Quickie Ian-isms

Dear Ian,

Here's just a quick glimpse into your little world and the way you think.  The things that come out of your mouth simply crack me up.

Conversation we had in our car recently:
Mommy:  Hey Bear, guess what?
Ian:  What?
Mommy:  I love you
Ian:  Again?

By the way, the answer to that is always, little buddy.  But moving on...

In the car on the way home from dinner.  Daddy was driving.

Ian:  Don't drive too fast Daddy, 'cause you might go to the po-po.

Good lord, Son.  I have to thank your Papa Davis for that little gem.  Apparently there's a country song by Dierks Bentley that features the lyrics "5-1-5-0, somebody call the po-po," and when Daddy and I returned from our weekend trip to Jacksonville, you greeted us with your new song. And apparently you understand the meaning.  Sigh. 

Also according to Grandma and Papa Davis, you are politically minded as well.  At some point this weekend, Papa Davis asked you who you thought should be President of the United States.  Both Papa and Grandma tell that you took a few minutes to think about it before answering their question.  Your answer:  Santa Claus.  We all think it's a pretty good idea, too. 

You always keep us guessing about what you're going to say or do next, and you never fail to make us laugh.  For that, and for many, many more reasons, we love you so much.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

I is for Ian!

Dear Ian,

Sweet boy, you never cease to amaze me with your ability to just do things.  You simply sit down and decide to do it.  From crawling, where you just got up and took off across the room, to walking, where you watched a video of your cousin Payton doing it and decided that you too needed to do that, to just about anything else.  You picked up my French horn and made a tone that would make a sixth grade beginning band student jealous, perfect embouchure and all.  You learned letters by simply watching, of all things, Vanna White and Wheel of Fortune.  And now, here you are again, just blowing me away by just doing something new. 

This morning, we went to the library.  I was looking for a particular book, so I needed to use the card catalog computer system thingie.  I put you up on the stool next to me, and you amused yourself by doodling with the pencils and scrap paper next to the work station.  I was deep into my search, so when you all of a sudden shouted, "Look Mommy!" (we really need to work on library voices), I was shocked.  Then I looked at what you showed me, and I was floored!!  There it was, carefully printed in your shaky script: a capital I.  You had written the first letter of your name! 

Now, I know the letter I isn't really a toughie, and let me tell you, I actually thought about that when naming you.  In all caps, your name is pretty linear, and probably pretty simple to learn how to print.  I figured it would make your life a little easier.  Mommy is type A, after all.  But I digress, and I DO NOT want to diminish what you did AT ALL!  I was just bursting my buttons over your new-found printing ability.  You carried your little paper around the library while we looked at books, but now I am not sure where it ended up.  But no matter.  You made up for losing it with lots of practice this afternoon.

 My little writer.  Mommy is so proud. 

 Printing in your favorite color.

 Practice makes perfect!  By the time you were finished, the paper was covered in the letter I. 

You know how to draw circles, so I am now waiting for you to figure out that a line and a circle makes your lower case A next.  Then there will be no stopping you.  Your name will be all over everything.  And I will love it!  Until you end up writing your name on something inappropriate.  I guess we'll need to have that talk next.  

Love you, I-A-N!  

Mommy

Total Recall

Dear Ian,

I got to thinking the other day about all the stuff we do and all the ideas I come up with to entertain and educate you and whether or not at this point you will remember any of it.  Well, you'll remember some by proxy due to this blog; me recording it for later will help you recall some of the fun and sometimes crazy things we do together in the name of fun.

Falling in the crazy category is what we did the other day.  After a morning lesson, which you were very patient throughout, and after a short nap (what is up with those, by the way?), we went out for a special snack.  Originally I was thinking ice cream, but since Mommy is trying to downsize, I figured we would go to Tropical Smoothie instead.  Mommy could get her sugar free smoothie, and you could have something with fruit in it and a little less sugar that ice cream.  No, this isn't the crazy part.  Well, Mommy turning down ice cream is a bit monumental, but the crazy part comes next.

