Mondaze

Still in a daze from his cold, these photos are from Monday the 17th of March, I believe. The really good ones are coming up shortly, give me a day or two to get those up here. Here’s how that Monday went —

We’re not happy because we’re siiiiick so this is our saaaaad faaaaace. See this image larger.

According to this thermometer, you’re still hungry, kiddo. See this image larger.

A good swing will cure what ails you. See this image larger.

Have socks, will travel! See this image larger.

Secret message for Mama when she returns from another rough day of work! Can you decipher it? See this image larger.

Stories To Share

Wow did we get some great photos tonight! The banner above gives you an idea of what you’ll see!) I’ll be sharing those (and some taken earlier) over the next few days. But first, here are some new stories to tell…

Observations/Stories:
• At a recent trip to a restaurant (Panera) Ian had somewhere between 6-8 people charmed at any one time. He was literally taking turns glancing around and giving big smiles to people. We sat there kind of blushing and could hear the young girlfriend giving her boyfriend a little ribbing “He LIKES you!” and the two girls behind him politely turning down an offered “puff,” and see the little blond girl and her mother craning their necks from behind their booth to get a look. He’s just such a good kid. After a whole lot of pride, my next feeling was “Better teach the kid not to accept candy from strangers. Quick.”

• If I didn’t get this one on tape, I’m not sure I would even believe me. Before I hit the record button he had pulled both of his shoes out of a cubby hole on Monday, where they belong, and tried to put them on his feet by more or less pressing his foot against them. What to do when that doesn’t work? Throw them over the gate where Dada is standing. About the time I started recording, I threw the shoes back on his side of the gate, onto the floor… and was shocked to see him pick them up and put them back in the cubby hole.

• He sometimes says “arfarfarf” back at me when I make the dog noise now.

• One of my favorite moments so far, when we went to our local super store the same night as the above Panera story (believe that was also Tuesday the 17th) I decided Ian needed one new toy ball. He has a cool sponge one, and a very fun O-ball, he has a little stuffed soccer ball… but he didn’t have the kind they had at daycare, which is this lightweight, very smooth and tight plastic that has a lot of bounce to it. If you don’t know the kind I’m talking about they’re usually in a cage that towers above the other toys in their area of a given store. Such is the case in our store… in fact, it has two towers of balls, that bridge near the top to form an arch. Wheeling Ian in a shopping cart over to that area and watching his face light up, his mouth drop open as his neck craned up to see the arch above him, and his hands start pointing frantically as he repeatedly said with glee “BALL BALL BALL!” pretty much dropped my blood pressure for the year. He was just so happy to see this display and that I let him hold any of the various options that he pointed to until he was satisfied with a winner, that kept him smiling all the way home. This was one moment that I was sad I didn’t get any video tape of and yet I think I might have missed some of that experience from behind a camera eyepiece, so perhaps for the better.

Sick as a Dog (arf arf)

Sorry, anytime somebody says “dog” now I automatically throw in an arf arf. Can’t help it. Training.

Anyway, I just wanted to make a quick entry that says, in short, I think Melissa is on the last leg of it, I’m in the very final throes of it, and Ian is hopefully getting near the end of this horrible cold we’ve all had. I swear we’ve had this for… three weeks? You can tell Ian’s miserable, particularly when he swallows something and it hits the wrong part of his throat. Breaks a mom and dad’s heart seeing that much pain on a kid’s face. But like I said, almost through this. Spring should make this much less of a problem, from what I understand, and I’ll take all the help I can get.

So um… I came up with this thing two days ago that is working great for the residual smell made by our Diaper Champ, just making a note for posterity. Throw some ripped up newspaper in the bottom of it, under the bag. It is the kind of solution I enjoy: economical, effective, earthy, and… something else that starts with e, I guess. It works really well, sucks the stink right out of the air. (For those of you who don’t know, the Diaper Champ is that thing in Ian’s room that eats diapers and looks like Artoo-Deetoo… we call ours Artoo-Poopoo.)

More Text

I know, you were hoping for pictures, sorry, but we had a good run for that week, didn’t we?

Observations:
• Wow are we sick and tired of being sick and tired. All three of us.

• I found the letter “C” in my shoe about three days ago.

• Ian enjoys saying “mawmawmawmaw” repeatedly when he’s having a heavy drool day. Why? He loves his mom…. aaaand the motion of his mouth creates fantastic spit bubbles!

• Today I saw him put some crackers back in a package and was so impressed that I let him do it quite a few times. Then he realized he had a captive audience, so all the little goldfish crackers were poured on the tray and down into his lap in the high chair. As he was running a temperature today and yesterday, so I can guarantee you that was the biggest smile I’ve seen on the kid in the last 24 hours.

• Ian and the cat are having better days together, and the cat even let Ian pet him a bit today. Yes, then I washed Ian’s hands, of course.

• Ian’s got an eye for detail and a good memory. If I quote a book, he either gets the book, or looks at where the book is. If I quote a DVD he’s seen, he’ll look at the TV as if to see if it happens to be on. It is crazy watching him learn. He just seems to be constantly trying to pick up on how things work. You can see his little hands trying to spin things like a top because of having seen me do it, and he’s got the motion and the idea right, just not the motor skills.

• We have noticed the mischievous glint in his eye many times now, particularly when he sees he’s gotten a bit of a rise out of us.

• We are looking at the possibility of selling the house. We’re not going to make much, but the deals that are out there right now might just make it worth doing. We’ll see.

Ianosaurus

Ah, another slow Monday, (back on the 10th) just father and dino-PJ’d son. The magnetic letters continue to get a lot of play!

“Ianosaurus discover magic letters stick to shiny moving wall!” See this image larger.

