Christian Family Happenings

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T23:02:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day...

...from our little Heartbreaker!

No, Mom. I'm not all hyped up on the tootsie rolls you just gave me! Why do you ask?

Happy Valentine's Day! We hope you had a lovely day!

How Far We've Come

2012-02-13T11:23:00.005-06:00

Last night, James and Ian went to the store for me since I had to go to work. James was still up when I got home and told me about a little conversation they had with a couple of other boys while they were there. Apparently James and Ian passed these little boys (4 & 5 years old by James' guess) and they recognized Ian.

Boys: We know him (Ian)! He's at our daycare. He hits.

James: He doesn't do that anymore.

Boys: Oh.

James and I both had a good laugh over this. I am so thankful it is something we can laugh about now! At one point, Ian was hitting quite a bit. Most kids did know that they had to say "soft hands" to him and stay out of his path. Happily, we have had NO hitting incidences since Ian started back after Christmas break. Yay for our little boy growing up and for the Feingold diet!

Suits & Sweats

2012-02-11T12:51:00.003-06:00

It seems like Mommy's uniform consists of the two ends of the wardrobe spectrum lately.

There's suits...

(And, of course, Ian has to "see" any picture we take!)

And sweats...

While I much prefer sweats days, I am grateful for the income that suit days bring. Today is a sweats day and I am thrilled!

Poor Baby!

2012-02-10T10:48:00.002-06:00

Poor Ian! He wasn't feeling good Wednesday night and slept with us. It's a good thing that I am a light sleeper because when he started gagging around 4am, I was able to run him to the bathroom!

We were up until 6am when he finally had gotten most of it out of his system. I put him to bed and ran to Wal-Mart to get ginger ale and Pedialyte. I always, always try to keep an extra Pedialyte on hand because you just never know when you will need it. I was out though and didn't want to have to work the logistics of taking a sick kid to the store. Fortunately, Ian slept the whole time I was gone (Daddy was having to get ready for work).

He woke up fussing not even five minutes after I got home, and I knew what that meant! Luckily it was short lived and he was back in bed with me by 7am. And then he slept until 11am!! I am so thankful for that! I desperately needed that kind of rest!

I was also really, really, really, really, really glad I didn't have to work during the day yesterday. We just hung around the house. Poor sick baby!

This face just melts pulls every single heart string I have!

Such a sweet boy! He saw me taking pictures and tried to smile for the camera all on his own.

I think all Ian ate yesterday was two pieces of bread with butter. We slept (although he was really restless) until 10 this morning. Then he gagged again. (Perhaps he really needed something in his tummy and not having anything caused it?) So we've been taking it easy!

Now comes the fun part. Figuring what in the world is going on. You probably remember, this happened last week too. Once I will attribute to a bug. Twice (TMI alert! - when he is puking up the same kind of mucusy stuff) makes me wonder...allergy? too much drainage? Who knows?! I really need to keep a food diary so when things like this happen, I can look at what he has been eating.

For now, I am going to go hang out with my little buddy and enjoy my relieved feeling of not having to work at all today!

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

2012-02-04T13:01:00.005-06:00

This post has been running around in my head for a couple of weeks, but I am just now getting it blogged. Story of my life...ha! We have so many things going on right now. So many are good, some are not so good, and others are downright blah. I want to record it all for Ian though. We think it's important to be real with him and let him know that life is full of ups and downs and we are fortunate to (usually) have more ups than downs!

The Good:

I love, love, LOVE our neighborhood. This is my view driving in from one direction.

Picket fences, beautiful houses, open spaces. Sigh. Happy heart beats. I love it! And I just noticed the crime watch sign on the right when I looked at the picture. This neighborhood is so incredibly safe - we feel so comfortable here!

They recently just painted a mural on the tunnel that connects the walking trails under the main road. Last Tuesday was our first time to get to see the finished product. It looks awesome!

Skull and bones. Ian was more excited about the train than the skull and bones! Maybe in a year or two he will understand what those are...

View from outside of the tunnel. Ian loves playing by the creek and climbing over all the rocks!

Cumon, Mahnee!! What are you taking pictures for when there are rocks to climb???

No matter what else is going on in life, every time I pull into our neighborhood, I am so thankful for our wonderful house and its location! It looks like we are going to stay here another year too (fingers crossed!), and we are thrilled about that!

The Bad:

Looking at these sweet little boys playing so nicely together over Christmas...

...and this precious baby girl giving Momma sugars...

...and our little boy finally doing so good and not hitting his cousin...

...yup...you guessed it...made me ready for Baby #2! Up until this point, I was SO not ready! But that little combination (plus knowing there's another little cousin on the way!) pulled my heart strings just right and now my biological clock is back on.

Why is this bad? Two words: hyperemesis gravidarum. Otherwise known as the serious limiting factor in pregnancy planning. On the one hand, I'm thrilled that I'm even ready for Baby #2. But we aren't ready for HG again. Ian needs a Mommy who can get up and take him to the park without puking. James needs his teammate to still be able to function while we finish out this year. I need to be able to attend classes. And we need to save up a lot of money. HG pregnancies are expensive! Learning about IVF pregnancies, I've realized HG kiddos cost just as much. (More sometimes if you count lost wages from work.) We need a good $10-$15K in the bank before we are ready to try again. Seems outrageous, I know! But we can't risk not being able to afford meds and full time preschool for Ian.

We also can't plan a baby during marching season because James is gone so much. If I am super sick again, we need him to have a little more flexibility and availability. So we are talking not even getting to try until Spring 2013! Ian will be almost five when the next baby is born if all goes as planned. I've always wanted kids 2-3 years apart, but this isn't something we really have a choice in. So you may hear grumbles and gripes between now and then. In the meantime, I am just really thankful we have Ian! He will be a great big brother.

The Ugly:

Ok, so the Language Building isn't really that ugly. In fact, it's right next to the Physics building, so I often think about my older brother and all the time he spent next door. It makes me feel closer to him, even though it would have been nice if I had gotten started sooner so I could have been there at the same time! But this building means I still have classes to go to and a thesis to do. I'm not done yet. I was downright depressed about it last week. This week, I've moved on. It is what it is. Getting your master's while working and having a child sucks. It's hard. It's a lot of sacrifice (mostly in sleep and sanity). It means very little time to myself. And I'm pretty much done with the whole thing.

Fortunately, I have good professors and I'm studying a topic I enjoy. I still have day time hours with Ian and hubby occasionally surprises me with dates! It's enough to keep me going for now.

Ian's Way Cool Book

2012-02-03T00:28:00.007-06:00

Ian's great-grandmas are wonderful about sending him books. This week, he got another wonderful surprise in the mail! After bath time tonight, I handed Ian his present.

Ian loves opening presents! (Seriously, who doesn't?!)

He is a very careful un-wrapper. Each piece of paper must be all the way off the present before he will play with/look at the present.

And by all the way off, I mean ALL the way off.

Grandma Mary sent Ian this AMAZING book called Simple First Words: Let's Sign. He was as excited about it as I was!

Enthralled by the pictures!

This book is awesome by itself, but the really amazing thing is that it comes with sign flashcards! There is a picture of the object on one side and a picture of a person making the sign on the other. How cool is that??? I've wanted something like this for Ian but had no idea where to get it!

Of course, we had to lay out all the flashcards. :-)

Checking the other end of the line to see what is there.

Water! I know this one! (Actually, I was pleasantly surprised to see that he knew most of them. I haven't counted his signs in a while. He doesn't yet sign them straight off the card, so I am looking forward to countless hours of fun learning to do that!)

Thank you, Grandma Cookie! This is a wonderful present and will get tons of use! We are so excited about it!

Poor Lil Baby

2012-02-01T12:47:00.002-06:00

Ian woke up at 8 this morning and James brought him to me in bed. We both slept til 9:45 and then cuddle on the glider for about twenty minutes. Then Ian crawled down and promptly fell asleep on his books!

This poor, tired Momma just thought he was tired too! So I picked him, took him back to bed, and we slept for another half an hour until he started gagging!! Fortunately, I was not all the way asleep and was able to rush him to the bathroom. Poor lil sick baby.

Ian seems to be much better now and is eating "snacks" (pretzels) and drinker "jijeral" (Ginger Ale). It's days like this that I am so thankful my day job is Mommy!

Ta-Da!

2012-01-31T11:03:00.001-06:00

Would you believe this is the face of a two year old who just went potty on the big potty for the first time?

Haha...he is concentrating so hard he doesn't look as excited as he was! Aunt Sassie was our lucky charm that made it happen!

Of course, Ian has missed his Sassie terribly and keeps asking about her. In her honor, he used the potty again last night. :-) We're so proud of him!

Mommy's Haircut

2012-01-31T00:18:00.004-06:00

Last Tuesday was a super busy day! It was a typical busy day though with a million things to do and I had planned to blog about it so that one day when I am living the life of slow-moving luxury (hahahahaha...I wish!), I can remember these busy times. However, it was so busy, I didn't end up blogging about it! Aunt Lissie arrived the next day and I sure wasn't going to blog when I could spend time with her. :-) So, a week later, I'm just now catching up.

After Ian's stylin' walk to the park, I dropped him off at playcare and went to meet my friend Katie so we could both get haircuts. It's been about seven months since we had gone to get haircuts and we both needed them! I told Jannette to do her thing and make it look good. She did, but it was so much shorter than she had ever done it before!! It has definitely taken me some time to get used to it, but it is really easy to blow dry.

I love how the back looks here!

I'm sure it doesn't look quite as good when I do it. I wish I was rich enough to pay Jannette to come do my hair every morning!

Ian's Stylin' Park Trip

2012-01-30T23:12:00.003-06:00

We have been very glad that the weather has been warm enough to take walks to the park. It's been a bit chilly, but it hasn't been too bad overall. Last Tuesday when Ian and I headed to the park, I just had to take a picture on my phone! Ian is definitely developing his own sense of style.

Right now, stickers are hot, Elmo is rockin', "Muheen" (Lightening McQueen) hats are cool, and mittens are in! And of course, brown rain boots go with everything!

Fin's Shower: Fun & Games

2012-01-29T11:13:00.010-06:00

As friends started to arrive, we pulled out goodies for some good ole fashioned baby celebrating fun! I'm actually not sure what Hillary is doing in this picture, but apparently it is pretty funny. :-)

Renee, Lissie, and Hillary making play-do babies.

Ian was thrilled to join Miriam on the other side of the room and make his play-do baby too!

Ta-da! Finished babies! Can you guess whose is whose?

Here's a little bit more of a close-up. Maybe you can figure it out now!

Give up? Ok...top left yellow baby is mine and Ian's (preggo lady made with balls of play-do), top right pink baby is Miriam's, bottom left pink baby is Renee's (look at that detail...she was the obvious winner!!), bottom right blue baby is Hillary's (she won the geek prize!).

There are just two left. Can you guess which one is Nana's and which one is Lissie's?

Yup...Lissie's is the yellow baby on the left and Nana's is white baby on the right wrapped in a blanket.

Next game: draw a baby on your head without looking!

Intense concentration!

Haha...love the look on Lissie's face! That's an artist hard at work!

Finished! Of course, Lissie might just have an edge on blind contour drawing from teaching middle schoolers how to do it...just maybe. :-)

Nana's baby!

Miriam even wrote Finley's name!

Haha...love this pic!

Hillary's baby comes complete with sound effects!

I turned around and found that Ian had been drawing his own baby too!!! Oops...Momma should have given him a paper plate as well!

Group photo!

While we were taking pictures, Ian was ever so helpful and opened Aunt Lissie's presents!

Haha...he had so much fun getting everything out. Mommy got it all put back together so Aunt Lissie could actually open her own presents.

After all that hard work opening presents, Ian was ready for some dessert!

While he was otherwise occupied, Lissie took pictures with everyone. Here's Lissie and Miriam.

Lissie and Hillary!

Lissie and Renee!

Lissie and me. :-)

Lissie and Nana.

By this point, Ian was out of his high chair and was thoroughly enjoying a cake pop!

Loving our new camera and catching all of Ian's cute expressions!

Those were some yummy cake pops!

When guests started leaving, we let Ian play with the balloons. Needless to say, he was thrilled!

Erin, another one of Lissie's former roommates, showed up for a bit at the end. Apparently she just something rather shocking haha!

Just kidding! It was great to meet everyone though! We are really looking forward to Fin coming and can't wait to meet him!

Fin's Shower: Setting Up

2012-01-29T11:05:00.009-06:00

Lissie had spent the last week in Texas having all her Texas family showers. The last half of the week she was in our neck of the woods for the shower at our house. We were so glad that she got to stay with us for a few days! We loved having Aunt "Sassie" with us!

Yesterday was finally shower day! Lissie and Ian went over to Nana's house so James and I could decorate. Hillary, who is one amazing friend, left her house super stinkin' early to drive five hours to Lissie's shower! She ended up arriving early and we were glad for her decorating help! She came up with this awesome bow and tie combo for the Sock Monkeys.

Hillary also did the streamers! Nana got the sock moneky slippers for Lissie. (Have you guessed the theme of the shower yet? ;-) )

Lissie and Ian showed up just a little bit before the shower was schedule to start. Hillary got to meet Fin!

The entry way desk held the diaper cake, invitation, and sono picture. And, of course, balloons!

Nana held Ian. His favorite phrase while we were getting the last of the stuff ready was "hold you" and Mommy already had her hands full!

Sock monkey cake pops!!

Yum...candy!

Finley William has his own name banner!

Sock monkey themed cupcakes.

More cupcakes!!

Coca-Cola was so nice to manufacture bottles that matched our theme!

Dessert bar, banner, and food table in the background.

Ian hanging out at the food table. There were Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets on there, after all!!

In honor of Aunt Lissie's salsa cravings during this pregnancy, we had Prairie Peach and Sante Fe salsa.

Sock monkey party favors with more monkeys!

Stay tuned...fun and games to come!

Dear Fin

2012-01-27T23:13:00.002-06:00

Dear Fin,

I got to feel you kick last night. Your Mommy, Uncle James, and I were watching the debate on TV when your Mommy picked up my hand and placed it on her belly. Sure enough, just a minute later, I felt you wriggling around inside your Mommy! You are a strong little boy!