You, completely mesmerized.

On the way home, we stopped off at the huge construction site that will soon become our Whole Foods store.  I had kinda scoped it out on the way to Tropical Smoothie, and there's an insurance office right next to it, that I thought we could sneak through their bushes and sit on the top of a hill to watch the trucks.  In reality, this "hill" was basically a drop-off into the construction site, so I figured it wouldn't be a good idea.  So instead, this nutty Mommy escorted you down the sidewalk, where we proceeded to sit and watch the big machines for about 20 minutes.  Yes, that's the crazy part.  We were sitting on a sidewalk about six feet from one of the busiest streets in Tallahassee.  I at least put my body behind yours, in the event a car came hurtling over the curb; I would stop it before it got to you.  HA!  Good thing no one from DCF happened to drive by that spot at that particular moment.  I was on guard, poised to single-handedly stop traffic if I needed to do so.

You, however, paid no attention to the crazy traffic behind you.  You were completely transfixed on the goings on below us.  There were track excavators, dump trucks, rollers, site dumpers and all kinds of dudes in hard-hats.  You were in Heaven, and at that moment, Thomasville Road traffic be damned, I was the coolest.  You kept saying, "Wow!  Thanks for showing me, Mommy!"  And that just melted my heart.  Or at least the part of my heart that wasn't leaping into my throat whenever a car sped by.

What we risked life and limb to watch. 

It truly was one of those moments that I hope you can remember and maybe look back on and think, "My mom stopped everything she was doing so I could watch big trucks.  Maybe I can send her to the nice nursing home."

Love you Bear,
Mommy

Works of Art #35

This was sort of an extended project.

All because of this book, you have been completely fascinated about the fact that you live on planet Earth.  I could tell you that someone lives in Cairo, Georgia, and your response is usually, "they live on planet Earth, too!"  So I've been trying to break it down for you from biggest to smallest where you and others live.  I've done this project before with my pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes, but I used stacking cups.  Since I packed yours away with most of your other baby toys, we decided to make a book instead.  Here you have: Where I Live, by you.  Congratulations, you're a "published author and illustrator." 

 The planet you live on is Planet Earth.  You do get the concept that there is water only on Earth, so we got the blue part down.  Had a hard time convincing you there was LAND on Earth, since the picture we were using for reference had clouds over most of the land.  I eventually impressed upon you that we live on Earth, and there is grass for us to stand on.  Alright!

 The country you live in is the United States.  Yes, I know I should have included our continent, but we'll get to the advanced version of this a little later on. 

 The State you live in is Florida.  I love how in your ideal little world, both our country and state are your favorite color.  Anyhoo.  Florida.  No laughing at my pictures, by the way.  Even if all the land masses sort of look like chicken nuggets.  And I feel that I also need to add that when we read the State of Florida page, it includes much yelling of "Florida State, Florida State, Florida State!  Wooo!!"

 The County you live in is Leon, and the City you live in is Tallahassee.  I tried to be correct here and include the county, but you're not quite getting that part. 

Finally: Home, sweet home.  You've known our street name for a while now, so it's about time to start teaching you the actual address.  We'll see how it goes.  

Snapshot

Dear Ian,

You and I started this morning off a little rough.  You wanted something I didn't think you should have, you got cranky about it, I sent you to your room for whining and not using manners, and the tears began to flow.  It's the phase of life we're in, where I have to occasionally disagree with you, and you adamantly protest my decisions and rules.  It's TONS of fun, let me tell you.  (Son, please note that the last sentence was so loaded with sarcasm that it could self destruct at any moment.)  Ahem.  Where was I?  Oh yes.  Tantrums.  While they don't seem to be growing in number, they do seem to be developing an intensity that I don't think I expected from you.  Typically you're pretty chill, and you will acquiesce to my guidelines, but lately it's as if chill-ness was like the calm before the storm.  You were lowering my defenses so you could levy the big guns.  Well, keep in mind that it wont work and that we'll just have to figure this out, but in the meantime, it's been a little nutty around here.  This morning's episode had me standing in my bedroom counting to ten before I let you come down from your bedroom exile.  And I reminded myself that you've only been on the planet for only about a thousand days, and that you are still learning to navigate this little world I've created for you.  I also started thinking that one of these days you'll be 22 instead of just two, and I will miss the little creature that you are right now.

