And so this is Christmas ’08, Part IV
Mostly Christmas morning went smoothly. If anybody had a problem it was Ian… we think he was a little tired, and not as used to sharing toys — especially new ones. There were a few moments where he looked like he was going to go hysterical. It seemed like maybe Kaylee was also a little sensitive to this, I imagine a sibling brings that out of you… but Ian definitely put up more of a fight. You’ll see a lot of pictures with Ian’s “zooey” (pacifier) in, (in the previous blog entry) that’s to calm him down. He really only uses that at bedtime or during extremely long car rides these days.
Ian did incredibly well with names and directions on this vacation. He called Melanie by her name and it was spot-on. He was a great helper in throwing trash out, etc.
Grandma Sue and Kaylee and Connor’s Grandma Elizabeth came over for a wonderful dinner, which the kids choked down so that they could play with more toys.
“MORE!” (“Say ‘please.'” “Peez.”) The kid knows how to eat! See this image larger.
At some point it gets difficult to take a family picture, mostly when you’ve got three kids to wrangle… but one thing I learned with this shoot, and the one at Great Grandma Betty’s is that there should only be one camera taking pictures visible from the subject’s point of view at a time. This shot turned out pretty good, though! See this image larger.
Ian hangs out behind the wheel. At some point Ray or Barb suggested that Melissa, Ian and I do a tour of the lights in the cart, and I think it is one of my clearest memories of the trip. Ian was awed by the golf cart, and the night air on his face, the “pitty” (pretty) lights, the star-filled sky, and just had a lot of fun zipping around. See this image larger.
I want to thank Ray and Barb for their generosity and hospitality… and thanks to Mel, Ben, Connor and Kaylee for coming as well! We all had a great time and look forward to seeing everybody again soon!
A special apology to Trouble kitty. Ian was not kind to even the most helpless of domesticated cat on this vacation.