Tomorrow we are having a baby shower to celebrate you. Your Mommy and Daddy waited a long time for you to come along and everyone is so excited that you are on the way!! Nana, Auntie Liz, and I have been planning and planning lots of fun surprises for your Mommy tomorrow. It is going to be a fun day and make us even more excited about getting to meet you in person.

Cousin Ian doesn't yet really understand that you are growing in your Mommy's tummy. In fact, he can't even say your Mommy's name right! He keeps called her "Sassie" or "Sasses". He's learning though. And I know he will have so much fun showing you all of his favorite activities.

I've heard you've been promised a trip to Disney World AND Disney Land! Maybe we can convince your Mommy and Daddy to take you on a Disney Cruise with us too. Ian would love to have you along (and so would we)!

Well, baby boy, you are very much loved! I can't wait to hold you and cuddle with you and ~~run away with you~~ baby-sit! You are so precious to all of us and we can't wait to spend time with you!

Grow strong, little one! We'll see you in a few months!

Love,

Aunt Laura

How In The World...

2012-01-24T00:55:00.002-06:00

...am I gonna survive this semester? I honestly have no clue what I was thinking taking 9 hours this semester to be a full time grad student! Oh yeah - graduating in May!!! Or at least that's the plan. I'm going to see if I can take the comprehensive exams instead of doing a thesis. A thesis was a nice dream. But I am so ready to be done.

Then I can spend more time with this munchkin. He loves his sunglasses in the car. Or more accurately, he hates the sun shining on him in the car, so he tolerates his sunglasses. The sun doesn't bother him when we are outside walking, just while in the car. Go figure. :-)

This past weekend, James spent 2.5 hours putting together our new computer cabinet. I am so excited about it! Hopefully we can keep the kitchen table clear now.

Ian was thrilled to see the new jungle gym that Daddy bought him. ;-)

Well, I am off to bid for my work schedule, write a lesson plan template, start research on my language and gender variation paper, fold some laundry, write a grocery list, and see about switching the thesis to the comps. Please check back in May to see if I am still breathing. Just kidding! Well, sort of kidding... Deep breath...here we go! The semester is officially in full swing!

Daddy's Motivating Speech

2012-01-21T21:47:00.004-06:00

I had to work early Thursday morning, so James was Daddy-on-duty that morning. We told Ian Wednesday night that Mommy would be gone in the morning and Daddy would be there to get him up, feed him breakfast, and take him to daycare. Mommy would be back right after lunch to get him.

Ian seemed okay with this until we put him to bed. We did our usual tuck-in routine, ending with "rockit" (Mommy rocking Ian and singing him a song). We had hugs and kisses and put him to bed. A few minutes later, we heard sobs and a very pathetic little boy whimpering for "Mahnee". So, I went in, rockit-ed Ian more, and put him back down after reassuring him I would see him at lunch.

Another few minutes passes and we heard more crying and more sad whimpers for Mahnee. So James went in, told Ian that I was going to bed and that he needed to as well. He gave Ian a hug and laid him back down. James then came out and told me Ian seemed okay with what he had said.

Well, lo and behold, it wasn't too long before we heard Ian again. We looked on the monitor, and he was standing up holding onto his crib rail, patiently (but pathetically) waiting for us to come. So James went back in but didn't pick him up. Instead he gave him a hug and said, "Don't worry. Tomorrow you will get to see Mommy and do a lot of fun things with her. And you'll get to see Daddy and do a lot of fun things with me. But to be ready for tomorrow, you need to get a good night's sleep."

PLOP!

Ian immediately threw himself down on his pillow and cuddled up with his blanket and Skip. I heard the plop from the living room! He went right to sleep after that!

Good job, Daddy!! You are a wonderful motivational speaker! Let's hope the same speech still works when he is 13!

Gluten Free

2012-01-19T16:53:00.005-06:00

When I was doing my undergrad, there was a point where I was taking a full time course load, baby-sitting, tutoring, working part time selling Cutco (yay for my free Cutco knives!), and interpreting part time. Needless to say, my schedule was jam packed! I was getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night, which definitely wasn't enough. Apparently the way my body responded to that stress was to develop an intolerance to gluten (specifically wheat). So at my Mom's suggestion, I cut wheat out of my diet for about six-eight months and felt much better. I also lost 10 lbs, something I wasn't trying to do but was happy for the side effect!

After about eight months, I was able to return to eating gluten. At the time, I really felt like God had healed me. It was through praying that I even felt like I ought to try gluten again. I hadn't really considered it, but it seemed like it was time again. Our church spent a day praying for people for various things, and I felt like I should get prayed for. After church, I ate some regular pretzels and didn't react. I was quite happy not to have to live gluten free anymore!

A year or two down the road, as I was looking back on that experience, I realized that reducing the stress in my life and staying gluten free to allow my body to heal for a time is what had made such a big difference. I still believe God knew that my body was ready to gluten free and He wanted me to know He knew. While I believe in miraculous healing, I believe that God often works within natural boundaries. Stress out your body, you'll see a reaction. Ease up on it, you'll get better. (At least most of the time!)

In any case, I'm glad I know that about myself now. I have once again started to experience gluten intolerance and have recently decided to go gluten free. It's a pain. It really sucks. It's not near as convenient. And it's expensive if you don't make everything from scratch yourself. But I feel so much better. My stomach doesn't hurt. I don't get as tired as I was getting. My digestive system isn't freaking out. So it's worth it. And I'm in my last semester, so as long as I survive, things will calm down majorly this summer. And my body will heal. And maybe I'll be able to eat gluten again.

But in the meantime, I discovered this little place in a gluten free magazine I was reading last night - I Heart Muffins Bakery.

Don't those muffins look wonderful? And this bakery - I Heart Muffins - is just TWO minutes from Lifetime Wellness Center!

While I was looking for pictures for I Heart Muffins, I came across another local bakery that also makes gluten free products - Hot Chocolates.

While expense might keep these treats to just now and then, I am looking forward to having some delicious options I don't have to make!

Those Silly Little Things

2012-01-17T23:36:00.005-06:00

A long time ago, two little girls named Laura and Liz used to lay awake talking when they were supposed to be sleeping. They would dream of their future families and they would say things like this:

Liz: When I grow up, I am going to take my kids to the late, late show!

Laura: When I grow up, I am going to take my kids to the late, late, late show!

Liz: Well, I am going to take them to the late, late, late, late show!

Laura: I am going to take them to the late, late, late, late, late show! I'll be the best Mom there is!

Liz: Oh really? I will take them to the late, late, late, late, late, LATE show! AND I will let them eat brussell sprouts all the time! I will be the best Mom ever!

Laura: Oh ye-eh-eh-eh-eh-eeeeessssss!

And then those two silly little girls would dissolve into laughter at the thought of making their children stay up that late and eat brussell sprouts and feel mighty proud of themselves for each being the best (aka worst) mom in this silly conversation.

And then one day, they grew up and got married. Liz married an Air Force kind of guy and had two beautiful children named Allie and Aiden.

Allie was full of spunk and spirit. She was as smart as could be and quite adventurous.

Aiden was a Momma's boy through and through. But he loved to rough and tumble and run around like the tough little boy he was.

Laura married a drummer kind of guy and they had one wonderful child named Ian.

Ian was a Momma's boy. He loved for Mommy to rock him and read to him. He loved to dance and play with Mommy.

Ian was just as much Daddy's boy. He loved to play horsie with Daddy and have Daddy spin him really fast in circles.

And then one day, Laura found herself at Whole Foods looking for all natural, Feingold friendly gummy bears for Ian. When she asked a clerk about it, a nice lady overheard and showed her where they were. Another lady joined them as they talked. And all of the sudden, Laura found herself in this conversation:

Laura: Oh, these will be great. Just what I am looking for.

Lady 1: That's wonderful that they don't have artificial colors. Are they low in sugar?

Laura: Yes, I think so.

Lady 1: Look at these Kale chips. Don't they look great?

Laura: I bet those would taste good!

Lady 2 (smiling): Oh but they are so much better if you make them at home yourself!

Lady 1 (very interested): Oh really? I need to try that!

Lady 2: Yes, they are a great that way. And you don't need a microwave.

Lady 1: Oh wonderful!! I can't believe some people still use microwaves. I went to my son's for Thanksgiving and they even microwaved water! You know what kind of things you are ingesting if you drink that, right?

Lady 2: I know! Horrible.

And Laura couldn't help but laugh (inside her head, for she wouldn't want to offend the ladies) at how her silly little girl conversation had turned into a big grown-up conversation. But Laura wouldn't change a thing. She was still going to be the best Mommy in the world that she could be to her little boy, brussell sprouts and all!

The Way We Eat

2012-01-16T17:00:00.002-06:00

While looking for more salicylate friendly recipes, I came across LLHDesign's Blog titled "The Way We Eat". As I started reading it, I realized she was putting into words lots of thoughts I had been thinking. And she had pretty pictures. So I just had to share it with you! Head on over here for a great explanation/story: http://www.llhdesignsblog.com/2011/03/way-we-eat-changed-everything.html.

Some of My Favorite Things

2012-01-14T22:39:00.000-06:00

* Tucking Ian into bed at night with Daddy.

* Ian's favorite stall tactic - bringing Mommy's and Daddy's faces together to kiss. It's my favorite stall tactic too. :-)

* Twisty crayons. Brilliant!

* When my little boy says "Wockit. I lub baby." (Rock me. I love baby.)

* Sheer joy at playing in the rain.

* How any big body of water is currently known as "bath" and fountains are "towuh" (shower).

* The grin on Ian's face when I only sign to him and don't use my voice.

* Pinterest. I may or may not be newly addicted.

* Happy giggles as Daddy spins Ian over and over.

* Holding hubby's hand.

* Coffee. Any kind. Any time.

* Party planning!

* Singing together as a family.

And I'm a pretty lucky duck. I get to have a few of my favorite things every day!

Gearing Up

2012-01-13T16:25:00.000-06:00

My Christmas break from school is almost over. *sniff, sniff* For the past four weeks, I've only had work and family. And the last two weeks I haven't had much work. And it has been WONDERFUL. I haven't had to push a resistant little boy out the door so I could get to class or work on time. I've been able to play stuffed animal pile up twenty times a day. I've cleaned our fridge, our bedroom, the stove, the tops of the fans, and the Christmas mess in the guest bedroom. I've picked up the living room and done dishes every single day. And I've gotten to see my hubby more than I will in the next four months combined.

And that is with hubby having been really busy working on his winter guard show. This is what he does at night, late into the night. He writes awesome drill and music.

And I fold socks. :-)

Bitty little boy socks. And pile them neatly on the train table. Because I can.

Next Wednesday all of that changes. And I don't know if I'm ready. I love getting to learn so many wonderful things. I love the intellectual challenge. I love knowing that I will have even better job security than I do now (and it's pretty good now in the field that I'm in) should I ever need it. I'm super excited about Language & Gender. I deal with that topic every time I interpret! But I'm not ready for the multitasking, late nights, and stress of tight scheduling. I think I can... I think I can... One more semester (plus a thesis)... I think I can...

2 Going On 8

2012-01-12T11:18:00.002-06:00

Two of Ian's favorite movies right now are High School Musical (pronounced hascockle) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (pronounced ofaKid). Kind of a far cry from the Elmo and Word World movies he had been watching just a month ago. He happened to find both of these movies in a stack of DVDs and has been very insistent on watching both (really parts of both) multiple times a day.

Ian especially loves the musical numbers in HSM. I was sitting at the computer the other day and Ian came tearing into the kitchen, shouting "Daaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnzzzzzzz!!!!!!" He was so excited about the choreography! He tries to mimick it and it is the cutest thing in the world. He will spin on the floor, push off his train table, and turn in circles like the big kids. The other day, he grabbed his ball and was trying to match the basketball choreography they have in one of the opening numbers.

I actually prefer Ian enjoy these movies now before he really understands all the corniness and tries to mimick that! :-) It will be interesting to see what his movie likes are when he is 8!

How To Guarantee Your Child Will Not Be Sick In The Car

2012-01-11T22:52:00.005-06:00

If you have a child that is prone to car sickness, it actually really simple to make sure s/he will not experience car sickness on a given trip. Make sure you have extra clothes, Clorox wipes, hand towels, paper towels, and extra plastic bags. That's all there is to it!

On the other hand, if you would like to guarantee that said child will indeed get sick in the car, all you need to do is leave those items at home after completely cleaning out the car. After all, you're not planning on going on a long trip so there should be no rush to restock the car. Right?

Yeah, not so much. Poor Ian. We headed out to Lifetime Wellness for his third trip today. (These pictures are from last week's appointment, but they tell almost the same story.) Isn't this an adorable face??? I may be slightly biased, but only slightly.

Brrrr!!! It's cold! Hurry and get in the car, Mahnee! But let me see the picture first!

Today Ian was wearing jeans, which press his tummy a little more. And we got stuck in traffic because they decided to do construction in the middle of the day. And maybe he was too warm. Who knows! For whatever reason, we were almost to Lifetime Wellness when Ian put his hand over his mouth and started crying. He has never done this in the car before, so I wasn't sure what was going on. I was on the phone at the time and thought perhaps his mouth was hurting. He had been whimpering on and off, but he does not like slow traffic, so I had attributed it to our snail pace crawl down 820. Poor baby!

It crossed my mind that he might be about to throw up, but there was nothing I could do. We were exiting the freeway and there wasn't a place to get over. Sure enough, right as we pulled up to the light to turn, my poor baby lost his breakfast. Ian has gotten car sick more than once, and I have to say he is a pro! The poor kid just sits absolutely frozen until I can pull over and clean him up. The first time it happened, he didn't move a muscle for 10 minutes until I could pull over!! (We were stuck in downtown Dallas on our way out of town with no way off and no safe place to pull over.) I feel so bad for him, but I am so glad he doesn't make a bigger mess.

