Mister Mom, 2011
This one is a long one, and the previous update happened recently, so please scroll on down to catch up, and don’t forget to click the “Previous Entries” button at the very bottom if it has been awhile since you’ve been here.
I’m also realizing that something about the dates in this entry is messed up. The date stamp in my photo program was off by as much as 2 days, just a head’s up.
Dialogue, October 15th
Nina: “I SEEEEE YOOOOOU!”
Video, October 15th
Click here to check out a video of Nina do the “I see you!” thing. Very short video. 1.4MB
Dialogue, October 16th
Ian: “I need water. Ice. Cold. Water.”
Dialogue, October 16th
Ian, searching for praise as we drove to a restaurant, comes up with something constructive to say, try to imagine this in a desperately sincere voice: “Daddy this was a good thought!… Look at this… it’s really… pretty. Look at all the cars, it looks very… trafficky.”
Video, October 18th
Click here to check out Ian explaining a drawing. 6.3MB
Video, October 18th
Click here to check out a video of Nina and I being goofy. 5.4MB
Video, October 19th
Click here to check out a video of music’s effect on Nina! At first apparently a bit dizzying, but wait a minute, and you’ll see that reggae beat start to reach her seat! 3.8MB
Video, October 19th
Click here to check out a video of Ian explaining another drawing. Right after I hit the “stop” button and ceased recording, Ian said something very beautiful, like “I drew this for Mommy so that she always knows that I love her.” Fairly large video… 7.3MB
Video, October 23rd
Click here to see Nina help cleaning up. This video is large, sorry. 9.4MB
Dialogue, October 24th
Ian: “I love this book I want to read it all of the mornings I just love it…. love, Love, LOVE it.”
*IT IS I, YOUR NEW DICTATOR, HEED MY WARNING, FOOLISH PEOP–* (Continued next shot…) See this image larger.
*Oh hi, Daddy!!! Didn’t see you back there I was just uh… doing my abc’s!* See this image larger.
There are other ways to fix the orientation of the iPad, but none quite so cute. See this image larger.
October 16th, and Mommy gets in a board game with Ian before her ride to the airport. She went out of town for work later that day. Ian was trying to get over being sick, as I recall, and Nina was just starting. Hurray! See this image larger.
Mommy left outfits for Ian on the floor for the next three days, in a row on Ian’s floor. The next time I came back in the room they had magically become a train, with conductor Cookielocks and passenger Super Grover! (And a sippy cup funnel, nice touch!) See this image larger.
October 17th, I didn’t get many good pictures, but it was time for Nina’s class to go to an apple orchard! This time Klackle’s up in Greenville. It was cold, but we huddled up and had a good time. (I’m grateful that Ian and Nina’s classes allow us to bring the “other” kid in these circumstances… helped a lot!) See this image larger.
It was a school day, so when the field trip was over, I dropped Nina back off in her room. Love her in these little chairs! You’d be amazed by how the kids can handle them, it makes you realize how a lot of the issues a kid has to deal with have more to do with the scale of the item. (It is too easy to say “the kid just needs to grow.”) See this image larger.
After school we went to the park, and we had a good time! See this image larger.
I messaged this carefully staged image to Melissa so that she would miss us horribly and come home soon! See this image larger.
Nina on a four-wheeler! There’s something in her eyes that tells me to buy extra padding should she decide to try one of these in real life. See this image larger.
October 18th, for a special treat, we went to Ihop for dinner. See this image larger.
The kids always do pretty good when there’s pancakes on the menu. Ian was a little spastic, but they both ate up every crumb… including my “macon.” (bacon) See this image larger.
That night, Nina started getting a little sicker. Here she correctly uses the thermometer after watching me do it a couple times. See this image larger.
October 18th, the kids messing around with the potty seat as a shared TV lounge chair. See this image larger.
I think this was part 2 of Nina and Daddy growing closer. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been very close for a good long time… but I could tell we just get just a bit more of a chance to connect when Mommy’s not around. (The third part was the clincher, we will get to shortly.) See this image larger.
I’m not really crying here, I was making a cry face to show Nina that it was sort of ridiculous to be crying about whatever it was she was crying about. Not sure sarcasm works without words though, particularly when your audience hasn’t reached the age of 2 yet. See this image larger.
Ian was asked a few weeks back to draw his entire family, to go along with the photographs we provided. He just drew me, and had somebody write “Dad” next to it. I’m curiously flattered! See this image larger.
October 19th, and Melissa came home to two very happy children and a very happy husband. We need you, Mommy! (Although I really didn’t do TOO bad by myself this time… no shingles, anyway!) See this image larger.
We grabbed dinner and went home… a happy family. Now things could go back to normal. (And they did… for a little while.) See this image larger.
October 21st, sad Buzz Lightyear wants Halloween now! (He was just dressed as Buzz for fun, he never intended to be Buzz on Halloween. At first he wanted R2-D2… but later changed his mind to Batman, and finally a reprise as SuperWhy! This was a very good decision.) See this image larger.
That should catch us up. Ian’s class had a field trip to a nearby apple orchard on the 10th. I took Nina and Ian and Mommy took some time off of work to join in! This picture is of Ian saying something along the lines of “You stay here and take pictures, I’ll be right over there having fun with my classmates.” 
