The morning of the 27th, introducing Nina and her favorite means of transportation, Cousin Connor! See this image larger.

*Weee!* See this image larger.

*Tires are wearing, Connor, pull me into the pits on the next lap…* See this image larger.

Melissa took this one, that’s pretty much 4 smiles! Jackpot! See this image larger.

More wrestling! See this image larger.

It’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt, kids. See this image larger.

What, nobody got hurt? Oh. See this image larger.

Well, carry on then. See this image larger.

The requirements were 1.) Get a picture of Nina. 2.) She is to be wearing her “First Thanksgiving” outfit. 3.) The message should be visible on the outfit. How’d I do? See this image larger.

This is the same outfit that Ian wore at around the same age. To see an image of Ian in this same outfit, click here. Or you can see this image larger.

Not sure if I mentioned this one already, Ian sometimes says “xbox close tray.” The new Kinect accepts voice input, and so I’m talking to it at times. He’s been listening.

Dec 5th Ian saw Mommy get a cut — he disappeared and came back with bandaids AND what we call goop, anti-infection cream. I can’t be sure, but perhaps one of these days better child-proofing at the new house?

Nina uses mama constantly now, literally every day. It is hard to confirm most of what she says because they tend to be one-offs. So she may or may not have also said:

hai
hello
thank you
bob the builder
uh huh
and when looking at a doll on Dec 7th, said “Baybee!” WITHOUT anybody saying something beforehand. (Like “Look at the baby!”)

Nina’s done the sign-language for milk but it looks similar to a wave. (The sign is a hand motion like milking a cow… which she interpreted as a sort of opening and closing of her hand.) However I noticed that if you correctly guess what she’s trying to say she squeals in happiness. So that goes something like this:
Nina signs.
Daddy – “Hi!”
Nina looks a little bewildered.
Daddy – “Oh… milk?”
Nina – “SQWEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!”

Nina was able to figure out that I had placed a toy she was after inside a different toy by sound alone. This seemed smart to me, as she wasn’t looking in my direction… it means she could reason the direction it happened, and what noise it has typically made in the past.

Another smart thing I saw Nina do recently was that she popped her zooey in her mouth just as I was about to feed her. Wait for it, that’s not the smart part — I looked at her like she was nuts and said “Hey now how do you expect me to feed you around that?” And she looked up at me and reached up popped her zooey out… and then popped it back into her mouth again. She did this as if to say “I can just pop it in and out as we go, Daddy.” I said “if you say so.” Held out a spoon of food, out came the zooey. Fed it to her, and back in it went. (And this went on for the entire meal, about 20 spoonfuls.)

Ian heard me accelerate my Honda civic onto a freeway and he said daddy, you have a race car!

Ian pointed out that a slice of bread (like from wonder bread) looks like a telephone, and then he pulled the crust off the top, held it up to his ear and said “Hello? It’s me Ian! Bye bye!””

November 18th –
Daddy – “Nothing’s happening in this video. Are you bored?”
Ian – “You’re with me, so I’m not bored.” (He said this matter-of-factly or else I’d have thought he was buttering me up for something. Instead he just meant it like he said… it was sort of “How could I possibly be bored when you’re here?” or I guess possibly “…when anybody else is here?”)

November 23rd (estimated) –
Ian -“Hi Honey!” (imitating Mommy, yelling down the steps)

November 27th –
Kaylee – “Why does it keep spinnin’ wound and wound?” (Waiting for a movie on Netflix Instant Watch.)
Ian – “That’s cuz it is loadin’ up, Kaylee.”

November 29th –
Daddy – “So… we can move your bed back to your room?” (From Nina’s… so I could paint his room Garden Spot green.)
Ian – “No, I want to sleep in Nina’s room!”
Daddy – “… … (thinking…) But you are keeping her awake at night, I think, buddy.”
Ian – “No, SHE’s makin’ ME not sleep!”
Daddy – “Well I wonder what we could do about that? What do you think?”
Ian – “Move my bed to MY room!”
Daddy – “Awesome idea, kiddo.”

