Oh my.  Ian is up and about and into everything now.  His newest obsession has become the dogs’ water bucket.  We discontinued using a dish to water the dogs and instead brought inside one of the horses’ feed buckets because it seemed like every time we turned around the dish was empty again.  Ian discovered a few weeks ago that the bucket holds a lot of water.  2 gallons, in fact.  And this little boy loves water.  We had at least 3 isolated incidents involving a little boy tipping the water bucket over into his face and flooding the kitchen with water.  You would think that he would freak out over being doused with cold water, but he actually loves it. (picture me shaking my head in exasperation.)  The last time he dumped the water bucket, he flipped over in the puddle and waved his arms as if her were making snow angels.  Did I mention he giggles the entire time he completes this process?

Now that we’re adjusting to Ian’s activities, we’re picking up on his cues before he gets into trouble.  When he gets really excited about something, he crawls more rapidly to it and you can hear the thud of his little knees banging against the hard wood as he scrambles forward, but the surest giveaway is in his breathing.  He gets so excited that as he tries to giggle, he starts snorting!  So when you hear banging and snorting, look out!

Two days ago, Brinn heard no banging and no snorting.  Now we have truly learned the old adage of “silence is only golden until you have children.  Then you should worry.”  After realizing that all was silent in the living room, Brinn turned around in the kitchen to regain visual confirmation that Ian was okay.  Here is what he found: