Another quick update: Ian was in rare form this evening. He’s trying his hardest to master walking and mostly succeeding; he’s also trying to mimic the sounds we make and I have to say he’s impressive. When we’re done with the Christmas story, I’ll post a video I took tonight. I’m still smiling from having shot it.

For now, however, on with our tale: We got back to The Villages from our trip to see Great Grandma Betty, Chris, and Anne Marie with Grandma Sue on the 23rd. For details about those exploits, and our stay at Granny Sue’s house, see Parts I and II, below.

We arrived at Grandma Barb and Grandpa Ray’s on the morning of the 24th, and unpacked for our 4 day stay. Aunt Melanie, Uncle Ben, and Cousins Kaylee and Connor arrived late that night, just in time to get a few hours sleep before Christmas day; which went a little something like this:

We awoke the morning of the 25th to a pile of Santa’s handiwork and Cousin Connor hunched in a starting position as if awaiting the pistol to begin an Olympic sprint! In this image, is it me or is Ian quietly stuffing letters into his pajamas to play with later? See this image larger.

Cousin Connor was kind enough to distribute the presents and here takes a break to watch the babies open some of their gifts. We had a lot of fun together this vacation, building a Lego plane with Uncle Ben, and playing checkers! Grandma Barb also enjoys the show. See this image larger.

Ian – “FARMER JED! MA SAYS WE’RE SHIPPING YOU TO MICHIGAN! I’LL PLAY WITH YOU WHEN WE GET HOME, OK? I’LL MAKE DADA POKE BREATHING HOLES IN THE BOX, BYE!” In other news, train conductor Fred “Sparky” Burns is in stable condition after falling from his train engine. Best known for his trademark red hat, eyewitnesses say he was not fully on his safety nub before the accident. See this image larger.

“So how’d you do?” “Good, good. You?” “Great, check out this pile” “That’s my pile.” “No your pile is that puzzle.” “No, that’s YOUR pile.” “MAAAA!” Seriously these two got along so well, it was great to see them play. See this image larger.

Are they drinking or pretending to be the horn section of a band? Speaking of eating, we all had a good meal on Christmas day, and Grandma Sue joined us for the festivities! See this image larger.

Ian’s facial expressions have become more and more complex. Take, for example, this one, which can be roughly translated as “Pardon my intrusion, but I wanted you to know that I’m embarrassed about the state of my diaper at the moment.” See this image larger.

Did I mention these two got along great? See this image larger.

Mama and Ian share a giggle for the camera, before heading back in to play s’more with new toys. See this image larger.

Grandma Barb took this image a day or two after Christmas, and I knew immediately that this was going to be a great one. It is easy to assume that having a baby is only about the baby. But look at this pure, innocent joy; it’s infectious. He’s laughing at splashing water; and we laugh with him. See this image larger.

Ian liked Kaylee’s floppy hat, and spinning in the pool with Grandma Barb! This was his first time in water deeper than a couple inches. See this image larger.

The two-baby float was meant to be for one baby, but supported both of them nicely. It all worked out fine until Kaylee went to bite one of her toes and it turned out to be Ian’s. Perhaps that was for stealing her hat! 😉 See this image larger.

Wiped out from a long day of fun in the sun and stuffed with full tummies, falling asleep in the car didn’t take more than a couple minutes on this drive. See this image larger.

Kaylee – “Hold on a sec there, Mr. Boy…” (Ian – “ooof.”) Oops, I guess that lil’ Kaylee needs a couple more shots in the blog, don’t you think? See this image larger.

Hey Kaylee, what do you think of that Florida grass? Was that a raspberry? Well… you won’t think much better of the snow when you get home, I imagine. 😉 See this image larger.

No trip to The Villages would be complete without your first golf cart ride! Grandpa Ray carefully worked the pedals and steering wheel, while Cousin Connor acted as the restraining harness. See this image larger.

Don’t worry kiddo, we didn’t forget about you. See this image larger.

We had a blast getting members of the Johnson/Kunze/Chapman families together for Christmas, but it was finally time to head back for the frigid north. Grandpa Ray was kind enough to drive us to the Sanford airport at 4am in the morning. Thanks much, and great seeing you all! See this image larger.

The end? No, not yet! Part IV of our tour covers our visit with Grandma Marcia and Grandpa Dave, stay tuned! See this image larger.

Finally back home after a 3,052 mile tour of Michigan and Florida! As usual I’ll try to keep this short and use pictures to tell the story. I’ve narrowed it down to 42 pictures. I know, sorry… I’ll split this up into a bunch of parts to help.

