Movin’ On Up

I went with Melissa yesterday to see Ian experience his first drop-off in the new classroom. We were immediately directed up the hallway to an area where the newbies (Ian’s new classroom nickname) mingled with much older kids. We saw them all run around a table to some song about hunting a bear. In a way it looked harmless enough, but it did look a bit like “the running of the bulls,” and I saw one of the big kids push around one of the little kids and I can’t say I enjoyed that much. When the newbies got in their own classroom things returned to normal… he looked uncomfortable, but then pulled a plastic toy out of a toy oven, and then I nodded to Melissa. “He’ll be fine.” I’d like to note that we continue to be a little disappointed in this daycare, the possibility of Ian moving to a new daycare is pretty strong at this point.

More stories:
• About three days ago Melissa and I clapped to the beat of a song on a toy and Ian joined in for about 5 claps. Unremarkable, I guess, other than the fact that those claps were also to the beat and in rhythm.

• Last night during bath-time Ian started slam dunking his toy basketballs into a hoop and trying to say “SCORE!” It came out something like “GORE!” (Could he be trying to say “GOAL!” and “SCORE!” at the same time? It is a little more possible than you think… he learned “GOAL!” from a soccer ball toy.)

• Melissa and I admit to being crappy parents the other night. She was cooking, I was busy; we sat him on the dog-pillow and turned on a DVD we know he likes. It was creepy how affective it was. He sat there staring and didn’t even look away. We made a note not to do that to him too often.

• We took Ian to the doctor’s the other day for his usual check-up. In the lobby a little girl spotted Ian’s enthusiasm to see his mom, and decided she wanted to play. Ian’s not much of a thrower when it comes to rolling a ball back and forth. He tends to pick it up and hand it to you rather than roll it back. Anyway, suffice to say Ian had brought a ball and he was extremely kind and sharing with this girl that was borderline spastic. For the record, Ian weighed in at 23 lbs and is 32″ tall.

• The other day when I put Ian’s coat on him, I held the sleeve toward his arm… he transferred the ball in his hand to the other hand, by himself… worked the previously mentioned arm through the sleeve, reached over and grabbed the ball out of his other hand and readied his arm for the other sleeve. Working his arms into the sleeves is not new, but getting objects out of his hands is usually something he lets Melissa or I do.

Ian and I couldn’t make up our minds which hat he should wear… so we wore all three. What was even more amusing is he did NOT attempt to take this totem-pole of chapeaus off of his head until I removed them for him. See this image larger.

Getting a pat on the back already, I must be being a good daddy. See this image larger.

“I’m hunting wabbits.” Another shot… kinda Elmer Fudd-like. See this image larger.

Guess what word he’s saying here. Answer: “BAAAAAAAAWWWWLL.” See this image larger.

Turns out if I make a hiccup noise, he laughs. Which is great because I was able to catch this grin as a result. See this image larger.