I do remember now on of the other recent instances of Ian’s improving communications… I asked him how his day went, and he actually told me about something that I hadn’t seen with my own eyes. You know up until recently you could ask him specific questions, and get yes/no/good/bad answers, if he understood the question. In this case Melissa had told me that they had been on a picnic at school, and so I asked him to tell me how it went. He told me that Miley fell off the table and fell on her head, in almost perfect English. Melissa told me the same story earlier, so I knew it to be true. Neat to be able to have him tell me something like that.
Today is Father’s Day, and I’m going to see a movie tonight with Melissa! I want to thank everybody for their cards as well, and wish Grampa Dave, Grampa Ray and Uncle Ben a happy Father’s Day!
Here’s how the Dinosaur exhibit ended up…
Ian and Isaac found their way to the top of a treehouse in the exhibit almost immediately. See this image larger.
And here’s the bottom half of the same treehouse! There they go smiling and running again — at least Ian’s tongue is in his mouth this time! See this image larger.
A smaller relative of the carnivorous T-Rex, the Crappantsasaurus* never-the-less scared the beejeezus out of Ian for a few moments. He didn’t freak out too bad at all, even though it was a mechanically animated model and moved on to the next area. *There is no such dinosaur name, but I didn’t take notes, so it has a new name. See this image larger.
Still an occasional look back over one’s shoulder to make sure the Crappantsasaurus has not closed any distance is advisable. See this image larger.
Here they had a metal skeleton rigged with various air compressors and motors set up to be animated by the simple press of a few buttons. Ian appears to be wondering if he could animate this right out the door, and down the street. See this image larger.
Isaac shows Ian how the puppets can surprise, Ian shows Isaac what a surprised Ian looks like. See this image larger.
After Mommy shows Ian the cool puppet theater, Ian puts on a brief show for Daddy. As the drama unfolded, the Triceratops did not win; it is a herbivore. See this image larger.
Mommy recycling. When I saw this happening, a quick picture seemed appropriate! See this image larger.
It was around this time that paleontologists Ian Dangerguy and Isaac Beastmaster showed up at the scene. See this image larger.
A brief picture of our half of the excursion, backdrop by the stegosauruses. See this image larger.
A ride on the carousel, one of the very few hand-carved versions left, and then it was time to head for the door. See this image larger.
On the way out, one last ride on the old car with Isaac. Good times, Schoenborns! See this image larger.
https://outoftheirminds.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ootmd-logo-dark-wings-3Asset-15.svg00vrbfwhttps://outoftheirminds.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ootmd-logo-dark-wings-3Asset-15.svgvrbfw2009-06-21 09:10:432009-06-21 09:10:43DinoRoars, Part II
It has been funny listening to Ian’s vocabulary grow. The other day we were in the neighborhood of a few stores and Ian said he wanted to go to “A-B Giraffe.” Translated that is Toys R Us. The A-B part is short for A-B-C which he says instead of “this has letters on it” sometimes. (So like if he picked up a football an it said “Wilson” on the side of it, he’s point at the letters and say “ABC football.”) Obviously the giraffe is in the worded logo on some store fronts, so thus… A-B Giraffe.
This morning:
“I want a duck.”
“Which duck?”
“Want two ducks.”
“Which ducks?”
“Green… and Pink.”
(We have four different colored rubber duckies… and yes pink and green are amongst them.)
I don’t remember a few of the other instances, but suffice to say he’s able to tell you what he wants much better these days… which makes it all the more infuriating when all he does is cry. And he’s been a champ at that this week. We keep trying to get him to just try food. We offer that he can just put it on his tongue in order to try it, and he still will not do so, even if we offer him another helping of something he DOES like as a reward. So he just sits there and cries. And cries. We could cave in and make everybody’s life easier, but I’m being much more adamant about this now; he needs to learn it isn’t always going to go his way.
