Much Ado About Littles: Ian

As 2011 draws to a close, Ian has a few more accomplishments to add to his list.

*Ian now takes baths in the big bath tub. If he's by himself, it's an ok experience.

If he's with his sister, it's like he won the lottery.

*He now says mama, dada/daddy, hi, and bye. Those were in order of how often he uses them. He's still definitely a mama's boy. But he's still a man's man and loves remotes and hanging out in his diaper, playing on the computer.

*He has also started waving. But only if you wave first. And usually after you've already left.

*Despite the constant uttering of the phrase "He's going to be crawling any day now!" that has been repeated almost daily for the past several months, Ian still refuses to actually crawl. He loves standing and is getting quite proficient at scooting, but shows no interest in crawling or walking. But why bother? He's got lots of people to just pick him up!

*Ian is now transitioning to being a formula baby full time. We made it to 9 1/2 months and will fully transition by the time he's 10 months. At the same time, he's starting to use a sippy cup (with assistance). On a related note, Ian now has 4 teeth up top, 2 on the bottom, and at least 2 more on the way.

*Our little man is a big eater. He's really interested in table food and is frequently seen trying to swipe food off of someone's plate, even his cousin's.

(He was eventually successful.)

He loves pancakes, waffles, bread, peas, potatoes, yogurt melts, ice cream, cake (store bought or homemade), crackers (goldfish, townhouse, cheez-its, etc) noodles, yogurt...well, you get the picture. In addition to whatever he can have off of our plates, he'll often eat 2-3 containers of baby food, a handful of some sort of snacky food (Cheerios, puffs, etc), and then some water or formula. He's a growing boy!

(When he couldn't reach any more of his cousin's food,

he just grabbed the full pancake off of my plate!)

*As a growing boy, Ian is quite proud of how big he is getting and loves to show off that he's "soooooo big!" and then clap profusely for himself. Most of the time he forgets to do the "soooo big" part. But he's also very polite and will clap for you if you do it for him.

*Despite the fact that our little man is getting quite large, we still lug him around in his infant car seat. He can't wear a coat while he's in it, otherwise he doesn't fit, so we just tuck a warm blanket all around him and hope he doesn't untuck himself before we get to the car. It's a catch 22: If we move him to a rear-facing convertible car seat because of his size, we have to carry him around and can't just set him down. But we want to move him to the rear-facing convertible car seat because he's so heavy in his infant seat. We keep saying that we'll move him when it gets cold enough to warrant it. Since it was a pretty green Christmas, it may be a bit before that happens.

Happy 2011, Mr. Man! You've come a long way and we're thrilled to have you in our lives!

Keeping in mind that Ian and I were in the hospital for awhile after he was born and he received baths there, the 25th we gave him his first bath at home. It went far better than at the hospital, that's for sure. In fact, there was not even any poo involved. Can't say the same for the other end of things. Thank goodness for well placed wash cloths. He did look adorable after the fact, though.

And ever since then, Anja has been asking to help with Ian's baths. Today I asked what she wanted to do to help and she couldn't come up with anything, but wanted him to have a bath at the same time that she did. So that's exactly what we did. It worked out rather nicely, actually. And since his belly button hasn't healed enough to really get him in a bath, I decided to not press my luck and left his diaper on until the very end. Definitely a good move.