This time we were pretty lucky. We were one minute away from Wal-Mart and I was able to reach back while waiting at the red light and cover him with a plastic bag so he didn't get any more yucky on him. In the parking lot, I took off his clothes, wiped him down with my last two wipes in the diaper bag, and put my jacket on him. We went into the store and got him some more clothes and me some more wipes. Back to the car for a quick clean-up, and then on to Lifetime Wellness. We were a half an hour late, but they were still able to get us in.

Ian was happy to finally get to play with Thomas! He loves going anywhere that has a train table.

In the room, there is a bucket of toys. This family of dinosaurs lives in there and Ian loves seeing them every time we go.

The light switches are down low - perfectly placed for someone Ian's size! Mommy has instituted a two-time on/off rule. :-)

Well, all's well that ends well. Ian's car seat has been properly washed, dried, put back together, and rebuckled in the car. I have a new clue for when he is going to puke and am going to start taking a bucket in the car. I am thrilled that he is probably old enough to use one now and is giving me clues at least a couple of seconds ahead of time. Hopefully we won't have any more car sickness for a long time though!

When It's Good, It's Good

2012-01-10T20:46:00.002-06:00

With Ian, it has always been a case of when it's good, it's good. Sweet moments. Hugs. Kisses. Cuddles. All the milestones that parents find absolutely wonderful and adorable and everyone else just politely tolerates the enthusiastic retelling of how child held their head up for 5 seconds or tried to feed themself. Unfortunately, sometimes (okay...often times if I'm being honest) Ian's aggressive behaviors have been in high disproportion to the sweet times.

Until lately that is. Getting rid of salicylates, going to Lifetime Wellness, and giving Ian down time in his crib when he gets too revved up has concocted a wonderful harmony of therapies that have allowed Ian's sweet two year old personality to shine through. I don't want to jinx it by saying anything too soon, but we are seeing HUGE improvement. Ian has now been back at daycare five times with NO incidences of hitting, pushing, shoving, etc. Simply amazing! His daycare ladies have been wonderful to him all along, but they are just as impressed and excited about the change as we are!

This morning Ian had his OT appointment with Meredith. We spent most of the time going over the Feingold diet since it was new to her. At the end of our appointment, she remarked that this was the most focused and calm she had seen Ian. He hadn't hit once during the time she was here and he hadn't had to be put in time out at all! He had progressively been getting better and was hitting less, but until she said something, I hadn't realized that he has been in time out at least once (usually 2-3) times during the hour she spent with us. So definitely exciting news for us!

Another positive benefit is how well Ian has been doing on shopping trips. We still have typical two year old resistance and random wanderings away from the cart down the aisle he wants to go down, but on the whole it is better. Here he is modeling his new sunglasses from The Children's Place. (He absolutely hates the sun in his eyes in the car, so we are going to see if he will wear sunglasses.)

And here he is at Hobby Lobby walking along the paintings. He wasn't too happy when Mommy put a stop to it and fussed when I put him in the cart, but he calmed down rather quickly.

I am just so thankful for the good days! I actually didn't want to take Ian to daycare today because I was really enjoying my day with him and that was a wonderful feeling! (Normally as much as I love him, I'm ready for a break from the constant activity!)

Whole Foods Adventure

2012-01-09T20:02:00.000-06:00

Sunday night we headed to Whole Foods to pick up some additive-free and salicylate-free goodies. Our Feingold buying guide listed several brands that Whole Foods carries, so we thought it would be a good all-in-one place to go.

Ian did pretty well at the store. We had a little resistance initially, but then he behaved just like a regular two-year old! He put his carrots (which he won't eat ha!) in his bag and bounced them along.

He played "duck, duck, goose" with the milk cartons. :-)

And he enjoyed trying out the new gummies and cookies that we got. I've seen several mentions of Whole Foods' 365 cookies and I am thrilled to have a new cookie that doesn't turn my child into a monster! They are actually really, really good cookies! They taste better than regular oreos and vanilla creme cookies.

We didn't get everything we needed, but that may have been because we didn't know where to look. Knowing specific brands makes a big difference in being able to locate items. I still have more research to do. Ian loves cheese, but is allergic to dairy. He has been allowed to keep cheese in his diet, but we have noticed a constant rash under his chin and more drooling (same signs he had before we took him off dairy). So we need to find a good cheese substitute for him. I'm not thrilled with the soy substitutes. With all of Ian's allergies, there is a high chance he is allergic to that as well. Also James has done quite a bit of research on soy and has found it contains high amounts of estrogen. We don't particularly want to up Ian's hormonal intake on anything, so I need to do some more research!

The Incredible, Wonderful, Very Good Time

2012-01-08T22:05:00.006-06:00

"Friendship isn't a big thing... It's a million little things." -Author Unknown

Remember how I said that I love going to work because I meet some awesome people there? While there are too many of them to list here, you already know Libby, Josh, and Noah. We have been so blessed by their friendship! They are the kind of people that make you feel better about life just by being who they are. Smart, creative, friendly, caring, and downright hilarious at just the right moment - they have everything you could hope for in friends! We don't get to spend near enough time with them!

Another couple that we have gotten to know very well and love hanging out with haven't shown up on my blog much because we never seem to take pictures when we hang out! Justin and Katie are very good friends that I work with and we all go to church with. They are the kind of friends that "get" us and our quirks. They love Ian and Ian loves them. Katie and James can talk old movies for hours on end (although they much prefer actually watching them) and Justin and I can delve into the mysteries of linguistics while they talk movies. Katie and I can talk girl stuff and James and Justin can talk guy stuff...it works out so well. We are so so so grateful to have them in our lives!

Over Christmas break, K & J invited us to go with them to the Bed & Breakfast they stayed at during their honeymoon 8 months ago. We were so excited to have some quality couple time! Grandaddy, Grammy Jen, and Aunt Erin graciously kept Ian for us so we could get away for a little R&R.

James, Katie, and Justin - the Kindle/iPad group. I don't have either...guess I should get one!

Ha! The beautiful Wildwood Inn had an old-fashioned wheelchair and Katie & I couldn't resist getting comfy like a couple of little old ladies.

Hehehehehehe...doesn't Katie make the cutest lil old lady?!

The boys had other things to do than act like little old ladies. :-)

Another great pic of Katie in the wheelchair.

Two lil ole ladies having fun!

James and Justin were really into the checker game.

I told them to smile for a pic and they thought that was just plain cheesy! (They're signing "cheesy" just in case you don't recognize the sign.)

While in Hot Springs, we went to several of the recommended restaurants. Taco Mama was great and had a yummy Big Mama margarita/sangria mix.

Turns out we could have ordered a Little Mama! There was no way both of us working together could finish that Big Mama!

I heart this picture. :-)

We went to J&S and had a fantastic waiter!! Funny voices, good punchlines. Ask for Chris if you are out that way!

Katie & Justin - thank you so much for such an incredible, wonderful, very good time! And thanks for being such great friends. We're looking forward to our next trip together!

Saturday Night Thoughts

2012-01-07T23:03:00.003-06:00

Whoo-whee! I tell ya, when we have a hard day, we have a hard day. Poor Ian was having a rough time yesterday. Lots of clinging, kicking, fussing, whining, hitting, and biting (fortunately just once on my shoulder and I already had my coat on). Makes it hard for a Momma to get anything done!

Fortunately, he did really well at playcare while I had to work. That is really encouraging to us because when he is having "one-of-those" kind of days, he tends to hit a lot. I am pretty sure that behavior came as a result of some cookies he ate, which is actually encouraging. Get rid of the cookies (and other salicylates), get rid of the erratic behavior. At least that is the plan!

So tomorrow we are headed to Whole Foods. :-)

I love the people I work with!

I half-way think maybe sometime soon (read 6 months to a year), we could actually start thinking about Baby #2. Stupid hyperemesis.

I haven't seen my hubby all day. Love his job, not so fond of the hours sometimes.

Ian has hit the "hold you" stage where he sticks his arms up and says "hold you", meaning "hold me". LOVE it!

Ian accidentally broke my glasses today. He likes to pull them open for me and I try not to let him do this because he pulls too hard. Today, as he was reaching for my glasses I told him to give them to Mommy. Of course, that made him more determined to open them himself. Pop! Off went the side earpiece. Sigh. He got a time out in his crib for not listening. Mommy got a time out in the shower (I had to get ready for work) to not overreact. So in addition to Whole Foods, I will be going to look for new glasses tomorrow.

That wraps it up for tonight...random and boring...ha!

Beans, Beans, Beans

2012-01-06T23:40:00.001-06:00

Honestly, providing the strong sensory input (bouncing, jumping, running, blanket-piling) that Ian needs hasn't been much of a problem. Ian has naturally gravitated towards those activities and has pulled us right along. However, once he gets revved up, he has a hard time calming himself back down. So a couple of months ago, the OT recommended we play with pinto beans to help Ian learn to calm down.

I know, I know - pinto bean therapy sure sounds strange! But our little boy loves his beans. The very first time we showed up his tub of beans, he immediately sat down to take his socks off and demanded that James and I "shoes on" too (in Ian language that means socks and shoes on or off!). How he knew to do this we don't know. We never told him he had to play barefoot in the beans!

Happy little boy letting beans run through his hands.

Mesmerized!

Who knew lying in a tub of pinto beans could be so relaxing?! Here I've been wasting all this money on hot baths. :-)

Of course, ornaments and beans went well together during Christmas.

Mommy and Ian in the beans. Ian wasn't too into taking a picture!

(My poor baby - all that drool means we are still dealing with more food allergies. Hopefully getting rid of the salicylates will help with that.)

We have had a lot of fun playing in the beans. And it really is relaxing! So the next time you are feeling stressed, just remember it's all about the beans!

Why I Like Going To Work

2012-01-05T19:42:00.002-06:00

For 26 years, I thought I would be a stay-at-home Mom. When Ian was born, that wasn't financially feasible though. Someone had to keep the lobster dinner on the table and the maid in service! Ha...just kidding! I wish! Hubby was working hard, but Target pay wasn't enough to keep all the bills paid (even without any debt). So back to work I went.

And you know what? I am so glad I did go back to work! In the last two and a half years I have watched my hubby bond with our son in ways I couldn't have imagined simply because I was out of the picture 15-20 hours a week. I still end up doing almost all the housework, but Ian gets very concentrated play time with Daddy and we all love it.

I've had the last week and a half off from work and it has been WONDERFUL! It's been so hard to have Daddy go back to work and have to go back myself. But I got to thinking about it and there really are several reasons (other than James and Ian bonding) that I enjoy working.

* I get to keep my professional skills that I spent years developing up to par.

* I get to feel appreciated for being me and for doing things other than making dinner and changing diapers.

* I get to go to the bathroom by myself WITHOUT a little helper who wants to wipe and flush for me, often before the process is finished. Apparently, everyone should be ready to wipe and flush two seconds after sitting on the potty. :-)

* I get to make and keep up with wonderful friendships! Most of my close friends are people I have met at work or through people at work. This alone makes going to work worth it for me!

* I am constantly exposed to new ideas, thoughts, technology, and world events at large. In other words, I get to get out of my little everyday routine and enjoy a world bigger than Elmo and Toy Story.

* There's much less whining at my work environment than at home with a two year old still learning to use his words.

I do have to admit, that even with all of these positive reasons for going to work, I still wouldn't mind a few more hours at home some weeks - or at least a maid and a chef! But on the whole, I am so grateful to have a job I love that is flexible enough to fit into our schedules pretty well.

SPD

2012-01-04T21:50:00.006-06:00

Well, I just kind of jumped into this month of blogs and didn't start from the beginning. I knew if I did that, I wouldn't get started at all! (Hence the lack of blogs last semester!) So I thought I probably should back up a bit so these latest blogs on treatment and diet make sense. :-)

Early last semester when we started working with ECI, Ian was given a series of evaluations. He failed the nutritional screening due to not eating several different foods and avoiding whole food groups. He also tested about a year behind in speech (which I had previously posted about) and qualified for further evaluation with an occupational therapist (OT). He did, however, pass the MCHAT, a test that evaluates for autism, so there are no worries there.

When we started working with the OT, she was able to identify a few different sensory issues that Ian was dealing with. The official terminology for the way Ian's brain is wired is Sensory Processing Disorder. That basically means his brain doesn't always process sensory information in an organized manner. Ian falls into the category of sensory seeking - he constantly craves extra sensory input and will engage in vigorous (and sometimes reckless) activity to get it. After spending some time with Ian, most people will remark that he is the busiest boy they have ever seen, or that he is ALL boy. It is often exhausting trying to keep up with him and his need for constant activity.

Fortunately, if noticed and treated early (ages 3-5), SPD can be easily treated and the long-term effects are minimal for children like Ian. (Other types of SPD can be more severe and have different long-term impact.) From Day 1, we have prayed that we would not miss overlook anything Ian needed or not know how to help/teach/train him for lack of information. I really believe that prayer has been answered already! We are ahead of the curve on finding out about SPD and getting started on treatment options. We've already seen a huge difference in his behavior and have found some really good strategies for dealing with the times he gets sensory overload.

One aspect of being a sensory seeker means Ian LOVES having blankets and stuffed animals piled on him. What kid doesn't, right? But Ian especially loves it and needs that stimulation more than the average kiddo. I try and remind myself of that when I have piled umpteen million stuffed animals on him for the 8th time in one day!

Ian is a trooper for sure! We love our little boy and are thankful for all we have learned about how he is wired so we best know how to help him.

Dr. Jim Bob

2012-01-04T16:53:00.002-06:00

At the recommendation of our OT and a good friend, Ian and I went to visit Dr. Jim Bob at Lifetime Family Wellness Center today. Dr. Jim Bob and his staff do a lot of chiropractic and nutritional work with kiddos (as well as adults), and Ian was happy to find their office fully stocked with toys and books.

We met with Dr. Jim Bob, and his associate, Andrew. After a short consultation and a bit of observation, Dr. Jim Bob said that he was going to be working on balancing the activity in Ian's brain. Right now, Ian is left brain dominant in terms of activity level. As they work to increase the neurological firing in Ian's right brain, we should see an increase in awareness of his physical activity and how his actions affect others (i.e. hitting hurts). They are also going to focus on getting Ian's cerebellum back in line - yay for better balance! Cerebellum alignment will also help the sensory input Ian receives and gives to be able to flow more easily and without obstruction.