It's been a while since I did one of these "Ian in the Moment" posts (here's the last one, and here's one that's even older), so I thought it would be a good idea to capture you right now at two and three quarter years old.

All about Ian

2.75 years old

You love:
* the color purple.  The actual color, not the movie.
* cooking with Mommy and Daddy.  You and Daddy make the best pancakes.
* putting together large floor puzzles.  You can almost do a 36 piece puzzle by yourself!
* reading books.  Lately we've introduced Curious George and other longer books.
* playing with trucks and tractors.  When you get out of bed, you immediately start playing with them, and hearing you vrooming and put-putting around your room makes me smile.
* going to the park with Daddy.
* watching Caillou, Super Why and Curious George.
* you also love to curl up with Daddy and watch old episodes of Star Trek.
* lunch dates with Mommy.
* playing with your friends and cousins.
* drawing and coloring and playing with playdough.
*  Lovey.  'Nuff said about that one.
* ravioli, cherries (all manner of fruit actually) and tuna sandwiches from Subway.
* racing up and down the hallway of the house.
* playing your guitar, my french horn or any other instrument.  Lately we've even been having parades in our house where you assign Daddy and I an instrument, line us up and lead us around the house making all kinds of noise.

You do not like:
* broccoli
* having your toenails cut (you don't mind getting your fingernails cut, but you HATE it when I reach for your toes.)
* being left out of the conversation (tough noogies there, Bubba.  Sometimes you have to sit still and listen until it's your turn to talk).

You can:
* recite the alphabet and recognize and name all the letters.
* even recognize some words and are reading them.
* count to 12, and you've got the one-to-one correlation thing down.
* do simple addition and subtraction.  Daddy is the math teacher around here...
* Hop on one foot, gallop, balance, jump and almost do a somersault.
* draw a smiley face, cut with scissors and string small beads.

There's so much more what I could fill this post with, but I'm sure I've posted about them before.  It's amazing to look back on the older posts of what you were doing back then and compare that list to now.  Every day you're learning something new, getting better at a previously known skill or outgrowing baby things.  I'm glad I have this outlet to record little you so we can look back months or even years from now and see how far you've come.

No matter how hectic and frustrating our two-year-old issues can be, all I have to do is think about how in the future all those little skirmishes will wane compared to the bigger picture.  Bigger you, grown from little you.  Every day, every challenge will help you grow and change.  Hopefully for the better, since through me you are learning boundaries and what not.  Although right now, you probably just see me as a big grouchy ogre.

But this ogre loves you.
Love,
Mommy

Works of Art #34

Summer is in full swing, and lately we've been having a blast doing all kinds of fun things both inside and outside.  Lately though, Mommy has been feeling a little under the weather, so playing outside has not been high on my list.  Today being one of those days, we went to Firefly Pottery and you got to paint a ceramic piece.  After much deliberation, you chose a guitar.  True to yourself, you decided you wanted to paint it purple.  Normally they give you a few colors to work with, and I figured you wouldn't be thrilled with just one color on your palate, so I took a creative approach to make all those happy ends come together.  Lately we have been talking about mixing primary colors to make secondary colors, and so I asked you what two colors made purple.  You promptly responded, "Red and blue!"  So the sweet, patient lady at Firefly put those two colors on your palate. 

You worked so hard on it, and it already looks pretty good.  Cant wait to see the finished product after they fire and glaze it and all.  Here's you doing your ceramic painting:

 Working so hard on your piece.  You hardly spoke at all during the entire process, and you were meticulous to make sure that all the white was covered.  I'm beginning to think maybe you got a little of your Mama's OCD.

