August 7th, I love this picture of Nina in her shoes holding Elmo. There’s something very “matter of fact” about her pose. See this image larger.

*I know, Elmo, let’s go pla- Zzzzzz* See this image larger.

Despite multiple attempts, neither emerged as a beautiful butterfly. See this image larger.

Dialogue
August 8th
Ian – Said “unforchunanly” in a sentence. Believe he has done this before… this was in the proper context and in an adult “tone.”

Ian – “I just found something interesting daddy. One of these moustachios was outside of it’s shell in the bag, just like this! That surprised me.” (Pistachios.)

Ian in voice #1 – Wow you’re the biggest thing in the whole wide world!
Ian in voice #2 -I know!
Ian in voice #1 -You don’t even fit in the cargo bay maybe you should stay back!
Ian in voice #2 -Ok!
(Daddy giggles)
(Ian surprised to see Daddy, gives him a hug and explains that he was giving his “guys” (action figures) voices, embarrassed.)
Dad – I did that when I was a little boy, too. Heck I still do a voice for the kitty and I’m 40 years old.
Ian – When I am your age I’m going to do a voice for the kitty, and I’m going to play video games and work in the basement.

Daycare said that Ian is super smart. They explained that they played a card game wherein the students had to differentiate between two like cards and a third that was different… And explain to another student what made the third one different without saying exactly what it was. Most kids did not understand the game. Ian not only got the game, he understood the rules and did not say airplane… He said “it has a propeller.” no other kid in class was able to do so. (I heard this story second hand, so I’m still not entirely sure I have this correct.)

August 9th, ladies and gents, presenting her royal highness, Princess Pigtails! See this image larger.

Awww! Just look at those pigtails! See this image larger.

You say “out of focus,” I say “Artsy!” See this image larger.

Time for some liquid refreshments, am I right? See this image larger.

If anybody actually remembers the video for MC Hammer’s “Hammer Time” I’m pretty sure Nina is performing part of the dance routine here. See this image larger.

Aaaaaaaaaaa. See this image larger.

*No look, I totally CAN stand on this furniture. Oh you don’t WANT me to? Well why didn’t you SAY that?* See this image larger.

She’s not smiling, but look at the way her golden locks shine in the sun! See this image larger.

LOOOVE this picture… it looks like Nina and Elmo are both laughing about something that just happened off-camera! See this image larger.

Not as cute, but cute! See this image larger.

She looks like Zsa Zsa Gabor with an Elmo-red feather boa. See this image larger.

One more good shot of those pigtails, for the record! See this image larger.

These two are planning something. See this image larger.

Ian shows off his ultra-cool metal sippy! See this image larger.

And then it was outside to tool around town! See this image larger.

Neither one of us can get Ian to hold still and/or use this scooter toy properly. Nina loved it though… she was all about being carted around, in particular, and held very still. See this image larger.

Nice smile! See this image larger.

Who is that young hero? See this image larger.

Why, it is Captain Chaos! Here to save the day! See this image larger.

Actually, of course, these are swim goggles. They helped him in class quite a bit, as he used to focus a lot of attention on whether or not he was getting water in his eyes. Granted now he just pays attention to whether or not the goggles are on properly, but… you can’t win ’em all! See this image larger.

Video
Click here to check out a video of Ian getting back into swimming. Ian’s last swim class experience had us wondering if he would ever hit the water again. But he gave it a chance, and even with a water-choking setback he had a blast. He made me proud.

Dialogue
August 2nd, Me: I’m proud of you kiddo, you know, because you said to yourself “I’m afraid to go in there” or “I don’t want to go in there,” but you said “I’m not going to let that stop me” and you did it kiddo. That’s so great and I am so proud of you.

Ian – But I didn’t SAY those things Daddy!

(It is a testament to Ian’s heart that beneath a few years of shielding it is still gold and pure underneath. He couldn’t take credit for the things he had not said, taking my statement literally, when in fact it was his actions that spoke those words. Re-read what I said above if this doesn’t make sense… from his perspective, I’m telling him that he said things he did not say.)

August 2nd, Ian and I leaping around inside Playworld! See this image larger.

Nina was there too and she was all over the place. We had a blast! Mommy showed up as well, which is why we have these pictures… thanks Mommy! See this image larger.

August 3rd, meet some of our neighbors! We’ve got such a nice little group of kids for Ian and Nina to play with. See this image larger.

Nina tried out a bike, and still has a bit to learn but liked trying it out! See this image larger.

It’s a parade! See this image larger.

Here’s some pictures from the last day of July… it was a Sunday and the kids were dressed so cute that I had to have an impromptu photo-shoot. It turned out well!