I wish I had pictures! When Dr. Jim Bob started rubbing on a certain spot on the right side of Ian's head, Ian totally relaxed. He looked like he was enjoying some serious pampering! In fact, when Dr. Jim Bob stopped, Ian held very still and waited for him to start up again. Andrew used a cold laser on the back of Ian's neck - Ian held very still for this treatment as well. Dr. Jim Bob also adjusted Ian's spine in a couple of places.

Ian really seemed to enjoy his time there. We left with a list of supplements for Ian to take and exercises for him to do. It is going to mean Momma staying on her toes to not forget them! But Ian's diet is so limited in what he will actually eat right now that we need to make sure he gets all the nutrients he needs for healthy development. His supplement list right now includes:

Fish oil - 1 tsp/every other day (good brain oil!)

Flaxseed oil - .5 tbsp/alternates with fish oil every other day (helps coat and repair digestive system)

Aloe vera juice - 2-4 oz/day (apparently this helps coat and heal digestive system too)

Co-enzyme Q10 - 100mg/day

Probiotics - 1tbsp/day

Neurological-development activities to do at home include lots of jumping, bouncing, spinning, and vibrating. Dr. Jim Bob suggested spinning Ian in a chair (something our OT has suggested as well), but to spin him a few more times to the left than to the right. Since the brain paths cross function, spinning to the left will continue to stimulate the right side of the brain. He also suggested buying a massager to use on each side of Ian's spine and on his feet to help him calm down.

We are looking forward to seeing how these treatments, along with the Feingold diet, work for our little boy!

Bye-Bye Christmas

2012-01-04T10:13:00.002-06:00

Last night, Ian helped me take down the Christmas tree.

Bye-bye Christmas. We are going to miss you! No more Christmas lights. No more "koooo" (cool) as we drive at night and see houses all lit up. No more passing out Christmas presents (Ian's favorite part!). No more goodies. No more hanging out with family and friends just enjoying the day (at least not until the semester is over ha). Sigh. It was a good Christmas and we have so many wonderful memories!

AND...Ian still has plenty of wonderful goodies to play with. After he finished helping with the lights last night, he grabbed his Sock Monkey and they played trains together. :-)

Beyond Inexcusable

2012-01-02T22:46:00.004-06:00

I probably should start off with a warning - I'm on a rant tonight! (Just in case you hadn't figured it out from the title, you can consider yourself warned! I promise to try and keep this G-rated though. :-) )

To start with a little background on this rant - as we have been dealing with Ian's sensory issues and seeing improvement from a few dietary changes and occupational therapy, it has made more and more sense to look into further dietary changes. Ian is obviously still reacting to certain foods, and I have had a hunky-dinky-jamboree of a time trying to figure out what he is reacting to. I was talking with Mindy, a good friend of mine, recently and she mentioned the Feingold diet.

To be honest, when she mentioned it, I was thinking it may be a bit beyond what we needed to explore with Ian. However, she and her kiddos have a very similar allergy profile to Ian (all the way down to apples!), and she is a pretty smart cookie. So I started researching it. The Feingold diet takes out all artificial flavors, preservatives, and colors from your diet in both Stage 1 and Stage 2 (there are only two stages). No problem there. In fact, I have been getting pretty irate reading about all the junk food companies are allowed to put in our food that other countries (like England) have made illegal.

Stage 1 also calls for the removal of all foods containing salicylates in addition to the artificial stuff I had to look up salicylate on Wikipedia. They are natural pesticides that plants produce to protect themselves from insects. Still didn't help. (I have since read the use of chemical pesticides may affect salicylate production in these foods.) Then I found this chart. And I couldn't believe what I was seeing! Every. single. food. that Ian is allergic to is on that chart. Plus all the foods I had been wondering if he was reacting to. And then there are a ton more....ayiyi!

Instantaneous relief swept over me as I read this chart. Dealing with a child with food sensitivities is harder than I could have ever imagined. We rarely know if Ian is refusing a food because he isn't hungry, is being picky, or somehow knows it is going to negatively affect him. Any time he puts his finger in his mouth, I wonder if his mouth hurts (it often does, but due to lack of language and high pain tolerance, it has taken me a long time to figure out accompanying signs). It's hard putting my baby down for bed knowing he has reacted to something and wondering if it will affect his breathing. Even worse is the helpless feeling I get watching a rash develop across his body and not knowing what caused it or what I can do to prevent it.

Thankfully, we have never had a breathing issue due to an allergic reaction. Ian has a high pain/discomfort tolerance and it is actually his behavior that suffers more than his personal comfort from all the reactions. And thankfully, I now know what the common ingredient to his reactions are. It makes me glad that we have never forced him to eat anything he didn't want to and let him have popsicles whenever he requested them.

Needless to say, we will be buying the Feingold materials and starting the program ASAP. My poor baby currently has a very red patch on his chin, an excema spot flaring up on his ankle, and a light red scaly rash over his back and chest. I am looking forward to him feeling better and I know he will be happy to feel better too.

Now for the rant... What in the world makes it okay for these companies to poison our food?!?!?! Ian may be at the high end of chemical sensitivity, but I know he isn't the only child that reacts. People complain about the number of kids diagnosed with ADHD and autism being on the rise, the vaccination companies have gone through intense scrutiny, but the food companies haven't even been touched. If these food companies just served crap all around, it might be one thing. But because England passed laws, these companies make food with food based dyes instead of chemical based dyes for England. Their chemically altered food is messing with my baby and I ain't a happy camper!!! I said on Facebook tonight that if I had the time, energy, and money, legislature would rue the day they allowed this crap to be put in our food and I meant it.

Think of how many kids really might be reacting to this stuff!! Even if only one out of every four kids that entered the juvenile delinquency system was there because of behavioral issues due to food sensitivities, that would drastically reduce the amount of money taxpayers are spending on courts and detention facilities. There are amazing articles out there that talk about the difference changing school lunches has made in the overall well-being of the students. Crime rate has gone down, grades have gone up. It's maddening when you look at the facts and see what the horrible additives are doing to our kiddos.

End of rant. Sigh. It really makes me more sad than anything. We've gone through so much this past year with Ian and I know he has gone through a lot too. It makes me really sad to think about how much of this might have been avoided if I had known about these additives and salicylates earlier on. :-(

Of course, we haven't even started the Feingold program yet, but I think we have more than enough evidence to know it is going to work well for him. I'll keep you updated!

To Picture or Not to Picture

2012-01-02T08:20:00.002-06:00

You may have noticed the lack of blogs this last year. We have been super busy AND hubby and I are sharing a computer because his died. Put the two together, and my poor blog is often at the bottom of the to-do list. A big part of that is the time it takes to sort, edit, and add pictures. I love pictures on blogs! Absolutely adore them in fact.

It really hadn't occurred to me to NOT put pictures on my blog until my sister-in-law, Lissie, started her blog on her journey with IVF. She often posted from work and wasn't able to add pictures. And you know what? I didn't miss them. I loved them when they were there, but I loved even more just knowing what was going on in their world. So I have decided to be a copy-cat and follow the format of her blog - just update when I can whether or not I have pictures ready to go.

With that being said, here's the randomness floating around in my head today:

* I am so glad I went to bed at 10:30 right after we put Ian down last night. He woke up at 7:30 this morning and that would have been rough if I hadn't gotten a good night's sleep. As it is, my Keurig is still helping me wake up this morning. :-)

* James and I had a wonderful vacation to Hot Springs last week while Ian stayed with Grandaddy, Grammy Jen, and Aunt Erin. We desperately needed the break and Ian had a blast! It was hard coming back and not having a three course meal to wake up to and someone to make my bed!

* My child is most likely allergic to salicylates. Much more on that to come, I promise. So much relief at finding that out, but lots of trepidation at what that is going to mean for meal planning.

* Bills. I need to pay bills. *Sigh* I have a few I need to call about and make sure are correct. Why is it always so much work?

* I will never get tired of hearing "chuggy choo choooo" coming from my happy little boy playing at his new train table. :-)

Happy Monday! Hope it is a good one!

What A Year!

2012-01-02T08:19:00.000-06:00

I have heard this over and over - 2011 was a doozy of a year! We were no exception to that. It has been one of our hardest years yet. As we have looked over this last year though, James and I both feel we have so much to be thankful for!

* James got his dream job that he has been working towards for three years and is having a blast, even with the long hours.

* We live in a great, energy-efficient house in a wonderful neighborhood. We love, love, love our neighborhood! In the metroplex, it's hard to find neighborhoods that feel like a community, so we are extra-thankful to live in such a wonderful place.

* Our second niece was born!! We are loving having Maci in the family. :-)

* My older brother and sister-in-law (Mike & Lissie) are expecting a baby in April. They've had a long hard journey to get to this point and we are so thrilled for them!

* Mike and Lissie's house didn't burn down in the horrible wildfires that swept across New Mexico this past summer. I'll never forget the night that we got a text saying the fire was cresting the mountains by their town. It was scary for us and we didn't even live there! We prayed harder that night than we had in a long time! I know everyone was relieved to hear that the fire didn't touch their town (or the nuclear lab where Mike works!).

* The terrible two's have been hard, hard, hard around here - Ian has had a few issues that have made them a bit more complicated. BUT we are in the downhill slope of all of that and are thrilled with how well Ian is doing.

* I have two more classes and a thesis left in my master's program and then I will be done! Even though going to school, working, and having a two year old is the hardest thing I have ever done, I am so glad I have had the opportunity to go back to school.

* We have new (to-us) bedroom furniture that I just love. No more mismatched window curtains! I will post pictures sometime soon. :-)

* While my Grandpa's passing was really sad, I did get to see him a couple of months before he passed away. Since I don't make it out to Colorado all that often, I was really thankful for the opportunity to get to see him before he went.

* When the transmission went out in my car, we had to get another car right away. Although our brand new 2012 car is missing a few features I wanted (automatic lights for one!), I love having a reliable car with such good gas mileage!

* We have had some wonderful times with family and friends that we will never forget! We have been so blessed in so many ways in that regard.

Christian Family Christmas

2011-12-24T23:05:00.000-06:00

Event: Christmas #2
Date: December 23, 2011
Place: Grandaddy & Grammy Jen's house
Mission: Draw the last number to steal the best white elephant gift!

After a busy week of dealing with illness, cleaning, and working (just Mommy fortunately!), we were more than ready for Christmas #2. We stayed up late (again!) Thursday night getting everything ready and then packed the car and headed out Friday morning.

Ian was insistent on wearing his boots for the whole 3.5 hour drive! Of course, he wanted to "see" when I took a picture. :-)

Grammy Jen had been a busy elf! The fireplace looked beautiful!

Pretty Christmas tree with all the presents!

More presents.

Laura, Rebecca, and Aunt Erin chilling.

Little cousins hanging out.

Ian had a blast with Uncle Tray and his hat.

Pretty soon after we arrived, Ian and Ace wanted to head outside. Ace filled the back of the trike with a bunch of leaves and took them for a ride.

Ace and Uncle James walking up the big hill.

Such a pretty day!

Ace's Daddy ran up behind James and Ace and hid. His orange sweatshirt blended perfectly into the background.

Back inside, we settled down with phone games.

In the meantime, Ian flirted with Grant (Great-Aunt) Julie to score some cheese!

Aww...love how sweet Grant Julie and Ian look and how funny Uncle Tray looks!

Max, Grandaddy, Uncle Joe, Uncle Tray, Grant Julie, and Ian enjoying all the yummy food.

Sweet kisses!

Maci made sure she got her share of yummy food too!

Laura, Rebecca, and Hannah with Maci. Love the squinty face!

Ian and Ace playing phone games. :-)

Then Aunt Kt brought out Ace's cool car track and the phones were forgotten for a while.

White Elephant presents.

Grammy Jen, Grandaddy, and Uncle Joe looking at calendars of the kiddos. Love Grammy Jen's expression!

Sugars and smiles for Grammy Jen!

Aunt Liz playing guitar!

Happy giggles for Aunt Erin.

My favorite present ever!

Playing with bows.

Almost got a picture with bows on both boys' heads at the same time...almost!

Cousins wrestling.

Hehe...love this father-daughter pic!

Ian was thoroughly enthralled with Daddy's cousins. :-)

Our tired little boy got a story read to him and was thrilled.

Back to the bows!

Even though I didn't get pictures of everyone, we definitely enjoyed getting to visit and catch up with so many wonderful people at the Christian family Christmas!

Sock Monkey Christmas

2011-12-17T23:59:00.009-06:00

Event: Christmas #1
Date: December 17, 2011
Place: Gramma K's house
Mission: Party like a sock monkey!

In what will probably become a new Christmas tradition, we had Christmas #1 at Gramma K's house the weekend before Christmas. We stayed up late the night before wrapping gifts and headed out the next morning for a day full of fun!

Hubby and I were both very glad when Ian fell asleep on the way there. A napped child is a happy child.

As soon as we arrived, Ian discovered Gramma K had gotten sock moneys for the kiddos. Ian's monkey was sitting in the highchair where he normally sits.

Ian was thrilled. He immediately put his drink on the highchair, signed HELP, and tried to pull his monkey out!

Ace had already discovered that his sock monkey was on the potty!!!

Monkeys ready to eat!

Aunt Kt and Uncle Tray talking with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa.

After playing with sock monkeys for a while, it was time to get on with more Christmas fun. Stockings had been hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that excited family members would soon peek in there!

In the meantime, Daddy sampled Gramma K's great cooking!

Pile o' presents!

Ian LOVED being outside while all the preparations were being made. After a while, he was the only one out there and came to the door to check on us.

This next picture melts my heart!! Ian decided he wanted in and Cousin Ace came to help him get by the heavy screen door.

Ian pushing Ace. Such good buddies!

Sharing!

Umm...yummy!

Hehe...staring at each other through the glass.

Two monkeys!

