The Miles Rausch Family Website

I love this photo. Miles wishes he was smiling. I love it because daddy is just talking on the phone with his friend and son is sitting in his lap, pretending to do the same. With a remote control he picked up and decided was a phone, even though he knows it’s not. It’s an innocent, real moment and I’m so glad I was able to capture it. Just moments before, he was doing it–on the floor in front of Miles–and I had to go get my phone. Ian got up then, and I thought I had missed the moment. Then he sat in daddy’s lap.

And at the last second, right after I pushed the button to take the photo, Ian gave his precious camera face. Thank God my camera has a slow shutter response.

Last night, Ian entertained us after supper. When he started, it was with a mouth of unswallowed milk. So that was fun.

Like I say in the video, I’m sure I’ll regret laughing and encouraging this behavior. But let’s be honest, it was funny. Almost a year ago (11 months according to the time stamp) Ian developed the skill of the raspberry. Not much has changed about it since then, except now he laughs along with us.

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.

For Valentine’s Day, Ian used crayons to create valentines for his family. This was his first time using crayons, and to be honest I’m shocked he was able to put marks down. Usually at about 18 months is when the “scribbling” stage of art develops (scribbles in a circular motion.) I figured he was a while away before being able to put all of the steps together to get a mark on the paper. Sure, most of them are by chance and strategic placing of the paper and he didn’t make very MANY marks (he’s a minimalist, I think.)

First, the artist chooses a medium:

Next, he explores his color options by looking, throwing and tasting:

Finally, the artist carefully and meticulously chooses where to place his first marking:

Ian’s more of a performance artist:

Below are some myths, wives tales and anecdotes that I’m either confirming or busting based on our experience as parents so far. I know many parents who have experienced the opposite of what we have, and that’s why I italicized “our”.

Myth: Women forget how painful labor is.

Confirmed. Almost immediately.

Myth: If you don’t get hemorrhoids during pregnancy, you will get them post-delivery.

Confirmed. What a pain in the butt. (I’m hilarious.)

Myth: It takes about 6-8 weeks to recover from delivery.

Busted. Coming up to month 9 and still not declared healed, and sometimes it’s still quite painful. I wish I was kidding.

Myth: In children, everything is a phase.

Confirmed. (So far.) Some phases last months, though, and they don’t feel like just phases when you’re in the middle of it.

Myth: New parents take their baby to the doctor for every little thing.

Plausible. We don’t take him in for every little sniffle, but we take him in a lot. Because he’s sick a lot.

Myth: A sure-fire way to get a baby to sleep is to take him/her on a car ride.

Busted. Ian screamed and cried about 75% of the time he was on a car ride for the first 6 months. Even still, he often fusses when we put him in the car seat. If he’s hungry as well, then look out. But he’s gotten much better and has been known on occasion to fall asleep, if we time the trip right.

Myth: Breastfeeding is natural and easy for mom and baby.

Busted. It’s only natural because our bodies were built for it. Other than that, babies don’t come out knowing how to latch on and moms don’t always produce milk and sometimes the coordination just doesn’t work. We got lucky, and I still attribute our “success” to a few visits to a lactation consultant in the first two weeks. It’s hard work and painful and sometimes annoying. But it’s also hard work and painful to ween….so….

Myth: The weight will melt off your body if you’re breastfeeding, even with no exercise.

Busted. I believed it in that first two weeks. I lost about 10 pounds in 10 days (not including the immediate weight loss from birthing a baby). I was ecstatic. Stepping out of the bathroom and announcing that I’d lost 3 pounds since the day before yesterday. Now, almost 9 months later, I know that it wasn’t breastfeeding. It was fluid-loss from the several days following delivery. I haven’t lost any more weight since then (unless you count when I caught the flu in October)…in fact, I’ve gained a couple pounds since this summer.

Myth: You should sleep when the baby sleeps.

Confirmed. This is really great advice. But stop giving me “the look” when I say I don’t do it anymore. Because here’s the deal: I work full time, people! I cannot nap in the morning and afternoon. At night, though, I’m in bed usually within 30 minutes of Ian falling asleep. And on the weekends, I’ll occasionally take a cat nap when possible. It helps, especially on maternity leave.

Oh, and the next time someone says, “I slept like a baby”, what they mean is “I fought sleep until the bitter end and then I was fitful for much of the night,  until it was time to wake up. Then I wouldn’t open my eyes for anything but food.”