“Ianosaurus thumb stuck in 9… or 6… Ianosaurus unsure.” See this image larger.

“Ianosaurus grow hair.” See this image larger.

“Ianosaurus hunt kitty with Q!” (Seth – “Oh SNAP!”)See this image larger.

“Ianosaurus discover crazy world lit by glowing orb behind protective shield. Or perhaps shield protect Ianosaurus. Ianosaurus think deep, head hurt.” See this image larger.

“Ianosaurus accidentally discovered by Mini-Vanosaurus. Remain still. Shhh.” See this image larger.

NappetizZzer!

Bonus points for cool pun title.

This, I believe is the first time, recorded or otherwise, that Ian fell asleep in his high chair while eating.

Melissa and I were having a financial discussion, after Ian had finished eating, and I guess the topic wasn’t very exciting for him. See this image larger.

That chair actually reclines for this kind of situation, but we just put him in his crib. Probably better to teach him that bed is sleep and sleep is bed. Wondering about the wipes package? When we got down to the last wipe we decided to keep the old package for him to play with. This is because he wouldn’t leave it alone, more or less. The little plastic lid requires a delicate flick of the finger to open, but he had it down pat in about three tries. See this image larger.

Sunday Best IV – High Altitude Edition

Ok so this is the same outfit as a few weeks ago, more or less; but the response was good, so I guess we can wear it more than once, hmm? 😉

I was trying to figure out what looked odd about Ian in this image, Melissa nailed it by saying “He looks like a linebacker.” He almost even has that Heisman Trophy pose going on. See this image larger.

“Ruh? That’s not my best side, Papa.” See this image larger.

Hopefully he’ll figure out the proper way to pick up a dog before his next interaction with a canine, or there’s going to be some hurt feelings. See this image larger.

“WEEEEEE!!!” See this image larger.

“WEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!” See this image larger.

“WEEE BETTER STOP THIS I’M GOING TO THROW UP!!!” See this image larger.

Visitors always welcome!

Thanks again for coming over Grandpa Dave and Grandma Marcia, sorry it took me a bit to get these pics up!

He woke up the morning of March 2nd with enough hair to get (what my side of the family would call) an alf-alfa. I love this pic, it is definitely going to be shown to his prom date in 17 years, mark my words. See this image larger.

“Grandma Marcia, Dada won’t fix my hair. Help me out, here.” See this image larger.

“Does my bath hat help hide my cowlick?” See this image larger.

Ian shares his puppy, but only briefly, with Grandpa Dave. Arf! See this image larger.

And then away he goes again! “WhoWantsToSeeMyPuppy? WhoWantsToSeeMyPuppy? WhoWantsToSeeMyPuppy?” See this image larger.

What’s brighter, the flash on the camera or that toothy smile? See this image larger.

Anybody that’s been to a toy store recently and experienced nightmarish visions of Ian in a vast expanse of empty floor, void of toys or fun needs to pinch themselves hard. Please. 😉 See this image larger.

One of Ian’s favorites, Five Little Pumpkins! has far out-lasted the Halloween season, and is in high rotation on the top 5 of Ian’s Book Club. (Eat your heart out, Oprah.) See this image larger.

Ian’s other hat, this one made for outdoor Michigan winters, and indoor Elmer Fudd jokes. See this image larger.

PEEKABOO! Kudos to Grandpa Dave or Grandma Marcia for catching this moment. Whomever was manning (or womanning) the camera did a fine job! See this image larger.

Expanded Horizons

I woke up Saturday morning, and saw one place in the living room where I could change something, and it quickly turned into a very large re-structuring of the entire area, but more importantly Ian’s little playpen grew. Admittedly that was the point of even the first thing I was trying to do, but it was funny how the project grew. (Special note – See the ottomans? Those may appear random but they are either helping structurally or are an escape route for Seth!)

I have a ton of great pics thanks to Dad and Marcia’s visit and a few other things going on here and there, so check back again soon, I’ll have more pics up very quickly!

The gate used to shut him off from the area in the foreground… But now East and West Germany are one and the same, Komrade! See this image larger.

“… and Ian “Speed Racer” Chapman rounds the final turn toward the finish line, nearly lapping Round Hole Block and Four Square Blue Mega Block, whose progress appears almost negligible next to the great Ian’s ferocious velocity!” See this image larger.

What’s around this corner, Ian? (Sadly the answer is “dada with his camera on auto-focus, resulting in a great shot of our couch.”) See this image larger.

Ahdeede

I have to write these down quickly so that I don’t forget. Probably get some more pictures up next entry, sorry for the delay!

Observations:
• Today Ian was brought home from daycare and while Melissa held Ian, I unzipped his winter coat. Ian then proceeded to shrug a bit, then move one shoulder forward and kind of grab at the sleeve to pull his arm out, bending at the elbow… let gravity do the work on the back of the coat, and then slip out of the other arm. I know none of this sounds all that unusual for somebody that knows how to get out of a coat, but this is Ian! We’ve seen hints of this with the restraining straps on the high-chair and his car seat, but he made this look like he’d been taking coats off for as long as Mr. Rogers has been slipping into and out of sweaters!

• Tonight he proudly proclaimed “AHDEEDE. AHDEEDE.” with a big smile on his face. Doesn’t mean much to you? What if I told you that Melissa and I had just said “You DID it!” a moment before?

• The peekaboo in the curtains game got a little more interesting while I was watching him last night. He used both curtains, throwing them open like he was a host for the Tonight Show.

• Tonight shortly after the “AHDEEDE” incident, I began piling pillows in a tower. He picked one up and placed it on top. It didn’t stay, but it was still funny to see him try. (Really just seeing him pick up a pillow is impressive, given his size. He looks a lot like Superman picking up a car.)

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