us more of a warning about this behavior, had he not surprised her the week before with a few sentences and confirmation of understanding about a three step task that he had been given. She said she’s pretty sure that he’s holding back on her; he can do and say more than he shows, just doesn’t want to show it. So… this is something she wanted to bring up, but apparently is not necessarily an issue.

The other thing is he’s been being a bit of a rebel. If he spies that the ratio is off in the classroom, and one teacher can’t possibly chase after him while reading to a number of kids, he’ll run off and do his own thing. This is true of many activities. If they’re coloring, or playing with playdough, he gets bored very quickly and goes off by himself. I look at this with mixed emotions. You want your kid to be able to stand there with the others in a row and behave himself, sure… I want him to follow the rules almost all of the time, but I also want him to be able to question those same rules if need be. I figure questioning the rules will probably come naturally to him, though, so for now we’re going to focus on rules.

We were given a worksheet with things that he can or can’t do under testing conditions, but again were told not to worry about the things he doesn’t do. (Like saying his own name. “What’s your name, Ian?” )

So I’m guessing you came to the same conclusion I did: Ian’s too smart for the curiculum, and chooses to hide his brooding intellect rather than entrust his master plans to the young deviants in his class. Where’s the problem? 😉 “What’s your name, Ian?” “You don’t have clearance — need to know basis.” (I’m kidding.)

General update: This morning I told Ian I was getting his diaper and he helped me like never before. He obediently ran over to the mat I had placed on the floor, and tried to position himself on the clean diaper… he sat fairly still and when we were done he smiled, got up, and handed me the mat so that I could put it back. What a good boy!

Every time I pick up my phone now Ian says something about calling Gramma.

Periodically throughout the weeks since Thanksgiving Ian has kind of named family members.

Since the Christmas Recital (more on that next entry) Ian has said some things in a singing kind of way, but it is always a little unclear as to what he’s singing.

Just throwing this in for kicks, timing-wise it fell right around here that he had this bath. Save for the plastic fishing rod in his hand, the rest of him is quite cuddly, no? See this image larger.

Welcome to the present… (I’ll go back in time and continue Ian’s adventures over the course of the coming days — yes I’m even planning on catching up on the road, if possible.)

Here’s the outlook on the Florida trip. The weather is supposed to be horrible tomorrow when our flight leaves. Locally here in GR we’re expecting 6-12 inches of snow, and nothing but blizzards for the coming many days. I’m dropping everybody a note here to explain what we’re doing just in case we don’t get a better chance to explain later. The weather is fine right now — we’re thinking we should drive out to Lansing and camp out there tonight. The total damage tomorrow is supposed to be 3-6 inches there, so we’re assuming that the biggest problem tomorrow would be getting to Lansing from Grand Rapids. Why put off stressing tomorrow when we can stress out tonight? 😉

A nice woman from Melissa’s work is supposed to come over and check up on the cat twice over the coming ten days. I wish her a whole lotta luck getting up our driveway — and wish there was more that I could do about it. Sorry Quinn! See this image larger.

EDIT – We have made it to the motel in Lansing… we thought we were being clever by hopping on the road early but it ended up being a perilous trip regardless… low visibility and slippery roads. Geh. Hopefully it’ll pay off in the long run, at least we can take the shuttle from the motel tomorrow to get to the airport. I’ll keep you updated! (Computers in the lobby with internet access, awesome! 🙂 )

EDIT – We are in Florida and doing just fine. I’ll give an update as to how the Florida trip went overall after we get back.

Ah finally the photoshoot… This is still the 28th, for the record.

A moment of freedom before being posed… See this image larger.

I think it was Melissa that came up with the idea of seeing how Ian liked this rocking pony. He loved it immediately. See this image larger.

The winning shot as far as I’m concerned. Would have been nice to get them looking at the camera, but one takes what one can get when there’s three hyperactive minds ready to rebel at any moment! 😉 See this image larger.

Da – “Ok, everybody pretend you’re a mannequin… Wow, nice!” See this image larger.

You two at it again? We’re going to have to get out a family tree and explain what “first cousin” means. See this image larger.

Here’s a good full-body shot of Ian in his cure clothes and looking a little shy! See this image larger.

Catch with Connor? Ian’s dream come true! Here’s an excellent reception! See this image larger.

A beautiful throw! See this image larger.

I swear I wasn’t holding his arms back here. See this image larger.

Kaylee and Aunt Melanie both sittin’ pretty! See this image larger.

Alright you two, knock it off! See this image larger.