December 3rd –
Today and yesterday we received notes from Nina’s teacher in her daily report about “jail” time. We asked about this and it turns out Nina’s been a bit of a bad girl! I understand that she’s been standing up at a metal gate and shaking it loudly while babies are sleeping, taking zooeys and I guess she even gave somebody a little tap. I consider that to be mostly harmless at this point, so I’m giggling. When she gets to be Ian’s age I’ll be a little more concerned.

First let’s talk about teeth and mouthes and stuff.

November 20th, marks the first day that our family of four have all eaten the same thing at the same time! See this image larger.

It was beef stew, and it looks to me like Nina is more than happy to be able to sink her teeth into some of the most solid food she’s had so far! See this image larger.

And speaking of teeth… See this image larger.

What are these two doing up here? See this image larger.

Ian still have all of his? Yup. See this image larger.

Nope, don’t even need the flashlight, we can see them all, thanks. See this image larger.

*Oh, another photoshoot? How’s my hair?!* See this image larger.

There is a song from my (Daddy’s) younger years that feels appropriate to quote here… See this image larger.

…Baby’s Got Back. (In this case a cloth diaper and a pair of leggings seemingly optimized for the situation have caused this illusion.) See this image larger.

November 14th wasn’t just the “Nina tells a story” day… although she can spin quite a yarn, can’t she?

As the final leg of my month-long birthday extravaganza, Melissa and I hosted all of our work-buddies together for a party with all the kids, and then out to eat — it was awesome! We had a number of things to celebrate – our little gang has had a lot of grown-up stuff to deal with, literally each family dealing with at least one conflict of some kind. And we’re all keeping our chins up and fighting the good fight. I love all of these people.

But before we start those pictures, here’s one of Ian…

Hangover. See this image larger.

Ok, now on to the party!

Mr. Brandon gives Nina a little hug. He held her for probably a half hour before I remembered to take over… See this image larger.

Brandon’s son Max was present and he and Ian played together a lot as other people started to show. See this image larger.

Scott and Elena’s daughter Rowen plays with Nina’s baby-fine hair and said “It’s so soft!!” See this image larger.

I like this shot because of the stairs and where Max is looking. I probably didn’t need to include it here, but whatever. See this image larger.

These two look like a couple of teenagers sitting there don’t they? See this image larger.

Hilarious! See this image larger.

Nina goes into all wheel drive. See this image larger.

This is Elena and the Carmichael twins, Natalie and Vivian! I’m sorry I didn’t get more shots of everybody, but eventually we had eight kids running all over our house, so I was all over the place! See this image larger.

Here’s the whole gang! Grant was not here because he was sick, but everybody else is pretty much in this shot except for me and Nina, who is right out of frame below the crop. See this image larger.

Other side of the table… still can’t see me or Nina, sorry! The whole night was awesome and it was fantastic seeing everybody again. See this image larger.

BONUS VIDEO!!! – In this video, I do a quick 360° view of the gang at Cinqo De Mayo. What is hilarious to watch is Ian shoveling food in his face. What makes that even more amusing is that he’d already finished HIS food… the food you see him eating here is Elena’s!!! Click here to watch the video.

Ian’s food shoveling was humorous, but Nina was also none-too-shy about stuffing her face… Mommy was talking to another person when Daddy cried out “Is she supposed to be eating a nacho?!?” Sure enough, little girl had ninja’d a nacho chip off of a plate and was silently trying to nibble away. And while Nina has been moving up the solid-food-chain, she’s not up to nacho yet.

Another highlight of the evening was having (pretty much) everybody follow me in their cars… so a line of four cars… driving up to the restaurant and having there be four empty parallel parking spots. It must have looked like a presidential convoy the way we all pulled up at the same time!