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1. Friday, April 26, 2024:
   Interview Day: Ian Edition   wisdom at age 3       What is your favourite color?    "Purple."    What is your favourite DVD?    "John Deere."    What is your favourite food?    "Waffles."    What is your favourite drink?    "Water."    Who is your favourite cat?    "Amber."    What do you like to play?    "Trucks."    What is your favourite book?    "Trucks."    What is your favourite planet in the solar system?    "The Moon."    What is your favourite holiday...
2. Wednesday, March 27, 2024:
   Maia's Story Day  We've had enough art for a while. How about the written word? Maia has started writing stories (although she rarely finishes them).     Amber the Cat for Brian Uri by Maia Uri   It all started when I was six. Amber was snoozing on the couch. I looked at her again. She was stretching her paw.     What woke her up? Suddenly dad sat next to me. I bet it was dad walking toward me. It was time for bed. (I was learning about time in school).   That night, I dreamt of 100 cats in our house and I couldn't find Amber.       The Mystery of the Missing Wand by Maia Uri   Once upon a time some fairies lost a very important wand. One of ...
3. Monday, March 25, 2024:
   Ian Year 2 Month 11 Battle Report  Ian is just 1 month shy of turning 3 and, jokes about "half his life" aside, it feels like he's been 2 for longer than 50% of the dynasties in imperial China.     Ian is full of big emotions and very aware of how he feels, but struggles to adapt when things don't go exactly as expected. We can be having a perfect afternoon and then he'll fixate on something that isn't quite right and have a tantrum. He averages 1-2 tantrums per day at the moment. We're working through it patiently and we hope it improves in year 3.   He naps well and sleeps well. As soon as he's up, he runs to the living room to recite scenes from his tractor DVDs while driving trucks around. He likes to play by himself until he reali...
4. Monday, February 05, 2024:
   Ian Year 2 Month 9 Battle Report  Ian is 3 months away from turning 3. As Einstein theorized, the closer we get to age 3, the longer it seems that age 2 has lastest.     Ian is fierce. He knows exactly what he wants and isn't afraid to raise Hades when he doesn't get what he wants. Related, his emotional IQ is off the charts and he will conclude his tantrums with phrases like "Will you snuggle with me?", "I need to feel better!", "Take care of me!", or "I want to be happy!". He is great at using and throwing away Kleenex, but hates when we have to suction his nose. Even showing him the giant boogers is a non-starter because he'll turn away ("No! I don't want to see that!")   He likes when I make up songs and rhymes (his favourite for ...
5. Wednesday, January 24, 2024:
   Maia Year 6 Month 6 Battle Report    Maia is now 6 and a half, halfway to the teen years! She's an absolutely awesome little person. Here are some factual fragments that stand out to me:   ♣ Bunnies are out and cats are in. Maia will sometimes speak more in cat language than English (2 meows is YES and 1 meow is NO).   ♣ She takes good care of Ian and is surprisingly patient with his tantrums. They sometimes play together without adult interaction and I can hear them talking in the other room.   ♣ She has her own style that involves 1 - 2 headbands (usually cat ears), multiple bracelets and her favorite cat-face boots.   ♣ She took a weekly ballet class last year and is now enrolled in ...
6. Wednesday, October 25, 2023:
   Ian Year 2 Month 6 Battle Report  At two and a half, Ian is 35" tall and 27 pounds. (This is where Maia was at  three and a half  so Ian will end up being more normal-sized than bite-sized).     He goes to Kids Under Construction preschool three mornings per week and has acclimated to the experience after several mornings where it felt like pulling teeth for Rebecca to get him to go. He can recite the names of his classmates when he looks at their pictures, and likes the trucks at school most of all.   At home, he loves to build specific things with Duplo blocks. Most often, a bunny office, an airport, or a tower. He likes to make tall stacks of blocks on the backs of Duplo trucks to represent delivery trucks full of packa...
