Don’t worry video coming soon of all kinds of great stuff! In the meanwhile, those of you with very good/fast connections can download this video of our recent park trip, complete with travel music. Click on the link below and ignore the “loading” percentage. It IS loading, we swear, but this is our longest movie on the blog so far!
Click here to view the Park Trip film starring ian.
Following a splendid weekend with Grandma Marcia and Grandpa Dave, where Ian exhibited signs of walking with the aid of a mobile ottoman and the lil guy met all kinds of island-folk… things turned a little sour this week. Part of it was our fault… we decided that it was time to stop bowing to each time the lil guy needed attention in the middle of the night, and so began to ween him off of this, knowing that the long-term gain was well worth a week or so of sacrifice. The frustration of this was compounded by the danger of a flooding basement and blackouts throughout this week thanks to powerful storms rolling through the Rockford area, as well as a little bit of sickness on his part. See this image larger.
Today he got his first bruise at daycare.
There were some good moments, however. He continually advances in the “crawl” department, outright taking very crawl-like steps the other day, and pulling himself up as well. One of the more shocking bits was when we discovered he was holding the vertical bars of his crib like those of a prison cell. What made it astonishing was that I pointed with one of my hands and said “move this hand up to here.” He did. “Now move this hand up to here.” And he did. “Now move this hand up to here.” Again, he did. “Now put your hand flat up on here.” (Horizontal top of the crib wall…) And he did. “Now put your OTHER hand up here.” Aaaaand… he did. Granted I pointed at each of these places, but is it me or is he getting smarter, if not stronger?!?See this image larger.
RETRACTION – I am sorry to say that we have gone back to “basic” cable television… the price that was promised to us was something that our cable company could not actually match when the bill showed up. Being that we don’t watch it all that much, we decided to cancel. Sorry sports fans!
He’s a little bigger and brighter every day… It has been a long couple of week since our last blog entry, so I bring to you no less than three pretty great movies, if I do say so myself; starring Ian in all his glory. And by “glory” I mean diapers. In order to view our film selection tonight, simply click on one of the titles below. The sizes of the films are noted as well, for your convenience. Remember that you might not see anything while it is downloading to your computer, and if you’ve got a slow connection, you’re probably out of luck, sorry!
whudizzit, episode 1 (1.95 MB)
earthquake? (904 KB)
the forward flop (3.31 MB)
Ian is so very close to crawling, but he has not yet. He can get into what we call a “table-top” position, and then juts back and forth with his torso, as if trying to determine where his weight ought to go next. Thus the child-proofing of the house has begun! We won’t be going overboard though, we’ve already decided that he probably needs to learn what a table edge is… otherwise God forbid he goes to somebody else’s house and they don’t have foam on every surface. See this image larger.
Family member sports fans will be pleased to know that the next time they visit Ian up in Michigan no less than 4 different versions of ESPN await on our upgraded cable package.
Here’s a quick image of Ian’s first piggy-back ride. He’s still tippy enough that I don’t think I’d want to let go of him up there… but he was smart enough to grab some of my “mane” and hold tight. That hurt. 😉 See this image larger.
Ian is officially 6 months old today!
General updates: His diet consists of rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, and tomorrow he will have green beans for the first time. He’s generally into extremes at the moment, sometimes crying, and other times happy. The good news is that he is being happier for longer lengths of time than previously. He can now get his butt up in the air at the same time as his shoulders, resulting in a bit of a crawling stance, without actually crawling just yet. As you may see in a moment, if you’re very observant, his bottom two teeth are coming along just fine, but there’s nothing on the top just yet.
If you have a good internet connection, check out this video of a recent happy moment! This is a particularly good one, so gather folks around and turn up the sound! (After you click the link below, wait until you see a play button, then click it!)
Next update probably in a week unless something spectacular happens soon!
So many things to tell you, but let’s let the captions tell the stories!
What good would Ian’s blog be if he couldn’t surrender the spotlight to his family? Let’s start with one quick shot of the reason for the trek! The newlyweds! See this image larger.
Ok, now let’s turn the clock back to the beginning of the journey… Ian – “We’re still on the ground, nothing to worry about, right Mama?” See this image larger.
Ian — “We’re only at 10,000 feet, nothing to worry about, right Papa? RIGHT PAPA?!?” (gulp!) Ian’s first flight! See this image larger.
Ian — “Oh heck, Grandma Barb, I’ve been in a plane, this thing’s easy, lemme show you how it works. Where’s the flaps again?” Grandpa Ray and Grandma Barb were kind enough to pick us up at the Sanford Airport and shuttle us back to The Villages for Ian’s first visit to Florida! See this image larger.
Grandpa Ray uses up his annual “Get out of trouble free” card on sneaking Ian some ice cream. Ian — “What’s this stuff? Who needs carrots?” See this image larger.
Tuckered out from so many adventures, Ian grabs an arm/pillow on the swing and dreams of playing golf the rest of his life for free. See this image larger.
Grandpa Ray’s fishing buddy stops practicing his casting technique long enough for a quick photo op. See this image larger.
How much fun is Mama, kiddo? Everybody — “SOOOO FUUUUUN!” See this image larger.
This is the smile that will make you try again and again for a repeat. Good luck! See this image larger.
Ian — “PAPA!! STOP IT. I said NO pics while I play with this cool exersaucer!” (Thanks to Papa’s Aunt Vicki for letting us borrow that! Thanks to Grandma Sue for sharing!) See this image larger.
Ian — “Saaay is that the Canon EOS 20D? Generous LCD on the back there, what kind of memory card you got in this thing?” (Thanks Grandma Barb for snapping this one!) See this image larger.
