Leaving May…
May 26th, Nina got a great haircut! See this image larger.
And if she could just ignore the TV for a sec… oh HEY! Hi sweetie! See this image larger.
Nina wants to help and needs the broom, but can’t reach it… See this image larger.
Look at that face! How could I not help!?! See this image larger.
There she goes! See this image larger.
*This here’s the business end!* See this image larger.
“My Mommy!!!” See this image larger.
*So uh… how ’bout a treat?* See this image larger.
Nina noms on a popsicle! See this image larger.
*Hey that was great!* See this image larger.
*Oh waiter! Another of your finest popsicles, please! Make it berry.* See this image larger.
Happy little one! See this image larger.
Sharing with Mommy! See this image larger.
The chain broke on the Rocket Rider a few weeks after this was shot. See this image larger.
I love this shot of Nina eating watermelon! Worth looking at bigger! See this image larger.
Nina’s getting great at “reading” by summarizing memorized bits of the story. See this image larger.
Mommy and Nina work on letters. See this image larger.
*Why are Daddy and Ian such goofballs, is it because they’re boys?* See this image larger.
May 23rd, our little ray of sunshine! 
May 25th, Ian looking pretty fresh out on the front lawn. He may or may not have just eaten a popsicle. 
Cute shot! The popsicle lips make him look just a wee sweeter, no? 
The pigtails melt my heart, every time. I can have the worst day, and Nina comes bounding into the room with pigtails and everything is wonderful again. 
Such a cutie! And Nina’s cute too! 
Now that I think about it, Mommy in a ponytail has about the same “everything is wonderful” effect on me as the aforementioned pigtails, but I digress… 
It’s always good to stop and smell the microphone flowers. 
It’s always good to stop and smell the microphone flowers. 
Uh oh, somebody got a boo-boo… 
Getting’ a little sweaty too. 
Let’s go in and get some A/C goin’. 
May 18th, Ian attends a birthday party wherein everybody sang happy birthday while wearing Transformer masks. 
Same party, the kids from daycare enjoy a moment of calm outside on a deck. Can you see Ian? 
May 19th, Nina chillin’ in her room. 
She found a hat! 
And there’s something pretty cute about that! 
I’ve said this before: It is good to mix it up with a shot or two that isn’t the kid smiling directly at the camera. 
She was swaying around the room. 
May 20th, and time to rock out! 
She just wandered around the house, pressing buttons on Ian’s old toy guitar. 
Love this one, for some reason. Cute but very honest. 
This one’s cute too. 
No idea why I included this. 
“Roughing it” by camping in the living room! I bought a real full size tent to do this someday with the kids in the sunroom. 
We bought some clothes from our neighbor’s garage sale, and they offered up these hats for free when they didn’t sell. 
Melissa had accepted them graciously, and then placed them on a sort of dresser near the front door, you can imagine our surprise when Nina suddenly ran around the corner with one of them on, looking cute as a button! 
That’s going to be the perfect look, come winter! 
But say, what about this lovely number? 
Surely you jest! (Sorry, couldn’t help myself there.) 
Only a few days after the previous birthday party, it was time for another! 
And here we just brushed all the blue out of his teeth a few nights ago!!! 
Another nice blue smile!
He was at this wonderful place called “Jester’s Court” that, as you can see, goes on forever and is filled with inflatable slides and bouncy things. They even have recliner chairs in front of TVs for the Dads… you know, the ones that would turn their back on their kids. I didn’t do that. 
Ian had a blast! 
Still May 20th, and that night Nina rocked out again, while Ian boogied. 
Those are some moves on that kid! 
May 21st, one more hat! Nicely accentuates her pinch-able cheeks! 
May 10th, the kids chill out and wait for Grandma Sue’s flight to arrive. I do have a short video that we’ll look at when we finish off the May entry, which isn’t as far away as you’d think!
Grandma Sue, that night, reading the kids a nice bedtime story. It’s about some Lego Police. 
This is the part of the story when Grandma Sue said “a BEAR!” 
Me and my girl! 
May 11th, Ian’s new-ish toy, a huge battleship. When he hits that lever there, little discs fly everywhere! 
May 12th, here comes a whole bunch of pictures from the park, and then the front yard! 
Ian looking sort of sly, or perhaps like he just burped.
For a bit, Ian shrank to super tiny size. No he didn’t. 
Nina goes for a spin! Mommy’s pretty! 
*Wahoo!* 
I used to walk him along on this with my hands under his armpits to steady him. He’s growing so quick! 
Has anybody… seen… I had a couple kids around here somewhere… 
Somewhereeeeee over the rainbowwww 
Grandma Sue gives Nina a needed boost! 
And here Nina is just sort of trying to make Grandma Sue panic a little. 
Two cute kids. 
Back at home, chillin’ in the rocking chair! 