This afternoon Ian was crying about wanting to stay in, then wanting to stay out, then wanting to go back out, play more games, watch more videos, shoes on, he’s asked for pretty much every grandma and/or grandpa, etc. Eventually I just said “Why don’t we get you something for lunch or go to bed (take a nap.)” Ian walked upstairs without another word, grabbed his zooey (yes we’re working on breaking him of that vice) waited for me to bring up his blankie, and put himself to bed. I did not have to direct him in any way, and it was me doing the following the entire time. I even told him flat out “Look, I’m leaving the door cracked open — if you want back out, just open the door, alright?” and without a peep, off he went to dream about a Daddy that lets him do what he wants more often, I guess. He’s in his room right now, snoozing away. (That’s the end of the latest news, here’s some stuff from a week ago!)
On June 13th, Ian, Melissa and I joined the Schoenborn family at the Grand Rapids Public Museum for their Dinosaur exhibit!
The Schoenborns, for those that need a review, are Martin and Melissa, (friends that you might remember from our wedding, where they were an enormous help!) and their two sons, Isaac who is almost 4, and Levi who is one years old. See this image larger.
Ian is either pointing to an airplane or a whale skeleton. I love the way he points at this age, his hand comes right up to eye level and he does not straighten his arm, so that he ends up looking right down the length of his finger. His is a shy way of pointing, and somehow less rude. See this image larger.
Maybe he’ll be a runner, who knows… seems like the best smiles I miss are streaky blurs as he’s cruising by! See this image larger.
That’s alright, I saw the guy that cleans the glass on the railings, and he looked like he was grateful for the job security. See this image larger.
Finally, it is time to go into the Dinosaur exhibit!! Ian dutifully hands over his ticket for admission — but you and I will have to wait for next blog entry to see the inside! See you soon! See this image larger.
https://outoftheirminds.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ootmd-logo-dark-wings-3Asset-15.svg00vrbfwhttps://outoftheirminds.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ootmd-logo-dark-wings-3Asset-15.svgvrbfw2009-06-20 12:11:132009-06-20 12:11:13DinoRoars, Part I
The day after Melissa got home Ian actually asked her where I was, so ingrained was our morning ritual, I guess! After about two hours of her being around, he went back to being a complete mama’s boy again.
I woke up a few mornings ago to “Wake up Daddy, get pants on!” (PJ’s weren’t good enough, apparently.)
Also have heard some other good ones lately. If I haven’t already mentioned it, he’ll tell you he lives on “Hylender Driveway” (which is close…) We also have a game where we pretend to not be able to find the house and ask him if any of the houses nearby is Ian’s house… and inevitably find it right where we left it.
Ian has this new thing, that we’re still trying to determine the origin of. He gestures in a very dramatic fashion, wrists upturned, palms flipped open pleadingly and arms sort of waving outwards to emphasize the words: “That’s not a car.” No idea, but it is funny to see.
He can sing a smattering of songs by now, of course: the alphabet, twinkle twinkle, row row your boat, rockabye baby, and a few I don’t know anything about. One of them involves “hurry” repeatedly the word firetruck and “ding ding ding” and has several steps, including “spray the hoses.” He also sings a song that goes something like “I squished a baby bumble bee, won’t my mommy be so proud of me, I squished a baby bumble bee, OUCH, it stung me!” Any of the various musical DVDs or CDs that we own get a bit of accompaniment, in the form of a warbling, slightly difficult to understand two year old. He’s so awesome!
This shot was taken earlier in the day before Melissa got back on June 10th. Ian and I ran around the Rockford Dam area a bit. See this image larger.
On June 11th the three of us went to Target, and this toy caught my eye. Inflatable Tee, inflatable baseball, and a plastic baseball bat where the actual hitting surface is inflatable as well. See this image larger.
He LOVED it immediately. Look at that focus… I think I see a little kung fu going on here. See this image larger.
DinoRoars, Part II
I do remember now on of the other recent instances of Ian’s improving communications… I asked him how his day went, and he actually told me about something that I hadn’t seen with my own eyes. You know up until recently you could ask him specific questions, and get yes/no/good/bad answers, if he understood the question. In this case Melissa had told me that they had been on a picnic at school, and so I asked him to tell me how it went. He told me that Miley fell off the table and fell on her head, in almost perfect English. Melissa told me the same story earlier, so I knew it to be true. Neat to be able to have him tell me something like that.
