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.

Below are some pics of Ian in some pretty sweet church clothes!

Here’s some general updates/stories as well:
• Since his birthday, Ian has been facing forward in his car seat(s).

• He’s also been trying some table food.

• One of the pics below shows Ian lying on the floor. It is hard to explain why this is different than before, but there’s a noticeable level of enjoyment now. He’s comfortable rolling around and looking at things from different perspectives, perhaps holding a toy aloft above his head against the backdrop of the ceiling.

• He’s a professional sippy-cup user now… well, almost. He’s been using one for months, but now he understands that if he tips the cup up, he gets milk more easily. The part he doesn’t yet get is that it is also easier to get milk with the sippy part on the bottom. He pretty much grabs a handle at random and tries to drink from there.

• He says “ball” pretty clearly and has associated the term with spheres, or a picture of, say, a basketball. There’s a number of words he tries to parrot, but this is one of the few he really does associate with an object and can speak, like the word “light.”

• He’s getting better about pointing at things that he would like to see closer, and as I mentioned last entry, “are you hungry?” almost always results in him rushing as far as the gates will let him, looking back over his shoulder at the asker and sometimes pointing toward his high chair.

• Walking is his preferred method of movement. Despite the fact that crawling might even be a better thing to do in a scenario, he generally stands up and walks rather than crawl.

• Tonight Mama used a phrase that we throw around the house fairly often, I guess mostly because of video games… the phrase is “You GOT it.” She used this in celebration of Ian finding a lost sheep toy. Ian replied “Uh got it.” Now, I’m not saying our child knows the difference between “you” and “I” yet; I actually think that was his attempt at saying “you.”

Wow, this could be the next cover of a Gap Baby catalog if it weren’t for the penitentiary walls we have around the “play compound.”
See this image larger.

Ian’s career in modeling would be a sure thing if he didn’t have to stick his tongue out in concentration to keep from falling over doing his turn on the catwalk.
See this image larger.

I get about 5 moments like this that I get to experience on a daily basis… These moments make me wonder how I ever questioned having a kid. Of course, he’ll be a teenager in a decade or so… ask me again then! (Seriously though, I thank God for these moments.) See this image larger.

Here is a picture for each of the 12 months (plus a month before, just for kicks) that has passed since our lil boy was born. It shows how vastly he has changed over the course of his first year on Earth. Ian, if you’re reading this now, this has been the best year of our lives, and we’re so happy to have this time with you. If you’re a family member reading this, why not write a comment in the comments section for ian to read sometime in the future!

Last Tuesday I had it, this whole weekend Ian had it… and now Ian’s Mama is upstairs duking it out with the stomach flu. I’m assuming this will probably have a kind of damper on the lil guy’s b-day. Strongly don’t recommend visiting at this point, I’d have to say, this one’s a bit nasty (although short-lived) and seems to go from person to person very easily. (That said, we do give little pecks on the cheek or forehead to each other a lot in this lil family, and we’re all really run down, probably prime candidates for it.)

On a brighter note, I have some cute pics of Ian stomping around in his play area that I’ll happily share tomorrow if I get a chance!