Speak softly and carry a big stick

I googled this phrase and found out it's an African proverb. In Ian's case, it really should be, "Shout loudly and run with a big stick."

While spending time at a park in Tokyo with Nathan and Kerry, I gave Ian a stick to hold. He spent most of the rest of his time running, shouting, and poking at the ground with his stick. If baseball doesn't work for him, we'll consider introducing him to javelin.

Take me out to the ball game

Just after Ian started walking we introduced him to his first taste of baseball. It was love at first sight...or at least giggling at first sight. After 2.5 months, I've finally got around to posting this video. Ian will thank us for this early introduction when he becomes a major league player in 20 years.

I'll let the video do the talking...

Crawling vs. walking

Last Friday Ian spotted another little girl at the park. It turns out that she is only 1 month older than Ian. He started off walking towards her, but then realized that crawling was much faster. So, while she was walking her dog around the park Ian crawled after her. Ian has yet to learn that crawling is not too impressive to the ladies.


However, Ian quickly found a new love...the sandbox.

In fact, when she came over to join him he started walking away. This is Ian's new way of walking - hands in the air.

Ian's Walker

Ian is 15.5 months old right now and is still not walking. I'm thankful that he wasn't walking for our recent flights to/from Minnesota, but since we don't have any flights in the near future now is a prime time for him to start. ...except for the fact that he really isn't interested in walking. He'd prefer to climb up stairs and furniture rather than walk.

So, we decided to get him a walker to give him a little encouragement. We found this 'Kata Kata' walker at a used clothing/goods store for 200 yen. (about $2.50) Perfect! Ian loves it. I'm not sure that this will get him any closer to walking on his own, but who cares. He'll walk when he is ready. For now, he can enjoy using his walker to get him where he needs to go.


The walker came with 3 dogs that move up and down as Ian pushes the walker, but 2 of the dogs tend to fall off all the time. So, he spends most of his time taking the blue dog for a stroll.

Ugly is beautiful

Ian did incredibly well on our trip. He's such a people watcher and so curious that he typically does really well with traveling and new environments. It helped to have the love and entertainment of friends and locals, of course. However, he did have one breakdown at a restaurant on our 2nd day in Istanbul. He was really tired, still dealing with jet lag, and overall not excited about sitting in a high chair.

As he started to fuss, the wait staff brought out this doll:

Yes, it's incredibly creepy. The one redeeming factor, though, is that this doll makes a squeaking noise when you press it. And, even better yet, this is one of the few toys that Ian has been able to press and actually make the noise himself. Hallelujah! This entertained him for a good 10-15 minutes while we wolfed down our food.

Peek-a-boo!

Ian loves playing peek-a-boo right now. He'll play it with pretty much anything he can find...including his own socks. That's right, socks. The sock barely covers his eyes, but that's enough for him. He'll sit by patiently covering his eyes until you notice he wants you to find him.

Here he's playing with a book. (which, by the way, was an excellent book recommendation from my dad)

Where's Ian?

There he is!

In this picture you can see his bottom tooth sticking out.

Birthday Boy

I meant to post this earlier, but it will take forever for us to edit and attach a video. So, for now you'll have to settle for pictures.

It's still hard to believe that Ian turned 1! We celebrated his birthday a little early so my parents could celebrate with Ian. Here are pictures of Ian eating his cupcake.

First bite:

Pondering on the goodness of chocolate:

Does life get any better than chocolate cupcakes?

On Ian's actual birthday he got to open a few presents. We had opened most of his gifts already (don't tell Ian), but thankfully we still had a few wrapped gifts from Aunt Britta and Uncle Dave. Although he definitely enjoyed the wrapping paper, he also was excited about the actual gifts as well.

Ian is chaneling his Great-Grandpa Wally's present opening skills:

Skillz, part 2

Ian has moved on quickly from rolling to creeping. In the past week he's been traversing the floors to get to his destination. (usually a toy, an outlet, or cords) His current mode of transportation looks like a combination of an inchworm and the breaststroke. It cracks me up, so I figured I should post a short video.

Go, Ian, Go!

Food, glorious food

Ian will eat anything you put into his mouth...or so we thought until we tried avocado recently. I made the mistake of not adding water to it, so he kind of gagged as he tried it. Here are some pictures of our second time trying avocado. This time I added water to help with the consistency.

Here he is prior to his first bite...

His initial reaction...and my reaction as well. I'm not sure whose face looks scarier! Notice I already have the spoon ready to see if he'll try another bite. He actually kept taking bites - I think he was somehow hoping that it was something other than avocado.

His next reaction...I don't understand how this kid can eat nasty smelling green beans, but not like avocado!

Still trying to get it down...

Despite the trauma of avocado, Ian is still able to smile for the camera.