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1. 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 ...
2. 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...
3. 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 ...
4. 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...
5. 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! 
6. 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.    
7. 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...
8. 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:    
9. 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...
10. 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 ...
11. Wednesday, October 05, 2022:
    What's Maia Up To Day    Maia is 5.25 years old this month and chugging along happily in school. She likes cats the most and bunnies the second most, and is always wearing some kind of headband with animal ears or crowns on it.   She gets up after 6:30 AM for school (bus at 7) and arrives home at 2:30 PM. Rebecca and Ian walk her out in the morning, and then we all pick her up at the bus stop. She doesn't do much "quiet time" anymore except on the weekends. We still try to get her to bed around 7 and she's usually asleep by 9. Unfortunately, the early wake-up has made the weekends longer since she can no longer force herself to sleep late into the morning.     I love exploring her room after she's been playing to see ...
12. Friday, September 23, 2022:
    Maia's Art Day    Even at 4 (this was painted in May), Maia was better at watercolours than I ever was.      A rare crossover fiction between Bunnytown and Cattown. They are sharing near a volcano.      This is a bunny family with a baby bunny hopping in the background. You can see the action lines.      Maia drew this bunny with fancy coloured pencils at her grandparents' house.      One of Maia's first Kindergarten assignments, she decided that the squiggly line was the butt of a fish.      This is a tree at sunset. The tree was handcrafted and artisanally cut by Maia as well. 
13. Wednesday, September 21, 2022:
    Ian Year 1 Month 5 Battle Report  Ian has made it five months past his first birthday.     He walks well and likes climbing unsafely on chairs, tables, and high beds. Things with wheels are still his favourite and he'll always point out the wheels in books, even the books most unlikely to have cars in them. He likes picking Maia up at the bus stop in the afternoon and yelling "BUH!" when the bus rolls down the street.   He still only has 4 truly visible teeth although there have been signs of other indecisive ones near the gum line. Teething as a kid that is old enough to understand pain a bit seems rough -- he'll wake up crying in the middle of the night and won't always be able to get back to sleep.   He doesn't speak muc...
14. Friday, August 26, 2022:
    Kindergarten Day    Maia's first day of kindergarten on Thursday was a success!     She's in the Yellow Crayon class and sits at a table next to our across-the-street neighbor. She was super excited for her first school bus ride ever.   She told this story about the bus ride home: "Two girls sat next to me on the bus home. They didn't know where to sit so I told them they could sit with me!"   She also wore those cat ears all day long. 
15. Wednesday, July 27, 2022:
    ASL Day  BU: "Hey Maia, what does this mean?"     MU: "I love you!"   BU: "And what does this mean?"     MU: "I love you with all that I am!" 
16. Monday, July 18, 2022:
    Ian Year 1 Month 3 Battle Report  As of the beginning of July, Ian is now walking!     He consistently wakes up between 6:00 and 6:30 and will usually take a long nap around 11 AM. The 4 PM nap is either "asleep right away for an hour" or "shriek for 30 minutes until someone gets him". He goes to bed around 7, usually lying in the crib quietly for a half hour before dozing off.   Eating is still his favourite activity. Breakfast is usually a whole banana, many blueberries, 3 sausage links, and anything he sees me eat. Lunch and dinner are harder, as he's more picky when not super hungry. He tends to fixate on the things he wants so we hide the watermelon until the end of the meal and start him with a tray of healthy broccoli or a tin ...
17. Monday, July 11, 2022:
    Weekend Wrap-up  Our first massively multiplayer birthday party experience was a success!     We hosted 8 extra kids and 5 parents on a surprisingly moderate day (postponed one day from Saturday to Sunday due to unexpected rainstorms).     Activities included the pool, water balloons, the new water table from the grandparents, a pinata, cornhole, soccer, and birthday cupcakes.     Lesson learned for next year: Pinatas are designed for adults. Reduce structural integrity before the party. 
18. Wednesday, July 06, 2022:
    Birth Day  Maia is 5 today!     Her most recent favourite activities including drawing or painting bunnies and cutting endless crafts out of her Don't Let the Pigeon Finish the Activity Book activity book. However, bunnies have taken a slight dip in popularity -- on June 3, she said that she might not need Original Bunny anymore and that maybe Ian could have him as Ian grows up. She still carries Original Bunny around, but always pairs it with Lyla Cat, a fluffy white cat from her wall of stuffed animals.   Speaking of cats, Maia's favourite pretend game is to be a cat. She wears cat ear headbands (paired with a princess headband to be Princess Cat) and changes her name monthly. In May, she was Pussy Cat, June, ...
19. Monday, June 20, 2022:
    Mother's and Father's Day   How Maia sees her parents      
20. Friday, June 03, 2022:
    Maia's Art Day   Portraits of the artist as a preschooler      I particularly love the evolution from "I have exactly 20 fingers and toes" to "Drawing all the fingers and toes is boring" to "I'm polydactyl!" 

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