7. Monday, August 28, 2023:
   Ian Year 2 Month 4 Battle Report  Ian is older!     He's the same age as Maia was when she climbed out of her crib, but he's still content to go to bed in a sleep sack and squirm around the crib like a larvae. We've tried to start his nap a little earlier to align with Maia's back-to-school schedule but he's been more likely to just lie there singing for a couple hours instead of sleeping. He still sleeps through the night, taking an hour to sing himself to sleep and then sleeping for 10 - 11 hours.   In the mornings, he heads straight to the bookshelf to recite books from memory before a breakfast of waffle and sausage. His meals tend to start about 10 minutes after the rest of the family while he gets one more book in. "No, I not re...
8. Monday, July 24, 2023:
   Ian Year 2 Month 3 Battle Report    At 27 months, Ian is about 25 pounds heavy and 35 inches tall. He has a very sharp memory. It's no longer sufficient to say we'll do something "later" then never get to it because he'll remember that we mentioned it the next day. He can recite entire books by rote and remembers events that have happened in the past. He keeps saying that he wants to go back to Massanutten and return to the water park. (He also had two local water park experiences recently, Volcano Island and Claude Moore indoor pool).     Ian likes sharing Maia's toys but is working on being okay with sharing his own toys with Maia. He enjoys doing whatever she's doing and we sometimes enjoy that sweet spot where they flee the dinner table ...
9. Thursday, July 06, 2023:
   Birth Day  Maia is 6! Happy Birthday!     In this picture, she is pretending to be a Great Fairy in a Great Fairy Fountain and she wants to enhance your armor. 
10. Monday, June 26, 2023:
    Ian Year 2 Month 2 Battle Report     Random Ian Factoids      Ian has a loud booming voice. He can often be heard in his crib singing the ABC song or Alouette on pitch.   Ian has a very dominant personality and can bridge the extremes of emotion in an instant. After a pleasant overnight trip to visit my parents, he had 4 tantrums in the car on the way home: the sticker was peeling off his water bottle, his water bottle spilled on his pants and his pants were wet, his water bottle fell on the floor, and his cracker broke in half but he wanted a BIG cracker. This was all in the space of 2 miles of driving.   He likes clocks, watering plants, chasing bubbles, shuffling mulch, being outside, reading books, and pla...
11. Monday, May 22, 2023:
    Ian Year 2 Month 1 Battle Report  Ian is a 25-month-old force of nature. His tantrums have receded and though he can be stubborn, he's happy more often than not. He wakes up around 7:30 AM after a full night's sleep and yells powerfully until someone gets him out of the crib. His lungs can propel a sailboat across a pond at 12 knots.     Ian loves books and has memorized several about Trucktown and Thomas the Tank Engine. After we read them to him, he'll reread them himself reciting all of the words. We still do joint story time for Ian and Maia before bedtime, where we read 1 - 2 stories (Rebecca is more patient and does 2). He absolutely loves Maia and always gives her a big hug before bedtime. Maia is a great big sister too and is mostly patient ...
12. Monday, April 24, 2023:
    Ian Year 2 Battle Report  Ian turns 2 on Tuesday! He currently is about 34" tall and weighs about 25 pounds, which is 3 pounds more than Maia at the same age.     Ian can be very tempestuous -- either super happy or super upset that his opinions aren't being followed. Things likely to make him happy: catchphrases from truck books, songs about poop (© 2023 by Brian Uri!), Amber the cat, pouches. Things likely to trigger a tantrum: coming inside when outside, going outside when inside, end of dessert, and lack of pouches.   Ian is an avid reader, especially Elephant and Piggie books and any book with vehicles in it. His favourite activity is to bring books to you for reading consectively until there his a huge stack of just...
13. Monday, March 20, 2023:
    Ian Year 1 Month 11 Battle Report  Ian is 1 month away from turning 2. He is very similar to how  Maia was at this age  although his wants can explode into tempests much more easily. His current weight is 24.6 pounds.     His first desired activity upon waking up is to read books forever, maybe with some breakfast after a while. Once he's gotten going, he has a vigorous appetite and will eat pouches and other snacks throughout the day. Yogurt and berries remain real food staples, and he "loooooves ice keem" -- part of the nightly dessert ritual to entice the kids to get in their pajamas.   He requires much less oversight these days, and if you look busy with chores, he'll wander off and play on his own. Usually this involves ...