This was a gigantic pile of corn in a silo. It was very hard corn. Nina fell off a tricycle on the sidewalk and pretty much merged her face with the loose corn that was on it… this was, of course, the day before picture day at school. Ironically, the pictures came out fantastic! 
Ian shoved a toy into this funnel to stop it up so he could fill it to the top. Smart kid! 
Chillin’ with some goats. 
*Yeah that’s enough of this, let’s get out of here.* 
Later on, Nina is dressed up as a… alright you know what, let’s just say she’s dressed up! 😉 
October 8th… we took the kids downtown for the Fall Harvest Whatever The Heck Rockford Calls It Thingy, 2011. We ended up at a clothing store that had a play area in back… I was very proud of Ian for the following conversation. 
Nina can’t believe we didn’t bring crayons and paper to go with the table. 
It is a zorse. Yes. A zorse. I’m not kidding. 
Today’s trip to the playground is brought to you by the letter “P.” 
And the number 0. 
She got ready a lot, but didn’t go down the slide. 
*What, me worry?* There’s a little Uncle Chris in all of us. 
Ian poses in front of his castle. 
Not too sure about that smile, it looks like it might be the real thing, or it might be the one right before he steps on Daddy’s hand. 
Not too sure about that smile either… it’s either “I love you, sister” or “Trust me, I won’t push you down this slide!” 
Nina goes for a little swing. 
We attempted to find the secret in the middle of the monkey-bar-dome. There wasn’t one. 
This is the scarecrow that we made at the Fall Harvest Festival thingy. 
We got boo’d by the boys next door! (That means somebody leaves a bag of candy on your door…) 
And here’s Ian with those same boys. (Ian’s hiding behind the tree branch.) 
Ian on the left, Brendan in the middle, Jacob on the right. They’re awesome little boys, and their parents are very cool as well! 
She looks really old in this picture… 
October 9th, here’s our fav kids on the iPad again… love Nina’s elbow and toes on the left. 
October 1st… Beep boop beep. 
The kids tried out the pack n’ play again… this time different. 
Not a whole lot of sleeping going on… 
Unless you ask them to act like it… 😉 
Voila, choo choo! 
I think she’s pretending here too, I’ll have to ask Melissa, she took these. 
These are her bravery beads! 
Cute! 
October 2nd, love her in this dress! 
What a sweetie! Looks a little angry though. 
Peek a boo!!! 
October 3rd. You. Haircut. Now. 
And here we are after the haircut, taking a break while running down a trail. 
They just keep getting bigger. 
They liked looking at the geese and ducks and stuff along the river in Rockford. 
October 5th, and Seth shows no signs of any kind of sickness. 
Yup, just rollin’ around. 
October 6th, and Nina’s tent gets a new occupant while she’s away! 
September 26th, Ian and Nina take a ride in the Thomas tent. 
Choo choo! 
Same day, I took the kids over to a nearby park, expecting them to have the same wooden fortress of a playground that they had during my last visit… but everything had changed. 
And you know, change is good sometimes. 
Nobody mentioned the word “splinters” or “bees” this day, for example. 
Nina approved of the changes and drove the park home. 
Reminder, oversize hat on Ian results in no pictures of his face. 
Nina kept directing me here, I think she wanted a photoshoot in the grass. 
I think this is Spanish for “Your kids need to be between 5 and 12 years old.” They aren’t. They did great anyway. 
September 27th, more iPad time. 
Nina flies a ship around the living room! 
And now it is book time! 
The night of September 29th I could tell conditions were right for a rainbow, and we got a great big one. 
Make that two! 
Same day, check out his nubby little teeth, heh! 
Gotta remind myself to remove all eye boogers before photoshoot. 
Someday me calling these his “Luke Skywalker Hair Days” will make more sense to him. 
Still has a heart of gold. 
Like this one a lot for some reason. 
So easy to hold still while staring at the TV. Sigh. 
Love this one. Would make a neat painting, almost abstract. 
I think once we get through some of our newer situations, we’re going to start weening the kids off of so much TV and iPad stuff. 
Still, like I said… a good time to take pictures. 
I was so impressed with this space ship, I think I’m going to borrow the general design for a project. 
September 24th, and I pulled out the artsy lens to see what kind of images we would get! Practice shot on the kitty. 
*What’re you doin’?* 
Nina plays with one of Ian’s tool sets. 
Lately I’ve been loving my kids’ toes and fingers for some reason. So cute! 
Nina tries to find another cheerio. 
This has potential for her the cover of her next album “Diaper Rash Hurts Everybody.” 
Bing! 
Another thing I bought Nina was this purse. 
*You know, to put stuff in!* 
*Like the keys to my stroller!* 
Ian is a bit of an exercise nut, if I haven’t said so. 
They’re both in motion a lot more than you’d think from those iPad pics! 
He always says he has to get his laps in. 
Some weirdo faces. 
More weirdo faces! 
September 19th… I left the room with the bowl full of cheerios sitting squarely between them… when I came back, they had moved a little! 
He’s still so cute… 
I do this sometimes when I really don’t have time to do more. Hand them a bowl and let them do what they will. Cheerios end up everywhere. 
We built a bridge to the sunroom from the living room. (And a whole lot more, I’ll show you the videos soon.) 
September 20th, and there was some kind of chair-train thing going on in the sunroom. 
*ALL ABOOOOOARD!!!* 