Ian - 2011 Wrap-up

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!

Christmas 2011

This year, Anja became somewhat obsessed with the idea of Christmas. For example, she suddenly found it completely unacceptable that we didn't have a star for the top of our tree. An angel wouldn't do, either. It was okay for other peoples' Christmas trees, but not ours. So, after much internet searching, we ventured off to find a star. Luckily she picked one that was appropriate for the size (4') of our tree and was also the least expensive! After hanging all the ornaments ("Except the b'eakable ones. I'm too little to do those. Only grown-ups can do the b'eakable ones. Silly Mommy!"), she added the star to the top of the tree.

Leading up to Christmas, Anja became very interested in Santa Claus. We had an interesting conversation about him one day:

Anja: "I need to go see Santa."

Me: "Why?"

Anja: "So I can tell him what I want for Christmas, silly!"

Me: "Oh, okay."

Anja: "But not the real Santa Claus. I have to go see a pretend Santa Claus."

Me: "Ummm...a pretend Santa? What do you mean?"

Anja: "Well, he's not the real Santa. He's just pretend."

Me: "Who told you that?"

Anja: "You did."

Me: "I did? What did I say?"

Anja: "The real Santa is up in the North Pole making all the toys, so he sends pretend Santas to talk to all the boys and girls. I need to go tell the pretend Santa that I want maracas for Ch'istmas."

Her dream of getting maracas for Christmas lasted longer than expected (2 months), but changed right before Christmas. Then it became a flute. And then she added drums. And a cymbal. And a kick drum. Luckily she fully believes that Santa actually makes all of the toys (hence the need for all the pretend Santas!), so she understood when I told her that Santa had run out of the parts needed to make those other instruments, but she could ask for them again next year. Maybe he'll have the parts then.

This year we traveled out to Wisconsin on the 23rd and spent 2 nights out there. We planned ahead and brought her stocking out with us. Since this is the first year we've personally done a stocking, we kept it simple, but she still loved it.

And since he's so young, we skipped the stocking for Ian. Instead, he scooted around on his stomach in his Santa sweatsuits, trying to get into his sister's castle.

Then we headed from the lakehouse to Grandma Judy and Grandpa Norm's house for a little relaxing and gifts and a lot of food.

Christmas morning, we got up and drove to Minneapolis to be with my family for the day. We had already celebrated Christmas with my brother, Mike, and my sister, Kim, and brother-in-law, Mark, but there were still a ridiculous number of presents to get through. Ian slept through most of it, but we did manage to get a picture of him opening his first present.

It's pretty blurry, but she's hard to capture since she moves so fast. She's opening a digital camera...

And her princess suitcase...

And one of Dan opening his toys, er, tools.

Among Anja's favorite presents were (in no particular order), the digital camera, suitcase, maracas, a jump rope, easel and paints, and monster bowling and clompers (those feet thingies in the first picture).

A picture of Anja's first drawing on the easel. It's a princess!

And her first painting:

Ian's favorites were a toy drum and keyboard.

Oh, and the boxes that Dan's tools came in.

Photo Shoots!

Since we didn't get as many pictures of just the kids as we wanted from our family photo shoot at Heritage awhile ago, we asked my sister, Jill, to take some pictures of Ian for his 9 month photos and a few of Anja, as well. Below are a few of my faves and here's the link to the full set of 500, if you feel so inclined!

And, as per tradition, we had our friend Jim take our family photo at Rice Park.

Conga

Today was Ian's 9 month check up. Good news - he's still growing. 22 lbs and 29.5" - this kid is almost half my height already! Otherwise, despite his cold, he's doing well. Looks like he's constantly on the verge of crawling, but never has. He will scoot along on his butt or stomach to get places and makes up for his lack of mobility with an incredible reach. He also has started pulling himself up a bit, so we definitely need to drop the crib down. At this rate, he may decide to walk first, like his mom and sister. But he's still the happiest little guy you ever did meet and loves his sister when she's being goofy and playing "upside down baby."
And for Anja's classic moment of the day, over dinner, we were talking about going to preschool tomorrow. We mentioned that there would be a party, but it was for lots of different things, not just Christmas.
Me: "They might call it a Christmas party, or a holiday party, or a winter party, or a Kwanzaa party, or a Hanukkah party..."
Anja, at the mention of Hanukkah, immediately puts down her dessert, gets down off her chair, and starts dancing while singing "Conga, conga, conga..."

Thanksgiving

As always, better late than not at all.

We had a non-traditional Thanksgiving this year.  On Thursday, actual Thanksgiving, we didn't have the big family meal.  Instead we hosted what I affectionately called, "Misfits Thanksgiving."  All of our friends and family that was otherwise unable to see their own family during the holiday came over.   We skipped a bird and put steaks on the table.  Instead of a pumpkin pie, I made pumpkin bars using actual pumpkin.

Clearly no one liked the bars.

While I was making pumpkin bars, everyone except Ian left to go watch the new Muppets movie. This was Anja's second movie and she loved it. She particularly liked, "Kromut the Frog." It was fun two nights ago when she came home with a project she had made at daycare, claiming she made her own "Muppets." There was no correcting her that it was a puppet.

I can see this working in a Gonzo scene.

On Friday, we did the big Thanksgiving celebration with Susi's family. Food, family, and conversation were excellent as always. Before we had Anja, we tried to split the Thanksgiving holiday between both households, and this year both families decided to have "the big meal" on Friday eliminating any real hope of doing a "split."  Generally, my family claims not to have any traditions. And, frankly, we don't do anything notable to mark the holidays. No big outings to church, no goofy sweater pictures, I don't even think we serve any particular dish every year. The closest thing we have is playing cards. That's right, a card game, a not even particularly well known card game. Grandma cuts up some sausage and cheese, then ensures we have crackers to swallow it down with. This year I feel I missed it more than others. I missed it enough to take a picture of the "kit" necessary to put it all together.

Just missing players.