Showing off their monkeys. Ian's hand is waving because he wants to "see"...he has decided he has to see every picture we take now.

Big brother lovin' on lil sister. So sweet!!

Love Maci's expression!

A pretty little girl with her pretty Momma!

Getting some love from her Daddy too!

Ace is somewhere in this picture...can you find him?

Ian helping Maci open her present. Tray is obviously more interested in finding his own presents. ;-)

Ian's turn to open a present!

Daddy got a cool drumset shirt that really plays!

Great-Grandma, Gramma K, and Steve looking at calendars of the grandkiddos.

Getting some Gramma K loving!

Love this precious smile!

Enthralled by his new Word World DVD!

Steve playing cars with the boys.

Apparently while I was gone taking Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa back, Gramma K took pictures with all three grandkids. Looking through them, this was the best. Of course, it would be my child's finger up his nose!!

Then I saw this next picture and just about died laughing. Must be a boy thing!

Sweet Daddy-son moment.

Cousins playing with Gramma K's hula hoop!

When we got home after all that fun, Ian wanted to feed his sock monkey his popcorn!

A little later, I looked over and Ian had put his sock monkey on his little potty! I guess even sock monkeys need to take care of business sometimes. :-)

We had such a wonderful first Christmas!! Thank you Gramma K, Steve, Great-Grandma, and Great-Grandpa, Aunt Kt, and Uncle Tray for everything!

1-2-3, Spell With Me!

2011-12-06T23:36:00.003-06:00

Ian loves to spell and count. He knows almost all his letters (F and Q still give him trouble sometimes) and can count up to 20 (usually he forgets a number or two in between, but it is never the same number).

The other day, we were in his bedroom after his bath and he started naming his letters on the wall and counting them. I-A-N! 1-2-3. Of course, by the time we got the video camera, he wasn't naming and counting them in the same order. But we still got some fun video of it!

Ian still loves to say the letters of his name. He will often go over them...I-A-N...and then jump into my arms. I have to be paying attention! We'll swirl around (although we didn't in this video) and then start all over again.

I had been looking for some magnetic letters and numbers for our fridge, but didn't want to pay too much. The other day, I came across sets of both at Wal-Mart for $1 each. Can't pass up a deal like that! Ian had a blast putting his numbers and letters on the fridge. He's a little hard to hear (Elmo is in the background). Granted, he's a little hard to hear even if you are right there sometimes, so we really can't blame Elmo!

When Ian had all of his letters and numbers up, he started counting them. I love watching when he wants to count fast. One, two, fee, foh, fiii, sik, sebenninetentwelveteen!

Ian, we are very proud of you!! You are doing a great job learning your letters and numbers and will be reading in no time!

Pah-dee

2011-11-13T13:35:00.005-06:00

This face says it all!

Ian loves to go "pad-dee"! Well, at least he loves to sit on the potty. It all started last week one time when he followed me into the bathroom and decided he was going to go potty too. Of course, I was going to encourage such behavior! Now he likes to sit on the potty anytime we do and even a few times on his own after he has gone potty in his diaper. There are so many fun things to do on the potty...

...play with toilet paper!

...eat a snack! (Gross...I know...but hey - it keeps him on there!)

...check out the contents of the trash can (he wants me to give him empty shampoo bottles in this picture). He also thinks he has to take off ALL his clothes to go potty. Needless to say, he's getting better at getting undressed and dressed again on his own.

...and, of course, the all time favorite - read a magazine on the potty!

Ian loves to talk about going "pah-dee" and going pee-pee and poo-poo. We have Cousin Ace to thank for that! (Unfortunately, he didn't repeat the word potty in this video...I'll have to get that later!)

Ian, we are so proud of you! You are growing up! We are looking forward to the look on your face the first time you actually do go potty in the potty. :-)

Happy Day!

2011-11-09T18:23:00.005-06:00

I have some exciting news! Aren't you intrigued? I'll give you a hint:

Now I'll bet you're really wondering!!! Do you remember this awesome couple (who happen to be my older bro and his wife)?

They have gone through so much trying to have a baby and found out about 15 weeks ago that they were pregnant. That was definitely one of the happiest days we have ever had! I hung up the phone after the "We're pregnant!" call and bawled like a baby. After rounds of fertility meds and the initial IVF process, they have been through more in trying to get little Fin here than most women experience in having a whole quiver of kiddos. Lissie has been amazingly open and willing to educate anyone who asks on the IVF process - she has a great blog at lissiesluck.blogspot.com and I highly recommend checking it out! She and Mike are going to be awesome parents and we are thrilled to have a new little cousin for Ian!

Today was another exciting day. Lissie is 17 weeks and 6 days and had her gender reveal sonogram today and...

Fin William is due in April and we absolutely love his name and birth month (I may be a bit biased ha!). Mike and Lissie, we couldn't be more happy for you! We love you tons and can't wait to meet Baby Fin!

Elmo's Trick-or-Treat Adventure!

2011-11-01T00:12:00.016-05:00

Our poor little munchkin had an allergic reaction to something today and came home from playcare with puffy eyes, a splotchy face, and dry lips. After some Benadryl and a loooong nap, he was still rather cranky and clingy. Since James had to stay late tonight, I ended up skipping class to stay home with Ian. It worked out just fine though because I was able to join them for a short session of trick-or-treating!

A little pre-trick-or-treating treat. Poor guy discovered our bowl of candy and really wanted more chocolate, not a lollipop!

Getting ready! Ian was Elmo this year (or as he says it - "Eh-bo").

And we're off!

Walking with Mommy. Ian had very little interest in trick-or-treating at first. He made a beeline straight for the park!

Running, running, running with Cookie Monster following. :-)

Beverage break!

Haha - it cracks me up that Ian wanted to just play at the park for thirty minutes.

Swinging with Mommy. Our little munchkin has learned all on his own how to twist his legs to make himself spin a bit on the swing.

Loves for Mommy. I heart his expression!

After trick-or-treating at a few houses, Ian was starting to get the hang of it and was more than ready for a chocolate break.

We stopped by to see his little friend, Isaac, and Isaac's parents. They are wonderful neighbors but it had been a looooooooooong time since we have seen them! As soon as we got to their house, Ian ran as fast as he could right through the open front door. They are always super sweet and welcomed us in. Ian and Isaac had fun playing together for a little while.

Back home, Ian sat down for another photo-opp...er chocolate break. The bucket spilled, but that didn't deter him! Made the selection process easier. :-)

Sweet little Eh-bo.

Cookie Monster and Elmo hanging out - they are best buddies!

It was so nice to get out of the house for a bit tonight! Ian had a blast and was in such a good mood when we got home. We love our little Elmo!

As of Today

2011-10-24T23:16:00.003-05:00

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a little behind on blogging. :-/ Life has been nothing but a whirlwind of craziness around here. Usually when I get this far behind, I back-date posts. I will probably still do that, but for now, I thought I'd just write a post about what is currently happening in our lives.

As of today:

James
*'s drumline has earned Superiors and Division 1 ratings at all their full band competitions!

*Only has three weeks left in marching season and we will get (most) of our Friday nights and Saturday days back.

*Is still taking two online classes and making heroic effort to get the work done in addition to everything else he has going on.

Laura
*is going to DC this weekend for a linguistics conference. Super excited about the opportunity, but rather sad to be leaving my boys. One of my professors knows one of the sociolinguists from Galluadet University who will be there, so I am looking forward to all the networking!

*I have passed my first Phonology test (super hard subject for me!) - thanks for all the prayers and love. I think I might actually survive this class.

*I have also narrowed down the topic for my thesis and am doing preliminary research to see if it will work out. I have two classes left next semester and the thesis and then I am DONE!

*P.S. - James and I have both sworn we will never try to take classes during marching season again!

Ian
*Can accurately identify and say about 15 letters the first time he sees them without any prompting. J, U, I, N, T, C, Y, O, B, D, E, Z, T, & W are on the list right now. I find this kind of funny since he doesn't have 15 words that he says clearly enough for perfect strangers to understand.

*Knows all his body parts, including things like "elbow" and "bottom". This is huge because three months ago, he didn't know any of them! It is amazing what taking him off of dairy has done for his speech.

*Also has apple, coconut, and peanuts on the list of allergies. So far we are coping well, although I still miss ingredient lists sometimes and give him something he is allergic to. Sigh. Up until this past Friday, we had two allergy free weeks though and that was a major milestone for us!

*Is still having issues with pushing other children, trying to get them to play with him. We are working with an occupational therapist to try and deal with some of these sensory issues. More on that in another post. :-)

*Is incredibly sweet and loving and truly enjoying this exploratory stage of two year old life!

This is one of my favorite pictures of him from this month - he was out playing in the rain with his umbrella.

Trash Day!

2011-09-12T23:29:00.000-05:00

Ahh...good ole Monday mornings. Means it is time to go chasing the recycle and trash trucks again!

We hit jackpot today and found two of them together.

We heart trash day around here for sure!

Strong-Willed Gymnast

2011-09-10T18:24:00.004-05:00

Due to a bunch of scheduling issues with my work schedule and a super duper hard day on Ian's part, we decided to wait a semester on Mother's Day Out. In the meantime, we knew we wanted Ian to be around other kiddos in a more structured environment, so we decided to try gymnastics class. I shopped around online and found a great place five minutes away that had a Tiny Tots class on Saturday mornings. They even had a foam pit (big pit with foam blocks) like the gymnastics place I went to as a kid!

I loaded up Ian this morning and we headed over. I was so excited about it - I was pretty sure he would love the trampolines, foam pit, balance beams, and tumbling mats. And he did. He loved them so much, he didn't want to listen to anything the coach had to say. Initially he was the only one there, so Coach Maci started him off on the trampolines. She had her work cut out for her trying to keep Ian on just one trampoline! A few other kiddos showed up and they jumped for a bit more before heading over to the mats to do a song.

Ian kept running away during song time and throwing fits when I brought him back to the circle, so we went to the bathroom for a little attitude adjustment. When we came out, everyone had moved to the foam pit. Ian loved swinging on the swing into the foam blocks!

Then it was back over to the mats to do centers. There were different skills to practice at each place. This went halfway well.

Ian especially loved this little foam pit and didn't always wait his turn to get in it!

I have to admit, I got really discouraged with how Ian was behaving. He and I both ended up in tears at one point. Fortunately, both the coach and one of the other moms (she has two little boys) were super encouraging and totally non-judgmental. I had really hoped Ian would love gymnastics so much that he would just be happy to do what the other kids were doing. Ha!

I was still in tears when I got home and my sweet husband asked if I wanted to talk about it.

Me: I'm tired of my child being the worst-behaved at every play date, class, and activity we do!!!

Him: Silence.

Me: He doesn't listen. I didn't think we were going to have to fight this hard to get him to listen.

Him: Well, he's two. And two year olds have to learn to listen. (Yeah, but still!)

I sat down at the computer, and James, not really knowing what else to say started working on the dishes!! I thought that was sweet, but I was so upset I went up to him and said, "You know, it's okay to say I'm a great Mom and our child isn't that bad" (and yadada ha!).

Him: Eye roll. Sigh.

And then he gave me a big hug and proceeded to say some wonderful things (and he finished the dishes!).

He found me later curled up in bed (still) sobbing (thank you monthly hormones!) and proceeded to tell me some more wonderful things about how challenging it is to raise little boys (he was a handful himself apparently) and what a great job I was doing. Sigh. I love my little boy, but learning how to parent him is definitely challenging my pride and dignity! I'm thankful that James is such an awesome husband and father and is Ian's Daddy. I am sure we will make it all right just because James is here to keep us grounded!

After nap time, I self-soothed by ordering some great looking books on raising strong-willed children. I am really looking forward to learning better ways to interact with Ian. He is an amazing kiddo and I know great things will come out of his strong-willedness (as long as we all survive!).

No, Mama

2011-09-08T15:42:00.003-05:00

Speech therapy with ECI is going rather slowly due a changeover on therapists on their part, so we have been doing quite a few speech activities at home. It really does seem to be paying off. Ian is starting to repeat more words and signs, and while most of them are not very clear yet, he is definitely making the effort!

Since his words are not all that clear, you can imagine my surprise on Wednesday when he calmly looked at me when I offered him another bite of jello and said, "No, Mama". What????? I'm used to "uh-uh-uh" or a shake of the head or my hand being pushed away. But, "No, Mama"???? Whoa! He had in just the last day or two started saying "Mama" and "Mommy". Melted my heart of course, but I wasn't sure he actually knew what he was saying. Apparently, he did! Granted his "no" sounded like "nuh" that day, but it was still pretty clear what he meant!Since then, he has been much more vocal with his no's. I know I will get tired of them quickly, but right now I am loving hearing his sweet little voice say "no" instead of "uh-uh-uh".

We have been working on the words in Ian's picture books for about a month now and he loves repeating them! So this past week, I decided to step it up a bit and bought a lot of produce to match one of the pages of Ian's book. I thought we could match the pictures with the goodies. (Thanks Gramma K for the idea!) Ian went with me to the store and was really excited to see all the produce out on the tray to play with.

He actually did fairly well his first time (although you will notice there is a lemon on the broccoli!).

He was thrilled to put ALL of the carrot sticks on the book!

Later that evening, we showed Daddy our new game. By that point, Ian had caught on really well!

Here's a video of Ian matching everything up.

Signing "banana" with Mommy.

We were really impressed! Once Ian put all his fruits and veggies on the page, he ran and got his sippy cup and started filling up the adjoining page. So we handed him bowls and more cups so he could fill in all the squares. Yay for home speech therapy!

First Friday Game!

2011-09-02T23:38:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, Gramma K (James' Mom), came over for Spartan Regiment's first Friday night game. (It was actually their second game - the first one was on a Thursday and we missed that one.)

Gramma K always has something fun for the grandkids and Ian loves it.

This time she brought a phone for him! It counts and sings and Ian enjoys using it like a real phone.

It was soooo nice to have Gramma K at our first game. We sat Ian in the middle of us during half time and Gramma K fed him M&M's to keep him still while the band was performing.

While we were waiting for them to line up, we saw Daddy not too far away. Ian went running down the ramp to meet him. The picture is blurry, but the memory is sweet. :-)

Loving seeing his Daddy!