*Me just wanted cookie.* See this image larger.

*I will miss you when you are gone, jumparoo.* See this image larger.

We build a little princess throne out of her princess mats sometimes. See this image larger.

Cute! See this image larger.

Smiling with Mommy! See this image larger.

Tickling is the secret ingredient to good kid pictures! See this image larger.

She’s so sweet! See this image larger.

They’re cracking each other up now… See this image larger.

Ian’s Popeye scowl did not last long either. See this image larger.

Warm up those photo-printers! See this image larger.

My beautiful family! See this image larger.

Say what you will about our little gang, but we do laugh a lot! See this image larger.

This is one of my favorite pics of all-time! That’s where we’ll stop this one, but the next entry has some other great ones from this same day! See this image larger.

Before we get completely away from the Florida trip, I’d like to share one movie. It sets the tone for how July 20th went, and gives you an idea of how much Nina likes to jabber these days!

Video
Click here to see and hear Nina making some noise while we cruise the streets of Paradise Island, FL. This movie is 9MB, which makes it amongst the larger videos, sorry.

As I write this, on September 9th, I wanted to also mention on the blog that yesterday, the 8th, was Melissa and I’s 10th anniversary! Woo hoo! I love you, Melissa!

July 26th, safely back in Michigan, the family apparently misses the beach enough to hit the sand in the sandbox! See this image larger.

*Here’s Ian’s hat. He dropped it.* See this image larger.

Alright everybody look and smile at Daddy! See this image larger.

Oooh, nice! Thanks guys! See this image larger.

This one’s a short one, but wait until next entry… we have some gorgeous pictures that we took on the 31st that you will love!

Back at the Sesame Street section of the park! We told you we’d come back Nina! See this image larger.

We posed for a shot with Elmo. Both kids immediately freaked out at the big, non-speaking Elmo, we’re lucky we got us all in the same shot. Some photoshoppery on the part of the technician at the park resulted in us magically being transported from a room with a green screen, to Sesame Street! See this image larger.

This one turned out much better and was free! I really do think that it was Elmo’s scale-change that bothered the kids. Big Bird didn’t scare either one of them! (The internet calls the sneaking of one’s face into a photo where one is not expressly meant to be the subject of the photo a “photobomb.” Thus, Grover, looking at us through the window, is photobombing us. You might have to look at this larger to see what I’m talking about — regardless, it is a good shot of all of us, so it’ll be worth the click!) See this image larger.

Time for another run on the Air Grover! See this image larger.

Ian’s third time, and he loved every second of it! See this image larger.

Gramma Barb was on Nina duty during the ride, thank you! See this image larger.

Ian managed to get to a place where I had to run all over to catch up to him… and in fact at one point I didn’t think I could get to him at all. See this image larger.

Cousin Connor to the rescue! He helped me keep an eye where I couldn’t go, and gave me status reports. SUCH a good kid. On the way out of the park, Connor played a basketball game and won a bunch of little basketballs. A park ride manager asked Connor if he’d like to exchange them for one big professional-sized ball. HE REFUSED. “I’m going to give them to my cousins and sister.” Awesome. Just awesome. See this image larger.

Hard to see, but Nina got a little rope burn on her face… it was amazing how quickly it went away. Ah to be young and quick-healing! See this image larger.

*Merry-go-round!* Nina took a couple rides on a merry-go-round, and I don’t think anybody got pictures of that. 🙁 See this image larger.

These three ended up on a big bouncy inflatable trampoline thing for awhile, I did get some pictures of that, but decided not too many of them were keepers. See this image larger.

I have no idea what I’d call this ride, but I’m going to guess it wasn’t much fun. It just rotated around a central stem. It didn’t rotate sideways at all… and it took about 5 minutes to load the kids because the person manning the ride had to secure and lock the gate as she returned each kid to a parent. The kids look a little tired, no? See this image larger.

On the other hand… good ride for this little girl, one of the few that she could actually go on. So I’m glad they had it there! See this image larger.

Ok, so… next time we go to an amusement park, I’m going to explain that we have to leave in a different fashion. You can’t just spring “we’re going to leave now” on a kid. The trick is good cop/good cop. “Mommy, do you think we have time to squeeze ONE more ride in?” “Yeah, I guess so. It’ll have to be quick.” Generally Melissa and I fall into this rhythm automatically. It is much better than what we had to do here, which was more or less giving him another ride to stop him from crying. See this image larger.

So here’s Ian’s one more ride! He loved it! See this image larger.

And took it very seriously! See this image larger.

At long last, time to go back to The Villages. They slept very well that night. Thank you again Grandma Barb and Grampa Ray for an excellent vacation, your hospitality and generosity! See this image larger.