Ian's Birthday Week - Day 7

Here are pictures from the party. I'm sure we'll be posting more about it later.

Deborah & Ian Playing

Here's a quick video from this afternoon of Deborah and Ian playing. He likes to wrestle. This also marks my first attempt at using Google Video. It seems Blogger makes it super easy. One more reason to shun WordPress, the slackers.

Just Two

Well, our boy is in the negotiation phase. I'm actually fine with it, because he's actually pretty logical and responds well to reason. Often before bed, he'll tell us that he's not done with his cup (usually lemonade) and can't go to bed just yet. My usual response is "OK, take two more drinks and then hand it over." Generally, he'll counter with, "I'll take three drinks." I usually agree.

One of our favorite games is blowing raspberries (on the stomach). It's one of those "no means yes" situations. "Don't do it, Papa; I'm not a respberry." Of course, he likes giving them as much as getting them. The other day, I told him I was going to blow raspberries on him. His response was, "You can blow two raspberries!" He then lifted his own shirt and waited for his raspberries. After two, he lowered his shirt and said, "OK, that's it."

Ian's Birthday Week - Day 2

Today the Moses family took Ian to Ride Makerz for his birthday present. It's basically like a Build-a-Bear, but with cars. As expected, Ian had a great time.

Ian's Birthday Week - Day 1

In our house, we typically celebrate birthday weekends. This year, it hasn't been so easy. Both April & I have Tuesday birthdays this year. Any day fits into our weekend fine except Monday and Tuesday. As I recall, Monday got skipped this time around due to leap day.

Ian's birthday weekend this year has given us some other problems. His birthday being tomorrow, this weekend would've been ideal. We didn't, however, want his party to conflict with General Conference, so we decided to hold it next weekend instead. But, his actual birthday is tomorrow. We certainly were not going to neglect that.

Normally, we would give him his present on his birthday, but tomorrow his Auntie is taking him to build a car. We wanted him to have time to play with it before going to bed. So, we decided to start his birthday week today. The added bonus is that he's got something to keep him occupied during conference. For some reason Thomas was more interesting than the general authorities. Apparently, at times, he was for us too :).

Social Language Development

I truly believe the best thing I can do for my little boy is to just enjoy him. I think as parents it's all too easy to endure the experiences or just get busy doing all of the things we are "supposed to do" (dishes, laundry, etc) and forget to just stop and enjoy. I think one of the greatest challenges in being a parent is not to be a parent, but to be a parent AND try to keep a functional household.

My mother must have told me a hundred times, "You are my pride and joy!" She believed I was smart and kind and fun and good. I spent my whole life trying to prove her right. I think children become who you think they are. So I spend lots of time letting my child know that I think he is delightful, good, smart, and kind. It's fun to listen to him announce a myriad of complements about himself. In the years to come he will have plenty of opportunities to have his self esteem bashed, now is the time to place him on a sure foundation.

It's funny to watch how that affects how he interacts with others. He tells Dave "You're a super Papa." "You're amazing."

I am a Speech-Language Pathologist, so it is natural for me to teach him language. I find myself modeling for him constantly the kindest way to say just about anything. He'll say, "Give me that." and I'll model, "Can I have that please?" It's amazing how powerful language is. He's young, so in accordance with his age, sometimes he will take a toy from another child. I find myself modeling, "Here you go, you can play with it." or "I am going to play with it for another minute, then you can play with it."

Sometimes I'll ask him to do something and he will say, "No." I'll say, "You need to say Yes Maam." (I know it's Texan, but it works for us.) Then I gently direct him towards what he needs to be doing. It's amazing because he won't say "yes maam" or "yes sir" until he is willing to follow through, but once he says it, he does it. It's amazing to watch him develop his commitment and follow through skills.

He recently learned the word Stupid from a slightly older peer. Every once in a while he will say, "Papa, you're stupid." It's amazing what a simple model does to turn it around. Ian, you need to say, "Papa, you are so smart. I am glad to have such a smart papa." Apparently, this is a topic he deals with regularly with this peer, the other day I heard him say as if he were talking to a peer, "I'm not stupid, I'm a very smart boy."

Gratitude of a little boy

You know. Life with a 2.75 year old sure is a lot of fun!!! Challenging, because I truly can't get anything done, but fun. That little boy absolutely loves his little life. It's fun to watch him. The whole world is his to explore and he wants to explore it all right this minute. (Which for the record, produces quite a mess.) I think my favorite thing about him is his immense gratitude. He must say Thank you 40-50 times a day. It is seriously the best word I ever taught that kid. To be honest, I think it keeps me sane. He has acquired my childhood energy levels- so he wants to do everything. But he adores his mom so he wants me at his side for Every minute of Every adventure. He must make at least 200 or so requests a day. I think I would truly go insane with all of the demands if it weren't for this most sincere, joyous gratitude he exudes. He even defines what he is thankful for..... "Thank you for my momma-made (lemonade)." "Thank you for getting my raisin apples." Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you little boy!!!! You couldn't possibly be more perfect.