There's no telling how many hundreds or thousands of hours Gramma K spent taking James to band practices, watching him march at games and competitions, and doing other odds and ends to invest in his music career. James wouldn't be doing what he is today if it wasn't for her and we are very thankful for all her time and commitment!

Pit crew getting ready to bring the equipment to the field.

Clapping to one of the songs.

Spartan Regiment! Their band director is awesome and has enough sense to let the kiddos wear shorts in 100+ degree weather. I wish my high school band director would have realized how smart that is!

The band is doing really well and we love watching them.

Color guard.

Empty bleachers waiting for the students to come back.

Battery.

Whoa!!! Ian loved climbing the stairs while we waited for the third quarter to start!

The drumline played at the beginning of the 3rd quarter.

Then it was a couple more rounds on the stairs and off to Daddy's school to see him briefly (he was unloading equipment there) before we headed home.

Cutie pie. Almost ready for high school!

Ian loves the big open halls at Daddy's new school!

We had such a great time. We are looking forward to many more games and half times this season!

First Day of School!

2011-08-30T18:14:00.001-05:00

First day of school! First day of school! (Said in a very Nemo-ish voice, of course!) This is an exciting year for us. We are soooooo thankful that Daddy has such an amazing job! The Spartan Regiment works hard, so by the time school officially started this year, the kiddos had already been practicing for three weeks. I still couldn't resist snapping an official first day of school picture of Daddy though!

The day after James started his regular school schedule, Ian and I went to "Meet the Teacher" at the new Mother's Day Out program we wanted to try for him.

Ian had a great time at "Meet the Teacher" and a few days later, he had his own first day of school!

What is this backpack thingy, Mom? Are you sure the cool kids have Batman?

For some reason, our little tyke was kind of fussy on the way to school. He loves playing with his laptop from Grandaddy and Grammy Jen anytime we are in the car, but he just wasn't thrilled to be on the way to school.

However, when we got there, he ran right over to play with the other kiddos. I couldn't even get a picture of him with his teachers! I knew he wouldn't go down for a nap at noon, so I picked him up a bit early.

He was ready to go, so we grabbed his backpack, lunch box, and how-he-did slip and headed out. It wasn't the smoothest first day of school for him, but I'm sure a lot of that has to do with it being a new place. He has wonderful teachers and we are glad we found this program!

Splash Pad

2011-08-27T18:24:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week, Libby invited Ian and I to come play at a local splash pad with Noah. Ian and I were out doing errands, but headed out for some fun anyways. Libby was nice enough to share one of Noah's swim diapers with us, and the boys ran around having a blast splashing (surprise, huh? ;-) )

In fact, we had so much fun that Ian and I went back the next day. Unfortunately, Libby and Noah weren't able to make it so I didn't get any pictures of the boys together. It is a great little place to cool off though!

Not too sure about that water in my face, Mom!

This part is really fun though...you should try it!

Haha...I love his expression here!

Ahh...feels so good! Did you know it is a 110 today, Mom?

Loving the splashes!

Our little explorer - if there is something to be climbed, especially if it is a narrow pathway, it will be climbed and conquered!

Mmm...so refreshing!

Libby, thank you for introducing us to the splash pad! We had a blast! We definitely need another play date soon!

32

2011-08-24T17:33:00.001-05:00

I've actually been too scared to count this number before starting this series! Every single day, usually two or three times a day, we pile ALL of Ian's stuffed animals and blankets in his crib and then take them all out again. I haven't really wanted to know how many animals and blankets we were moving about everyday, but finally decided it will be a good number to ~~blackmail~~ remember with Ian later.

We start with 3 quilts that are all very special to us (these quilts are always up on his crib)...

Add 2 Pillow Pet doggies...

1 plush Toy Story blanket that Ian sleeps on every night...

5 puppy dogs, including Skip (middle back) who Ian sleeps with every night...

1 well-endowed gorilla...

1 bunny rabbit...

3 monkeys (my Mom made the one on the right for me when I was little)...

1 squeaky turtle...

1 giraffe...

1 pirate Larry...

3 bears...

1 manatee (Barbara Manatee is one of Ian's favorite VT songs, btw!)...

4 soft blue blankets...

...a better picture of Ian's Toy Story plush...

1 soft lamb...

1 baby doll (don't judge...I bought it for him so he could learn the word "baby")...

1 cute striped elephant...

1 stuffed Moses...

1 silly Cookie Monster...

4 cuddly little blankets...

1 very soft vehicle blanket...

And voila! The child gets thoroughly covered by stuffed animals and blankets!

Of course, he isn't covered very long before he tries to dig himself out.

Getting out from under all the stuffies is one of his favorite parts!

Then we have to pile all 32 animals and blankets at one end of the crib...

So that Ian can leap over them. (He didn't actually land on his head! The angle of the picture sure makes it look that way though!)

Haha...so much fun!!! Let's do it again, Mom! (And again and again and again...)

Lol...sometimes it is rather hard to find the kiddo.

But he's always under there somewhere!

One day, after we had moved all 32 stuffies at least 10 times, I got tired and decided to show Ian how to drop the stuffies out of his crib onto me. That way I got to rest for five minutes while he painstakingly picked up each stuffie and dropped it. He loves it and I get a break! Win-win!

And, of course, our stuffie piling is not limited to the crib!

What would I do without this constant entertainment?? Ian's stuffies and I have gotten very well acquainted through this particular stage, but they assure me they are loving the attention. They've seen Toy Story 3 and aren't looking forward to Ian growing up too soon! ;-)

27 1/2 Months

2011-08-23T20:17:00.003-05:00

Wow! Has time flown! This has been one of the busiest, craziest, goodest months we have had in a long time. As usual, I am behind on Ian's monthly updates. So instead of trying to get my mushy brain to remember exactly where 27 months stopped and the 28th began, I figured we could do a 27 1/2 month update this time. :-)

I have already blogged about a lot of the changes happening this month through ECI. To sum it all up:

* Ian is now off of dairy products and scheduled to have allergy testing soon. Hopefully we can identyify some potential offenders that may be keeping him from being willing to eat a variety of foods.

* An OT (occupational therapist) will be coming out in the next couple of months to work with Ian on some of the food textures he is so resistant to eating. It may be allergies, it may be textural - either way, we'll get it figured out and I am happy about that!

* We got Ian a few 100 and 300 word picture books. He LOVES them! He will sit and repeat words out of those books (and only those books). I have several pages memorized and we practice them in the car, in line at the store, in the bath, etc. His speech is definitely getting better with those words and he is using a few signs to initiate what he wants.

* Ian is pretty consistently using the signs "movie" and "eat" to request a movie or a drink (for which he sign "eat"). He will copy sign "table", "blanket", and "cookie", although he doesn't initiate those signs for those objects. However, he did sign and say "dog" (pronounced "daw") a couple of weeks ago when he heard a dog bark on our walk!

* I haven't updated his sizes the last few months because he is still pretty much wearing the same size clothing and diapers - 18 months in shorts, 2t in shirts, 5 in diapers, 7 in shoes.

* We now have an absolutely precious bedtime routine down that melts my heart every time I am home and get to participate. After bath, snack, a little bit of a movie and/or a book, Daddy and I take Ian into his room and get his crib ready. We turn the white noise CD on and the light off. Then Daddy uses a nice soft voice to tell Ian all about the wonderful things he got to do that day and then prays for him. It is so cute - Ian usually "prays" along with Daddy. And just this past Saturday, he said "amen" at the end of the prayer. Ian now gets so excited when it is time to say "A-nen!!!!" Then Daddy and I sing him the lullaby Daddy made up for him and Ian sings the last "bum bum bum" line with Daddy. Sometimes we pretend to eat Ian or Skip (his stuffed dog) in between lines of the song, which tickles Ian to no end. Then it's kisses all around and we lay him down and he usually goes right to sleep. It's the sweet ending to these long toddler days that makes it all worth it!

Doozy of a Week - 3

2011-08-21T23:38:00.003-05:00

Sorry - I had totally meant to keep up with the numbers theme this week and we have had so much going on I haven't been able to. We've had three major events in the last week that have eaten a ton of time and energy.

1. Ian's dietician recommended taking him off milk products (except cheese). Apparently some kiddos are allergic and/or intolerant to the milk protein. That allergy causes the GI tract to be inflamed and keeps them from wanting to eat a variety of foods. It can also cause excess drooling, which can hinder speech. Sooo - we are going to try going without the dairy for the next two weeks to see if it helps with the drooling and speech. I feel so bad for Ian. Here I've been trying to be a good Momma by giving him milk and yogurts everyday and that may have been doing nothing but causing him problems. I am so thankful we made the decision to start the ECI process though and found out about this sooner rather than later! Since dairy is about half of Ian's diet (of what he will actually eat), I have had to do some major revamping to his diet. We are fortunate that we have a nice Kroger nearby with a great whole foods section with rice milk, coconut milk, and coconut milk yogurts & ice cream.

2. Last Thursday we found out that the transmission on my car was going out. I am so thankful we took the car in when we did to a mechanic I totally trust - the transmission really is on its last legs and could have caused a dangerous accident if it had gone out while driving on the highway. So we are now down to one car and I have been spending every spare moment looking for another car. James has been amazing and sat through the 2 1/2 -3 hour process at a couple of dealerships with me over the weekend. We are pretty frugal when it comes to buying cars and haven't found anything we are willing to fork out major dough over yet.

3. Thanks to a text from my wonderful sister-in-law, Lissie, (and a follow up text from my awesome sister) I found out that my Grandpa had major heart failure this morning and had to be resuscitated. Fortunately, he was already in the hospital for a foot infection and had a wonderful team of doctors that were able to work on him right away. He is on dialysis and apparently one of the meds that they were giving him for the foot infection caused a rise in his potassium levels. For a dialysis patient, that can be extremely dangerous. He is still heavily sedated with a breathing tube - as my Grandma says, it is a "wait and see" situation. My poor Grandma tripped over a garden hose yesterday and got pretty beat up to top it all off. So I will probably go out there in the next week or two to help however I can. We would definitely appreciate your thoughts and prayers. None of us are ready to say good-bye to my Grandpa yet.

On a good note, we just found out that James is going to become an actual employee of the school (instead of just a consultant) and get health benefits even though he will still be part time! This was really great and unexpected news in the midst of such a crazy week. I'll update with anything I found out about Grandpa.

70

2011-08-15T20:54:00.002-05:00

So my week of numbers got interrupted by life (and having to share a computer with hubby), so it will be two weeks of numbers!

I recently went to the doctor for my annual exam. They did blood work and everything came back just fine. In fact, the nurse told me that the Vitamin D test results were really good. So I asked what they were. She said 70. That meant nothing to me. Were they really good by one point? So another question and the nurse told me that most women have numbers between 25-28. Interesting. Guess all that outdoor time with my little boy is paying off!

Well, little man, Mommy always thought having a little boy would help me get outdoors more. Little did I know! I love all of our outside playtime together!

2

2011-08-08T17:02:00.003-05:00

Two...soon to be three - the number of meetings we have had with ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) so far. While we get excited about every new word that Ian says or signs every month, we (especially me haha) have been very aware that his word acquisition isn't anywhere close to most of his peers. In fact, his monthly speech updates remind me of those of his little friends who are a full year younger than he is. After going back and forth, we decided to call ECI and at least have Ian evaluated.

I have to say, calling them and getting the process started has given me so much peace of mind! The ladies are great and I feel so much better having other professionals in our corner watching out for Ian. The speech therapist came out today with our ECI coordinator and they did his speech evalv. His results at age 26 months came out to be:

* Adaptive (self-dressing, feeding, etc): 16 months
* Cognitive: 17 months (mostly because he doesn't actually point to the pictures in books yet)
* Fine/Gross Motor: 24 months
* Language Expressive: 14 months
* Language Receptive: 14 months (I need to ask on this...it may because of the picture pointing thing...he actually has really good receptive skills!)
* Personal/Social: 19 months (largely due to the fact he hasn't shown much comforting skill yet when someone is upset)

We will see the speech therapist and coordinator again on Thursday and will get a list of his speech goals then. In the meantime, the ones I remember include:

* Working on carrying out two and three step directions (i.e. Go to the table and get your cup.)
* Identifying body parts (they suggested using bath time to practice this...Give me your foot to wash!)
* And a few others that I can't remember right now!

Overall, I think Ian tested pretty close to where he is (except for receptive). It is a relief to know where we are at and that I am not just being an over-concerned parent with unrealistically high expectations.

Ian felt very comfortable with both ladies, which I am really glad that he does! He even crawled up in the coordinator's lap and she said I could take a picture.

I'm curious to see how the first speech session will go on Thursday!

37

2011-08-07T17:04:00.003-05:00

It has been a HOT summer! We are now on Day 37 of triple digit temperatures. This coming Friday we will tie the previous record and break it next week Saturday. The weather man seems to think we have a good chance of making it to Saturday.

Honestly, I wasn't too bothered by the heat until this week. We got a YMCA membership so we could take Ian swimming instead of to the park. We stayed inside with the AC on. And then, a cooling fan in my car stopped working and it overheated while I was out of town with Ian. Not cool! (Literally...haha!) Fortunately, my father-in-law was there to take care of it and we got home okay. The shop fixed it, but they taped the connector together and the tape didn't hold well in the heat. So we had to take it back in. In the meantime, Ian and I drove around a lot with the windows down.

This past Thursday, after having my car start overheating again while on errands and having to drive home in the hot, hot weather, Ian and I walked into a very warm house. Uggggg! The house AC had gone out! Fortunately, I was able to get a hold of our landlord and he came out and called his AC guy. Luckily, work was overstaffed and they were letting us opt out of work that night with no attendance penalty. So I took advantage of it to stay with my baby, run errands, and then come back and wait for the AC guy to show up.

The AC guy was running late, so I brought the box fan to the bathroom and put Ian in the bathtub. He stayed in there for an hour! I think we were both so glad to finally have cooled down a bit. It was 93 degrees inside at 10pm after all! After his bath, we sat and watched movies and had some cold drinks until Mr. AC Man showed up.

