Vocabulary Explosion

For the past several weeks, Ian's vocabulary has grown exponentially. From his first coherent word, "abwa" for agua, to all of this today (with English phonetics):

English Words
statue (tah-too)
book (buh)
car (cah)
store (stoh)
water (wa-duh)
apple (ap-oh)
Mimi (mimi)
Daddy (daddy)
nom-noms (nah-nah)
Mommy (nah-nah) LOL!
school (skoo)
No (noh)
tree (tee)
fart (fah)
"I know" (says it perfectly!)
"thank you" (tay-too)
cheese (teeee)
Sylvia (tee-via)
Jennifer (jeh-...)
Grandy (daddy) LOL!
Oliver (ah-buh-buh)
George (geoh)
down (dow)
diaper (dy-poh)

Spanish Words
abuela (a-geh-jah) - grandmother
agua (abwa) - water
pajaro (tah-tah) - bird
trilliza (ti-zah) - triplet, from a cartoon he watches
No (noh)
tortilla (tee-ya)
leche (leh-teh) - milk
sapo (tah-toh) - frog
niño (nee-noh) - boy
niña (nee-nah) - girl
caca (caca) - poop
chi-chi (tee-tee) - pee
aqui/aca (says perfectly) - here
alla (says perfectly) - there

Jason spends a ton of time reading with Ian, going over words, quizzing him, etc. Mami and I spend lots of time enriching his vocabulary as well (her in Spanish, me in English) by speaking to him non-stop. Full ride to Harvard, here we come.

Ian also mimics tons of words that we say, as we say them. There is a lot more he understands than he can utter. One thing that is so 100% Jason is that Ian is not afraid to attempt to say anything. It reminds me of the time J and I were in Nice and he used a bastard-mix of Spanish, English and possibly Portuguese to attempt communicating with the French. It was awesome.

A Natural Historian in the Making

--- On Tue, 10/20/09, Constanza Ward wrote:

From: Constanza Ward
Subject: Chunklinis
To: "Tefi" , "Jason"
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 3:18 PM

Today has been a day for outside exploration and also lunch al fresco. For the first time, Chunkletines went outside by himself (crawling) to the patio – we left the kitchen door open to see what he would do. Once outside, he touched pebbles, dirt, twigs, rocks, snails, bark, etc., and of course, played with the fountain’s water. Then we opened the gate and he crawled like Speedy Gonzales all the way to the curb –don’t worry, we watch him like hawks. He loves to play with dry leaves and grass. He also kind of touch the tree, found it a little bit rough for his delicate hands.

Since the day is so beautiful, we took his high chair to the patio and had his lunch there. :)

--- On Tue, 10/20/09, Stephanie wrote:

From: Stephanie
Subject: Re: Chunklinis
To: "Jason", "Mami"
Cc: "GRandy"
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 3:49 PM

That's awesome! On Sunday we were both getting VERY BORED being inside the sun room so I scooped him up and we sat on the sidewalk in the front lawn watching Jason do yard work. He made special friends with a petrified piece of wood mulch and enjoyed starring at the black ants crawling around and birds in the trees.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the next John James Audobon.

Wave Hello, Wave Good-Bye

Wave Hello!

Wave Good-Bye!

...and then there's Power to the People

Crawling and Clapping

Oh, long time no post. Shame on me! Mama's been busy losing sleep...

For about 3 weeks now, Ian has decided that sleeping a consecutive chunk of time (7+ hours, as before) is no longer en vogue. So the Ian monster has decided to fall asleep quite easily at 9pm (we're keeping him up later since he seems to enjoy playing in the evening), then snoozes until about midnight, wakes up for some nom-noms, then won't go back down easily. Every couple hours it's whaaa, whaaaa. Lord!

He's still got just the two teeth, but more may be on the way, hence the sleeplessness. Or, he's going through some major growth developments. Or both! Last week he began full-on crawling. It just sort of happened like that! *snaps fingers*

He also loves to clap. Ian will crawl around *shuffle shuffle*, go straight into a sitting up position, clap for a few seconds, then he's off again crawling around. He loves to open doors, especially the ones to the laundry area.


A few nights ago he did the cutest thing. He really struggles with the transition from awake>asleep. I let him fret and loll about on the bed as he tires himself out and drifts off. No amount of rocking or nursing will work these days. So the other night as he finally gave in, laid back and began to drift, he lifted both hands into the air and *clap clap* (pause) *clap clap*. He silently and slowly "clapped" himself to sleep.

It. Was. Precious.

Almost Crawling!

Holy cow, batten down the hatches! Put away the figurines! Lock up your girls!