Today is Father’s Day, and I’m going to see a movie tonight with Melissa! I want to thank everybody for their cards as well, and wish Grampa Dave, Grampa Ray and Uncle Ben a happy Father’s Day!
Here’s how the Dinosaur exhibit ended up…
DinoRoars, Part I
It has been funny listening to Ian’s vocabulary grow. The other day we were in the neighborhood of a few stores and Ian said he wanted to go to “A-B Giraffe.” Translated that is Toys R Us. The A-B part is short for A-B-C which he says instead of “this has letters on it” sometimes. (So like if he picked up a football an it said “Wilson” on the side of it, he’s point at the letters and say “ABC football.”) Obviously the giraffe is in the worded logo on some store fronts, so thus… A-B Giraffe.
This morning:
“I want a duck.”
“Which duck?”
“Want two ducks.”
“Which ducks?”
“Green… and Pink.”
(We have four different colored rubber duckies… and yes pink and green are amongst them.)
I don’t remember a few of the other instances, but suffice to say he’s able to tell you what he wants much better these days… which makes it all the more infuriating when all he does is cry. And he’s been a champ at that this week. We keep trying to get him to just try food. We offer that he can just put it on his tongue in order to try it, and he still will not do so, even if we offer him another helping of something he DOES like as a reward. So he just sits there and cries. And cries. We could cave in and make everybody’s life easier, but I’m being much more adamant about this now; he needs to learn it isn’t always going to go his way.
This afternoon Ian was crying about wanting to stay in, then wanting to stay out, then wanting to go back out, play more games, watch more videos, shoes on, he’s asked for pretty much every grandma and/or grandpa, etc. Eventually I just said “Why don’t we get you something for lunch or go to bed (take a nap.)” Ian walked upstairs without another word, grabbed his zooey (yes we’re working on breaking him of that vice) waited for me to bring up his blankie, and put himself to bed. I did not have to direct him in any way, and it was me doing the following the entire time. I even told him flat out “Look, I’m leaving the door cracked open — if you want back out, just open the door, alright?” and without a peep, off he went to dream about a Daddy that lets him do what he wants more often, I guess. He’s in his room right now, snoozing away. (That’s the end of the latest news, here’s some stuff from a week ago!)
On June 13th, Ian, Melissa and I joined the Schoenborn family at the Grand Rapids Public Museum for their Dinosaur exhibit!
Inflataball
The day after Melissa got home Ian actually asked her where I was, so ingrained was our morning ritual, I guess! After about two hours of her being around, he went back to being a complete mama’s boy again.
I woke up a few mornings ago to “Wake up Daddy, get pants on!” (PJ’s weren’t good enough, apparently.)
Also have heard some other good ones lately. If I haven’t already mentioned it, he’ll tell you he lives on “Hylender Driveway” (which is close…) We also have a game where we pretend to not be able to find the house and ask him if any of the houses nearby is Ian’s house… and inevitably find it right where we left it.
Ian has this new thing, that we’re still trying to determine the origin of. He gestures in a very dramatic fashion, wrists upturned, palms flipped open pleadingly and arms sort of waving outwards to emphasize the words: “That’s not a car.” No idea, but it is funny to see.
He can sing a smattering of songs by now, of course: the alphabet, twinkle twinkle, row row your boat, rockabye baby, and a few I don’t know anything about. One of them involves “hurry” repeatedly the word firetruck and “ding ding ding” and has several steps, including “spray the hoses.” He also sings a song that goes something like “I squished a baby bumble bee, won’t my mommy be so proud of me, I squished a baby bumble bee, OUCH, it stung me!” Any of the various musical DVDs or CDs that we own get a bit of accompaniment, in the form of a warbling, slightly difficult to understand two year old. He’s so awesome!