Sweet Moments

Our little outdoorsy boy now has a new favorite game to play outside with Mommy. Ian loves to sit in the grass and have Mommy lay in his lap! For some reason, he thinks this is so much fun. It is such a sweet time for us to sit and just spend time with each other.

Ian, Mommy sure loves our time together!

Popsicle Goodness

Ian had never had a popsicle before Cousin Maci was born. Neither James nor I eat them often, so we don't ever buy them. Good thing Aunt Kt was there to fill the gap for poor little popsicle-deprived Ian. He had his first popsicle at her house. He and Cousin would go outside and eat popsicles together. I somehow missed pictures of all of that, but I did get a few of the next time Ian and I were down there.

Yum...cousins enjoying popsicles!

Mmmm!

Of course, after that, I had to buy Ian popsicles (especially since he got sick and his mouth hurt). He loves to eat them on the back patio.

Sitting with Mommy on the bricks eating his popsicle.

Seriously...who cares about pictures when you have popsicles to eat!

They are pretty much good anywhere, anytime!

Thanks Aunt Kt for getting Ian his popsicle fix. He loves them!

Twenty-Five Months

Our little two year old has certainly blossomed in the last month. At 25 months, Ian is now:

* clearly saying "side" for going outside or inside.

* in love with popsicles, thanks to his Aunt Kt. He will run over to the freezer door and tug on it to let us know he wants one.

* loves watching the trash and recycle trucks do their thing every Monday morning.

* signing "candy" and "help" (in addition to "please", "more", "movie", and "eat").

* loving Sesame Street. In fact, he probably likes them just as much, if not more, than Veggie Tales right now!

* on a wonderful sleeping schedule. We can count on 11-12 hours at night and 2-3 hours during nap time.

* doing better with the hitting problem. He still hits fairly frequently, but is much more responsive to warnings and spankings.

* does NOT like having to sit in the cart at the store. We are starting to avoid Wal-Mart because all he wants to do is run through the garden section, including going back and forth through the double doors there and gets very upset when we won't let him do that. However, this is improving slowly and we actually had a great shopping trip at Wal-Mart the other day!

* is a rather picky eater. His main meals include black beans and cheese, pasta and cheese, and raviolis. Breakfast is either pancakes or waffles. He will sometimes eat bananas, strawberries, or grapes, but it's 50/50 on any given day whether he will eat them or not. If we put something in his mouth that he doesn't want to eat, he will either gag himself until he gets enough saliva to spit it back out or sit there with his mouth wide open, refusing to swallow. Sigh. I've just bought Pediasure to make sure he is getting enough nutrients.

* still holds his spoon upside down when putting in his mouth. It definitely makes getting anything that isn't pudding consistency into his mouth on a spoon a challenge. He has the right idea - the spoon fits nicely in his mouth upside down, but it just doesn't work well that way.

* has conquered the couch to floor distance and now loves to jump off the couch. This is about as high as Mommy is comfortable with, so I am hoping he doesn't go any higher for now!

* loves watching the toilet flush. I'm looking forward to the day that I can close the toilet lid and flush without a certain little toddler running over to throw the lid open to watch the action. Hopefully this will get him excited about potty training though!

* has figured out how to cover himself with his little blankets at bed time. For the first time since he was little bitty, he actually likes sleeping with his soft little blankets now. I'll often put him down on his back with Skip and his blanket and run into our room to watch him on the monitor. He'll turn over onto his back and pull his blanket up over him. It's so precious!

Happy 25 months, little man! We're happy to have survived our first month with a two year old and are looking forward to all the wonderful things that this year will bring. We love you!

Monday Pick-Ups

The Monday morning pick-me-up around here is trash and recycle pick-ups. Ian loves to watch big trash and recycle trucks do their thing. He has made friends with the drivers and they always wave when they see him.

Normally we go find them on Monday mornings during our walk, but I decided to put out some chairs this morning and let them come to us. Ian was more than happy to sit outside in his jammies and watch for the trucks.

We could hear them rumbling down the next street before they finally got to our street. Ian was really excited when they turned towards us.

Here comes the trash truck! Ian loves watching the drivers work the big claws to grab the trash cans and dump them in the trucks.

Mr. Recycle Man is our favorite. Ian always blows him kisses and he will blow them right back and honk his horn for Ian. As Kay, a good family friend said, it's the simple pleasures in life!

