This Kid has No Fear!

Most nights, after dinner, Ian and I try to go out and play outside.  He has figured out the whole walking thing in the last few weeks.  We were playing ball just like normal and then he was off and running to the play area with the all the slides and stairs.  He got all the way over to the stairs by himself and then he climbed up the stairs.  He got all the way to the shortest slide (I watched him but Thank Goodness he stopped there) and he slid all the way down the slide all by himself.  This kid is 12 months old, and he was able to do all of that by himself.  I had to call Jonathan to come outside and watch him do this. 

He started to become braver too.  Instead of going down slowly on his tummy, he started just sitting down and sliding sitting up and he started going really quickly down the slide.  He even tried to turn around and walk back up the slide. He would only make it half way up before he slid back down.  He had a blast.  And luckily, he did not get hurt.  But I guess I have to watch him a lot closer now because he thinks he can do anything!

First Campout!

This weekend, we attempted to do Ian's first camp out. It was with our ward and we were only three miles away from the house, so if there was any reason to leave we were close enough to do so. We were a little nervous because Ian has a hard time sleeping if he is not in his own bed. We were up until 11pm that night hanging out with people.

Funny story, we borrowed two tents from a friend. One was a two man tent and the other was three room tent which slept 10 people. Jonathan did not want to bring the three room tent for just the three of us so he brought the two man tent. When we went to go set it up the tent was about 5 feet wide on every side and there was no way Jonathan would be able to sleep in it. So we decided to sleep in the jeep. Which was not too bad when it came to comfort.

Ian ended up doing pretty well through out the night only waking up two or three times. He LOVED getting as dirty as he could. I think all around camping was a success!! Although we have all spent the entire weekend recuperating from it.

Homesick (Although this place was never really my "home")

When we were kids, my dad would go to Europe for two months and our mom would take us to Niagara Falls, Ontario. She grew up there and we would our two months having fun in Niagara Falls.

We would drive from Pikesville to Niagara Falls taking somewhere between 8 and 12 hours. The more we did it the more efficient we became and knew exactly where to stop. We would almost always see one strange thing on the trip up or back. One year, I saw a completely naked man hanging from his window. Or a small town in Pennsylvania, where there were about 8 teenagers who hung outside the gas station because that was the only entertainment in town. The trip was fun in its self. Like Catie coining the phrase "why is your face such looking like that" trying to insult Michael (she has never lived that down, and it is still tossed around today). Or when we were trying to give a peace offering to the Peace bridge (the bridge between the US and Canada) and Michael threw his gum out the car window and it got stuck on the side of car.

Once we would get to Niagara Falls, we would be there for quite a while. I am sure we would be a nuisance to our grandparents but we had so much fun! One year, the Hay girls and the three of us watched Richie Rich so many times, we had the entire thing memorized. I went back in December and watched it and it was not nearly as good as I remembered. We would go to movies, play games, have sleepovers with all the cousins and generally just do things.

We would a family get together every summer as well. This was awesome because we would get to see everyone. All of my mom's siblings and their families would come into Niagara Falls for a night or two and we would have lots of good food and we would swim in the Hay's pool and play in the McDonald's play place Big Mac that they had in their backyard. It used to be an essential part of the Mcdonald's play area in the mid 90's.

We even did some of the touristy things. We did the behind the falls, one year which was interesting and I would love to it again. We did the Maid of the Mist boat that takes you around at the bottom of the Niagara Falls. The Skylon Tower, where you can go to the top and look out over the entire Niagara Falls. We have done attractions like Clifton Hill, a place where there are many restaurants, arcades, Ripley's Believe it or not museum and many other tourist trap type places. In recent years, we have even gone to the casino. That is always an interesting experience.

These summers were always so much to fun!! I was thinking this week how much I want to take Ian to see all the sights when he is a little bit older (Believe it or not in his one year of life, he has already gone there twice). But when he is older and can appreciate the touristy things as well as the local entertainment, like the tribute to the Battle of Lundy's Lane every year, I really hope he will get to experience all of it again with me.