Ian is THIS CLOSE to crawling. He's a scootin' machine and has perfected the "sidewinder." It's just a matter of time before he's up on his knees. Stay tuned!

(If you hear a crash, you know he's finally crawling.)

Tooth! Tooth!

Just got a call from Mami that Ian has his first tooth! It must have come in overnight, or possibly this morning because I don't remember seeing it yesterday. How exciting! They are coming up to my office shortly so I can see it. :)

Ian is such a cool, easygoing baby that I just knew cutting his first tooth would be no big deal for him. He's been slightly fussy at night, but nothing major. No real crying, nothing a few nom-noms and a pacifier can't fix. I ignored all of those negative, "Oh just you wait until he teeths" bullcaca that people felt so inclined to tell me. That's not to say that he won't have a future teething freak-out...anything is possible.

Ian is also putting together syllables in his language development. Yesteday, the word of the day was "Hey-Teh." It almost sounded Swedish. Today it's "May-teh." He's loving his T's right now!

Can you believe this was him a year ago? What a miracle:

Poop-tastic

I am lovin' Ian's poops right now. Sure, they are stinky. And yes, they are poopy. But they are solid little smushed turds that are so easy to clean up! They look like refried black beans and smell like avocados. (And suddenly I'm hungry for Gloria's...)

He's been digging his solid food regimen more and more. He gets such a variety now that we feel confident we are growing a healthy eater. I've even vowed to eat as well as he does. Let's see how long that lasts!

Lately he's been nursing like crazy, so he's likely hitting a growth spurt. He has been lifting up quite a bit with his arms (like he's doing push ups) and scoot-scoot-scoots across the floor. He also is doing his tripods (sitting up with one arm on the ground to steady himself). Crawling is just around the corner. Lord help us all.

Parenting, Interrupted

So I'm totally guilt trippin' over the lack of time I have with Ian during the work week. I love my job and "having a career," but am seriously not enjoying being away from him. It feels unnatural, as if my parenting experience were being arrested, or at the very least - interrupted.

With this guilt I thee spend. On a very short lunch break, I hit the aisles of Toys R Us and bought my little guy some toys, including this classic:


He's in the early stages of teething, so I also picked up a few things for him to salivate all over and gnaw on to his heart's content.

To add to this parenting misery, Jason and I have agreed to put him to sleep a little earlier. Instead of cereal at 8ish (then a warm bath and final nursing), we are going to start the routine closer to 7:30. He is showing signs of sleep deprivation and does not nap well during the day. This means less time with him after work.

*insert very sad face here*

Sweet Potatoes

This afternoon I made Ian some sweet potatoes. Yum! (Well, not really. I don't like them myself, but I don't want to put my dislikes onto Ian.)

These veggies are loaded with fiber, vitamins A and C, and potassium. I baked and mashed them following the instructions on http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/, and then thinned them with distilled water. After that, I put the mush in the blender and pureed the batch.

Then I saved a little in a tupperware for the next few days and put the rest into cube trays for freezing.

We're going to give Ian some of these sweet potatoes tonight in his oatmeal cereal. Delish!

On the Verge of Collapse

Ian and I woke up at 8am this Sunday morning (that's late these days!) and nursed like nobody's business. After yesterday's Spring Fling art/craft show, I was away from the little guy for over 10 hours and my boobs were sooooo full o' milks. I pumped 3 times at the show right there are my table and even still I was so super engorged and in lots of pain. I used my manual Medela pump and my awesome new nursing cover and yielded 7 ounces.

Here's the cover. I bought it from Lilacs & Lollipops, a crafter in Salt Lake City, and love it so much!

So anyway, after nursing Ian this morning I got up to feed George (who has been diagnosed with pancreatitis so he gets special moist kitty food) and noticed he'd thrown up AGAIN several times. These pukes are different than the others tho b/c they are less and look just like bile, not food. Plus, one had a giant hairball in it, one had plant matter (one of our house plants) and the other two are itty bitty kitty pukes. Still I called the vet and am waiting to hear back.

After feeding George I walked back into the bedroom to find Ian, happy as can be, about 3 feet away from where I left him, his legs dangling off the side of the bed, smiling real big like he knew he had accomplished a couple roll overs. I can't believe it! First off, Imissed his rolling, which is a new development milestone for him. And secondly, HOLY CRAP he almost fell off the bed. Luckily it's a Scandinavian-style bed so it's low to the ground BUT STILL. Man, I got scared and so thankful he didn't fall!

I'm going to spend the entire day today with him since I missed him all week now that I'm back at work and then the Fling yesterday all day in Fort Worth. So I declare today Ian Day. Celebrate!