Remember us?

Hello again! It has been a long time, as some of you have reminded me. I thought I would actually use this space again today to provide a few Ian updates and photos. With any luck, I will eventually press "publish" and you, dear reader, will see the fruits of my renewed labors.

A lot has happened since I last updated... a Thanksgiving-time trip to Williamsburg, Christmas at home, a visit with the Steve Johnsons at New Years and several new developments from Ian, who seems intent on growing up.

Where to begin? I'm going to buck the wisdom of Maria von Trapp and start at the end, largely because I find it so exciting. Today I put Ian down on the floor on his tummy while I was pumping his breakfast, and when I looked back at him after checking on my progress, I found him on his back. This is huge! A few weeks ago, I "taught" him that rolling over was possible by rolling him onto his tummy with one arm under him and then helping him to roll right back. As recently as last night he could not, however, roll over at will, and he became quite frustrated with his abortive attempts. He seems to have figured it out now, though, because he has managed to roll over entirely unassisted four times so far today, and he can do it when he decides not to melt down instead. I got the fourth time on camera:




Yesterday brought another milestone. We launched a program of eating dinner together around the table, now that we have a sturdy table and chairs and a booster seat for Ian. Those were procured this weekend from a consignment outfit and Target, respectively. The table and chairs are 70s-vintage, solid pieces that have the potential to last another 30 years, and while they perhaps lack a little something in the aesthetics department, they work perfectly for us and the price was right (cheap). Ian's dinner consisted of his usual milk in a bowl with a spoon. He did pretty well with the spoon concept (you might say he's had practice with spoon-feeding at communion at church), but he doesn't really like the experience since it lacks the efficiency of a bottle. In order to not frustrate him completely, after about 15 spoonfuls we put the rest in a bottle and let him finish up the usual way.




(Here we pause for baby comforting and play)

Now, to backtrack a bit. We've established a bedtime routine for Ian--bath, book, bottle, banana brush, blessing and bed (more on the banana brush in a moment)--and he now goes to bed quite nicely at his appointed hour. He usually doesn't even cry if he has his pacifier, and he falls asleep within 5 or 10 minutes. He has a somewhat later bedtime than he will have in a year or two, but it works nicely for us now. We have time together as a family in the evening, then he goes to bed. He sleeps until about 8 am, and the grown-ups, who still go to bed really late, actually have some time to ourselves after he goes to sleep.

About that banana brush... we've had lots of drooling and some fussing that would seem to indicate that some teeth are in the works. No breakthroughs yet. In preparation for the great tooth eruption, we have procured a baby banana brush (a silicone training toothbrush that just happens to be in a banana shape) that we use to get him used to the idea of brushing his teeth. He seems to like it... and it's kind of cute. :)

Ian was baptized in late October during a visit from his Grandma and Grandpa on mommy's side, as well as his two aunties (Erin and Angie), his uncle Jon and his cousins Talia and TBA (who is not yet visible as more than a bump). Ian and Mommy and the rest of the extended family went down to Charleston for a few days, which meant Ian's first visit to another state. The visit was very enjoyable for us! Pictures from all of this activity are on the other computer, so I will try to put them up later. To assuage you, I offer kitty and kiddy napping together. The kitties are discouraged from getting in and on Ian's things, but once in a while the results of kitty defiance are too cute to disrupt immediately.



Ian picked up a new state - Virginia - over Thanksgiving. It was the sort of trip we are almost able to laugh at now, but at the time it was almost more stressful than it was enjoyable. Having a baby who requires tons of gear (much of it milk pumping/storage supplies) made for a stuffed-to-the-gills car, and the site-seeing was minimal just because it took so much out of us to get ready to go for the day, and everything we needed for the day tended to have to be carried with us. Backs groaned and stress grew and unforecasted sleet fell and we had a bit of the sort of luck Daniel's brother Steve seems to enjoy -- almost comically bad. You know what they say, though, "What doesn't kill you...", well, in this case, it just kills your wanderlust for a while. That said, it was worth doing. We now just know what it is like to travel with a baby!

We had a pleasant visit with Dan's mom after we got home from the trip. We didn't do much, but it was much less stressful than the trip, we enjoyed her company, and we think Ian's grandma rather enjoyed Ian. :)

Christmas was quiet at home with just the three of us. It was quite nice. The grown-ups opened gifts in the wee hours of Christmas morning in order to take advantage of quiet time while Ian was sleeping to have Christmas ourselves. Once Ian awoke, we opened his presents with him, which took hours on its own. He was not hurting in the gifts department, and we have lots of people to thank for that!

We had a lot of fun visiting with Steve, Jayne, Thomas and Paul over New Years. Most of the visit was spent in a low-key fashion at our place with the help of Bananagrams and Wii. It is fun to see how Ian's cousins have grown into great young men. Paul especially enjoyed Ian, so it was fun to watch them interact.

A slideshow, which includes video of Ian opening one of his Christmas presents, follows:


Ian has started a once-a-month visit to UNCG to participate in a study on the emergence of hand preference in infants. The first visit was fun, as it just meant play and a $10 Target gift card. The card went a lot of the way towards the purchase of his booster seat.

It's time for Ian's bottle and he has tired of helping me type, so I had best sign off. I will probably add some photos and video later, so check back if you managed to see this in the unadorned version.

Until then, we hope you are all enjoying a wonderful 2010!