Life with a Toddler

Ian is quite a little terror right now. He is into everything and is starting to be able to move faster than me. Yesterday morning I was in his room because we had been playing but he went into the living room to look around and next thing I hear is him poring cereal on the floor. He had taken a box of cereal off of the kitchen table and dumped into onto the carpet. While I was trying to clean that up he found the cup of water Aaron had left by the bed and he dumped that. At one point during the same day I discovered him dipping the telephone in the toilet! I have heard myself say 'Don't touch one more thing Ian or I will have to kill you.'

I run around sounding like that Bill Cosby skit where he is just stuttering 'don't don't no no no don't no no'. While I am chasing him all over the house. Today I took him shopping with me and I am so glad he didn't actually run out of the dressing room while I had no pants on. I'm not sure what I would have done. I told my Mom about this today and she just laughed that evil laugh that says the curse came true! You know when she cursed me by saying, "One day I hope you have a child just like you."

As much as he can drive me crazy I am writing this with a smile on my face. He is such a delight. So curious and full of wonder. It makes me look at the world with the eyes of a child, and that really is a blessing.

The Fifteen Month Stats

I love this picture of Aaron and Ian. Ian had just woken up from a four hour nap with his hair all crazy looking. It was a little startling when I went to collect him and this was peeking out at me. We all had a good laugh!

Ian had his 15 month well child checkup on Tuesday. He got an A. He currently weighs in at 25.3 lbs which puts him in the 62nd percentile. He is 32.7 in tall which is in the 90 percentile and his head is 19 in in circumference putting him at 83%. His soft spot has closed up right on time and he continues to develop right by the book. All but one of his canines has broken through as of today - I think I had reported that this had happened already but I was wrong. It's hard to tell because he won't show me his teeth without struggle so most of the time I don't bother or I get bit before I get a good look but today he was on the changing table singing at full volume so I was able to take a gander. One more tooth and we'll be done until the two year molars. Whew!

He continues to amaze us at every turn. Yesterday Aaron was rolling out pizza dough and Ian picked up the rolling pin and started to do the same. Then this morning he reaches over and puts the cover back onto the butter dish. I guess I thought this kind of controlled and deliberate actions were still in the future. He was just a baby a couple months ago!!

Check out Stek's Diner - There's a Post!

Updates

To follow up on the last post... I have decided to take Ian out of Country Peas daycare. Mainly because Maria made a really good point she said, "whether any thing is wrong or not, could you live with yourself if anything happened to Ian and you hadn't moved him?" Kinda puts it in perspective, doesn't it? So the good news is that Layale is going to watch him which is really a win win situation. It costs us about half - she won't take more and he is with someone that I trust completely and loves him dearly. When we move to Chicago I think we will look for a daycare center. It seems to me that they are a bit more regulated or maybe Aaron will stay home with Ian. We will see what the budget is like when we have to start paying off student loans, etc.

So the other news I forgot to update y'all with is that we went and talked to the baby making doctor. Apparently transferring embryos is a much less intrusive process and we can do it after we move to Chicago. We just have to make a trip up here the week of the transfer. So we are going to take our time, let Ian wean on his own time, get settled into Chicago and the new job, then worry about baby number two. The other thing they told us is that this time they will let the embryos mature another two days to the blastocyst stage and then only transfer one - so no twins!

We took Ian out to get a good pair of walking shoes from Stride Rite. Expensive but I think he should have a good shoe for a first walker. We had gotten the little Chuck Taylors but he was fighting wearing them so I got the idea that maybe they hurt his feet. Since when we had him fitted we found he is a size 6 extra wide, I wouldn't be surprised if the Chucks hurt his feet. I can't wear them because my feet are too wide. So he has himself his first pair of fifty dollar shoes and probably his last until he is buying his own shoes! But at least his first shoes are good and sturdy.

Catchin' Up on All the News

With the chaos of new job, finals, Christmas, etc there are some things I have failed to record in this journal about the little benchmarks of Ian's life. So here it goes:

The week before Christmas Ian learned to walk. Not just the first steps of the previous month but full on walking. So now, in the midst of an eerily warm January he is walking almost exclusively and on Friday the 11th we went out and bought him his first pair of outdoor walking shoes. He got himself a pair of size 6 red one star Chuck Taylors just like his Daddy's. Ian didn't get hightops or size 14 like his Dada buy opted for the easier to put on low boys. He is quite proud of them and likes to walk by himself outside.

I probably noted when Ian was getting his molars as this was a horribly painful two weeks for the whole family. I thought at that time that he was getting all four at once but the fact was he was only getting the first. When I realized this, I experience a certain amount of anxiety for the upcoming teeth, yikes I thought I would never sleep again! It has all turned out well because I think that he did get all of them in position during those two weeks. So the pushing up through the gums must have been the hard part because the rest of the four have come in with little fanfare. They have all broken through the gums and are working there way in. On Friday or Saturday I noticed Ian was chewing on everything and pulling on his ears (something he does when he is in pain) and so I took a look around the mouth to see that he has three of his canines broken through! He must be getting good at this teething thing because never has he not informed me of upcoming teeth several weeks in advance!

Last night we got our first vomit. Aaron was passing Ian down to me in the glider so I could put him to sleep and Ian let loose all over my lap. Yeek Yak. It must have been just a belly ache because it seems to be a singular experience and once the stomach was emptied he was fine. Today, I scrubbed the carpet and did laundry... we survive the first of what I'm sure will be many.

More daycare issues. I am trying to decide whether to pull Ian out of his daycare. On Thursday I showed up to get Ian and witnessed through the window one of the workers tossing Ian onto the couch with enough force that he bounced. She was angry - it wasn't in play and his head whipped front to back in the process. Not so hard that I am concerned that he was hurt. He didn't start crying but it was definitely inappropriate. So we have the incident with the diaper bag where I was treated with little respect and I found out that they occasionally use undiluted bleach to clean surfaces. No big deal. But then there was a time I stopped in unannounced and found the children unattended. I had to go searching and calling out for someone. If they couldn't hear me how could they hear the children? Then this last incident. It is so hard to find a place with openings and find a good place I just don't know. It's so hard to leave your child with someone else... It has always involved just one of the workers there. The others are great...

Anyone feel like giving me a little advice, I'd love to hear it.

Good Morning

After considerable effort on all of our parts it appears that Ian has learned to fall asleep on his own and as a consequence has started sleeping most of the night through. I say most, because he gets hungry once in the night or sometimes it is the early morning. Aaron and I are blissfully enjoying having our own bed back and sleeping in it regularly - not just napping between taking care of Ian. We are all happy!

Tomorrow we go see the baby doctor again. Just as a consultation. AZAZ dc (Ian wrote that) Don't everyone get too excited - we just need to find out if this is something that needs to be done before we move to Chicago or not. I would rather wait until I had been at my job for a year. But our children are in the freezer here in Ann Arbor and I'm not sure they are old enough to travel.

My last semester is on it's way - happy to have the beginning of the end. I am taking three classes this semester: Finite Element Analysis, a Solid Mechanics course from Mechanical Engineering and Plastic Design of Steel Structures. I already have a full load of homework - assigned the first day of classes! Overall though, I don't think it will be as bad as last semester. I'm not sure I could survive another one of those.

Off to school!