My Writings. My Thoughts.
Ian is Two Years Old
// September 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // General
Two years ago today, exactly 35 minutes after arriving at the hospital, Ian Cooper Emmons was born. He weighed 1 oz. less and was 1 inch shorter than his big sister at birth, and felt so incredibly tiny in my arms.
Since that day, my son has taught me just as much as I try to teach him. Seeing first hand that men truly are born with certain characteristics has helped me better understand and relate to my son, and in turn my husband. That bugs can be fascinating and not just gross. That boys do like to read, so long as you find the right topic. That despite the destructive tendency to use everything as a club and rip things apart just to see what will happen to it when they do, that boys can be as equally compassionate and considerate.
Ian is a walking contradiction. He is mischievous and ornery. My house bares the evidence of his well deserved nickname – Dr. Destructo. Having a son has given me a true appreciation for the old saying, “mothers of boys work from “son” up til “son” down.”
But at the same time, he is loving and caring. He shows empathy for his sister when she’s hurt or upset, likes to help out around the house and loves to be snuggle bug, as well as give hugs and kisses.
Ian is now speaking in short sentences, and has developed a new found love of reading since we discovered a topic that can hold his attention – monsters. His favorite books are Go Away Big Green Monster and Where the Wild Things Are. He’s also taken a more active interest in what he wears, which really means he only wants to wear his favorite Oscar the Grouch t-shirt every single day.
By having a daughter, and now a son, each of my kids is exposed to things that are sometimes considered mainly for girls or mainly for boys, and that’s the way I like it. For example, Ally plays cars and pirates with Ian, and Ian plays princess dress-up with Ally (granted those pictures will be so embarrassing to him when he’s older!).
Tonight we are having cake and presents in honor of Ian’s day, but we aren’t having a party for him. Instead, we’re looking forward to celebrating his birthday at Disney World later this month.
Ian may be tiny in size, but he has an enormous amount of energy and personality. He and his sister have given Eric and me the best of both worlds, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to experience the ins and outs of raising a daughter and a son.
So to my special little man on his day: Ian, I wish you the happiest of birthdays and know that you will always be the prince of my heart.
Ian is 23 Months Old
// August 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // General
Only one more month until Ian is two. I can hardly believe it, in part because he is still a peanut and looks more like an 18 month old!
The only part of him that seems to grow is his hair, so we’ve already taken him for another haircut. Ally went with him this time and got the full salon treatment – hair washed, cut and styled with butterfly clips, and then had her nails done. She thoroughly enjoyed it!
Ian will be having his first dentist appointment this month. We had planned to take him sooner, but he only had a couple of teeth, so we opted to wait until he had more (and more he does as the rest seem to have all come in, in the past month!).
We also took Ian for allergy testing since his eczema was getting worse, despite using all the usual moisturizers and steroid creams. It turns out he is allergic to oak trees and dust mites. Considering Eric’s history of allergies, I expected the list to be much longer (I like to think that exclusively nursing him for a year helped in that!). And while he wasn’t allergic to any of the other items they tested him for, the skin test itself made his eczema flair up all over his back, and he was a miserable little guy for several days.
Ian is still a little chatterbox and ever since Ally’s birthday party has taken to randomly singing happy birthday to you around the house. It’s always happy birthday to Ally, which she thinks is just fine. Speaking of Ally’s birthday, we rented out Pump It Up, which is an indoor inflatable play place, and spent two hours bouncing, jumping, running, and enjoying pizza and cake with her classmates and neighborhood friends. Everyone seemed to have a great time – even the adults. I took no shame in trying to out-jump my sister every chance I got, and Eric and some of the other men took turns racing each other through the race course. Her party was simply fabulous!
We won’t be having a birthday party at home for Ian, since we’ve made arrangements to celebrate it at Disney World instead, which should be fun. The timing of the trip is also good, because if possible, Ian has become more obsessed with Cinderella’s castle. He loves to watch the DVD Eric made of our past trips to Disney over and over again and it’s gotten to the point where Ally even tells him no more castle! Ally should enjoy this trip even more since she’s now over 40” tall and that opens up a whole new world of rides to her. And for our part, Eric and I will be acting like kids too…
Alexandra Turns 4
// July 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // General
Another year has passed and our girl is now 4 years old. At this age, the changes from month to month are not as dramatic as they were when she was an infant, except for maybe how fast her feet can grow!
In the past year, Ally has honed her sense of “style, ” which can be described as the more princesses, pink, rainbows or hearts the better (I’ve long given up on my oath to never let my kids wear silly character clothing), but an outright battle to wear anything with buttons.
Despite her love of polish, lip gloss, dress-up clothes and heaping on the drama over small things, she’s still a bit of a tomboy. She doesn’t like have her hair done, although her teachers have been able to occasionally. She’s also a bit on the tough side, and loves to rough house with us!
Ally likes her brother, who she enjoys acting crazy with, and Ian tries to do every single thing his sister does, which I find terrifying and she finds frustrating at times. We’re already hearing the ever popular refrain ring through our house, “Ian, stop following me!”
She’s added a few new characters and shows to replace the ones she believes are strictly for “babies and toddlers.” Episodes of Phineas and Ferb, which I also enjoy, and my childhood favorite, Scooby Doo, now fill our DVR.
I took Ally on the train to the city a few weeks ago, to show her where I work. She had fun, but was wiped out after just 2 hours, so we headed home, enjoying cookies and a nap on the ride home and an enormous cupcake.
This weekend we will be celebrating her birthday with a party at Pump It Up for her classmates and neighborhood friends, and then a joint family celebration in honor of her birthday, as well as Josh and Grandma Hensell’s at our house. Two parties, each with cake. It’s clear where she, and Ian, get their love of sweets. Our house is always stocked with dark and milk chocolate, Swedish fish, peanut butter cups and Twizzler pull and peel – yummy!
On the down side, Ally gets everything now. There are few sidebar conversations Eric and I can have where she isn’t able to interpret what we meant, so we’ve resorted to the age old trick of spelling certain things instead of saying them. She knows her letters, but can only spell a few simple words, so I think that will work for a while.
As with every stage/age, it presents new challenges, but we are thoroughly enjoying the person our daughter is becoming. She is bright, strong-willed (inherited from all sides of the family!) and creative with tons of energy. She tells me I’m her best friend (I should record that for later), and I remind her that I have to be her mom first, meaning she won’t always like what I tell her and the decisions I make. I told her the other day that she owned my heart, and her reply was, “that’s because you love me so much, mom.” My dearest Alexandra, you have no idea. Happy birthday, my beautiful girl.