Mommy's Little Gardener

With this past crazy semester finally being over, we've been able to start tackling some much needed yard work. Unfortunately, all the yard work that really needs addressed is out front and our little runner doesn't see fit to stay still while Mommy trims hedges. So when I saw this great outdoor playpen a few months ago at a garage sale, I knew it would come in handy for the summer!

Ian seems to like it just fine. Sometimes we put his car seat in there so he can sit and read books. More often than not, he will drive one of his little cars around the top edge of the playpen. Whatever he did, it kept him safe and occupied and I was able to clear out seven garden bags worth of hedge and rose bush trimming over Memorial Day weekend!

Unfortunately, right after all that lovely trimming, our sprinkler system went out. Of course, Ian was happy to play in the old fashioned sprinkler we pulled from the garage. We couldn't have those newly trimmed hedges dying!

It took all of five minutes for Ian to get wet enough to convince Mommy and Daddy that it would be much more comfortable to let him run around in his diaper.

He has since discovered a love of watering. In this picture, he is watering his slides. I guess they need water to grow too!

In the midst of getting the sprinkler system fixed, we noticed the front faucet was dripping. Our clever little gardener didn't want to waste the water!

Haha...this just cracks me up. I was showing Daddy the faucet leaking, and Ian walked right up to take a drink!

Yummm...good ole fashioned faucet water!

Lol...he wasn't too happy about being wet again though!

So we took his clothes off and let him run in the sprinkler. So much fun!

In the last week, we have settled into a nice little gardening routine. The playpen has worked wonders as our little munchkin now WANTS to stay in the front yard with Mommy. So after our morning walk, we come back to the front yard and Ian helps me with yard work. He especially loves picking buds from the hedges and using the watering can.

The spot between the hedges and the bay windows is actually his favorite place to "garden". He can spend most of our time outside in that spot picking leaves and little buds off the hedges.

Haha - at least he's not stripping too many leaves from the front of the hedges!

I've been trying to clear out all the overgrown grass in the front beds and Ian has jumped right in to "help" me.

I'm so glad to see my little gardener having so much fun with all the yard work. I'm even more glad that he is just staying put in the front yard for twenty to thirty minutes at a time!

Shower Time!

Last week during bath time, our little water bug surprised all of us - especially himself - by pulling the shower plug hard enough to make it turn on full force!

He has played with this wonderful little plug on top of the faucet for the last year, but has never been able to pull it hard enough to get the shower to do more than drip. This time though, the shower was going full blast!

And oddly enough, he loved it! He didn't mind water in his eyes.

Even though he looks like he isn't enjoying the experience from the pictures, he was having a blast!

He just kept wiping his eyes and backing up even further under the stream of water.

He would walk forward out of the spray of the shower and then back into it, feeling very carefully behind his head for the spray to hit. As soon as he felt the water, he started giggling.

And then, of course, he would have to wipe his eyes again!

But he didn't mind. He got his washcloth and proceeded to take a shower instead of a bath.

Hehe...I love the tongue sticking out in this picture.

Ian had so much fun during his first full shower!

All week, he's turned the shower on right away and done most of his bath as a shower. Daddy has found it easier to lay him down in the tub to wash his hair, but that doesn't happen until after the shower is over (at Ian's insistence). Go figure! Little man, you always keep us guessing and we love you for it!

Candy

In the last two weeks, Ian has learned to sign "candy". The glass jar of skittles sitting on the bar is solely responsible for this new word. "Candy" is signed by twisting your index finger by your mouth (at least that's the variation that I thought was easiest for him to learn). The first time I showed him the sign and told him to sign it, he was so excited about getting Skittles that he started blowing kisses. It cracked us up! He was so excited about the Skittles and trying so hard to get it right - he was just going too fast!

But now, thanks to the lovely rainbow of Skittles, Ian signs "candy" like a two year old pro. I love his little sign - he twists his index finger with his other fingers outstretched.

Little boy, you are just as sweet as candy when you want something! Makes Momma and Daddy's hearts melt!

Mess Maker

One of the many reasons I have hardly blogged lately has been because I've been trying to get the house back in order after the semester finished. With help like this, it is rather hard!

Here's another example of Ian's "help". This is the before.

And this is literally four minutes later. (He likes to drive his trucks and cars off the edge of the toy chest.)


Oh well. He gets wonderful use out of all his toys and has a lot of fun in the process! Mommy is getting lots of good practice at picking up toys quickly!