Thursday, March 8, 2007

Ian's 12-Step Program

A lot has happened since I last blogged.  Most notably, we had Jeanne (Matt’s Mom) with us for 8 days in February.  That was so much fun.  We really enjoyed having her.  While she was here we made great use of our Texas State Parks Pass and went to Varner Hogg Plantation (There was only an Ima Hogg, no Ura, Craig).  We also explored in full the USS Battleship Texas and visited the San Jacinto Battleground, site of the famous battle with Santa Ana.  In addition we went antiquing, to the MAC store, the Houston Holocaust Museum, and the Houston Zoo.  Whew, we were all over the place!  Having Jeanne here gave us a great excuse to forsake work and just get out and go.  

In Ian news...Ian has finally started signing.  Yes, after months of faithfully signing words like “milk” and “more” Ian started signing back in February.  I started making signs while speaking certain words when Ian was 4 months old.  within a couple months it was clear that Ian understood the signs, but he didn’t make the signs.  I knew he understood milk because making the sign elicited an excited response similar to Pavlov’s dogs.  

In short order he seemed to have a signing explosion once he learned to make one sign.  His first sign was “dog”.  Within a couple weeks of that he was signing “bird”, “more”, and “milk”.  He has also added “fan” and “light” to his repertoire.  Presently we are working on “drink”.  

Incidentally, his favorite sign is “more”, which seems to usually mean, “Give me some food!”  Ian wakes up from his nap and looks at me very matter-of-factly while signing “more”.  Sometimes he applies “more” to other things.  Like when Daddy tickles him or spins him around he often asks for “more”.  So “more” is sort of a catchall that refers mainly to food and sometimes to a thing or action he wants. 

To get Ian through church or car rides we usually bring little snacks for him.  We discovered these Annie’s Bunny Grahams that he loves.  In the last couple weeks, however, we’ve noticed that Ian always wants “more” of these Bunny Grahams.  In fact, he seems to prefer them to anything else we feed him.  As we started to go through a box a week we realized that he was addicted to them.  The little bunnies were even spoiling his regular meals.  So yesterday we decided NO MORE BUNNIES.  Cold turkey.  We cut him off and so far he seems to be doing really well.  Now when he asks for “more” I scoop him up, put him in his chair, and give him a meal.  He can snack on Cheerios, but that’s it! 

Bunny-Free one day and counting!  We’ll let you know how it goes.