As soon as Howard hears 'John's sleeping', he grabs the phone. "Hi Ian," and then continues to talk, pretty much to reiterate everything Barbara's said so far (he leaves out the spa, giving just a noncommittal 'eh' sound when Ian asks what they did with the rest of their day). He hasn't gotten much solo time with Ian since John's birth, and while he's not as close to Ian as he is with Barbara, Ian's still stepped into a father role to a degree.

When he's finally done monopolizing the telephone (and the conversation, really), he hands the phone back to Barbara.