Here is some things for your enjoyment:

"National Anthem"

"Everyone Loves Marineland"

Molson Canadian "I am Canadian"

Jonathan Being Nerdy!

Jonathan really enjoys math. He is soo good at it and he really enjoys the website WolframAlpha. This site lets you do many thing with mathematical equations that I definitely do not understand but that he finds fascinating.

He went in recently and made a Ian fractal. He put in Ian's month and date (7/8) and came up with this lovely fractal.

Just some pictures...

Here are some pictures of Ian! Enjoy!

New Born July 8, 2010

BiliBed July 2010 First Bath July 2010
Blessing Day October 2010

Halloween October 2010

Christmas December 2010

Playing March 2011

Easter April 2011

Spencer's Homecoming April 2011

One Year June 2011

A Year of Ian!!!

Our baby boy is a year old today! We can not believe that it has been a year since he wouldn't come and they had to induce me, he was two weeks late and they were getting a little worried because I was not dilating. So they induced me at 8pm on the 7 of July 2010. And at 6:36pm on the 8 of July 2010, he was here! This kid has his own personality.

He knows what he wants: On Tuesday, Ian and I went to the DI. I always let him pick out one stuffed animal that he wants. And this time he picked out the beanie baby "Millennium Bear" This bear was made in 1999 for the coming of the new millennium. I thought this bear was so ugly. It was purple with a "2000" logo on it that is just not very nice. I tried to give him a few other animals but he refused and held on tightly to that one. So I left it alone. The next thing I know he has found another Millennium bear. This one was smaller but looked identical to the other one he had in his hand. I ended up buying both of them because he knew exactly what he wanted and he was not going to let me persuade him to choose something else.

He gets mad if you have something electronic and he can not play with it: The TV remote, camera, cell phone, Nintendo controllers... If you are using them and he is not, he tends to throw a huge fit.

He eats everything and anything: I have yet to put a food in front of him that he will not eat. I have even caught him having an occasional snack of the cat food.

He LOVES animals: We have two cats, his babysitter has a cat and a dog, my grandparents have two dogs, my mother in law has three cats, my mom has four cats. Whenever he sees any of these animals (or any others for that matter), he is off trying to pet them, play with them, throw balls with them etc. He has actually learned very well how to be gentle (although sometimes he is still a little to rough). Our cats are wonderful with him. He throws the ball and they run after it and then he goes and gets the ball so that he can throw it to them again. (the game of fetch is lost on these cats).

He loves to play with other kids: Older or younger, he loves to play with them. He likes to watch the older kids and pick up pointers (some are good and some are bad). His favorite is to play with kids his own age. He does tend to be a toy hog some of the time but he is learning to share and its really cute when he and another kid, his age can play nicely together.

His Pops thinks he is the smartest kid ever: Sure I think my kid is smart too, but I am his mom. My dad (his Pops) thinks that Ian is soo smart. We talk a lot with Pops on Skype. A few months ago, we were talking and Ian wanted to stand up and play with the DVD player (one of his favorite pastimes). He was not tall enough to reach the DVD player so he used a toy that was a long key board type thing to stand on and it helped him reach the DVD player. Pops thought he was brilliant for being able to figure something like that out. Of course a second later, Ian fell and hit his head on the floor. Needless to say, he has not tried that again. Still, Pops thinks he is so smart.

This first year with Ian has been so pleasant and wonderful. He is a delightful addition to our little family and I can not wait to spend many more years with him!

New Apartment!!

We are living in an 800 square foot apartment with two bedrooms and one and half baths. For the three of us and two cats it is just a bit to small. So we are staying in our complex but we are moving to the newer/nicer/bigger apartments on the other side. We are going to be moving into a three bedroom 1200 square foot, walk in closet, two full bathrooms, recycling etc. We are super excited!! We get our keys July 22nd and we can move in after that.