From the very beginning…
Posts by Jaxon
Oscar the Grouch
0Okay, I feel like this needs a little explanation. Ian loves Oscar on Sesame Street and we had to get some new trash cans (the squirrels kept eating the rubber ones). We got these home tonight, which meant that Jesse and Ian wanted to play with them first.
Punch It!
0Ian got this punching bag and gloves for Christmas, but he’s just now really starting to enjoy it. I don’t know what it is with punching games at the moment, with the bag or on the Wii, but Ian is loving this activity.
Tye Dyeing!
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I’ve been a little remiss in updating Ian’s site with his latest exploits, so I’m going to be rectifying that over the next couple of days.
First up, Ian has fallen in love with Tye Dyeing. We were in JoAnn’s a couple of weeks ago and I picked up a quick starter kit so I could “clean up” a couple of old white wash clothes. Ian helped me with that first batch, but he wanted to do more. So we got another kit and went to town on a couple of shirts. The end result was hilarious. I swear we did use the gloves that the kit provided, except there was only one pair, so sharing with Ian didn’t work out as well as I thought it would.
We ended up doing this little project on the day Jesse worked from home, so he joined in the fun. Between the three of us, we did three of Ian’s shirts, one of Jesse’s and one of my tanks that didn’t survive the first round. We ended up with a couple of great shirts and one that can be a little disturbing. The final shirt (the one Jesse and I are holding) ended up looking like we butchered someone in our basement. By the last shirt, all we had left was red and we wanted to use it. Ian had a blast splaying it around and we even got his hand prints on it (but they may be hard to find).
The boys are wearing their shirts (Jesse looks hilarious in his) and Ian is already asking when we can paint more clothes.
Bumper Bowling!
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Yes, we took the little monkey bowling yesterday and Ian loved it! We only ended up doing one game, but it went really well. A lot better than I thought it would. Ian did get a little bored with it, but only when he wasn’t waiting for his turn (mama and daddy bowled too).
We had actually thought of going in the morning, but the bowling alley opened later than I thought and Ian was so upset when we left the first time. He wanted to go bumper bowling and was singing the “bumper bowling” song on the way there. When we made it back there after his nap, he was thrilled. He was checking out everything and was really excited about the whole thing.
Ian got to wear the required ugly bowling shoes and picked out his own ball – a nice 6 pounder. Ian did the first ball on his own; I think it made it halfway down the lane, but you should have seen him jumping with enthusiasm that it even went. After that, Jesse helped Ian push the ball down the lane. I helped for one round, but since I didn’t help get Ian many pins, Jesse took over after that. The two of them were so adorable when they went to push the ball. Ian had to stay up near the line until the ball went crashing through the pins. Then he would hop around, skip back to the balls and wait for it to return to him. During it all, he had the biggest grin on his face.
When it wasn’t Ian’s turn, he was all about helping us with our own bowls. He kept forgetting there was a step between the lanes and the ball holder, so he dropped them a few times, but he never got hurt. Overall, the afternoon was a blast and Jesse had a grin on for most of it as well. The only time Jesse frowned was right after his turn – he really liked the gutters. :) That was actually really nice though. When we were entering all the names into the machine, we were able to indicate that Ian needed the bumpers and we didn’t. So the bumpers only popped up when it was Ian’s turn. I like that.
So that was the big excitement for this weekend. When I said Ian did well, I wasn’t kidding. He scored higher than either Jesse or I. Ian had a great score of 80, with me behind him at 74 and Jesse rounded us out with a solid 50. Like I said, it wasn’t the greatest game with a combined score of 204, but both Ian and Jesse had a blast. We will be doing this again, but we’ll probably wait a couple of weeks so Ian doesn’t get burned out on it.
For more bowling pictures, click here.
La, La, La, Lump in My Oatmeal!
0Ian loves music and he loves to dance. Currently, his favorite song is the L Song by Burt and Ernie.
Ian’s Swing
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Check out what we added to the backyard. Ian now has his own swing. We’ve had one up there for awhile, but it was one of those round disc swings and Ian wasn’t having much luck using it. He’s balance is just not there yet, so I picked this one up from Ikea (the cheapest I found) and it’s working great. Ian can get on it by himself and he’s been swinging like crazy. Well, not too much since it was just put up last night, but I think it’s going to get a lot of use. Now if only I could find a good play structure for a lot less than what is out there.
Ian’s Quilt
0When we moved Ian to the toddler bed, I wanted to get him a whole new bed set, something a little more big boyish. After seeing what was available, I wasn’t too impressed. I really didn’t want to spend money on pieces that Ian wouldn’t use – i.e. bed skirts, pillow shams, etc – since all he really needed was the sheets and the quilt. So, I decided to try my hand at making a quilt. It took me longer than I originally intended, but I finally finished it over the weekend.
Since I was going to design it for him, I saw no reason why I couldn’t incorporate all of his favorites at the moment. The quilted part is a little busy, but all of his faves are there:
- Thomas the Train
- Disney Cars
- Sesame Street
- Curious George
- Mickey Mouse
- Zoo Animals – namely a tiger, giraffe, and a leopard
- Pirates – he loves filling his treasure chest bank with coinage
- Winnie the Pooh
- Dragons & Fantasy
- Tie-dyed Colors
It’s very simple as far as the construction goes, but I think it came out fairly well. There’s a few flaws, but since it’s my first, that should be expected. Overall, I think it came out fairly well.
Pianoman
0My little Pianoman is back! Ian loves his keyboard and he was all about playing a song for mama.
The Zoo
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We’ve made it back to the zoo again this year. Actually, we’ve already been twice and I’m thinking we should hit it up again. The first time we went, PJ and CJ were with us and the boys had a blast.
This last time, we took the train to the back and Ian was all about it. He sat next to me all prim and proper like and waited until the ride was over. Then he saw the sign with the zebra on it. He was all over seeing the zebras and wanted to go straight there. Then we had to go and see the tigers, but the tigers were sleeping (which he’ll still tell you if you ask him) and the lions were no where to be found. So he was a little disappointed with that. The day wasn’t that bad, but by lunchtime, Ian wasn’t digging sleeping in the stroller this time around and got really cranky. It might also have something to do with the water that may have splashed his eye, but I’m still not sure what totally happened. All I know was he was fine when we went into the polar bear exhibit, but he wasn’t a happy boy as we were leaving. Whatever it was, he says he had a blast and he was out in the car within moments of getting onto 10 Mile.