This chair used to be Melissa’s when she was little. 
This won’t be the last time Ian cons Nina into making his life a little easier, I think. 
“Hi Gramma!” 
And now, a ridiculous number of images of the kids running around and hugging trees, etc. 
You’ll have to forgive my captions, I have a feeling I’ll be running out of words pretty quickly. 
As I write this caption, (July 5) I’m looking at that lawn with some serious jealousy, yesterday the temp was 104° and the lawn is pretty brittle. 
*borrrrrn freeeeeee* 
Yes, you’re cute. 
Cute. 
Still cute. 
Adorable cute. 
Truly cute! 
Oooh, pensive cute! 
Your shirt says it all! 
Alright, where’d your brother go? 
There he is! 
Alright both of you?
I like this pose, but I’m not sure what she’s doing here. 
Alright, seriously let’s get Ian in here too. 
*Brother!* (Lately she’s been calling Ian her “sister/brother.”) 
Weee! 
This looks like it could be an album cover. 
Or this one? 
*Mess with my little sister, mess with me, bub.* 
Yeehaa! 
*Safe!* 
*Are we done here?* 
*I’m outta here!* 
May 14th, Nina hanging out on a blankie. 
Ian drew a rocket! 
Ian drew the Millenium Falcon! Nice!
May 1st, with coats on in Brendan and Jake’s sandbox!
*Hey guys!* 
We ate at BW3’s to support a cause, despite really not liking the restaurant much. It’s always loud, the number of TVs in there is enough to drive anybody into a seizure, and the food is always a little meh.
Last time we WERE here, Uncle Chris was with us, so it was cool to see that the only jersey in the whole place was #68, the number Ian and I have adopted on our jerseys for the Giants to honor Uncle Chris’s birth-year.
So here’s the sort-of funny story behind getting Ian’s mattress. I guess at the moment we simply had no other options. Ian’s mattress and under-bed storage units had arrived at the store, and we needed to get them home. We also wanted a patio storage unit, but had been putting that off. The plan? Buy a patio storage unit from Home Depot or Lowe’s… rent their $20 truck, put the patio storage unit in the truck, drive it to the bed store, put the mattress in the truck, get home, and get back in 50 minutes to avoid the over-charge. Possible? Barely. With traffic jam? Probably not. But that’s pretty much what happened. It was a scramble the whole way, the kids in Melissa’s car with Melissa while I pushed the Lowe’s truck through a traffic jam to get home. Melissa and I removed the stuff from the truck at home faster than an Indy 500 pit crew and we were on our way back. A quick stop for fuel, and done. The person behind the counter said we were about 5 minutes late, but waived the late fee. It went great. Not sure I’d ever do it again though. 
Ian was pretty thrilled, and it is one of those things that brings the whole house up a notch. I never felt too bad while he was sleeping on a mattress on the floor, but after seeing his room with an actual bed in it, I felt like we were doing things far more “right.”
I can’t remember the exact wording, but I think Nina said “I made art” when she was done eating.
May 5th. Supermoon, you look just like normal moon.
May 7th, I love this ship design. It reminds me of a drop-ship from the movie Aliens, but Ian created it all on his own. 
He’s so good at this stuff!
The back appears to have some kind of thrusters… nice stabilizer placement. Nice work, kiddo!
This was also a pretty sweet building that Ian put together. I can’t remember what he said it was. I want to say it was a refueling station.
Look at this arch on top! He did that! 
This is Nina wanting to get her picture taken too! Hi Cutie!
I believe this is Nina hiding her head in shame during a time-out. 
Peeking through!
May 8th, another cool ship design!
He’s all too happy to show you how it works, should you ask. 
May 9th, Seth is still a big fan of the sunroom, any ol’ time of year, but only certain times of day! 
Brother and sister chilling out with some crayons. 
“WOOK! Bendan n’ jayk ah owtsoide! We go owtsoide?” 
April 28th, we’re back at the museum to actually check out the exhibit! We had a free pass, but apparently there’s like admission, and then there’s exhibit admission… whatever! Anyway, here’s Ian being spun around and trying to choose all of the black circles out of the blocks. Apparently astronauts need to be able to do this sort of thing. 
Almost done! Ready to throw up yet? 
Ian hopped into a harness to experience what gravity would be like if we were on Mars. 
It looks more like a kidapault to me! 
His mission was to bounce off the floor and touch the far wall, without hitting the ceiling or getting a wedgie. 
Mission Accomplished! 
Nina tried it too, but I think Ian’s weight made it more appropriate for him. 
Mommy and Nina in a spaceship! 
Ian shows up too. What a nice grin! 
Ian the astronaut!!! 
Nina the astronaut!!! 
Ian’s first planetarium visit! We went on a journey in a spaceship, and he kept asking where we were, as if the video was real! 
