Ian’s Big Trip

Last week Ian left for a big trip all by himself.  Well, not all by himself, but without a parent.  Our friend Hermit Thrush agreed to fly with him from Durham to Syracuse (above and beyond the call of friendship!).  It involved several hours waiting in the airport at JFK:

Ironically, this picture always makes me smile.  Despite how it may appear, we heard that he was a delightful travel companion . . .

Fortunately when they had to sit in the plane for over an hour before taking off, he decided to take a nap:

In Syracuse, Ian stayed for a week with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was interesting to hear about their experience with Ian via email while he was there.  They made the following observations, none of which come as a surprise to us:

1) He never stops asking questions.  It’s hard to read to him because he interrupts with questions, sometimes several times a sentence.  We certainly value his inquisitiveness, though it gets rather exhausting (I noticed while Doug and I were here alone how nice it was to walk downtown without getting out of breath from constantly responding to questions from the person in the stroller!).  Apparently his question asking was at its height when he went to see Cirque de Soliel, in which there were many intriguing and question worthy events.

2) He is a picky eater.  He didn’t use to be, but apparently it’s typical for kids to become pickier as they move from toddler to preschool age.  He has vastly narrowed down the fruits and vegetables he’s willing to eat, and in Syracuse as here the best way to get them into him is via smoothie.  He’s also picky about other stuff and would be willing to eat cheese for every meal if we let him.  We are trying to continue to offer him a variety of things so that he can get less picky over time, but it results in a rather large amount of wasted food.

3) He is getting interested in words.  After showing very little interest for quite a while (instead preferring numbers, counting, and math), a few weeks before he left he started noticing letters and words in the books we read before bed.  In particular, he’s been asking about every “a by itself” (by which he seems to want to know a what, in every sentence in which it appears – this alone makes for a lot of interruptions during reading!).  He also started noticing words with double letters like “accomplish” and wanting to know what they mean and why they have two of the same letter in a row.  He insists that “it doesn’t need the other c!”.  In Syracuse he developed an interest in spelling short words.  When he Skyped he was telling us that it was H-O-T and asking about the D-O-G, M-O-M.  Hopefully this interest will continue to develop and he’ll start learning to read soon! 

4) He has lots of opinions and explanations about things. One of our common observations at home is “your suggestions are not welcome” (to each other), because we so often find that he disregards what we ask or suggest that he do.  He most definitely likes to do things his own way.  He also likes to offer many explanations for things he observes and has questions about – our explanation is only considered one of the alternatives and he generally comes up with several.  This is a particular Ian trait that I haven’t noticed in other kids his age (unlike some of the other things on this list, which are fairly typical of his age, though he seems to show them fairly intensely).

5) He never stops moving.  Both his body and his hands are constantly going.  He wiggles, climbs, and hangs on things, and he is always picking up whatever is in front of him and fiddling with it.  This can be maddening for the adults around him, who worry about his safety and more often the safety of everything around him.  I hate to be telling him no all the time about this, but it’s hard to know what to do to contain a restless boy! 

All in all, Ian is always interesting, often delightful, but rarely easy to handle.  We like him and we’re sure his personality will serve him well in the long run.  In the meantime, Doug and I were glad to have a little break while he tired my parents out (unfortunately it may be a long, long time before we’re childless for days on end again!).

Fortunately Grandma and Grandpa had lots of activities planned to keep Ian busy.  They got him some mulch (and here he is illustrating point #5):

There is nothing as fun for an Ian as a lot of mulch, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow:

He also developed an interest in photography:

After a whole week in Syracuse, Doug arrived to take Ian to the next destination in his tour of New York, the Big Apple:

Here they met up with Grammie, Pa, Aunt Julie, and Uncle Eli to go see Mary Poppins on Broadway (Ian is taking after his Daddy in developing a love for Mary Poppins, so now I have two family members who spontaneously break into songs from the musical . . . ). 

After the big city they headed to Long Island for two days, where they celebrated Grammie’s 70th birthday and watched church softball.  Also he got to go on an outing with Aunt Julie:

And here he is putting Pa’s gym expertise to use in a series Doug aptly titles “Cirque du Small Boy”:

After 10 days away, Ian will finally be home late tonight.  I’ve enjoyed my rest but I’m exciting to see him and hear all the things he has to talk about!  And tomorrow morning he’s on to a new experience – summer camp.