Painting the inside.  The piece was actually a little box, so you got two pieces to work on.  You covered the inside, the bottom and the sides.  Again, no white showing.  Goober.

  The completely painted lid.  See, no white.  And I did not help, one little bit.  I basically sat there next to you for twenty minutes collecting dust while you worked away.  You really seemed to enjoy it, though, so it was worth it.

In about a week we will go pick up the completed piece.  You are already talking about  how "Daddy will be impressed with my painting work."  I'll make sure to update this post with a final photo.

Love you Bear,
Mommy
 

Here Fishie Fishie

Dear Ian,

Congratulations!  You are now the proud owner of your very first pet!  What started off as a simple trip to Home Depot to purchase a shed turned into parenthood for you.  We were supposed to meet Grandma and Papa Davis at Home Depot so they could help us haul our new shed home.  Papa had to finish up mowing, so we got there a little before they did, so we wandered through PetSmart to get out of the heat and give you something fun to look at!  PetSmart is great for free entertainment of toddlers; we have done it many times before.  It's like a domestic-animal-zoo, and perfect for little people like you who are obsessed with animals.  In your case, fish are the main target of your obsession.  You wandered up and down the fish display for almost a half an hour asking me what kind each fish was, how old they were, etc, etc.  Finally, I broke down and just did a little recon to see how much set up costs would be for a simple goldfish.  The fish itself was very economical (13 cents, to be exact), which is what we needed for a starter fish-parenting experience.  What I found was also pretty good, price wise.  We could purchase a plastic bowl, a bag of gravel, food and water conditioner all for ten dollars!  I sent Daddy a quick email asking what he thought of the whole thing, and he approved of our fish purchase.

We walked down to Home Depot, and on the way I told you the exciting news.  The grin on your face was just priceless.  So as we strolled, hand in hand, I asked you what you wanted to name your new little fish.  Without hesitation you responded, "Pluto."  And you grinned.  So cute!  Pluto it was, and you never wavered on your name choice.  You told Grandma and Papa as soon as you saw them, told the lady at PetSmart, and when she handed you your little bag, you proudly held up your fish and said, "This is Pluto!"  I have absolutely no idea where you came up with this name.  The only thing I can think of is that we have been reading your Solar System book a lot; maybe we've read the part about the dwarf planet Pluto a couple too many times.  I know it's not from the Disney reference.  Either way, and however you came up with it, I have to admit, it's a cute and original name for a fish, especially from an almost-three-year-old.  

Pluto the fish, in his new home.

So far, Pluto has made it home in his bag, and he survived the transfer from bag to bowl, and now he's swimming happily in circles while you take a nap.  I am thankful for the fact that when the lady at PetSmart asked which kind and color of goldfish you wanted you simply said orange.  In the event that something were to happen to Pluto...  I think by now you see where I am going here. 

Anyhoo.  Daddy and I are hoping to help you learn responsibility with your fish, and we have already learned a rule: no putting hands in Pluto's water.  You've decided that you will feed Pluto at breakfast time, and I think I'm going to make a kid version of our household calendar so we can mark when it's time for us to change his water. 

Now we're pet owners, and I am excited to watch you learn to take care of your little pet.  I know that one day soon you'll be asking for a dog, a pony, or Lord forbid, a snake, but for now you are completely happy and smitten with your fish.  Happy Birthday to Pluto, and welcome to the family!

Welcome to the family, Pluto!

Love you and your new little fish bunches,
Mommy and Daddy

We're Growing!