Fortunately, everything is working again. But I am officially done with all this heat! I'm ready for some rain and cooler temperatures!

6 on the 6th!

2011-08-06T15:29:00.008-05:00

This is the only time in our whole married life that we will be able to say we have been married the same number of years as the date we got married on! (Hehe...and yes, I know...I am very lucky to have a hubby who puts up with my nerdy numbers!) Just for fun, I wanted to take a trip down memory lane.

2005

The big day, sealed with a kiss!

Hehe...I was reminded today that six years ago a certain someone ripped his pants at our wedding. Perhaps that is why he isn't smiling? ;-) (I suppose it could also be cause I picked the one picture from the bunch where he wasn't actually smiling...I am such a good sister-in-law!! Love you Russell...you are an awesome bro-in-law and that pants incident just made for some great memories!)

2006

Our first anniversary! We were living in Missouri at the time, so we drove up to Hannibal to see the Mark Twain fun there. We left a bit late and I got us a speeding ticket on the way there trying to make a show on time. Oh how things have changed! Since we didn't make the show, we ended up going through the cave first to see Jesse James' hideout.

Tom & Becky!

At the top of the lookout.

Getting ready for lunch.

And, of course, we had to try the top layer of our wedding cake! We trucked that thing with us over half of Texas, to Arkansas, back to Texas (all on our honeymoon) and then up to Missouri. It still tasted pretty good!

2007

We flew to Colorado to visit my grandparents for the first time in many, many, many years. It was a wonderful trip and we loved going up the mountain!

Waiting for lunch! (Haha...this seems to be a theme...)

Grandma Cookie and Grandpa Grape with Misty.

My younger brother, Kenny, came with us too. Here we are posing with Grandpa Joe and Grandma Billie.

Standing in Grandma Cookie and Grandpa Grape's beautiful front yard.

2008

We had such a great time in Colorado the year before that we decided to go out again! This time, we got to meet up with Aunt Carol and Cousin Sarah too. They all made James and I a nice anniversary cake!

Haha...it was an awesome cake. It covered so many holidays!

Look, Aunt Laura!!! Aiden thoroughly enjoyed his cake!

When we got back to Texas, we headed out to a ranch not too far from home. We stayed in, of course, the beautiful blue room!

We *ahem* really enjoyed the view of the lake!

We got to ride a paddleboat as the sun was setting. Haha - it was pretty windy too!

Our poor paddleboat quit paddling, so my wonderful hubby got out and pulled us to shore!

Looking GQ after braving all that muck and mire!

2009

We had a new little tyke to take care of and Daddy was working long hours at Target, so we just went out for dinner at Olive Garden. My Mom watched Ian and took these family pictures of us before we left.

2010

For the life of us, we couldn't remember what we did for our anniversary last year! It was a good thing we took pictures! Apparently we took Ian over to my Mom's house and then went out to try a new restaurant we had coupons for. Another family picture!

Pop-Pop was in the picture at that point (literally haha!) and being his fun self. Nana and Pop-Pop did a great job keeping our little buddy entertained while we enjoyed a dinner without baby food or spills.

Bella Italia...fantastic the first time we went...hasn't been so much since.

This was sooo good. I guess this is what I have should been ordering the couple of times we have gone back.

2011

We actually celebrated a day early. I drove down to James' new school and met the head band director. He's a great guy and I'm looking forward to seeing the band's show this year. It's still almost a bit surreal that James got this wonderful job out of the blue after trying for three years, so seeing the school was a perfect start to an anniversary celebration! Afterwards, we went to Logan's Roadhouse (teaching drums makes a guy hungry!) and then to Tutti Frutti to meet up with some good friends.

These pictures don't even begin to do justice to all the amazing moments the last six years have hold. We've been through the good, the bad, the ugly, and the really ugly and come out on top! I am so proud of my husband and all the hard work he has put into the last six years to become such an amazing husband and father. I am looking forward to the next seventy years!

5

2011-08-05T23:14:00.000-05:00

Five...

The number of days James has been at his new job!! Last Friday he was hired as a middle/high school percussion instructor and started band camp bright and early Monday morning. These kids are some serious competitors and have been braving the heat to practice 8-5 all week. This job is a huge blessing and a wonderful last minute surprise!

The school James is working for is brand new - it has only been open one year. They don't even have seniors at this school yet...that will happen next year. The band director is awesome and is really competitive - like James haha. I know they will have a really good year!

Week of Numbers

2011-08-05T22:13:00.000-05:00

I have lots of numbers floating around in my head, so I thought I would share them with you. Here goes...

Camera Trouble

2011-07-27T22:56:00.000-05:00

Sigh. You might have noticed - our camera has been taking fuzzy pictures. It is driving me nuts! I really need to take the camera back and exchange it.

The other day, I happened to change it to a setting I had used before (but was still blurry). Magically, it took a great picture!

I still need to return the camera, but hopefully I can get a few decent pix in the meantime!

A-Swimming We Will Go!

2011-07-26T22:40:00.005-05:00

Since our neighborhood doesn't have a community pool, we recently bit the bullet and signed up for membership at a nearby pool. Ian loves it! I love it because he takes good naps after swimming. It's a win-win for all of us!

The pool doesn't allow inflatables, so no blow up water wings for us. I ended up order these Puddle Jumper wings instead. We love them! I don't have to worry about where Ian is in the pool...they totally keep him afloat! (Of course, I still stay with him and watch him, but if I happen to blink for more than a second, I know he is safe!)

In fact, Ian loves them so much, he wanted to wear them at breakfast the other day.

He wore them while he was checking Mommy's e-mail.

He wore them while playing in the living room.

And he wore them while playing with all his stuffed animals in his crib (a daily game around here).

The next day, he found my swim suit top and brought it to me. I was about to have to leave for work, so I told him I couldn't wear it right then. Undeterred, he sat down, held it up again, and lifted his feet. I realized he wanted to wear it! I had no problems with that. He didn't have to go to work! It was so funny to watch him wear my swim suit top around the house. I didn't realize how big it would look on him!

All that Puddle Jumper, tankini top wearing paid off! We got to go swimming again! (Haha - we go almost every day!) We really love the pool. And it's nice to be able to sit in the shade and take a break for snack time.

After snack, Ian lined up his flip-flops in the rungs of the lounge chair. Good place to store them while we swam more!

Little buddy, I am loving getting to spend our summer swimming together at the pool! Maybe Daddy will get to come with us soon and take a video of us singing, "If you're happy and you know it, blow some bubbles!" You blow such good bubbles!

Slow and Snuggly

2011-07-25T09:01:00.005-05:00

Ian has recently hit a stage of some super snuggly moments, especially while he is watching a movie on his portable dvd player. He loves to sit in our laps while he watches his movies.

What's more, Ian prefers to have both of Mommy's hands on his little chest while we are watching movies. He will grab my hands and make sure he is securely cuddled. Makes for some wonderful cuddles and some verrrry slooooooow progress on housework!

But that's ok. We wouldn't trade our cuddle time for the cleanest house in the world! (Okay...maybe some days it is pretty tempting... :-) )

Cuz Luv

2011-07-24T16:00:00.009-05:00

Yesterday we got to go hang out with Gramma K, Aunt Kt, Cousin Ace, and Ian's new baby cousin. Maci is such a sweetheart and we love holding her every chance we get! It's hard to believe she is two months old now!

Cousins getting reacquainted.

They are such good buddies!

We went to Gramma K's community pool and had a blast. This little dude is fast!

Uncle James getting some snuggles with Maci.

Gramma K got the boys kickboards!

And rubber duckies that paddled their feet in the water!

Ace is a pro with the kickboard!

Haha...the spray park was so fun!

Ian had fun running through the different sprays.

Gramma K's pool/spray park has an awesome little pool that is only one foot deep. Perfect for our little guys to play in!

Maci took her first swim with Gramma K.

Mommy's girl!

Mommy love.

Whoaaa!

Maci's own little paradise. (Flotation support provided by Gramma K. Shade provided by Mommy and Aunt Laura.)

Gramma K got all the kiddos a towel. Ian loved relaxing on his!

Then Ian cuddled up with his towel and Ace's towel.

Sweet Maci trying the towel-covered Bumbo for the first time!

I love this next set of pictures. Although we've never really talked with Ian about how to act around little babies, he has seemed to inherently know that he has to be very careful with them. He doesn't try to touch Maci and if I am holding her, he will climb into my lap, being very careful to avoid getting on her. His hands behind his back say it all!

Hmmm...wonder what you do with these things?

I really don't think I should touch her.

Well, maybe just her knee. Aunt Kt said it was okay.

Seriously, what do you do with these little munchkins?

Haha...I'm looking forward to seeing how Ian interacts with Maci as she gets older. Hopefully he will be more gentle with her than he is with Ace!

Swimming wore our little boy out and he needed some Mommy snuggles.

Mommy wasn't going to complain! I heart Ian snuggles.

Aunt Kt feeding her beautiful baby girl.

Grandpa holding his great-granddaughter for the first time. Precious!

Big bro giving kisses!

Gramma K got kabobs organized and going on the grill...yummo!

Great-grandparents (again!).

Maci singing for Grandma. Grandma got her to fall asleep right away...I missed the picture though!

Ian and Ace had a blast playing with the big exercise ball.

Watching them cracked us up! They always have so much fun together!

Ian definitely loves his cousins! (And so do we!) We're so thankful for the times we get to spend with them!

Birthday Pictures

2011-07-23T21:52:00.006-05:00

Now that it's been more than two months since Ian's 2nd Birthday party, it's high time I get some pictures on the blog!!

We had his party at a nearby park. It was perfect for our little guy who loves being outside! Fortunately, another party was leaving as we were coming, so we were able to set up under the gazebo.

Party favors for Ian and Isaac, his only little friend who could make it.

Dr. Suess and Little Red Wagon cupcakes and decorations.

Our neighbors, Serina and James (Isaac is their little boy), took these wonderful pictures. I love this one of the birthday boy!

Party table!

Another pic of the party table.

Hehe...I have no idea what I was pointing at, but obviously Ian wasn't paying attention!

Signing "eat". Time for cupcakes!!

Getting ready to go down the slide!

Tickle time with Mommy.

Haha - Ian got new sippy cups from Mommy and Daddy and was trying to drink out of them right through the package!

I have many more pictures and will hopefully post them soon, but wanted to go ahead and put a few on the blog. Happy 2nd Birthday, little buddy!

Cookie Monster

2011-07-11T17:28:00.003-05:00

Ian has started shoving food in his mouth, which I thought was a bit strange. So I mentioned it to James, who said Ian was probably just trying to imitate Cookie Monster! Who would have thought! Ian loves to feed Daddy food because Daddy gobbles it down too. So between Daddy and Cookie Monster, we have a little food monster on our hands!

Ian has so much fun watching Daddy make Cookie Monster noises while eating popcorn!

Haha - at least most of the popcorn ends up in their mouths and not on the floor!

Pump It, Baby!

2011-07-10T10:03:00.004-05:00

A few days ago, Ian got to bring his friend Noah with him to Pump It Up. It's been a long time since we have seen Noah and we were really glad to see that smiling face again!!

(Please excuse the fuzzy pictures - our point and shoot seems to be having problems.) Ian loved following Noah around! Noah is so much braver than Ian when it comes to climbing up the big slides.

He's a skilled climber for sure!

But watching Noah gave Ian the courage to try it himself.

They had so much fun climbing up the slide together.

Noah had no problems diving into the big obstacle course. At this point, he wasn't sure how to get from the bounce course he was in to the big ole slide next to it.

Last week when Ian and I went to Pump It Up by ourselves, Ian refused to enter the obstacle course. This time, he was so happy to follow his buddy around!

They did great climbing up, over, and through everything!

Ian had a blast squeezing between the large inflated tubes.

And, of course, the regular bounce structures were a ton of fun too.

Unfortunately, most of my pictures are really really blurry. The boys had a great time playing with the balls and following each other around though. When we left, Ian knew what he wanted.

And so did Noah! Those balloons were so fun to look at!

Even though the balloon excitement lasted for only a short bit, we still had fun with them!

We then made a quick trip to Target. Ian actually sat in the basket for the ride into the store. Of course it was hot and sunny so I didn't want to stop and take a picture outside and as soon as we got inside, Ian stood up. Oh well - Noah is an amazingly good influence on Ian!

The boys got frosted animal crackers at the store and ate them as a snack in the car. At one point, I looked in the review mirror to see Noah starting at Ian, who had made a huge mess! So we pulled over to clean up. Sweet Noah wanted his hands cleaned too!

We are so thankful Ian has such a wonderful friend like Noah! We can't wait until our next play date!

Happy Independence Day!

2011-07-04T22:33:00.001-05:00

I think this picture pretty much says it all...

We had a great Fourth of July. Ian spent some time in his pool out back.

He loves playing with the water!

Hehe...I love the look of concentration on his face!

We didn't have a fancy flag pizza this year. Just pork chops, apples, and onions using McCormick's meal ideas. But, we had little 4th jello parfaits. Now...don't judge. My cool whip went bad so I used white frosting. We couldn't just have red and blue!

Ian loved it!

Mmm...nothing like frosting and jello!

Happy Fourth of July! We are so thankful for all the freedoms we have!

Sweet Moments

2011-06-26T12:33:00.002-05:00

Our little outdoorsy boy now has a new favorite game to play outside with Mommy. Ian loves to sit in the grass and have Mommy lay in his lap! For some reason, he thinks this is so much fun. It is such a sweet time for us to sit and just spend time with each other.

Ian, Mommy sure loves our time together!

Popsicle Goodness

2011-06-16T21:42:00.005-05:00

Ian had never had a popsicle before Cousin Maci was born. Neither James nor I eat them often, so we don't ever buy them. Good thing Aunt Kt was there to fill the gap for poor little popsicle-deprived Ian. He had his first popsicle at her house. He and Cousin would go outside and eat popsicles together. I somehow missed pictures of all of that, but I did get a few of the next time Ian and I were down there.

Yum...cousins enjoying popsicles!

