Ian

Ian

Friday, August 30, 2013

Kodak Moment

Dear Ian,

Before we get into the "meat-and-taters" of this post, I feel obligated to explain the title of this post.  "Kodak Moments" was the marketing campaign of the Kodak film and camera company based in Buffalo, New York.  This is important because a bunch of us "olden days" people still use this catch phrase (as you can now plainly see), and because Kodak was from Buffalo.  Papa Davis will agree with that last bit being important the most.  I bet Mr. Kodak even had a Regents Diploma.  Which I will have to explain one day as well.  But back to your Kodak Moment.

Look at what we just got!


 A few weeks back, we had this photo taken by Whitney Fletcher as part of our Back To School festivities.  I was so excited to see it today, and it turned out just fabulous!  She captured a great smile, and we got to add some of your favorites to the photo to commemorate you at this age.

Man, did I have the hardest time coming up with all-about-yous to go on this print.  You answered a majority of them by yourself; your favorite toys, favorite foods and sports...  But what about the other things that make you you?  Should I have put on there that you ask the most random questions?  What about your love of cooking?  There are so many quirks and interesting facets of you that to list them all would have covered the whole picture.  In the end, we went with what you see above, and I am totally thrilled with it.  But, I am worried that as you grow and change that I will forget all of the funny little things that you do, say and love RIGHT NOW.  Hence the reason for this blog and the constant cataloging of memories.

I hope that you will appreciate this craziness of mine when you're all big and grown.  It's the little bits and pieces that will make you who you are and who you'll become.  It's always good to remember where you come from.

Much love always, sweet boy.
Your Mommy

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

New Beginnings

Dear Ian,

Hooray!  Today is the second day of school, so that means we officially survived Day One.  And it was a great day.  You are really enjoying your new room, your new teachers, and of course the new toys and friends to play with. 

Monday was your orientation day where you got to first find out all of this newness, and since I was in my classroom, you got to share the fun with Daddy.  You and I arrived early, so I was able to take a couple of quick photos, though. 

 
Here's our obligatory First Day of School photo.  Our grass was (is?) really tall from all of the rain as of late, so we borrowed Mr. Patrick and Ms. Christina's yard next door.  You look so big and grown up and handsome.  Sniff.  Sorry.
A close-up photo of your cute little self.  I can't believe this is your next-to-last year at Advent.  I'm not going to think about that.
This is a picture of your hook outside your classroom window.  VERY important papers will hang from here.  VERY important.
This is your class list.  Look at all of those kids!  It's a really good group, and you know a whole bunch of these kiddos already.  Ben, Bryce, Avery and Ellasyn were in your class last year, and you know Brooklyn and Spencer from your first year at Advent.  Sarah Payne is the same Sarah that used to come to our house to play.  How fun is that?!  And Ella Stephens is the daughter of Mommy and Daddy's friends Mike and Maria.  Wow!  

So tomorrow is Thursday, day three, and then we are finished with your first week at school.  Already you've had homework; we had to decorate a bag and put a few things you like in it to share with your friends.  You drew a rocket ship on your bag and filled it with a mini John Deere tractor, a magnet from one of our family cruises and a picture of your family.  It was sweet watching you decide what to pack.  The tractor for Grandma and Papa's farm, the magnet from the cruises with Grandma and Grandpa Brooks and then the picture of us.  It made me smile.  On Friday, we need to bring in an ingredient for Friendship Snack.  I have it written down so we don't forget, and I cant wait to hear all about it after school on Friday. 

Our school year is off to a great start, and I know you are going to do so well.  You're teachers are great, you are surrounded by friends, and I get to peek in on you every now and again. It's the perfect combination.  We're very lucky.

Happy New School Year, Buddy.
Love you,
Mommy

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Those Summer Nights (and Days)

Dear Ian,

Tomorrow night is a school night.  Yup, it's that time again.  Tomorrow night we will lay out your orientation day outfit, pre-make your lunch, and get to bed on time because the next morning we will get up, run around, eat breakfast, get dressed and start another school year.  But not today.  Today is still Saturday.  Sadly, I am sick and feeling quite like poo, but you and Daddy are off having an adventure.  I honestly don't know where the two of you are; you left around 8:15 or something, and here I sit in an empty house at 10:34.  I'm not complaining much, but I do sorta miss the loud wildness.

