I checked just to verify, and sure enough, we managed to post on the day of Maya’s first birthday. Second kid syndrome strikes again! Actually, it’s really the proximity to Christmas that’s the problem here. We wanted to have Ian’s first birthday as close as possible to the actual day, so we celebrated his birthday on the 19th of December, a day after his actual birthday, but right before we left home for more than a week of holiday travel. It was hectic.
Ian – 1 year old
We were fortunate that Lolli and Pop were down anyway for Christmas, so they were able to come celebrate with us. Aunt Darci, Uncle Will, and cousins AP and Steele came down for a quick visit as well. Several friends came and helped us celebrate.
During Ian’s smash cake photos earlier in the week, I clued into the fact that Ian really wasn’t that into icing. For his actual birthday, I made him a little chocolate cake and sprinkled it with a bit of powdered sugar. It met with his approval.
Smash cake!
To differentiate from Maya’s barbecue celebrations, we secured tacos and sides from Torchy’s Tacos for Ian’s party. The food was great, and there was a ton of it. We chucked most of our leftovers in the freezer and have been enjoying them since returning to town.
Ian has been such a different child from Maya. Right or wrong, it’s impossible to talk about him without making comparisons. We don’t even mean to do it, but the one whole child we had before him is our frame of reference, and frankly, she made some things pretty easy for us.
Maya photo bomb
Maya was a sit and play kind of baby. She liked to read books. She liked to sit and linger over her food and mealtimes. We talked a lot with her calmly regarding us. Ian, on the other hand, is a mover. He wants to go go go, all the time. He’s a speed crawler. I thought Maya sprint crawled. Nope. I’ve never seen a kid crawl so fast as Ian when something has caught his interest. You almost have to trot to keep up with him.
Ian so badly wants to walk. It’s clear to me that even now we’re a ways away from that, but he’s really motivated. He’ll crawl up to my legs, pull himself to standing by my pants, and then grab the index finger of each of my hands so that I can walk him around the house. He covers a lot of ground that way, even doing a passable job of going up and down the stairs. And he giggles while he’s walking, he’s so happy to be doing so.
New chair for his birthday.
Maya was and continues to be a fairly independent child. Not so with Ian. He wants your attention, and he wants you on the floor and playing with him. 13-year-old Ian may kill me for this, but he’s a very snuggly little guy. First thing in the morning, you fetch him from bed, and he greets you with a giant grin and as soon as you pick him up, he nestles in. Once he gets his affection, he leans back a bit, pats your face a few times, and then wants you to carry him around a bit. Then, naturally, he’s ready to move again, and even while he’s on the go, he wants you with him … unless you’re doing something annoying like keeping him from crawling head-first down the stairs.
He’s a Lego master (the Duplo variety, anyway). If you build him a Lego tower, he’ll carefully pull it apart brick by brick. I’ve even watched him put the bricks back together a time or two. He’s so interested in disassembly and reassembly. Take things out of the container, put them back in the container, ad infinitum.
Ian’s better at the mechanics of eating than Maya was, but he’s more particular than she was. And he’s more aggressive about denying what he doesn’t want to eat.
There are only a few books Ian will reliably sit through – another way he and Maya differ. Right now, he really likes Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. and Tails by Matthew Van Fleet. He wants to be the one to turn the pages, and especially with Brown Bear, his timing is spot on. Most other books, we get about halfway through before he’s trying to shut the book and chuck it off your lap. All I can say is that we’re working on it.
One of his favorite things continues to be this big box of musical instruments we have, which has been pleasantly augmented with birthday and Christmas gifts for the kids. Ian bangs and shakes and taps on all manner of instruments and loves every minute of it. Still the most reliable way to calm him when he’s upset is to sing to him. It is now habitual for Maya to rush up, say “It’s okay Ian buddy,” and sing him Six Little Ducks whenever he’s crying and upset.
This past year has been tough. We had a rough start with the early birth and the NICU stay. Plus, adjusting to the second kid is just harder. Now, instead of directing our efforts to a single individual relying on us for their every need, we need to focus on two, often with different agendas and requirements, sometimes at odds with one another. Sean and I agree on this: we have no idea how you parents who are outnumbered manage. We have a two on two game, and we still feel outnumbered most of the time.
Covered in birthday cake!!!
A year ago, we may have thought we knew what to expect from babies as they’re growing and developing, but with Ian and Maya being so different, there are lots of surprises, even on a second run. This next year, we’ll hopefully get a few of our questions answered. Will Ian walk soon? When will he start to talk? What will his favorite color be? (Maya thinks it will be yellow.) Will he ever make his peace with airplane travel? No matter what, we’re looking forward to finding out.