Mmmm!

Of course, after that, I had to buy Ian popsicles (especially since he got sick and his mouth hurt). He loves to eat them on the back patio.

Sitting with Mommy on the bricks eating his popsicle.

Seriously...who cares about pictures when you have popsicles to eat!

They are pretty much good anywhere, anytime!

Thanks Aunt Kt for getting Ian his popsicle fix. He loves them!

Twenty-Five Months

2011-06-14T22:27:00.000-05:00

Our little two year old has certainly blossomed in the last month. At 25 months, Ian is now:

* clearly saying "side" for going outside or inside.

* in love with popsicles, thanks to his Aunt Kt. He will run over to the freezer door and tug on it to let us know he wants one.

* loves watching the trash and recycle trucks do their thing every Monday morning.

* signing "candy" and "help" (in addition to "please", "more", "movie", and "eat").

* loving Sesame Street. In fact, he probably likes them just as much, if not more, than Veggie Tales right now!

* on a wonderful sleeping schedule. We can count on 11-12 hours at night and 2-3 hours during nap time.

* doing better with the hitting problem. He still hits fairly frequently, but is much more responsive to warnings and spankings.

* does NOT like having to sit in the cart at the store. We are starting to avoid Wal-Mart because all he wants to do is run through the garden section, including going back and forth through the double doors there and gets very upset when we won't let him do that. However, this is improving slowly and we actually had a great shopping trip at Wal-Mart the other day!

* is a rather picky eater. His main meals include black beans and cheese, pasta and cheese, and raviolis. Breakfast is either pancakes or waffles. He will sometimes eat bananas, strawberries, or grapes, but it's 50/50 on any given day whether he will eat them or not. If we put something in his mouth that he doesn't want to eat, he will either gag himself until he gets enough saliva to spit it back out or sit there with his mouth wide open, refusing to swallow. Sigh. I've just bought Pediasure to make sure he is getting enough nutrients.

* still holds his spoon upside down when putting in his mouth. It definitely makes getting anything that isn't pudding consistency into his mouth on a spoon a challenge. He has the right idea - the spoon fits nicely in his mouth upside down, but it just doesn't work well that way.

* has conquered the couch to floor distance and now loves to jump off the couch. This is about as high as Mommy is comfortable with, so I am hoping he doesn't go any higher for now!

* loves watching the toilet flush. I'm looking forward to the day that I can close the toilet lid and flush without a certain little toddler running over to throw the lid open to watch the action. Hopefully this will get him excited about potty training though!

* has figured out how to cover himself with his little blankets at bed time. For the first time since he was little bitty, he actually likes sleeping with his soft little blankets now. I'll often put him down on his back with Skip and his blanket and run into our room to watch him on the monitor. He'll turn over onto his back and pull his blanket up over him. It's so precious!

Happy 25 months, little man! We're happy to have survived our first month with a two year old and are looking forward to all the wonderful things that this year will bring. We love you!

Monday Pick-Ups

2011-06-13T11:59:00.002-05:00

The Monday morning pick-me-up around here is trash and recycle pick-ups. Ian loves to watch big trash and recycle trucks do their thing. He has made friends with the drivers and they always wave when they see him.

Normally we go find them on Monday mornings during our walk, but I decided to put out some chairs this morning and let them come to us. Ian was more than happy to sit outside in his jammies and watch for the trucks.

We could hear them rumbling down the next street before they finally got to our street. Ian was really excited when they turned towards us.

Here comes the trash truck! Ian loves watching the drivers work the big claws to grab the trash cans and dump them in the trucks.

Mr. Recycle Man is our favorite. Ian always blows him kisses and he will blow them right back and honk his horn for Ian. As Kay, a good family friend said, it's the simple pleasures in life!

Mommy's Little Gardener

2011-06-12T14:01:00.007-05:00

With this past crazy semester finally being over, we've been able to start tackling some much needed yard work. Unfortunately, all the yard work that really needs addressed is out front and our little runner doesn't see fit to stay still while Mommy trims hedges. So when I saw this great outdoor playpen a few months ago at a garage sale, I knew it would come in handy for the summer!

Ian seems to like it just fine. Sometimes we put his car seat in there so he can sit and read books. More often than not, he will drive one of his little cars around the top edge of the playpen. Whatever he did, it kept him safe and occupied and I was able to clear out seven garden bags worth of hedge and rose bush trimming over Memorial Day weekend!

Unfortunately, right after all that lovely trimming, our sprinkler system went out. Of course, Ian was happy to play in the old fashioned sprinkler we pulled from the garage. We couldn't have those newly trimmed hedges dying!

It took all of five minutes for Ian to get wet enough to convince Mommy and Daddy that it would be much more comfortable to let him run around in his diaper.

He has since discovered a love of watering. In this picture, he is watering his slides. I guess they need water to grow too!

In the midst of getting the sprinkler system fixed, we noticed the front faucet was dripping. Our clever little gardener didn't want to waste the water!

Haha...this just cracks me up. I was showing Daddy the faucet leaking, and Ian walked right up to take a drink!

Yummm...good ole fashioned faucet water!

Lol...he wasn't too happy about being wet again though!

So we took his clothes off and let him run in the sprinkler. So much fun!

In the last week, we have settled into a nice little gardening routine. The playpen has worked wonders as our little munchkin now WANTS to stay in the front yard with Mommy. So after our morning walk, we come back to the front yard and Ian helps me with yard work. He especially loves picking buds from the hedges and using the watering can.

The spot between the hedges and the bay windows is actually his favorite place to "garden". He can spend most of our time outside in that spot picking leaves and little buds off the hedges.

Haha - at least he's not stripping too many leaves from the front of the hedges!

I've been trying to clear out all the overgrown grass in the front beds and Ian has jumped right in to "help" me.

I'm so glad to see my little gardener having so much fun with all the yard work. I'm even more glad that he is just staying put in the front yard for twenty to thirty minutes at a time!

Shower Time!

2011-06-11T23:02:00.000-05:00

Last week during bath time, our little water bug surprised all of us - especially himself - by pulling the shower plug hard enough to make it turn on full force!

He has played with this wonderful little plug on top of the faucet for the last year, but has never been able to pull it hard enough to get the shower to do more than drip. This time though, the shower was going full blast!

And oddly enough, he loved it! He didn't mind water in his eyes.

Even though he looks like he isn't enjoying the experience from the pictures, he was having a blast!

He just kept wiping his eyes and backing up even further under the stream of water.

He would walk forward out of the spray of the shower and then back into it, feeling very carefully behind his head for the spray to hit. As soon as he felt the water, he started giggling.

And then, of course, he would have to wipe his eyes again!

But he didn't mind. He got his washcloth and proceeded to take a shower instead of a bath.

Hehe...I love the tongue sticking out in this picture.

Ian had so much fun during his first full shower!

All week, he's turned the shower on right away and done most of his bath as a shower. Daddy has found it easier to lay him down in the tub to wash his hair, but that doesn't happen until after the shower is over (at Ian's insistence). Go figure! Little man, you always keep us guessing and we love you for it!

Candy

2011-06-09T21:22:00.003-05:00

In the last two weeks, Ian has learned to sign "candy". The glass jar of skittles sitting on the bar is solely responsible for this new word. "Candy" is signed by twisting your index finger by your mouth (at least that's the variation that I thought was easiest for him to learn). The first time I showed him the sign and told him to sign it, he was so excited about getting Skittles that he started blowing kisses. It cracked us up! He was so excited about the Skittles and trying so hard to get it right - he was just going too fast!

But now, thanks to the lovely rainbow of Skittles, Ian signs "candy" like a two year old pro. I love his little sign - he twists his index finger with his other fingers outstretched.

Little boy, you are just as sweet as candy when you want something! Makes Momma and Daddy's hearts melt!

Mess Maker

2011-06-03T12:26:00.006-05:00

One of the many reasons I have hardly blogged lately has been because I've been trying to get the house back in order after the semester finished. With help like this, it is rather hard!

Here's another example of Ian's "help". This is the before.

And this is literally four minutes later. (He likes to drive his trucks and cars off the edge of the toy chest.)

Oh well. He gets wonderful use out of all his toys and has a lot of fun in the process! Mommy is getting lots of good practice at picking up toys quickly!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T17:18:00.003-05:00

We went to the Saturday Easter service this year, so our actual Easter day was nice and quiet - something we desperately needed! We did make a quick run to the store and ran into the Easter Bunny. So of course, we had to take a picture! Ian wasn't too thrilled however...

The Easter Bunny was really nice and even tried waving at Ian. Poor little buddy - he still wasn't thrilled about sitting in the lap of this strange fuzzy creature!

Oh well! Maybe next year they can be friends. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Terrific Trike

2011-04-18T15:35:00.002-05:00

Ian certainly loves his trike that Grandaddy and Grammy Jen gave him for his birthday last year. We keep it in the garage and he loves to sneak in the garage whenever he can and just sit in it. The other day, James and I were cleaning out the garage and Ian was as happy as a clam to sit in his trike and teethe on the hard end of the balloon holder while we worked.

Poor, poor teething little buddy. It's been a rough month on all of us!

Sitting in his trike makes it all a little better though! After we finished cleaning out the garage, Ian dragged his trike inside so he could sit in it while watching Veggie Tales.

Poor little buddy. For all of our sakes, we hope those back molars come in soon! Thank goodness your trike helps you feel better!

The Last Hurrah - 21, 22, & 23 Months

2011-04-14T23:35:00.004-05:00

These last three months have flown by like crazy! We have been super busy this semester, as shown by the lack of blogs. It is hard to believe that Ian is 23 months old today and at this time next month, we will have a two year old! I had been keeping little notes of his accomplishments along the way, but I can only find the 21 month ones right now. Looking at those notes though, I've realized that 21 months was a big month developmentally for Ian and the last two months have just been a continuation of the 21 month changes.

So, without further ado, here's 21 months!

At 21 months, Ian:

* has figured out how to jump with both feet. We think it comes from nap time in his crib when he grabs the rail and jumps up and down. Before this, he would just hop on one foot or the other.

* was super cuddly. We loved all the cuddles, but not being allowed to be more than six inches from our child made it hard to get stuff done sometimes!

* was in a big "grab and drag" stage. One of our good friends, Katie, coined the phrase. And that's exactly what it was! Ian would grab one of our fingers and drag us wherever he wanted us to go! (Often it was to turn on a movie, go outside, or get a snack.)

* developed a love of swinging. Before this, he severely disliked being put in the swings at the park.

* started saying "up". (It usually sounds like "uh" with a hard "h" sound...but was said to get us to put him up on slides, his high chair, our bed, etc.)

* started saying "eat". (Sounds like "ee-ee".)

* could get on slides by himself. Beforehand, he couldn't figure out how to coordinate all his limbs to sit down without falling over.

* started sleeping 12 hours consistently at night and taking two hour naps during the day.

* fell in love with his wagon from Nana or Pop-Pop. In fact, it became his mainstay for everything and Pop-Pop started calling it his office. :-)

At 22 months, Ian continued all of the above, except he:

* started pulling Mommy and Daddy (and everyone else!) into all sorts of funny places. If we were on tile, he'd pull us both onto carpet. If we were in the kitchen, he'd pull us into the corner or into the pantry.

* started actually going down the slides by himself. He figured out how to turn sideways to stop himself at the bottom.

* insisted that Mommy and Daddy take him on 2 one hour walks everyday!

* solidified certain routines during his walks. He branched out now and then, but he had his must-haves on every walk (like throwing rocks in the creek).

* started not taking his afternoon nap unless he got a good, long morning walk.

* has developed a love of the washer and dryer. His favorite of our chores is when we do laundry and he gets to help.

* started to really enjoy swinging for longer periods of time.

At 23 months, Ian:

* has reverted back to hitting and biting after an out-of-town trip without Daddy. This has been less than fun for Mommy and Daddy.

* actually has taken someone's hand (Gramma K's and Daddy's) and led them to his bed for bedtime! We sure hope this continues!

* "sings" along to several of his Veggie Tales songs. Our current favorite right now is when he grunts along with the mute Cebu in the Cebu song.

* has become quite the drummer. He's really starting to develop a noticeable rhythm.

* has shown a longer attention span than normal, especially when it comes to watching movies or sitting patiently in his wagon waiting for Mommy or Daddy to take him for a walk.

* likes to lead Mommy and Daddy to sit down on the floor and then push their shoulders until they lay down. Then it's heads down for Mommy and Daddy - no looking up! Otherwise, we'll get a strong little toddler hand on our forehead pushing our heads back down. Of course, Mommy and Daddy don't particularly behave well and it seems like a head or an arm is always coming out of place and needing to be put back down. It's amazing the patience Ian has for this! He also loves to lead us to a central location where we can all jump together. He's the tiniest workout instructor we have ever had!

* has mostly mastered big kid swings at the park...he at least holds on and stays upright for 4-5 minutes before he is done. He also loves to swing in the baby swings for 10-15 minutes at a time!

* still loves laundry!

Little man, we love you more than words can say and are so blessed by your quirky sense of humor and joy!

Happy B-day, Pop-Pop!

2011-04-01T12:27:00.005-05:00

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Pop-Pop!! Happy Birthday to you! We hope you have a wonderful day! We love you! From Kenny: And from Allie & Aiden:

Happy Birthday, Pop-Pop! We love you very much and are very glad you are part of the family!

Ah-choo!

2011-03-27T22:18:00.003-05:00

Sigh...spring allergies are getting the best of me. It's been a long month and a half with everything blooming. Today, it all caught up with me and just about bowled me over. I spent most of the day in bed. My sweet hubby went to the store for a few things and came back with these bright, cheerful flowers for me.

My little buddy spent a lot of time hanging out with Daddy today and they both left me this sweet message.

It's so nice to be taken care of when I don't feel well! Hopefully soon I will have pictures from this last week in Colorado posted.

Building Bridges

2011-03-17T23:38:00.003-05:00

Ian is a huge fan of bridges. So, when we are home without any wonderful bridges to run across, he makes his own.

What could be more fun than watching Veggie Tales as a bridge? :-)