Anyhoo.  I've been sitting here with my germs and a cup of hot tea trying to get my voice back, because hey, what's more ineffective than a teacher with no voice?  And I was reminiscing on all the things we did this summer.  I didn't get to finish our weekly blog posts from our summer chain, but I did take pictures, so this post is going to be a lot of photos from those last weeks.  Things around here just got a little to crazy for me to sit down and write, but I made sure that you and I and Daddy made a ton of memories this summer.

Remember how our 4th of July celebrations were rained out?  We didn't let that hold us down!  The week after, we all trekked up to the lake and got to enjoy some time on the boat.
 You and Papa driving the boat around the State Park
Boat babies.  You with your cousins, Taylor and Payton
You even caught a fish off the dock!

The weekend after that we headed up to Atlanta to celebrate your cousin Nole's first birthday.  We took Payton up with us in our car, and the two of you had a ton of fun and adventures.

 
Here are the two of you riding and reading books.  
Didn't take long, though, before the ride got a little dull and lulled you into naptime.
For dinner that night, we had a special treat:  Hibachi!  You loved watching the chef prepare the food right in front of us, and you inhaled all of your lo-mien.  Eating with chopsticks was an adventure, too, and you and Pay both did really well with them!
Nole's birthday party was a lot of fun and included an awesome water slide.  You had a blast!
It was super fast, but you loved every second!

The trip to Atlanta was our last traveling bit we did this summer, but you and I had a ton of fun at home, too.
 We got to have a pool party/water balloon war with Carrick and Carter, our neighbor's sons.  They are so good with you.  Us grown-ups also had a good time sitting in the cul-de-sac drinking wine while the three of you entertained yourselves with basketball, scooters, bikes and toy guns.
 One rainy day you and I used a cardboard box to make our own tv.  I had gotten a little tired of you being glued to the boob tube, so we did this instead. You had a lot of fun with it.  We drew a bunch of different "shows," and here you are "watching" Star Trek.
 It rained a TON this summer, so we had lots of puddles in which to play.  Here you are working on your fishing skills in a puddle at the end of our driveway.  It was cute.
We made home-made chocolate chip cookies!  This was part of our July Challenge, which I guess I will need to blog about next...
This adventure was a ton of fun.  At the end of the last school year, you mentioned as we were driving home one day that you wanted to ride the bus.  To be honest, I had never ridden the city bus other than the Garnet Express that takes you from the Civic Center to FSU football games, so I figured, why not. After some research on routes and such, you and I walked to the bus stop nearest our house and rode all the way down Thomasville Road to the stop closest to Winthrop Park.  We got off, walked to the park, and you got to a bit.  Then we walked back, caught our return bus and came back home.  You really enjoyed the adventure, and it was actually kinda cool!  And we can officially say that we've used the City of Tallahassee transportation.
You on the bus.
Rain, rain, rain took up a lot of our summer.  We did some science stuff, though.  This was dropping colored vinegar onto baking soda.  This occupied you for about 20 minutes :)
Camping in your bedroom: another fun thing to do.  Sad to say, you were coming down with a summer cold when this one happened, so as peaceful as this photo looks, that night was a big rough  But we still had fun.

So there you have it.  I'm sure I missed taking pictures of a few more fun things we did this summer,  like all the time we spent in the pool, Rough and Tumble Time with Daddy, mini golf and Fun Station and art at our dining room table.  But all those memories are locked in my mind and in my heart.  This summer was so much fun, and I am a little sad that it has to end.  But that just means I have a whole school year to plan next summer's adventures.  

Happy Beginning of the School Year, Bear!
Love,
Mommy

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Ohmygosh

Dear Ian,

Son, I swear I am going to get to weeks seven through whatever on our Summer Fun Chain posts, but lately you have been running me ragged.  My goal this weekend is to knock out the rest of the summer's posts, because believe it or not, school starts in one week. 

This post is just a quick little annotation on what you are up to lately.  Sorta like Ian-isms, here's a snapshot of what's happening around here:

You have taught yourself how to whistle!  It's not perfect yet, but as of today, you can at least make a tone.  And you are so very excited about it.

And here's a funny Ian-ism from a conversation we had the other day.

Mommy:  Hey Daddy, there's a truckload of fruit in the fridge.
Ian: Where's the truck?
Mommy:  There's not really a truck, but there's so much fruit it could fill a truck.
Daddy: Yeah, Ian. That's a figure of speech. A colloquialism.  Can you say colloquialism?
Ian:  No, I can't say that word. I don't have the right kind of mouth.

We love you, Boo Bear,
Mommy and Daddy