10-11 Months

Skills!

Talking Skills

Crawling Skills

Standing Skills

Descending steps, too!

8-9 Months

Starting to be more introspective

So much fun on walks!

He can use the sippy cup and eat finger foods!

Loves to play!

Five Months

Tasty, tasty feet!

Hey, baby! Come here often?

And... we start to see the personality! What a flirt!

Four Months Old

Some of the best pics from Ian's fourth month.

Ian's First Halloween

Lounging in his high chair

Ready for winter

Visit with Grandma and Uncle Jay

At four months, he's getting into 12 month clothes, his hair is starting to grow more quickly, and he's fun to play with!

3 Months Old

A visit to Las Vegas and visitors from Minnesota! That last one is a favorite. I love the expression on his face! Ian is definitely more aware at this point, and still adding to his layer of baby fat quickly!

Two Months Old

At two months, Ian is showing his personality a bit more, and smiling for us!

The acne is largely gone, he's got a nice layer of peach fuzz on his head, and this boy is growing so fast! He's in 6 month clothes in these pics! This is about when I started laying him on the floor on a blanket next to my desk for work. He's really just getting to be more expressive and fun.

Ian at 1 month old

Know what? I'm kind of hungry.

I wonder if milk comes from my fists.

It Doesn't!!!

MOM! FEED ME!

It's amazing to look at these now that we've got a very mobile boy. It seems like he couldn't do much back then, but that's the way a one-month-old is! At a month old, he's getting chubbier, has a bunch of acne (this cleared up on its own and may have been helped when we changed soaps), lost hair on the top of his head, and is outgrowing his newborn clothes.



Who'd have guessed that by this time he'd be trying to climb out of the bathtub on his own? Today we had a great walk, and Ian slept the whole way. Daddy sacrificed his farmer tan and provided a t-shirt for sun protection for our sleepy boy.

Oldies But Goodies

I've been going back through pics a bit, and thought that leading up to Ian's first birthday I'd highlight the best pics from a particular "era" in Ian's life. 

Birth Day

(I include this one because he reaches for me like this when nursing even now)

Here, he's about a week old. He was so tiny back then!

And now, our "Biggest Boy" has awakened from his nap and is talking to his toys. I'll head up to see him shortly. Yesterday, I wasn't sure what he was doing so I went to check on him. He was sitting up, quietly talking to his white elephant. He insisted on bringing it with him when I got him out of the crib. Sweet boy! We think that teething action is slowing down for now, but we'll see! No fever or extreme fussiness but we do have occasional snottiness and excessive drool. Time will tell.

Missing Camera

I'm pretty sure I hid the camera from Ian in the last few days. I think I may have hid it too well!

I have pictures of the modified wool longies (added a chunk of material for that big diaper. Works great! I wish you could see it). I have a video of him shaking his head "no." Cutest thing ever. I have pictures (or need to get some... probably the latter) of the new high chair. It's really nice. And compact. And ... they sent us two of them. I was going to call them about it, but I've decided not to. It'll probably cost more to ship it back than they spent manufacturing it. I'm not worried about Graco's bottom line, either. I'll probably need to take pictures and/or video of walking soon. Really soon. For now, though you get this. This boy loves the camera.

Playing with pictures

It'd be a good idea to go through and edit and select all of the good pics while they're still a manageable number (ha!). And I'll probably take a weekend and do that. But for now, here are some of the more entertaining things one can do with some of these pics on Picasa.

The original

"Soft focus"

"Glow"

"Filtered B&W"

I might use "glow" on some of the ones that I wish had better focus but are a really neat shot. Maybe "soft focus" when there's something in the background I wish to "unhighlight" (such as a dirty house). Black and white? Not sure of its optimal use. More serious shots, I guess. I'd like to improve my photograpy. There are a lot of fantastic photos on the web, and it'd be great to be able to produce just a little better quality. Equipment may be a start. Using the selective focus on my P&S camera has made me see how far we can go.

Big trip to the big city today. Not as many naps as Ian would like. But most everything is fairly sunny right now. :)