14. Wednesday, February 22, 2023:
    Ian Year 1 Month 10 Battle Report  Ian is 2 months away from his 2nd birthday! I haven't weighed him in awhile but he's notably heavy. He has worn size 4 diapers for the past six months (the same size that Maia was wearing near 3 when she finally stopped wearing them).   Meals currently consist of "yobaby" yogurt as an anchor food, whatever he deigns to try from our real meals, and an endless stream of pouches. He doesn't want to drink milk and rarely drinks water, so the pouches (while not optimal) at least keep him hydrated.     His singing pitch remains on point and he's learned plenty of new words. Although he doesn't say many, his understanding is obvious. Yesterday, I asked him, "Can you go run your fingers under the couch to see...
15. Friday, February 10, 2023:
    Maia's Art Day   Notable artwork from November 2022 - February      Another collection of scary monsters.      Various buildings in Cattown. Some have flowers growing out of the roofs.      A vertical map of a bunny's burrow. The mommy bunny is asleep in the bedroom but the baby bunny's butt is on the mommy bunny's face.      Maia's kindergarten teacher is currently trying to nudge Maia towards making less flamboyant As.      The last smudgy bunny is Olaf Bunny.      Groundhog's Day! 
16. Wednesday, January 11, 2023:
    Video Day  Here is Maia's original retelling of the classic Halloween book, "Five Little Pumpkins", but with bunnies and a special cat guest star. This was recorded in October 2022.    
17. Wednesday, January 04, 2023:
    Ian Year 1 Month 8 Battle Report    Ian is only 4 months away from turning 2. He owns strong opinions, a loud, raucous voice, and way too many cars and trucks. His favourite foods are Belvita crackers (blueberry not cranberry orange), YoBaby yogurt, and waffles. He's gotten in the habit of throwing food on the floor when he's done eating -- we're trying hard not to react to it.   He doesn't like it when I touch his hair so his haircuts proceed at one snip per day, usually while he's distracted by yogurt. I've only cut the front and sides, enough to keep the yogurt away.   His sense of pitch continues to be outstanding, and you can always tell what he's trying to sing. He's particularly partial to "Rumble Rumble Dinosaur" which he sing...
18. Monday, November 28, 2022:
    Counting Day  Ian is in a counting spree these days, and kind of sort of got to 20 when counting the metal rivets on a fancy chair.   Here, he is doing a census:    
19. Friday, November 04, 2022:
    Maia's Art Day   Notable artwork from September - October      The cat is friends with the bird. It flies out of the tree to make friends with the squirrel. The mouse is scared.      Here are some mazes that Maia made in September. She wanted Rebecca and I to compete in a speed mazing competition. In the upper right one, you have to get the carrot through the bunny and into the toilet.      This is a set of switchback trails leading up Bunny Mountain, while airplanes fly overheard.      Maia drew this in kindergarten for a "What I Did This Summer" assignment. Clockwise, she swam in her cousins' pool, made popsicles, played soccer with the neighbours...
20. Monday, October 24, 2022:
    Ian Year 1.5 Battle Report  Ian is now a year and a half old, which means he's no longer eligible for an Amazon return. I haven't weighed him in ages but you can get a sense of how big he is in the picture below (BU for scale).     His speaking skills are coming together quite well. Among his understood and understandable words are: no, bus, wheel, mail, (ba)nana, peach, whoa!, and bye bye. He can also itemize objects and count up to three (sometimes four). He still says "da da" but he also calls all sorts of things besides me "da da", like this cow on a tractor in one of his books. He can mimic words you give him, like "yogurt" and "poop".   His understanding of songs seems to be better than Maia's at this age. When he starts to ...

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