But first and foremost we want to thank everybody for their holiday generosity. We can’t thank you enough for that, and also the support we received in the form of hospitality and shuttling us around to airports, cars and other houses! Finally, thanks to our cat-sitters for making sure Ian’s “older brother” didn’t expend one of his nine lives while he hung out at home awaiting our return.

Here’s how it went!
December 19th, drove (155 miles) to Detroit Metro from GR. Flew 998 miles to St Petersburg airport, where Grandma Sue and Great Aunt Vickie picked us up and took us (102 miles) to Grandma Sue’s house in The Villages.

At Grandma Sue’s place Ian awoke the next day feeling refreshed and full of enough vigor to move mountains and/or high chairs. See this image larger.

Ian wasted no time making friends with the natives. (K.C. may not look all that happy here, but he warmed up quickly, we swear!) See this image larger.

Grandma Sue was thrilled to have us over… but the adventure had just started for all of us!! See Part II for yet more coverage of our trip! See this image larger.

Too many words in the last entry… must be time for another bath!

Sink too small, tub too large? Send in the duck. See this image larger.

“Whazzat mama? EEEP!” Check this one out larger… cuuuuute.

“HEYYY.” See this image larger.

“Gimme.” (Really he was pointing. He loves pointing now. He said something that sounded like ball.)See this image larger.

He can also say something that sounds like cup, and, of course, duck. But only when he feels like it! See this image larger.

Click here to download all these images as a zipped file.

I wanted to take a quick time-out to thank Ray, Barb, Ben, Mel, Connor and Kaylee for putting up with our middle-of-the-night antics and early departure in regards to sick lil Ian. I think Melissa and I have a lot of sleep to catch up on, and I’m hoping that everybody had fun none-the-less. I have to apologize to Connor in particular, I made a lot more excuses than I did time to play. Hopefully I’ll do better next time, but wow, has the pace of these holidays changed since we started inviting babies, eh? 😉

Thanksgiving’s hidden agenda. (Ok, they really weren’t all that pumped about the game, but it is a fitting caption, isn’t it?) See this image larger.

Almost the whole crew sitting down for a feast! (Sorry Mel, you get some great shots, but we need you IN some of them! I’ll do better next time.) A big thanks to the preparers of the dinner and the cleaners of the aftermath. See this image larger.

Pretty much the same as the football shot, but Dada (that’s me) liked this one too. Suggest looking at it larger by clicking here.

Cute as a button! See this image larger.

“Say, we don’t have handles at home… Weee!” See this image larger.

Depth of field makes dada happy… now why isn’t anybody smiling? See this image larger.

Ian and Connor help Grandpa Ray with his homework. See this image larger.

Kaylee goes mobile completely on her own– wait… there’s a flag on the play… the ref calls “holding” on Grandma Barb. 😉 See this image larger.

“Cuteness contest… ready? GO!” See this image larger.

Ben, Kaylee and Ray brave the cold to watch Connor’s soccer game… Uncle D, Aunt Dis, and Cousin Ian were trying desperately to catch a snooze back at home base. See this image larger.

Funny how mature they can look sometimes… “How may we help you?” See this image larger.

Ian shows off his 6.5 teeth. The new one is just to the right of the two on the bottom. See this image larger.

I love this shot, a happy accident. Brown eyes, and the shape of his head are more apparent here than in a straight-on shot. Please take a moment to look at this one larger by clicking here.

“Waiter, I ordered the Sweet Potato Puffs?” Fans of bald babies should take pics while they can… I swear even since this shot his hair has come in a bit more. See this image larger.

The words Mama, Dada, Kee (kitty), Ight (light), and ilk (milk) is what we have so far. There’s a host of things he’s also said but this is the list where both parents were present, looked at each other and nodded in agreement that something was said. These are also some of the more obvious ones for us to translate, because he’s learned to point quite a bit, and can do the sign language for milk. So he’s signing for milk and saying ILK ILK ILK!!! or he’s pointing up at the light and proclaiming IGHT!!!

His eyes are definitely a bit more brown since maybe three weeks ago. They’re getting to the point where if you asked a complete stranger I no longer think they’d say hazel or grey… but brown… and definitely not blue.

Sorry no new pics again… and I’m trying very hard to get some stepping* video on here, but the camera itself is such a distraction that I don’t seem to be able to get it on tape.

*not calling it walking until he can take three consecutive steps, maybe four, without falling on his bum or grabbing something for a hand-hold.

EDIT – On a semi-related note, our cat is getting smarter too. He now pulls the leash off of the bookshelf when he wants to go outside. Must be something in the water.