Dear Ian,

You have a new cousin!  And this time it's a BOY!  Uncle Brian and Aunt Maggie's little boy was born early this morning: July 8, 2012 weighing six pound and nine ounces.  And his name?  When you read it, you'll never believe that Aunt Maggie chose it.  Without any further ado, here is:

Nole Rollins Davis

6lbs 9oz

19.5 inches long

July 8, 2012 12:31am

I drove up to Atlanta to meet him, and thankfully Aunt Maggie waited until I arrived.  Sound barriers were broken however.  Anyhoo, I arrived, and Grandma and Papa Davis were already there, and the doctor decided that Aunt Maggie would probably have the baby around four or five in the morning.  So The Grands and I decided to head to the hotel for a quick nap before the baby show began.  We had just started to put our jammies on when Uncle Brian called and said it was time for Nole to be born.  Good grief!  We threw our clothes back on and went rushing back to the hospital.  That was at around 11:15pm.  We waited in the waiting room, and then at 12:31, Nole was born.  Uncle Brian texted us at 12:40am to announce his arrival.  Then we got to see him.  And he is just perfect.  He is smaller than you, and like I know I said when Taylor was born, it is so hard to believe you were that tiny.  

I haven't gotten to hold your new little cousin yet; when he was born, he had a bit of fluid in his lungs, so he had to hang out in the special nursery and cry a bit to work it out.  But when we left the hospital, he was letting his opinion be known.  He's a vocal little dude already.  And a 'Nole fan already, too!  I hope to get a picture of him today in all the Seminole garb he has, and Uncle Brian said that when he was born his arm was up by his head, most likely doing the Warchant.  We're a nutty bunch. 

So now I'm off to the hospital with Grandma and Papa to see him again now before coming home to you.  I can't wait to give you a big hug when I get home.  And I REALLY can't wait to watch you and your new cousin playing football in the yard in what will seem like the blink of an eye.

Love you so much!

Mommy



Summer Fun

Dear Ian,

Believe it or not, our summer time at home is swiftly coming to an end.  As I type this, we are rounding off the first week in July, and that means we have next week together, the week after that, and then Mommy has to teach the twirlers during band camp week in Cairo.  Sadly, that week marks our last week of summer for just the two of us.  During my band camp week, you will continue to have fun with Grandma Brooks, and then the week after that, we both go to Advent Summer Camp for two weeks.  I will be teaching, and you will be having a blast getting yourself re-acclimated to the whole going-to-school thing.  Then it's a week of pre-planning for me for the school year, and then we're back to school.  The whole summer has felt like it's gone by in the blink of an eye.   But then I look back on all the fun things we have done this summer, and I realize that we have crammed a lot of fun in the past few weeks.

Here, in pictures and in stories, are some of the fun things we've done so far...

 To kick off the summer, we headed to the beach on Memorial Day weekend with Uncle Gary, Aunt Megan and cousins Payton and Taylor.  The two of you had a blast playing in the waves and digging in the sand, but I think the highlight of the whole trip for you was seeing cars get stuck in the deep sand in the parking lot.  Car after car kept driving over a deep section of sand and getting stuck.  You were transfixed; watching them spin their wheels as they tried to get out fascinated you.  And you asked about it over and over in the car on the way home.  We capped the day off with a yummy dinner at Posey's, complete with delicious fried seafood and tasty margaritas.  You and Pay even shared a non-alcoholic strawberry daquari!

You at the planetarium, watching the skies

   Next, you and I decided to explore our home town.  There's so much to do in Tallahassee, and you are finally old enough to start enjoying some of the stuff there is to offer.  On this day, you and I, accompanied by Issa, Lorelei and Miss Patty, headed downtown to the Planetarium at the Challenger Learning Center.  They show short movies specially designed for school groups and young kids, and I thought this would be great for you, and it was!  We saw "The Little Star that Could," a short film about a star that was searching for planets to orbit around him.  The star ended up being our sun, and throughout the film, you learned some neat facts like how the hottest stars are the blue-white ones, and the coolest stars are the red ones.  Surprisingly enough, you actually remember these facts!  Before the movie started, the man running the program first showed a presentation about the night sky over Tallahassee, and if truth be told, I think you enjoyed this as much as the movie.  When we finished at the planetarium, Miss Patty and I figured that since we were paying for parking at Kleman Plaza, we might as well get our money out of it, and so we took the two of you to the top of the Capitol.  While you were impressed with the elevator ride, being on the observation deck only held your attention as a large space to run laps, so that didn't go as well as we would have hoped.  Next time...

