The Miles Rausch Family Website

Ian’s 14 months old today. It’s literally unbelievable for me to comprehend this. I’m so used to having a baby, I’m not ready for this transition into toddlerhood! I’m not sure when a baby officially becomes a toddler, but I’ve decided that he’s a toddler when he’s walking (toddling) and past the age of 1. So he’s still my baby. 🙂

• Ian’s favorite foods: bananas and peas. Above all else. There have been several mealtimes where all he has eaten have been a whole banana and peas. I sometimes get frustrated by this but then we think, “well it’s a fruit and a vegetable” and it’s hard to complain about that. We used to give him about half of a banana at a time to hold and take bites from. But then he started going through a phase of putting all of the food within his reach into his mouth. A half-banana doesn’t fit nicely into his tiny mouth, so we’ve been cutting them in circles. If I try to give him a piece of a banana that isn’t in a circle, he will refuse it. If he happens to take a bite of a circle of banana (instead of shoving it all in his mouth) and notices that it no longer looks like a circle, he won’t eat it. If he sees a banana in the kitchen and he’s sort of hungry, you can bet he’ll be requesting that banana before long. He also likes anything with chicken, cheerios and puffs, crackers, macaroni and cheese, casseroles, pizza, grilled cheese, applesauce, grapes and nectarines. There’s other foods he eats at daycare that we haven’t yet given him at home: pineapple, melon, cornbread. He has 8 teeth — four on top and four on bottom. He also may have some food allergies — more on that in a later post when we have more answers.
• Ian’s favorite toys: balls, cars/trucks and anything he can knock over by kicking, swinging his arms, or using his mouth (don’t ask). He also likes swinging in the toddler swing hanging from our tree in the backyard and going on walks — whether it’s in a stroller or his wagon. He also likes to take his dinosaur magnets off the fridge and put them in my lunch sack which hangs nearby — pleasant surprises for mommy the next day! He loves remote controls and cell phones (the reason why my screen is cracked) and iPods. Is he a TEENAGER?!
• Ian’s favorite games: “Where’s Ian? There he is!”, peek-a-boo, hide and seek, putting things on his head and mimicking silly movements (pointing at him–he points back, hands on head–he mimics, hand covering mouth–he mimics).
• Ian’s favorite words: Mama/Dada (though sometimes he’s not consistent to whom he says them), Nana (no), Nana (banana — can you imagine our confusion at supper time?!), Hhhhhhaaaaaah (hi). He’s also signing “more” but when he’s full and we ask him “Do you want more?”, he does the sign but then refuses the food — so we’re working on “all done” so that he’s not just doing the sign when he hears the word “more,” we want him to actually tell us if he wants more. He waves bye bye from side-to-side. He used to wave by opening and closing his fist toward himself, then he learned that that gesture was the sign for milk so he switched to the side-to-side palm out wave. Now that he’s learned “more”, he has stopped doing the milk sign and uses “more” for milk too.
• Ian will stand on his own, but usually needs encouragement to do it (“will you stand?” or place him in front of us and help him get his balance before letting go.) The look on his face when he does it is priceless — he’s so proud of himself, and it seems like he finds it exhilarating. He’s practicing walking between Miles and I, but he won’t do it without our fingers or he’ll just lower himself to crawl to the other person. It’s coming soon. He’s been walking while holding on to furniture, walkers or our fingers for a few months. He’s been climbing and descending stairs like a champ ever since we moved in to the new house with all of the mini-stairwells. He’s good about waiting for us to be behind him before climbing stairs, but he hasn’t figured out yet that he needs to wait for us when descending stairs.

Babies grow up so fast.

With purchasing a house and moving and unpacking (more on this later) I’ve finally found time to post about Ian’s first birthday party on April 30. We held it at the house we rented and invited his grandparents and aunts/uncles. I figured this would be about the last chance we’ll have a “small” kid birthday get-together so I decided to keep the guest list small. (Especially with moving and packing and everything, I needed a little simplicity in our lives!)

The party was dinosaur themed and we decorated in blues and greens. We served pizza (though the birthday boy didn’t want any) and a layered cake I made the night before–again, nothing too fancy. Ian did a great job of entertaining everyone — he showed off his favorite game…throw the football, chase the football, scream. He scored in the gift department too. Dump truck, mini-basketball (now his favorite ball), cars, sidewalk chalk, coloring book, craft table, clothes, golf set, bowling set, lawn chair, water table, and a wagon (which can fit one or two friends!) Miles and I got him the little dump truck with shapes he can sort — we went small and were glad we did because of the generosity of the rest of his family! After he got the bowling set, he entertained everyone by knocking over all the pins…over and over! He had fun, but was tuckered out and napped well that afternoon!

The rest of the set can be viewed here.

Since the day that Ian was born, whenever a friend or family member first met him they’d say something to this effect: “I can’t decide who he looks like.” Neither could we. And of course we’d get the ‘mailman baby’ comments (which I resent, even though I know it’s a joke). He didn’t look like mom, and he didn’t look like dad. Even if you visually dissected his face, no one could be sure whose nose he had or whose mouth. I’m still not sure on these things. But my mom sent me the following scan from 1987—a picture of me with my grandpa Leaders when I was 16 months old.

Compare to these, Ian at 7 months and 12 months.

(Let’s all take a moment and wonder in awe at my grandpa’s hairline remaining the same for 24 years. Is that the same WATCH?! –No, I don’t think so.)

Certainly not identical, but finally there’s some resemblance!

Looking at us together, we don’t look alike, but comparing to the baby photos, we definitely do.

I can also now see the traits he has that aren’t mine — so I’m dying to find a picture of Miles that we can scan and compare.

So much can change in just 365 short days. We’ve had a son for one year. We’ve been parents for one year. We’ve had no idea what we’re doing for ONE YEAR.

Mind=blown.

We’ll be having a small birthday get-together today with Ian’s grandparents and some of his aunts. Hopefully we’ll party so hard that cake ends up on the floor.

Ian is “so big.” (Sometimes, he’s too lazy to use both arms. Being so big is hard work.)

Ian’s one-year photos, by Abby Bischoff of Renawgraphy.

Ian will be one year old tomorrow. Can you believe it? I can’t.

It looks like 4 months is about the time his “face” finished changing. After that, he just gets older and bigger.

My baby.