Ian Swings!

March 2, 2009 1:24 am | Posted By: admin | No Comments

Marilyn and friend Laura took Ian and Freddy to the park for quite the experience.  Ian’s first time on a swing, and he absolutely loved it.  I was in NYC and missed the event, but I will be taking him there when it is warm!

Ian Can Talk!

February 11, 2009 7:53 am | Posted By: rich.dredge | No Comments

Last week, Ian started to make some great new noises.  Marilyn captured the event:

First Online Videos of Ian

February 1, 2009 9:17 pm | Posted By: rich.dredge | No Comments

Marilyn and I have been taking LOADS of still photos of Ian, but haven’t done enough video.  We have an HD Canon camcorder, and Marilyn also uses her Canon PowerShot Elf to take video.  Recently, Marilyn took it upon herself to learn how to post video of Ian on FaceBook, and YouTube.  Since these new videos were posted, we’ve had dozens of friends and family send us notes on Ian’s personality. Soo, moving forward, we’ll be posting these videos on the main blog site as well.  Enjoy!

Ian’s First Christmas

December 25, 2008 9:14 pm | Posted By: rich.dredge | No Comments

Well, its been quite a Christmas, and Ian certainly was surrounded with people who gave him plenty of attention and love.  We had 3 major phases to our Christmas break, the first was my brother Matt and his girlfriend Jamie meeting Ian for the first time.  Matt lives in Hong Kong, and we only get to see each other at most 2 times a year, and it has been 12 months since I last saw him.  In fact, we found out we were pregnant with Ian just before picking Matt up at the airport last year!  We had a great time in St. Louis, and enjoyed our time together there.

After St. Louis, the 5 of us drove up to our hometown Galesburg, IL.  We met my parents and rest of my side of the family for various festivities.  Galesburg is always fun to visit, and we unfortunately didn’t have a ton of time to hang out.

On Tuesday afternoon, Marilyn, Ian, and I left Galesburg and had a horrible drive home. We had to drive 30 MPH the entire way to St. Louis due to ice and heavy winds on the highway.  It took us nearly 7 hours to get home, a drive that usually takes 3.5 hours.

Wednesday morning, we drove down to Marilyn’s parents lake house, and met up with her family.  Loads of people here, and the house was just recently renovated so it easily accommodates the madness often accompanied with holidays.  This morning, we had the annual gift exchange, and Ian made out like a bandit!  Loads of cute clothes and toys, he’ll be well dressed for the next 6 months!

The rest of the time spent here will be relaxing, and enjoying time with the family.  We’ll be returning to STL on Saturday afternoon, and will have a few more days off before returning to the madness of work!

One small toy for dad, one giant leap in photograph quality

December 13, 2008 2:44 pm | Posted By: rich.dredge | No Comments

Its official, I bought a Canon 50mm f/1.2L lens yesterday for my Canon 40d.  I’ve always had an obsession with photography, but until a year ago I had no serious equipment.

Last year I got my Canon 40d as a Christmas present, a major upgrade from my handy(and well loved Canon SD550).  Over the last year, I’ve been able to take phenomenal photos, and at 10.1 megapixels been able to make nice sized prints.

My photography geek factor was significantly compounded when my brother-in-law Ben let me borrow his Canon 85mm f/1.2L lens when Ian was born.  I was able to take breathtaking photos of Ian in his first few days of life, and it was a sad day when Ben came by to take his baby home (I’m talking about the lens).

I will be the first to say that I take way too many pictures of Ian, I’ve probably taken close to 10,000 in just his first 3 months of life.  The #1 issue I’ve had is horrible quality under low-light conditions.  This new lens has amazing low-light performance.  So many of Ian’s photo opps are in low-light spots, and I’m hoping to capture them now with amazing photo quality.

Ian’s First Night In His Room

November 23, 2008 11:09 am | Posted By: rich.dredge | No Comments

Everything went well, he only got up once at 3:30am for a feeding.  We think he really likes the room, his bed is enormous. Who doesn’t like a huge bed?

We are beginning to use the baby monitor (Thanks Chris and Sherrie!).  Its really slick, the coolest feature is the night vision.  I mounted the camera/mic on the wall over his crib, I even ran the wires behind the drywall so Ian doesn’t rip it off.

Moving Ian to the nursery

November 23, 2008 6:02 am | Posted By: marilyn.dredge | No Comments

So we decided to move Ian up to the nursery this weekend.  He took a nap in there this afternoon, and that went well.  The second nap, not so much, but we think he was cold.  All of his stuff is out of our bedroom, especially the pack n play.  It is in the offce.  We felt it best to just do it and commit to it.  So our room is back to being an adult, baby-free zone, which we’re excited about.  No more tip-toeing around late at night.  He’s down for the night, but let’s hope it stays that way.  I’ll let you know how it goes in the morning.

Ian’s First Shots

November 20, 2008 1:13 am | Posted By: marilyn.dredge | 1 Comment

Well I had a horrible and heartbreaking experience today.  I took Ian to get his first round of immunizations, and, as expected, he was not a happy camper.  He was screaming before he even got his shots because he hates when the pediatrician pokes and prods him anyway, but the shots really sent him over the edge.  It took me over 30 minutes to console him enough to be able to leave the doctor’s office.  Once he calmed down, he just looked at me with the saddest expression, like he was thinking “Mom, how could you let them do that to me?”  I can’t believe I have to do that again in 2 months.  On the upside, the doctor says that he is growing beautifully.  He is 25 inches long and weighs 12 pounds 11 ounces.  He is in the 95th percentile in height and the 60th in weight.  He is reaching all of the major milestones on time or ahead of schedule.  Some of these include tracking objects with his eyes, grasping objects, social smiling and laughing.  It is also good that he can hold his head up and turn to look around.  Overall he’s really doing great!  Let’s hope these shots didn’t permanently scar him!!

Thoughts on Motherhood - Mom’s second post

October 13, 2008 6:54 pm | Posted By: marilyn.dredge | No Comments

As I’ve been very neglectful in keeping up my contributions to our family’s website, I thought I should add some recent experiences I have had with Ian.  Motherhood is absolutely wonderful, and I couldn’t ask for a better baby.  There have been several fascinating milestones Rich and I have been enjoying.  Ian is smiling at us more and more when we go to get him out of bed in the morning.  Nothing melts our hearts more than that.  It is especially great when I’m tired and grumpy at 3am, and I look at him and it is clear that he recognizes me and is beaming (mostly because he knows his next meal is near).  He has also been noticing objects around him.  He started staring at the little animals that hang on the mobile above his swing.  He has also begun discovering his voice these last few days and has been making the most adorable baby noises.  Some of them sound like real words!!  He is holding his head up in a sturdier manor and for longer periods of time, as well as seeming to have a better sense of how to use his arms and legs.  It is all so amazing to watch!  Parent hood really is all the cheesy cliches we’ve been hearing over the years!!

Ian goes to Galesburg, again!

October 12, 2008 10:14 pm | Posted By: rich.dredge | 1 Comment

This weekend, our good friends Richie and Amy Burgland were married in Galesburg.  It was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends, but more importantly it was Ian’s first time meeting his grandparents who were visiting from Atlanta for the big event.

It was a busy schedule, and after returning home from the big weekend, Ian had a bath and enjoyed his swing in the living room.  He’s happy to be home!