Our next adventure was just a random trip to the library.  You love to look at books, and since we had read most of the books we have at home at least 100 times, we set off to find some new ones!  You picked your own books, six of them in all, and we ventured back home to read.
Here's a picture of you in your car seat on the way home with one of your library selections.  We have to return them soon, so we'll get to head back to the library again.  Maybe we'll get a few more books.  After this trip to the library, we got to stop by Daddy's work and give him a surprise visit.  You love to go to Daddy's office.  You like to look at all the computers and see all the people.  Best of all, you like to sit in Daddy's lap in his big office chair.  During this visit, I introduced you to Daddy's white board and dry erase markers.  You really got into that, and I foresee quite a few more drawings on Daddy's board.

Let's see...  We've done a fair bit of traveling this summer, too.  From Cohocton to Destin, you've logged a good number of miles between June and now.  Our trip to New York was great, and it was so nice to spend some of the hot summer in a place where we actually had to wear jackets at night.  The weekend after we returned from New York, we packed up and were off again, this time to Destin to spend Father's Day weekend at the beach and the Army Recreation Facilities with Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa Brooks, the Mackies and your Aunts and Uncles on the Brooks side.  Once again, you got to have a super time!  They had a great water park at the rec center, so we spent a good amount of time there, but we also hit up a little-used beach right around the corner.  It was really just us there.  It was awesome.  We went to dinner at McGuire's the the Back Porch, and we had a lot of fun on the boat out in the bay.  The water was so clear it looked like we were swimming in a saltwater pool.  Awesome. 

Since I didn't really get to post about that trip, here are a few more pictures from our Destin weekend:

 Here's a picture of you at the splash park at the Army Rec Center.  The splash park is a new addition to the center as of this year, and can I just say that they timed THAT perfectly?!  Last year you might have been just a little too young, but this year is was fabulous!  You had an amazing time running around and getting wet.

The next picture is another one from the boat ride in the bay.  We took the boat out to a shallow area where a bunch of other boats had anchored and people were swimming and  having fun.  Of course, we jumped in too, as evidenced by the picture above, and it was so nice.  The water was perfectly clear and not too cold.  You swam a bit, but then got out to warm up and have a treat with Daddy.  There was a man selling ice cream treats off a boat, and your Daddy got you this ice cream sandwich to share.  You really seemed to enjoy it! 

Finally, on our last day in Destin, we went to our "Secret Beach" that no one else was using for a little sand and surf. You splashed around like a fish and had a great time catching hermit crabs.  It was the perfect way to end our weekend.

 So then we finally were back to just hanging out around the house.  Tropical Storm Debby did a number on us, as we were stuck inside as she soaked all of Tallahassee, but if you will remember from a few blog posts back, we made do and entertained ourselves inside by turning the living room into the world's biggest sheet fort.  We are still using this little activity to fill times where it is too blasted hot to go outside, and thankfully the thrill hasn't worn off yet. 

We are still going out quite a bit, though.  We do tricycle rides, play in our garden sprinkler (while watering the plants; killing two birds with one stone and all) and when it is cooler in the evenings we bust out the sidewalk chalk.  Mommy is also trying to teach lessons this summer as well, so I've had to be creative to find ways to amuse you without baking you in the sun or parking you in front of the tv in the air conditioning.  Thank goodness for Pinterest, because it gave me the idea you see here.  I used a tin lasagna plate that I filled with water, and then I submerged some dollar store plastic animals in it and froze it.  At the beginning of my lesson, I took it outside and separated it from the tin pan and gave you a hammer.  Your job was to hammer the little animals out of the ice, and you really got into it.  Since I first did this project, you have done it about three more times, so it seems to be a hit, if you'll pardon the pun. 

