We finally rearranged the kitchen just a bit for Ian. It made no sense to have all of the plastic ware far out of Ian's reach, and dangerous toys within his reach. So, we made a cupboard that's just his flavor.
Everything in there is relatively safe. We've also got a latch on the garbage and one other cabinet that has heavy items in it. So now Ian is easier to have in the kitchen.
We're still wondering when he'll venture onto those first steps.
He seems ready!
We got the sandbox set up today! It's a purple dinosaur!
We were hanging out on the deck. John had just finished getting the major boogers out of the sandbox and hosed it out. My job was to watch Ian and wipe it down a bit then put the sand in as John brought it up to the deck. We'd calculated that the capacity of the sandbox was about 300 lb and got that much. But it's much better at half capacity, if that, so we have more sand for later. After I dumped the first bag of sand into the box, Ian decided it'd be best if he hopped in. With his very best stair descending backwards moves, he got right into the sandbox by himself!!
His first inkling was to empty the sandbox. Then he thought maybe he should eat the sand. We're working on that. He understood after a while. It's so hard to get him to not eat things sometimes - we think he could be working on another tooth. (Sidebar: today, on our evening walk, he was chewing on the tray of the stroller and in a bumpy spot, cut his lip. Insert tears. Why then is it so amusing to chew on it? It just cut your lip, dude. Stop biting it! Thankfully, the tray folds away and he has a 5-point harness on, so we took away the distraction.)
Our new sandbox came with some toys - a shovel, rake, sifter and a few molds: starfish, duck, fish, brick pattern and castle-type. (Thank you Freecycle!) Of course, Ian isn't quite sure what to do with those, so we had to show him. He really seemed to enjoy it. Fun! Many more cute sandbox pics to come!
And a video, of course!
How did the toys multiply so much? We have great toys for Ian, and we have neighbors, friends, and family to thank for that. Here's a picture where the mat is relatively intact (his favorite thing lately is to rip it to shreds).
Here you can see "Reginald the Hedgehog" (Reggie the Hedgie for short). I'll get a proper picture of him soon. I think he's going to be left relatively unstuffed and be more of a puppet. He has a hole that needs to be repaired and he needs to be felted just a bit more. I'm so happy with him.
But there are lots of toys! For our sanity, I think maybe we'll box up some of them and put them away. That way we can rotate them and when we bring them out they'll be fresh, interesting, and new. And we won't have so many tripping hazards in the living room!
See the basket? That's the toy bin. He likes to empty it. I think chaos theory applies to children. They tend toward entropy!
PS: Tooth Number 7 has made an appearance! His lower left lateral incisor. Say that 7 times fast!
And: Ian's newest big skill is backing down off of the bed in his room. He's a pro at it. Sometimes he still topples a little bit, but usually when he's a bit clumsy with a big diaper and jammies on, or there's a blanket in the way. I need to get video.
This is the new "abacus toy" we got last week. He's starting to get the hang of it!
Ian likes to stand up and lean his chest against the table and clap. I didn't get the pic, but when this was taken, he was just doing it, I promise!
This morning, we came downstairs and Ian looked outside and saw a bright blue sky and sun shining on the snow. He just lit up with a big smile and laugh. We'll have snow for a bit longer, but it does make things bright outside. It's a cheery way to start the day.
Of course, he is sitting on my lap now, and just leaned his head forward and bonked it on my desk (for no good reason...) Poor fella. He's over it now, and back to trying to deconstruct my desk. Happy Good Friday.
It's so much fun to see Ian's personality come out, and see him learn and grow.
Little habits and curiosities and, of course, new skills:
Take a piece of food. Turn to your right (or left). Look down at the floor. Hold food over the floor. Look at food. Look again at the floor. Drop food. Watch to see if dog comes to get it. Whether the dog (or Mom or Dad) picks it up or not, repeat.
Take a piece of food. Look straight up at the ceiling. Hold food high above your face. Smile. Drop food. Feel it bounce off of your face (or chest). Repeat.
Of course, he tastes everything, with the possible exception of some foods.
While we're sitting on the floor discovering the world, he very meticulously likes to pull dog(/cat/mom/dad) hair off of my socks and put it in his mouth. Of course I don't let him, but he likes to find hair wherever he can and do this.
"Where's the kitty?" Ian spins around and finds Roscoe at the window sill.
Every time he sees the dog: "Duh" "Ah Duh" Very good! That's the dog! (*he does say this frequently at other times as well, when the dog is not in sight).
This morning, when getting ready to hold him over the toilet, I said "time to go potty" and did the potty sign, and he smiled and reached for me. Then once at the toilet, let go of a big poop he'd been saving.
He's not doing the sign yet, but does recognize the sign for "milk" (nursing). If he's a bit hungry but distracted and we're hangin' out on the floor when I give him the milk sign, he smiles and crawls right over to me to get some!
He's very skilled at removing socks.
He has little cloth block books. We read the books to him frequently, and he likes to shake and eat the books. He has just started taking a book and turning the pages and talking to it!
Currently, the very most coveted toy in the house is this:
The little "learning table" thing. He loves to play with it, walk around it, talk to it, sing to it, bang his hands on it, make it make noise.
I think he likes that he gets to do something while doing one of his very favorite things: Standing. He can very easily pull up to standing with it, and no longer pulls it over on himself. He's getting stronger every day.
