The garden is such a great place to be. Even John now really enjoys the garden. He likes to take off early on Saturdays to get the watering process started and get our vegetables. We stayed until 3pm this Saturday! Weeding, talking to our self-proclaimed "Garden Pest" (the owner), and working on all kinds of issues.
Ian even got to take a nap. It's so nice that he can walk a bit now, he doesn't crawl through the grass, but can walk around to some degree. It keeps him off the ground a bit more. Thankfully, Ian can nap wherever he needs to now. If we're out and about and he needs a nap, he can fall asleep in the car and be transferred, asleep, to a sling, then back to the carseat, and he'll continue his nap. Yesterday after a long day (and brief nap) at the garden, he fell asleep in the car, and slept for 2 hours after he was placed in his crib. He loves his long afternoon naps!
Just a week ago, Ian was taking first steps. A few here and there. Now, he prefers to walk! He walks across the room on a regular basis! It's slower than crawling, but he's walking so well. He can change direction in the middle of the room, too.
We went to book club tonight, and after initial jitters, he was getting along great. Lots of gals loved to see him again, and he enjoyed different surroundings and lots of attention. Daddy came by to bring him home.
Here's my favorite pic from the camping trip. Getting set up for the family shot. My boys.
Ian's coming to get you!
He's frequently taking 4-5 steps in a row, and not even for anything special, or so we think. He can also stand up in the middle of the floor! Go go go!
Coming soon, a report on our camping trip. Great fun!
Sunday night was beautiful. Ian slept for a 7 hour stretch (and so did we). Yesterday was great, we got a lot done, and formulated a plan for this week that includes a camping trip and getting our work done. We hope! Last night was a little tougher - Ian wouldn't stay asleep in his crib. It's normally a fairly easy task to take a sleeping boy and put him in his crib. But now he wakes up and if we rub his back for long enough, will fall asleep enough that we can walk away. Now we can see why he's so fussy. He's working on this walking thing!
For the last few days, Ian far prefers to hold onto your hand and walk with you than crawl to get to any destination. And he likes his walker on the deck for trucking back and forth.
He cries when he gets to the end of the deck, though. He's figured out how to turn the walker around, however, and that's helpful, sometimes. He'll do better after his nap this afternoon.
Without the walker, he's trying a few steps whenever the opportunity arises. This will be an exciting week!
2. walking! He wants to work on it, suddenly. We officially have first steps! Only two at a time, and only once or twice. Otherwise, he'll walk us around, with just one hand holding onto a pant leg or finger and he's just about running. He wants to move so fast!!
I asked John to help take a look around the house through the eyes of the mother of a toddler. We have so much to do. Ian's just going to be able to get into more and more trouble and fast!
Another funny regarding the stacking. I tried to get video but haven't been able to yet. First, I showed him and helped him to stack the rings. Now, when he goes about doing it himself, he gets so frustrated. He knows he can do it, but it takes several tries, and sometimes the little peg moves out of the way, often the ring isn't the right position, a hand in the way, etc. So we're making dinner and hear a fussing, then crying Ian in the living room. Come to find out he's just so frustrated at the rings. I helped him some, and then provided encouragement and it helped. I hope he doesn't have the same low tolerance for frustration that his mommy has. He did eventually stack all of them with no assistance (other than a reverse stack sitting right next to it - helped him grab them in the right order).
In other news
It was another big food day for Ian. Split pea soup was a huge hit! Breakfast was yogurt, cheese, granola, hashbrowns. Lunch: smoothie (lots of fruit and veg), crackers, cereal, cheese. Dinner: Split pea soup, grilled cheese. He's so good at signing water, and signs it whenever he wants anything to drink, whether it be milk, smoothie, tea, water. He's really excited about being able to communicate his food wants. Hence all of the cheese. He really likes cheese.
Ian is getting sign language. He doesn't always use the sign he intends, but we get it and help him. Today we introduced: Cereal, Moose (he loves the moose bottle opener. He wants to go see it all the time. Now he can ask for it by name. He hasn't replicated the sign yet, but soon). Tomorrow: Soup, Dog, and reinforce the already introduced signs including Mom and Dad. His best signs now: water, all done, down, more.
It's chilly here. The heat is on. It's not snowing, though, and for that we are thankful. Ian is thoroughly bummed to be in long sleeves and (more importantly) not able to cruise the deck. It's just too chilly and often raining lately.
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!
While things have been relatively sunny as of late - no teething or other major discomfort in recent memory - Ian seems to be getting the fact that he and Mommy and Daddy are not the same, and Mommy and Daddy can, in fact, leave the room and leave him behind. Shocking and harsh reality, that is. Poor guy. He's just starting to really scream when one of us leaves the room. And when other people hold him or talk to him, he's more easily upset.
Loud noises and general disappointments seem to be so much more significant now. We used to be able to redirect him or distract when he was going after something he couldn't have. Now he gets a bit upset about it. This morning we were hanging out in his room and I was putting away clean clothes. I'd put some in the closet in the "too small" bag. He saw that the closet was open and that was very interesting. I closed the closet door, and he was very very upset about the fact that he couldn't reach the handle. I told him that I wasn't upset at all that he couldn't reach door handles yet. Not. One. Bit.
However, he seems to be getting closer to walking. He can stand on one side of the play pen, hold on, stretch, and take one step over to the other side. Tonight, he stood up with his hands on the door of his bedroom, and walked along the wall over to the closet. That was a somewhat wobbly walk, but a vertical surface doesn't lend very much support. We'll see when something entices him enough to want to take those first steps!!
It's entirely probable that these two things are related - the onset of walking and the touchiness. It's said that babies (people in general?) get pretty cranky right as they're about to figure something out. Lookout world!
I have tried to get a picture of his, but haven't. Today, Ian took several steps while being very minimally supported, mostly unsupported. He was standing, and I had my hands kind of near his torso (and he knew it). He really wanted to go see the dog, and moved his body over there, walking in a very wobbly fashion. He touched my hands about twice. I'm going to call it almost unsupported walking. Wow!
He's signing so often now. He signs for milk, potty, water, more, and (of course) all done. But they all look like "all done." He's so intent on communicating, now that he can, however. It's so fun!
This won't be the last snow. But it was mostly gone by the end of the day.
This morning:
See? Not so bad.
Lots of work done today, and to that end, we let Ian play with that which entertains. It entertains me too (when I have time to play with it).
He's very talented at grasping the ball with is teeth and pulling with both hands to undo a whole ball in no time. This strong cotton is up to the task. Poops are better today. We've determined that he needs more water. Easy enough to do. We say goodbye to the high chair tomorrow, and have the intermediate chair prepped. We found a nice Fisher Price Space Saver High Chair (used, at the thrift store. Love that place.) to do the job nicely in the month or two we anticipate it'll take to get our new high chair from Graco. At that point, the space saver chair can go to Uncle Jay's house to be brought out when we're there. That'll make fun time at Jay's a lot simpler!
BTW, I think Ian is really close to taking a first step. He can stand using something only 8" tall, and then lets go. He stands for inordinate amounts of time, unsupported. He's reaching from one place to another, even if they're not "connected." Here he is just randomly toying with standing up.
And his signs are progressing, but it's frustrating for all. Poor guy uses the same sign for everything, and is fully intent on communicating. At least that's a good step, though. Today, he told me that he needed to go back on the potty right as I was putting his diaper back on. "Uh Uh UH!" then he does his sign. Mostly today, he used it for potty!