Somehow I don’t think this turned out right. 
You can probably make out me taking the picture on the right, and Ian playing toward the bottom… Melissa and Nina are in the shot too, towards the back. This is some kind of weird visualizing technology. 
“Ian, look out! Lion!” (I love that he’s a sport about stuff like this… I asked him to look a little terrified and he pulled it off!) 
The carousel is minutes of fun! 
So long, Mars museum, we had fun! For weeks after this, and really until present — Nina sometimes says “We go to Mars at ‘zeeum!” 
April 30th, up until this day, Ian had been sleeping on a mattress on the floor. It was pretty obvious that it was time for a big boy bed. So we shopped around for a good long time, four different days total — and and finally ended up picking this one out. Getting the bed frame home was actually pretty easy… once again my Honda Civic did the trick. Careful insertion from the passenger side and rotating back toward the trunk, with the seats folded down made it possible. Getting his new mattress home would not be so easy, would have to wait a week, would require a master plan… 
April 17th, found this Lego guy and vehicle suspended above the window sill. The string from the blinds was carefully (and you’ll note, safely!) wrapped around his waist and through his hands… Ian’s work! 
April 18th, this little cutie had breakfast! 
And then it was time to play! 
Ian’s engineering skills continue to impress: Here’s a two winged spaceship, that really looked nice.
April 20th, so many nicely matching things in this image… but then again I once had Nina pick out an outfit for herself recently and she cried out “BLUE!” as if she had grown tired of purple and pink. 
Can’t help it though, you’re cute as a button in any color, little girl!
April 21st, our woods out back in the spring. 
Tomato soup! 
*Hey, you takin’ my picture?* 
Check out this one larger, you can see tomato soup suspended in mid-air, never to make it to a mouth, lol. 
*I’ll do better next time!* 
Even with a mask of orangey red, so very cute! 
Nina trying to look a little sneaky. 
April 26th, no idea what these boys are protesting, but I agree whole-heartedly with their cause! 
The kids make a wonderful spaceship! 
April 27th, I got Nina a little present… this is Mommy and the kids pulling up in the driveway. 
Nina was pretty excited! 
And this is what she got! A Y-Bike! It is a nicely built little bike, without pedals. It is supposed to improve your balance dramatically, for anything — but it is supposed to really help with riding a real bike. 
Same day, Nina’s got her ponies in, and looks so cute! 
Awww! 
You ready for another spin on the Y-Bike? 
Cue “Bad to the Bone” by George Thorogood and the Destroyers, please! (
Go little girl! 
April 28th, Nina adds a “table cloth” to her table for a nice snack! 
So here he is, almost ready to go out the door. I love this shirt on him because it reminds me of a shirt he used to wear as a toddler that I think of as definitively “Ian.” (In fact, I still have said shirt, snatched from the “garage sale” pile — I couldn’t part with it!) 
*Here we go, kiddo!* He was excited, and we were too! 
Nina was ready to go as well! 
So how did it turn out? Awesome. We sat down in the lobby and started filling out paperwork when suddenly Casey from up the street walked by. And then Brendan from next door filed by in a line of kids with a smile and a wave. And then one of the kids from daycare that Ian knows well, named Quinn, sat down right next to us because he would be in the same year — maybe even the same class, who knows? In short, one tiny visit and Ian knew that there were going to be familiar faces! When a teacher showed up to take Ian from us and talk to him about a few things, I winced, waiting for the outburst of tears. And there was one, but not from OUR brave little boy — it was a different kid. Ian grabbed the teacher’s hand, and off they went, a nervous smile on Ian’s face. When he came back the teacher told us that he was just a little distracted, otherwise fine. I grabbed Ian and went out the back door of the school to show him the playground. The adult on duty to watch over the kids welcomed us and ushered us on to go play. First we saw Brendan again playing near one area of the sprawling playground, which was cool… but soon we were surrounded by children, maybe as many as 15, following us around, asking me when Ian would be starting and which teacher he would be with. I felt like a bodyguard for a rock star, and Ian was shy but not so much to miss the gist of the message these kids were sending – You’re amongst friends. Everything is going to be alright. 
We were all beaming with pride over the way things went, and so it was definitely time for ice cream! What a beautiful day it was, in every way. 
As a parent, it was odd to suddenly have the fruit of all of your teaching under scrutiny. It was like he was suddenly under a microscope, compared to daycare, where there are no grades — just an annual parent/caregiver conference. You could see the writing right there on the wall… a baby/toddler/preschooler no longer: coming soon, Ian the Student! And that’s why this day was a bit of a relief. Ian seemed to be staring this lion of a challenge in the face, without much in the way of fear, and walked away excited for the future. (I know, we’ll see how long this lasts, we hope for a good long time. To this day he still asks when he gets to go to kindergarten instead of daycare.) Next comes orientation! 