And now back to the beach with Chris and Annemarie! The happy couple exchanged vows during the setting sun at 7 o’clock on the seventh day of the seventh month in 2007… (Thanks to Papa’s Cousin Tara for this shot!) See this image larger.
So happy were Annmarie’s parents with their new son-in-law, that they broke into song periodically throughout the evening! See this image larger.
Grandpa Dave takes Ian for a stroll while Grandma Sue catches up with Great Grandma Betty, who made the trip up from Naples to see her Grandson married! See this image larger.
Ian — “Murmf.” (Thanks to everyone who made their arms available to let Mama and Papa have moments of freedom during the evening. Papa’s Aunt Leslie went the extra mile tho!) See this image larger.
Grandma Marcia and Grandpa Dave cut the rug in celebration of the happy evening. (In the background: Still sleepin!) See this image larger.
Papa’s Uncle Joe, Aunt Vicki, Cousin Tara, Aunt Leslie and Uncle Gordon all made the trip to wish the newlyweds a beautiful night and many years of joy to come! See this image larger.
Look at this picture larger and try to tell me that my wife isn’t secretly royalty. You won’t be able to convince me, I promise you. See this image larger.
My queen and our prince. They have my heart. See this image larger.
After the wedding, we go back to The Villages to spend some quality time with Grandma Sue! See this image larger.
Although not nearly enough time, in Ian’s opinion. Don’t worry kiddo, we’ll see everybody again soon! (This face has the ability to rend Papa’s wallet from its safe harbor, rip his credit card from its moorings and make cash flow like a mighty river to appease whatever hardship caused it… it’s not Papa’s fault, seriously!) See this image larger.
Time to fly back, kiddo, you ready? Ian — (gulp!) “We have to fly BACK too?!?” (Thank you Grandma Sue for the before-dawn airport drop-off!) For those of you wondering, Ian handled both flights like a real champ… not so much as a peep, particularly compared to some of the older children around us! See this image larger.
Somebody grew some pearly whites! If you squint very closely at this first pic you should be able to see the beginning nubs of Ian’s sharp lil chompers. As this image is a few weeks old, they are even bigger!
Show us what you’ve got in there, kid! See this image larger.
Here’s a cute image of Ian with his awesome teddy bear hat on. He has little flecks of carrot on his face because we whisked him outside after dinner. We’re better about cleaning him up these days, I promise! 😉 See this image larger.
I’m typing this to move some of the other entries into later pages. That ought to help you folks with low bandwidth get all the images above! If you ever want to check out old entires just scroll down and choose “previous entries.”
If you’re wondering where Ian’s Canadian Adventure disappeared to, that’s where it went! Click “previous entries” below.
Ian, Melissa and I made an international journey into Canadian waters to visit Grandpa Dave and Grandma Marcia up at Fawn Island! Ian got to meet many of the kind inhabitants and achieved several firsts… first boat ride, first ferry ride, first trip out of the country, and first swim in ankle-deep water!
Grandma Marcia and Papa greet Ian who woke up on what must be the slightly goofy side of the bed based on that face. See this image larger.
Grandma Marcia rocks Ian on a makeshift swing. Ian hides a procured Hershey’s kiss that he hopes nobody notices is gone. See this image larger.
Papa beams with joy and pride at the Jimmy Buffett-style outfit that looks just right on Ian for the cottage (or Florida!) See this image larger.
Grandpa Dave says he’ll never forget Ian falling asleep in his arms at Dennis and Julie’s place! See this image larger.
[kml_flashembed movie=”https://www.outoftheirminds.com/media/2007/ianSurfs.swf” height=”333″ width=”500″ /]Ian’s super cool surfing outfit! You can almost see what’s going on in Ian’s head can’t you? (If you can’t imagine, try clicking the above picture to see! (Click again to come back to reality!)) See this image larger.
Ian didn’t seem all that concerned about the pool. “This must be a really colorful outdoors bathtub? Where’s my ducky?” See this image larger.
“Backstroke? No prob!” See this image larger.
Mama’s dressed Ian in a new outfit for Grandpa Dave to admire, and why not? He bought it! (Look at those faces!) See this image larger.
And Grandpa Dave looks very happy to see Ian in said outfit! Ian likes it too! See this image larger.
Mama allows Ian a nap… Ian allows Mama to be a pillow. See this image larger.
Don’t look so surprised, kiddo! Yes, it’s time to go home already! See this image larger.
But perhaps when we get there we can take one more shot of you in this top before you outgrow it you lil sprout! See this image larger.
Cousin Kaylee was baptized on the 17th of July, and Ian, Melissa and I went to Ohio on Saturday to see the ceremony. It was a beautiful day and Kaylee was a very patient and happy baby throughout. It was also a special day because it was father’s day! One other quick note: We’d like to congratulate Roscoe United Methodist Church for the dramatic “yay” vote on the controversial grand piano!
Here’s some pics from the trip!
The star of the weekend was happy baby Kaylee! “You think they’ll ever stop taking pictures of us, cuz?” See this image larger.
His happiness is absolutely contagious; sadly most of his colds are as well. See this image larger.
Connor was a sport to share his old exersaucer with his cousin. If I could find this exact model I’d probably buy it.See this image larger.
And here’s why; one look at that kid’s face when he’s interested, and the credit card leaps from my pocket. See this image larger.
It was SO nice for Connor to share, in fact, that he deserves a bonus picture! This is from when he visited us in here in Michigan during Ian’s baptism… isn’t that a great shot? See this image larger.