Our sprinkle cookies!

Finally we are up to this past few days of fun and our Fourth of July Celebration.  Continuing with tradition, we once again packed our suitcases (which I think we have been living out of them for a while now) and headed to The Lake.  Yes, capital letters for that are necessary.  Before we left, however, you and I made cookies just for this holiday.  We used sugar cookie dough, rolled it into balls and then you rolled the dough balls in sprinkles.  When they baked, they flattened out and the sprinkles spread out into the cookie.  They turned out great!

Driving with Papa

But back to the festivities... Tuesday evening, Seminole State Park did their fireworks show, and like usual, we headed over to watch on the boat.  This year, instead of having the Bayliner boat, we traveled in the lap of luxury on the new pontoon boat.  Due to the massive influx of grandchildren, they decided, like in Jaws, that we needed a bigger boat, so they traded in the old boat and purchased the floating playpen.  It is AWESOME!  Like riding on your couch on the water.  But anyhoo...  The fireworks at the park were great, and when we got home, you got to experience your first fun with fire: sparklers.  Again, Pinterest came through with the great idea to stick the sparkler through the bottom of a plastic cup to keep your hand from getting "sparklered."  Despite looking like Captain Hook, you really seemed to like doing the sparklers.  On the actual 4th of July, we loaded up the boat again and headed to the Flint River in Bainbridge to watch the fireworks on the river.  We made sandwiches on the boat, and you, Payton and Uncle Gary and Aunt Megan all swam in the river.  The fireworks were great, and although you were getting a little grumpy from being up late two nights in a row, it was a really fun night. 

And now, here we are.  Summer's coming to a close, but we still have a lot of time left to play.  I'm even having trouble deciding what to do next.  It's been a great few weeks, just the two of us, and it's been even better when Daddy's been able to join in.  I know that I'll be glad when you are back in school having fun with your friends, and I will have all of these summer memories to look back on and make me smile.  I hope that one day you will be able to recall them and smile, too. 

I'll end this post with a picture of all of us on the boat on the 4th of July.  Summer time has been family time, and that has meant the world to me.

Thanks for a summer of great memories, Little Man!

Love,
Mommy
 

Works of Art #33

Dear Ian,

I am a lunatic.  I'm sure by now you've figured that out, but it makes me feel better to just get it out there.  People understand that I understand the depth to which my neurosis runs.  You're almost three years old, and at this stage, due to my Child Development and teaching background, I knew that it was time for your drawings to start, well, taking shape.  You are an active man, and lately art just hasn't kept your attention.  Things like playing on your tricycle and just jumping around the house in general have trumped that sitting, quiet creative time.

I have to admit, I was starting to get a little antsy about it.  I know where you are supposed to be developmentally, and I didn't want you falling behind.  But, in true, typical Ian form, you did things at your own pace, at your own time and simply on your own, and you did this:

Yup, there it is.  Your first, unassisted smiley face drawing.  It is really going to make me sound nuts when I write "whew," but that's how I felt.  And I LOVE your little smiley man.  He's drawn in your favorite color, purple, and he's complete with legs and hair, too.  Awesome!  You were so proud of him that you ran right to the kitchen and hung him on our fridge.  Three more smiley pictures quickly followed this one, and now the side of our fridge is decorated with your little smiley men.

It's so neat to see you growing and developing, and not only that, it was nice to see you sit down at least once this summer and do something semi-quiet.

On a random side note, that desk you are sitting in used to be my desk.  It's also really cool to see my little boy sitting at a desk that used to occupy so much of my time.  It's like a weird time-warp surreal thing.

Now we're back to making noise and having fun, so I'll wrap up this blog post.  You better bet on the fact that this little picture is going straight into your keepsake box.  As soon as I can talk you into taking it off the fridge.

Love always,
Mommy